November 2025 Board Meeting

001It is 6:30 on November 24th in the Rockford area boardroom and I would like to call the regular business meeting to order and we'll start with the pledge of allegiance. >> 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. Thank you very much. Uh, Madame Clerk, would you please call the role? >> Eric, >> here. Jessica Johnson here. Miss Marvin >> here. >> Jamie Hilstrom here. Beth Baska >> here. >> Kevin >> here. >> Thank you. All members are present. Uh Dr. Idaho Hoover. Agenda is in proper order. >> It is. >> No addition. Thank you very much. I would appreciate a motion to approve tonight's agenda. >> I'll make that motion. >>

002Thank you, Miss Hilstrom. There's a first. Can I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Morgan. There's a first and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of tonight's agenda signify by I. >> I I opposed. >> That carries unanimously. Uh public comment open for public comment. Is there any no public comment this evening? Now that is closed and we will move on to the consent agenda. Consent agenda is provided for you for your review prior to this meeting. Um I would appreciate a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda. >> I'll make a motion to approve. >> Thank you, Mr. Shadine. There is a first. Can I have a second, please? >> I'll second. Thank you, Miss Hilstrom. There's a first and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those

003in favor of tonight's consent agenda signify by I. >> I opposed. And that does carry unanimously. Moving on then to number five, superintendent report. Dr. Ridlehof. >> Thank you, Chery. It is with great pleasure, humility, and gratefulness that I begin this report by expressing my thankfulness to our staff, legion of volunteers, and especially our residents for showing up and overwhelmingly supporting both levy questions on November 4th. The outcome of the election, we can do that. Yep. The outcome of the election uh demonstrates an unwavering commitment to Rockford area schools. Uh with this commitment, we promise to continue to be excellent stewards of the resources provided to us and to utilize those resources in the manner in which they are intended. Uh tonight, we're also fortunate to have Rockford High School principal Paul Manard as well

004as Rockford High School activities director Dan Pratt with us to share about the wonderful happenings in and around our high school. We're also excited to hear from our fall activity participants, which is always one of my favorite things to do. Um who've come to share a little about their involvement in their chosen activities. Before we hear from all of those amazing students and our colleagues, I'd like to share a little bit about what's happening at the elementary and middle school. Uh at RES, conferences were held on November 3rd and the 6th. Veterans Day program held with all REM staff and students on the 11th of November. Family fun night took place on November 17th and 18th in the gym. Scholastic book fair November 17th through the 21st. Uh upcoming uh winter fast testing in both

005math and reading are going to take place December 1st through the 10th. Uh reams teachers continue to participate in their weekly common planning time with the new CKLA reading curriculum. Uh Brendan Nayus, principal Nus and Kathy Madson visited recently with every grade level team individually um to check in and see how things were going with and if any adjustments of any kind were needed uh from any of those groups. Uh students in grades K through four attended the first act of the musical Matilda in the high school on uh the 21st last Friday. A wonderful way to partner with the high school and connect the arts to their future opportunities in theater. Interviews will be held next week uh for a new third grade teacher to reduce class size in both third and fourth grade.

006Uh the current third fourth grade class reduction teacher moving to fourth grade once that hire has been made. So, this is one of those things where um we said we were going to reduce class size um if we were fortunate enough to have the levy passed and we're doing it right away. And so, dollars won't be ready for us for a year, but we're not going to wait. We're going to reduce class size. And I'm very proud um to say we have some excellent candidates that are be ready to be interviewing here in the next week or so. uh at the middle school. Um Principal Rosa and Kathy Madson are working on an expedited math curriculum review process as we look at resources that align with the uh the state math standards. Uh first quarter

007is completed. Um 73.8% um of our students have earned above a 3.0 GPA at middle school. Uh 43% are above 3.67. Um there's also intentional planning intervention supports created for the small number of students who are below 2.0. Um so they're working on both ends of the spectrum there. Significant time has been spent on clarifying uh their relearning of their new grading practices. So relearning and reassessment and working with uh the high school um as well as department of learning innovation Kathy Matson and myself for clarification on uh common vocabulary and grading practice around assessment and relearning. continue to practice uh honoring four students each week with student of the week. Uh October conferences were successful staff spending two hours of time on student conferences based on achievement and engagement data. Uh they were also

008able to um conference out at Mobile Hope and we look forward to the conference there again in February. Uh prior to the conferences in October, uh we had students complete an engagement reflection and learned that 89% of the students felt they could accurately describe where they were at on the engagement scale they were asked and 94% said they are familiar with the scale and ready to use it going forward. We had two staff members u Mr. uh Madson as well as Principal Rosa attended uh the Weaver Lake magnet event on November 20th. where able to share with multiple families from outside of our district on what our options here are in Rockford. Student council's planned an activity night in December 5th where they can come and enjoy a time together with bingo and other games.

009And the middle school was featured in the Minnesota DNR school forest newsletter that highlighted uh John Latimer's visit to our site. Also want to share something that's really cool. Principal Rosaka was recently asked to sit on a panel regarding the January 14th Northwest Suburban Professional Development Engagement Forum, cultivating the whole child and highlighting ways in which we do that here in Rockford. Outside of the schools operationally, our annual fiscal audit is complete will be shared in December. In addition to the audit, um we will be sharing also in the December meeting truth and taxation report, a preliminary conversation with Rockford CFO Bridget Peterson as well as with the auditors. um our audit is in good condition and the district continues to do an outstanding job of accounting and reporting our financial resources. On the HR

010side, I'm pleased to share um that the district and Representative Education Minnesota Rockford have come to a tenative agreement um that will be uh provided to the board for approval this evening. The agreement which encompasses both this school year and next um is one that we are very excited to come to at this early stage of the school year. I'd like to express my thanks to the negotiators from the district as well as EMR negotiations team for what was a professional, cordial and transparent process. Another operational of importance that we have scheduled annual meeting with local dignitaries which will include mayors, city managers and our legislative representatives. This round table as we describe will take place on Monday January 5th after our board's educ annual organizational meeting. Instructionally, our teaching faculty recently engaged in the

011November professional development day and I continue to be impressed with the engagement and commitment to continuous improvement um that is going on throughout our entire system. Um learning innovation specialist Kathy Matson is here this evening. She's going to share some pertinent information regarding that PD work and also provide some additional insight into our overall work in the area of instruction. As a district, uh we also recently completed and submitted two statutoily required documents to MDE. Uh one is our annual achievement integration report as well as our comprehensive achievement and civic readiness report which I'll talk about tonight. Both of these have been posted on our district website for a number of weeks. In addition, I'll be sharing that again like I mentioned with the board tonight. Um as a district, we met recently with our

012ADS team and as our practice every fall. Uh Kathy Madson and I attended presented and engaged in conversations regarding instruction with each of our three school sites with the purpose of maintaining alignment and support throughout the system. As is my general practice, I attended um meetings recently with our friends and colleagues at MA Northwest Suburban Amst. I also participated with my MSA colleagues in professional development committee planning work as well as putting the finishing touches just actually last Friday on the 2026 legislative platform. Uh I also worked with the statewide group of superintendents to discuss proactively um preparing for work on fed federal education advocacy. Uh that was also a very insightful meeting. And then I was at AMSD learning and sharing ideas uh with the annual AMSD Brightite Works instructional conference. Um, I also

013had a really fun opportunity to meet with all of our senior senior citizens at the RCC that were there um for over a couple of days as well as four different groups of our ECF families. Um, it was just fun to sit and talk to the families and ask them, you know, you know, what sorts of things can we do um to enhance their experience and what are some things we're doing that um you feel are going really well. Outstanding meetings with those groups and I'm thankful uh to Melissa and Tiffany for setting those up for me. Um, again, very, very fun meetings with that group. Um, I also attended um this early signing event for two of our talented Rockford softball players as well as a Leo Awards banquet to celebrate our awards recipients.

014Excuse me. Last, but certainly not least, I attended the Rockford Education Foundation event this past Saturday night, [clears throat] and that was incredible. I still like the video I have of Mr. Shadine in his wonderful CASA, which by the way, is posted online. Um, in closing, uh, it is appropriate that we are meeting so close to the Thanksgiving holiday as Rockford Area Schools has so much to be thankful for. This includes our staff, our students, our school age families, [cough] and the greater community who without question affirm their belief in the work we are doing. As I close report, I once again want to say thank you to each and every resident for the support of our levies on November 4th. That concludes a very long November superintendent report. Thank you very much. Very busy,

015Dr. Idaho Hoover. Any questions for Dr. Ryder Hoover? >> Thank you very much for your report. I appreciate all the things that you're doing for our district and our community. Uh moving along then, we will go to the community ed rocket spotlight and I believe Melissa Joseph is in the crowd. >> Come on up. >> Trifecta. I think it's on. >> I know. We didn't even put you at the end of the agenda. >> I know. [clears throat] Um, so I have the pleasure of introducing the Rocket Spotlight Award again. And uh, since it is Thanksgiving week, I I feel very thankful to be presenting this uh, to Tiffany Reinhardt. Um, not only is she the best early learning supervisor around, she is also a very good friend of mine. So, this is super special

016to me. Um just so everyone knows it's not she's just not like early learning supervisor means she's in charge of screening early childhood family education and our launching pad preschool. So she has a very big role but because um because of this I also wanted to bring Miss Jessica Cook here because she um to talk about why um she nominated Tiffany for this award as well. So rather than me just talking about it, I asked Jessica to come tonight. I thought we'd get another voice. Um and I wrote my um I nominated Tiffany for the Rocket Spotlight Award because in addition to her role as the early childhood program supervisor, she also stepped in as a preschool teacher for the first two months of the school year. Um which was a tremendous undertaking and definitely

017deserves recognition. Um, from my perspective, Tiffany carried both roles roles with grace, warmth, and remarkable excellence and a lot of really fast walking from room to room and through the hallways. Um, whenever I walked into the classroom, I saw kids that were happy and engaged in learning with Tiffany right alongside them. So, just really immersed in her preschool teaching experience. And then when I walked into her office, uh, she always welcomed me with an open door, a smile, ready to problem solve, um, listen and support me in my role as the parent educator for the ECF program. Um, having previously been in a role similar to Tiffany's, I can only imagine how exhausting this period must have been. I recently read a book titled How to Not Lose Your Insert Four Letter Word with Your

018Kids. And I'm convinced Tiffany has mastered the version titled How to Not Lose Your Insert Four Letter Letter Word with your colleagues, employees, Parents, and Kids, and she's absolutely nailed it. Thank you, Tiffany, for the extraordinary dedication, steadiness, and heart you bring to our early childhood programs. So, yes, uh ditto all that. I mean, Tiffany, she makes it she puts kids first. Number one thing, our preschool and our early childhood kids, they love learning. And it's because of what she puts in place for her teachers and everything like that. I mean, we by far have the best preschool and early childhood family education programs around here. And that's also for because of her, too. So, but Tiffany oversees all of it and she is just absolutely amazing. So without further ado, we like to present

019you. [applause] [laughter] >> That's it. We get a picture. >> Thank you so much. Thank you for everything that you do for our district. >> Thank you for um putting her up for it and presenting. We'll continue to move on. Mr. Pratt fall activity celebration. >> Is this a new style we get to stand and talk? >> Y >> I like that. >> You can do whatever you want. >> All right. Um I want to introduce the the kids from uh the fall musical and athletics. Uh we're just under 300 kids involved in athletics and activities this fall. We've uh had two groups that were not able to make it tonight. Today one was uh the cheerleading. They're actually having their banquet tonight. So we'll get them in the winter. So they they have a

020two season deal and the other is boys soccer. Both of the captains were busy. I'll just quickly talk about boys soccer. First year back to a varsity schedule. Uh they did a great job. Very young but very competitive. And the uh Wright County Conference was very good to us as far as you know they're you're playing some pretty strong teams. Southwest Christian with the state, Holy Family, Delano, and they're they're really good about kind of pulling off the dogs when they when they when the game was pretty much over. So, um, but otherwise, we had very competitive games. They did a really nice job. They're going to be really good in the future, very young. And our coach, who was, uh, deployed for a year, is going to be back this next year. He called

021a couple weeks ago. He's very excited to get going again. So, um, we're excited for that. So, with that, I will have them introduce themselves and talk about their season a little bit. You don't got to talk long, but you can if you want. And uh when we get done, make sure you sign. I got you. So, I'll mark it out. Came in late. We won't tell anybody. >> Go ahead. I will [clears throat] t this year was the very first year that Rockford had a varsity girls tennis team and just varsity tennis team in general. Um, and so we were seeing a lot more of a competitive level and I think we did pretty good pretty good at adjusting um from going from a JV level to varsity. especially since we're not we're not

022a huge program and a lot of our team is a middle schooler for varsity. We ended the season with a 500 record and played some harder teams that we're not used to seeing in past years. Um family [laughter] private some private schools Columbia Heights um and we also competed in Lu Henderson and we get the outcome we wanted, but it was still good, very good experience for us to have, I think. And we went to individuals at Gustavis for which was also really fun experience um to have that was also new because we were varsity. >> I think we really accomplished a lot this year and we proved ourselves. It was kind of such a wide like skill level on the team, but I think we really show that we can do it and that

023we're we can compete on a varsity level. >> All right. I'm Ashley. I'm a senior in volleyball. I'm Anna. I'm also a senior in volleyball. Um this year we truly experienced tremendous growth. I mean, each and every one of us, no matter what our role was, whether it was cheering our teammates on, pushing each other in practice or just being a skillful player on the court, like we all grew so much throughout the season. And it was really fun to see um each and every one of us progress as volleyball players and people in general. And um even though we didn't make it as far as we wanted to in sections, that was a season that I will never forget. and it's something that I will certainly look back on um in my future years.

024So >> yeah, some of our highlights from this season were senior night where we celebrated our nine seniors that we had on varsity, big pink night where we raised money for cancer research and another really cool thing this year is that we won our first section game which we have not done since we were the freshman class. So we really overall had a great season, a lot of growth from last year and it was fun to come together. This group has been playing together since we were little third grade volleyball players, not knowing anything. So, it was really just a full circle moment to end our volleyball careers together. >> Okay. Um, my name is Maggie. I'm also a senior. Riley, also a senior. Um, we're I we're talking about the musical. Um, so I

025did backstage this year. Um, this is my first year. Um I think that um the whole program is just a very welcoming, exciting environment. It's very um I don't know. It's very like widespread. It's through the middle school and the high school. Um this year we did Matilda. Um we had a very packed night every single night this year. Um it was super exciting. We had it was a lot more complicated than previous years. Um so it was super exciting and try new things. Um we had a lot of people um backstage um in the pit was full with 20 students. Um and then we had a huge cast um we had a total of 17 seniors um throughout the stage crew cast and pit. Um, so that was really exciting and also kind of

026sad knowing that there's so many leaving, but there were so many new people that are so good and we're super excited to see um, take up those roles that we're leaving behind. Um, um, music this year was super hard learning all the scripts. There's a bunch of tricks that we had to figure out how to get those done. Um, lots of costume changes. We had middle schoolers which we haven't 16 girls which um was really amazing because we have about nine seniors. So getting a bunch of new girls um mainly middle school uh was just amazing because now we know that we kind of have a future and continuing um which year um with having more we did a lot more stunting um working on a lot more skills. Um we were able to have

027people who have worked with competition here um come in and teach us. We did um tumbling uh practices and everything. Um we had many girls in the St. Thomas cheer clinic um which is kind of like an all day thing. They got to stop with college girls at St. Thomas. Um we also had four girls try out the MCCA all cheer team. Uh three of those girls made it um and it was out of 18 spots um which also is the most cheer team. Um let's see. We performed at homecoming And we also did a bunch of posters for every single day and each one's >> um I'm Libby. I'm a junior and I do soccer. >> I'm Ka. I'm a freshman and I've played soccer since seventh grade. >> Um I think our season

028was very successful because we've had the most wins since 2017. So that was good. >> We also had the most goals scored since. And then we had a full roster, so we had a lot new middle schoolers come out for the team. And so that just allowed for a lot of subs, which we haven't had. I feel like we've had a lot of like rushing in the past few years. We've had many academic awards given out and we had two um all conference awards. Riley Freed made the all state team which we haven't had happen in a long time. Um and then we got a new JB coach um and he was very like effective and he everybody liked him so I just think overall it was a good season. >> Thank you. >> All

029right. My name is Bill Czech. I'm on the cross country team. I am a junior and I started cross country when I was a freshman. So, I'm going to talk a little bit about the overall team. 28 student athletes and managers including two senior boys and 11 community education sixth grade participants. Uh we hosted the 52nd annual Rocket Run Invitational at Shamrock Golf Course with 15 team participating from around the state. And now I'm going to talk about the girls season recap. The girls gold medal status uh is top five cumulative GPA average of grades 10 through 12 participants on the roster uh with a 3.936 that seems precise unweighted GPA five allconerence academic award winners four allconerence honorable mention Maya Maggie historic and icon men hall fourth place at conference u meet Ninth top

030four finish. Wait, ninth top four finish in the last 11 years. Sixth place at section in the section 6A meet and 11 straight top 10 finish. >> My name is Maggie Stelar. I am a ninth grader and I've been doing cross country for two years. Boys cross country had a great year in the classroom and on the course. One highlight of their ac of their academic work in the classroom was earning gold status because of their cumulative GPA of 3.26. On the other hand, they conquered the course by achieving four team wins, including their back-to-back conference titles. Their 2025 conference winning team had four allconerence winners and three honorable mentions, which ties the school record for all four or all seven runners receiving conference honors. In connection to school record, Will Czech broke his own

0315K school record not once but twice this season. Will also qualified individually for the 2025 state meet where he placed 15th, earning all state honors and tied the school record for the highest finish at state. In addition, Connor Ellis and Wilch earned high school all-American honors by having their 5K times under 16 minutes and 15 seconds. In similarity, Ellos and Moheim earned middle school all American honors by having their 5K times faster than 18 minutes. Overall, it was an outstanding season that set new standards both academically and athletically. >> I'm Bradley. >> I'm Gabe. >> I'm Charlie. >> Um so football this year we started off kind of rough, you know. We're a young team. We're kind of getting used to the I guess our chemistry together. And we started off this season. We ended

032up season one. You know, we had two all the first team district athletes. We had six honors athletic award winners and we had two second all districts. uh and uh season didn't go the way we wanted it to, but as you said, there was only four starters that were full-time coming back. So, it's hard to have a successful team. And for the most part, if you watch the games, it a lot of them we gave what we could. Should have been closer, but it is what it is. >> Um I [clears throat] think it was a very memorable season, but we got put into a hard conference playing many that went far into playoffs and even playing the state champions. But I think we learned a lot and it was hard work and I had

033fun and it was very memorable. >> Uh yeah, so we uh played a lot the harder schedule this year. I mean we're like really close to a lot of teams like Annel. We were 14 seven to 14 and a half. They won state for 3A and as we were like talking about we were like really tight with a lot of teams and I think we could have like been there or like won a lot more of those games if like overall the program would just like push further and like like efficiency and like coaching and practice. Like with other sports we like have like athletes like good athletes and bad athletes. We still come out and like have like a good season but like this year we like had a lot of good athletes but

034didn't have some experience. kind of just like didn't come out on top a lot of those games that we could have. >> My name is Max Thornton. I'm with the band. Some [clears throat] of the highlights of the summer fall band season were uh summer marching band. Uh we had over 60 students participate this summer. Uh our summer marching band consists of three parades including the Minnesota State Fair. Our homecoming performance uh performance features 13 live members and also selected [clears throat] by drum majors Levi Pro and Max. Um for our fall concert um it included all members of the band program grades 9 through 12. The flag team um led by me and Riley um we prepared eight routines for our performance. Our win ensemble drum line was also featured. And then uh the

035Gav's honor band. Eight students from the band performed at the Gavon band on Monday, November 3rd. And this band includes um musicians from the upper Midwest. >> I just have to say this. This is so Rockford and I absolutely love that you went from over here in [laughter] athletics to over here and talked about, you know, band and fine arts and so forth. So, um, just goes to show you could do anything and be everything here in Rockford. So, I just thought that was something I wanted to put up. That's so cool. >> Well, I want to thank the kids for coming out and do this. I know it's it's not always Well, you get a picture on the steps before you go. Um I I believe it's true. Will you tied your coaches for

036the highest finish at the state? Is that correct? At 15. >> It was some random guy. >> Some random guy. Something like that. >> Only a junior. So you're going to beat him next year, right? >> Yeah. So that's pretty exciting. And and I agree with the football what they're talking about. I was at all the home games. The team was one and eight. Could easily have been, you know, five and three. I mean, it was just kind of one of those years where things didn't go their way. Um, you know, they had a team down and it just didn't work. You know, fourth and 15 and they got a first and went down and won the game. It happens. But what I like is these guys are they're always here. They're always happy. They

037know, you know, the volleyball team, you know, didn't have a great year. They ended great, but they had a great experience. And that's I think was the most important thing. And I appreciate every one of you guys coming out and talking and letting the board know about your experience because that that's what's most important here in this district is you guys. So, thank you. Appreciate it. >> Yeah. Thank you guys very much. Appreciate [applause] it. And appreciate you guys being student athletes. That's a huge thing. I mean, student first, athlete second. So, or activities. So, thank you for participating, representing. You'll forget about the wins and losses, but your seasons and your activities, that's all you remember. Just saying. So, thank you, Mr. Pratt, for being their leader. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All

038right, moving on. That was awesome. >> Mr. Bernard, you have to follow that up. >> Just saying. [laughter] >> Yeah. >> Student athlete. >> So, we'll go to the principal report. Mr. Manard, thank you for joining us. Thank you. And good evening, school board and community members. Um, you've heard my updates from Dr. Roover, but I am thrilled to join you tonight for the first time this school year to talk about all the exciting things going on at Rockford High School. Here's some general updates. Uh, we continue to model um 90-day plans. This is something that I learned from my AVID leadership training. um AVID is a program we run at the high school and uh they talk a lot about um kind of the dangers of long range planning especially in a school where

039unpredictable is the norm. Um and so they really try to focus on shorter um more focused goals and so that's what we continue to craft our um meeting schedule around and professional development at the high school which you'll hear later from Mrs. Mason as well. So, this first quarter as it wrapped up, we talked about relational capacity. Um, as it relates to you're starting the school year out, um, how are you as a teacher going to create a safe and, uh, welcoming atmosphere where your students feel like they can contribute and engage in a meaningful way? I'll show you some slides on that in a little bit. Quarter two, we're opening up right after Thanksgiving break. Um, studying metacognition. This is something I've wanted to drill down on since we changed our master schedule to

040more of a modified block. And this is that concept of how we know what we know and how we understand how we learn. Uh I think it's super important as students move from that direct instruction that the teacher provides to I've got a pile of homework in front of me. What do I do with it? That they can manage their learning and or ask questions about it in an intelligent way so the teacher can service them most effectively. So, that's what we're going to drill down in this quarter. Quarter three, we're going to talk about the definition of rigor at Oxford High School and how um incorporating meaningful inquiry can get you more rigorous results. And so, I'm excited for that as well. And then quarter four um is leadership development in our students. So,

041how can we become self- advocates and move to the top of whatever our expectations are as we leave high school? We began our year again, this time for a second year in a row talking about focused notetaking for formative feedback. And our teachers, excuse me, some of our teachers on our AVID site team um trained our teachers and students during workshop week in that first day of school. Um so when you're uh engaged in that direct instruction teacher, how are you navigating through how you'd like students to take notes? Um and then the students then learned that when they came um during those first critical days of the school year. We'll talk a little bit more at this meeting about engagement reflections both on the part of our teachers and students and our student connectedness

042questionnaire occurred where uh we measured the how well the students feel connected to the school community. intervention work at tier one and two uh is off to a great start and our AVID work helps to inform that in our gened classrooms as well. Some of the events that have already been mentioned um and some that have not. Over 60 of our students attended the Ignite Your Future conference in Hutchinson, Minnesota. Kind of a hands-on career prep uh learning um situation going on up there at Hutchinson every year. And every year our kids go, they're super excited about it and energized when they come back about um different career fields. We had our fourth annual career fair with over 60 vendors at Rockford High School in the month of October. Our student council placed first at

043a competition in the Eastern Minnesota Conference and our fall musical Batilda ran this past weekend. So here is some information about goal setting. And every time every year when we set up our goals, I think of it kind of in two different buckets. So this is uh with the help of uh Mrs. Matson, we created sort of a one pager, we'll call it, of all of the different goals that the high school is going to try to accomplish. The top three in green there are goals that in cooperation with our built our building instructional leadership team and myself and the learning and innovation department we set those three goals based on the three um pieces to our instructional roadmap. So the non-negotiable is we had to we had to say we're going to do something

044um with regard to instructional design, classroom engagement and databachback student support. You'll hear about those toward the tail end of my presentation. First, I want to take you through the bottom five, the multicolored um boxes. There are my goals and they're intentionally underneath the Rockford High School teacher goals and all of the efforts in those strategic directions aimed to support the work of the teacher. Um, a lot of times in our planning and even our [clears throat] delivery of our fall workshops, we were very cognizant of if we're asking you to support the student, how are we supporting the teacher? And so these goals kind of illustrate I'm supporting teachers or my team is supporting teachers in this way and we're hopeful that that trickles down to the student um with the instructional roadmap goals.

045So here's my first goal. Uh, it's actually a common goal among the three principles. We've never had a common goal before, so I'm really excited to see how this plays out. Um, we will develop common language surrounding domain three of our teacher evaluation tool, which is the Charlotte Danielson model for effective teaching. And, uh, that will be complete with look fors as they relate to quality instruction. Every time I have a post evaluation with a teacher, I feel like I have to explain my interpretation of the evaluation tool before I go through the results. this will help us do that without me having to say it. Um you'll learn a little bit about that second goal um related to fast testing later on from me and then a little bit more from learning and innovation.

046Here's the progress so far. Um we've had our read plus and math plus rosters adjusted. Our teachers are partnering during rocket block to uh deliver interventions. Our students uh in the English classes reflected on their fall fast scores, their interventions, and successful plans or adjustments and creation of a summer plan. All of this means we had our English teachers walk through the reading and math tests that students took to describe what do the risk levels mean, um where they ought to see themselves. They had them compare their fall scores with their current scores in their classes um to see is there a correlary there. They ask students to reflect on how much time did you spend on these tests? How accurate is it a reflection of your performance level? Uh and those conversations really do

047go well. students are really interested to learn more in the hopes that they're more invested um down the road when they take the test so that they know this really matters to me and it matters to the to the school because they're trying to support me in that. Um comprehensive interventions as tier one student support has further evolved and you'll hear about that goal in a little bit. Um and we have classroom building and targeted engagement checks. Again, you'll hear more on this. Our student achievement plans have been implemented. Currently, there are three at Rockford High School and there'll be uh more achievement checks to come both at a building level and individual classroom level. Those both of those expectations have been set. So, up next, next time I come to you in March, you'll

048hear more about targeted goal setting for students, reinforcing the importance of FAST. Our winter testing will occur in late January for fast and then quarterly meetings with my colleagues to discuss the language and look for in that evaluation tool under the domain of instruction in healthy and supportive environment. Um we are attempting to sustain high staff morale. Therefore, we're in implementing strategies to recognize staff and offer support for instructional alignment through our guiding document, which is an AVID book entitled AVID Critical Thinking and Engagement: A Schoolwide Approach. You're going to see some slides from our initial work on their self assessment of their ability to create relational capacity in their classroom. And we did that. Um, these are those four quarterly focus areas and they are different sections of the book. So we just completed

049the four stages of quarter one relational capacity. Um the first stage is safe shaping so students feel safe in the class physically. Um controlled chaos which is one of my favorites. Uh that is where you do in introduce conflict or differences of opinion in a very controlled way. Um scope and sovereignty is where students actually start taking control of discussions. And then group actualization is kind of that max level of relational capacity. That's kind of, you know, where he or heard the classroom feels like a tribe or a family. Um, and as I told our teachers, I don't expect all six of your uh courses that you teach to reach group actualization by Thanksgiving, but um pushing that mixture of students in that particular classroom at that particular time to be as connected as possible

050is the underlying goal for that work. Up next, again, we're looking at metacognition, rigor through inquiry, and leadership development. So, here's some initial data. This is from August. Our teachers believe they create a welcoming classroom environment full of energy and excitement. Uh, for the most part, you see there about 88% on a four or five out of a fivepoint scale. Building a culture of safety, honesty, and mutual trust. Um, that's about 80%. And so, some you can see that some aren't as comfortable building that culture of safety, honesty, mutual trust. And that's where I start talking to teachers about sometimes it's an interpersonal thing, right? I'm more comfortable teaching you the content than I am shaping this environment. Um, and that's where we can introduce some of the coaching that we do both through our

051PLC uh peer observations and my evaluations engaging students in creating and monitoring high expectations and norms for the classroom. Um, that's at about 72% so a little bit lower than the others. So, do students safely and positively manage conflict? Do students feel safe to volunteer novel ideas and solutions? We talked about this one a little bit and how it kind of reflects society. Um, I how can we expect our students to manage conflict when we can't demonstrate management on an adult level? And uh so that is something that we're going to look into. How can we insert this for students so that we can teach them those valuable skills at a young age. Explain how student differences benefit the classroom. I had to pause on this one. This was our lowest score. We've got uh

052about 56 sitting at a four or a five out of five. Um and this is more of an articulation issue of I want my students to feel comfortable. I want them to feel safe, but I'm not quite sure how the differences among them help to enhance the classroom discussions and the group work and things of that nature. And it can be hard depending on what stage of relational capacity you're at. Um, and so it all goes handinand with the more I want to use the term vulnerable, but the more open everybody in the class is, the more you're likely to realize how student differences benefit the classroom community. under the strategic direction of community school and family partnerships uh to amplify the work within our classrooms to the broader community. We will celebrate innovation via

053via social media and streamline our newsletter articles to highlight each department. So, first I want to talk a little bit about um our goals. We have a goal to have weekly posts on social media be our Facebook or Instagram district page. Uh we've been working intentionally on having silly little videos where we ask students random questions so that we get more student presence online with their permission of course. Um but also showing them a little bit of that culture piece at Rockford High School which I think is operating on a very high level. Um and I want to celebrate that because that isn't necessarily the case at every high school in Minnesota. um with our Bolt, some members of our Bolt and my secretary met and that we have kind of a new formula for

054submitting newsletter articles. It used to be we'd send a staff email out, does anybody have anything interesting going on in their classrooms? And they're so humble. They never think what they're doing is interesting. And so we have to chase somebody down last minute to deliver a newsletter article. Now we have a department rotation where everybody in the department has to write at least one article, hoping two things. We get a variety of voices and a variety of things that are going on in classrooms that are really, really, really exciting. Um, we have uh new tour packets for prospective families and launch your future materials will be approved for purchase and printing tomorrow. I'll tell you a little bit more about that in a future goal. uh website updates and announcements synced with the monthly newsletter

055so that what I hear going on in the newsletter and on the website is the same information so that it's easy for families to find it um in whatever delivery system they find most convenient. So here's the progress. Hundreds of views, likes, and comments on our posts, a better connection with our surrounding community, and we're able to highlight stories that help educate people about the IB diploma and career program. I'll continue to say the most challenging thing is about IB is how to explain it. And so the more we can find stories about students that are participating um the more beneficial that will be. Up next, more pictures attempting more athletic exposure and featuring teachers and departments who have not yet been highlighted showcasing that variety of experiences that I talked about. For the culture

056of collective purpose, school leaders will develop materials and promote our new school tagline. um engage in learning, ignite curiosity, and launch your future and package our early college and career options as we brand and market launch your future. So, I spoke about this a little bit at the ed foundation dinner, but um part of our IB career program requires us to have at least one career pathway. So, we started in 2021 with a business pathway that was kind of a pathway in name only. and we talked about business and it was sort of insular. Um by 23 24 we had four pathways. Most of them were kind of in our AED department because it lent itself well to career prep and certification and so forth. And that's when we began our uh Minnesota based STEM

057grant. Uh so that's for AP or IB schools looking to enhance STEM offerings in their school. And with that grant and the work of some incredible colleagues, we have gone from six pathways to now exploring 15 um by the end of this school year. And we've done some shoulder tapping with six other teachers. And we would like to have 21 career pathways for our students by next fall. And the stretch goal five years ago when we were still applying for IB was that we wanted every student to have the opportunity to earn college credit or career certification before they get their Rockford High School diploma. And we are very close to getting there. uh with our IB coordinator and ninth grade counselor. They met with every ninth grader prior to registration to discuss what the

058pathways are and how using the infinite campus academic planner will help them illustrate what their four-year plan ought to be in order to say, "Well, this is how I'm going to get to my next step and I'm really confident and I have a leg up on all the other people that are applying for the job that I want." We've also uh clustered those opportunities. In my mind, it was actually very scary proposition to say we have 21 pathways and it's kind of like popcorn and then you go pick your pathway and we'll see if you made it at the end. No, we used uh the Department of Labor and the Department of Education came together years ago to create um six different career clusters and we use that to kind of delineate our different pathways.

059So within those six clusters you have 21 opportunities. I also want to say about the pathways, it's not a long grueling path, right? We're not going through like the Black Forest. Um, this is a pathway where a student has a a cluster of three courses at most where it's getting them associated with the vocabulary of the industry, that particular um career avenue and then also then moving them towards a certification or college credit. And so by design, they're short pathways because I wouldn't expect a ninth grader who we just talked to to be really committed to our [clears throat] equin studies pathway. Um it allows them to kind of bob and weave through different pathways and maybe earn a couple of them, right? Um so the materials have been created, the narratives are being strengthened

060to say these are your opportunities at Rockford High School. um in the hopes that our students feel better supported and better prepared as they move towards um college and career. Up next, uh we're entertaining cluster supervisors. So, as we grow this program, we can't necessarily count on one person to track IB exams, career certifications, getting kids register, chasing them down when they forget to register. Um tracking all of the testing and the data. So, it's my idea, and we haven't really put this together formally, but uh a group of six of us would become cluster supervisors. So, the health and human services cluster maybe headed up by me. So, I'm in charge of all the CNA students and the education pre-education students, um and so forth. We're going to explore additional certifications. Actually, our target

061date to renew that STEM grant, we have to apply for it again. Um we want to apply on Monday for that. So, Uh we're finalizing that uh application and then um it's renewable every three years again for $75,000 and it helps to support primarily our CP program and uh those related to STEM stewardship of resources. Our school budget lines will be reviewed monthly. Front office meetings will be held weekly and we're staffing with intentionality later this year that will take place after student registration and our bolt building operations leadership team will advise on systems and structures to optimize operations monthly. So currently we run budget reports monthly. We're spending down grants and gifts first and then we're monitoring supply line budgets. And so already, for example, we've had teachers come in uh and they want

062to or their students rather want to do this experiment in biology or they want to do this part of um some sort of art project, but we don't have the materials. So, we've been um using some money from our very helpful friends at the Ed Foundation um as well as some other gifts that have come from the community so that we can um preserve our district budgets as much as possible. So, the progress our bold confirms major ordering, our budgets are communicated with department leads and additional funding requests must come through me and be approved. Up next, we're to continue monitoring those lines uh with balances lower than last year at this time. Uh we're going to question purchases as needed. Is it a curricular need, a classroom need, or a want? And then of

063course, uh registration's coming up here. We've actually rebranded our um curriculum fair, it used to be called, as launch your future night. So we're inviting, um magnet families from around all areas to come check out what's going on at Rockford High School because we think it's pretty special. Now, all that's related to what we're asking our teachers to do in order to support students. So this is our actual school improvement plan and I present it to you on behalf of my build team. In the area of instructional design, teachers will have formative and summitive tools for each unit they teach which demonstrate instructional alignment, comply with our assessment policy, and are reflected accurately and consistently in teacher grade books at six week checks throughout the year. You'll see why that six week check is really

064important when I go on to uh I think it's our next one about engagement. All of this will help us prepare our self-study for our international baloria reauthorization. This self-study, I think publicly I'll say it's due in June. I think it's later in the summer, but we're going to try to wrap it up in June of 2026. Um, and all of this work needs to be done as a part of that in order to have a successful reauthorization visit in the late winter, I'll call it, of 2027 is when IB representatives will actually come to our area. um I believe it's a two and a half day review of absolutely everything and they'll come in and look at uh our documentation, our IB policies, uh what we have to say about AI. Uh and then

065in the middle years, which is our 9th and 10th grade, what are our unit plans and then in our um 11th to 12th grade, our DP course outlines. We'll also share with them our CP pathway articulation, which I said has been named launch your future. In the area of classroom engagement, teachers will integrate the engagement continuum to inform instruction assessment, student progress, and ultimately positively impact student achievement. All teachers will discuss and survey student achievement at the end of each unit at a minimum. General engagement data will be gathered monthly across the entire building. So, we're measuring two things kind of at that local site. How do I believe I'm doing in your class teacher at the end of every unit at least? Some of them do it at the end of every week. Some

066of them do it as an exit ticket every day. I left it up to the individual teacher. Then the overlying umbrella over that is myself and the guidance counselors send out a much shorter engagement survey to the whole school monthly. So we're tracking it kind of in two different ways. Um I like the idea that the teacher gets to kind of dive down and have a lot more detail that guides them. We tried to do that at a building level. The survey was too long and I don't think adults would even take it, let alone high school kids. So you'll see a little bit of that data right here. Um this is from October and this is where they think they are on that continuum. If I go back to it, kind of hard to

067read the words, but um from left to right you're more engaged. So you're disrupting, avoiding, withdrawing, participating, investing, and exploring. Those colors are met right here. So if you start with the blue, those are the kids that feel like they're most engaged and actually probably playing a really active role in the classroom. This is for required courses again in October. And if you're looking at those top two levels, which I kind of like looking at in a in a five or six point Lyker scale, you're looking at about, you know, 46%. Um, so almost half of our students find themselves even more engaged than just an active participant. This is where they said they were in required classes in November. So, a month later, I just take a look at this back and forth. Look

068at the blue. We've lost a percent of students, but we've gained them in investing. So, it's a bit of a slide back in November. And I can tell you that might be related to two things. Um, the activities competition schedule ramps up and midterms. And so, I think we had students kind of evaluating their engagement and maybe that paid off in their midterm grades, maybe it didn't. Maybe they learned that they need to be more engaged, but they're not yet. Um, and so we're going to continue to some causation there as as we go through the months. I'm interested to see how, you know, like a December, January wind up here uh when we move forward. We ask the same questions, again, this is straight from the schoolwide survey. Uh we asked the same questions

069about elective classes and generally speaking, universally, they're more engaged in their electives. So, we went from about, you know, 42% of uh the top two levels of engagement to over 50%. Um in October and then this is November. And again, you saw a bit of a slide from that blue area. Um, and they went over to purple investing. And so, I expected the elective classes to be a higher level of engagement because by and large students are choosing to be in those classes. Um, and also it's a little bit less of an academic hall that you're taking in those in those elective courses, really just studying skill and your interests. Another question we asked is how often do you think your teachers are talking about engagement? You know, we told them to measure engagement at

070the end of every unit, but if they're not talking to you about it or describing what they want those words to mean, much like I talked about describing the instructional domain of the teacher evaluation, how do we know? >> Yeah. >> And so this is uh my teachers have talked about engagement in my cores and my electives. And um interestingly enough uh the cores are a little bit higher probably because every time we talked about engagement the in August and early fall we had them meeting in the core groups not the grade level groups and so our departments were meeting and talking about engagement and how they were going to structure their feedback loop with students. And our elective teachers were sometimes left to their own devices because we only have one teacher in a

071department or they were working on other things for their elective classes. um that number of teachers who talk about engagement went up universally in the November survey probably because um you know as we moved throughout the fall and we started and we got a good footing that's when I said okay teachers you need to start measuring engagement um on a pretty consistent uh timeline here which is why I said at the end of a unit and so there's teachers who now have kind of set their schedule to and they're asking about engagement um more regularly. This is one of my coolest slides that you can't read. Um last year and even the year before when we talked about student intervention, we talked about our academic achievement plans. Um something was missing and it created a

072disconnect between where the teacher thought the student was in the class and what the student's barrier for success was. We didn't have a space where we were talking about that or comparing that. Now we do. So, uh, hiding student identity. This is an actual report of students who had Fs in their courses after three and six weeks. And we divided that list of students. No, wait. We didn't divide them yet. We asked the teachers to guess what the root cause is based upon your professional observation. at the end of three and six weeks, what do you think they're struggling with? And some of it's assignment completion, some of it's struggling with the content, a lot of it is attendance. And then we ask teachers, okay, again, based upon your professional observation, where do you think

073they are in the engagement level? And those that marked, I call it the gray area or the gray scale, either disengaged or disruptive or withdrawing. Um, I asked them to rate, and this is another AVID activity. Is it something that you, the teacher, have 100% control over? Is it something that you think you have no control over, or is it something, "Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. Maybe I can influence that or push that student a little bit um so that they engage more." Uh, the teacher also then had an opportunity to just make their own comments. What's what's going on with the student? Give me a little narrative about what you think's happening. What are you noticing? What are you guessing? Um then we took that list and it was about 70 students that

074were failing a class after six weeks at the high school and we divided them myself uh our 9th and 10th grade counselor Ali Instrom and our 11th and 12th grade counselor Samantha Bloom and we met with those 70 kids individually and we said hey student this is what your teacher said about you failing. What do you think? And so we asked them what the root cause was. We asked them to rate their level of engagement. And we asked them what their level of control is. And here are some of their answers. And it varies just as much as the individual student. Um I'm not doing that much work or paying attention. Um I think that I'm participating while I admit to be a little bit of a follower um of my friend group. I had

075to take a math test. uh I have to retake a math test because my grandma has cancer and I'm nervous about the results. Um so some of it is yeah you're right, you got me and others that were revealing this super heavy load that the students carry in their lives and we would not have known that if we didn't have the space to talk to them about it. So using all that information we decided whether or not it's time or warrants an academic plan. And so that's why we have three in the high school because a lot of this was ninth graders adjusting to the workload of a high school. Um 10th graders who have to do homework for the first time and they're managing that schedule, right? Um juniors who haven't taken a diploma

076program course yet, so the level of rigor they're still adjusting to. A lot of it was that and kind of calibrating into their new um school year. That leads into our goal for DPback student support. So, we're going to continue to utilize those structures, student achievement plans, the early warning system, the three, six, and nineweek grade checks, um, intervention, brainstorming, and tracking for data review implemented last year. We're going to identify and make relevant improvements for effectiveness and efficiency to ensure every student has every opportunity to earn 60% or more in every class. And the only way that I don't think we could achieve this is if the student continues to make attendance a barrier. If they're not here, we can't help them. But all the other ways we're going to try to make sure

077that they have every opportunity to succeed and pass every class at Rockford High School. This is an example. Again, hard to read, but it's what our achievement um plans look like. We take some raw data. We take their class grades. We identify the barrier and the level of concern. uh we looked at responsive action uh for our counseling office and then a responsive action at the classroom level with a guiding document um the tier one guidance or now it's called observation to intervention so I'm observing this what sort of intervention can I put in place in the hopes that it will help the student succeed more in the future and then any sort of formative and summitive work specifics that we can help cover the experience our comp cycle Um there was some wording in

078this fall, you know, as the elementary and middle school presented their language. Um it's my understanding that this is the final wording after a few drafts. 25% of our students testing in some or high-risisk fast testing fast reading and math will move up one risk category or meet or beat their predicted score by one or more points by the end of the school year. Let me try to paraphrase that. If I'm a student, and if you look at those risk categories, if I'm a student in high risk or some risk, I am going to rank up to the next lowest level of risk or beat my predicted score, which there's a whole algorithm that FAST has for it, by one or more points. In some cases, that predicted score is going to be much higher

079than the risk category, but they may still be stuck in high risk because of how low they were at the beginning of the year. So, I'm excited to try to make the most mileage by kind of branching that goal into two different things and saying we're going to shoot for the higher out of the two. And so, this is the raw data from our fall testing. Um there you see a number of students tested, the number in some or high growth, and what the actual number of individual students are that have to level up or beat their predicted score in both reading and math. So, we're looking at approximately 21.75 students in reading that we want to try to graduate up to the next level and about 19 and a half students in math. We

080of course can't have half a student. So, we're going to try to beat that goal by one more student. >> Is that so question? So, the 87 So, so it's the summer high is the SNH, right? >> Y. So you want to get that 87 down to 66. Is that the is that like is that subtractive? Yeah, >> that is the goal. >> Okay, got it. >> Dr. Hover. >> Thanks. Um Kathy and Kevin are going to talk a little more about this. Jamie asked me asked a group a great question last meeting before. What does that mean to increase the score? we had, you know, certain amount of points and and so forth. And um so I can't tell you how much we digging. Um Kathy and I have done in the last month

081along with we brought Kevin in because we need some expertise and so um he really knows um the data, how it's calculated, how it's measured, how we uh how we check on kids. So while this is hopefully making some sense, you'll see a little more of this in the next presentation that's going to be done later on this evening. Um, we're talking about growth on kids and how can we impact them positively and have them grow and some of them quite honestly may not [clears throat] grow out of the category they're in. But if they can grow more than what they're anticipated, which is I like to call it, Kevin might say it's a little different, but what's a year's worth of growth for this kid as an individual, not as a group, because I

082don't think any parent cares about how the group's doing. They care about how is their kid doing. So that's what we're talking about now is, you know, if Beth is supposed to grow five points and we're going to say Beth's going to grow at least five points, hopefully more, that's what we're doing. For some kids, it might be three points. For some kids, it might be 20 points, but we're going to measure by kid. And I'm really um proud of the work that that has been going on the last month. And I'm thankful to Jamie's question. If you remember that question, it was important. And I it really caused us to think and reflect and to refine what we're doing. So, I wanted to point that out. >> This concludes my report. >> Any questions

083for Mr. Manard? >> Thank you very much for your time and all your efforts. >> Appreciate it. >> All right, moving on. Skipping seven. Excellent. doing a healthy and supportive environment this time around. But we're going to go right to number eight with the stewardship resources and we are joined by Bridget Peterson. Thank you for joining us tonight. >> Thank you and good evening. I'm here this evening to present to you um our quarterly budget update as of September 30th, 2025. Um up on the screen you have this evening the revenue and expenditure summary by fund. So rememberary school operates multiple funds. I've highlighted high highlighted for you the most important funds leaving out only a couple um that are well again not considered operating. We'll call them that. So, um, in front of you,

084you have the FY24 revised budget as well as the 2425 fiscal year to date activity and then a column of where we were last year at this exact same time, followed by what is our budget this year and how are we doing so far this year. So, a couple highlights that I want to highlight for you guys this evening. Your revenues of course on the top, expenses down below. Um overall you can see total revenues last year at this time were about 13.1% collected and this year at about 11.9 honesty here full transparency Bridget was still working in 2425 on you know developing procedures and different um methods for how I want to better account for Rockford's revenue and expenses. So, what I did not do last year um was reverse some revenues that we

085had during our audit. However, every month I'm getting that much better. And so, you can see this year we're at 11.9% total revenues collected in all of our funds. When you look at them from an individual fund level, you can see the biggest one that jumps out there is the construction fund. Um it's masking some of this, but all in all on all funds, we're very very comparable. And so I plan to be that better accountant every year going forward. Reversing some different accounting approvals and various things to update you guys with the most um timely and up-to-date information. But again was not that concerned about where we were last year um because most of our revenues were collected. So um right on track I guess I would say with where we were last year

086for revenue collection. Reminder, these are always timing issues when I do bring you guys these quarterly reports. So some months we might collect, you know, something in September where the next year we might collect it in October. So again, I'm looking for those big things that are jumping out. And like I said, as you can see, there's there's nothing alarming there. Um, moving into the general fund. Happy to report that those expenses are trending about a percent or two lower than where we were at this time last year. Again, I have no reversals to do there. That's just straight cash in and out there. Um, so we are trending lower than where we were last year. Um, moving into some of the details, I have a lot of details here for you guys to look

087at. And a lot of this information I've already analyzed and made many, many notes for things that I need to uh bring budget amendments forward to you on the next quarterly report, which will be in January. um because you can see some of these revenue lines are a little higher, some are a little lower. Um and so look for that information to come. This is very early in the year, you guys. September is super early, primarily as it relates um as you can see here on the expenditure side. And why is that? We realistically only have one month, the month of September of payroll activity. So it starts to flatten as we move along in the calendar and all of those things. So I definitely get a much better picture of the district as we

088move into more payrollheavy months. That's not to say our teachers do not get paid in the months of July and August, but remember those expenses are on the prior school year um not in this current fiscal year. So um again here nothing's jumping out at me on a fund level. Uh where I get a lot of the information though is I keep drilling you guys. So as we look at our general fund only and then by program area, you can see here where some of the spend is really fluctuating. And so this tells me I need to complete a budget revision. So nothing to report that is, you know, completely over budget at this time. It's more just categorical moving around of um where we're actually spending and where I had the budget. So, all

089in all, I would like to say it's a it's a positive um quarterly budget update as I highlighted to you guys on that summary page. And I have no alarming uh issues as it relates to where our district is headed into the second quarter or no actually this evening, you know, December nearing. Nothing alarming to report to you. >> Excellent. Any questions for Mr. Peterson? >> No, thank you very much. But you get to stay. And I'm not sure is just yourself or Mike joining you, Mr. McDonald. Thank you. Moving on to uh EMR master agreement for the 25 through 27 school years. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Joining us, Miss Peterson and Mr. McMelte to the table, too. >> All right. So, um, the district of the schoolboard negotiation committee for the teacher EMR

090negotiation scheme has reached a tenative agreement for two years for the contract period July 1, 2025 through June 30th, 2027. Rockford Teachers voted in favor of this proposed contract on Monday, November 10th. And so, I'd like to take a couple moments to highlight for the members of the board um, a couple key um, highlights, I guess I'll call them, of this proposed agreement. So this proposed agreement is within the parameters established by the school board of education all of you. Um the salary schedule enhancement increases in year 1 and year two were provided. Early childhood and school readiness hourly increases again in year 1 and year two. We did add career increments for early child and school readiness to our contract. Remember this used to be in an MOA, so we did add those into

091the contract this year. um health insurance increase for year one and year two both starting on January one of the respective calendar year. So I'd like to highlight this as a huge win because this is uh tends to be an administrative nightmare for us when nobody wants to do retroactive. So remember this contract did start July 1. And so I really appreciate um the union's flexibility, if you will, on agreeing to those increases starting on on the calendar years because our health insurance does run on a calendar year basis. So um huge thank you to them for that. Um same with respect to dental insurance. There was um an increase in both year one and year two again starting again on January one um of each respective calendar year. And just to highlight a couple

092language um additions that were added, we did clarify some sick leave. Um so that's that's now in separate areas and better clarification on that. We didn't give a lot of leave and primarily state statute required leave type things. Personal leave pay guidelines were established. We have the paid family medical leave um act starting in our state not just for school districts remember but all employers um January 1 of 2026. So we better clarify that in our contract around what that will look like with respect to this new statute. And then the fun part. So the total cost of this contract is 8.05% increase per MSBA calculations. So remember that's taking the base year times two and dividing. So 8.05 increase per MSBA over the 2-year period. And the district calculation is a 10.29% increase over

093the two years with a total of almost a $1.2 million increase to the district over those two years. Any questions on that? Any questions? >> No. No questions. >> Thank you. I'm going to um ask the board then for approval of this 2-year agreement contract period from July 1 of 2025 to June 30th of 2027 with Education Minnesota, the Rutford EMR teachers. >> Excellent. Thank you so much. And I also will uh throw out some praise for our negotiations team and Dr. Ry for participating in this. So, thank you all for doing all of that. So, this has been presented to you. This is up for action. I would appreciate a motion for the approval of teacher EMR master messer agreement 2427. >> I would make I'd be happy to make that a motion. >>

094Thank you, Miss Johnson. There's a first. Can I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Mr. Shadine. This is an action and I would prefer >> just wanted to say you say 24 27. I'm sure you >> 25 27. Yep, there you go. 25 27. Um, this is an action. Uh, and I would appreciate a roll call vote. Madam clerk, >> Jessica Johnson, >> hi >> Kevin Shadine. >> Hi. >> Beth Prasa, >> I >> Eric, >> abstain. >> Chris Morgan, >> abstain. >> Jamie Host from I. >> Excellent. Thank you very much. And that does carry unanimously with the two abstensions. >> Just a reminder then I need the board chair, the board, and superintendent after the signatures. >> We can take care of that. Happily put some signatures on that. Thank

095you so much. Uh the next item up for consideration is the superintendent contract approval. We have talked multiple times um over the past weeks uh as a board in close session um detailing and outlining uh Dr. Ry Hoover's contract. His contract is set to expire at the end of this school year, the 2526 school year. What you have in front of you is um the tenative agreement between Dr. Ry Hoover and the board for an additional three-year contract. Um this was provided for your review previously as well. The substantive changes inside of here. You will notice the salary structures for the year 1 and year two have been laid in there which are similar to what the teachers union had um negotiated as well. The overall total compensation package is much less than what was

096uh over those two years. Year three will still be a negotiated salary into year three. So that will be up for board review uh prior to that school year starting. The other substantive change inside of here is if you look at vacation, you will notice that uh secular references have been removed for dates as well as Junth added as that um holiday time. Um inside there also uh Good Friday if the district office is open um or closed uh that holiday reference has been removed from contract. Uh so the contracted holiday days um do remain the same. The other uh change inside of here is change in language to continuation of health care and health coverages to be a vesting option that uh Dr. Ridok Hoover would be able to receive a 10% per year

097vesting option for continuation of health care um upon his retirement from the district. uh puts uh puts better protections in place not only for Dr. Ry Hoover for continuing but also for the district to allow there to be a vesting option up to 100% with 10 years of service. So this is presented to you. Any questions? Excellent. I would appreciate a motion then to approve the three-year contract for Dr. Hoover. Motion to approve the contract. >> Thank you, Mr. Morgan. There's a first. Can I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Prasa. There's a first and a second. Any discussion? >> All those in favor? Then signify by I. >> I. >> Oppos. And this three-year contract does carry unanimously. Thank you very much, Dr. Hoover. You're stuck with us for three more

098years. >> My pleasure. May just say something. >> Yes, sir. >> You know, I just want to say thank you. It's um not so much about the country, it's just about who you guys are. Um I love it [clears throat] here. It's reinforced every day and even more so over the last couple of months. Um and uh I'm just I'm thankful to be a part of this school district to work with the wonderful people that I work with and I'm I'm excited to uh tackle another three years and hopefully well beyond that. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. All right, then moving on we will move to number nine culture of collective purposes with the CA C and I report. So I would guess we're going to have someone besides Dr. or you have

099guests just you. All right, Dr. Adver, it's all you. >> Yeah, because I as I handle a couple different roles within the system. One of which is is uh working alongside my colleagues in the learning innovation department. And I'm going to walk through um this particular report which um was once upon a time commonly referred to as the world's best workforce. It is now titled and it has been for this is the second year the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness or affectionately c. Um this was presented to the curriculum instruction assessment committee of which I forgot to give Erica invitation last week but that was November the 20th. [laughter] Um but we had Beth and and Jamie there representing the board. Um, and it was another really good meeting. So, I'm going to talk about

100um what it is and then share a little bit about the the findings as well. Um, as we set goals, uh, reflect on last year's goals and then talk about the goals set this year. Um, this is the statute that requires this conversation and the report itself to be posted online and shared with our our board and community and curriculum instruction assessment group. Um uh so you'll see this is going on in every school district throughout the state of of Minnesota. We do also ask um our uh curriculum instruction assessment team to please advise and review plans and I really want to share those meetings have been fantastic uh the last couple of years and I'm I'm really excited for that group and we actually gave them work and homework as we progress forward. Um

101again this was once considered the world's best workforce and these are the goal areas. You'll see that there are a total of five. I'll share a little bit about them um as we go through this. Um ultrum being ready for school. This goal was met again this year. And this goal, by the way, is getting harder to meet. The reason it's getting harder to meet is because the uh the work that's happening at our early childhood level has been so good that the the data is getting um is getting high and it's hard to keep up with those those those numbers. And I'm very proud about the work that's happening there. We heard a little bit about um our leadership there today. Um the second one is the one goal um where we have not

102been making progress to date and there are reasons for it. Um and I'm not going to want to make any excuses but we have not yet done what we need to do in terms of closing those achievement gaps uh between what is commonly referred to in statute as our bipok students. Um, so I think there'll probably be some conversation with respect to that later on this evening with Kathy and Kevin talking about um, our demographics, but um, one thing I'll share is we are 9% multilingual learners here in this system. Um, no excuses. We're going to teach them up as well as we teach everybody else up. Um, and hopefully even better at times. Um, but that is an area which we need to continue to focus. Um, all students ready for college and career.

103You've heard Mr. Manard here. Um we've met that goal again this year. Um that is also becoming a little more challenging to attain because those those numbers are quite high. And then all students graduate from high school. I want to point this one out in particular. Um our graduation rate this year is going to come in at 94.6. It's actually 100%. Um the reason it's not listed as 100% in the report is because when students are um choosing to go to a transition program for special education, we cannot give them their diploma and have the state still continue to um provide funds for their instruction of which now goes through age 22. So we withhold their diploma until they're ready to come forward and receive that um at the time of their choosing, but no

104later than age 22. Um, so it's a weird thing. It is what it is, but that's how it's reported. >> So, >> um, >> how does the state, sorry, it just frustrates me that the state doesn't just they're not included in that number. You would include the ones that are able that are at 22 or whatever it is like that's something that >> all that is accurate needs to be addressed. >> Um, one thing I want to say is the work that we've seen happening at our high school. You know, you saw uh Principal Manard share those those documents with here's where all the kids are sitting. You know, our our number of kids that had to attend summer school this this last year was way down >> and our number of kids I think

105that will attend this year even down even further from the high school credit recovery standpoint because they are laser focused on these kids already. You know, we're we're sitting here in in November and they know all of the students who are having some struggles in class. Why they're having struggles? They're asking the teachers. They're asking the kids. In a lot of instances, they're asking the parents. they're meeting with these kids and we are going to get them all across the finish line. Um, so that is an area that we're doing well. Um, I'll say the last one is a brand new goal preparing students to be lifelong learners and we surveyed our students this year around those those areas of which that um, our curriculum instruction assessment department has suggested we look at for life

106learning. I'm going to talk a little about that towards the end of this. But those are the goals. I mean we didn't meet all the goals with the exception of the all racial and economic achievement gaps between students are closed. Um these are the reporting requirements um within the contents of the report. Again that report has been on our website for about a month. Um and u we have to go through district school goals how we evaluate things gifted and talented all of these things are either in policy or in practice somewhere within our district. How we review curriculum our appraisal process PD. I'll talk about a few of these things as we go through it. Um, obviously we have goals specific to each of our three sites and you see them um happening um

107annually and also within this report. Why do we do it? We're measuring the effectiveness of our work um as respect to how it's connected to student standards, academic standards and to inform our curriculum instruction decisions based on these results. um how used to instructionally plan um utilize interventions, progress monitoring, placement of kids, and to satisfy and check boxes quite honestly with state and federal requirements. um sharing a little bit about our MTSS work of which I'm really proud of what's happening um within our system right now with uh several folks working uh through an intensive um MD MTSS pro process with with um uh conferences, seminars and meetings and how we're how we're advancing that work. And then statutoily we need to mention um our two policies 513 and 550R which are around student promotion,

108retention and acceleration in early kindergarten. All of this is to guarantee a viable uh guarantee a viable curriculum align those state standards implemented with best practice. Talk about our teachers and our administrators. You heard uh Mr. Bernard talk a little about the the teacher process for evaluation that's been strengthened. Um this really is a strong process. Um if you look at these different components of our teacher evaluation u model um you'll notice student engagement again towards the bottom has become a a really significant focus for us that came out of teacher teacher conversation but also that student growth component as well. principal evaluation. Uh I think I mentioned last meeting that I finished the goal setting meetings with all three of our school principles. Uh the thing that I really love about this is that

109our alignment um corresponds with our work on our strategic plan, our DOT goals and the work that's happening is um within um within our principal unit has been significant. in particular. Again, you're going to hear more and I've alluded to this a couple of times because I'm actually really excited about um this next report coming forward with Kathy and Kevin about what we're doing in learning innovation across our system right now. Again, there's our curriculum advisory committee, our teacher leadership components of which are significant. This is something that I've had actually several conversations recently about um how um valued and and lifted our teachers feel within our system. When we first came into um when I first introduced Built and Bolt into our system, I think there was um there was some I think some

110hope, but also I think there was some trepidation around are we actually going to have a you know a say in the work that we're doing here? Um, you know, I had a conversation with with with our two AMR co-presidents today u about this just just a little bit and and understanding the value of asking our practitioners whose boots are on the ground how this manifests itself in practice. We're having teachers come up with with things and ideas now that are absolutely incredible and I don't think they were ever asked before. And so I'm really pleased with that. um and ideas that have challenged me as a leader to say yes, we should try that. And I'll say this, not every idea that that I'll have or Kathy or Kevin or our principles or our

111built are going to work, but that's continuous improvement and innovation. And um that stuff is happening all throughout our system right now. And I'm very proud of that. And then again, that comes out in our professional development, which again is aligned directly to our our instructional roadmap that is developed annually within our system. Again, this is our that committee that got together um here last week, last Thursday. This is their work. And I know you guys are being um you're sitting through a lot of presentations, so please stop me if I'm going too fast. Um again, our building leadership, I've mentioned this before, and the continuous improvement process. professional development, teacher improvement is people improvement. And if we all get better, then collectively we are stronger. I say this frequently with our teaching staff, and

112I just said this when I met with Kathy and I learned at our rounds. Um, we're only as good as we are together collectively. And so working together to grow, um, if we can grow each other individually, we grow our group. And so that is that's pretty exciting and it's fun to see. We're looking at uh uh data in a totally different way and how we're using researchbased strategies and we're assisting our teachers with the technology and the things that they need to be successful. And these are just definitions that we have to put forward with respect to our our staff. And I don't like these terms but they are terms that are used and these come up through the star report. So what does it mean to be defined as an effective teacher, an

113inexperienced teacher, not a field teacher? All those things are defined within the every students act. This is how we spend our money on PD. So it's, you know, we have a 2% set aside by state statute, but we also have Q comp, which thankfully is still part of our um our state budget, and it is a significant part of ours. I'm really proud of how we are um managing these funds and providing our teachers with what they need to be successful. I also want to point out um how thankful our staff is to this school board for valuing professional development. Um it's seen in our calendar. It's seen in the things that um they are allowed to do and and ways in which we're finding success with kids. Again, these are the reporting components. Um,

114and I want to point out again our our school website for annual reporting. These documents both ANI and the CACR are posted on our website under learning innovation. Uh, the community survey of which we we do every other year. We started that last year and then the data informed practices model. So again, next steps um, we reviewed those goals that were met or not met for this year. We've set goals that are very similar uh for this particular school year and we're monitoring those things as we go. We will continue to survey grades 4, 8, and 12 as they metriculate either out of our system via graduation or to the next school that they're going to be moving towards. Um, and then the community feedback survey that will take place again here in 2026. This

115is what that report looks like. You also have that um online both in board book and on our website. Today I want to talk about this um profile of a graduate. This is one of our doc goals. You probably saw it last year a little bit um as it as it came across um in that area. The reason we are talking about this is because um currently right now the only public facing um way in which folks evaluate how we're doing as a school district is through um the MCA scores. And while we take them very seriously and we have work to do in those areas. Again, not running from anything. Um it is not the only way in which um our work and particularly our kids should be defined. And so we are looking

116at these these were those things that you were identified as lifelong learning skills last year. Um, we will be working to do a better job of defining these things, perhaps editing them, adding, modifying what they look like. Um, but we're going to be doing some work around this um to really ask our community um and our stakeholders, what does it mean to be a graduate of Rockford Area Schools? What are you getting when somebody walks out of these doors with a diploma? One thing that Mr. Bernard has always said is what is the purpose of what we do? It's to be employed and whether that is to be employed um via trade, whether that's to be employed um serving our country and or if it's to be moving on to another form of education post-secary

117wise where you're going to then be employed after that. What does it look like? And so this is work we're going to be doing to define what it means to be a graduate and a lifelong learner of of Rockford area schools. So excited about this work. Um it is in process and we're looking forward to continuing this along the way. Any questions with respect to this particular report, what it is, how we've done anything of that nature. Excellent. Thank you very much. And again, this had this document has been out for quite some time on the website. I think at the last meeting, Dr. Idol Hoover, you did share with us that it was published. Um, so appreciate that. Any questions for Dr. Iduber. >> Excellent. Thank you very much. Um, we'll continue to move

118on then. Um, just making sure. No, no actions or anything like that. Okay. Just >> actually, you know, I might I apologize. I think we do have to approve this board level. >> I was just looking at the cover sheet. It wasn't. >> Yeah, I believe we do have to approve this as well. >> This is quite okay. So, you have seen this presentation now and I would appreciate a motion to approve the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness strategic plan for the 256 school year. >> I'll make that motion. >> Thank you, Miss Johnson. Eric Gordy will second. Any discussion? >> All those in favor, please signify by I. >> I oppos. >> And that does carry unanimously. Thank you very much. Moving on to 9B, uh, learning and innovation report. And very sneakily sliding

119into the table, we do have, uh, Kathy Matson and >> Kevin Nef. [laughter] Sorry, >> it's 8:00. Okay, >> I'm reading a lot of reports. Lot of reports [laughter] today >> and I'm not looking up. Sorry, Kevin. Very good. >> I yield to y'all. [laughter] >> Thank you for having us. Yes, I'm really glad to be here. Uh I have increased time in this role this year. I'm teaching an intro to ed class. I had a teacher at the elementary school stop me and say, "You speak with so much passion and it's so clear that you care so much about Rockford." And it was really reinforcing as I'm going through this transition out of the classroom. And I am so energized by this work and the team I get to do with it, do it

120with and Kevin is one of those people and he's fantastic teammate in the department of learning and innovation. He has a wealth of systemic knowledge and he's a data expert. So I'm super glad he agreed to join me and have a late night. We both are like normally rolling into the sleep mode at this point. So, um, I want to share with you first our road map. You see this all the time. It feels like everyone's speaking from the same book. That's because we are. We're so well aligned. And every year we're going to have a road map and we're going to build that collaboratively and have a growth mindset about how to achieve those goals and support students and staff in concrete ways. During the built institute on August 4th, um I asked every

121single built in a team to say one word that drives our work and they all said students and they had a couple more prompts but it was without hesitation the word they came up with and you feel that in our systems and that really energized me for the work and our work shows that focus and alignment. I continue to publish a newsletter related to all of our built work in each system, each building, so that everyone in our system can see the work we're doing. And of course, they're always welcome to have conversations with us as well. Thanks to our clear purpose and a clear process, we can work through our goals. I've realized there's another P, and that is people. That really is what it it's all about. That's the only way all of

122this happens and it's what the whole process is for is the students and the teachers. Part of what we do for teachers is that professional development. So I wanted to highlight some of what we've done so far this year. This is how teachers rated our workshop week effectiveness. Each year I look at this with the builts and we look at whether we're getting stronger or if there are things we need to strengthen. And this rating is really quite strong. And I make sure teachers see that as well because if you're on that side to the left, we want to figure out how to serve you just just as much as we want to serve those who are on the right side and make sure we're meeting teacher needs. I always like to bring teachers voice

123to you. teachers see that workshop week keeps getting better. We're trying to deliver material in new ways and make sure that they see the purpose and the intention behind our planning. And we always welcome suggestions for how to make it better. We've had two PD days so far and we have teachers rate those PD activities. Those activities were rated over 4.0 O on a fivepoint scale. And we're grateful for the PD to come in planning next steps for meeting the goals. Those days are really helpful and making sure we can continue the work. Now, here's how we're structuring that work. We have a learning scale that guides the work we're doing so that teachers know where we're aiming to go in each of those road mapap goals. And it's a little different for K to

1244th than our secondary schools. In our instructional design progress, elementary school is working on implementation of CKLA. I've been in some of those classrooms and seeing fantastic lessons happening. Uh we also have the expansion of the AdSense program there. All of that serving students really well. Middle school and high school. You heard Dr. Rid Hoover and principal Manard talk about grading practices and relational capacity. We're also implementing ISL to support core instruction and target skills that need more practice and that's been effective at supporting students and additional achievement. In terms of instructional design, one teacher shared after PD, she was excited to try new ideas. And that's really the goal is that they leave that PD not just having learned something, but have having something that they can actually use and put into practice. As

125far as the engagement scale, you heard Principal Manard talk about it. This is our learning scale for teachers for that. And since the year began, we modified it so it fits the audience. The one on the right is is geared towards the elementary audience. And I had the elementary built help me shape that to be more age appropriate. And you'll see at the bottom the learning scale data is where teachers rated themselves out uh where they rated themselves. And the goal is to see that number grow between now and the end of the year. Here's one teacher's reflection about engagement and using that data, that engagement data. She feels like it's really going to be helpful for students in terms of making them want to be there and be successful. It [clears throat] really is

126informing our intervention work and helping us gain new perspectives as teachers and as students, too. datadriven support. Here's the learning scale that makes it really clear where we're heading. Even the student achievement plan has evolved as we've put it into practice. We've heard feedback from teachers. It would help if this was a drop down instead of a fill in the box so that we're consistent in our language. And so we've been making those changes in real time to make it work better for teachers and therefore also for students. You can see the learning scale data there at the bottom as well. We'll have teachers rate themselves beginning of the year, middle, and end. Here's some teacher feedback. teachers found it a little daunting at first and I want to be open about that that they

127felt it was a lot of steps to think about, but then they realized that this was stuff they were already doing and that they could just have conversation using a common language and format that is empowering us to be more effective. And another teacher shared having that time to wrestle with it allowed them to really work through it, get questions answered, work on an actual product, and just so grateful for the time to do that. Behind the scenes, in support of all of this, we have an MTSS team, multi-tered system of support, um, training going on. So, we're in a six-part series with reps from every building to look at our system. And that's been really rewarding because we see how the systems we've been putting in place are positioning us well to meet these

128five components of Minnesota MTSS. And we recognize the need to design and deliver each tier of instruction in a way that's effective and recognizes the distinct needs of the students at those different tiers. And then this was mentioned a little bit. Our multilingual learners are a part of our focus and student achievement. And I've shared this with teachers that we have over 110 actively enrolled students. And those are the 15 languages represented by those 110 students. And some students at the high school actually made a display that shows where all those languages come from because if you're like many teachers, you couldn't have pinned them to a map without a little help. So, it is uh part of our goal to develop a language instruction education plan and we're we're collaborating as a team to

129make sure that we have a clear system for how we support these students and all students and they're a part of that. Part of how we're measuring the success of all students is through our building goal. And here's how we developed this year's goal. We reviewed data from last year. We generated a draft goal. We reviewed that with builts. And then we shared the [snorts] goal and considered questions. And I think it speaks to the health of our system that we then revised the goal rather than sticking with one that didn't quite fit what we wanted it to be. And now we're in that study and act um stage. So that goal that you've heard from principal Menard is that adjustment from five points to meet or beat their spring predicted score. And that allows

130us to have a more individual growth focus. And I'm going to give Kevin the the mic to share more about how those predicted scores are generated. >> Okay. Yeah, we we've tried to get a little bit away from just the straight five points because on that fast test, depending where that student is at, they may have the ability to grow a lot of points or not as much. So, the higher up in that scale movement is going to be a lot less than if you have someone near the bottom of that scale who's like has a lot more room to grow. Plus, the fast test is a screener. It's not a contact test. So, it's screening for risk. So, our students who are at the low risk and the on track are really kind of

131pushing the top end of that as far as as far as being able to get a good score for growth on that. Um, the other part we have to be concerned a little bit about is with our kindergarten and first graders that the test that uses changes what they get tested on each of the three testing windows. So to say growth on kindergarten at first is a lot tougher because they're tested on one set of three things in the fall, a different three in the winter and a different three in the spring. So we have to kind of be aware of the different grades of what they have. Um so working with the um predictive score, it happens in the fall. They'll take that score and for the elementary and for the middle school, we're

132using their um start score. So, we're comparing that student with other students in the nation that scored the same on that test. So, if we had a student in the fall the reading test in fifth grade who scored in the 10th percent nationwide, their growth expectation in fast is based on other students in the nation who scored at the 10th percentile. So, so those are students who have a similar type of growth. They have a similar type of range. So that's so if they can outgrow the other students in that 10% then they've made more than a full year's progress that is a very good thing to have happen. Um I think that's is that main part that's urban. >> Okay. >> I mean I could go on for this for a while. I don't

133want [laughter] >> Can I have a clarification? Can I ask a question? >> And I've heard just different things from different people tonight. the it says meat or beat and one person said beat because I have concerns if it's meat because then they are not they're not going to their achievement won't go up if we're talking 25% of our students >> the meter beat is is across the whole group >> so we're including like some of the students if I have say a low risk >> right and I understand that that I understand that they if they meet their growth they're effect you know if they're already 95th% percentile are sick. But if we're talking 25% of our students, 25% should meet already. That's kind of where we're at. So, we're not really adding much

134rigor. If we say 25% will meet, I like the beat. The meat part I have concerns with because if we're talking 25%, that's already where we are. >> I think what we're trying to also do is have this be that first year. So get a base looking at this and say, "Hey, how many how did our students do from fall to spring this year so that we have an idea going into next year that what would be a reasonable way to phrase this because we haven't looked at that kind of data and so we want to have we we pulled the data for these kids so we can kind of measure it for this year. So there are kind that's kind of one reason why there's two different sets of goals in there is just

135that we can kind of say okay without knowing exactly what we've done in the past for this let's do it this year and then we might be able to say okay we should be able to do you know you know a different number going forward >> but we've collected fast data for 10 years so >> we don't have the growth data for each student recorded and it's something >> fast should have that >> it hasn't limited for looking back in past history. So it's kind of how it goes in that pool you have for that year. So when we go back, it's been kind of difficult to get exact data. So we're we're trying to pull that out. We just don't feel comfortable with that data we've been looking at for growth from the prior

136years. >> Um the screening scores are real easy to pull from prior years. The longitudinal screening scores are real easy. uh that growth one it it's awkward to pull that one out without going into like the broad data and try to build drill spread to get that [cough and clears throat] >> over. Thank you. One of the things we're we're also doing is we're making sure that our teachers and our kids see these scores >> um so that they know where um where they're where they're at, where they're being measured and then also how we're drilling down to specific strands within these scores to say here's how we're going to improve in this area so it inform our teaching practice. So, um you know, there's there's the goals, um there's the metrics, and then there's

137the teaching. And so, um, this is going to allow us to really drill down to the instruction. And, you know, I hear what you're saying. I understand what that, you know, meeting a goal is great, but and it depends on who the kid is. If you're a high if you're a high functioning, proficient reader, you know, meeting your goal is probably just great. >> I 100% agree. >> But if you're not, meeting your goal is treading water. So that point noted um we are looking to um really blow these scores out of the water with each of our kids. That's that's the goal. >> Well, that was my only concern because I feel like already with the data that I see, we're already at meeting 25%. So this isn't and I'm not I I appreciate

138all the work and I'm t I'm on the same page with all you at this stage talk. So I get what you're saying. I just don't know fast. Mhm. >> That was my only thing is that one person said one point above. So I just wanted clarification on that. >> Yeah. And one thing I I'll share with you here um is that as I've done a bunch of like deep diving on this, the fast um metrics are similar in a lot of respects to what you see from a writ score from an FBA. >> I figured this they're they better be or they won't be very competitive right now. >> Thank you. Thank you for explaining. uh do keep in mind that there are this is one measure of student achievement and there are a

139lot of factors that affect how they do and we're exploring everything such as what is the right number of assessments within a year of screenings within a year do we maintain the especially the winter screening at the secondary level in particular um and Kevin has some graphs he can share with you that that also speak to the reality of student growth. >> Okay. What we have up here on these two graphs are some actual student graphs with all the, you know, identified data stripped out. These are both showing what we probably would be like to see happening with our students. The scores there are going to be um it's fall I'm sorry the one on the very far left is spring of 2024. The second one over is going to be fall of last year,

140winter of last year, spring of last 20 year 2025. And then that one on the very right would be this past fall's score. These are both for um I think they're both for reading and there are they're both middle school students. Both of these would be showing what we'd be like to have happening for our students. They are going up. And if you take a look at that growth over that course of the spring to spring, they have made more than a year's worth of growth. They have not broken through to that next risk level, but they have both of those have made more than a year's worth of growth and they're probably getting close. That's one of the reasons we've had a lot of discussion about the growth as opposed to changing going through

141a risk level because one of the things that we get that we have to be concerned about with changing risk levels is teachers f focusing on the bubble kids >> and some of these students here who had a long ways to go maybe would not have that focus to make that kind of growth. So it's I think this discussion on on the goals probably continue for the whole year is how to find that balance and try to come up with what a good way schedule for next year would be. We we don't want to ignore these kids and the teachers who have done the work on the for these two students have done an amazing job to move them up. Even though that top student is still in high risk, that student is almost to

142the point of being in some risk, which is a huge increase for that student's ability. Thank you. One of the things I like about looking this as an individual student in growth is that it values not just those bubble kids who says, "Hey, if we can get these kids over the over the hump, we'll get our we'll get our goal." Um, there isn't a parent in the district that would say, um, I hope you get your goal. They're saying, I want my kid to learn. And so whether that kid is on the top of the top or if they're one of the kids who's new to country and is struggling, we want them all to grow at least as much or more than one year. And so if we can string a few of those

143years together from a kid who's in these situations, pretty soon they break through. But I want our teachers to not feel defeated if a student, you know, for example, in one of these cases is growing [snorts] more than that one year, but hasn't broken through that that that level yet because they're still doing great work with kids. And that's that's why we've spent a lot of time, and I mean a lot of time basically hold up in uh Kathy's office talking about how we really want to look at this data. And and I got to say this, one of the things I'm really I'm proud of this this group when I talk about the board is asking these questions. And some of them I know we get in the lead. So some of them maybe

144are better for you call me later. But I think it's it's really important that we're talking about this stuff. And I don't think it's ever been pulled apart at a board level before. And some of that's we're asking for that in some respects. Um maybe not to go super deep in the weeds because we have some experts in here on this board that most boards maybe don't have, but um it's important to us that we're talking about this because we want to utilize our data to inform our practice. And so, um, it's been really helpful because I think it was the last board meeting that we're doing prior, um, where this really came out and we that's what really got us to, um, to get together and collaborate to say, what do we what do

145we want to do in this next iteration? So, I I want to thank the board for that part. >> Well, and I appreciate it because earlier we talked about the gap we have with some of our atrisisk students. When you look at growth like this, you're helping those students too versus before, well, they're they're whatever. So, this doesn't let you say that anymore because they deserve the growth also. So, I commend you for shifting to this because then all students matter. I mean, all students always matter, but we know in past practice how things were done. I'm just going to add one last thing on that last bullet there is that we didn't realize that this is also just a single test and you can have a lot of variables affect the achievement. We don't

146know if someone at home is dealing with some cancer in the family or something else and that could affect the test score. So we have to work with the fact that we will see dips for different students at different times. >> Absolutely. And ultimately any type of data we're talking about whether the building goal or any of our other roadmap goals the purpose is student achievement and growth. So, how are we using that data to then create interventions that we implement effectively so that they achieve and grow? And have we equipped teachers with the tools they need to monitor progress and the curriculum supports and professional development that allow them to know where to turn next if if they're not reaching a student yet. So, uh Kevin has been supporting the process for progress monitoring

147Uh so we've over the past few years we've started having more and more uh groups proper sponsor the students for especially during intervention the access groups have been doing it for quite time especially at the elementary uh middle school high school the last couple of years um I know that um Kristen's in here and she's been doing her access group and then over the past month or so I've had some of the sped teachers uh talking to me the first time about doing that progress monitoring with their students. So I've met with three different sped teachers over the past month helping them set up their progress monitoring as well. Uh normally we start with fast doesn't always work for every type of progress monitoring but it's usually kind of our first step and then once

148those teachers are more comfortable they may find a different tool they want to use for their progress monitoring. I recently read a book called the co culture code. There were many quotes I could bring to you, but this was one that really stuck with me uh saying that culture is a set of living relationships working toward a shared goal. We definitely have that. It's not something you are, it's something you do and we we are doing it. We are working with purpose and a clear process and product and there is such energy behind the work we're doing and there's alignment. I do little dances when I'm meeting with the principles in the builts because I see the connections and I know we can build on that and it's consistent. We're speaking the same language and

149that's what's empowering us to make change for students and support staff in the process. >> Questions? >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Any questions? Yes. >> I just have a quick comment. Thank you for all your data and for the hard work of ing that one goal and also the little happy dance you do with the alignment. I I'm [laughter] doing the same dance. It's It's great to see through the different presentations all the stuff lining up and we're truly all moving in the same direction towards the same goal. It's great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So, I want to see the happy dance. I wonder that he talked about earlier. >> Kevin was doing it at [laughter] the foundation. I think I saw >> me. >> Any other questions or comments for learning and

150innovation group? >> Appreciate your time. Thank you guys for coming tonight and sharing good things for the very staying up. >> Yes. >> Thanks. >> Sorry. >> All right. Moving on then to 9 CMSA policy update final read. Many of them here. >> So many. >> Yep. But majority are uh MSBA model policies. Only a couple Rs inside of there. The 503, you know, 534 70 as well. So uh any news from the policy committee on these or are you all good? >> All good. All right. So I'd appreciate a motion to approve uh the slate of policies in front of us. >> I'll make that motion. >> Thank you, Miss Johnson. There's first. Can I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Miss Hilstrom. There's first and a second. Any discussion? Seeing

151none, all those in favor signify by I. >> I oppos. That does carry unanimously. Community and partnership. Uh in front of you res uh resolution of acknowledgements for contributions. Dr. Ryhoover. >> Once again, on behalf of the board of education, school administration, and all of our staff, I would like to thank all of those who uh donated um either uh financially andor with resources. uh to our school district over the last month and I know there was this one name that was on that pretty cool. >> All right. Excellent. Thank you very much. And as this is a resolution, Madam Let's uh get a motion first. So I'll make a motion to approve. Can I get a second, please? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Morgan. First and a second. This is a resolution. So

152Madame Clerk, please call the role. >> Cary, >> I. >> Chris Morgan, >> I. >> Jamie Hilstrom, I abstain. Jessica Johnson. >> Hi, >> Beth Prasa. >> I >> Kevin Judy, >> I. >> Excellent. Thank you so much. That does carry unanimously. Letter 10B. Uh, policy committee meeting Monday, December 1st, 2025, 4 p.m. in the district office conference room. Regular meeting of the board of ed, Monday, December 15, 2025, 5:30 in the district office boardroom. I do wish to note that our first week of December work session has been cancelled. So there will not be a work session uh for December and just the regular ed board meeting uh board and committee update opportunity for the board to share what the work they've done. So anyone willing Thank you, Miss Johnson. >> All right. So

153for MASCO, I had two meetings for negotiations for their teacher group. I've had one meeting so far to prep for our meeting with um the supervisor group for negotiations there. um had regular meeting for MASO as well. Um and then a handful of Rockford negotiation meetings that we've had. Um I did go door knocking on the first of November I believe and saw other board members there and uh Dr. Ryan Hoover was there that was uh great and had um some really good positive feedback doing that. Um we had our canvasing meeting. Uh board prep call. Um have had convers um chamber was that chamber um meeting MEA conference uh last Sunday to last Tuesday. Um it was a great conference. I apologize I had my bag next to my bag and forgot to grab

154it. Um, uh, would love to share more. All my stuff is in there, so maybe next meeting I'll be able to share a little more about that. And I did attend the High School Musical Friday night, which was a pretty pretty great production. It was very fun, excellent, >> packed house. It was incredible. >> Excellent. Thank you so much. Any questions for Miss Johnson? >> Mr. Morgan, any updates? >> I also went to the plan. It was great. I only went once, though. Yeah, the Ed Foundation was great. Lots of um activity around the referendum and very happy with the community. It's good to have the support for the school and the district and um good discussion today just on the finance front around some more long-term facilities items, but that's it. >> Excellent. Thank

155you very much, Miss Hilstrom. Um I also attended the MRAA conference. Um had some negotiations meetings. Um the curriculum advisory committee. Um the canvasing board meeting. Um the chamber. We [snorts] had an early retirement uh meeting after the chamber, me and Jessica. And um I virtually attended a staff meeting which didn't work very well. Also at the MA, I rewent to that presentation to help me understand [snorts] some of the things that they were changing with how they want to uh talk to legislators about equity and funding. So, thank you so much. Appreciate it. >> M. So, just for those of you that went, was it as good as last year? Like, we should keep Yeah. >> Um, I like last year better. It was still really good. >> Good. Okay. Nice to know. Sorry,

156I couldn't make >> my two cents. >> All right. I also attended the curriculum advisory meeting last week and the Northwest Suburban Integration School District meeting last week and don't really have anything to share about I mean you saw the presentation already again. >> Thank you very much Mr. Shitty. >> Uh Ma uh conference was uh interesting. I think it was good to it was good to see. Um went to a cyber security breakout session and some uh cultural attunement which I I thought was uh pretty interesting. Um and negotiations meetings the foundation uh gala was always a great time as always great to see the support from everybody in the community um and have have a good time with everybody. So >> yes, thank you very much. Um thank you Mr. Shadine. um again

157participated with Mr. Morgan this this morning um about possible uh facilities opportunities for the district uh with Dr. Ryel Hoover and Aaylor's a couple back and forths uh during superintendent contract negotiations not only with Dr. Ryder Hoover um Mr. Morgan as well as uh Bridget Peterson, our CFO, to make sure things are in place. Um had a uh prep and planning meeting with Northwest Suburban uh for the for the uh opportunity for for the board meeting that Miss Presco was able Dr. press was able to uh fill in for me at that was also able to uh see some of our fine uh staff members staffing the the vote uh at the RCC was able to collect uh vote totals from our referendum and deliver that to our superintendent um happily. So those were my

158updates for that. So, all right. So, with that, we are to the hardest thing on the agenda, adjournment. I will make a motion to adjurnn. Can I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Miss Hilstrom. First and a second. Any discussion? >> All those in favor of adjournment signify by I, please. >> Opposed. And we are journaling one.