001Okay, we'll now call to order the August regular board meeting for district 518. Um 1.1 roll call. Um Aaron Shy Watinski is missing. Everyone else is here. Recognition of visitors and guests. Uh thank you everyone who is in attendance tonight. 1.3 We will do the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. 1.4 4 correspondence and recognition on public participation. I don't believe we've had any tonight. 1.42 recognition of students, staff, and community recognition items. We would like to thank the Bell Museum for providing activities and staff free of charge for community science day on Saturday, August 2nd. About 140 people participated in the event held at
002community education. Okay, moving on. 2.0 approval of agenda. I need a motion to approve what's on the consent agenda and main agenda. >> So move. >> Motion by Matt. >> Second by an. All those in favor of the approval of the agenda say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. K3.0 approval of minutes from the July board meeting and the recent committee meeting minutes. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Motion by Lori. >> Seconded by an. All those in favor of the approval of the minutes say I. >> I. >> All those opposed same sign. Motion passes. Okay. 4.0 consent agenda. I need a motion to approve the items on the consent agenda. >> So moved. >> Motion by an >> Seconded by Darla. All those in favor
003of the approval of the consent agenda say I. >> I. >> All those opposed? Same sign. >> Motion passes. 5.0 main agenda. 5.1 monthly financial overview. Carmen. >> Um Yep. So, we are um just looking at um the end of July. Obviously, July is our first month of the fiscal year. So, um it's kind of hard to really have a a a good comparison just because we're just getting into July. Um the month of July is kind of that transition between um the last year and the current year. Um the revenues um total operating fund revenues um 2.1 million um comparable like 3.15% compared to the 3.78% last year. Um again on audited last year numbers um you'll see in that far column. Um something else to kind of just as we're relating to we're
004comparing this to like current year percentage of our budget compared to last year's um expenses. As you guys are aware, the budget that we approved is very preliminary, the one that you did in June. So, taking that all into account, this is kind of just really a very general basic of information where we're currently at for the month of July. As we get farther into the year and we can review our um budgets, you'll have a much more clearer picture of where we're at. Um same thing going into the expenditures. Um year to date, obviously, it's the month of July. Um you'll see your total all funds down there that includes activity. We usually look at that um total operating funds one of the 1.6. Um that's like a 2.3 compared to a 2.36. So
005that way very comparable to percentages of of last year. Um but just still keeping in mind that the prior year is unudited because we haven't done the audit yet. And then the comparison for the current year is really based on that preliminary budget that we had passed. So, >> okay, any other questions for Carmen? Okay, moving on. 5.2, back to school update by Josh Noble. >> Yeah, this is just a really quick update. Uh, as much as people assume like, oh man, summer's over, the truth is we're really excited to welcome back staff and students. Um, this fall we're expecting 3,00 3,850 students in our K12 system. 590 of those students are with our Vibe program and we actually have about 90 students that are still kind of in the enrollment process with Vibe. So,
006that number could go up. We're still working with some of those Vibe families. Our class sizes across the K12 system are averaging between 21 and 25 students. Now, that's all the way from kinder to senior high. Recognizing that within that high school setting, you may have some classes in that 32, 33, 34, but the average is approximately 23 and a half even here at the high school. So, we're sitting pretty good in terms of class size uh rosters. Um families are excited to come back as well. We had a great turnout for our recent um sports eligibility meeting. We've had middle school, high school, and learning center open houses. those average attendance was about 90%. Which is great for that secondary level. Um in the next couple days, intermediate tomorrow and Prairie on Thursday will
007have their batch school conferences. We're looking forward to that as well. Um it's kind of unprecedented, but in the past, we've had about 98% um turnout rate for our families, which we should be proud of that. I don't know that that's common in a lot of communities where our families want to come and meet with our teachers. I think we've set up a pretty good system to welcome them back. Uh last week we welcomed 21 new staff, new teachers to our district, including seven alumni. Um it's great to see those that those individuals want to come back and make a positive impact on our community. Um it was kind of fun. Uh Mr. High Camp at the Kuanas lunch when we were welcoming the new staff, he asked, "What was your biggest aha moment?" And
008a large majority of those staff members that are participating in our new induction week talked about how much they felt welcomed and supported when they came back. And that's a huge testament to our system. And I want to call out specifically Aan Amy Benson. She leads our induction week. Um they they were impressed by all the support during that induction week. So that was fun to hear. Um this week our staff's been engaged in professional development. We're emphasizing a lot of the work on literacy, student engagement, student connections, and creating stronger collaborative teams to meet the needs of students. Uh many of these sessions are led by our talented teachers, coordinators, and admin. Facilities are in great shape. Um incredible crews for our from our tech crews to our custodial crews. They have our classrooms
009and buildings ready to go. Um I just think it's important to note that like this this is go time. This is the exciting moment. Like as much as people think, "Oh man, summer's over." People are really excited to come back. Teachers are really excited to be here. And I think as a board, you guys can be proud of the talented educators that you have here. Um, we're ready to make an impact on students and people are excited to start the year. >> Okay. You talked about average class size, Josh, and I'm just curious. Yep. >> And Lori probably remembers. So when we built intermediate, our goal was 20 kids per class. like at our lower levels. Are we >> I I've got them right here. One second. Let me open it up. >> So, currently
010at Prairie Elementary in terms of gen ed um in kinder the average is 21.3. >> Okay. >> So, I believe that's 10 sections. I could be wrong. Could be 10 or 11, but it's 21.3. First grade, uh it might be interesting for the board to know. Um the goal was 21.3 as well, but the day before induction week, we had an educator who must have had a life experience come up and she actually turned down the position that she accepted back in the spring. Um it was late enough in the game we were able to shift some students, but it was too late to try to hire somebody. First grade is still at 22.5. So, I would say first grade is slightly higher than we would normally want to be, but that was a um
011it was a Sunday night email at about 10:00 before our induction week. So, um third grade or second grade is 23.3, third grade 22.1, fourth is at 24, fifth 23.4. six through eight in high school understandably they get a little bit um some it it's hard to get a true average but six through eight at the middle school is 23.4 four on average and the high school is listed at 25.3. Um, and then learning center currently is about 8 to 10 students. So, and I do have some numbers in terms of like adult to student ratios if you want those as well. These are just um licensed classroom teachers to students in the classrooms for gened. >> So, just going back to intermediate, we're a little higher there than what we anticipated when we built
012that building, correct? Is that cuz we're maybe a little short? >> Yeah. You know, >> wise or >> in in terms of my history here, um there was a time when it was still a K5 system and there was a year we wanted to try to move to 13 sections of kindergarten, but there literally wasn't a classroom. And way back then is when the first decision was made to move to one to one paras because they crept into into the 22 23 per class and at that time the decision was made to go to full-time paras when it went to 22 or 23 >> in in kindergarten. >> Okay. >> All right. Any other questions for Josh? >> Are there any uh positions that we're still hoping to fill? We we currently have uh there's
013three sped positions and I've been working with admin and our sped director and interim sped director. Um they've been having conversations with other sped teachers and trying to reallocate kind of case loads. We've had some individuals who used to be in intervention positions in some buildings willing to take on like a block of sped students during that time to try to spread out the load. We've also had an individual at the high school here who used to do mostly the assessment. They run our seat team. she's going to take some of the students as a case load. Um, so it's we're in an okay spot for having three open positions in one department. Uh, the current sped numbers in terms of these are averages. Now, in the sped world, it definitely depends on whether you're
014working with DCD students, EBD students, uh SLD students, but on average at Prairie, we are a uh licensed teacher to student average of 17, intermediate 17, middle school is 19, high school and learning centers 24. Um, one interesting piece though that I also added in the PAR support. So our class two paras that work specifically with sped um when you average the adult to student ratio at prairie we are a 1:4 ratio for students to staff intermediates 1:5 middle school is 1:4 high school learning centers 1 to8 so although we need some licensed teachers to help kind of alleviate that case load need and those direct instruction minutes we do have some of the the class 2 pair of support in place to try to meet the needs of those Thank you. >> Yep. >>
015I have a followup on the second grade. Yep. >> Um I know with the budget cuts last year, we lost half of the paras and our student to adult ratio went up over 35%. >> Okay. >> With that move >> and that reduction, where are we at right now for students to adult in the second grade classroom >> on on this sheet that I'm trying to create? And actually, Mr. High Camp and I have a vision. We're going to share this quarterly with you guys as a board. I didn't add the gened pairs on this one, but I definitely can do that so that we can see licensed teacher to student ratio, but also adult to student ratio. I do have MDE's report card information. Admittedly, sometimes that's about a year behind, so it's not
016going to be as accurate. Um, MDE lists prairie in terms of licensed staff. Now this is all teachers and adult student in a 12:1 intermediates 13 to1 middle 17 to1 high school 23 to1 and learning center 9:1 I don't trust that data as much as us just looking at actual students in the building and our staff so I can add pairs to this line and then we can share that out with you guys. >> Second grade is sitting at 23.3 >> average. Yep. We'll keep an eye on that. >> We can. Yeah, >> I'm worried about the second graders. >> Okay. 5.3 approve first reading of polish C620, credit for learning. And Josh, >> so the Are we talking 5.3 620? >> Yes. >> Yeah. So, this this policy was actually pulled from the consent
017agenda. Uh we had a board member um really try to look at does this policy fit with our student population and we were able to add some language to that policy and it specifically talks about some of our new to country students and how we're trying to handle ensuring that we make sure or they get the the credit that they deserve. So there was two highlighted areas. One was a um a completely new addition to policy 620. I'm not sure the copy in for me, but I believe it'd be the yellow highlighted version. That is the brand new language that we added and that's specific to new to country students and how we look at those transcripts. And then the green highlighted section, there was actually we struck out some of the language regarding um
018when there's not comparative credits, there was language in there that no credit would be awarded and we want to ensure that we're still going to award elective credit. So that green highlight was rewritten. >> And you'll see that yellow and green in two different sections, but it's the same language. >> And this would have been instructional committee, correct? >> This went through instructional. Yep. >> Okay. Do we have a motion to approve the first reading of policy 620? >> So moved. >> Motion by Eric. >> Second by Lori. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor of the first reading of policy 620 say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. >> Motion passes. K. 5.4. Approve first reading of policy 414 mandated reporting of child neglect or physical or sexual abuse.
019Joel. >> Yeah. Good evening. I have uh 414. Uh this one also recently went through committee and uh through conversation um at that level um it was brought up that we have a number of students that are still in our system in that 18 to 21 range um getting getting um working toward their their high school diploma. Um and given that um it was that recommendation of a board member um to add the language that's on the very first page um section B under the definitions section and just adding a definition of an atrisisk juvenile. Uh this all comes out of um US code it says on there title 8 section one uh 1101. Um but defining at risk juvenile then defining the other pieces that go along with that. Um many of our our
020folks in our system wouldn't know necessarily who an at risk juvenile is. Uh but knowing that if they saw something in an 18 to 21 year old, they could make a a report and the court system would know they're labeled as an atrisisk juvenile. So just adding that definition and awareness that there are um still some safeguards for those those students after they turn the age of 18. Do >> I have a motion to approve the first reading of policy 414? So moved >> motion by an have a second. >> Second in by Eric. Is there any further discussion? >> All those in favor of the approval of the first reading of policy 414 say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. Motion passes. Okay. 5.5 approve first reading of policy 515 protection and privacy
021of pupil records. Joel again. >> Yeah. There are two sections here I'd like to take note of. The first one is on page two. Uh it just again reiterates the full definition of what directory information is. Uh this comes from the uh United States Department of Education. Highlights various aspects of what could be uh labeled as directory information for kids. Directory information meaning what we as a system could provide out to media or any other inquiries. Uh if you go to um number two under that part D, it does state though that under Minnesota law, school district may not designate a student's home address, telephone number, email address, or other personal contact information as directory information. So Minnesota state law is is being a little bit more specific. Even though many of those areas fall
022under directory information at the federal level, Minnesota has stepped in and says those are not sharable for us. The other piece is actually quite small. It's on page 20. and it just calls out, if I can find it, there is a section in here that allows for different entities um to ask for some of that directory information or contact information for students, specifically post-secondary institutions and the military looking um to recruit students. And um this just calls out who a family is supposed to reach out to and by when uh if they do not want their their family or their student contacted. And so we have a listed there that um the high school principal, Mr. Hastings, would be the contact and they would need to give it to us um within 30 days of
023September 1st. >> Okay. Do I have a motion to approve policy 515? >> So moved. >> Motion by Lori. Do I have a second? >> Seconded by Matt. >> Discussion item. There was another thing on page 14. What was that? Um, uh, 7 A3. >> Oh, I'm sorry. That was um statutory language that was put in um that was not information that we modified. We had modified um the page two information in the page 20. Page 14 is statute change. >> Great. Thank you. >> Any further discussion? All those in favor of the first reading of policy 515 say I. >> I. >> All those opposed same sign. Motion passes. >> Okay. 5.6 approve first reading of policy 709 student transportation safety policy. Josh. >> Yeah. 709 came to the operational committee. There were some
024questions um regarding the section on page four. Um, truthfully, I believe it was just some older language that has just carried through that no one has taken the time to review. Um, it was far too, um, I believe kind of black and white in terms of exactly what consequences would happen based on the number of offenses. So, we made the decision to try to strike out all of that language. If you look in the highlighted yellow section below, it um, puts it more in a narrative form describing how there will be a progressive approach to discipline. uh we typically make decisions based on the actual offense and what consequence we feel the student's going to learn from and how to keep that bus safe. So it doesn't automatically mean that the second offense will equal
025suspension um if the second, third, fourth, fifth offense is minor. We're going to continue to work with that student, find ways they can continue to ride and find ways for them to learn from the mistake. Um, on the flip side, it could be a first offense, but if it was a significant behavior, then we may have to talk about suspension right away. So, we wanted to remove kind of that hard and fast language that was in there previously. Uh, if you look at the green section, there was also, I think, some questions regarding how communication occurred back and forth from the bus company to our assistant principles and how it got entered into our system. Um, my recommendation would be we don't necessarily need to change language, but it might just be a clarification for
026the board. I did contact the bus company and um, our assistant principles. Currently, what happens if a bus driver has an incident on a bus, they make a written report to the bus company and they actually have access to our campus system. The bus company then enters that into a behavior referral which then prompts the assistant principal. They see it. if the assistant principal needs further information, then they call the bus company and get additional information as they're interviewing the students. So, that's kind of the progression and the consistency of how those things are dealt with. Um, but it is directly from the bus company. They do have access to enter it right into our system. So, we have a clear record of that. >> Is that changing or different than it was last year
027because we have a new busing company working with us this year or is that clear to them too? It it wasn't necessarily a change at the operational committee. There was just questions about are the bus drivers, how do they consistently notify the buildings when there's an issue. Um we we do know in every year we have continue work to do in terms of bus drivers trying to make sure they they fill out that written referral. In terms of recordkeeping though, we do feel we have a pretty consistent process in place. Do we have a motion for the first reading of policy 709? >> So moved. >> Motion by Anne. Is there a second? >> Second in by Darla. Any further discussion? >> Mr. Chairman, a question uh for Mr. Camp and Mr. Noble. Was there
028any discussion with the new bus company on their policies in other districts and anything that they're finding that works well that we could maybe include in our policies as we move forward working with them? >> Uh we we didn't talk specific in policy. We do know that they they've already had their drivers go through more what I would call kind of behavior management training. Um, and some of that comes from just a larger company. They're they're kind of used to having those um routine training events in the beginning of their year. Um, nothing specific to policy changes, but we did talk about the training for their drivers. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Any further discussion? We have a motion and a second. All those in favor of the first reading of policy 709 say I.
029>> I. I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. 5.7 approved to declare surplus property. That was operation uh five points I can share here. Let me find it. >> Yeah. The uh recommendation out of um operations committee was to approve and declare uh Lego robotics kits, a Powermatic jointer and a panel saw as surplus property. Those are items that are no longer being used for curricular curricular instruction. >> Point of clarification, it came from instructional. So >> instructional, sorry, my my apologies. >> Big deal. >> Okay. Do we have a motion to declare surplus property? >> So moved. Motion by Anne. Do I have a second? Seconded by Eric. >> Is there any further discussion? All those in favor to declare surplus property say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign.
030Motion passes. So I'm going to have Joel explain 5.8 and 5.9. And I'm going to ask for one motion for both items. Be means it's two out ofstate travel requests. >> Absolutely. We have uh two groups that are going to some um professional development opportunities that are out of state um which comes to board for approval. Um the first one is Sue Hagen, Sarah Schuman, and and Melissa Jensen. Uh they will be attending the WEDA conference. Um Josh, correct me if I'm wrong. That's happening in Seattle. Is that is that right? Um WEDA is the organization that oversees um the um instructional model for our students learning English as a second language. Um and so great learning opportunity for them and they'll bring back um lots of great learning to share with the rest of
031our team. Uh Josh Dale uh attends the national ad conference typically on a once every three-year basis. Uh he is up for that and I had shared at uh operational committee that uh he does it quite intentionally to go with other ads from the conference. So they are are all able to go and collaborate together and bring that back to the to the other schools in the conference. And so um we have recommended approval for for both of those groups. >> Okay. I have a motion to approve 5.8 and 5.9 out of state travel requests. >> So moved. >> Motion by an >> Second in by Lori. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor of the out ofstate travel request for 5.8 and 5.9 say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same
032sign. Motion passes. Okay. Superintendence report. Yeah. Good evening, Chair Bloom and members of the board. As I've worked to settle into my new role in these last seven weeks, one of my primary goals has been to really try and build authentic relationships across the entire school community. With that in mind, I wanted to update on a few opportunities we've designed to help me get to know our community better and for our community for me to get to know our community better and for our community to get to know me. Over the next few weeks, I'll be holding voluntary listening sessions at each of our district sites. The purpose of these sessions was allowed is to allow me to hear directly from our teachers, our staff, and administrators, allowing all of our team members an opportunity
033to meet in an informal, low pressure setting. My ultimate goal is to listen. I want to learn about strengths, successes, and growth opportunities in each school setting. I look forward to hearing the stories of our educators and staff, and I believe this conversational style will be an effective way for me to understand the current pulse of our district and to start building the collaborative relationships that are so vital to our success. In addition to these internal school sessions, I'm also excited to announce a new community connection opportunity that we're going to call Trojan Morning Meetups. These will be held four times a year, once each quarter, and are designed to create a consistent open forum for members of our community to engage directly with me and other district leaders. These meetups are not just for
034information sharing, uh, but also to be a place where we can discuss ideas, address concerns, and celebrate success. The intent behind all of these opportunities is again to to build authentic relationships both inside and outside of our schools. And I'm confident that these efforts will help create a more connected and collaborative environment for our students, again, our staff, and our families. I do plan to keep board informed on the progress and the outcomes of these sessions as they unfold. Uh but for now, uh I do have, if you'd like to take one, I've got the uh the dates and the flyers for both opportunities. And you'd be welcome to take as many as you'd like and pass them around specifically to our community. Um but uh working with our communications team, we've also got them
035translated and on postcards. so that we can distribute them across town as I get to uh engage with other members of the community. So excited about the excited about the conversations to come. >> Okay. 6.2 instructional committee report. Everybody from instructional committee, anything to add? Is everyone happy? >> Sounds like we're happy. >> We're happy. 6.3 operations committee additions happy. >> I believe everything was covered, Mr. Chairman. >> Everyone's happy there. 6.4 other reports. >> 7.0 other business. 8.0 future business. We do have a school board transition meeting coming September 9th at 700 p.m. at the district office with Barb Dorne, I believe, right? From SBA. >> SBA. >> Yep. Okay. Does anybody have anything else? >> Is Barb gonna be in person for that or are we doing that virtual? >> Yeah, she left
036me a message yesterday. Right. She's going to be there in person. Yeah. And if you guys have anything, she's going to send me an email about a week before. So, if you guys have anything that you think that needs to be covered, let me know and I'll share that to her in an email a week before this meeting. Okay. If nothing else, meeting adjourned.