Jamestown School Board Meeting April 20, 2026

001Good evening. I'd like to call this regular meeting of the Jamestown Public School Board to order. It is Monday, April 20th, 5:30 p.m. and we're in the art center today because at 5:00 today, we got a tour of the beautiful culinary arts classroom here. And we'll get more information on that later on in our agenda. I'd also like to note that board member Melissa Gleason is joining us by phone today. We'd like to recognize everyone in attendance today and uh we appreciate that you are coming and we will have some awards. We'll get to those shortly. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag to the republic nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice. Does the board have any new conflicts of interest? Any new conflicts of interest? New

002conflicts of interest. If not, um Dan, would you be willing to read the school board norms? Yes, the board developed norms are to share and respect opinions and speak with a united voice once a decision has been reached to 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, Dan. Moving on in our agenda, we have no public communication. Moving into our consent agenda, is there anything any board member like removed or clarified on our consent agenda? If not, is there a motion? Motion by Janie. Is there a second? Second by Owen. We have a motion and second for approval of the consent agenda. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion?

003If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. oppose. Same sign. Motion carried. Moving into our regular meeting under recognition, we have the North Dakota Allstate team. So, as your name is called, please join me over here and then we'll have you come up on the stage. And family members, please feel free just to come right up front and take photos. >> Jamie, would you be willing to read the name? >> Of course. Jamestown High School students who received honors from the North Dakota Allstate team. Bronze team, Maggie Stagmiller. Honorable mention, Shane Martin, honorable mention Marissa Moltzen, and honorable mention Mia Tyson. So, we have no correspondence under reports. U student council report and there's a place over here for you to stand. Hello. Okay. Good evening. My name is Bel

004Shustrom. As student council president, I'm here to deliver the report highlighting recent events, activities, and updates within our school community. Prom was a success this year featuring the theme Hollywood High Roller. It was well attended with over 10,000 people coming to support and watch Graham March. It was a memorable night for students and we would like to thank everyone who helped make it possible. And a special thank you to parents and tourers activity center for hosting a safe and enjoyable postp prom experience. Student council is currently planning an upcoming awareness week which is a new thing we've added. It will raise awareness for different causes represented within our school. The goal is to promote understanding, inclusion, and support among students and staff. Uh spring sports are underway including boys golf, girls soccer, baseball, softball track,

005and girls tennis. And National Honor Society recently hosted a successful blood drive. Um as well as a few of us will be attending conference later this month. Additionally, student council elections for next fall are coming up, providing students with opportunities to get involved in leadership roles and continuing to make a positive impact in our school. Overall, our school community continues to stay active, engaged, and supportive throughout a variety of events and initiatives. You guys have any questions for me? >> Any questions for Val? >> Sounds like you've been really busy with with events and with only a few weeks left. So, thank you for all the work you do. >> Thank you. Our next report comes from the art center, Mindy Schmidt. You can tell the difference in age because she uses her phone and

006I don't for notes. But anyway, first of all, welcome to the art center and thank you so much for coming. We we we're glad you're here. We're glad you see the space. my my goal ever since I got this job in 2019 was to get more people in here and I think I've successfully reached that goal or we have there's a lot of people that come through here. So, thank you for coming. Um, we appre we always appreciate this the the opportunity to collaborate with other partners in in town and we've been a this partnership with JPS has just been fantastic. Um, we are so thankful for for sharing the that we share the culinary kitchen and classroom with the JPS students, culinary students. It's great. We're going to miss them this summer. JPS's financial

007support, the $146,000 grant, was instrumental in completing our capital campaign goal to finish the space. The initial grant purchased large kitchen equipment and and and subsequent grant supported ancillary equipment, utensils, pots and pans, cutlery, mixers, and as Dr. Le pointed out, we even we got some um equipment from Washington School. So, it's just been it's been a great partnership. We love to have those kids in there. Uh we wouldn't have nearly the capacity of the kitchen that we have without our partnership with you guys. So, thank you so much. We appreciate it. After our little tour today, any other questions about the kitchen or >> Okay. Any questions from the board? >> All right. >> And another >> Thank you for the tour. You're welcome. >> And I understand there's some community, not only the

008students have opportunity to use it, the Jamestown public school students, but also there's some community things. Yeah, we have a lot of community classes, cooking classes, sushi, salsa making, biscuits and butter. I mean, you name it, you can have a private class. When you walk out, there's a whole flyer on on culinary classes. So, that's been a great addition to Jamestown. Um, we also want to thank you for your continued support of our artisan resident. So, as you know, our artisan resident goes into the schools and works with K through K through five at the Jamestown public schools and and does a fantastic job. Um, we've been doing that for over I think it's over 30 years. I couldn't remember I and I haven't been here for 30 years, but I couldn't remember um exactly

009when it started, but it's been a great program. And because of our capital campaign, we're going to be able to renovate the space that the artisan resident um currently lives in now, too. That's right above our offices. So, with that, I'm going to turn it over to Cole Carpenter here. He's our education and exhibitions director. He's going to talk about our current artisan resident, the fantastic K through2 art show that just completed and our new artisan resident. So, I'm turn it over to Cole. >> Thank you so much, Mindy. As Mindy mentioned, we are have a current artist and resident named Anna Brock and has stayed with us for about three years now, but it's time to move on to the next thing. I'm actually going to pull your attention up here to the screen

010where we talk about the K through2 show and then introduce everybody to the new artist and resident coming this summer. So, just give me one second while I get make sure everything gets transferred over. So, as part of the artisan residence program, um, Anna and had Anna and I had been discussing having a K through2 exhibition to showcase all of the student work that they work all year for. And we had a nice open couple weeks in March and decided this is the year to commit to it while Anna was so accustomed to the schools. That way we had somebody in the classroom who's familiar with both the arts center, the artist and residence program and the local classrooms as well. So with Anna's help, we put on this K through2 show that lasted about

0115 weeks. We were anticipating maybe 50 pieces of work, if we were lucky, a hundred, but we had well over 700 pieces of artwork here on the walls. And I'll show you a couple pictures from that. Oh, come on. So here is the first image. This is on opening night. We have a couple schools listed here. We broke down each of these gallery walls into a different school. Some schools like Lincoln and Roosevelt had large participation, so they took up multiple walls. Other schools took up little snippets, and we even included St. John's out all the way into the hallway. Um, you can see a little pedestal up here in this top corner. This is from Bridgewell. Um, and then we had as many pieces as we could fit. We weren't sure if we were

012going to fit all 750 in here, but we got most of them. So that's pretty exciting. And then so this first image is coming from our perfectly paired an event that we host here where we do some sort of wine pairing with food to welcome the show. And this was a moment for Anna to reflect on her experience as the artist and residents. But of course we had something that was a little bit more family appropriate. So we had a public opening that evening. We saw just about over 80 people join us. So that's families bringing their kids, checking out their work, and celebrating as a community. During this little event, we talked a little bit about this experience as well as looking forward. So we'd like to host this show every year and grow

013it into something where we can provide scholarships and more opportunities for kids interested in pursuing the arts. So here's a couple snippets from that. During this time, Anna had also scheduled with the teachers that we coordinate um little field trips. So, we brought classes in, usually two at a time, to come check out the exhibition. We split them into two groups. One group would come find their artwork, do a little scavenger hunt, run around in the gallery, and the other group would learn about what it means to preserve artwork, why it's important to preserve artwork, how to treat artwork with respect, and all those sorts of things. So, we had a bunch of different age groups come in to participate with that. Some of the PTO's also came together to coordinate little snacks for the

014kids when they came in. They had their own little opening reception like a little bit more intimate moment with the rest of their classmates. So there they are eating in our gallery floors. So some numbers to look at. We had just over eight schools including some schools uh some submissions from Pingri and Buchanan. We also had some homeschooled students participate. Um, we coordinated about 30 field trips and we had a grand total of 750 pieces exhibited here, which as far as I know is the largest exhibition that the art center has ever had. Um, that's how many we had this year. We're hoping to have even more next year. So, make sure you keep your eyes out on flyers and things like that that we'll be sending out to the schools. We get even more

015participants, including more high schoolers and middle schoolers and people from Kenzel and Montier and all of the little surrounding areas. If we have the room, we might as well use it all. Right. Perfect. Lastly, we had 750 pieces of work. We also coordinate a gallery exhibition at the Jamestown Regional Medical Center. The coordinator at their gallery wall was also a former gallerist who would choose artwork and select artwork. So, they chose 20 pieces from that 750 piece show that they thought were exceptional. And these are now hanging at the Jamestown Regional Medical Center until about July. So there's a couple snippets of kids who went above and beyond um with their work just to support those kids who are putting in the time and effort and in reinventing what they do. Here's a couple more.

016Very nice. All righty. And with that, that ends this year's art ex um K through 12 show. This is the last year for Anna Brock as the artist and residence, but I have one more person I'd like to introduce you to. This is Lindsay Reyes. She is coming from Minnesota. She is going to be joining us this summer and will be conducting next year's artist residence program. So, I'm going to play hers so she can introduce herself. Everything is in. >> Hi everyone. My name is Lindsay Reyes or as you'll call me, Miss Reyes, and I'm going to be your artist and residence for this upcoming school year. A few fun facts about me. I'm from St. Paul, Minnesota. I graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in studio arts and I love cats.

017I've been painting and drawing since I was in fourth grade. And I started printmaking about 6 years ago. These are some of my drawings from when I started at 10 years old. And these are some of my paintings from when I was about 12 years old. Since then, I've been painting and drawing a lot more. And my pieces look like this. I also really love print making, which is the art method that involves putting design on paper through processes like stamping, pushing ink through mesh screens, and rolling through a printing press. I make art pieces of different plants, animals, and landscapes. And these are a few examples of what I've created recently. A little while ago, I taught elementary school students in Sanford, North Carolina. I taught lessons in the regular art classroom and ran

018an after school art club. We made things like art trading cards, decorated sketchbooks, and collages. Just like with the kids in North Carolina, I'm excited to teach lessons in your schools in North Dakota. Like I said, I really love drawing, painting, and print making, but I'm also ready to teach any kind of lesson your classroom might want to try. This residency will give me the chance to teach different art forms to lots of different students in the Midwest, which is an area I love a lot, and I hope you're ready to learn from me. I'm so excited to meet all of you, discover what kind of art you like to make, and have fun creating all kinds of projects together. Thanks for listening. I'll see you soon. >> Awesome. So, that's Lindsay. Like I said,

019she'll be joining us this summer. I've already been in contact with her and we're starting to plan our trip schedules as well as our lesson plans and things like that. That way when we start in September, she is ready to go with all of her lesson plans laid out so every instructor knows exactly what she's going to be doing as she or before she enters the classroom so everybody is always just a little bit more prepared. Awesome. And with that, I'm going to return this mic all the way back to the front. Does anybody have any questions about the K through2 art show or the artist and residence or anything like that? Any questions for me? Any questions from the board? Thank you. Thank you. Moving on in our reports. Um the finance committee met

020again um this past week for hours again. So going through pieces to finance. Um Dan, would you just give like a brief update of meeting. >> Yeah. So, so you have the minutes from the consent agenda that kind of go go through all the items we talked about. The high the part I want to highlight today was uh the review of the financial priorities and kind of the staffing updates in particular with regard to the music program. It's been an area that, you know, we had some discussion several weeks ago or a month ago now about how are we going to support this? And uh just just sort of for everybody's uh purpose, we're not from a even though we're the finance committee, we're not looking purely from a dollars and cents standpoint. We're looking

021for making sure that um the teachers are supported, that the program is is prioritized and that the funding is adequate and with with the what we want to achieve here. So um Mr. Gayler and Dr. for like have been working on the schedules and one of the tasks we gave was get with the teachers, music teachers, make sure that the program that we have is um that we have enough resources to support it. Uh we also reviewed know the reason why this last last year some of the the imple implementation issues uh came up. Um, and it kind of comes down to um the way we prioritized, you know, the English learning um um time was was incorrect for the for the for the volume of work that that was available. So, that really put

022our music teachers in a bind and created what um we're pretty confident after looking at this. It's it's a it's a one-time deal. It was a one-year an unfortunate unfortunate year. But um ultimately looking at these schedules um between the Washington closure and then realigning the English learning priorities um we feel that we can meet all the we can meet the requirements for the classes plus the the uh you know the events that we're used to having as a music program with the transfer by filling the the role that's open with a internal transfer. So that's been accomplished so far and um I guess the the big thing is this is just the start of the conversation. I thought the the the back and forth has has highlighted some items that were really good to

023bring on the table. The solution is something that's financially supportable, but a and it also keeps us supporting the music program. Uh Mr. Mr. Gayler has some more idea ideas ideas on how to continue to support this and they'll be working with the teachers um throughout the course of the year to make sure that's um it's sustainable and we don't burn people out. And I guess with that with with that discussion, I'm willing to recommen recommend that we fill that open position with the uh the internal transfer. Any any other questions or other comments you want me to >> any questions from the board at all? All right, we'll go with that recommend. Any other questions about that recommendation or not moving forward with that recommendation? Thank you. Moving on to board education and strategic

024plan progress monitoring. You have the dashboard there for your reference as well as number two, goal 3.2, improving the digital learning environment. And we have extra we have help too, right? Yep. Deb and Deb Hansen and Levi Hers. All right. Well, uh, thank you Dr. Le and board for inviting us to talk about this a little bit. This is uh usually a couple of the highlight days of the year for me. I get to spend a lot of time in all of the classrooms. Uh we have a couple of secondary educators. I'm going to let you introduce yourself and if you can tell us how many Elliott observations you've done. >> All right. >> Yeah. Hello. My name is Levi Hersorn. I I work at the the high school teach PE health. This is probably

025my third year, sixth Elliott observation that I've been a part of. >> Hey, my name is Deb Hansen and I'm a middle school science teacher. I have sixth and seventh grade and this is my fourth year. >> Yeah. So, Elliot observations are part of our accreditation process and uh these observations were done ex almost exclusively externally prior to this. Cogna made that shift to say districts uh can monitor their own progress. We have a couple exemplary educators here. We actually have a team of I think 11 people who are trained in Elliott observations and so they um not only do the training, we did a little bit of refresher training this spring and uh they're going into our classrooms and providing feedback on what is the student experience. So we're in the classrooms not watching

026necessarily what teachers are doing. Uh sometimes you're watching what a teacher does and how it affects students, but they're mostly watching about what student learning looks like. So they're going to talk about a little bit about that today. We want to build your understanding of Elliott observations. They again play into the accreditation process and uh really the minimum requirement is to do those once before your accreditation year. We're doing them twice annually because we value the feedback and it's also part built into the uh strategic plan um as well in several instances. Uh so we'll be talking about one of those at the end today. Um we're going to get some insights from them and then connect it back to that goal 3.2 and our progress there. So Elliott is an observation system. Uh it's

027actually based on some of the same things that we look at in Marzano or Charlotte Danielson. Um it includes ISTY standards which are technology specific standards which has something to do with our goal 3.2 that we'll talk about at the end. Um teachers are scored in four categories. one being not observed and four meaning very evident meaning 100% of students are engaging in whatever that element is. Uh you spend 20 plus minutes in a classroom uh the teachers record that data and then they enter it into a system which is where we get our results. Um that data is then used by our district school improvement teams to do goal setting uh analysis findings and uh action items each and every school year. And uh again it focuses on the student experience not necessarily teacher

028performance. So these are the areas. There are um A through G up there and there's anywhere between three and five elements under each of those areas. Again, we conduct that twice annually. Um we are looking at all of these areas. It's not used in any way for teacher evaluation. Teachers can get the feedback if they want it. uh one of the things that we try to do at DSI is uh celebrate and then also identify areas of growth. So those are are things that show up in the DSI minutes. Um why does this matter? uh well it gives us over the period of accreditation which is now six years gives us a way to really monitor selfmonitor um and I think that it helps build capacity in our educators as well and it uh helps

029us identify down to the building level what are some things that we should celebrate and what are some areas we should work on. All right, I'll let you guys talk a little bit about um what are we going to look what do we look for when we're in there and um maybe kind of some of the things that you've seen. >> All right. Uh when we enter into a classroom, um we're looking at students. We're listening to the teacher, but we're looking at students. Um teacher might be doing some sort of activity, might be at the board, and she'll ask for students to identify. I probably would look at the students before I would even look up to the board to see what was going on to see are they looking to identify. Um we

030see things of um students engaging with each other um asking questions. Um one thing I'm finding is that they feel safe. They are willing to take a risk. Um if not teacher they might ask a student beside them. um a lot more. Rarely do I walk into a classroom and see a student uh a teacher talking for 20 minutes straight. There's interactions. Um starting to see active learning, kids getting up and moving. Um yeah, so those are some of the things. Um I can touch on secondary. Uh I feel like across the board, like when you go into, you know, the numbers sometimes you think like, you know, it's pretty average around the three range. Well, the cool thing for us is like the observers is if there's a category that scores low in one

031classroom, let's say a two, the next classroom you go to, it seems like the students are getting such a dynamic range of of teachers and the engagement in the classrooms covering those categories. So, it it's kind of cool to see, you know, throughout a day, the these these students aren't getting the same thing at the secondary level. you go into a period two depending on the, you know, content area, you go in and and you see, you know, low scoring in one, but then here you go to the next classroom and and it's elevated. So, that's pretty consistent that that I see, you know, at the secondary level and it's been kind of cool to see. >> And one thing I want to add about the scoring, um, we go in, it's a beginning lesson,

032we can rank middle, we don't, if I'm going in at the end of a lesson, I don't know what was going on in the beginning. So, there could have been factors there. Um, one thing with the scoring, it's it if it's you don't see it, you don't mark it. And it might have been at the beginning, but you just missed it that time, we have to get it next time. And I'm going to add uh Jenna Newman is one of our elementary teachers that that participates in Elliot. She sent a few notes to me uh that students engage most in classrooms with clear expectations, consistent routines. So, uh, they both kind of talked about well-managed and supportive learning, our celebrations. We'll talk about our actual data here in a minute. Uh, but that has to

033do with that. Uh, digital learning is something that is lower, but uh, especially in lower elementary, we're having lots of discussions about developmental appropriateness with that. Um and then a lot of the digital indicators are um they're not consistently available in in daily instruction because sometimes the tool gets in the way of the learning target. Last session you guys had a couple uh middle school folks talking about engagement. We want to be crystal clear about what we want kids to know and be able to do. And sometimes as a teacher, uh, picking that strategy that aligns with the target is more important than the, um, tech tool. You want to talk a little bit about what you've seen improve over time? >> Yeah. So, I'm kind of referencing the last three years that I've I've

034been observing. Um, one of the cool things at the middle school, I've I've really seen improvement and I feel like it's come as a result of of them kind of moving with a clear goal with like standardsbased grading. And that's kind of maybe when I look at like the high school something that we're going to kind of see elevate those numbers to. If you go into a middle school classroom, um, I feel like there's a a clear goal, right? There's intention and the things that they're doing. And I feel like when you're looking at instructional strategies or some of the the progress monitoring that we're seeing and the the higher higher scores at the middle school level, I feel like that's kind of, you know, reciprocative of what what they're trying to do. There's there's

035a pretty clear goal, you know, not just in a specific content area. I think it's, you know, middle schoolwide, you know, 6 through 8. So that's kind of what I'm seeing. Um, one thing is the increased student ownership of learning and that's one thing I'm going to bring out because we kind of been practicing the targets with the standards and they're posted and kids are getting copies of them. They're getting this with them. So now they know why do I need to know this. um we tried to bring in relevancy wherever possible um to their own lives and to where is this applicable in the real life and there's another we rarely hear why do I need to learn this what what is this about so I that's one of those pieces so there there's

036students ownership now of their learning because now they have a why um consistent implementation and um student centered instructional these are best practices um alignment of instructional strategies to the standards and with the learning targets and then common assessments with feedback so students can see >> and Jenna just added that high expectations um was showing some growth for elementary and active learning which I think they've talked about those engagement strategies has been increasing from her perspective over time and then progress monitoring is also an area that they've grown and that has to do with our knowledge of assessment and how kids are able to own their learning and track their own progress. How does it impact you and your professional practice? This would be the last question here. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um, no. I I

037think I I touched on it a little bit, but like, you know, being both middle school and high school observing, like there's such a dynamic range of of ways of instruction and we all kind of have our own unique way to do it, but what we've learned is it, you know, it can be effective either way. So, I think it's really cool to go in and and see that, you know, different strategies, you know, you take some of those and you're like, man, I think that would actually be effective to to do in my own. Um, and that's something I found to be, you know, kind of fun. I I related it a little bit to like the the learning walks that the middle school level is doing where they go in and observe other

038teachers and you know you're not doing this to like assess them. You're just looking at some of the strategies that you see in the students and you see you know in the ways that they do and I think you know districtwide it'd be a benefit for educators to go in and see how other professionals do it because you know I've really enjoyed the opportunities that I've had to go in and observe you know people that are doing the same thing as me. Another thing I would add is that you know the able to identify high instructional strategies and then effect on the student learning. What does that look like in my classroom my content on on a given day? Um I like looking at uh some practices there. How are they scaffolding? Uh questioning techniques.

039Um formative assessments. Is there some new something that could come into my classroom? Um collaboration. There are some times when we have an observation. It might be a time when we're leaving the classroom, we have a moment to talk to that teacher. I appreciate that when we can do that. Sometimes it's they're still teaching and we have to leave because they have to go to hit another classroom. But um I like to have those conversations with them too. Um and then students experience reflects a shift from passive reception to active engagement and ownership. That's the big highlight. Uh I think most of those were already mentioned just the reflection that it causes as a practitioner with things that Jenna cited as well as being intentional and um looking at relevancy and critical content and clarity

040and instruction. Um, for me professionally too, I get to work with the awesome educators that are up here and a host of others and we go in, we observe in partners and then you get to come out and you process and that debrief shows uh how amazing our professionals are. Uh, I think it helps us stay calibrated as well. So, I want to go back and just highlight a few um things. If you look at our trend line, trending up in those observations. Uh so we have the last couple of years note not noted on here. Last spring had a little bit of a dip. Um and then when it comes to kind of a heat map, you can see those strength areas of supportive learning environment and well-managed learning environment. Um and you can

041see the areas of growth this spring. Our overall score this spring was the highest score that we've had so far. And then in the bottom you can see that uh digital learning that is hanging a little bit lower. uh and we'll talk about that. But again, celebrations and this was true across every building uh when they did their planning, celebrations around supportive learning and well-managed learning. And those are definitely foundational elements and a lot of growth in active learning, a lot of growth in progress monitoring and growth in high expectations which I think aligns well with what the board is um emphasizing in our strategic plan and what we've engaged in in professional learning. So with that, we'd stand for any questions on the Elliot tool itself before we dive into progress monitoring. >> Any

042questions? Go ahead. Yeah, this is a interesting process. Uh you mentioned that the the bare minimum is once every six years and we do it twice a year, right? So just curious like how how many observer how many different teachers are observing and uh do you feel like that the load is being shared amongst them? Is it taking you out of the classroom too much or anything like that? So I can so I can answer the actual observations because we get an observation tally on our reports and it's between 80 and 90 observations in a typical day. So our teacher teams are out there. We're doing a lot of 20-minute observations in a day. Um I don't know if you guys want to talk about the other piece >> once in the spring. Um, I

043mean I when we get an opportunity like this, I get an email from from Adam and it says, you know, put in a professional leave day and and you know, opportunities like this I really enjoy. I think it, you know, it's not too much work on on my part. I think it's fun to go in and see that. I think, you know, we learn a lot as educators to have opportunities like this. So, I think it's very valuable and like I said, I think, you know, comparing it to the middle school learning walks where they go in and observe someone that's in the same content area as them. Like I've, you know, had a couple middle school teachers come in and observe me. It's fun to talk and and see and evaluate some of like

044why did you do this? And I think that's that's beneficial. And I think that's, you know, on our part the the good part of the job >> and it's us, it's the district that does this. Um, we've been around a long time. And in the past when the state would come, we would call it the state would come out. Um, we didn't know them, they didn't know us, they didn't know the building. So half the time some of them were down a hallway that was leading nowhere. We kind of had to figure out where they So this is it's it's us. It's who we are and I think we're comfortable enough each other to give the feedback and want it. So that's a positive. >> Yeah. I think you know something that the board Dr.

045Le have talked about before. We have the internal expertise to continuously improve and uh we just need to leverage what's all around us. Other questions on Elliot School from the board? >> Okay, thank you guys. Um, now I'm going to talk a little bit about goal 3.2. Uh, so this goal I believe was added in this revision of the strategic plan. Uh, and that strategic plan committee made that recommendation last summer. Um, when we look at all of our Elliot scores, you can see that that's persistently been a lower area, but it's also lower nationally and it is a fairly aspirational goal. Um, and I'm going to talk a little bit about the our status on the goal and then some of the challenges that we've seen with that. Uh, when you look at the

046specific ele Elliott elements, this was under G and you can see there are three specific elements that it's pointing to. So when you're going into a classroom, you are looking for are the students using digital tools to gather, evaluate or use information for learning. Uh are the students using digital tools to conduct research, solve problems, or create original work? And then the last one is are they using digital tools to uh collaborate? So maybe if you could humor me for a minute uh grab a shoulder partner, we've only got a couple here. and just talk about how do you use those skills in your daily work? Gathering information with digital tools, solving problems, creating original works, or collaborating with someone else. All right, just a quick quick check here. Uh, we're going to do fist

047of five. Five meaning I use those all the time, 90% of my day or more. And fists meaning it's certainly not part of my daily work. Where are you at? just a quick judgment. Okay. So, uh we see a high level of use in most uh occupations, not all occupations. One of the things that's um unique about this goal is it really doesn't tie back to a lot of our um of the instructional frameworks in education. It ties back to what's called the ISTY standards. Um, so this is an aspirational goal and um, we're wrestling with this as a district as our other districts. I'll show you kind of where we're at nationally here in a second, but um, we've seen that these have been persistently low. The scores have been um, it's often present.

048Technology is present in our class, but it might be used for practice or task completion rather than longer sustained uh, deeper work. Um there's a a caution in education and I think that that caution really is sensible and it's realistic and postcoid we learned a lot about when is technology effective and when does it just get in the way of the learning objective and so our our educators are using their professional judgment of uh when that's appropriate and when it's not. uh when you look at Elliot in the national averages and you can see digital learning second from the bottom there uh K5 68 and 912 and the reason for this slide is just showing that that the use of the tools is increasing um and as it's more developmentally appropriate early grades you heard

049or saw some of the comments that Jenna Newman had made about uh developmental appropriateness and early grades of digital tools Um, when we look at our scores over the course of just three that I pulled out of there, you can see that we approached the national average in our overall score uh last spring. Um, but overall we've been slightly below the national average in um all three of those categories. our trend line um isn't showing that we're going to be hitting that goal, which is why uh the last slide will show um and when Dr. Le and I discussed we're not on track for this goal. Uh and we do think that that we need to consider the goal itself, but we also know that these are vital um skills for our students. Uh it's

050a technology is a great way to engage students. It's a great way to personalize what they're learning and have them working on something that's relevant and applicable to them. It's a great way for them to practice uh problem solving much like you guys mentioned you're um using in your daily work. And so we want them to be future ready. Um what do we see currently? Kids may be completing assignments. So if you think of your um your laptop as an extension of a digital worksheet uh type of activity, uh they might be practicing skills. There's some super engaging um educational like games, reviews, um flashcards, all kinds of great stuff. Uh reading information a lot. Uh and where do we want to get to? We want kids creating, producing, and we do have some courses

051that focus on that and that's an outcome of those specific courses. But when we look at it generally across all environments, there's definitely room for growth. Um, so the the desired state of those elements of Elliott are also the desired state of our district. And um it is an important goal. We want purposeful use. We don't want to use technology just because we feel like we have to use it. We want to use technology because it's the right tool to advance that learning target and we trust our professionals to make that judgment. Uh as we implement standardsbased learning, um we're better understanding the rigor that's required with our standards and our standards require us to apply learning in meaningful ways. You really own something if you can apply it in a new context, right? And

052so uh but it takes us time to get there and uh there are tradeoffs. Sometimes it's the right tool, sometimes it's not. Uh it is something that we emphasize particularly project-based learning, design focused learning. If you've ever designed something you it's complex to do that design, right? And our students would be able to use technology to collaborate both inbound and outbound with projects. So those are all strategies that go along with now that we've established a floor with our the rigor of our standards that move us forward in our application of technology. So while we're not um where we want to be yet and we are uh based on our trend line not on track for the goal of 3.0 know we do feel like we're laying a solid foundation so that our technology use

053is purposeful and that it's aligned with the rigor um that will help our kids be future ready. So uh with that my recommendation would be approval of the report uh consideration possibly for the strategic planning committee and uh I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have. >> Any questions about the report and findings? Go ahead. Uh just thinking about how the board can support um just the accessibility or the general kind of uh setting standards across the district in terms of um what we're looking for for technology use in the classroom, especially thinking about AI and how quickly things are evolving and and you know knowing that the different teachers will have different literacies with different approaches and things like that. I don't Are there things that you can think of that

054we could help from a a district level um uh to support this kind of technology adoption? >> I think that's a million-doll education and other industry question right now is what is the role of AI? How should it be used for productive uh thinking to be able to uh because our kids need to be able to think. We don't want AI to think for them, but we want to use it to be able to produce original works. We want to use it to be able to collaborate beyond the classroom. We want to use it to be able to um study and learn new things. Um but we don't want it to replace our our thinking or the skill acquisition. And so as a board um I think national our school boards association is wrestling uh

055the North Dakota Council of Educational Leaders is wrestling with what is the right policy approach to this and currently from a educators perspective perspective we have some that are saying ah no this is you know we don't want anything to do with it we want to back away we want more paper and pencil and then we have some that are embracing it as uh learners ers and leaders themselves and toying around with it and we just really don't know enough. We're a a cautious industry and rightfully so. Uh but I think that um we don't have a lot of answers right now, but eventually there's going to be some policy decisions the board will need to make. Dr. Lack, you want to add anything on that? >> You know, the only thing that I would

056add is that one of the things our our teachers have told us you pretty directly is um you know, I I agree with everything that Mr. Gayler has said from a policy standpoint um from a professional learning and development standpoint. One of the things our teachers have told us uh and that's been in our PD curriculum committee. It's been in surveys and whatnot. It's more application time. So I think you know training is one thing and we can provide opportunities to utilize tools. Uh, I think we need to be really purposeful about making sure we get enough time for our teachers to use and feel comfortable so they can then translate that into their classrooms from a pedagogical SC standpoint as practitioners. I I I do believe that that's one area that uh I think

057all schools could do better is making sure that application time exists, not just seat time to learn about a new a new strategy. Yeah, I think just thinking about too that trajectory of wanting higher engagement through getting through high school and stuff, but then kind of coupling that with we have policy now to keep your cell phones away, right? So, you're potentially putting distractions away, but you're also potentially putting technology away, right? So then, you know, I think about that from the the onus is going to be on the school district to really provide the the right tools to for those kids to use these emerging technologies. >> Cool. Thank you, >> Dan. Go ahead. >> I think you're absolutely asking the right questions though and I guess yeah, you might have an answer, but

058you know, learning how to balance, you know, is it do we go pure analog versus full digital? I'm really glad to hear that you're not going one one direction. You're you're thoughtfully working through it. So, I think the biggest value of this is understanding that you're addressing that question and uh it'll be interesting to see what you guys learn when when you kind of process through it all. Yeah, we um in addition to those skills, we talk with employers pretty often and kids are informally learning those skills through their cell phones outside of school and lots of digital collaboration outside of school. And we also hear from employers. We want people who, you know, show up on time, who can have a face-to-face conversation, who can deal um and collab collaborate with people that they

059may or may not agree with. And so we want to be sure we strike a good balance. Um, and I think that, you know, while we have room for growth in this, I think that it really does come with that application um, of those standards, when we get into more real world work, when we get into more projects, you do see this come in our classrooms more often, upper elementary and through high school. We've seen this in classrooms. It's just that you see it less often and that's why the scores are lower and um, but you do see it. And so what's that right balance? Well, the national average would say that we're maybe just slightly below where that application is, but we've also got great achievement and we've got um students that are learning

060those other durable skills that employers tell us are important too. Jamie >> with considering to re-evaluate the goal. Do you think we have set it much higher than like the national or are we looking at doing different metrics to get where we are or >> Yeah, we've had a lot of conversation about that and you know like a lot of our goals in our strategic plan we were very aspirational and I'm glad that we were aspirational. Um, if you look at this particular goal, I think there's a couple different ways that we could that that we could probably better serve our plan. I think having a 3.0 when you look at the national average, having a goal of a 3.0 is even even when you're looking at a 5-year period is probably a little more

061than aspirational. It's probably uh not very realistic if you look at the grand scope of not just what we're doing but as a but nationally that's a pretty it's a pretty tall order. Uh the discussions we've had are either to you know reassess what's a reasonable goal in 2030 or do we turn that goal into an annual goal uh and you know start to have more realistic annual goal growth because I think if you look at just a 3.0 0 from where we're at. That's a significant change in and and I don't know that we have uh the bandwidth to look at it at that and 2030. And I love being aspirational, you know, that. But I don't know that that's a particularly realistic way to look at it. I I would prefer to look

062at that annually. Um and hey, if we get to a 3.0 at the end of 2030, that's great. But I think if you right now I I think the best way to do that is annually in smaller increments. Not that we shouldn't be targeting that, but we have to be realistic about where that goal is nationally. Other questions from the All right. Is there a motion for accepting the report? And then also a part of that motion, do you want it to go back to strategic planning or how would you like it handled? >> Yes. Okay. Yep. Within a month and or so. A month or two. Dan. Oh, okay. Jamie, go ahead. Motion to approve. >> Approve the report. Dan, would you like to second? So we have a motion, a second for approval

063of the report presented, goal 3.2, improving the digital learning environment. The strategic planning committee will go through the entire strategic plan and and evaluate and take this discussion into consideration as well um when we meet. Any other discussion? Any other discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I oppose. Same oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. Okay, moving on. a superintendent report. Dr. Lack, >> thank you. I'm glad that went off because I have great anxiety that that's been my vehicle that's been going off. So, so you have my written report. Um, and so you probably felt Oh, good. This is going to be a little bit shorter one, but but I think we have a couple one topic in particular that that's going to take some, you know, quite a

064bit of time and and discussion. Uh, and it's later on in the agenda. It relates to the community eligibility provision. Um I've provided a board memo as the board is full fully aware you know we provide board memos and and they at times get pretty dense and they're dense because it's intentionally providing a lot of information. Okay. Uh and the board memo identifies that that we now have all of our elementary schools uh are are are able or eligible for what they call the community eligibility provision. So to understand that completely, I I want to talk about um what we know or what we're most familiar with with food service. Um you know, as our community is really mostly familiar, um food service can operate through free and reduced lunch or through what they call

065the community eligibility provision. So in in free and reduced lunch, that's income eligibility. you reach a certain threshold of of income in your household, then you might be eligible or you would be then eligible if you meet that threshold for either free or reduced meals. The remaining portion of those students that are not that don't meet those income eligibility thresholds, they are what they call full pay. So one additional caveat to that or or additional layer is the state has identified uh 225% of the poverty level. Uh so that means that there's a band of students or I should say a band of families that were reduced in the past. So we have free if they reach certain income uh thresholds reduced if they meet a slightly higher income threshold. And what the state has

066done is provided uh there are no reduced meals anymore. They're either federal free or what I would call state free. Okay? Where the state fills in the difference. Okay? But if you are eligible for free and reduced, you're you are what they call free and reduced, you can get free meals. Um and there's a little bit uh beyond that. And I don't know why, and I've said this to our legislators too, it would have been really wise to instead of saying 225% of the poverty level, just say a certain income number. I I you know, I think that would have been a lot clearer for families, but but that's what we have. And and but we're mostly familiar with that. Just to give you some context, um you know, we have at at um Lincoln

067Elementary 55% of our students el I'm sorry, 65% of our students eligible for free and reduced meals. Okay? And so 65% receive free meals either through the the federal government or the state depending on where they flow through. And the remaining are what we call full pay. Okay? Uh and that's how the system works. Um, and I will say from a a food service standpoint, different schools within your own district, some can be labeled as free introduced, some can be labeled as this other designation of of uh community eligibility provision. So, C, so you can have free, you can have C in the same district. Uh, it's just qualifications. So, we are at an interesting period and C is relatively new. It's been around for about a district uh about a decade. Um but we

068are at a time now where all four of our elementary schools uh are eligible uh to meet the standard of C. So the question then becomes what is C and what's the benefit of C? And I think there's some really great benefits, but I also want uh us as a district and you as a board to be really familiar with what u outcomes of those things or other things that you other considerations that you need to have uh to make a sound decision on what's the best uh pathway for us as a district. So, uh I talked about, you know, Lincoln Elementary, 65% of students get uh have access to free meals, 35% are at full pay. Um in districts that uh take advantage of schools with community eligibility provision uh all students beyond in

069that in that example of Lincoln 65 students are are free uh 35% are full pay uh in a C school all are eligible for free meals. Okay. So um if you reach that standard and we know that uh I'm going to go backwards just a little bit. Um the standard is different. So the standard for free and reduced is household income. Uh what creates C schools is the number of students that are impacted by federal programs. SNAP, TANNIF, migrant, uh, students, uh, foster care programming, those types of federal program. If they're impacted, uh, and then it's again, it's just another, uh, eligibility threshold. You meet that threshold, then you could act, you could access community eligibility provision. And so, I think it's a fair question to say, well, if you could, why wouldn't you? Well,

070the question becomes or or or the the consideration becomes um what is the reimbursement rate? You know, right now with uh if you go through free and reduced meals, reimbursement rates are significantly higher. Um with C reimbursement rates are significantly lower. So you have to take a you have to consider the balance between uh what you bring in in revenue right now. Uh those are those full pay students uh and our our federal reimbursement rates being higher. You know that creates um a budget that we are working through at the food service level with C. Uh kind of the the the balance of those two things is you can expect higher meals particularly in breakfast. Uh if you use the pandemic as an example, we went about four-fold in the number of breakfasts that we

071serve. So even at a lower reimbursement rate, you're serving four times as many meals. Meaning, you know, you create a little bit of that difference back. uh what we're doing right now and my recommendation uh toi continue to do is financially modeling what would that look like in a district if we took advantage of all four of those schools that could uh qualify for a C and what would that look like from a budgetary standpoint at food service and also what would it look like if we access three of four. We have one of our elementary schools barely met that qualifier and they and they uh when when we look at it you know on the aggregate that reimbursement rate isn't done by school that reimbursement rate is done on the aggregate by district or

072by eligible schools and so if we have one we have three schools that are pretty much at the same what they call ISP impacted student percentage um we have three schools that are very in the in a very similar place. Uh, and we are feel pretty good about the ability for those three schools to cash flow. With the fourth school, that becomes a little bit more challenging because that drags down our reimbursement rate. The higher your ISP, the higher your impacted student percentage, the higher your reimbursement rate. Okay? Uh and so what we're doing right now is financially modeling what would that look like if all four schools were what would it look like if three of four elementary schools were and so you know a couple other factor that I haven't talked about yet

073that I think needs to be a consideration is even in that um full pay we don't always get reimbursement we have unpaid lunch balances the board is aware of that you know we range about $30,000 a year that the general fund subsidizes the food service program or unpaid. So the unpaid are those that don't qualify for free and reduced but have not fulfilled obligation for pay. And so at the elementary level that's about $9,000. Uh and so we already have some level of subsidiz subsidation subsidies that are provided. Uh uh the word came harder to me today. So, we already subsidized by about $9,000. And so, that should be a consideration that we have. U we also, like I said, want to model out what is the um you know, what are the amount of

074meals increase that we can expect, like I said, particularly at breakfast, I think you'll see, but even some at lunch. And we're using the pandemic as kind of a standard. And so, there's a calculator that we'll work through. I feel like this is something that should uh we start at the at the central office level uh explore. I've been working with the food service department. We had a meeting with the state um that helped because this is still this is new to us. Uh we as a midlevel school, what I call a mid-level school, mid-level enrollment school. Uh this is often used for rural schools or high poverty districts or high poverty schools within midsize to larger districts. Uh there's not to my knowledge a school our size that has C uh at all at

075a whole elementary level. So it's something a little bit new even for the state. Um so it's something that we're looking at from my perspective. We want to make sure if we do something we do it right. uh and that's why I was suggesting uh in my memo and in this report that we um look at it at the central office level, flow that through the finance committee and then bring recommendations here. We have already expressed that we're potentially interested uh and that was the first step that we needed to do at the state level. We expressed that we're interested in uh potentially implementing C. Uh that's all we need to do for now. That was the end of this month, April 30th. That's the first kind of uh timeline catch. Uh after that, it's

076June 30th. By June 30th, we need to have a decision on how we're going to operate, if we're going to operate through C and at what for what schools. Um in my memo, and this could be confusing, but I talked about the four-year lock-in period. So, the four-year lockin period really uh protects districts uh because you can reset your four-year lock-in period if your um if the variables improve to your benefit. For example, if uh we had an ISP of 40% uh and the next year uh that school or in that in one particular school and next year it was 60%, we could reset that lock-in period and then for the next four years we would have a higher ISP slash higher reimbursement rate. Or what if in two years the middle school suddenly became

077eligible for C? We could then again do a four-year lock in reset. If you had the same numbers, the exact same ISP and reimbursement rates the next year, you would want to again reset just because it gives you a longer four-year period or gives you resets your four-year period. So, you're guaranteed for longer. Uh if C is is a we think it's going to work and it and it just doesn't, you can opt out annually. So, you can't opt out in the middle of the school year. You're making a commitment to one year. Uh but you could opt out after a year if it's something that uh you just feel there's too much financial liability. There's too much risk for the district. Uh it's not working as we saw as we anticipated. Kids aren't eating

078breakfasts and we were banking on that or whatever. Um so I I think there's a great opportunity here. uh and I think we need to explore it but we need to like everything be cautious about into uh so when we make a commitment we can communicate to the public this is what we're doing this is why we're doing it I think if we get in a scenario in which uh it is all elementary schools that's easier to communicate uh and if we get into a situation which it's three or four that's harder to communicate and we just want to make sure that we're uh doing that effectively so everybody understands the what Uh, and if we did have three of four, you would still have free and reduced uh, in that building that doesn't have

079C. Like I said, you can v you can vasillate between C and free and reduced across the district. So, if we had it in three elementary schools, uh, but one elementary school, the middle school, and the high school would all be free and reduced. You're always going to have one or the other. So, any K, any family in need would still have access to free meals. uh it's just the difference between if it's everybody or if it's just those that qualify by income. So with that, I threw a lot at you, but I'm going to stand for questions. Just on that topic, >> go ahead, Jamie. >> Thank you, Owen. Um so just so I'm understanding this right, so for example, Lincoln's at 65% um and maybe Roosevelt's at 52. Those would be reimbursed at

080different rates because of their >> no the reimbursement rate is the same across >> but it's just different number it's just a a different number of students are full pay or or they're reimbursed by the federal or the state level. Okay. >> The rate is the same. Uh in C the rate varies based on your number of students impacted by federal programs. So the the the higher students, higher number of students or percentage of students that are on Tana for SNAP, foster care, migrant, whatever the federal program, that rate becomes higher. So the higher that ISP rate, the more um the less financial risk you're taking by adopting that program. >> Correct. Um, and then as far as like just put this out there, going with three of four of the schools, I think will

081get a little tricky with some of our families. A lot of our families I could see wanting to petition to move to a different school solely on based on on that financial aspect. Um, but yeah, I I think this is a great program and is do we know the difference of the reimbursement from this program compared to free and reduced? >> Yeah, that's what we're looking at right now. We're doing some modeling and and like I said, I think there's two factors that we really need to consider. One uh is yes, it's a lower reimbursement rate, but we can also expect more meals to be served. So, what is, you know, what's the the difference between those? Uh and the other is we would no longer have to subsidize for those paid meals uh like

082we do. Like I said, it's about $9,000 now. So, I think there's a little bit of flexibility there, too. >> Sorry, one more question. Um, do you think there's any legislation coming up that would affect this or our decision for this program? >> Well, you have the universal meals uh measure that's on the ballot. Um, and one thing I can tell you is that from talking to the state, if the universal meals measure were to pass, all schools uh would become C schools. Uh, because that would be the way the state would subsidize the federal programs now. So they would all be we would all become C regardless. We might just if we went forward with this, we might just be be C for a year early. Um to address one of your other comments,

083you know, uh I was really very concerned about the three or four uh and how we'd communicate and I still think that's something we need to really be purposeful about. Uh but I was encouraged when I talked to some some larger districts that have one or two or three uh schools and it's oftentimes it's elementary schools. Uh and they I I expected the same thing, you know, oh, we're going to have, you know, waiverss or requests to transfer. Um and I talked to some districts that have splits between free and reduced lunch and C. Uh they they don't they aren't seeing that. That's not what they're seeing. Uh that's not I'm not saying that's we would not see those requests, but it's happening at a lot lower rate in those districts than I would have

084anticipated. So I I think some of it just comes down to communicating one that they still have access to free and reduced meals if there's a financial need. Uh and two, this is a federal program that these schools are eligible to take advantage of. uh and and and as long as everybody understands the why and and how they're impacted or not impacted, I think most people can understand that those things might vary a little bit from school to school. >> And I also had a similar question as well and it I wasn't sure if we had chose C for some schools if the rest could still qualify for the free and reduced and still >> Owen, you had something. Yeah. No, I think that thanks for the analysis and then thanks for answering lots of

085questions that I've been thrown at you too. But uh yeah, I think that's just that that's the big question mark that I have is what's that delta between what we're at from that like 417 or whatever to whatever a meal would be under this and then how how would we you know we ask a lot of the food service and impressive system that we've got. So, um, but then also looking forward, if that's the option that the state is going to push if they were obligated to to cover meals and how would we make sure that we relay that message that, hey, now you're funding us at a lower rate. So, what you know, our expectation is to fund at this rate that we had before, too. And if the C isn't cutting it too,

086right? What, >> you know, that that'd be something I'd be interested in making sure that we relay back to Bismar. >> Well, and um you know, one other point that I outlined in the board memo uh is that that does not mean that we would no longer need to complete free and reduced lunch applications. uh even if a school is C and and a family has uh at Roosevelt two children in Roosevelt and no kids in any other building uh we would still ask them to complete free and reduced lunch uh a free and reduced lunch application. Uh the reason why is that that free and reduced lunch application has impacts our title funding. It impacts our state funding because we have an at risk factor uh that uh it's grades three through eight and

08711 on a three-ear span. I don't know why we made it complicated but that's what we did and uh but that impacts our funding and our opportunity to participate in some federal grants like 21st century grant. We require or they use that as a poverty indicator. So we would still need to collect that information. Uh, and I think we could do a good job. Our staff does a great job of making sure that everybody that could be uh, eligible completes those, but you see a pretty natural decline uh, from our elementary level to our high school or high school, we're talking the same families and community, but the difference would go from like 44% on average to 28%. Because as we get older, we fill out those kinds of things less and we desire to

088do that less. Uh and that leads into a question that Melissa had uh that she texted uh and wanted to and asked about how would that impact activities fees. Well, we have uh or activities fees we utilize to we scale those based on financial need and our and our indicator for financial need is reintroduced meals. We would be able to in this format be able to continue that because at the middle school and high school levels where we collect those fees uh that would be we would be at the same level. So that wouldn't have to change, but we would need to think about that if that expanded onto the middle school or the high school levels. We would have to think about what is the way that we're going to scale activities fees to

089make sure that that financial finances are never a barrier to kids participation in activities. Hopefully I answered your question, Melissa. Other questions on this? So nothing that you I'm not asking to act on anything other than you know just a general awareness that we're going to start we're going to move this to the finance committee. Uh I suppose you need action to refer it to the finance committee. Uh but the I I wanted to provide that somewhat dense uh board memo uh to give you all of the information you need to understand uh both the pros and the and the barriers and the the hurdles that we would have uh to adopt C. So other questions about it? I guess I don't have to look at this side of the table. Have anybody >> any

090questions? And I think at this point um if the board so wishes we can refer it to the finance for further um analysis um then we would bring it back to the full board before we would you know move forward with anything but at least to um dig into it a little bit deeper and um do a little more analysis and then just look at the pros and cons. And even looking at this just not always knowing where our schools are going to be is is a variable. And so we'll have to take that into consideration and and also the moving forward with you know what schools qualify and and so forth. So is that what the board would wish or what is the board's oh is it oh okay yes we have oh yes

091and it's well it's informationational so yeah yeah so we can we can talk about it at that point I guess as well but There's more. >> There's always more. Western. >> Um, okay. So, that's where we're at with that. And And again, this is one of those circumstances. I I great opportunities. We just need to go into these things. Uh, it's not just a great idea. We we've got to look at implementation. We got to look at a lot of different factors. Um, you know, it could be something that is worthwhile for the district and it might be something that it's just not the right time. So, but I wanted to bring it to your attention uh and so we can study it in greater detail. Uh personalized uh just completing in my uh report

092personalized learning network case study. Uh Jamestown public schools was selected as a case study for the North Dakota personalized learning network. So, they're going to be doing a site visit doing some interviews for students, interviews for staff. um they want to observe in our district uh and understand how our teaching and learning processes are evolving across JPS specifically they're looking at the student experience uh specifically how standardsbased instruction supports uh student understanding and real world applications uh for students how we're act actively using student voice collaborating with staff staff agency and then building leadership capacity in our staff. Uh so they're going to do that case study and we'll get a chance to um read that when that comes through. Guiding coalition updates. Just briefly, you've talked a we've talked a lot about how we're

093utilizing the guiding coalition uh of staff and parents to to take us down a path for that schedule study at the middle level in high school. But I also wanted to outline some things that we're doing to involve the people that are not the people sitting in that room. you know, we have a representative group of of staff and students or I'm sorry, staff and parents, but how are we uh sharing this information with students? How are we getting their perspective? How are we involving the staff that are not involved uh specifically in the guiding coalition? Um, so I I just outlined a different the different strategies that we're using. Uh, Adam has created a couple different or has created a video on the schedule options, gotten a survey uh with feedback from those staff

094as well. he's analyzing that and we'll use that to create another video that will go and and answer questions and make sure that everybody is in the loop. Uh this isn't just one group making this decision. It's a it's a really big decision or really big recommendation. We want to make sure that we have all the stakeholders. So for students, uh that's two student focus groups, the 27th and the 29th. Uh we're doing a student design summit on May 7th uh with knowledge works. Uh and then there's going to be a couple of community meetings as well to make sure that we get the the families involved as well. So what you can anticipate as a board is that we'll have some recommendations uh in June. Uh I think it would be best to schedule

095a board retreat to really dive in. I think we'll need more than just a little bit of time uh to really absorb what those recommendations are. And so we understand you know kind of similar to the discussion we had with C that um you know these are decisions that have widespread implications. So we want to make sure that we understand them all before we make adoptions. Uh later on in the agenda you'll have uh calendar recommendations. We've done this every year for the last couple of years shifting some instructional days to PD days. Uh we've for our teachers uh we've talked about being very aspirational and our expectations and and our staff does an awesome job. Uh they continue to evolve and and they do great work. We need to give them time. We need

096to make sure that they have adequate time to do all of those things that that we expect and want and that they want and expect of themselves. Uh and so later on in the agenda, we'll we'll be asking to shift uh three of those student contact days again to um to professional learning days uh focus on standardsbased learning. uh we know that Infinite Campus is coming as a transition and we want to make sure that that is not a barrier for our teachers and so we want to make sure that we have appropriate implementation time there and then to continue our personalized professional learning initiative uh that you heard about uh and uh we've we've discussed. So that's the recommendation uh and that has uh as the board is aware goes through the curriculum and

097professional development committee which includes staff uh and a board member as well. uh my highlight for this report. Um we talked a lot about food service and support um and what we need to do to continue to support uh our families. I want to shout out to Caendish. Uh I was out there with uh food service and with uh Christie uh collected a check for $12,380 to our uh to our angel fund to support unpaid lunch balances. uh when you add that to what they gave as a donation last year, that's 21 thou about a little bit over $21,000 that they've given to unpaid lunch balances over the last two years. And I want to make sure that we recognize them, thank them for that gift, uh and really for a wonderful partnership. So with

098that, I would stand for any other questions. >> Any questions regarding the superintendent report? and and thank you to Cavendish and all those that have supported our angel fund for students to ensure that they get what they need. Moving on our agenda, um nothing under old business, under new business, nothing under activities, buildings, grounds, curriculum, assessment, instruction. Moving under finance, we have approval of the artisan residence program agreement. Is there a motion? Motion by Owen. Is there a second? Second by Jamie. Have a motion, a second. I just want to make a note that there's no increase in >> Yep. No financial increase. We have a motion, a second. Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. Under B and C,

099you have the general fund balance as well as the monthly financial reports. Any questions for Christie at this time regarding those reports? And thank you for preparing those for us, Christie. under operations refer consideration of the community eligibility provisions to the finance committee. So, we have some discussion on this. Any concerns at this point with having the finance committee look at it a little deeper and we'll bring some information back to the board um as well. And I think we're waiting for some more information as well. Yep. >> We're studying that. Yep. Under B, approval of the 2026 to 2027 school year calendar revisions. Is there a motion? Motion by Dan. There second. Second by Jamie. Have a motion, a second for approval of the 2026 2027 school year calendar revisions. Any discussion? Any discussion?

100Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. Under personnel, ratification of the administrator master agreement for the 2026 to 2027 school year. Is there a motion? Motion by Jamie. Is there a second? Second by Owen Dan, you want to just give us an update on your phone there? >> Yeah, the uh this the administrators um opted to um basically take the same contract as they had last year. Um and if the funds intended would be put towards the teaching the teaching staff, those have more direct contact with teaching. So, uh, that's the long and short of it. >> Anything to add, Owen? So, we have a motion, a second for ratification of the administration master agreement for the 2026 to 2027 school year.

101>> Yes. Motion approved unanimously. B. Approval of the resation at the conclusion of the 2025 to 2026 school year. Number one, Molly Fritz. And number two, Kathle. Is there a motion? Motion by Jamie. Second by Dan. We have a motion, a second for approval of the resignation of the conclusion of the 2025 to 2026 school year. Molly Fritz and Kathy Bergley. 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 approved and thank you for your years of service to the district. Under policy and procedures, do we can we do both at the same time? Okay. Approval of policies. Number one, second reading of the ACCA-B criteria for granting parent offender privileges to enter school property. Number two, amended HC

102A-R Jamestown Public School District card holder manual. Is there a motion? Motion by Dan. There a second. Second by Owen. We have a motion, a second for approval of policies number one and two. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. Under tuition a approval of tuition agreements for the schools for 2026 to 27 27 school year. Number one, Jamestown. Two, Barnes County North. Number three, Mom Pillar. Is there a motion? Motion by Dan. Is there a second? Second by Dam. We have a motion to second for approval of tuition agreements for schools for the 2026 to 2027 school year number 1 through three. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote. All those in

103favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. Under other um we don't have anything other except for items for future agenda. Is there we have yours Owen any other items for Yep. Any other items for future agenda? If at any time you think of something please that you'd like to see on the agenda, please contact Dr. Luck or myself. So we have a few meetings and events to be scheduled. We have teacher negotiation meeting on Tuesday, April 28th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. in the Thompson community room at the middle school board meeting. Yes. Does that change >> the teacher negotiation number? Okay, we'll check we'll check the date the time on that one, but it is April 28th, 2026 in the Thompson Community Room. Schoolboard meeting Monday, May 4th at 5:30 p.m. in the

104Thompson Community Room in the middle school health insurance committee. Monday, May 11th, 2026 at 3:45 in the district office conference room. Transition House graduation, Thursday, May 14th at 11:00 a.m. in the Thompson community room. Schoolboard meeting on Monday, May 18th, 5:30 p.m. in the Thompson Community Room. JBS graduation Sunday, May 24th at 2:30 p.m. in the in the Civic Center. GED graduation on Wednesday, June 17th at JV Career and Tech Center. And so it's at 5:30 or 5:45 and it it'll be on the district calendar so you can >> Okay. Okay. The time will be on the district um calendar, but the date is Tuesday, April 28th at 20 2026, and it'll be correct on Yep. Yep. Yep. And so we'll make sure that it's correct on the calendar. So you can just check on

105there. Um possible executive session to Oh, wait. Do are we missing any other meetings or And then Amy will be reaching out to see who was attending different the graduation events as well. So um any other meetings? We'll have a strategic planning meeting down the road as well as probably other finance committee meetings. So they aren't on the SC anything else. Okay. If not possible executive session discussion negotiation strategies then monthly superintendent evaluation section one goal and vision setting and section four curriculum and student support services. Please complete those. There being no further business before the board, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone. Hey, hey, hey.