School Board Work Session- July 28, 2025

001I'll just do it as practice. >> Hello everyone. Thanks for joining us this afternoon again for our regularly scheduled work session. Let's go down the table for introductions. Starting to my right, >> Sheila Prior, >> Dan Janestra, >> Bisindi, >> Valentina, >> Sarah Johansson, >> Chase Anderson. >> I'm Heidi Kedar. I am acting chair this evening. So the first item on our agenda is a student enrollment and staffing update for our upcoming 2526 school year. Our presenters are already with us. Um and uh it is Jenny Eert from she's the director of community ed and Judy help me out. >> Aachu. >> Ahachuku. Thank you. Um from the welcome center. >> Great. Thank you members of the board. Dr. Anderson for having us here tonight to be able to share some updates around um activities

002with the welcome center this summer and then uh student enrollment and staffing updates from our colleagues as well. We'll follow our presentation here. So, uh this evening we're going to talk about a couple of different things uh related to the welcome center. We're going to share a little bit about summer outreach activities, some updates that we're doing around our census data collection, uh some enrollment trends that we're seeing from the welcome center standpoint, as well as work we're doing to welcome our incoming kindergarteners here in the next few weeks. So, from a summer outreach standpoint, one of the things we're really focused on is how do we find our families earlier? Now, this is work that we do all year round, but as summer comes around, it becomes even important because um we want to

003find our families early. so that they can have a good start with our schools, that they can feel prepared, our students can feel ready, as well as it's important for our schools to have those numbers as well, as you'll hear from my colleagues here shortly, when it comes to staffing. The sooner we have people enrolled, the better. So, we've really focused on um continuous improvement when it comes to customer service. Got to hear about that at your schoolboard meeting earlier this month. We do that in a number of ways, but really focusing on how do we make oursel accessible through appointments, walk-ins, um online meetings. You can call us, you can text us, you can reach us in a whole lot of ways to help get your questions answered. Additionally, Judy's going to share a

004little bit about some of the outreach we're doing directly in the community. >> Yes, thank you so much, Jenny. So, this summer, one of our focuses focus area has been to engage with our community. So recently we visited a couple apartment complexes um specifically within the Sunset Hill and Birch View attendance area just to connect introduce ourselves, right? Like we're new staff so we understand that um they might not be familiar with us as they might have been in the past and connect with them in terms of asking questions like what events do they have going on? would there be an opportunity for us to essentially have office hours out of their community spaces to be able to better reach families? I would say overall the communities that we were able to connect with were

005very open and receptive to us coming back. Um, one of the suggestions that came from that was night toite that's coming up next week on August 5th. Um, working with our family liaison team to kind of divide and be present in a couple of those apartment communities. some of the um complex managers shared with us that they'd be happy to share with their community that we were coming in advance so that if they had any questions, they would know to expect our presence there. So, we're currently speaking with our family liaison to divide up which specific communities that we want to be present at next week so that we can offer that inerson support and answer any questions families might have. Um, and then recently I attended the Somali cultural festival with one of our

006family liaison. Um, just to be able to be present, learn a little bit more about their culture, but also answer any questions families might have. Um, both families that might already be within our district, as well as folks we know summer is a really popular time to move, folks that might be um, wondering what it's like to complete the enrollment process if they're looking forward to moving into our district boundaries. Yeah. Yeah. So, we appreciate the work that Judy and our family liaison have been doing. We, as Judy mentioned, we have people moving in all summer long. So, our hope is is to make those connections early with our apartment complexes on July 1st or August 1st that we're connecting with them shortly thereafter and getting their students registered for school. Another area that we're

007focusing on is um census data. So census data is um information about families that have children uh infants through age five who aren't yet enrolled in our school district. Uh this is information that we store in our Skyward student database that helps us to do planning for incoming kindergarten classes and enrollment projections, but it's also a way to really connect with our with our families earlier and have them um learn about our school district, engage in community ed, of course. And um we found that there's additional room for us to make improvements on how we're collecting that information. Um we are doing that through some improved processes through online forms using jot form. You might have noticed this in your WPS news postcard that came out or your community egg catalog which is highlighted here

008on the screen. Really looking for those additional ways where we can find families who are moving into the district at various times throughout the year. We do have birth records that we get from Henipin County every month that we're able to track new babies that are being born. But as you might imagine, there's a lot that happens between babies being born and them turning five and people coming and going from our community. So, it's a neverending uh opportunity to find families and to connect with them. So, really looking at how do we make it easy for families to do that? How do we look for lots of different ways to connect whether it's at events or through mailings or through email or through our website and and a variety of different places. We also really

009want to look at cleaning up that database. So, we've done some additional mailing from a community standpoint to do outreach as well as through some of our school sites and really tracking carefully the uh letters that are being bounced back to us. We had the great opportunity to mail to a whole lot of people when we had the boundary changes and did some learning and cleaning up databases at that point, too. We also want to do some baseline data collection. So, we have a kindergarten tracking spreadsheet is what we call it internally, but it's a document that really um highlights the different ways that people are coming and going from our district. And so, collecting some baseline data around those that have moved out of the district that we've maybe had in our database for

010the past 5 years and um have now found that they've moved on. It might be people who have chose to attend elsewhere for their educational needs. Um families that might be choosing to wait another year or now families that are new to us. So, we're tracking all of that baseline data to be able to look year-over-year at how is that changing? Are the things that we're doing to uh really shore up that census data being effective or do we need to look at additional ways to do that? So, looking forward to sharing more on that as we continue that work. Wanted to share a couple of slides just to highlight the volume of work that's happening with Judy and her team and others within the school. This really looks at the time period of mid

011July through the end of August. So that blue section is um the end of July. The yellow is the end of August and the red is the middle early part of August. So this highlights um all the different transactions that might take place from an enrollment standpoint whether it's new K12 enrollment, open enrollments, interd district transfers, non-tuition agreements, um continuity students, and a variety of other things. So from a volume standpoint, there's a lot coming and going from our database and just gives you a little feel for all that's happening in that month and a half right before school starts. The slide that our administration's usually most interested in is really looking at what's kind of that net product of families that are enrolling versus families that are withdrawing. So, this is those numbers that

012uh Jen and Dave will talk more specifically about that really influences um our staffing needs going forward, but wanted to share with you again from just a volume standpoint to see um we net about 235 students the last two years coming in from mid July to the end of August. Um that blue bar is the July 15th through the 31st. So, we quite haven't quite hit that yet for this year, but you can see we're on track for similar numbers from the last two years at this point in time. Anyways, so anticipating a lot more coming in here in the next couple of months as has been the trend. Um but wanted to just share that for again that um knowledge of where we're at at this point in time. Other things that we wanted

013to highlight is work that we're doing around welcoming our incoming kindergarteners. So we have a couple of different opportunities to do that. One which is a favorite for a number of us in this room is the bus ride and information night that's coming up on August 7th. It's at Weisetta High School. All families are uh with incoming kindergarteners are welcome to join us. We typically have over a thousand people who show up, ride the school bus, um learn about bus safety, and they can have get their questions answered. Uh just about I think every department in the school district is there. So whether it's nutrition services or transportation or technology or any number of other things, health services, you can come and ask your questions and there are a lot of people waiting to help

014our families really. Um, everybody is welcome. It's free for people to attend. Additionally, we have a a camp called Jump Start TOK that's coming up on August 18th, 19th. This is the second year that we've been able to offer this camp. It's been it's free for all incoming K again, thanks to a grant through Partners for Healthy Kids. We're extremely grateful for the funding to be able to pay kindergarten teachers who come in and support our our new students coming into kindergarten to really familiarize themselves with what it means to come to school, learn where the lunchroom is, learn where the bathroom is, learn navigate the hallways, and um just get a feel for what it means to start kindergarten and ease nerves. Um we aren't a unfortunately aren't able to offer it at all

015nine of our elementary schools. Last year we could do four. This year we're up to six. it's dependent on construction and other things happening in our building. So, we just work to maximize the space wherever we can. And so, you can see here the green ones are the facilities that we're able to offer it at this year. Um, as you might imagine, those are the places that are most popular then for students to attend. We will be doing additional outreach. Registration is still open. So, we hope to engage students from some of our other schools. even if it isn't their school that they're attending, it can be a really good experience to um just get a feel for what it means to be in a classroom and navigate those basic things around a kindergarten school

016day. So, people can still register and we'll continue to uh connect with families. We had 218 people total uh participate last year, so we're up from last year and hope to continue to grow that. The last opportunity I want to highlight is around our incoming kindergarten families for um rising K's preschool. So this is a full day summer preschool experience. Uh this is again the second year for this as well. We used to have our incoming K participate in our full wise at a kids childcare program and over the years really found that having a specialized experience for those students was really um what would best meet their needs. And so we've pulled that out the last couple of years and hosted it at the Wisetta Early Learning School. Have 121 or so kiddos that

017are part of it. You can see they come from all nine of our different elementary schools and it's an opportunity for them again to experience kind of get a taste for what it means to be in kindergarten to learn routines um and really get a good fresh start as you get ready for kindergarten. So excited to have these new opportunities. We continue to work with our principles who are doing lots of really wonderful work too to welcome our incoming K and are excited to have them start with us here in September. On that we will hand this off to our colleagues. Is it okay if I do a quick introduction of you guys? So um we have Dave Loots who's executive director of human resources and Jen Welk um with the district welcome center. >>

018Good evening everybody. Um we are Dave and I partner um Next slide. >> Dave and I partner early in the calendar year to start talking about projections uh for enrollment so that he can work with um staffing. And so this kind of is a grid. I think you've seen this circle before when we've talked about the budget early 25. We started talking about projections, reviewing and planning our staffing. Finalized the budget book in February and March. May and June is when we it says monthly enrollment checks, but we do them more often than that. July and August weekly, but I think it's more like daily. And then in August, um we get to updating our staffing so that we can start the school year um fully staffed. This is just a little bit of enrollment

019projection information again talking about where we started this school year. So for 2526, as you're aware, we did use teamworks international and Hazel Reinhardt to do a demographic study along with the boundary adjustments that we did. In addition, we used an internal mo internal modeling tool um that provided projections per grade and school. Teamworks and Hazels was more of an overall um district projection. The finance team HR along with Dr. Anderson met to discuss the final projections that we would use to create our staffing for the school year. And then in March to May, it's been constant tracking of the potential withdrawals and incoming applications, weekly meetings uh with finance and HR to discuss where we were at, where we watched for sections that might tip due to increase or decrease in student enrollments per

020school and grade level. And then in June, and we're still continuing through August, is a daily review of enrollment. Weekly reports have been sent for the month of July to key staff um in the district and we'll start sending to a larger group here this Friday. Then as the school year begins, we send monthly reports um HR and finance will talk about any um bubble ups of new enrollments that come throughout the school year um for any anomalies in growth or decrease, but we haven't seen the decrease in a while. This is just um I think most of you have probably seen this uh numbers for the last 10 years showing our growth as a district. That decrease year was the year of COVID. Um but you can see where as of October 1st of

021each year where our numbers were for the 2526 school year, we are projecting 13,251 students. We um are not there quite yet. Um, but as you saw from the slides that Judy and Jenny shared, we the the numbers they're still the applications are coming in and it's not even the end of July yet. Um, so then we'll pass it off to Dave. >> All right. So, I'm going to start out by just saying thank you. Uh, thank you to our welcome center uh staff who've been, you know, this is summer months are uh for a a big portion of our district. slow for some of our employee groups, not for the welcome center, right? And so they're processing um all of our enrollments and and uh getting getting all of our systems updated with information.

022So, thank you so much um Jenny and and Judy and their team uh for all the hard work uh getting our our families ready to go for the fall. Um and then as Jen Welk mentioned, uh we work together regularly. So, thank you, Jen, for uh when I walk down the hall and say, "Hey, I need some new numbers." And that's just about every day. Um, and so I just want to say thank you for for the individuals that are working to try to to hit which what what's a very much moving target, right? We we don't we we have projections. We we you know do the best we can to create models for accuracy and there's just a bunch of unknowns with that. And so, um, with that said, um, that staffing timeline, we

023have, uh, hired quite a few teachers already. Uh, so we're up to 79, um, as of Friday and counting. And so many of those are are replacing positions where someone has, you know, uh, left the district, retirement, resignation, etc. Um, but there are a number of new staff in there, uh, hired in response to the enrollment projections that we have. So about 35 of those are elementary, early learning. seven high school, uh 17 middle school, and then 20, uh special services staff. Um we know that, uh as our student enrollment increases, so do our needs and special services as well, typically. So, um we have uh filled quite a few of our vacancies. We still have a handful uh 10 are out there right now and probably have emails with uh hiring requests on any

024number of those right now. So, um, again, it's it's just consistently trying to to monitor students coming in and make sure that we have high quality staff, uh, that are ready for them in the fall. Uh, most of what we haven't filled so far are going to be part-time or or, uh, long-term reserve LTR positions. Um, that's kind of the the bulk of what we're hiring this time of year for licensed positions. Um, we're also hiring a number of of non-licensed uh positions, but tonight we're just focusing on an update for those teacher positions. Um, we will have additional vacancies that just happen, you know, if somebody up and moves uh to another state or something like that. Um, we we need to fill their position. Um, but uh hopefully we're slowing down in terms

025of the staffing season as we have our our staff hired for the fall. uh secondary. So, middle school and high school staffing plan is is pretty much aligned with enrollment. So, uh middle school, you'll notice we're we're really close to our projection right now. Um high school, um we've actually exceeded it a little bit. Now, there's going to be some withdrawals in there, etc. That that should keep us pretty much on par with what we projected. Um, but besides some adjustments because they don't students don't always come into the exact grade level or exact building that you hope they do, uh, besides some adjustments for across our middle schools, our secondary staffing is is actually uh, pretty much aligned with what we anticipated. Now, we could see increases uh, from now until the fall, right?

026And so, we have to closely monitor our secondary enrollment to make sure that we have staffing that's responsive to needs. Um, we're also closely monitoring elementary sections. That's probably the most of our focus right now because our projections uh have not, you know, come to be with with our enrollment. And that's typical that you'll see. You know, we have late K enrollments and some later enrollments at the elementary level that we'd anticipate. Um, but we do have quite a few students that we need to see uh uh enrolled to to meet our projected numbers. Um we just to kind of bring you in uh we had a a meeting I I led a meeting with with uh uh our elementary principles on on uh 723 um and we discussed here's the trends we're seeing here's

027where our students are here's where you know you tell me what knowing what you know uh having many of our elementary principles done this for a number of seasons now you know what do you expect um what are some of the problems that we can solve uh right now so we decided added together um that we would meet again in 2 weeks to kind of to get those trends. Again, any any data set that we can use to say this is where the students are coming in. Um we will use that um and and buy a little bit of time um we do think we have approximately the number of teachers that we need on staff right now. And so at the elementary level and so it's more or less um you know do we

028need to make some internal moves um within buildings or or look at grade levels etc. Um but we want time uh to be able to make some of those decisions so that we can get as close to possible. Um, again, uh, you know, with school starting, we also know that there's some change throughout the school year, right? And the and the goal is to try to to to have your your section staffed appropriately. So, not only do you start the year correctly, but you also have some room um or or make plans for some of the adjustments that you'll see after the start of the year. And that some of our sections can grow with some of those changes that we'll see. So, we're going to bring in some trend data, you know, from the

029last few uh seasons and see what have we seen from August, you know, to October 1. What are some of the trends that we might be able to anticipate? Um, and then also knowing that there's a complicating factor in there with uh boundary changes, right? And so, the that those trends might not be 100% what we would expect because we've changed boundaries. So, um, yeah, working with a bunch of great people on a very complex problem. Um, and it's a good problem, though. Uh, we're we're a growing district and that's great. Um, we just have to monitor those numbers and be able to respond appropriately, uh, with a staffing plan that we can feel good about going in this fall. So, uh, that's the update that I have and oop, wrong, I'm clicking on the

030wrong thing. There you go. We'll open it up for questions. Um, and there's our team from the presentation. >> Thank you all for your presentation. Board colleagues, do you have any questions? >> Great. Thank you so much. Um, it's always wonderful to hear these updates and to uh know you guys have us well on track to meet the demands of our students um and their needs. So um my question is um just one. So, you mentioned that you've hired some new new teachers as well as anticipate hiring future new new teachers. Um, do you have a kind of anticipation as to what the final count of brand new teachers will be by the end of hiring? In terms of new to the profession, new toetta. Okay. New toetta. Um, I will get that for you

031on an update closer to the fall. I'll kind of take a snapshot of of everybody, you know, new to the new to the district, new to the profession, etc., so I can provide that data for you. Um, like I said, I think we're close to what we might need right now. Um, that said, you know, we usually hire around 100 new teachers a year. Um, just with all the different changes, uh, changes that we'll see even from now to the fall. And you know, I'd be surprised if we didn't get to that mark again. So, um, I don't have an exact number for you now. I will as we get closer to the fall on that. Um, so I'll provide an update then. >> All right. Thanks so much. Your presentation's been very informative. >>

032Dave, it seemed like you might have had the number 79 new teachers hired at this point with 10 postings out. Is that >> Yep. So far? Yep. >> All new to the district or some are rehires? Probably. >> A handful of them are rehires. So, individuals that worked uh let's say they were a long-term reserve last year, did a great job for us. We have a number of those that we've then hired uh into regular contract teaching position. So, most are new to the district of those 79. Um off the top of my head, probably less than 10 are going to be rehires. >> And so, just to clarify, those are new positions. Then not only some of them are new to the district, but those are like positions that were created because of increased

033enrollment or >> not all 79. No, many of those positions are actually from retirements, resignations, etc. So, there are some that are new due to the increased enrollment that we have, but the large majority of those are replacing positions that have have uh become vacated from this spring. >> Yeah. So, my question is actually extension question. So from parents or community members standpoint how do they interpret this data? So there are net new teachers uh as a result of you know enrollment growth but ultimately when it translates to let's say a class size or having you know paras to help teachers how does that reflect would would they see would we see any difference >> 2025 2026 as compared to prior year would you be able to give us some insights into Yeah, good question.

034So, uh I believe I uh I can't remember if I presented at the board on this topic, but if I haven't, I'll I'll kind of recover it. Um so, we held to similar staffing levels uh for this upcoming school year. Again, we have a bunch of uh known unknowns in terms of of what we can expect for funding um etc. So while we did add some new positions based on that new enrollment obviously to meet student need um we also added I believe I shared with the board some student support positions uh counselors at the elementary level etc. So, we have added some positions. Um, and we also want to make sure that we're positioned so that uh should we experience less project less students than what we projected uh andor some some different setbacks

035when it comes to funding or or unfunded uh mandates from the state or federal level, etc. that we still are are well positioned to um be fiscally sound heading into the new school year. um at the elementary level um because our projections are a bit ahead of what we initially staffed at. Um we do need to still see some some enrollment increases uh to to meet some of those those staffing levels. Um that said, you know, the the if if not all the students come, I said I think we have approximately what we will need. You know, we might see slightly lowered class sizes as a result of that. So ideally your goal is to to staff so that um you know on the high end you can still have you know classrooms functioning effectively

036etc. Um and you're not so far off the target. Um but at that elementary level right now we're a little bit under target. So if I were to look at class sizes today uh they are pretty low. That said we know um we have spots for students to come in and they will come in and and and grow to that. Um we did maintain uh the same similar staffing targets uh than last year. The thing that we did at the elementary level to address some student needs is uh in in fiscal year 25 or 24 I believe 24 um we had taken um as a part of cost containment. We had taken uh some FTE out of math intervention at the elementary level and applied it to our K5 staffing uh model. And what that

037did is it reduced class size, you know, uh, appropriately. We were able to lower our target uh, at the elementary level. Um, what we did this year is we maintained that lowered target level while reintroducing, uh, the, uh, intervention positions that we had had pulled. And so, um, while that doesn't, you know, again, directly impact class size, it definitely impacts, sorry, the mic might be cutting out a little bit, impacts the support that we have for students. Um, and and some much needed interventions. So, that was based on feedback that, hey, these interventions are for sure needed. As soon as we can bring them back, we should. Um and we were able to do that again because of these these enrollment trends that we were seeing and the ability to to um bring back some

038of the positions that we had to reduce through cost containment. Uh at the middle level um we did we we did lower um the the class size a little bit to help accommodate some scheduling difficulties which you may or may not have have uh you know been made aware of. Whenever you introduce a new model, year one, you're going to have a lot of learning, right? And the learning at the middle level was uh making sure that that you know our our uh principles and and uh buildings could schedule uh students appropriately into this new schedule. Um it's a little bit easier at central because of the number of students. It's a bit bigger economy of scale when you're building a master schedule at a middle level. Um east and west it's a little bit

039more challenging with those levels. So, we were able to make some adjustments so that um you know, we're far ahead of where we were last year. Uh Dana can probably speak to that, but in terms of building our middle school schedules, we're a ways ahead of where we were last year. Um just with this new new model, uh having the staffing to be able to make it work. >> Thank you. And um appreciate you keeping that broader view because again just because we have more students that doesn't or teachers that doesn't mean the class sizes will be reduced because again there could be space issues and as you said whether it is intervention or sort of you know supporting staff for teachers that helps too. So if I may request again and I know this

040changes on daily basis and you guys are staying on top of it but once we get close to sort of you know beginning of new school year and once we are done with all the hiring um when the appropriate topic is presented if you can give us that summary that hey we're done through our hiring we've hired 75 and as a result we anticipate you know class sizes to go down or we have added more you know intervention staff. staff, right? If you can give us that summary for us as well as for community members and parents, I think that'll be helpful so they can relate what that increase in staffing really means to, you know, students outcome. >> Yep. That's no problem. I'll plan on it. >> Thank you. >> And Sarah, go ahead.

041>> Have a question. She can she I don't think she has. >> Thank you. This is so exciting. I think the best news of the week so far is the math interventionist that is demonstrating our commitment to student achievement. And so I appreciate that. I actually just have a couple of of um I might have a question for Jenny and Judy. Um it's exciting as we think I was just reading something about student achievement data and the importance of involving parents, right? And so the outreach that you're doing to some of our neighborhoods and creating that sense of belonging with families um we know has an impact. How has it been? I mean, and you mentioned a bit, how has it been received from the neighborhoods and and is that an area of opportunity to

042expand um in future years and reaching out to more communities? >> Yeah, that's a a wonderful question and it's something that we're really looking closely at because we want to do more of it. We know the importance of connecting with our various communities and really kind of bringing our work to them to reduce barriers to participation. So, I'll let Judy talk a little bit about the reception because she's the one been doing all the really great work connecting. >> Yeah, so far it's been good. Um, the apartment communities that we've reached out to, we've spoken mostly with like managers and people that work in the front office. Um, and they've asked us really good questions like, "Hey, what school um is this building assigned to?" Because they tend to get those questions, too. Um, so

043they I felt like this sigh of relief of like, "Oh, goodness, someone that actually knows what they're doing is going to be here to answer these questions." So we're hopeful that we're able to start building those relationships and hosting some regular office hours there. We also know that this work is work that's being done in our district. Our family liaison do go out across our different communities as well as different people at our school sites. So we just want to be an additional support. Um we also love that our family liaison when they do go out help with the enrollment stuff. um especially if a family transportation is not an option or it's difficult for them to get to us and get those documents that we need, they can be an intermediary of um getting

044some of those things. So, anything that our team can do to help be an additional layer of support, reach more communities is what we're starting to do with that. >> I would add to we appreciate the support of our communications department. They've been working closely with Judy to develop materials that we can leave on sites whether it's posters or believe there's a flyer that the some of our apartment communities are going to put then in their welcome packets so families get that and whether it's during the time that we're there or anytime throughout the year. Again, just really trying to focus on how do we connect sooner with our families. Yeah, that's really fantastic. And as I I know of a couple communities where they've maybe had four different property managers since the start of

045the calendar year. So any work that you can do to um make that um transferable to to leadership whenever that comes in that's pretty incredible. Thank you. >> Any other Valentina? Yeah, >> I'll piggyback on last question. Can you please clarify what does it mean that I mean why do you need to go uh to apartment complexes? And I'm kind of surprised managers don't know where the what district boundaries the buildings belong to and people who there also don't know if they don't choose uh why is that or where do they go? >> Yeah. Yeah, those are a lot of good questions. Um you know as Sarah mentioned that there tends to be a lot of turnover in those manager roles. So they don't always share that information between them of like what school or

046which particular school in the district are we part of. Um it's a very common question that we get. So it's something that we're really actively trying to engage with. Um our families that are moving in in different apartment complexes um may have other barriers to to engaging with our schools to navigating our school system. So we're just looking at ways where we can really be supportive. um when you're moving in in July, for example, you might have a lot of other things going on in your in your world. And so, what can we do to really streamline that process for our families because we don't want them waiting till August 15th and getting all their materials together so that Jen and Dave can start counting them and be ready for them. >> Yeah. And I

047would just say I think there's something that's just like a breath of fresh air when the service comes to you instead of you having to go and seek it out. Um, so if we can be that breath of fresh air of like, oh, okay, I have 30 minutes. I can at least start the process. Um, and that gives them the momentum to finish it or if they have the time to sit down and do the full process of enrollment with us, then that's one less family that we need to enroll later in the school year, right? Um, and we want them to be enrolled as early as possible because then they don't miss out on opportunities, especially for the kindergarten families of the events that we have going on in early August and all of

048those things that help them build community. So if us reaching out to them helps them get into our system sooner and get that education and the information and attend the events that I think is net positive for them. >> One more thing I'm a little bit still surprised though being in an apartment. I lived myself in apartment and you typically to be honest there is no way you can pass your neighbors without seeing that another house uh another apartment has children and typically at least you would communicate if you have questions by the way um I have a kid I don't know where to send they don't do that they don't talk to each other >> I think it depends right every complex is different in terms of how they communicate I think also if

049somebody is new in managing that apartment complex they might spending some time getting up to speed as to what is the best avenue to reach their folks. Um, and another thing that I think is helpful with us doing the outreach is different families have a different lens or understanding of our educational system, right? So, we have some families that don't need a lot of help from us. They know to go online and fill out the form and all that good stuff, but we have some families whether they're new to the area or even new to the country where where do they begin? What is an enrollment center? What does that mean? what documents do you need from me? So, being able to try and break down some of those barriers and explain that stuff um

050instead of having them do the leg work, especially if it's already confusing to begin with, to try and even get to the point of understanding where we are, who we are, and what we need from them. If we can go there and have those conversations, that would be a really great place for I think the family to start in terms of building that relationship with our school district. >> Thank you. >> And you make a really good point. those natural communities where we connect with each other is a way that we really lean in and want to invite people to talk to their neighbors and share information. So, thank you for that really important reminder of how we build those internal communities too within our systems and really lean into those neighbor connections. Thank you.

051>> Did you want to close us out, Dr. >> I just have a comment and then a quick question. So I think it's really important to have multiple ways in which we reach out to and develop relationships and connect with the community. So um I think over the years we've always valued and uh looked for ways to be responsive to the unique needs of our families and our community. And there are a lot of different ways to connect and make uh those develop those relationships whether people are new to the community or um um making a change to another school level or what returning from a private school to our school. So I just think it's important to keep a a broadbased toolkit of ways to reach out, make those connections and offer that level

052of customer service. And I think we've had a long history of that. So, we appreciate uh finding new ways to continue doing that. Um, I had a question come to me earlier from a board member actually about exit interviews for families that leave. And I'm wondering if we have any informal or formal ways that we track um reasons people leave our school district and maybe if a few top contenders come to mind for why we do have exits, what might some of those be? Yes, we um recently sent a survey to we started with our kindergarten families um that we know are choosing to attend elsewhere. Um and we created a really short survey that asked them essentially to um provide us with their top reasons for why they made the educational choice that they

053did. Um, and the second a secondary question we asked them is if there was anything that we could do as a school district that would essentially welcome them back um into enrolling with us. I would say so far from the families that have chosen to complete that. We sent it out to all the families that chose to attend elsewhere and a portion of them have completed it. Some common themes are families that might be looking for an educ um a religious education in some way, shape or form that's important to them. Um, another um factor that came up for um our families was something related to maybe either um class size or some type of services that they feel like maybe the school that they are attending um has that opportunity. Um and then in

054terms of things families um identified that we could do to welcome them back, we actually had some families that said maybe there's nothing really that we could do to welcome them back. they just chose to go somewhere else. Whether they are leaving us um because they're moving somewhere else or because they're choosing um a religious education and they know that that's not something that we can provide within public school district. >> Yeah. And so that's an area where we're looking to do more. This is kind of dipping our toe in and we look forward to bringing that information back to the board to share uh what we learn as we go through that process. But really having um I know there's been work that's been done in the past too, but adding to that work

055of really doing some learning around why people leave and how we can support them in that process. >> Valentina, yeah, >> I just need to clarify about that exit interviews. Can you explain you said kindergarten families, not all families, Emirate? >> Correct. We started um like Jenny mentioned with dipping our toe into our kindergarten families. Those are families that we've interacted with most recently. They've got through the process or maybe they just notified us that they're choosing to enroll elsewhere. >> Okay. And second question is what kind of questions do you put? Is it open-ended question or do you uh put your own I mean guided questions? What kind of questions do you put in survey? >> Yep. We kept it short on intentional. Try to motivate people to complete it. We don't want people

056open. that feedback. So, the only open-ended question is the question about if there's anything our school district could welcome the family back that would help them reenroll into Wisetta Public Schools. Otherwise, the other question is them selecting their top five or so um reasons that they selected to enroll their student in the school that they're um currently enrolled in or will be enrolled in in the fall. >> And it was a list of 10 or so items and there was an other as well. So you're planning to do in future u exit interviews on other grades. Am I right? >> Yes, that's correct. >> Yes, that's the hope is to integrate it as we know that families are withdrawing the that followup. >> Thank you >> Jen, Jenny, Judy, Dave. Thank you for joining us

057this afternoon. This is wonderful. Thank you for the outreach that you're doing. Thank you for welcoming our families and bringing them into our school community. And it's really great to be able to see I know that this is new for the welcome center and so it's great to see from an organizational perspective how it's working out and it seems to be going very well. So thank you for that. >> So our next item on the agenda is a schoolboard report on a process for school members visits to schools. Superintendent Chase Anderson is our presenter. Board colleagues, as you'll recall, this is a topic that we've been discussing for some time. Historically, schoolboard members have been able to visit schools in somewhat of an informal manner. In current practice, this raised some questions amongst board members

058about how to accomplish school visits. Um, in the spirit of partnership, the board submitted its goals through a process through the teaching and learning committee of the board for school visits um to the administration who was then tasked with creating a process and parameters for regular visits to create consistency across buildings and amongst school board members. Dr. Anderson and Austin Terson will present us the work of the principles and teaching. Thank you, acting chair Kedar and members of the board. I would like to thank Austin Tolerson who's here tonight to uh co-present with me and uh to further extend that a thanks to him and also to um our other director of teaching and learning Abby Bra uh who uh the two of them offered uh on their own will to uh take this uh

059idea and spend some time developing a preliminary draft. And then the three of us did some editing and drafting together. And then we uh had principles review it and uh have presented to you tonight the preliminary uh document that uh outlines a process for how we might be able to implement this. You may recall few months back, can't remember exactly when, I indicated that by the start of the school year we would have a plan in place. So, uh, we are here tonight to present what the our plan looks like, uh, for the time being and, uh, how we would propose moving forward with the start of the school year and monitoring it as we go and then determining if there are, uh, changes or modifications that we might want to make with it in

060the future. So, hopefully you've had an opportunity to uh, review that. And, uh, uh, I think what I'm going to do is just kind of give a quick fly over of the document, not going into detail detail about everything. you've had an opportunity to review it and uh hopefully um that along with a quick overview and an opportunity for questions um we'll be able to u uh gain your perspectives as well. So with that I'll just uh start and uh uh highlight a few things that are in the document just maybe for the benefit of the listening public as well. So there's the general introduction and uh some overarching uh purposes uh of the guidelines are included uh in that first section um including and I'll give readers digest versions of those bullet points but

061an opportunity for board members to observe uh district and board adopted policies help foster deeper understanding about school needs supporting ability to make informed decisions as board members uh through some firsthand perspective building relationships uh between board members and school leaders, demonstrating commitment to public education, celebrating positive accomplishments of students and staff, and reinforcing a shared sense of pride and purpose across the district. There were some guiding principles that were included, a total of five um that again, I won't read all the detail, but uh uh the the headers or the topics are on this documents on the board book as well and available to the public for those who may want to review it in more detail. Um, governance and management is the first guiding uh principle and then there's some narrative about kind

062of what that means and what that might look like. Uh, non-disruption to the educational process or uh classroom uh activities that are occurring. Uh, maintaining confidentiality and legal compliance uh partnership and respect, equity and coordination and equity being in the form of uh visits across the district in uh multiple buildings. So you kind of balance it out so that one building doesn't have all the visitors and others uh may not have visitations uh during the course of a year. Um the scheduling process is laid out. There's really three different types of visits that kind of came to mind I guess as we uh put this together. Uh the first one just general building visits. It may not be uh right within a specific classroom but visiting a building. It could be somebody who's interested in

063learning more about a construction project. Not that we'd ever have any of those, but we might at some time starting soon at West Middle School. Um, so that might be a reason somebody would want to go or there could be other non-classroom types of observations that would be of interest to school board members. The second one is just that classroom observations. Uh we ask that in the first case, the general visits, a two-day advanced notice scheduled with the uh oftentimes referred to as the principal's uh assistant or the uh building's administrative assistant. And for classroom observations, we'd ask for a 5-day advance with that and again scheduled through the building administrative professional. Uh we're suggesting an initial visit of 30 minutes in an elementary classroom or a full class period at middle school or high

064school level. And uh the third one would be school events or celebrations. And those are pretty much the types of uh opportunities or school visits that many of you have made many of in regard to athletic competitions uh performing arts events, visual arts, uh displays of art, etc. that might be in individual school buildings. Uh many of you have been in this room for the compass presentations and probably some uh other types of things around the district. So those are generally things that are uh I don't know for all practical purposes relatively open to the public and of course you know we encourage you to go to those and if you've not frequented our uh performing arts events or athletic contests or other things that our students put on display I'd really encourage you to

065do it. There are some expectations during visits. Again, I won't uh read through all those, but I think they're pretty straightforward and uh would contribute to helping enhance the experience for yourselves and also uh make sure that uh the work the teachers doing and uh the work within the building um is able to continue to move forward. Post visit communication and reflection. I always think it's nice to do a follow-up, connect in with the teacher that uh individuals may have visited and certainly would be more than welcome to do that. If there are questions or concerns that might crop up, I'd ask that those be forwarded uh to me andor to the board chair who like it then would forward them on to me for followup or clarification or determination working in tandem with the

066principal about uh how we might be able to provide clarification or or feedback. And there may be an opportunity. I know the board would have to decide this on you know observations made or whatever and how you may want to at board reports or summary opportunities when uh that they present themselves at school board meetings on on how you might want to uh speak about this. We included a section on visit frequency and rotation. This is kind of a new process. Uh we thought we would start with uh uh providing some guidance on kind of what makes sense at the start. We're suggesting two visits uh per year at each level. So if we consider prek, elementary, middle school, and high school, two times those four would be a total of eight visits times seven

067board members potentially would be mid-50s to 60 visits during the course of the year. Um we could consider some type of a rotational system um again to ensure that board members have an opportunity to visit across uh different buildings. There may be some unique opportunities that we would consider as well in tandem with this where uh there might be a reason that a board visit by um I don't know a board committee or maybe an invite to the entire board during the day. For example, we meet with student council at members at the high school. Um there may be some other types of those uh opportunities or activities that crop up that we could certainly give consideration to coordinating and organizing as well. There are some board policy uh uh policies listed on uh I

068don't know what page that is maybe page four and uh they uh relate to um the topic and then there's just u kind of a closing section there. So that is and then there's also um a summary of that in a more concise form a two-pager that kind of hits the highlights for each one of those categorical areas. And um with that, I don't know if Austin has anything else that uh he would like to share. I should mention, maybe I did, but uh Obby would have been here, but he's out of town today and tonight and through part of the week, all week maybe, and uh unable to be here. So, he sends his regrets, but he was very involved in this process as well. So, again, thanks to he and to Austin. And

069I don't know what I left out, Austin, but feel free to share any other insights that you may have. Yeah, I don't know that you left anything out, but just want to take the opportunity to thank the board and thank you, Chase, for the opportunity to be here. Um, and behalf on behalf of Abby as well. As many of you know, we've been uh working through our uh administrative superintendent lensure program this year. Um, and so through our just involvement in hearing of this need and and and seeing that as a request of the board, uh, we approached Chase and just asked if this something we could take on as one of our projects. Um, and so using the background of of the meetings and and requests of the board and some of our personal

070experiences and just some research of other districts, I've been able to put this together and have been enjoying being being a part of that and again appreciate the opportunity and happy to answer any questions that might relate to that. But um, yeah, >> thanks Austin. With that, I'll turn it back over to you. >> Sounds great. Thanks. Anybody have any questions? Board colleagues, >> you can go first. >> Sure. Go ahead. So no questions but again Chase um team thank you for putting this together again um this is meant to be collaborative um we obviously want to experience um some of the decisions or policies that are being made by board or sometimes when community members they bring any issues we just want to see and experience so we can make better policies better decisions

071right and some of the guardrails that you guys have put together completely make sense we have to stay in governance 's role. The goal is not to go and you know be critique on someone's behalf, right? That's not the intent. Um uh one thing I would say and again something for a board to consider is um when it comes to the rotations, right? and the frequency um again I'm assuming we're not making hard and fast rule whether it is you know two visits per quarter because it could be different based on the quarter or year right maybe there is a quarter where we don't do any visits other than the plan visit like with you know student council so as long as there is a provision and flexibility I think that's what personally I will

072look for not necessarily like rigid rules around Hey, I have to do two visits every quarter, two buildings at different levels. I think then we are binding ourselves in kind of that mode where those visits may or may not be productive and we are just doing it because it's in the policy. Right? So again my request would be to keep that provision but again make it flexible. So there could be a quarter where we we may need three visits and there may be two quarters where we don't need any visit. Right? So again that would be my ask. And then the last sort of comment to the board is um what are our next steps, right? Do we add that in the board policy or how do we kind of implement it? Um that again

073at least not clear in my head, but I'll look for my board colleagues to shed some light on it. >> Any other questions, board colleagues? >> Um yeah, so thank you for putting this together. I think it's important for us to have something, you know, this was kind of missing from our board SOP and handbook previously to so to have something in writing to make sure that expectations um are clear to everyone so that you know the board is aware of concerns people, you know, the principles might have is just been important and I thank you for the work you did to put this together. Um I I'm wondering kind of following off Paris's question when we think about next steps um this is kind of your it's a draft essentially um I mean are

074I I assume do you want board feedback will we have an opportunity to maybe to make it a little bit more flexible and then with the ultimate goal of putting it in our board handbook. Um, is that kind of because I do think that yeah, you know, when I look at only two visits per level, I go, well, well, there's three middle schools, you know, so there might be some some room there to say like board members, the expectation is that you would not, you know, because we don't ultimately want to disturb like the normal process of things going on in schools. We don't want to disrupt classrooms any, you know, if we can help it. and going too many times it could be pretty disruptive. So like having that overarching like you know consideration

075I think is important and we should say something about that in the written document. Um I don't know how comfortable I feel with like limiting it to only two or or just limiting that flexibility and and it would be up for to the board um essentially to decide do we want to assign you know ele do we want to assign buildings to different board members and and that kind of thing. So all that to say are what are the what are the next steps? So, I can speak to part of that and I think in our um our um superintendent evaluation and compensation and board development committee um we are looking at putting together a handbook. It's in draft form right now um and we are getting closer to sharing it out with the rest

076of the board. It will come likely I believe in October we had talked about um to a work session and yeah and then um it will be in use so that we can finally use it coming up in our December organizational meeting. So it'll be finalized by that December organizational meeting. But the the intent is for this process to be a part of that. >> And we we would be able to visit schools potentially starting in the fall based on this initial draft before before we as a board officially incorporate it. >> Is that a question for me? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Um yeah, that's our plan. I mean this if there's no further inputs on it to revise or change it, this the plan we'll implement at the start of the school year.

077So um I have informed principles that in the event we move forward with this that they should apprise their administrative assistants that board members may be reaching out to them. I think the protocol and indicates uh you know if that uh outreach is via email just to copy Amy G on it as well so that she kind of has the ability to track a little bit as to you know where board members are going and uh maybe what what they're observing or visiting. I've heard the term flexibility utilized. You know, it's not our intent to be inflexible. I don't know. It's a starting point. This will be new to teachers and principles. So, I don't I don't necessarily have any uh prefab expectation that it won't go well and that it's going to create some

078type of a um I don't know what the right word is um response. that requires uh engagement with teachers or principles to kind of navigate through. I don't know. But I think it's okay to start, you know, we can review it even during the course of the year. I guess things crop up and I think, well, it's working great. I don't know that we need, you know, all these guard rails or, you know, here's what we've learned. And um it it has impacted workload and it has resulted in I mean, I don't know. I don't know what to expect. Um, but I I think you can I think it's reasonable of you to expect that we'll demonstrate reasonable flexibility and we'll monitor as we go and and uh respond and or make changes that seem

079to make sense. I don't know if that was helpful or not, but um yeah, and in regard to the board handbook, I don't know that would make good sense to if we, you know, we're starting this as sort of a starting point, I guess, and then we'll review it and as we develop it and it becomes a little more standard operating procedures, I don't know, it would probably make sense to include it from my perspective. >> And I'll I'll follow up with one more piece. The handbook is actually it includes a lot of items that we are already in practice of. So all of our policies, our putter of B, our code of ethics, all of that we already abide by. So we're already without it being a part of a handbook per se, like

080a a very hard copy item, we're already implementing it. So it would make sense for us to implement the process prior to it being a part of a standard handbook. >> Any other questions? D. >> Oh, I can yield to you, Valentina, if you'd like. Um, all right. Thank you. Well, thank you so much for responding to um a really profound interest from the school board to be able to visit board buildings, excuse me, school buildings um for the board's interest. Um, you know, we have a lot going on in our district um certainly as we move into um you know, future building um and construction and so on so forth. So, the better we know our facilities, the better. So, I really do appreciate you responding to this interest. Um I think some of

081my questions kind of popped up as I was reading the document and we've kind of now discussed the um you know the two visits the section um number that's been placed. My preference would be um I think as as board members we um you hold ourselves to very high standards and we um you know will behave um you know honorably and follow your guys's expectations. So my preference would be not to have um the number assigned there. I think we understand and have profound respect for our administrators and we'll reach out and do time to um to meet their needs so we can um visit at a time that's you know convenient and uh in line with their ability to provide for their students. Um my question is about the selection of the buildings and

082if you guys have as we go about the process of implementing this plan. Um you have any um preferences or recommendations for you know what buildings you might want us to um visit first, what buildings you might think um you know warrant us uh going to. Thank you. Um, in regard to the number, again, as I indicated, this is new and I think it's a starting point. Um, it would still be my preference to uh keep some type of a a limit on the number and then we can review as the year goes on and uh consider modifications along the way in the event that that makes sense to do so. And in regard to um your question about which buildings, I don't know that we've gotten to the point of determining what that might

083look like. Um I've heard flexibility a couple of times, so I understand that there uh would be I think it'd be fine for there to be some choice by board members without us over directing that piece. Um, I think if halfway through the year there are three buildings that have never had a visitor, I would imagine maybe it would be a matter of just letting you know, by the way, no one has visited these three buildings yet. If you have a building visit on in mind and you'd like to uh do that, you might want to consider these buildings. So, I don't want to overly formalize it so that it's clunky and difficult to implement. Um, in the same token, um, anytime you start something new, I think it's good to have some pre-thought on

084it and try to determine what's, uh, the best likelihood of maximizing starting off well and the possibility of success. So, I think that's why uh, we chose to, you know, limit it at the front end and with time we can reconsider. Other board members have expressed that too. In fact, I'll just share that Milan had reached out to me and had indicated that um he was hopeful that maybe we could take a look at the limitation of two and expand that. Um I'm not immediately opposed to that, but um I would like to at least just give this and this entry uh plan of action and opportunity and then we'll uh monitor and make appropriate adjustments along the way if we think that makes good sense. So that would be remain my preference. >> Dr.

085Anderson, if I might, um, Dan, to your question, um, we'd also be very open. I know in teaching and learning, it it might depend too on what it is you're wanting to see or what your agenda is or your hope to see. Um, it might be nice to reach out to us in teaching and learning if it's got anything to do with teaching and learning. Um, because we might be able to make some suggestions. So, I want to see a new Bridges lesson, math lesson in action, or I'd like to see some of the new reading curriculum going, or I'd like to see what our CTE programming is, then we might be able to give you some suggestions. Um, we also have our regularly scheduled visits as well. So I think um as we keep

086in mind how many um groups we have going to the building. So it might be nice if if you knew you wanted to go and see something and we could then maybe tie it into a time we're going and we'd be happy to answer some questions. So um that might be a way to you know if you have a specific purpose if you let us know um we might be able to help in that instance. >> Thank you so much. Um, Director Miller, um, I think my final question is, you know, sort of for my colleagues, um, as well as with input for administration, just to ask, um, with the school year starting, I think a real interest for all of us is that we be able to, you know, once the principles and the

087teachers have their school year underway and there's been that, um, you know, adjustment that can be lengthy sometimes, um, that, you know, we will be able to, um, visit buildings. So just kind of any input from colleagues on you know um you know when we might want to begin uh when we might want to start um you know that would certainly um you know be welcome as well if colleagues you had any any ideas for that >> Valentina >> I will be coming from different perspective originally when my understanding this one started from when uh Rachel who Falsowski invited us and we started uh I mean asking if we can uh go to school buildings. Uh my perspective is that um when we came to that document I was taking it that uh this document

088will be like a courtesy uh so that everybody knows what to expect. Uh but it would not be as prescriptive as it appears. Uh this is I'm reading from Wisada website. It is saying just a minute. We wisd elected members of your Wisada school board we are responsible for working together to set policy and oversee our district budget curriculum personnel and physical facilities. uh we look out for the best interest of our district as a whole to ensure that we can effectively serve each and every student. And then um the language from statutes is uh uh board authority. The board must have the general charge of a business of a district, the school houses and of the interest of a school thereof. Uh the board's authority to govern, manage, and control the district, to carry

089out its duties and responsibilities, and to conduct the business of a district includes implied powers in addition to any specific powers granted by the legislature. So um it's I am I am glad that we are coming to the point of such a long time waiting that we are finally talking but at the same time I'm kind of surprised that nobody's questioning. It's like almost like um CEO of Target is being asked not to go to uh his own stores or have a limit of uh visiting. That's how I see it. And another one is when I see the word equitable, I to be honest personally might have not be able even to go once. I don't know. Maybe I'm not even have that interest. I am perfectly fine being not equitable allowing somebody else um

090who has more time or uh another uh like maybe facility question comes to and I would like that committee to be able to go not just based on numeric uh nu uh orders and numbers and another one is actually I would like to ask uh Dan you are sitting at another 4 to 87. Correct. Do you have any documents um pointing out to you how many times do you can you go to um the buildings? Um I would like to clarify. >> Absolutely. I appreciate that question. Um, you know, one of the, I think, experiences I've had that's really, I think, shined a light on how special it can be to visit buildings and engage with the students, teachers, um, and staff, um, of those buildings are the, uh, get on the bus visits we

091have to, um, our various buildings throughout District 287. It's a multi-member district made of 12 traditional school districts um who contribute students to programming that would be difficult for um a traditional district like Weisetta or maybe more challenging for a traditional district like Weisetta to provide. And so we have a very diverse array of students, a very diverse um set of facilities that students are able to um use and take advantage of and to see those in person um I think really helps. Um we work with administration to decide a rotation of buildings. Um it's well embedded in our practice that we will visit four buildings per year. Um usually those are four buildings in a school year. Sometimes um that's one uh summer program. So we're not exclusive to the school year. Um and

092it's a it's a big part of what we've been able to do and to my understanding a big part of what other school districts have been able to do. So to see that value in virtue of building visits through 287 has inspired me to really be a strong advocate for this because I've learned a lot. I feel more confident in the decisions I make and it really um is special. um you know to to be at a a graduation in New Hope or Brooklyn Park and see students with very profound needs walk across that stage to see that in person then to be able to connect with them earlier in the year before that big moment to see all the steps they had to um take hurdles and obstacles they had to overcome to get

093to that very special moment. So it's a big part of what we do. I'm excited for the next get on the bus. The invite will be out to Bora colleagues and we welcome folks to join because they're such a special thing and they're a big part of what we do. >> Clarification. So you said you have a limited uh you have limits. Am I right? >> We set it to four. Um however we have received um you know just from um administrators. they've said, you know, if you're interested in a certain program, um, reach out and we'll we'll connect you with that um, building um, and we'll we'll make something work. We'll put something together. >> So, they will work with you the answer. >> Yes, they will. Um, but I will also add that

094it is a uh, request that is not often utilized. Um, you know, we're very confident in the um, services programming provided by 287 and we really appreciate the get on the bus visits. So if I can clarify, Dan, I want to make sure I understood correctly. So with 287 kind of the opening guideline is four visits per is that per academic year in the schools for 287? >> Yeah. Um it can be four in the academic year. Um it could also be three in the academic year with one in the summer. Um last summer we visited West Suburban Summer School and saw some of their summer extracurriculars. So that was very special. >> So it's four in a calendar year. Yeah, four in a calendar year. Someone's four in an academic year. Like this year

095for example, um it's four in the academic year, not the four in the calendar year. So it varies and we provide that flexibility because we know it's um important to our district team. >> Right. >> Dan, if I can get some clarification, too. Um you call it get on the bus and so in my former district, we also did those with our um consortium schools. So, if I'm remembering correctly, any board member that wants to go gets on that bus and goes. And so, it's not each of you making four different visits. Correct. >> And I apologize, Director Miller. I should have been more clear. Um, you know, the uh entire school board um which is 12 members on 287 is invited and then we can bring um colleagues from other school boards. So there's

096there are a lot of I think ways that districts do this and there's a lot of flexibility in terms of how this matter can be handled. Um for example, our uh school board chair Melen Sahony has joined me on some of these visits and they're really foundational to our learning. So um because of the kind of geographic separation, we have some buildings in Richfield, we have some buildings in Brooklyn Park, we do get on a bus, we meet at the district service center, it's a really great time. Um I'm not advocating any kind of, you know, stuff like that. Um I think it would be on board members to provide their own transportation but you know certainly we can um you know have that uh cross district exchange of knowledge and in terms of you

097know how do you do it how do we do it um let's find a way to meet in the middle thank you for the question >> and uh I also communicate with our u board members of our district and I also heard that not only they go and is some of them don't even have any paper of that sort. uh looks like the administration is working with them together or if they have like for example I suggested Hastings they had literally one pager which um give like courtesy what is the expectation expectation very short uh uh description but doesn't have that kind of uh limitations but other um school districts even inviting other school board members for example if uh there is a new curriculum in question of purchasing so that in in order I

098mean not to make expensive mistakes other uh school board members of a different district can go to another and observe it so that they can see yes it's actually good uh it works so um I would like uh to uh I mean you to keep it in mind that and again uh this one comes from perspective as if um we are trying at least I am trying to go numerous time as I said maybe I would not even uh and as I I'm I'm I'm perfectly fine being not equitable and allowing somebody else to go more especially if that need will arise like um uh facility committee had uh I mean it's I I think it it's much more easy to go and look at the um and make decision then talk too long and

099I would perfectly fine I would be perfectly fine kind of giving away not even giving away I mean as I said I'm not sure why we uh hang up on the numbers and um that is my asking >> if I just offer um in regard to equitable I think it was in regard to visiting across buildings so that we don't have a building that may not have any visits when others might have had several so I think that is how the word equitable might have been used in the report, but I could be wrong on that. But, you know, I understand maybe there will be board members that won't won't go at all and others that will go eight times maybe early in the fall and and I wonder if there are more opportunities and

100much like uh I think it might have been Dan who indicated uh you know if there's after if you've used your four and you're just absolutely really wanting to see something else in 287 or I mean we are reasonable and flexible and I think our administration does work really well with the board and is not looking to be exclusive or closed. We're just trying to wrap our arms around it so that we're sure that we do it well. And if we uh need and want to expand it in the future, um I'm not initially uh concerned about that. I think it's a starting point. Um and it's eight visits in a year. That's one per month. And if we decide we want to do more, then we can talk more about it later. I don't

101know. I'm suggesting this is a starter and then we uh let it evolve after we learn more about how it's working and maybe uh you know uh create new ways to make it more conducive if if that's what if that's what the board would like to do. Uh thanks thank you for explanation of other side of equitable which I can see too but uh then with this one I'm going to say too for example I you just said that uh visiting to can be disruptive and let's say that every year there are different needs and um I don't see a reason of going to building just because of a um I I feel like uh you go to the building if there is a need so that you don't uh you you in order to

102make let's say that okay the board members had been in this building three times let's go to these three uh building three times even though there is no reason then actually by definition we are disrupting so uh that side also I'm not completely it's not completely clear to me how it's going to work out >> I might just clarify too I don't know that um there should or would need to be a reason to go to a particular school. I think the intent is uh to have an opportunity to observe and I would suggest that those things that board members might be interested in observing could be done in any of our buildings. And um there may be unique programs that are at one building versus another, but um I I think it's for the

103reasons cited on the first page that really should be the rationale driving uh rationale or reasons why a school board member might want to go to a building regardless of which one it might be. Just a thought. >> I just want to say thank you for your time and energy. Um, and thanks to Austin and Avi too for putting this together and working with our principles to balance all the needs. Um, having done years of get on the bus tours, I think they are phenomenal. I'm so glad that question got asked and I think as we continue on flexibility, um, looking at that get on the bus model could be really fantastic and with a 40 mile right radius or something of our district, we we could use a bus ride to look around. So,

104so thank you for that and and great suggestion of the of the get on the bus. >> Thank you. >> One more comment. Sure. Um >> I just Yeah, thank you again for everything. I think this is a great starting point. Um it is nice to have, you know, a scheduling process, you know, in place so that again we know what we're supposed to do as board members. Um, I appreciate I mean as a board member I want to work in conjunction with the administration and the principles um to make sure that you know we're not just showing up at buildings and and not that we would but you know that we have something in writing and and I think that's a really great start and it sounds like this might evolve um over time

105and you know we'll I'm excited for the fall to see how how it goes and look forward to you know re-evaluating if we need to. Um, and then I also, um, you mentioned Milan emailed you. He also had a statement that he was hoping that I would read, which is primarily pretty much everything most people have said already, but just so that he can have a say even though he's not here. Um, he said, "Thank you, Chase, for your effort and diligence and pursuing this initiative. Since Director Prior first requested it to be considered in early 2024, I hope we are able to bring this to fruition soon. I believe visits to schools and classrooms are an integral part of board governance and agree with all the guiding principles Chase has stated and agree with

106all the guiding principles Chase has stated in his draft. The process of scheduling visits and board member expectations during visits also seem fair and appropriate. The area of concern for me is related to visit frequency and rotation. So, I won't go any further because we've already discussed that at length, but just wanted to again let him have his statement read. >> Again, thank you, Dr. Anderson. Thank you, Austin. Thank you, Obby, wherever you are, for all the work that you've put into this. We did ask for we we came to you asking for this. And so, thank you for presenting us with what we've asked you for. And I also am looking forward to starting this process in the fall with the new school year which we all should be excited about. So um we

107have one more item on the agenda and I want to make sure that we have time to get to it because we have another meeting that is scheduled after this um that we need to be respectful of the timing of. Um so the last item on the agenda is a superintendent report on the strategic roadmap and the district goals update. As you all know Dr. Anderson has been giving us approximately quarterly updates uh along with many many in between um throughout the school year updates from the various departments um on how things are going in our district. So I'll hand it over to you. >> Thank you again, acting chair and members of the board. So I have a PowerPoint that I put together. Much of this will look pretty similar to the report that

108I did uh back in April um because it's an overview again of the um uh work of the school district centered around the strategic roadmap and uh the goals that the board had uh shared with me in uh prior to the start of the school year and to provide you with some updates. I also provided a narrative document that uh is in board book and available to the public for those who may want to review it in greater detail. And I believe this PowerPoint is probably also on board book uh for anybody who might want to go back and review this. I might suggest that the narrative or the word document may be more helpful actually than the PowerPoint just because there are some additional uh detail and some information there that uh may be

109helpful and in providing a little bit more context around uh some of the things that are uh in the uh the the PowerPoint that I'm going to be going through. So for many years I've kind of lost track now. This is the beginning of my 18th year in this role. I've oftentimes at the end of the year provided such a narrative to the school board as kind of an overview of of the things that uh occurred both strategic work and standard work. Um a lot of the work that we do finds us rather than us going out and seeking it um because it's whatever comes our way. So, as you know, there are a lot of moving parts within a public school district and a lot of work that uh gets done that we don't

110necessarily tie to a strategic direction or to the roadmap or to other things, but yet it's it's really great work and and high quality work. We heard quite a lot about that in the first report tonight just in regard to welcoming new families and students to our school district and how we onboard them and help ensure that uh they can get off to a great start. So, I'm not going to uh read through the full six, seven, eight page document that I provided to you. You've had a chance to review that and may have some questions uh after I go through these slides, but I did want an opportunity to um uh give kind of at least a quick fly over of of the slides that I've included. So, uh again, I won't spend a

111lot of time on some of these higher level preliminary reports, but as a review, we developed a road map similar to this back in 2011. It's been updated now three times in 2015, 19, and 23. Our mission has stayed the same. Our vision has been very comparable with only minimal change. The core values have stayed in place uh for almost the entirety of that. As well, um the strategic directions were a little bit uh different at the start of the last school year compared to what we'd had before. I think we had four before. Uh we extended that into seven. I think we learned a lot about each one of these throughout the course of the year and I recognize that uh I think the the themes and the topics are really good and they're

112the right ones. One thing I wrestled with a little bit is how do we create um objective measures around each one of these that are uh look differently or that uh are higher level than all of the different reports. So within the narrative there was a a long list of all the reports that we've done from July through uh June over the course of the year. There were three that were specifically engineered for uh academic uh uh student achievement data that uh our teaching and learning department uh presented along with some of our other staff members. And then uh we did the building reports which is another great way for uh schoolboard members to become aware and acquainted with the different types of things that are happening um within each one of our schools. Those

113uh school spotlight events are really great ways for us to highlight all the great things that are happening in the schools. We also in uh 2021 the board approved uh our equity equipment which is a amplification of our core values and really reinforces our mission, vision and strategic directions. And uh for us the uh uh concept of of equity really is uh focused on meeting the specific needs of all students. And that's uh in response to our mission which indicates uh uh each and every excellence for each and every student which is really our tagline and has served as our uh primary focus. looking briefly at uh the seven strategic directions. And again, these were the uh seven areas that uh primarily were developed by um our strategy leadership team and we had visions of

114developing these maybe a little more deeply during the course of the year than uh where we may have landed with them. It doesn't suggest that there isn't specific work happening with every one of these. And I'll look at these and just kind of give a couple of highlevel overviews. I think those first two really tie into uh the work of our built teams and our leadership teams within each of our schools. The principles working in tandem with their teachers. Um it kind of reminds me when I used to be a principal and I interviewed teachers and they would ask me what do you look for in a teacher and I would always say you have to be able to develop relationships with your students and deliver high quality instruction. And that's really what those first

115two things are. Uh that daily experience is critical. We want our students to feel great when they come to school and feel comfortable and settled and enjoying it so they'll want to come back tomorrow. And that's an ongoing uh strategy for each and every one of our teachers to help create that type of environment. And I think our teachers are second to none in doing that. And we have to deliver high quality instruction. And if we think in terms of the CEL work, there was quite a lot of that that uh references to that within um the packet that I provided to you that really hits on these two things. And oftentimes built goals or building improvement plans will have a student experience goal as well as a instructional goal that are tied into uh

116both quantitative and qualitative standards and measures uh within each of those buildings. Recruiting, hiring, and supporting uh great staff. Again, um to kind of build a little bit more on the CEL work, we're implementing a new 5D plus um teacher supervision evaluation process in each one of our buildings this coming fall, which will roll out and it's tied directly to the CEO work of our built teams and what's happening uh within the schools. So, we think it's going to bring greater alignment to um the work that's being done in the buildings so that we have that uh uh horizontal alignment. We also have vertical alignment so that everybody is able to utilize similar language and and really help enhance those first two things which are related to the daily experience and high quality instruction. Uh

117building awareness and capacity on the health and well-being of our school community. And you know I think probably we serve our students best with that rather than the larger school community. We have limited capacity I think to have impact on all 72,000 of our community's residents. But our focus is primarily on uh enhancing the experience and providing student support services that help students grow and flourish. Uh we're in the process and have been and this year for the first time in my time and maybe ever. Every one of our buildings will have uh a counselor uh in them. All of our elementarymentaries will have one this fall. Our middle schools and high school have had them for a while, but we're happy to be able to bring that to uh all of our elementary schools

118as well. We have had social workers and a dean and and working in tandem with the principal, but uh we will be able to accomplish that this year. Learning from community engagement, as I think the board's all aware, we have a community relations board committee that uh meets periodically and discusses uh discusses options for how we can expand that. We heard from our welcome center and enrollment team tonight the u uh different measures that we're implementing to help uh maximize community engagement and strengthen and and demonstrate those uh strategic partnerships which is really important. Um ensuring the effective and efficient use of district resources. Um, I would suggest that one of the uh uh perhaps best indicators that we're not bad at that is the fact that once again our AAA bond rating was recently

119affirmed through Moody's uh rating agency in preparation for uh sale of the bonds for the West Middle School construction project. So um they take a look look at a broad array of factors related to financial management within an organization and that's a huge uh component part of achieving that particular uh benchmark. So we can feel good about that. We don't necessarily set as our primary goal um we must be aa bond rated organization. I don't know if we'll always have it or if we'll be something there that's forever but oftentimes it finds us more so than us going out and seeking it. Um, and it's a result of of uh, you know, all the things that you do, not just to try to get the AAA bond rating, but all the things that add up

120and stack up in order for that to be the end result um, after a review. So, I think you should all feel really good about uh, that and I think that that does demonstrate an effective and efficient use of district resources, what we oftentimes call operational excellence. And finally, uh, just streamlining our decision- making process. I would say for that one that's more of a administrative alignment of our team. Um I indicated in the narrative document that we've had some leadership turnover in the district this year. So I think that that's kind of uh made that a little less of a linear path during the course of the year. We've uh we're in the process of getting our team rebuilt and I think have one of our vacated positions yet. our director of finance. Uh

121we're still in the process of filling that position, but as I indicated in the the packet, uh our SLT group and I believe our leadership council group and our all of our principles and associate principles are in place and ready to roll for uh the coming school year. Um so those are the seven strategic directions uh the goal areas that were suggested uh to me and that will provide a little bit of information on. I also want to be cognizant of the time here. it always clicks by quickly. But, uh, the district operational plan, uh, that are tied to those strategic directions, I spoke a little bit about, uh, that and, you know, that that's in progress and I'll be recommending that that continue on through into the 24 or 25 26 school year. You

122have to get used to saying that. Um, engaging and partnering with our community. Again, I think we've had a long history of doing a really good job of that. We're always looking for new and improved and better ways to uh engage with our community. Monitoring student growth. You heard a lot of uh about that during the course of the year, whether through uh committees or uh presentations at board meetings. This will be a big deal in the coming year because we really need to uh do a great job of vetting what our needs are with uh uh facilities and uh working hard to ensure that we have a adequate space as our community continues to grow. and then prioritizing academic excellence for each and every student. I think that ties into all those presentations we

123did during the school uh school year uh at board meetings uh with all of the uh building reports as well as um the reports from our teaching and learning team on student uh achievement and and the progress being made. And uh you know again we'll continue to uh develop these and have some conversation here in the next month as I work with you to help set the direction and you can uh provide me with guidance and and direction on what you'd want to be looking for for the coming year. Uh these slides are maybe slightly updated from when I uh presented this in April. So I'm probably not going to go through uh all of these again. Uh you'll see the term world's best workforce. And when uh Dana and her team presented earlier, we

124made reference to the fact the name of that's actually been changed now to comprehensive achievement and civic readiness. So we don't know if there's a word associated with that acronym, but it's CACR is sort of the acronym for that and it's somewhat uh replaced uh what was formerly known as the world's best workforce. Um and then you can see the other uh bullet points there. I don't think anything has really uh changed in regard to and these again are just indicators of the things that we've been working on. Maybe one thing I'll point out with the MTSS program, uh you'll see another acronym up there, the ABRE, Aubrey is a software tool that'll be new to us. Uh I don't know if do we currently have that in place or it be for this fall?

125>> Yeah, we will be piloting at Sunset Hill East and one house at the high school. >> Thank you. And we think that's a real robust uh tool that's really going to help us with the um um tracking of MTSS data. Um I'm going to maybe kind of skim through these pretty quickly because I know we have another meeting coming up uh at 6 and if you wanted me to I can come back in August also and give uh a little more detail and go through some additional information if that would be helpful to the board. Um so with the development of the strategic directions again ensuring a high quality daily experience for uh each and every student is uh strategic direction one strategic direction two and some of the uh specific goals that we're

126working on and I think all of these would have evidence or data that could be supported. Maybe I'll highlight where it says yet to be determined TBD possible modifications for 2526. I see a lot of these obviously the strategic direction staying in place but I think uh you know that there probably needs to be a few modifications to it as we think about how can we best uh measure some of the things that we're focusing on and how can we change if uh needed uh the way that it's presented to school board during the course of the year. So I think those will be some conversations we can have as we meet here in the near future. Uh again, I think I kind of went through all these before, but recruiting and hiring, all of

127that staff development and the I mentioned the TDE process changing to match up with the CEL uh direction. Uh health and well-being strategic direction number four, um strategic direction five, again, just finding uh ways to continue to uh engage with and and develop uh really strong strategic partnerships in the community. Operational excellence, strategic direction. number six and uh again number uh direction number seven the development of a committee. I don't know I I'm kind of reluctant to develop yet one more committee. We've kind of been using SLT as that sounding board. So I think we'll probably incorporate that. That's where I I believe some of these need some reworking as we head into the 25 26 school year. Uh goal area number two continue to engage and partner. Um I don't think I added too

128much uh on this list from before. We have surveys uh my attendance at district leaison meetings. We always have a rotating board member there too. You all had a turn for that during the course of the year. Um PTA meetings. I'll start my journey in September. I already have I think most of them scheduled and I'll probably do a round two uh in January uh assuming that perhaps we'll be coming to the community for a question on facilities and I want to make sure that I have an opportunity to engage with them and and provide them with information. I did add the community relations committee of the school board at the bottom the the final uh bullet point there. They aren't in any particular order but those are just examples of ways that we uh

129continue to engage and partner. Goal number three. Um again this is going to be the big one for us I think uh in the the coming year a couple of changes that uh I included on here. You were aware of my last reporting of the work that we had done with teamworks international. Um we work with bold architects and engineers and Krauss Anderson as our architects and as our construction managers who uh really are outstanding in in their roles and their work. We have a long-standing history with them. We're going to be looking at and uh probably making recommendations for what we need to do to uh improve or uh uh expand our existing facilities. Um remodeling some of those facilities. You know, we have uh operational functional needs around the district that we have

130to take a look at. Um there's been conversation about some schools not having functional kitchens to be able to prepare food on site and adequately serve. So those are the kind of things that are likely to be packaged for board consideration as we think about bringing facilities questions to the community. Uh we did a second study because this is such a big deal in regard to what's the growth look like in our community with Hazel Reinhardt who did an enrollment study. She did not do any work with the boundaries. That's not work she does. She only does enrollment studies. That's why we went with teamworks originally is so that they could also help us with that. And we've changed the structure of our SLT meetings. So twice a month, those meetings are specifically focused on

131uh facilities and uh possible pre-referendum planning. So we really need to zero in on what uh uh the plan will look like, what facilities we might ask the community for if you all decide to move forward and do that. And uh we have kind of a tight timeline on that because I believe it's somewhere around November 25th that the board has to uh make a determination on uh if and uh in what format we would bring a question to the community. So that's quick overview of number three. Uh goal number four again just really ties into academic excellence for each and every student and uh you know the uh comprehensive achievement and civic readiness uh program or the world's best workforce. Um we presented uh on those dates that information to the board and I

132also just wanted to share on that bottom line that school built that's building instructional leadership team uh are all operating and reviewing site goals twice monthly. um I think at least and then also uh teams of grade level teachers or departmental areas or whatever uh include that in their PLC meetings as well. So again the built and the uh site goals are tightly tied to all of the CEL work and uh helping to enhance that student experience as well as their academic achievement. So there's a quick flyby. Um, I apologize for the brevity on some of those slides, but I I know that we have a 6:00 uh kind of a hard end maybe perhaps, but if we don't get a chance for uh questions to the degree board members are hoping for, you know,

133where to find me. You can always follow up with me if you'd like. So, with that, I'll turn it back over to you. >> Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Board colleagues, we have eight minutes for questions. And like Dr. Anderson has said, if we would like him to come back in August, I think that's a good option. But um because we do have visitors coming for the candidate information session um I want to make sure that we respect everybody's time. So with that, do we have any questions? >> Dan, >> I'll be very quick. Um this is a question for you, Dr. Anderson, as well as perhaps uh you Dr. uh Director Miller, excuse me. Um you mentioned um piloting for the MTSS program at Sunset East and one did you say house at the high

134school? Did I hear that correctly? >> Yeah, it's not piloting the MTSS program. We're all doing that, but um we've purchased Aubrey, which is a um student data software program, if you will. I know Wade would have a much more specific title for that work, but um and that will allow us to house all of our student data in one place with um visibility of that very quickly. Um and it has been a huge lift. We purchased that last winter after about a year and a half of of vetting programs. And then the lift we're doing with technology right now between teaching and learning and technology is to get all of our systems to talk to Aubrey, bring that data in. So it really gives a visualization tool to our buildings and to um our

135teachers in those PLC meetings so they can get just in time data rather than waiting for Dr. Lackner to create charts and pivot tables and those kind of things that are not very um agile. So that work is what's happening right now which will make that MTSS work much stronger. And so we're working the kinks out of that at Sunset Hill East. And then um one house of the high school uh Greg Swoden has been our principal um on the MTSS group. So, we were planning to start with his house because of the change in APs at the high school with Julie Johnson going over there. There could be a slight shift in that, but we will start with one house. Um, with the goal of trying to get us up and running in all

136of our schools by the end of the year. That might be ambitious, but we want to make sure we're slow and steady and get it right. Um, because there's a great deal of training involved with that. So, by next fall, a goal would be that we're up and getting everybody at least up and running. >> Excellent. Thank you so much for really the plethora of information, Dr. Anderson. Thank you so much. Um look forward to hearing more in August. >> All right. Thank you. >> Any other questions? Valentina. >> Um my understanding that equity was um voted for so that that we are going to have um out uh good outcomes. But looking at the MCA uh data looks like so far it didn't come to uh fruition and given the fact that many even

137um big corporates uh dropped DI and now DI had been also uh pointed out that it is um cited as an example of a discriminator a discriminatory practice that violates civil rights laws. Are we at the point of uh dropping uh DI at Weisata public schools? >> Well, the way I would respond to that is um as I shared before, our definition of equity and our uh core values is meeting the specific needs of all students. Um I think that's a goal that's really hard to argue against. I believe that we need to be responsive to the unique needs of our students. They come to us uh in uh with all different types of needs, with all different types of experiences. And I think it's essential for us to be responsive to that uniqueness. Um

138I don't know what I mean, we're not the corporate world, so I don't know all the details of what they're doing with DEI. Um we have an equity and inclusion uh department. It's tied tightly with our teaching and learning department and it helps us move toward meeting that goal of this meeting the specific needs of all students. If we read our uh mission statement uh it says the following to ensure a world-class education that prepares each and every student to thrive today and excel tomorrow. That's been our mission since 2011 when we developed uh our strategic roadmap. I think it has stood the test of time because I think it's a really good mission statement and it's essential and important for us to be responsive to each and every um and really it ties into

139some comments that I made in the uh slides that I shared as well that they're really two key component parts and those are creating an outstanding student experience and doing our very best to ensure that there is academic success. Yes, we still do have some gaps to close. I think probably many schools if not all of them in the state of Minnesota maybe across the nation would say that's an ongoing goal and challenge and a way we continue to look for ways forward with that I believe through creating an outstanding educational experience for each and every student as well as uh uh helping deliver an outstanding academic program. Those are the two best ways to get at that and it all ties into being responsive to the unique needs of individual students and uh delivering

140excellence for each and every student. So I know there's a lot of narrative in the media and across the country about DEI and what it is and what it isn't. Um, when I think in terms of equity and inclusion, oftentimes when I'm trying to make uh points for uh I don't know justifying and or uh staying the course, I think in terms of what would the opposite of that be and I would have a very difficult time coming to you indicating that uh we should really focus on uh inequity and um uh uh exclusion. I don't think that those would be very commendable um approaches. So I do stand by what we are doing. We're not breaking any laws. Um we are uh implementing our academic program in ways uh with through differentiated instruction that

141uh we feel we'll be responsive to those unique needs. we have more work to do and we feel by continuing to modify or change our approaches whether it's welcoming new families to the school district improving our instructional practices through CEL um improving our uh engagement between principles and teachers through the new uh teacher uh the TDE uh plan. Those are all ways that we do that and we're going to continue to uh stay the course with that work and and continue to refine our craft in hopes that we'll make it stronger and better. Um this one is with assumption that one of the thing we're forgetting that uh the result is looking for that it is equal outcome and I'm from Soviet system it equal uh anybody who has at least two kids can tell

142you right away that it is not possible and um my motherland lived through that and at the same time one more time there are quite a bit of right now colleges had been sued because there were civil rights um being violated because there were um merits uh had been also all of a sudden abandoned and uh when um people are being judged based and people uh students being put into groups instead of actually being judged b uh based on merits and based on individual individual achievements. uh this is what is happening and as I said the thing that we as a district already run with this um for several years so far looking at uh M uh MCA uh data it doesn't show that uh things came to fruition and um it is sad to

143see that we still put students into groups and we do not value students as individuals. And um at certain point uh as I said it comes to uh violating civil rights and I'm hoping that at at certain point there are going to be enough parents enough students uh to say this uh because I would like to see at least if it is uh if there isn't um something to show I would like to see that data uh that uh use doing these practices actually brought some positive outcomes. Thank you >> board colleagues. We are out of time. If you have interest in Dr. Anderson coming back to us in August for a continuation of a work session, please email me and uh Chair Sahony and we will have that put onto the agenda for the

144next work session. Um if I don't hear from you, I will assume that it's a no. Um uh I just want to kind of wrap this up. So ne next steps as we always like to talk about is this um year in review is kind of the kickoff for Dr. Anderson's annual evaluation. Um this year will look very similar to what you are used to. Um so we do the year- end review which has happened tonight. Um you will be receiving a questionnaire in your inbox just as we did last year. Um it is still in the process of being developed amongst the uh board committee. Um and then we'll have a date for you to get that finished. Timelines have shifted a little bit because um we were unable to get meetings on the

145calendar and so we're able to shift things around a little bit and we'll get that um timeline to you as well. Um it's then followed up with a closed session, a couple closed sessions. One for us to meet and develop uh Dr. Anderson's feedback, another one to meet with Dr. Anderson as a board and to share that feedback with him and then we have a a share out um likely in October um to the community of of what our feedback was to Dr. Anderson. So if you again if you have any questions on the process or how that goes feel free to reach out to any one of us on the board committee. Um and that will conclude our agenda for this evening. Today was July 28th. I'm not sure that I said that at

146the very beginning but it was July 28th and the time is now 6:03. Thank you all for joining us for this work session.