001Mhm. >> Good Good I'd like to call this regular meeting of the Jamestown Public School Board to order. It is Monday, June 1st, 2026 and we are in the Thompson room at the Thompson Community Room at the Middle School. We'd like to thank all those attending tonight that are in the audience. Thank you for coming. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Does the board have any conflicts of interest to declare outside of the ones that have been declared? Any conflicts of interest? Any conflicts of interest? If not, moving on. Aaron, would you read the school board norms tonight? >> Uh the board developed
002norms are to share and respect opinions and speak with a united voice once a decision has been reached. Execute all duties of the school board in compliance with North Dakota Century Code. Properly prepare for meetings and commit to assessing board effectiveness and ensure high-quality governance for all stakeholders. >> Thank you, Aaron. Moving on to our We have no public communication. Moving on to our consent agenda. Would anyone like anything removed or clarified in the consent agenda? If not, is there a motion? Motion by Jason, second by Steve. We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. Opposed, same sign. Motion approved. Moving into our regular meeting, we have recognition tonight for our Dollars
003for Scholars. As your name is called, just meet me over here and then we'll take a picture um behind. Jason, would you be willing to read the Dollars for Scholars recognition? >> For sure. The Jamestown School Board would like to recognize the efforts of the Jamestown chapter of Dollars for Scholars for its commitment to growing scholarship opportunities for Jamestown High School students. Originally established as the Jamestown Public Schools Foundation, the Jamestown Dollars for Scholars is a 501c3 organization dedicated to making post-secondary education more affordable by increasing scholarship opportunities. This includes technical programs and college degrees. In 2026, the JPS chapter provided 65 scholarships for a total of $67,500. Since 2006, they have given $560,200 in scholarships to JHS seniors. The volunteer Board of Directors are Deanne Almond, president president, Bob Tosso, vice president, Rob Leck,
004treasurer, Ryan Hardy, Dave Falk, Casey Stout, Eileen A Haglan, Don Schmitz, Sally Ost, Kristi Grounds, and Heidi Larson. Thank you for all you do for JPS students. >> Hey Chad. >> Under correspondence, we received thank you from Steve Felkamper remembrance um for his dad that was sent. Under reports, we have a report on the co-curricular fine arts and clubs. Mr. Rolston, please come forward. >> Good evening. Thank you for having me back. Um I've shared with you a kind of an an update. I you received some information previously, but this afternoon I was able to put some more numbers together for you. So, what I what I have before you is a a fine arts and and a short activities report. Some of this information you've already probably seen in in recognitions of some of
005our uh music students and and so on, but I just want to make sure that that we had that uh there. So, um just real quick reporting uh on on drama. Our our advisor's Mr. Anthony McIntyre. Uh typically our our drama department does two plays per year, one in the fall and does a a spring one-act play that they actually that's the the competitive part uh of high school activities association. And uh the two productions that they did this year I have listed there for you. Um we were fortunate enough we had a couple outstanding actors at the state one-act. Sophie uh Hasbargen was an outstanding actor as well as Aiden Lawrence. Okay. Uh want to make sure make sure that everybody's right Mr. McIntyre uh continues to do a great job with this group
006and and especially in his selection of school appropriate plays. I know there sometimes there's a lot of uh schools that that uh and and advise that try to push the envelope a little bit and I I think Mr. um McIntyre's been very respectful of that for us and does a really nice job of making sure that we we have school appropriate plays. Um as well as getting other students involved. He had roughly about 30 students involved here uh this year and it's just more than acting parts. He does get students involved in in set building. Um you know, sound, lighting, you name it. He does a really good job of bringing in a lot of students that maybe try out for parts that maybe just aren't quite um adept at that to to find an
007interest or a way for them to be more or less part of the team and help put that production on. So, I really applaud him for that. Uh also wanted to share some some future needs that he's he sees fit to that down the road that we're going to need to take a look at and and hope and some of it may be a little bit sooner than than later, but uh the stage floor itself, we have not replaced any of the plywood flooring uh on that stage since it's been new and of course through the through the years of all the productions that we have and set building and and securing those sets on the stage, not to mention all the concerts and and everything else that we utilize that facility for, it's starting
008to show its age. So, we're going to have uh some some things we're going to have to take a look at there. Uh he also has requested here in the future to take a look at some additional wardrobe cabinets for for costume storage just to continue to build and add add to um our inventory there. And uh battens and curtains and updating the lighting. So, a lot of the uh more recent lighting in the in theaters like everything else has gone to LED lighting and that would be an opportunity for us to potentially upgrade our lights and and possibly even save some money in in in that process. So, that's something to maybe take a look at in the future. Okay. Um wanted to share also some information from speech advisor advisor is Laura Weiss.
009Um this past year she had 27 members participate in speech and And both at the middle school and high school. I believe our breakdown was if I remember right, I think we had 19 at the high school and eight at the middle school. That adds 27. I had to double-check my math. Um you know, throughout the season they they attended six meets. The WDA meet was in Mandan. Um the state meet was once again here in Jamestown. We've kind of become a preferred site for the state uh um uh speech meet and and uh you know, we're able to pull that off and then Mrs. Weisz is a big part of that. She is is um uh very good at uh knowing what we need to do, how we need to do it, and getting
010it done. And we could certainly not um um handle that um event without her help. And along those lines by hosting, we've saved the district uh you know, a lot of money in in the forms of transportation as well as hotels. So, uh for overnight stays and so on. Um I can't remember the last time we did not host that in the 23 years I've been the been the activities director here. And we are scheduled to host that event again for the next 4 years. At least 4 years out. So, um we ended up with a couple WDA champions throughout that. Chloe Smith uh in her speech to persuade was a WDA champ as well as Sophia Billiwith in impromptu speaking. And then you can see the various other, you know, state awards within the
011report that that we had. Um Sophia Billiwith uh was also she was a C stand all-state team member. So, pretty pretty prestigious there. So, taking us up to music, I want to share um was able to kind of share some history of some numbers of enrollments here with us. Went back to 21-22 and everything from our concert band, our ninth grade band, our wind ensemble, our concert choir, the vocal jazz, orchestra, all those. So, you can kind of see where we're at right now. Concert band had had 29 members this past school year. We had 19 in the ninth grade band, 19 in the wind ensemble, our concert choir, uh 63 students. Our ninth grade choir had 16. Vocal jazz was 12 students who participated in that as an extracurricular. And the orchestra had 34.
012So, if you take a look through the years where our numbers are at right now, even though, you know, we we've we've kind of at various times kind of fluctuated within our enrollments, our numbers seem to be fairly strong still in in participation. And sometimes even when our numbers are are low in enrollment, our participation rate in the fine arts has been high, and especially music. So, we're very very fortunate there. And again, we've had we've I believe we've recognized these students already, but um, you know, we had several all-state band, choir, and orchestra members. Um, I believe we had two for the state. Seven of those uh students recognized, which is which is awesome. Uh those are um opportunities where these students have to go out and actually try out and uh qualify and
013and and um have that opportunity. Our our band uh department at the high school, our advisor is Brittany Schwingler. And uh we had several state star recipients for band, and and you have the list of of all the different um uh instruments and and so on and and who all qualified there. As well as Mr. Sherfy is our state vocal is is our vocal director, and all of our different uh state star recipients for the solos and ensembles and and and there. Uh we did have a few outstanding performances at state music as well. Jolie Taylor, Aliyah Ty- Tyson, Maya Tyson, and Eden Ellingson were were outstanding performers. Uh orchestra, uh Jennifer Mackelenc has been our um kind of our our rock right now, I guess, or you know, within that music department at the
014high school. She's taken over as the department chair after years and years of having Sheryl McIntyre there. Uh Jennifer has has assumed that role and uh she continues to do an excellent job with within the orchestra and has had several successful students in in WDA solos and ensemble contests as well. After that, I I did share our activity participation numbers with you. I I went back to 2020-21 school year. Uh there's a couple um ones where we uh we could not find the uh the number there, participation numbers. In the last two columns to the right, you can see the number of meetings roughly per uh activity that they um have and then just some quick notes from this past school year just to kind of share with you um because we haven't had that
015that opportunity. Our AcOlympics team, uh Mr. Krieger was able to field two teams and uh they competed in the WDA. One team took sixth and one team took fourth place. So, pretty good there. Our dance team, um roughly we have uh 18 students there. Uh both our varsity and JV, they attended six invites throughout the year in the state uh dance competition. Uh throughout the year, they were very successful in invites, often, you know, winning an invite or second or third place in a lot of their their different events that they have. Uh at the state meet, our varsity team did place second in the open category. Uh so, they had a maybe not quite as high as they had originally hoped. They thought they had a a pretty good opportunity to bring home a
016a first place um at at state, but uh still at the same time a a second place is is is good. It's a little tough sometimes in in dance where it's very objective with the judging and and what one judge feels is effective and and is good, others score it probably a little bit different. So, it is hard and uh our our students work very hard at what they do. Our our our coaches and advisors do a great job. I'm really really proud of them. Uh some other distributive education clubs of America or DECA as it's is known we we have up to 15 students right now. They attended the state conference. We had two students that qualified in in fourth place in their events. And uh we also had a student Annabelle Paulson that
017was selected as state vice president at that state event. So, pretty prestigious honor for her and a great opportunity for her to share her leadership, but also grow in leadership as well. And those three then traveled with uh Mr. E as well to the national uh competitions in Atlanta, Georgia this past spring. Uh eSports, we are currently uh we currently had 17 students. Uh they they met 80 over 80 times during the course of the the school year to do that. Um various uh games that they play. We had state qualifiers in in Fortnite and Valorant were the two um I guess events that uh we had the most success in. FFA is is uh returned here the last couple years after a short stint of not having an advisor to to oversee that. Um
018this past year they were the hi they in district six they were the highest ranking in in that district in horse evaluations. So, neat award there. Um various things that they did throughout the year. They read to elementary students. They they did different volunteering. They helped uh fence up at the Frontier Village. What a great opportunity to to learn some some fencing skills. Um and and help out our community as well. Uh they also helped out at the Ag and and Construction Expo and in the pancake uh breakfast and so on. Uh throughout the year and in their competitions, they did receive various gold, silver, and bronze uh ribbons as well. And uh uh Ms. Cropper our instructor over there is doing a great job and and we're we're very fortunate to have her and
019and uh hope that she continues to grow that program. Family uh Career and Community Leaders of America Clubs of America. Um this is relatively new. It's it it's new nomenclature, but it's you basically your former, I'll call it Home Ec type of thing. So, um we've got a group that's going. They're relatively lights right now in in membership, but they've they've done some things and their their biggest uh thing that they did do was a cookie fundraiser here late in in the school year. Um but uh they will get that going. Ms. Herr Mrs. Herr will um will get that going. German Club Mr. Mickelson, he continues to have very strong showing there. Uh 30 students. They continue to utilize opportunities to grow their their skills in in language, whether it be through funny events
020that they have. They do a German uh television screenings and so on where they will actually get together and watch watch movies in German so that they can utilize their their language skills. Um Key Club um we had you know, 24 was our membership. We've kind of we were kind of down there a little bit, but uh like many things, sometimes that just fluctuates per class and per group. I'm not too concerned uh that we're we're not going to see uh more more students in the future. Our LifeSmarts team again would did did well. They had 10 students participate there. Um two teams, second and a third place teams in in the state competition. 108 students in National Honor Society. That's that's awesome. Um our National Technical Honor Society. This is very similar to National
021Honor Society, but involves career and tech students. And this is something Mrs. Eckert has started over at the Career and Tech Center. Um and she's very excited about the opportunity. She's got 29 students involved in that already. So. Our our robotics, we had six six members of that robotics team. Um they had two major competitions, a regional competition up in Grand Forks, and then they also um competed at the Granite City Regional at Dallas, St. Cloud, Minnesota. And again, they they continue to to do well and continue to learn through that process of what they need to do to take that next step to be even better and a little bit more competitive than the year before. So, it's kind of fun to watch those students, too. And and this group of students that we've
022had are our students that have kind of come along through the program. So, um that's good to see. We just need to try to get some new blood in there, too, and and and help them out. But, um Science Olympiad, uh we had eight eight students there. Um they were uh in the region competition, they finished 10th overall, seventh in Class A um division. Our student council we continue to have 24 25 members. Um you know, various activities throughout the school year that typically that a student council will do, um highlighting basically their homecoming and snow weeks. And the last club or activity that we have is our yearbook that I want to share with you. And our our numbers continue to stay strong there at about 14. Um They do a good job there.
023So, I don't know. Are there any things that anything that in particular you guys would like to ask regarding the activities, clubs? >> Any questions from the board? Thank you for uh providing the numbers, too. It just kind of even as we work with our finance committees and strategic planning committees, it's just good to see where the students' interest is and participation. Yes, Dan. >> Can you describe what the what compensation model is for you know, similar to coaches? How how does it work with this? Yeah. >> That's very similar to our our athletic coaches. It's all part of the GEA JEA, excuse me, negotiated agreement with with the board. And that is um the activities um group or committee that meets with that. Um they basically formulate that together on on a scale very
024similar where you might have tier one, tier two, tier three type type of um positions. >> I I could maybe add some color to that, too. Uh so, I'm I'm not sure how many years ago, but it's been prob- decades in which a time study was conducted to help understand what the time commitment was for each of those areas. That includes athletics and then the co-curricular schedule. And so, you'll see in the negotiated agreement there is letters and numbers. Letters correspond to co-curriculars, correct? >> Yeah. >> And then the numbers correspond to the athletics, but it's a similar scale. Uh what's the same scale, but some have you know, um a number and a letter just to help correspond, but it was uh done on a based on a time study 20 years ago or
02520 or so years ago. And the co-curricular revisits those as needed to look at that those different wage schedules to determine if they're still appropriate. >> Process for payment, as we talked about last time too with athletic athletics, is very similar to the they in activities and they submit a non-athletic end-of-year report, which is a little bit simpler, um less detailed than what some of the athletic coaches have to provide, but once they they typically will do that at the end of their period of that activity or with a lot of these activities they're they're year-long, so at the end of the school year then they'll provide that end-of-year report to myself, which I'll review and sign off on and and meet with them and and then upon the completion of that then they'll they'll
026receive their stipend for that activity. >> Owen. >> Thanks for mentioning some future needs, too. I just wondering if those some of those things like the stage flooring and other things have been kind of priced out or incorporated to the facilities committee in the capital projects plan at all? >> Yeah. Not at this point. >> Yeah. >> I mean it's something that uh Mr. McIntyre has just brought forward and that's one of the things we'll need to do is actually go out and find out and and get quotes on what that would would cost us. >> Yeah, procedurally Owen, what that looks like is um usually January or February we send out uh a capital projects request. Um because we have a 10-year plan, but that doesn't include new needs and so that's the way
027that we look to our new needs and if there is a building or director um that wants to reprioritize, you know, we might have it preliminarily set for a a 5-year, you know, a 5 years from now to be addressed and now they feel like that is that needs to be a higher priority maybe be the next one or two years, they would have that opportunity to give that feedback in January or February, and then in in March or April, facilities committee meets to prioritize and recreate or revise that 10-year plan. So, there's a way for the directors and the building principals to get that those kinds of things on the list. All the directors, all the principals get the same opportunity to share those needs. Yeah. Yep, go ahead and let me >> Like
028like the you mentioned a lot of these um different uh co-curriculars are competing at the WDA level um kind of similarly to our questions with the athletics. Just wondering if there's any updates on the process for or how how potentially moving to the East would impact these um these activities as well, and if there's any updates on that process. >> A a a move to the East would would also athletically also be all all activities. Was what we'd be looking at. And there are some activities that you know are a little bit different in the East than they are the West as well and how they operate. But that's yes, the answer to that is yes. Um as far as movement on anything as far as um putting anything um you know, formal application yet
029to high school activities, the answer is no, we have not done that yet. >> When would we have to do that by to get that if we're going to be considered to potentially be in 2027-28? >> If our intent is 2027-28, we would need that by fall. >> Okay. >> Yeah, and that is what we preliminarily discussed. >> That that allows for any if there is a change um schedules scheduling and so on to take place. Is there anything else I can share? >> Just following along those same lines, Jim, have we have we started any formal process of you know, I'm sure we're going to get some feedback from coaches and all those kinds of things. Is that anything that you've I I know we haven't formally started anything. I just didn't know if
030it informally >> I have informally met with with our coaches this right towards the end of the school year we did have a all head coaches meeting. Unfortunately, not all coaches were able to attend, but those that were there we did discuss that in in brief. Um one-on-one too as well with the coaches. I think overall um there's always going to be perceived winners and losers based on the competitiveness of of what they foresee their program being able to step in, but uh even at that some programs that I think would look at that as saying it's going to be tougher for us to be successful in the wins column. are are probably excited about that opportunity as well because they they feel that they will be um they will have the opportunity to play
031possibly play a a better brand of you know, whatever that sport is. >> Yeah, I know there'll be a >> In order to be successful, they have to >> a lot of discussion. I just was curious if if just some initial informal we've not started any formal processes and I just was was just curious if just some I'm sure um people are it's something people are talking about. I have people in the community talk to me about it as well, so Thank you. Any other questions from the board? Okay. Again, thank you Jim for for coming back. We didn't have enough time last time and and we appreciate getting the full spectrum of of the all the opportunities that students have um across the spectrum at Jamestown Public Schools and also if I think these
032numbers that you're sharing with us are are good um participation across most of these organizations and and activities and and the fine arts. And so we appreciate all the staff also that works in all these areas. So >> Thank you. And and the these are important activities, the fine arts and and the activities, the athletics. Um a school our size to be able to offer what we do and just as much as probably most of the largest schools in the state is is impressive in in my mind and like you said that the numbers that are participating um are very are very good. So thank you for supporting that. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Moving on in our agenda, we have the strategic plan um monitoring dashboard. Dr. Leker is going to
033cover some information about the strategic plan in his report as well as we have a meeting coming up on Thursday, I believe. And so if any board members have some specific feedback they'd like to share prior to that meeting, please let Dr. Leker or myself know. Any questions on the dashboard at this time? Okay. Next on the board education, is the board okay with switching the reports one and two? Are we okay with that? So okay. Then we're going to have exit interview report, Stacy Jamsgard. >> Thank you for having me. I'm just going to take this opportunity to go over >> Stacy, you want to just for the public just introduce yourself and your role at Jamestown Public Schools. >> Um I'm Stacy Jamsgard, human resource generalist at Jamestown Public Schools. Um so I'm
034just going to do a brief summary of the exit interviews that I've conducted or that we had anonymously done through SurveyMonkey um for the 25-26 school year. Exit interviews are just one of the tools that we use to better understand employee experiences and identify opportunities for to improve retention. Um the goal of exit interviews is to focus on the trend of why people um are leaving the district instead of focusing on individual situations. You might get one interview that's an outlier, um but we try to focus on the trend or the the main areas that come up often, the common themes. Um all of this feedback is um voluntary and it's all confidential, which allows them to speak freely and provide honest feedback, um and any information that we gather helps guide future retention and
035employee engagement opportunities. Um looking at why employees leave, I put together a couple different charts here. Um the pie chart shows that most of them list resignation and they don't really expand on that. Um we do have a few people who um do say that they're moving to new employment, whether that's another district, um or moving out of teaching. That's what is represented in that segment, and then we had quite a few retirements this year with 16% and then other is either people who didn't put anything or terminations, involuntary terminations, which typically do not complete an exit interview. If we're looking at our overview of departures, this year we had a few less with um of people leaving, which is nice to see. Uh we had Last year we had 20 teachers and this year
036we had 15, so So was good. Um I was able to do more exit interviews on the teachers this year. Last year I think I had roughly a 45% exit interview and this year I did 67. And I really focused on trying to get sit down with them in person um after and have them do the online questionnaire first. Some of them chose not to do that, but so then I went through it in person as much as they were willing to share with me. I feel like we get better feedback with those one-on-one interviews with people than you do with an online survey. Um, so I appreciate having the opportunity to take time and do that with the um employees that are exiting the district. Um, I did break it down a little bit
037different this year for our support staff a little bit more um, into categories. And that was more for me so that I can see the areas that I am lacking, which is food service and office personnel. Um, food service a lot of times they are difficult to reach after they leave and then office I just have not been very successful in gathering information for those. We don't have a lot of office turnover typically. Um, this year a big chunk of that number is represented in our in our office in central office with our purchasing um, position that has had a little bit of turnover this year. Um, but otherwise I feel like we are successfully completing those. Um, I would like to get a little bit higher overall. I think right now this is about
038a 40% average and I would like to get closer to 50% um, completion of exit interviews. Um, I think one of the great things that comes out of these is the what employees value most are the things that we're doing well. Um, employees all of our employees almost mention student relationships as the top thing that they value about their job. Um And so that's great to see. That's what That's why they went into education. But they also um value their co-workers and um their teams. They also very much enjoy the mentorship program that we have for our new teachers. Um both our new teachers mentioned that and the teachers who are mentors always mention that. So, that's good to see. Um overall, our teachers are happy with our benefit package. Um there are a few
039who don't um think that it's good enough, but um for the most part they think that our benefit package is is good. And then schedule always comes up for um a positive people like that. Monday through Friday and summers off. It's a good schedule. Um some opportunities for improvement, these haven't changed much over the years. District communication has always been our number one area that people mention that we could work on improving. Um workload is constantly up there. Um something new this year was building morale. Uh So, each building I guess is feeling like maybe there's some room for improvement there. And then last year we didn't have very much on compensation, but that did come back up again this year as an area for improvement. Um some recommendations for next steps from me would
040be to work on our communication as we're going through a period of transition with new superintendent and switching over on our student information system, I don't think that we can communicate too much. Um so, the more that we push out to employees the better they're going to feel. Um so just I think I don't know if we need to do some sort of newsletter or something like that just to kind of get that information out on at least a monthly basis. Um another opportunity for improving communication would be um working with the administrators. The most of the staff their line to the district is through their principal. So, if we could focus on getting communication training for our administrators, I think that that would help um overall with communication in the district. And I think
041we're already working on that cuz I got an email this morning for an administrator training in July. Um so, that's something that I think will help overall in our communication. And I think as part of it is just we want to make sure that everybody is um on the same line. We need to work on branding, I think, in our communication. Um and so, some of that stuff can be easily achieved through administrator training. Another area that I think is important to focus on is recognition. When we're looking at morale in the building, something that is an easy way to improve morale is to um recognize our employees for things that that they're doing. We this last year we did um implement the teacher of the year and support staff of the year. Um it
042was a little rocky, I think, for the first year, but I think um overall that's going to be a great um process to have, and I would welcome feedback on how we can improve that. Um one of the things I know we need to work on is our communication with that um process. And then, um another thing that I would like to work on is stay interviews, which um are similar to exit interviews, but are done with staff that are still that that are not leaving. Um I was intending to do them this year, and that didn't happen with timeline stuff. So, next year I I I would try to get those done earlier on in the year and then maybe do a follow-up one in the spring. But spring this year was when I
043was intending to do them and that was poor planning because it's too busy um for that. Is there any questions? >> Thank you, Stacy. Are there any questions from the board? Aaron. >> Yeah, you had mentioned the administration administrator communication training. This is an area that I think it'd be beneficial to the district as a whole to do maybe a little bit more widespread communication training. Um I've gone through personally gone through um several sessions on just various types of effective communication and just I find it very helpful, very valuable um and uh that's an area of professional development that we could explore. I would fully support that. >> Owen. >> Yeah, thanks so much for conducting these. It's a lot of work to get this type of data, but I think it's really important
044for us to try to try to understand what's in our control um to retain folks um and then I yeah, I really like the idea of the the stay interviews, too. Um understand what we're doing right and why people want to stay. >> Yeah. Thank you. I don't know part of my um reason I didn't get stay interviews done is I was struggling to figure out which employee which employees to select for those if it should be completely random or if we should choose a focus area. Um I think I was leaning towards random, but I'm kind of thinking a focus area might be a good place to start. We struggle with special ed, so maybe we focus on doing some interviews with our strong special ed um staff and see what their recommendations are
045and um go from there. >> I agree with you Aaron on the communication um as and we even found with our community survey that um people get information in a lot of different ways and I think also as we implement our communication plan, we also want to think about all the different channels that that people receive communication. >> Yeah, I think we got a good foundation to build on there, but it's definitely going to be a continuous improvement environment um as we uh uh engage more actively in that area. So um and as far as the opportunities for improvement, um this is just ripe for our strategic planning, uh making sure that we we consider uh where we need to improve here with district communication, workload, building morale uh compensation, um actually maybe getting something
046a little bit more tangible into the into the uh strategic plan that we can operationally then uh link to and and see if we can't move the needle on some of these things a little bit more effectively, I guess. So So I guess I'll be looking when we get together on our strat plan meeting to uh to have these as consideration for for updates. >> It's on the list. Yep. Any other questions or comments? All right. Yep, Stacy, thank you for conducting these. Um we and and we appreciate um our former employees' feedback as well just to help make us a better and stronger district. So thank you for people willing to take the time to participate as well. So thank you. >> Under Board Education, we have Student Summit, Mr. Gaylor. >> All right,
047while this is pulling up just a little bit of background on the um history, I guess, of student summits in the district. Uh we've done this I think three or four times where we get students together around kind of some design challenges, and this one uh happened to be a little bit more broad because uh as we wrestled with our um guiding coalition for you know, looking at our secondary schedule, um we had, of course, advertised it was op- open applications from the staff, from community, from students. Um we had some students that were interested, but it was a big commitment, and our kids are busy. You saw the activities report, and they they were evening meetings, and so we needed a real uh good way to engage our students um in the same type
048of dialogue, um different time frames, not uh several meetings in the evenings, but uh we did do a focus group for the middle school and a focus group from uh the high school, and then we did a kind of a day-long summit. So, um when we put out for the guided guiding coalition, and we didn't have many student responses or they couldn't make a lot of the meetings, um then there was discussion at guiding coalition that this was going to be an important thing to engage students in. So, I just wanted to give a quick report on that. Uh and much to my surprise, when you include, you know, well, shouldn't have been surprised, when you include lunch a lunch with focus group and a a full day uh out of school school activity excused
049experience, we had 58 responses in the first week um for students that were interested. Then as they got more information about what was required, we kind of got down to the group size that we had in the end. So, again, this was a kind of a replacement experience for those that were involved in the guided guiding coalition looking at just what are our strengths, what areas do we want to highlight when we're looking 10 years down the road, where do we want to be, and what areas do we want to grow in, and then also how can we take some logical next steps and what would our students say? So, uh a number of years ago um when I was working on my master's, I think back in 2011, I did a a study on
050student voice. And really they are our stake our main stakeholder, they're our main client, they're who we should be designing around, and they have ideas. Boy, do they have ideas. Sometimes their ideas, you know, stretch us, sometimes they surprise us, and if we aren't engaging our students in in what their day-to-day experience is, then we're really not doing our jobs. And so this was really important. It was also a lot of fun to be able to do this as well. So, one of the things we talked about in the guiding coalition was this idea of an entrepreneurial mindset, and the board has mentioned several times that we really need to be better at marketing, better at communications. Also, we need to to look at the competitive nature of schools and how that's shifted over time.
051And so who better to ask than our students? And you know, you know, this quote from students um most of their quotes not full sentences, but and my uh my 12 now 12-year-old daughter volunteered to type these up so the so I just pulled the quotes directly from there, but the quote that was written down teachers plus administrations taking students more seriously and acting on their ideas and concerns. And I think that uh we have a lot of of uh student engagement processes in place already. Um but nothing necessarily formal and I think it's something that we need to think about um more formally. I know the board at some points have discussed, you know, student membership on the board as well. Um All right. So, we did two focus groups. The 27th uh was
052with the middle school students and the 30th with high school and then we did the full day experience on the on the 7th. Uh May 7th was actually facilitated by a uh education futurist uh from an organization called KnowledgeWorks. KnowledgeWorks has been working in the state um with districts. Um I think they started with Bismarck, Northern Cass, Oakes, and West Fargo um on the themes of personalized learning in the state. And so um they offered to come and and lead that experience. Um and I'll talk a little bit about what that was, too. So, um that day long agenda was really just about first building their um trust and confidence in communicating. Um then they had a really long discussion about what's learning and what's school and what's different. Sometimes we're learning things outside of
053school um or sometimes we're learning things inside of school and how are those experiences different? Uh students did a reflection piece and then some really small group sharing on what was an impactful learning experience for you. Could have been inside of school or outside of school. They studied just a couple of innovative learning models and examples. I wish that they would have maybe spent a little bit more time on that cuz it could have given some students more concrete examples. And then they did some uh designing and prototyping, but um we ran short on time. Surprise. Um but I I think that we at least got the start of their ideas and need to continue that conversation. First of all, our teachers do an excellent job because our students were articulate. They collaborated well. I
054mean, this is imagine pulling just, you know, 28 interested students from the middle school and high school together, putting them in small groups and teams, and uh watching them come together and work. Pretty magical and not by accident because our teachers are having kids communicate, have dialogue quite a bit, a lot of uh in-person problem-solving, and that lent itself well uh to this. Um kids were from different backgrounds. Um they shared their own personal experiences, and there was a great sense of uh kindness. Um our high school students, and some middle school students, too, really took some leadership roles in in facilitating those conversations. And um they remained engaged pretty much the whole day. Um they get a little excited when, you know, snack time came around and that kind of thing, but but otherwise,
055uh really they were just focused on the task in front of them. Um our kids understand what meaningful and relevant learning looks like because they do get to experience that um in our schools. They value the hands-on. They value the authentic opportunities where they get to apply what they're learning. Um they talked about challenge um and and being pushed in their classes. Um they also shared some things that that they value a little bit less. More, you know, in some experiences they said they need more hands-on and less lectures. Um they want to be able to make mistakes and have chances to improve. So, sometimes our um our grading systems penalize mistakes instead of saying this is a chance for feedback and then improve uh towards mastery. Um they almost all when they identified a
056meaningful learning experience, they were talking about a coach. They were talking about a teacher. Uh they were talking about an advisor or a parent or an aunt or uncle. Um one of the students um this actual quotes again uh said more inclusivity for neurodivergent. So, you know, our again, our kids know what's going on in the world. Uh they uh they know what they want to see. Um I think that that quote relates a little bit back to you'll remember our student council um student body president this year talking about peer-to-peer. And there was a whole group uh I think she rallied a group of kids that were just working on kind of that design challenge that day too and and advocating for that. Um so, I think really impressive that they realize how relationships
057between each other matter and then also relationships with um teachers have been meaningful uh learning experiences for them. Kids want to get pushed. Um there were a number of students that felt like some of their educational experiences weren't pushing them. And um you know, we do you know, once kids get into their junior senior year, it really we have so many opportunities for kids to push themselves, uh but it seemed like uh more of that conversation was around um you know, more advanced opportunities in middle school and up through 10th grade, at least from uh what I saw in the notes on that. Um they want to be able to make an impact with what they're uh with what they're learning, and I think this was a great example of that. Um they spent all
058day dedicated to this. They were uh critically thinking, they were problem-solving, they were looking at realistic and unrealistic ideas, they were uh communicating with each other and with adults, and um that's learning, too. And then they had a real tangible impact at the end of that. Um they did come up with like quite a few ideas, of course, flexible schedule, uh open lunches I was a hot topic with students. Um and you just, you know, you bring up well, there's tradeoffs with everything, right? We can we could go into 4:00 and have or 3:45 and have open lunch, or we could have a shorter school day. Um those are all just tradeoffs that we have. Uh they again value the hands-on uh learning. The group that was focused on peer-to-peer and support systems for all
059kids. Um and then they talked about um extracurricular opportunities, um you know, including things like um well, it's called unified sports now, it would be the the way to look at that, um where of all abilities can come and participate, or inter- intramural types of opportunities were things that came up um pretty often, too. Um uh time for processing, brain breaks, a lot of ideas around movement in the classrooms, as well. All right. Um so, overall, our kids have a high sense of uh safety in school and support in school. Not all of them feel as strongly about that belonging piece. And I I'll talk a little bit in the next piece about how can we measure that over time? Um they want flexible schedules. They want real-world career connected learning. Um and they've recognized
060that when that's happening and they value that. So, those are just things that I think we need to encourage growth on. Um flexible pacing. So, a few students, not all, but a few students talked about it takes me longer to learn something. And or some students talked about this is sort of repetitive. I knew this from last year and yet I'm being asked to do it again. That's a challenge in education that I think um we're getting closer to as we're implementing standards-based learning to be able to have opportunities in the same um learning sequence where kids are pushed to go to a higher level and kids are also pushed to meet the standard over time. Um they want more ownership and choice and voice in their learning um as I think we all do
061even as adults. Um I think I already talked about all of these pieces. Uh All right. So, as we look uh towards the end of the day and kids had deep discussions about like, well, what you know, what does their future look like? What are their have their learning experiences been and how does that prepare them for their future? And um they really felt like um they wanted to have more balance between hands-on learning. Some of them did like actually preferred lecture-heavy instruction and um but I think that they wanted more with that. They uh wanted more uh opportunities for exploration. And some of the students that were in the middle school recognized some of the um changes that uh were made with the ability to explore different clubs and activities in the in the
062middle school. Um they also recognized that uh when they got into, you know, ninth grade, they realized the plethora of opportunities that we offer in JPS. Um it's just that their schedule kind of constrained them. Um We talked about uh the importance of human connection. So, one of the things that surprised me was our students' passion for um not wanting a lot of AI-generated experiences. They said, "We can tell when teachers use AI to generate content." Um they they said that they value the human connection coming to school and doing that. Uh Some of them had experience with online courses, and they said um to be honest, they learned a lot less in that environment because they didn't have that human connection piece. Um and so, I think it you know, it's a it's a
063nice uh time for us to pause and say, "What do we want our model of school to look like?" And if you ask students, they value that human connection and that in-person learning as well. Um So, one of the things that the questions that we left at the end of the day with was um "Which students, despite our best efforts, aren't feeling connected and how do we get them engaged in school?" Um how much flexibility uh can we How can we make incremental progress on that flexibility? What's sustainable in that?" And then, do we have effective measures for our belonging and uh engagement? Our new state engagement survey does have a component with belonging in it and that could be something a metric we look at in the strategic plan committee um cuz I think
064that's you know one of the one of the key points they made when they talked about their impactful learning experiences was that it they felt like they belonged um when they had those really meaningful learning experiences. We're going to continue to the conversation on um scheduling models. Uh that's a uh school conversation. It's a community conversation and I I think it's especially important that it's also a student conversation um and with that I guess I would stand for any questions you might have. >> Thank you Mr. Gaylor. Any questions from the board? I think you did a pretty thorough job of explaining it. It is I think it is important to have our students have a voice um in in if if they have a voice they they're going to be more engaged in in
065what the outcome is. So. Anything else? Thank you. Next on our agenda we have the superintendent's report Dr. Lack. >> Thank you. You have my written report along with the higher in the new higher information that we'll be acting on later. Uh touch on just a few topics. The outdoor facilities use agreement with Jamestown Parks and Recreation. I've I've brought this up a few times in my superintendent report um and this is something that will be uh coming in the next month or so. Uh we've been working collaboratively collaboratively with Parks and Rec. We've been very fortunate uh in that uh we have a lot of uh spaces that we have not had to rent um that we utilize for activities. The trade off for that has been that we occasionally get requests for improvements
066in those. It might be resurfacing a tennis area. Might be renovating dugouts at Jack Brown. And what this discussion has been is replacing those occasional large requests with annual rental agreements instead. Easier for us to budget, easier easier for us to understand what those costs are, and it provides a stream of revenue for Parks and Rec to make sure that those facilities are to the standard that we need them to be and in the community needs them to be. So, in the in the next month or so, I think I think we have it scheduled for July that we'll have a facilities use agreement that addresses the facilities that I've listed. That's Jack Brown Stadium, McElroy Field Complex, Trapper Field, softball complex, Hillcrest Golf Course, the tennis courts, soccer complex, softball complexes, Hillcrest. And if
067we use those if we don't use those facilities, there isn't an there wouldn't be an agreement cost that would be annually determined. We're going to use Jack Brown Stadium and that's the annual cost is this. And again, the idea would be that this replaces those like 3 or 4 years ago, I think we had a request for lights at at the softball complex at Trapper. 2 years before that, we had I think a fairly large request. I think it was $15,000 or $20,000 for dugouts at Jack Brown. Resurfacing tennis we had in the last few years. This would have replaced those. So, we would have a larger cost annually, but I think those costs would spread out over time, make it a little bit easier to budget for for both uh and Rec and for
068the district. So, uh I mean, if there's questions on that, I I certainly stand for them at the end of my report, uh but we'll also be bringing that completed uh recommended use agreement up in in July. Uh from a strategic plan update standpoint, uh we are meeting on June 4th. Uh we have uh the beginning of our annual review and revision of the district's strategic plan. Uh we've had some feedback from the committee and the board on um our current um strategic plan. And And I've looked at them as kind of having two uh key areas uh for improvement that have been discussed throughout the year. One uh is simplification. Simplification doesn't mean fewer goals or or fewer lower standards. It means simplifying the process. A- And so, what what we did in this
069initial draft was what we call goal nesting. So, we are going to have fewer goals, but that doesn't mean that we have fewer priorities. So, it will have five goals instead of five areas. We're going to have five goals, and then in each of those goals will be three priority areas. Each of those priority areas with metrics. So, this isn't doing less, it's just how we're reporting uh and how we are nesting those goals together. Um and they still align with Cognia standards, which we had great feedback on, but we believe that gives us a more holistic view uh of the goal areas, uh simplifies progress monitoring, uh makes makes that easier and more transparent for the community to view how we're doing uh as a district along these goals. Uh the second was improved
070metrics. Um we had in in the last iteration of the plan, we focused a lot on perceptual perceptual feedback, and that gives us good insight, but we were pretty heavy on perceptual feedback. And so we want to look at more leading indicators. Um and that will help us look a little bit more holistically at those goals and priority areas. Uh and those have yet to be developed. Uh but along with that, we wanted to provide a little more clarity and transparency around progress and how we're meeting our goals. And so uh we have a really great dashboard right now that helps us uh give some sense, but even when we say that goal is in progress or that goal is met or that goal is on track, there isn't a consistency of that definition. Uh
071and so what we want to do in this next iteration is define progress monitoring better. So we would have standards that are consistent in every goal. Uh so when we say a goal is met, that same standard exists for every goal. Uh and if we say goal on track, that's the same standard. If we say that goal is not on track or that goal isn't started, that those have the same metrics. So there's consistency amongst how we're progress monitoring. And right now that's a little more loose. Uh it depends on the goal. And partly that's because we have so many goals. Um so we want to consolidate that a little bit and we think that's going to be a better uh process, but that's for the for the committee to review. Uh and I'm sure
072there will be We have a framework kind of started. And uh I'm sure through discussion at the strategic plan committee uh that will continue to grow and and become even more robust than what it is. Uh just as a draft right now. Uh the community leadership meeting, uh we met as a you know, community leaders were invited uh to a round table discussion last week. That was May 29th. We just wanted to bring those organizations together uh to build an understanding about uh and bring awareness to what are the goals of each of those organizations. What are what's the operational drag? You know, what are the limits that inhibit their ability to reach their goals? How can we work together? You know, we we do a really good job, I think in this community, of
073of collaborating and working together, but those things happen organically. They happen because different organizations have relationships or people in those organizations have relationships, but we don't have a cohesive structure in which to talk to each other and foster that kind of collaboration. And so, this community community leadership round table is really the first step in, you know, building that process. And so, we invited University of Jamestown Chamber of Commerce, Jamestown Economic Development, City of Jamestown, Stutsman County, and in the the course of that conversation, what we decided was we needed more time. And they want to continue to meet throughout and have a regular schedule for these meetings. They felt value even in the 2 hours that we got to spend with each other. That there was value in it and they wanted to see
074if we could even expand beyond those those key organizations that we brought in and, you know, continue to grow that and I think there's a great opportunity here to not only foster awareness to what's happening, but build some consensus around what we need and develop more collaborations across the community. So, that was a good first step. The last thing I have is a spotlight. I wanted to bring attention to Coach Ben Smith. He was named WDA Boys Swim and Dive Coach of the Year, which was already recognized earlier this year, but uh I also wanted to recognize Coach Smith is, you know, has resigned. He'll be taking on other responsibilities throughout, you know, in in the state. But and we will certainly miss his leadership. He's been a fantastic coach. If you know coach Smith,
075you know there's probably no better recruiter. Well, Bill Nelson might argue that point. I think they're 1A and 1B, how about? But coach Smith does a great job in bringing people to to swim and to swim and dive and really building a program. He's done a fantastic job with that and he's been recognized for that not only as WDA coach of the year and I think that's 2 years in a row, but he was also recognized as a finalist for the National Federation of High Schools Coach of the Year in Swim and Dive and so he's he'll be down in Iowa City, Iowa for that for that presentation in the end of June and beginning of July and we wish him the best of luck as he you know, gets honored for the for that
076award and for as for being a finalist and is in the running for coach of the year. So, want to recognize him for those things and all of the wonderful leadership he's provided to swim and dive in in the district. So, with that I would stand for questions. >> Any questions from the board on the superintendent's report this evening? Okay. Now moving on in our agenda, we have nothing under old business and our new business we have nothing under activities, buildings and grounds. Moving to curriculum, assessment and instruction. A. Approval of a drumline ensemble course. Is there a motion? Motion by Aaron, is there a second? Second by Anya. Motion and second for approval of a drumline ensemble course. Any discussion? There is a cost to this. Um are we looking at some grants or
077is there some different opportunities we're exploring? >> The ex- The what you see as a budget is covered by a grant that we that was written already and approved. >> Okay, just that's what I thought. I just wanted to share that as well. So, we have a motion and a second for approval of a drumline ensemble course. The only other question I got um was was students have to have the two years of piano prior to participating. Is that going to be a requirement or maybe we don't know that? >> No, my understanding is available to all students regardless of uh if they have the two years of piano or not. It's a it's designed for all levels. >> All right, that was a one of the questions I received. So, we have a motion
078and a second for approval of a drumline ensemble course. Any other discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. >> I. >> Opposed, same sign. Motion approved. Under finance, approval of the memorandum of understanding with Central Valley Health for nursing services for the 2026 to 2027 school year. Note that this I believe this is the same amount as what we've had in the past. Is there a motion? Motion by Steve. >> Second by Dan. We have a motion and a second for approval of the memorandum of understanding with Central Valley Health for nursing services for 2026 to 2027 school year. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. >> I. >> Opposed, same sign. Motion approved. Under personnel,
079A, approval of ratification of the teacher master agreement and subsequent JEA approval letter. Is there a motion? Motion by Dan. >> Second by Jason. We have a motion and a second for approval of the ratification of the teacher master agreement and the JEA approval letter. >> We don't need roll call for this, do we? >> Chrissy, let's do a roll call vote for this one. Jamie Bear. >> Yes. >> Heidi Larson. >> Yes. >> Jason Rohr. >> Yes. >> Dan Tweeton? >> Yes. >> Aaron Roberts? Oh, I come again. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Steve Velkamp? >> Yes. >> And Owen McKenna? >> Yes. >> Six unanimous approval. Moving on to the agenda, we have B, approval of schedule for non-teaching professionals. Is there a motion? Motion by Dan. Seconded by Steve. We have a motion seconded
080for approval of schedule for non-teaching professionals. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. Opposed, same sign. Motion approved. C, approval of support staff lane change corrections. There was a memo in there in your uh drive. Is there a motion? Motion by Aaron. Seconded by Dan. We have a motion seconded for approval of support staff lane change corrections. Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed, same sign. Motion carried. D, reconsideration of administrator master agreement. Dan, would you report on that, please? >> Yeah. Um I will be uh submitting a motion for reconsideration of the um adminis- um approval of our master agreement that was uh voted on April 20th. Um I guess
081I'll wait for a second. We can we can discuss. >> Second. >> So, we now have a motion and a second for reconsideration of administrator master agreement. Motion by Dan and seconded by Owen. Any discussion? Go ahead, Dan. >> Yeah, the uh the reason reason for this is uh early on in the negotiations we were holding to a a fixed uh one-time payment. And that was uh a pretty coarse stance with the um both negotiating units. Um with that in place, the administrators decided to bow out of negotiations and accept that they were just going to use the old contract that they used this this year. The both parameters changed, and as we worked through it, we we thought it would be fair to basically offer a very similar agreement uh since our stances had
082changed so so much. Basically to keep the administrators in the in the JEA within uh kind of the same assumptions. So, that's the rationale for asking for this reconsideration. >> Any other discussion? Aaron. >> Just a question on what what does this mean in terms of the process for the negotiations and coming to a mutual agreement? >> At at this point, what would this what this would do is we would it would since we already have the bargaining unit, we wouldn't go through those again. It's basically just an unrolling of the previous of the approval of the agreement. We would meet with the administrators again to give them an offer uh that is consistent with what we gave the JEA, and upon agreement of that, update the agreement, come back for a vote uh probably
083by the next meeting. >> It'll be brought back to the board for the contract for a vote. Next one. >> Both sides could open up the agreement has been approved, but both sides could agree to open that back up again during the term. >> Any other discussion or questions? Okay. We have a motion and a second for reconsideration of administrator master agreement. Um by voting yes, it means um, the negotiating our negotiators would um, contact their negotiating lead person, um, and um, talk about a similar agreement and if both parties agree to that, that would come back before the board for for a vote. And we're hoping to take care of that before the July 1st um, deadline, so that would be the next meeting. Any questions on that at this point? Okay. Christie, I
084think we'll do a roll call for this as well. Dan Tweeton? >> Yes. >> Aaron Roberts? >> Yes. >> Steven Belken? >> Yes. >> Owen McKenna? >> Yes. >> Jamie Bear? >> Yes. >> Heidi Larson? >> Yes. >> Jason Rohr? >> Yes. >> You know, okay. Motion approved and then we'll wait to hear back from you, Dan, and Owen and Jason. Moving on in our agenda, approval to hire for the 2026 to 2027 school year upon a successful background check and appropriate licensure. Number one, Gabrielle Zimmer. Number two, Tyler Dean. And number three, Ryan Fromke. Is there a motion? Motion by Aaron, second by Dan. We have a motion and a second for approval to hire for the 2026 to 2027 school year upon a successful background check and appropriate licensure. Gabrielle Zimmer, Tyler Dean,
085and Ryan Fromke. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carried and welcome to our district. Under policies and procedures, would you like Can we do them all together? Would you like any of them separate? Okay. Approval of policy ACEB hazing, BDAB savings class, BDBB retaining an attorney. Is there a motion? Motion by Owen, second by Steve. We have a motion and a second of approval of policies ACEB, BDAB, BDBB. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. Oppose same Oppose same sign. Motion carried. Under tuition, we have approval of tuition agreement for number one, Medina. Is there a motion? Motion by Dan, second by Jason. We have a
086motion and a second for approval of tuition agreement for number one, Medina. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? All those who approve say I. I. Up Oppose same sign. Motion approved. We have nothing under other. Items for future agenda. Does anyone have any items for future agenda? If not, let Dr. Leck or myself know. And we have a few meetings to be scheduled. We have the strategic plan committee meeting on Thursday, June 4th, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. in the district office conference room. If any board members want something additional on that discussion that we haven't talked about at previous board meetings, I have a list of notes. Um, please let Dr. Leck or myself know prior to that meeting. Our health insurance committee is meeting on Monday, June 8th. This one's at noon in the
087district office conference room. And there's a Our next school board meeting is on Monday, June 15th at 5:30 p.m. in the town hall community room at the middle school. And there's also GED graduation on June 17th, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. at the James Valley Career and Tech Technology Center. Are we missing any meetings? For right now? Okay. Um, potential executive session to discuss negotiation strategies. Okay. So, we have a superintendent evaluation, section five, community relations, and section six, operations and resource management. You can complete that or not. We can send the uh results to Dr. Leek in the future. So, so it is up to you um at this point um but we we will um resume um the uh superintendent evaluations with our interim superintendents in the future. Yes, Dr. Leek. >> Do you
088have a comment about the superintendent evaluations? Uh there's been discussion about changing that model, having it look somewhat different. Uh if that is to be the case, you would want to have that done uh before the annual meeting in July. So, just for your awareness, if you're going to make a change to that, uh now would be the time to do that. >> And we have we do have a task force that's looking at that and is looking at some different models um also um in the state. So, we will bring that forward. Any question questions about that or comments on superintendent evaluation? If not, there being no further business before the board, this meeting is adjourned.