001Good evening. It is May 19th at 6:30 in the Rockford Area School boardroom. I would like to call our meeting to order and we will start with our 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. And madam clerk, would you please call the role? Uh Jamie Wilstrom here. Chris Morgan here. Jessica Johnson here. Eric here. Kevin here. Beth Nebraska is out. Thank you very much. Item number two is tonight's agenda. Dr. Idle Hoover, all good with tonight's agenda? We are. Thank you very much. I would appreciate a motion to approve tonight's agenda. I'll make a motion. Thank you, Miss Johnson. There's a first. Can I have a
002second? I'll second. Thank you, Mr. Shadine. There's a first and a second. Any discussions? Seeing none, all those in favor of tonight's agenda, please signify by I. I opposed. Tonight's agenda does carry unanimously. Number three, public comments. Seeing if there are any public comments and there are not. So, that item is now closed. Number four is our consent agenda that had been provided to us previously in our board packet for your review. I would appreciate a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda. I'll make that motion. Thank you, Miss Hilstrom. There's a first. Can I have a second? I will second. Thank you, Mr. Morgan. And any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by I. I. Opposed. And that carries unanimously. Dr. Ridlehoover 5A superintendence report. Thank you, Chair Gordy. Um, with this being
003our last meeting of the board prior to the end of the school year, um, I'd like to begin by thanking our staff, our students, our families, and our entire school district community for what has been a tremendous school year. Learning and care remain our collective focus. And as we close out our school year and build for the next, I'm both proud of our accomplishments and excited for the future. Um, a little while here this evening, Rockford Middle School Principal Paul Rosa will be here to share all the wonderful happenings this spring at our middle school. But before we get to principal Rosaca, I'd like to share a little bit about both Reams and Rockford High School. At our elementary school, uh all students finished their fast bridge testing here in early May. Second grade grandparents
004day was a huge success. Um re also hosted over 200 grandparents. Then uh that date um they came for a special program featuring artists and residents Julie Boda. Students performed plays using puppets and masks that they made with Julie and they also shared a vocal performance and had lunch with their grandparents. Uh reams hosted their annual arts in academic showcase. Uh there were live performances and artifacts of the work students have done throughout the entire school year. Uh fourth graders participated in the artist and residents experience with Roxanne Wallace. Uh Roxan worked with the students to incorporate science concepts into movement and they created a performance that was a big hit at the aforementioned arts and academic showcase. Uh several students uh grades one through four participated in the annual spelling bead competition with our
005Excel coordinator, Miss Holly Bujorn. Uh May 22nd, our fourth grade students um will participate in their annual track and field day. And our seventh grade uh all several several of our grade levels are also participating in field trips. the last few weeks of school. On to the high school. Um, all staffing positions are currently filled. Um, and we have had three teachers extremely eager and they're attending AVID training, IB training, and welding training over the summer as a way way to ensure a successful start to their time at RHS. Uh, Mr. Manard along with uh two high school AVID teachers and one counselor attended an AVID elective workshop in Edina where they learned how the structure of the elective course can also help shape buildingwide approaches to instruction, organization, and inquiry. Uh Rockford Area Schools
006hosted a DAPE uh event um which is developmental adapted physical education. I want to do a shout out. I know Miss Johnson was there. I'm not sure if anyone else from the board was present, but it was a wonderful day. Um, hundreds of volunteers and students were there interacting, bonding, and practicing their physical skills. It was a heartwarming event and we hope to host that again in the future. Um, our 2025 Athena Award winner, Mackenzie Perry, was honored at the 53rd annual lunchon along with dozens of other female athletes. We're proud of how she was represented um throughout her career and also for the grateful for the recognition. um RHS ELML middle uh English language or multi- language learners met to discuss program status goals and access to materials look forward to meeting as a
007district-wide team to create plans to best benefit them in the future. Um our teachers were very moved by the gestures they received for teacher appreciation week and we're thankful to all those who shared their signs of gratitude. Uh we wish our seniors well as they prepare on they're in the middle of their IB testing season. several students full diploma candidates for individual courses will take place across all six sub subject areas within the six week window of testing. Um many NHS inductees and seniors were honored during our senior awards night held on May 14th. It's amazing to see how hard work of our seniors is recognized through scholarships in our community and I want to thank um this for being present that evening as well. Uh looking toward the future, we anticipate a wonderful commencement
008for the class of 2025. A bunch of wonderful kids and they will be missed dearly. Uh now moving on to district notes. Operationally via the state constitution, the Minnesota legislature will adjourn adjourn their work um today. Um this said, a short special session, we hope it's short anyway, um is also on the horizon so that legislative staffers can cross their tees, dot their eyes with respect to final bills. For those who don't follow the legislature closely, uh legislative leadership from both caucuses and the governor um met with closed door session to iron out agreements and those final details are being worked out. That agreement does call for flat funding for this next bienium uh 26 27 school years and I'm sorry a $420 million cut in the next bianium school years 28 and 29. Uh
009to say school districts across the state are disappointed in that outcome is an understatement, but we'll do what we always do and create the best possible environment for our students. I'm confident that we'll continue to serve our students and families in an exemplary manner um through creativity, innovation, and potentially some additional assistance from our community. From an enrollment standpoint, we're holding steady for uh projections for the school year 26. Continued focus on our kindergarten enrollment. As a point of reference, um I last when I wrote this, it was at 80. We are now at 83 kindergarteners currently enrolled, which is about 10 to 12 below where we were at the same point last year for kindergarten. Uh to address this and build a stronger connection with our young scholars, families, and teachers. Um this was
010teacher generated idea, which I absolutely love. Holding our first rocket camp, a kickoff to kindergarten that will take place August 5th and 6th. that will be free to all incoming kindergarteners. Uh students must be enrolled to be able to attend, however, but we're hoping for a big turnout. And we're also hoping to make this an annual event. Uh director of business services Mike McNeli and his team recently reviewed food service vendor bids, scoring the bids via rubric provided by the state and submitting those scores to MD for approval. We anticipate formal approval which actually we just got within the last couple days um but bring it here to the board for your approval at our June meeting. I want to thank Mike Christa Larson and Paul Manard for their work in this area as they
011worked on the rubric um for our district. In terms of finances and budget, Rockford CFO Bridget Peterson has been working diligently uh to formulate our budget for school year 26, doing so in consultation with district administration um and the board finance committee. Uh, Miss Peterson will be sharing the preliminary budget with the board and the public later this evening. We also continue to move forward with planning for our summer projects which will include the RES parking lot, high school track resurfacing, and some carpet replacement at both Reams and the district office. We also had our quarterly meeting with partners from both Henipin and Wright counties as we discussed a variety of topics at our safe schools meeting. Uh from an instructional perspective, I am very pleased to share that our ads application was approved in
012totality uh by MDE. This will allow us to not only continue with ADSIS services we've currently had, but also to expand ADS services to include a full-time access math person at elementary school and a full-time access ELA position at the middle school. Both of these positions are critical to our instructional work and I'm happy to report they we are now able to move forward with staffing decisions related to that those positions. And by the way, we had that meeting on staffing just this afternoon. Uh summer school planning is in full swing with Jill Ghy leading those efforts again this year. Uh Jill will be sharing a little bit about summer school and that plan later this in this meeting. We're grateful to Jill for her work in securing classroom space, staffing for summer programming, and
013a myriad of other logistical items that go into the planning process. Uh with some exceptions, testing season is now in our rearview mirror with MCAs and fast testing running very smoothly. I want to express my appreciation to our um district assessment coordinators as well as our site assessment coordinators, but in particularly uh want to thank Kevin Nef for their outstanding work in this area. MD also released the most recent graduation rate information for the state and individual school districts. Rockford High School continues to excel in this area with our 2024 graduation rate at 94 and a half% which is our highest percentage since 2021. Also exceeds the state average by 10.3%. Uh Kathy Madson and I also recently presented um our instructional work at all three sites. This included the recap of the work done
014this year um as well as setting the stage for school year 26. As you heard last month, this was a collaborative effort um involving site built members, instructional cabinet and district leadership and our revised instructional roadmap is clear uh to all members of our instructional team as they have a solid understanding of our future plans in terms of pedigogy. We also had our annual spring meeting of the curriculum instruction and assessment committee. Thankful for the staff and members of the board of education in our community. I have to say in all my years, which is 27 in this u in this field, this occupation, it was the best curriculum instruction assessment meeting I've ever been to. Um the discussion was vibrant. Uh we've actually had a couple folks um asked to join the committee here.
015Um so we'll have a few more people joining us here in the fall at our next meeting. Um, also, as I do every month, I attended meetings with our educational partners at AMSD, MSCO, Northwest, Suburban, and SAF. In addition, I attended the Minnesota Superintendent Institute, MASA Region 6 meeting. Um, I also met with my MASA colleagues on the legislative committee and continued to work on pension reform by appearing on the two principles podcast. Take a listen if you have an interest in that. And sharing data with MSBA um deputy executive director and finance chief Gary Lee. So he called and asked for the calculations I'd run there. Um on that same topic, I think it made a difference as we did have some pension reform take place here and voted on and confirmed by the
016house today. Um and that will be going to the final omnibus bill within anticipation of that passing. I also visit our friends from Fidley Public Schools to discuss how we might partner at a minimal cost to Rockford with some innovative work being done in the areas of AVID. It's nice to have friends. So, um, they're letting us tag along for about free. Um, and as you all know, we have met as board subcommittees, and I am appreciative of members of this board for their time and their input and expertise on a on a variety of topics. In closing, I would once again like to thank everyone involved in making this school year a success, and I can't wait to see all the smiling faces as we reopen school again here in September. That concludes my
017superintendent report for May. That was a book. It was. Apologize for the length. No, that's a there's lots of work, awesome work being done at the end of the school year. So, appreciate all of that information. Uh, any questions for Dr. Ry Hoover? All good. All right. Excellent. Thank you so much for the the detail. Love it. All right. Moving on. Cute comp plan approval. Uh, Kathy Matson, I believe I saw her in the front row. Yes. Please join us. Thank you. I am here to share with you the key comp report that's part of the requirements from the state that it comes to you by June 15th each year. And true to my norm, I'm going to share with you teacher voice. So key to this whole program is the leadership that comes from
018our building instructional leadership team. And the report is structured by teacher leadership and then job embedded professional development and teacher evaluation. These quotes show that teachers appreciate the collaboration working to support student achievement and growth and that they appreciate having that team guiding some of the instructional decision making in each building. And then we also have um observation coaches that are key to our leadership structure. And these quotes show how teachers feel like they get meaningful feedback that really does impact the instruction they're delivering in classrooms. We also have leaders in our mentors and these are some quotes from um people who have had mentors this year and feel total of support from those people in those roles. I looked at the data we have 34 people serving on built and bold combined. We had
01935 people willing to be mentors for next year. And so it speaks to the supportive environment that we have here at Rockford area schools. Not just for new teachers, but for all teachers as we implement new instructional ideas. As far as job embedded professional development, again, teachers were highlighting the work we did on our curriculum maps and how those are putting us in a good position for the work to come next year. In all the feedback we got from teachers, it really highlighted the work we've been doing and we have maps to show that and teachers have captured and reflected on their growth along the way. As far as teacher evaluation, the observations continue to offer our staff ways to continuously grow. We also offered an alternate format for those observations. And that last quote
020is a teacher reflecting on how much she got out of an alternate format that was more flexible in terms of timing. So she got to be observed doing the same thing three times instead of spreading it out over the course of the year. So I'm really excited about that innovation to support teachers. Overall, the program impact is clear and our purpose is clear and that's coaching and collaborating to support student achievement and growth and teacher achievement and growth. So, our recommendations for next year maintain a built advisor that helps facilitate the work at every site. continue responsive planning, flexible grouping in PLC's, maintain that alternate observation structure, and keep building next year. It will be nice to be in year two of our shared leadership model. That's my quick overview of the larger reports that
021we've got. Any questions? No questions for me. So I just want to say thank you for the presentation and the report. Um it's great to see how that instructional road map is really playing out and teachers seem to be it seems to be working and it's useful. So yes love it. Thanks. Thank you very much. All right. And this is an action item to accept the Q comp annual report. I would appreciate a motion to do so. I would love to make the motion to approve the Q comp. Thank you, Miss Johnson. There's a first. Can I have a second? I'll second. Thank you, Miss Hilstrom. There's a first and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by I. I opposed. That does carry unanimously. Excellent. Thank you so much. Thank
022you. Excellent. Moving on then to the IV, International Balorate Recognition. Being mindful because not everyone knows what IV means. So, I got to say the words. Right. All right. Thank you all for having us back again this year. Um I'm very excited. Okay. We're really fortunate this year. Um as Dr. Ryberg talked about, we just we haven't wrapped up testing yet. We wrap up on Wednesday. We started on April 28th. So if you want to think, we've done three and a half weeks of testing. Um I will say that this has been my best week in three years. So kudos to the students and uh all the teachers who helped prepare them. Um we tested 63 students and that was who took 125 exams. So all in all, Rockford um helped pay for those exams
023and if students receive a four or higher, they could earn potentially $225,000 worth of college credits. So it's a really awesome thing and they've worked really hard. So part of that recognition is our students who have pursued the highest the highest things at Rockford High School, which is the full diploma. Um we have two students who did that this year, Max Edwards and Riley Moran. Um they're somewhere playing hopefully baseball at this point. They're not cancelled. Um and they are being honored for um doing the most. Uh they have done six uh higher level, student level classes. They've had to do extended essay. They've had to do a career uh creativity activity service project and they had to do a three of knowledge in class. So they are they are uh being recognized tonight for
024for their accomplishments. The other group I have with me is my career related diploma candidates. Um unfortunately several of them had to work tonight and um we do have Marcus Ditman who's kind enough to to be here with me tonight. Um, I promised him he only had the same one thing, which is where he's planning on going to college and what he's doing next year. I'm going to the University of Minnesota for business administration. So, one of the things that we're really excited about with our career related diploma is our students get to pursue a uh path that they're interested in and part of that is they have to take a class called personal and professional skills where they actually write an essay um about an ethical dilemma in their career field and that is
025uh kind of unique to that and that's one of the things that's really cool about the IB program. Um and it's really a really great way to recognize our students who maybe don't want to pursue the full diploma but gain recognition for from the international baloria and also possibly earn a career related diploma. So, thank you Marcus for coming tonight and my other candidates who couldn't be here, but we're excited to have them as well. Um, and then yeah, that's all I have for today. So, anything any questions that you have for me that I can help you with? Any questions from any of the board? I I would also like to um thank uh Miss Hilstrom for representing the board at senior awards for presenting to our two full diploma candidates uh in front
026of their peers with the uh school board distinction award. Nice job. Thank you. As well as I think all of your career pathways were also I um honored in front of their peers at the at that award ceremony as well. So thank you very much. Any a little bit? No. Perfect. Thank you so much. See you again in a little bit. All right, moving along then. Principal Warzeka. Looks like we have a spotlight. Yes. Thank you, Marcus. So, ironically, this award is called Spotlight as it will be given to somebody who does not like the spotlight. Um, so with that, I call Jen Hendrickson. Come on up. [Applause] So, uh, I debated whether to leave her in the audience or put, uh, her up here, but I elected to have her front and center so
027you can see her. And, uh, it also shows just how lucky I am to be doing this work alongside her. Um, so tonight I'm honored to recognize a truly exceptional educator as part of our Rocket Spotlight Award, Jan Hendrickson. Uh, Jan was nominated by a colleague who had the chance to read an assessment that she had created for students receiving testing accommodation. And what stood out immediately was just the intentionality and creativity uh that she brings to her work uh to on the assessment to include things like mild, medium, and spicy options for open-ended questions. Giving students, yes, that is in middle school. I don't know what is. Uh giving uh students uh the chance to choose a level that builds their confidence uh while still uh pushing themselves uh and challenging themselves more. Uh
028it's the kind of thoughtful differentiation that reflects her deep care for students and her commitment to meeting uh them where they are and helping them grow. But this is just one example of uh what makes Jan so respected by her colleagues over and over again. Staff have shared their admiration for her patience, her quiet and unassuming leadership, and her relentless pursuit to improving her craft. Uh she's someone who goes above and beyond not just for her students but for the adults she works with. One colleague described her instructional superpower as the ability to get the most out of students and that couldn't be more true. Jan brings out uh the very best in people around her and we are fortunate to have her. In a world that often moves way too fast, JAM is a
029steady force reminding us that uh excellence doesn't always need to announce itself with fanfare. Uh sometimes it shows up quietly, patiently, persistently, persistently in the form of a teacher who believes in every student, elev elevates every colleague and leaves a lasting imprint on our hearts and mind. Thank you. Uh, thank you for defining what it means to be a rocket and you make Rockford better every single day. Thank you. Excellent. Congratulations. I was really holding on for a speech, Jan. Uh, all right. As long as we're celebrating good times, um we are going to shift to our students celebration. So with that, um uh if you're a student here to celebrate, I'm going to we have about half of them here today that have um are able to join. Um and I would actually uh
030invite Miss Miller if you can come on up. Um, so Miss Miller has a way of of bringing uh bringing both the standards, Minnesota state standards, but screaming our theme as a STEM environmental school. Um, and she recently did this with a project uh that really makes learning come to life in a fun way. And you're soon going to learn um just how uh impactful this was and how we really saw students ride rise to the occasion. So, I'll get let her uh give a brief overview of it and then we'll call the students up. Thank you, Mr. Rosa. I'm Kelly Miller. I teach social studies of the middle school. This year, I'm teaching eighth grade primarily with one class of sixth grade. It is my first year teaching sixth grade. So, it's been a
031big year of planning and collaborating with the other sixth grade social studies teachers to create a meaningful curriculum um centered around Minnesota and also what we do at Rockford Middle School. So this project is called our environmental law project. Um kind of came out of the standard that was teaching different levels of government to sixth grade students. So we look at the national level and how things are done in the different branches of government all the way down to the local level including talking about the school board and how the school board is kind of the government of our schools. And so looking at the local and state levels, a project that I created was to challenge students to come up with an environmental law. Something that could help impact Minnesota in a better way.
032What's a law that we could either build off something that is currently here or something brand new that could help Minnesota and our environment. So we really liked this theme because it hit the standards of looking at the different levels of government and the processes of government while also hitting our environmental theme at the middle school. So, we had projects ranging from invasive species to protecting native species, um, littering and pollution. We had, what else did we have? We had a couple more different themes. Um, greener areas and restoring habitat after habitat loss, helping fix deforestation, and um, just keeping the environment of Minnesota safe. So, we have two parts of two groups up here today with us. I'm going to go ahead. Yeah. First, we'll welcome uh Ryan and Hudson. So, I'll get out
033of the way here. Ryan Hudson, can you stand up? Um, and if you want to show them uh your presentation, by the way, uh there's a zoomed in version if you can't quite read from that distance if you're like me. Um did one of you want to speak today? Okay. All right. I'll hold up the mic here. Um and you want to tell a little bit about your project? Um protecting native species. We were kind of like um wanting to have more less roadkills um with deer, elk. That was our two main focuss. And our law was basically having an underground crossing so the animals could get from one side of the road to the other and we could they wouldn't have to get ran over or hit or killed or whatever. Um uh like
034we're focused on elk and white tail deer. And yeah, um we also have in our crossing like different plants and fruits so the animals can stand there, eat, and then go or we don't want more kill. We'd rather have hunters kill them than have them get hit and then be just laying on the ground. So, um uh our the reason we did this is because they we don't want them we want them to safely cross the road and we don't want them to get hit. Um so, as you can see, a lot of thought went up to them. Uh and we appreciate their uh courage to be able to share this. Any questions for this group? Then I will [Applause] we'll get you some certificates in the near future. Uh and then if I could
035have baby and come on up. Uh so uh this next group we will uh talk through a little bit. One I will let them uh talk if they want and if they're too shy I will try my best to rise. Um this is a group that has the six uh slide PowerPoint. So very thoughtful indeed. Very thoughtful. You want to summarize? No, it's okay. All right. Um well, basically what we did was um invasive species. Uh when you found one, you would have to contact the DNR so that they could come and pick it up and get rid of it the right way. And so when you get them to come pick it up, they mark the location where it was found. And then they can check that area for more invasive species just to
036check. And then they can like show where all the areas of invasive species were found and get rid of the most that they can. And it would help get rid of as much as we can while we can help it out. Awesome. And yeah, go ahead. Um, yes, one quick note about these two groups and the reason that I kind of recommended them to principala is because I was so so impressed with how hard both groups worked on the research end. They really checked to make sure why do we need this law? And especially with the presentation, you can see how much data and how much information they had on there. Whereas Ryan and Hudson's didn't necessarily have as much information on the poster, but in their in-class presentation, they were giving data. They were
037giving numbers. These two groups worked very very hard to research why these laws were important and how they were going to help the environment in Minnesota. So I was very very proud of them. Yeah. Any questions for this group? I like that uh about the app and all that. That's very a lot of thought into this. Nice. Nice work. Let's give him a round of applause. And thank you to Miss Miller for all of uh the efforts to make this come to life and her uh along with her team of sixth grade social studies teachers uh who were able to deliver that across multiple instructors. So all right, and any questions before we uh slide in? Thank you guys. Thank you parents for coming along as well. Appreciate it. Thank you. So, we appreciate you
038celebrating us and I know that they're all busy and uh have places to go. Um but um if it's okay, we'll go in for the update. All right. So, coming into the the general update, I I want to be able to talk to you a little bit of a few updates on the bell schedule, um our 512 grading update, as well as some just general program and uh data points as it relates to attendance achievement. Um, and we're really excited this year. We have a lot happening. We have a strategic direction that we are ready to be able to have a strong sense of where we're going to go in the coming year. Um and that helps us build towards that future even as we have this weird part of the year where we have
039one foot in both ears. Um so just a quick update uh after going through the bolt uh the building operation leadership team um they had an extensive process where they actually gave survey data to teachers um to be able to get all that input about what's working, what's not working within the schedule. They made a recommendation to me to move back to um our boost model in the beginning of the or in the middle of the day to be able to allow for more intervention time and grade levels um where each grade level is accessible um to multiple for about two hours of the day versus all grades at once for about 30 minutes. In addition, they made the recommendation to be able to have a intentional start to the day um which is going
040to focus on building relationships. And so right now we're auditing that with shared teacher staffing and we're excited to move forward with the focus on um providing students what they need in that intervention booth time uh as well as being intentional with uh our skills building. Um and then uh along with our 5 through 12, our built on the other hand went through a process of talking about um grading which I will be giving you an update soon. Um health and healthy and supportive environment I I've uh included most of uh what I had brought to you back in February um with just a few brief updates. So um in quarters two, three and four, we did the check and connect program which is a mentorship program um in collaboration which with Wright County and
041that program originates from the U of M and we were able to take data um and that program showed results uh for students who were in that um and honestly just building that intentional relationship and goal setting. Um we also know that um our student connectedness survey are we are eager to learn tomorrow morning about how that um turned out and then our um both our built and both teams um will be able to have access to and we will look at that. Um we also uh have we're a little bit uh unsure about how this see something say something uh was going to necessarily roll out but we are very excited. uh that has been a great addition to allow people another layer to report things. Um and then um it gives us a
042a great ability to work as a team with that additional uh support. Um so that's a little bit about um the safe healthy and safe. Um now shifting on to the grading practices. Um I give kudos to Kathy Madson who has been instrumental in um helping pull all of our systems together. Um, so her and I will Sue mention started meeting weekly and that has been um, amazing to me personally as well as just to be able to understand uh, more of the systems through her lens. Sorry, I don't know if this mic. Okay, I don't really need the mic, but I get it. Um, sorry. Um I'm going to blame the mic if it's not the mic. It could be me. Um so a couple things. Uh as we talked about and you were
043aware u fifth and sixth grade have historically used a one through four standardbased grading approach. And what kind of got pulled apart with conversations with parents, conversations with uh teachers is wanting to make sure that we're consistent and that we're clearly communicating and better communicating with our uh students and parents of how uh what engagement and achievement look like and sound like. And then out of what was a um two different conversations as well as a listening session to um our teachers, we u there was a unanimous support to be able to move towards um a 512 consistent grading model. And specifically at the middle school, what that would look like um is u several different um components of the grading practice that clearly communicates um what it is that we expect from students um
044what missing work looks like. It has the same codes uh that we will be using throughout our system with hopes that we have less u breakdown in communication on what is a missing missing, what is a link, what is when you see these codes um that when we teach them in fifth grade, they will be the same through their senior year. Um and that just improves our system. We will also have two uh pockets of gradings, both summitive and formative. Um and all of this is rooted in best practice research of what we know about grading practices. Um and it helps us align to what we know is working at the high school level. So this um also helps us understand because the um the parents specifically grew up in a through system. I think
045it's a little bit easier to translate what that looks like at the fifth and sixth grade level. So um we're excited for that and we've already started the process of um emailing missing work uh consistently and it's our hope that we would build upon this as foundation um not only grading but on all things. So next step is to take baseline survey and then plan some PD uh figure out what teachers need um student achievement and growth. Uh just one thing to add on here um you heard me talk about Jamie and AdSense one-on-one. So we do have our reflection and review next year and he uh has met with every teacher and then he's uh following up with a reflection form that helps him actually uh gauge where the points of growth are and
046then establish a goal now for next year. Um so we are excited to be ahead of the game and um knowing where what teachers need ahead of time gives us the summer to help gather resources to figure out what pairings um and it just makes sense um so that we can kind of figure out what the areas of intentional growth are and how he as a curriculum uh integration coordinator can help um move forward. Um, couple things that when it comes to achievement, I give kudos on uh some of the eighth grade practices uh with grading starting with conversations of Miss Miller and uh Miss Hendrickson getting and their colleagues getting together and say how do we be more intentional with our common expectations and out of that I want to point out um with
047implementation of common uh practices language uh we went from 19 students who had two or more Fs in the second quarter all the way down to four perspective wise that's 3% of our population give or take. So um incredible um work from eighth grade team and I think just about where we're headed in terms of uh help supporting those students and being mindful uh of their achievement. And then the attendance piece uh Miss Angstrom is to be credited for this. She ran numbers on uh all of our different codes and it is apparent that our counselor PLC group is uh making a difference as we're seeing uh students are showing up more often as confirmed by the data. Um so we hope that to continue to make these um gradual progressions as we build our
048systems as we learn to better communicate and then we know that achievement starts with uh the students showing up and actively engaging. um you have seen this uh document before in terms of your uh the rubric that was created to help self assess and then just to give you a followup this is for middle school specifically self assessment from our teacher groups and as you can see as the year has gone on we have grown and then on top of being of growing we've also um we're we're right underneath that um average of a standard three with work that still needs to be finished up. Um there's many that just have some loose ends as we wrap up the school year. And then uh last but not least, uh we are very excited to jump
049into the uh fast data uh to see where our students uh kind of landed in terms of um makeups. We had about three dozen or so makeups that needed to happen. Uh that will be um on its way to be done I would think by middle of this week. And then we're going to jump in um to be able to assess this both uh looking backwards and looking forwards. What can we do with the students who are not making growth? Um what can we do with the students who are and then also um being able to look at what are the curricular supports and PPE supports that are in place. And then um again this is uh just a refresher reminder that um this rubric although I brought to you uh once before this is
050uh Jamie Madson's work in terms of helping define a little bit of u those onetoone conversations and again this helps towards our um kind of those things that don't fit into a strategic plan those uh what does it mean to um exist and embody that um we had a great STEM showcase. I appreciate I saw a lot of you there. Um and we also have had several great events as we interact and build community. And then last but not least, um just stewardships of resources. I think in terms of how we spend our time is the biggest thing between when you saw me last and February, making sure that we are um being actively engaged in understanding the curriculum challenges or opportunities. And then also being able to um I've made a booking page for
051myself, which doesn't sound like a lot, but uh people are busy. and being able to click on a button and select 15 minutes is really important especially for teachers um who want me to be aware of something um and again that it's been very helpful um and then like I said me and Kathy Madson have um met every Tuesday we are Tuesday people um and then um essentially uh doing our normal thing of being our good stewards so with that uh any questions No, no questions. Just thank you. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for your update. Appreciate the information. Appreciate the data that's associated to really appreciate having data. Perfect. Thank you, Mr. Wekka. All right, moving on then to the next item. Summer school. Okay. Okay. So, this year uh it's my second stint
052in summer school. So, Jeff, jump in. You're a veteran. Forget anything. Uh okay. So, this year we are running uh summer school for the district uh June 9th through June 26th here um for sorry for Rockford High School, Rockford Middle School, and games. Um, we'll be running a session at Maple Hill July 21st through August 7th for just our elementary student school students. And then ESY is a little different this year. They're just kind of sprinkled in between there. Um, they just felt like that would work better for them this year. So, they are taking that on. Um, we we actually have quite a few students this year. Um, Rockford High School, I'll start on the left. Um, we're still in in working on it. Um we really enroll students up until pretty much the
053last day of school for summer school. Our summer programming is credit recovery only. Um so that number will continue to change until we come to a close. Um we will continue the trend that we started last year which our in-person option um what we did last year is we have students who um attend but they are completing um some additional work that teachers uh need them to do and it's on based on their teacher standards from their class. So they don't have to complete the whole class. They just have to make up what they missed in those standards. Um they also have an online option through admentum if they need to complete the whole class. and some students still come in and do that with us um on site. Um otherwise we also allow them
054to be at home. So that is right now uh that number will be a bit higher hopefully not too much higher. Um and then I have three staff members who are helping me this year over there Samantha Bloom Madison home and Julie Mir. Um middle school this year we will be doing reading and math uh focus. We actually have 20 enrolled students um actually 21. We had somebody else add just the other day. um which is quite a bit higher than last year. Um we've started a partnership with the community ed um this year Melissa and I taught and in order to entice more middle school students to attend um we are actually going to have our students come from 8:30 to 11:30 um have lunch from 11:30 to noon and then they'll do some
055enrichment options from 12 to 2. So that way parents can drop up at 8:30 and not have to pick up until 2. Um and Kelly Miller is helping us do the whole day for that. She's awesome. So, she's got some really great things planned. Um, and Aby's also helping me out. So, hopefully that'll go well. Um, I'm excited. I think that was really just a good way to get kids more kids involved um than we had last year. And at REMS, we actually have 63 students enrolled this year. Um, and that'll also be math and reading focused. Um, the folks at the elementary school are awesome. Last year, we had the roof that was being redone. Um, so this year they have the uh road or sorry the parking lots being redone and the carpeting,
056so they're troopers. Uh, so we're doing a little bit of working around what they need to do, but they're awesome people and we we met today. So we've got some ideas there. Um, and they I've got four staff there, Ann, Marty, Elizabeth, and Rachel. So I really appreciate them. Um, and then at Maple Hill, we have 25 students this year. Again, math and reading. our teachers physically go out there and bring all their stuff with them. So, um it's a really good partnership with Jill out there um and it continues to to be good. Um and I have Alex and Elizabeth with me out there this year. Um we will use our Chromebooks at each building this year. Um so, we hang on to those and um we'll start and I'll start sending out messaging
057here shortly. I want to give a shout out to Christa. Christa is awesome. She has helped me a ton. She works tirelessly. I know because she sends late emails. Um so anyway, yeah, that is really it. We're looking forward to it. It's going to be a good year. Um I think anything else stuff that you want to add? No, I Yes. The only thing I want to add is getting this organized is no small feat and Jill again doing her second year has done an amazing job. um getting staff is is challenging, but because it's her, they say, "Sign me up." And I really love the innovative work that we're doing, particularly in the middle level. Um because we need to wrap our hands around those kids and and and take care of them in
058a number of ways. Um so just thanks for your leadership. Um this is great programming and u I'm glad that your hands are on it. Thank you. Any questions that you guys have? You have a comment? Yeah, Miss Johnson, I just want to add to what you're saying. Been around the block a few times here. Awesome job. So appreciate it and so thankful we have so many kids that we're helping and getting them helping them move forward in their education. Not just me got a lot of help here. So thank you. All right. Thank you guys. So yeah, Dr. Just question Dr. out of this reimbursement aid for summer school. Can you go over that those numbers at all? Is there any Yeah, you know, it it's a little bit challenging for us because we
059don't host an in-house ALC, which means we have to partner with a fiscal host. So, right tech is our fiscal host. Um, so all the money runs through them from the state. Um, for them to do that for us, we we we give them 10% of that um of that revenue, which I think is fair. Um, but with that being said, we generally, um, break even. I think last year we were down about four or $5,000. Here's what I'll say to that. Um, I'd love to break even or even have a little bit of revenue coming in. Um, but that's small money spent for what we get out of for our kids. So, I think we'll probably come close to breaking even or maybe lose a little bit. When I say lose, in terms of
060um, more expenses than revenue coming in. Um, but I think it's again money well spent and I'm really proud of the programming that's set up for these kids. Just a question. Appreciate the extra programming, right? The get them here for half a day and let RCC take them for the other half. That's awesome. Um, thank you. Question about two elementary locations though is so staff going out, right? Is there is there a benefit to have staff going out because would transportation even though we don't get reimbured for transportation but the amount for staff to pay for two to go out there each time rather than busing those kids in for so it's one location instead considering it's a full day program here. Yeah. Jill and I talked about that whether we should do it and
061historically there's been actually two sessions I believe out at at Maple Hill. Um it's gone down to one. Um, we're still evaluating it. It might change um, in terms of how that finances work out. It it it probably would be cheaper not to go out that way. Um, however, I don't know how many of those kids would come to us. And so, I think the the bang for our buck to get those kids what they need um, is is well worth the the time to go out there. That's my opinion on that. Thank you. Sorry. I just always have to ask the money question, right? Just to add, I mean Jill and her staff, I mean, they jump in and help a lot. And when I say they jump in and help, I mean, they
062are driving home to home in a golf cart bringing those kids in. So, I don't Yeah, that I'll just leave it at that. So, they they go above and beyond. And I probably forgot to add that Melissa Joseph at the RCC is not charging those families to do this this year. She's paying our staff and she's um offering that for free. So, we're really fortunate that we don't have to pay for that afternoon experience at all. We have an awesome awesome district. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you. Um, moving on then. Next item is a resolution to certify the listing of graduates. Do this every year. gives the high school the opportunity for principal Manard the ability to provide diplomas to our kids, right, to graduate them out. So, Dr. Idle Hoover, anything to add to
063this? Nope. This is your typical annual resolution for the board to certify the listing of graduates. Excellent. So, I will make a motion to adopt the resolution to certify listing of graduates. Could I have a second, please? I'll second. Thank you, Mr. Shadine. There's a first and a second discussion. Seeing none, madame clerk, call the role, please. Yes, I. Karen Shadine, I. Jessica Johnson, I. Chris Morgan, I. Jamie Hills, I and Beth Prasa absent, but that does carry unanimously. Thank you so much. That resolution does pass. Moving on to seven, stewardship of resources. CFO Bridget Peterson. Thank you for joining us. Welcome. Good evening. All right. I'm here this evening to discuss um the status update of the FY26 budget. So what a fine evening to present this to you as our legislature for this
064session is adjourning this evening. Um as you heard Dr. read over Hoover say that special session is probably looming. Therefore, this budget that I will present to you um has nothing uh related to anything in this legislative session in it. You've heard already the update um the education stuff. So, just know that as we walk through that and you'll see in some of my notes that legislative update stuff is to be determined. Um, so I'm going to start and speak primarily this evening to you related to uh all things general fund since that is the fund that the district um uses the most resources in and uh it's our most flexible fund. So what you have on the first slide this evening in front of you is a highlevel financial projection of all fund balances
065and all revenues and expenditures for only the general fund. Um you can see the first column there was uh where we adopted our budget last year for the current school year. Um you can see that was based on 1485 kids. Moving to the right um the revised budget that you approved in uh December Januaryish. Uh you can see it was very favorable for us. We did gain some kids from our original projections. And then moving into the third column is the column that I want to focus the most on this evening and we'll talk in great detail with you. Um that is our FY2526 projected budget. You'll see there I'm projecting 1,500 1,531 ADM. So a drop of one kind of where we are today. And then the last two columns are the 26 and
06627 school year as well as the 27 and 28 school year. Noting there that the ADMs are flat. So I am projecting flat enrollment. This was yes extensive work of me stepping kids forward and graduating out seniors and projecting again elementary kids. And coincidentally when I did this I get kind of a flat number. Usually we lose some related to attrition and gain not as many but uh that seems to be turning for us. um as we definitely saw this year related to our our kindergarten or we're capturing um I did notice we're capturing more of our resident kids. So um needless to say though these projections do project stable enrollment. Um so getting in a little bit to the weeds of what you have high level for 26 um that is projected using a
0672.74 gen ed revenue increase and then all other formulas you guys I've adjusted based on state statutes and all the kind of the formulas related to kids. FY27 revenues uses a 2% increase. Check it right over. You said three, but I used to um until I know more and see more. So, I'm going to go conservative. And then 2728. I think we heard zero. Uh I do have two in there again from conserviveness. Now, I did work on this last week and the week before that. So, um, we can definitely change those projections, uh, as it relates to revenue. But the the big thing that I want to stress to you guys is the the flat enrollment. And why am I doing that? Because, um, remember this, these state increases are only on one line
068of your revenue. I didn't include all the details of all the revenue, but this isn't a 2% or 2.74, whatever the percentage increase is that we're assuming on all of your revenues. Okay? So I have us projected at, you know, 23 million 22 million of revenue. You're only getting those increases on about 12 12.5 million every year. So it's roughly half of your revenue. So that then in turn creates a problem for districts, not just for Rockford, but a problem for all districts in the state where our revenues are not keeping up with our expenditure percentage increases. And so that's exactly what Rockford is seeing here. If you start with 26 and you move over each column, you see we go up roughly 29.1 million to 23.89 almost and then eventually 24.6 million. That includes
069a lot of assumptions on my part. For instance, 5% transportation increases, 5% utility, 3 4% salary increases potentially not that's not there. Um, but remember whatever we give for salary increases every year Rockford automatically feels the pressure of primarily the teachers I'll speak from because they're the primary driver of the bulk of our salaries. Um, they move one step on the salary schedule which is this automatic increase. So I call those rollup costs. So right now that's running Rockford somewhere between one and 1.25% every year. It's automatic. we don't do anything but turn the calendar year over. So, um I've made some pretty hefty assumptions in those expenses to get to these projections. So, when I do that, keep enrollment flat, apply some revenue increases and apply some uh expenditure increases, you can see on
070that uh revised expenditure row uh the total expenses and then drop down one difference. difference is essentially your profit and or your loss. Anywhere where you see parentheses, that means a loss. Okay? So, so far with the work that I've done for FY26, I am projecting a $45,000 loss. I still have work to do, you guys. You heard Dr. I don't want to talk about AdSis and some other things. Um, so that number will change. I am scrubbing some technology data um with new budget numbers that Mr. Kenus has presented and so we're still working. Um, but right now with where we're at. Um, that is what I have for us this evening. And then the bigger piece to this though is the next two fiscal years for the district. You can see moving into
07127 that deficit grows to 800,000 and then moving out yet another year 1.3. And so what's happening is it's compounding, right? Because in a perfect world, if I can get that $400,000 down to zero, then our $800,000 next year drops down to 400,000. And then in the following year from 1.3, we take away 800,000. This is Rockford's in my estimation worst case. You guys, I'm showing you the if we stay stable in enrollment, if the revenues become true or they live out to be true, that Bridget's being conservative and saying 2% and our expenses increase anywhere from certain line items, you know, 2% to five, six%. This is our current reality that is telling us we can't not do something. We have to potentially change some things, make some tough decisions. Um, but this is
072what it looks like for for Rockford. Um, and then you can see there the fund balance projections. Um, I will note asterisk and I already have it fixed, but the projection in FY26, the beginning fund balance, it's actually higher. I'm pulling the adopted budget, the 5.796. I should be pulling the 6331. So, it is actually um about 400,000 higher and then 400,000 each year. So, sorry, I'll fix that fun balance for you guys. But um more important message here is that we have some work to do in our future. Any questions on the really high high level? I know we won't do this We'll put our heads together and make some tough decisions and we'll be okay. But this current reality, not just Rockford. All right, moving on to the next page. I just This
073is really small for those of you in the audience. I'm sorry board members. You um have this information in your packet. So, what this is, it was my attempt to show you again draft. I'm not going to go through all these numbers, but this is where you can see more details of all the fund balances in the general funds and the restricted. And this is where Bridget gets to calculate what is that unassigned because that top number is the number that we love to pay the most attention to. So, with my current attempt at the draft, right there in the middle of the page, um, we have we started this school year with a 15% unreserved fund balance, unassigned, unreserved. And so, with these projections and that loss projected currently, we would be sitting at
074about 13 and a quarter of unassigned fund balances. And so, you can see um, also I want to highlight for the board members that that restricted area, it's getting bigger. MDE is really assigning a lot more fund balance reserves with all the money that they're giving and it just feels like less and less is becoming unassigned or flexible for us. Um so just wanted to note that and then you'll see the other funds there which which I will talk about um again for you this evening. But know that you have this summary um in your board packet and if you care um to see that um moving into uh more of a comparison for you of the general fund with that amended budget where we are today with my proposal next year. This is both
075your revenues and expenses. You can see revenues by type there. So, someone curious what the property tax levy is doing. Um it's going down if you remember from our our levy uh tax truth and taxation hearing. is going down slightly there mainly due to enrollment decreases. You can see state aid the next revenue stream is going from about 18 million to 18.4. Much of that is the 2.74% increase um which is exactly about 300,000. So a lot of our other funding formulas are pretty flat because again our enrollment is pretty flat from our revised budget. Um, then the only other big one I want to highlight here on the revenue is you guys can see that interest earnings are going from 350,000 down to $50,000. Remember, I'll put a bigger number in there if you
076guys want me to, but this is the one that Yeah, I don't know what our cash balances will be. You never know if the state's going to hold back more from us. I just You got to be safe. Yeah. So, um, that that is what I did now. But that is more. 50,000 is more than where I started 25. I think I started 25 at like 5,000. So I'm a little more conservative because I do believe we will have cash in the bank and all that other kind of stuff. But um so that's revenues. Uh revenues are going down compared to the the current FY25 revised budget. Again, revenues are going down about 200,000. much of that related to the interest for me. So, and then on the expense side, uh you can see there
077the salaries, benefits, purchase of service. Um just want to kind of run through those percentages really quick for you guys. Um salaries in this estimation right now of a budget. Um remember, funding years are extremely hard. Uh we're also going into an unsettled teacher contract in this budget. So um this budget is tough um and not just for Rockford again tough for all schools everybody doing this work in a year like this when we just don't know. So this know that this will be monitored really closely um by Dr. Ry Hooper and other administrators myself um and we'll we'll pivot and make changes as we see fit. But on the expense side, what I have currently for you, we've got about a 3% overall salary increase, benefits are going up about 4%. Purchases, service, about
078five. The bulk of I'll be honest with you, what's driving that is a is transportation increases. By the way, all the expenses are on the next page in detail for you guys by kind of c program area. So if you want to look and see, you know, where the the big increases are, you can see that. But again, the big drivers here are utilities. It's another one that makes me not sleep well because I never know if the weather's going to be cold or hot or, you know, we just don't know. And then transportation is driving this. So there's big transportation increases um across the board primarily in our um integration desegregation transportation. Um, so an area we don't get to control you guys, but we we need it. Um, and so expenses are going
079up overall from 25 to 26 about $750,000. You heard me talk about the fund balances kind of on that that previous page. Again, a ton of details for you guys to kind of compare side by side. Uh, finance committee members, I did FY24 actual column for you on here. So hopefully you find that helpful. If not, let me know. Um and then board members, I'll talk more extensively um community members about this when we adopt um this budget when it's more final. Any questions on the general fund? Any questions? No. All good. Very good. Thank you. All right. Thank you for adding the additional historic. Yeah, that actually is really good to see. Yeah, I think it it provided me a lot of analysis, too, as I was going through this. So, thank you for
080the recommendation as well. Um, this was what I was trying to get to last year. I think for those of you that were on the board last year when I adopted this, I said, I'll have more data once I can kind of put it in my format and and so here it is. Here's your Here's your data. Here's your Yeah, it is kind of a nice and so you can see there access doesn't look like it's increasing, but it definitely will be. So, yeah, there's there's still some work to do. Um, okay. So, where there's not as much work to do are in some of the other funds that Rockford operates. So, um I have um up here the nutrition service fund. There's not much going on here, you guys. With enrollment being flat, um
081there's a little estimation for revenues going up because the reimbursement we receive will be a little bit higher. And then same thing on the expense side, purchase a service going up, some food costs. Um this was done in conjunction with your current food service provider. So I thank them to her for their work and help putting this together with me. Uh and then the other thing I want to note and highlight here is that ending fund balance. So because we participate in federal national school lunch program, we have to be careful of how high that can get. But how high can we let ours get? So we are under currently our legislature has allowed us a sixmon calculation. Usually it's a threemon using nine months like a school year not a calendar year 12 months.
082So when I calculate it uh Rockford can get to be around 600 and some thousand over. Yep. Um, and so currently I'm projecting us to be at 900,000. So we'll be having a lot of conversations in the coming months about what we want to do about this. So we did do go through spend down. We did do some spend down this year. Yes. But I think we need to go we addressed basically we kind of categorized like a needs or one two three needs. Sure. It's time to move into the two or three needs. So, and sorry, the majority of that or all of that has to be material purchases, right? Equipment purchases. It is not application processing. You're thinking of the one-time waiver. I don't know if that's the right word. One time pass
083we received for this 25 year to be able to buy tables and some other things. Yes, we can decide in 26 what we want to do with that as it relates to capital items. Um, anything? Um, one recommendation I might have is we we look at doing a potential chargeback and relieving the the um general fund of some utilities. Um, there's some staff at Rockford um that actually do all of the clicks claims and some administrative work for the food service fund. So looking to potentially take some of that time um trash we can definitely start. We just have to be very careful because MD is very very picky about that chargeback. But I mean I've successfully done it in the past. It's real. We have custodians that work in our kitchen and clean our
084kitchen for us. And so, um, there's a strong potential that I'm still having more conversations and still calculating, but I might even ask or for a revision from 25 to do that in 25 to help us spend down some of that and then relieve our general fund of those costs. That'd be wonderful. Yeah. And they didn't legislatively pass anything to be able to because I know they we had people who were writing bills to do that and I know they were trying but yes we did not successful unless something dramatically changed. Yep. So that's the food service fund. So very positive. That probably won't change you guys unless like I said I asked you guys for a revised budget um for this year but the budget for 26 won't change for that. Um, we lost
085one in our slide, I think. Or maybe I don't have Oh, look at it. All right. So, there's a community service one. It's not screen. You have it. Okay. Yeah, it's in the See it on the screen. It's not showing up there. Yeah, we got it. So, this one, um, this is my favorite one. Gosh, Melissa and her team just do such a good job of feeding me all of this amazing information. And then I'll have more programmatic details for them too once we finalize this one. This one is still a work in progress. Um you'll notice for them their excess of revenue or expenses. So that they are I currently have a proposed budget of them at a $33,000 loss. It won't it won't stay like that. Um we're still scrubbing some grant stuff
086and some other stuff. But u my point for showing you this this evening is to let you know that they're going to be okay and they'll probably bring forward a balanced budget. Perfect. Thank you, Melissa and team again for all their work. All right, the building or I guess I shouldn't ask any questions on community, but okay. So then the building construction fund hopefully hopefully um this is the last year of this. Uh we have extensive plans in 26 to spend down all of our resources and be done with uh the this building construction fund hopefully here this as early as this fall. So that uh what you have in front of you for a proposed budget is just some interest earnings and then the spend down of what we have. So not a lot
087going on there and then we will close that fund officially and move on. Also a good reason to have a lower interest on all levels. Yes, exactly. All right. And then moving into the debt service fund. Um so remember this one is pretty straightforward. The only thing we account for in here is ei our property tax levy and some state aid. Um and then we collect 105% of our principal and interest payments. So this is all scheduled you guys. This is all per bond documents per stat. There's not much exciting here um except for watching that fund balance to be sure again that that doesn't get high or too high. Um and what does Bridget mean by all of that? Should we start experiencing homeowners that are not paying their property taxes um and our
088delinquent property tax numbers start to go up, this is where we want a fund balance because we need to be able to make our principal and interest payments. Um but there also are calculations that the state does and they do do a debt excess reduction on our levy or they can if our collections stay relatively high. So what do I mean by that? We're collecting roughly 99 98% of our taxes or the county is collecting that for us. But like I said, should our community fall on hard times and that number starts dropping to 90% collections 80 um we may need a fund balance to help us be able to pay. That's why we levy 105% for those delinquents. Have we experienced that in the past year? Pretty minimal. Yeah, I mean I should just
089say not it's not just delinquents. It could be homeowners that are um what do they call it or they're working around their values and so they're going, you know, they're doing all that stuff with the county and so they haven't paid yet because they're still working stuffute. Yeah. With the county and stuff like that. So and then that is it as it relates to funds and a high high level budget. presentation. Excellent. Any questions? All good. Appreciate your work. Yeah, very clear. I'm Thank you for it. I feel like I understand it more and more the way that you present it. So, thank you. Perfect. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much for joining us and we will move on then to the next item. 7B is the superintendent contract. Yes, that action item
090to approve the preliminary budget. Oh, sorry. Thank you so much. So I there is presentation for us. I would appreciate a motion to approve the preliminary budget. I will motion to approve the preliminary budget as presented. Thank you, Mr. Morgan. I'll second that. Thank you, Miss Johnson. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by I. I. Oppos. That does carry unanimously. Now we can move on to 7B, which is the superintendent contract. Um, as you read the superintendent contract, there is stipulation in there that the school board will enter in a negotiation every year to identify uh salary compensation for the superintendent every single year. Uh, Vice Chair Johnson and I have worked with uh, Dr. Idle Hoover with your recommendations and we have come to a um, salary compensation of a 2%
091increase for this year which falls in line with what we had done previously and I will say which is less than what our state is providing us. So appreciate that for all of your work and your willingness to work with us on your salary. So with that, I would appreciate a motion to approve. I'll make a motion to approve. Thank you, Miss Hilstrom. And Eric Gordy will second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by I. I opposed. And that carries unanimously. Now we can move on to the next item on our list, which is collector culture of collective purpose and Dr. Dr. Ry Hoover, end of year district operational plan. Thank you, Chair Broy. As you know, I know this is a little bit challenging to see, but you have it in
092your packet and I think um most of you can see the links live. Um the big part of this is that this was if you remember the district plan is something that the board approved u prior to the school year. I will be bringing by the way um the the DOP um which we affectionately call this for next year to the meeting here in June for your uh approval as well. Um these are the goals that we set forth this year collectively as a board, as a superintendent, administrative group, and as a system. And I'm not going to spend a ton of time on this tonight because you do have all the links and so forth um that you can go ahead and peruse. and also because I presented this back in January of the
093mid year of which um I would say probably 70 to 80% of the goals had been met at that point in time. Um but I'm going to walk through these things. These are all um attached to our strategic directions, if you will. Um what I what I have on the left again is the goal that was set. Um what are those uh indicators that showed that we met them andor did not meet them or they're in progress. And then on the far right, um, again, met or in progress. Um, one thing I would share is that, um, outside of some things that are just getting finished up now, um, we've had a very successful school year in terms of meeting the goals that we set forth, uh, to meet and very proud of the work
094that's been done. This was an ambitious DOP this year. Um, next year's DOP will be a little bit shorter. Um, but again, very proud of the work that's occurred. um we talk about shared leadership and partnership in our system. This is the exemplar of that u because this is not um you know the board, it's not me, it's it's everybody. And so that's what makes me so proud. Um and so again, if there are certain places you'd like to discuss, happy to do that, but I'll just kind of click through them a little bit here um with some exemplars here that would say um some either some visuals and or links that you could click on to get more information. Uh we've done a lot more uh feedback gathering this year. So you can see
095we've done some feedback with our CTE students themselves. Um that turned out to be fantastic. We've also did for the first time um that I understand feedback um of of our Northwest suburban families. Um by the way that came back outstanding and so really proud of that. I have a picture of the visual there but if you wanted the data I could certainly share with you. I can tell you about the the feedback from our Northwestern families. Um, again, incredibly positive. The only places where you might see some negativity there is some of the the the rides, the transportation are quite long. Um, they're choosing to do that, to come to us, and and I thank them for that. Uh, the only thing I wish I could do is help them. Um, what I can
096say is the buses and the vans have been showing up on time and as scheduled, which is better than we've seen in the past. Um, the rides are still long. Um, outside of them speeding or running red lights, I think that's going to be the case. Um, but I did have some families say, "Thank you for asking us. This is the first time we've been asked." And so, um, they had a chance to get feedback there. Um, couple other things worth mentioning. Um, you've heard the student connectedness survey being talked about. U, we really want to ask kids how they feel about their experience here. And so, that's been done um, at our secondary schools a couple different times this year. And they're analyzing and comparing data. And I've said this before, if we see
097students that are not connected, they don't say, "Hey, non-connected kid, come on here. Let's talk." It's much more subtle than that, but they are having conversations to how we can best connect all of our students to make this a really positive atmosphere for all of them. Again, you'll see some stuff there done through the wellness committee. A lot of that work was Melissa Joseph. You've heard some folks um praising her and giving recruiters say, "I'll do the same thing there." Um and along with some other things that we've done here around student safety um with our wrapper system and some data done there. I did a facility use survey. Melissa did that as well asking about satisfaction. Um that'll be shared. I had it. It's done. I shouldn't say I had it done. Melissa did
098it. I don't want to steal her thunder. She's presenting in July. Okay. Um so she's going to share some information on our user satisfaction survey u with our with respect to our facilities. Um some other things here just throwing out there that we've shared a little bit here um committee work around communications our round table of which you were all a part of with our elected officials. That was one of my favorite events of the year. Um interestingly enough I've I've gained some strong connections with some of those folks and still are talking to them regularly including texting some of them during committee work last night um or Saturday at the uh at the capital and they were responding by the way. uh that was kind of interesting as well. Um does work around social
099media, the work with the Star Tribute marketing campaign, very positive as well. And then again um the survey you've seen before which is the parent guardian survey which we'll plan to do on a regular basis here in our system. Um couple other things here and there um community ed reports standard things there some works through volunteerism and our community sports grant through Henipin County. Um the DOP is one thing that is new this year. So I did ask uh folks who are associate with DOP leadership team what they thought of it. Um they they appreciated it. This is as we've called this my evaluation and I know I shared this with Chair Gordy and I know um you know Vice Chair Johnson has seen some of the stuff as well. Um this is what this
100is tailor on but it also helps me to evaluate the folks that are in our system that I'm supervising. I use this for them uh as well. We've talked about roles and responsibilities. The next thing you'll see below that, the quarterly superintendent updates. I mentioned that Kathy and I went out to all three sites. This gives us a really good pulse on our system. And so we have a chance to go see people in a very intimate way asking questions, allowing feedback from our from our uh stakeholder groups at the sites. Um and so we did our last one here um just last week with all three of our our schools. So you'll see some things there. Um, going back to the do, I did want some board feedback. We can do that later on
101either in June or July. If you liked this format, um, I can tell you that, you know, I I I stole this from my work in Moundie with Dan Hooverman, who you guys are are well acquainted with. Um, I'm seeing more and more school districts uh, doing this um, on a regular basis now, and I feel good that Rockford is on the front end of this. Um again some things around handbooks that are there onboarding offboarding things um that we've done. Here's work around built and bolt and the institutes and the evaluation. We actually got a new evaluation done more recently. Kathy shared some of it around built and bolt um and feedback from them more timely that didn't make it to this one but it is done. And then just some different things that
102we have around there with coordinating council and instructional uh cabinet. So, um, this is just some information again, much of what you've seen before. And then finally, you'll see the stewardship of resources here. Um, really impressed with the work that we've done collectively. And this is why this is not a just a superintendent thing or a district thing. This involves the board and that doesn't happen in most places. So, our finance committee, facilities committee, um whether it be our communications committee, um all of these groups are really aware of what's going on in our system, which is another reason why it makes this board so special. It isn't one of those things where I come and just share information with you. You're part of the work, and that's what makes it really cool. Um again,
103I've shared some things there on job descriptions or on our CFO. This is stuff that's been there before. at the very end of that th that's information around um the the uh the levy we attempted to run and we did run um unsuccessfully here in November, but I think a lot of good came from that. And so there's some information around that as well. Um again, I went through that rather quickly because you've seen most of this already. I mean, I think we're going to talk about uh some of these things in um my evaluation in June, but do you have any questions today? Um and if you have don't have them today, you want to ask later, feel free to ask me then. No questions. I This is the first time I've seen it
104since we did the review in in January and I I really appreciate it. Yeah, you're welcome. I think it's it's very helpful just understanding how the district's running and I like it's the shared purpose and not shared leadership. It's positive. Thank you. And I and I do believe that you emailed the whole board the document with links. So if you find any links that you click on that you don't see still request but I got went through most of all pretty much all my well all of mine were. So thank you Chris to help you with some of this. So I really appreciate her a lot of there's a lot yeah there's a lot and and I will say that this is the major artifact for Dr. Iva Hoover's uh summitative evaluation which you guys
105will be helping review over the next month. So, thank you so much for all of that information. Uh, any questions besides No. All good. All good. Perfect. Uh, then we can move along. And do we need to do anything with this? I just need to look. No, just information. Awesome. All right. Moving on. Number nine, community school family partnership contributions and donations for board approval. Dr. Hoover. Yeah, thank you, Cherty. Once again, um, our community continues to be, uh, strong supporters of our schools and I would like to accept the donations and contributions to Rockberry Schools on behalf of the board and ask for your um, approval of those gifts. Thank you so much. Uh, can I have a motion to approve and accept? I will make a motion to approve and accept the donations.
106Thank you, Mr. Shadine. There's a first. Can I have a second? I'll second that. Thank you, Miss Johnson. There's first and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, this is a resolution. So, please, Madame Clerk, call the role. Uh, I, Jessica Johnson, I. Eric Gordon, hi. Chris, I absent. Excellent. That does care unanimously. Thank you so much and appreciate all of the donations uh, monetarily as well as material. Uh, moving on to number 9B, board of education work session. Thursday, June 12th, 5:30 in the district office boardroom. Board of Education work set. Oh, so Yep. And then also Monday, June 16th, 5:00 pm in the district office boardroom. Say, say it again. We're adjusting that. We're adjusting the last two things there. Go ahead. Please say words. So, uh, regular meeting of the board of education,
107Monday, June 16th, will be at 5:30 here in the district boardroom. And then it will be followed by um a close session for the superintendent evaluation say it might be after that's done 6:30 or whatever but it will be following that meeting. Yes. Excellent. And then the regular board of education meeting Monday June 16th at 6:30 in the district office. There you go. Perfect. All right. So we're all good. So Jessica, thank you for making sure I know what I'm not saying. Hope we're all good. I know, right? So, we'll move on to uh board committee. Yep. Go ahead. Can we add in there um there will be negotiations um on Monday, June 16th at 3:15 since you asked. Yes, we can add that. Thank you. Any other uh amendments or adjustments for that? No.
108Very good. We'll then go on to uh board and committee updates. Uh I can go first. So, couple MSBA things with coffee and conversation and board chats, just phone calls. Uh, a lot of talk about uh the legislative session. Um, and things coming through there. Um, the head of communications committee. Um, just real brief. Uh, we had board prep, we had finance committee, uh, I think we had a facilities conversation as well inside of there. Um, glad to see that the the objects are rolling along for this summer's work. I'll also say that there was a uh uh Association of Metropolitan School Districts I was able to join online and then several Northwest Suburban meetings uh chairing that board as well working with the superintendent to finalize the executive director summitive evaluation which will be
109presented to her on Wednesday. If anyone is interested in coming to that meeting, you're more than welcome. So, there you go. Mr. Chadine, any updates? Uh, continuing your education uh meeting. I went to that. Um, sounds like the licensing is going well. They're getting close to getting everything done. Nothing to really see there. Uh, and then it was great to see everybody uh see the senior awards. Oh, yeah. That was pretty great. So, senior awards. Uh, it's fun to see this those those guys. I can go um um MSBA stuff, the coffee and conversations and they have a Friday legislative updates every Friday and they're always jam-packed. Um, so that's been a lot of the conversation this month even in the copying conversation is what's happening at the legislature. So um and then NHS inductions
110and senior awards um and the end of the the year award selection committee met um and then I also attended the curriculum instruction and assessment meeting that Dr. Ridle Hoover mentioned earlier today and it was a great meeting. I am in agreement with him. Um, and then a bunch of more fun stuff, the arts and academics, STEM showcase type stuff, some volunteering at school. So, oh, and negotiations just today before this meeting. Thank you. Yeah, both you guys remind me the the arts and academic and the uh senior awards. So, yeah, good stuff. U Mr. Morgan um finance committee looking forward to the follow up and follow through on that. Those are big decisions for the district coming up. So looking forward to seeing where we land on that. And then yeah, just want to
111second I thank everyone for the invite. It was fun to go to the National Honor Society piece and then the senior awards. I just very proud of the the the community and the kids and all the good work and seeing all those kids up there. Um, not one accountant in the bunch, so you know, maybe we need to evaluate some things there, but they can change their money. We did have a quantitative economics. That's true. Yeah. No, it was it was really very positive. So, Miss Johnson. All right. Well, let's see. I went to the Dave Extravaganza event. Um, if they continue to do this and you have the day available, the time available. I highly recommend going. It was the DAPE extravaganza event. Um, so through our MASCO co-op, um, they had all of
112our kids that are in Dave, the adapted FIAD classes, they were invited to come over to our community center and we had, um, two FIAD teachers here in the district that helped helped with organizing it with Vinnie. Um, oh, his last name, Porkin House. It's a big long last name. Anyways, he's amazing. Um we uh we had somebody in the Masiko um uh system that convinced him to move back here from Colorado to take the position when it became available and he chose to come back here and he is phenomenal and he put this whole program together and being in the community center um fieldhouse watching all these kids experience all these fun activities was just extremely ly rewarding. Uh part of my job was to walk Rocky around and it was one of our
113high schoolers that volunteered to be Rocky for a big chunk of time and get hugged about 900 times and pictures and um the kids just loved having Rocky and um it was quite the event and the kids loved it and then they had lunch there afterwards and it was outstanding. I I have a feeling this is going to be a annual event moving forward. I don't know if we'll be hosting every year. Um but we do have a perfect facility for it. There are no steps. Kids can walk right in. They're at the facility right away. And it was uh I think we have a great facility for it. So super awesome event. Highly recommend it. It was wonderful. Uh went to the awards ceremony. Um, I thought it was one of the coolest things
114that almost our entire board was there. That's super cool. Um, fun to see all these kids and their accomplishments and it kind of uh it just it's good for the soul. Um, I had my MSO regular board meeting and also had a special meeting for Masiko and I've had a couple other inbetweens there. um negotiations meeting earlier, our meet and greet earlier today. Looking forward to getting that started um and so early. Never done that before. So, I think that's pretty awesome. I attended the chamber meeting and end of year awards meeting as well. So, there you go. Sure, someone missed something, but we'll get it next time. Right. That is it. All right. Excellent. So with that, I would appreciate a motion for adjournment. I will make a motion to adjurnn. Eric Gordy will
115second. There's a first and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor of adjourn signify by I. Opposed. And we are adjourned at 8:06 p.m. Wow. That's Thank you.