001Good evening. I'd like to call this regular meeting of the Jamestown Public School Board to order. It is Tuesday, April 7th, 2026, 5:30 p.m. in the Thompson Community Room at the middle school. We'd like to thank all those for joining us this evening in the audience. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I'd like to note that board member Steve Velcamp is joining us by one of the phones here. We're having some technical difficulties, so he's might be coming in and out um this until we get the the phone working. Moving on in our agenda under B, conflicts of interest. Are there any
002other conflicts other those than previously declared? And Dr. I did have uh Steve Velcamp uh requested that I share. He is declaring a conflict of interest for item um 6B, approval of the support staff wage schedule because his spouse is a pair professional. >> Any other conflicts other than the ones declared? Okay. If not, schoolboard norms. Jamie, would you be willing to read schoolboard norms? The board developed norms are to share and respect opinions and speak in a united voice once the decision has been reached. Execute all duties of the school board in compliance with North Dakota century code. Properly prepare for meetings. Commit to assessing board effectiveness and ensure high quality governance for all stakeholders. Thank you Jamie. We have no public communication under consent agenda. Is there any item a board member would
003like something moved out of the consent agenda or clarification? If not, okay. If not, is there a motion? >> Motion by Jamie. >> Second by Dan. We have a motion, a second for approval of the consent agenda. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carried. Moving into our regular meeting. One of my favorite times is to recognize our our years of service to Jamestown Public Schools. So, as your name is announced, I'm going to have you join me over here. If I give you um an item with the wrong year on it, just let me know that I' that I need to give you the correct year. So, make sure you you look it over um and make
004sure I give you the correct one. And as your name's announced, just come meet me over here. And then we'll have everybody line up behind um on the stage area here for for a group photo. All right. with the five years recognizing five years of service. Patrick Schloer, Melissa Carmarmac, Kendra Payment, Veronica Skuw, Denise Wood, Jennifer Hoffer, Ganna Mack, Laura Holton, Frederria Nicholson, Taylor Peterson, Jordan Schlanker, Jacob Stillwell, Corey Burch, and Robin Steam. for 10 years of service to the district. We would like to recognize Adam Gayaylor, Sadi Le, Allison Olsen, Jan Hawk Halter, Tammy Mouse, Lisa Anderson, Rachel Castit, Christine Walls, and Julie Silveragel. celebrating 15 years. We'd like to recognize Wanita Herz, Bill Nelson, Lynn Fawson, Jolyn Shoemaker, Heidi Flinton, Abby Corpniki, Angie Wanzac, Moving on to our 20-year design, Kristen Landenburgger and
005Sherry Cop. and 25 years of service, Ken Gardner, Lorie Hair, and Christy Hansen. Thank you again for all you do for Jamestown Public Schools. >> We have nothing for correspondence. Under report, um the finance committee met and Aaron, would you be willing to share your report? >> Yeah, I put a together a written report that's included in the agenda. Um just as a a basic overview, there was a couple of lengthy meetings in February and March where we met um with the focus being uh primarily to um discuss the priorities and strategies on the 2026 2027 budget and also looking in some of the outy years as well. Um taking into consideration some of the uh inputs from the guiding coalition and and that. So, um, basically just as a reminder from the budget priorities,
006uh, back in July last year, um, we can task the administration to put together some some categorizations on the budget to help us work our way through the details without actually having the board have to get into the details. So, we agreed on some general guidelines on what those u categories should be. And then and as a reminder here again, it's the core. So that's essential to the district operations. Uh priority one expenditures that are strategically aligned. Uh priority two uh are expenditures that enhance the education uh and are but yet are scalable and then priority three are expenditures that supplement the value and and again those are scalable as well. Um so from that assessment uh the administration worked through and we reviewed um 15 different individual budget items that uh could be realized
007for uh alignment and budget reductions. Um and those are going to be considered in the 2026 2027 uh annual budget. Um that will that is still in work. Um and then some of those also carry on into the uh outy years as well. Um and again back to the uh guiding coalition uh there's some more strategic items that are being identified uh that won't be available for this year but will be uh possibly targeted for the 2027 2028 years. Um so one of those significant items there is the uh uh the structural schedule options that are being considered for the um Jamestown Middle School and High School. Um so that was a a major part of our discussion. Another area was the support of staff wages which we'll be um voting on and reviewing as
008well as a summer school uh coordinator wage. Uh kind of went through some options there and and put forth a recommendation on that. Again, that's what we'll be voting on here later. Um and then a lot of our discussion also was held with just the music program specifically. um you know regarding the staffing and schedules uh for elementary, for the middle school, for the high school. Um what our current state is, lessons learned from that. Um how some of the factors that are affecting the resource allocation. Um looking at historical data on on the program overall. Um and then also taking inputs from you know the community, the administration, uh music staff and and general staff there. So we did in our last meeting we did look at a proposed schedule and resource allocation and
009in recognition of some of the u challenges that we've had for this year and also with the inputs that we had received. And basically where we left it off at the last meeting was uh assigning an action to the administration to collaborate with the music uh teachers and work towards a consensus on what that schedule um could look like as a viable solution. Um and then that's where it was left off. And so there was that action uh which was taken. there was some uh feedback received and now that's where we're at is to take that into consideration to determine how we want to um you know do our final determination on the direction that we want to take for the music program. So that's it. >> Thank you Aaron and I appreciate the written
010report too for so the board members had time to review it. Any questions about the finance? Like I said, we've had a couple meetings and we'll continue to meet and just trying to align our our budget and our strategic plan and and looking at our um budget challenges um as we we knew were coming um and so with declining enrollment as well as co money no longer available and and there a lot of different um different allocations of how some funding um state and federally have also been allocated to us. So, um, definitely some challenges there. So, but I appreciate the report. Dan, I'll just see if Dan had anything to add. Otherwise, Jason. Okay, Jason, go ahead. >> So, the schedule that was presented, was that from the current staff or from admin? >>
011That you discussed in the committee meeting. >> You looked at multiple schedules, couple multiple schedules. It was it was prim primarily from admin and that's where kind of the genesis of the of the action item because we had a lot of input and a lot of different schedules that were coming from all different sides. So that's why Adam got the um the action to go okay let's go try to try to get these out get all the inputs we possibly can and uh that's kind of where um the act was and I think those meetings did occur. I'm not sure if all of them were completed yet. Mhm. >> Um and I guess I was one of the questions that we did have and I'll just kind of if if I can have that floor
012now. >> Uh one of the questions that we have is we do have an open wreck still open I believe for we've not decided as a finance committee whether we should close that or not. Um I think one of the questions is going to be um do we keep that open and continue to search or do we just make a decision and close that. So, I guess that's one of the questions that we still we didn't feel comfortable as a finance committee making that decision without more board input. >> Yeah. And I think one of the things that we also looked at is um it wasn't just we looked at a lot of different schedules, not just music schedules. We looked at a lot of um different schedules with um qualifications um for music. And
013we are also looking at at how we were filling like um filling the position from within there. There was um less need in some areas that had some split music positions. And so we were looking at at what kind of FTEEs um to making sure that we have all all the offerings that we want to offer for music, all the ones that we've had been offering and looking at the staffing that we have. available within because we want to make sure everyone has a has a full-time contract as well. So, so that's where we're we were also looking at those things and finance committee will meet again um here in the next few weeks, but I just wanted to make sure the board had an update also as to I we met for probably a
014couple hours few hours. We we we literally met for several hours looking at historical looking at potentials for for the future. And it, like I said, it wasn't just music. It was FTEES across several different areas making sure we we had full-time contracts. Steve, did you have anything to add? Okay. >> I just >> Okay. Okay. Yep. Steve is joining us by phone, so just wanted to make sure I didn't miss him. Erin, go ahead. >> And and just to add, we didn't the committee didn't feel like we had enough uh information, enough uh um rationale to say this is a recommendation that we we would pursue or suggest to pursue to put in front of the board. So that's why we assigned the action and and it's still in in discussion and to making
015sure that we uh can put forth a a recommendation that is uh appropriate for the um for the district and again it takes the inputs and and uh considerations from all the stakeholders. >> Any other questions from the board or comments? Jason, go ahead. We we can expect um a plan at the next board meeting within a month. >> Um I don't know if we'll because this and the next board meeting are kind of tight together, but by the May. Yes. Yep. Yep. And and like I said, we we spent quite a bit of time um making sure that we were able to offer everything that we want to offer. And um also the community felt really strongly about having um this the continuity and consistency with sixth, seventh and eighth band and and that's
016the that is part of the the recommendation from administration coming forward and that is the part of the plan for that. So making sure we have that consistency that the community um has been asking for. And so so that's a big piece of it, but there's some other smaller pieces depending on other FTE needs or or shifting with with the closure of Washington that kind of shifted how we're doing some other programming within our elementary also because some programs were shifted to Gustner and moved to different places. So, we're looking at not just music, but across the board FTEES. Any other questions? Aaron, do you have anything else to add? >> Board members have any questions? Okay. Yep. Well, I just wanted, like I said, I wanted to provide an update for you and the
017community as well as to um you know, where we're at with this and and we're we're taking our time and and really um you know, making sure that we're we're able to offer the things we want to offer. Dan. >> Yeah. I just want to clarify it. So, I guess this you're you're guessing that the May meeting is when we make that final decision of whether we close that wreck for music or not. >> Yeah, I think we'll have a recommendation from the from the finance. I think um there's been some other meetings since the finance has met and we can get an update at our next finance meeting and and I I I think we were getting close at the last finance meeting, but there's a few unanswered things that we tasked administration to
018go back and and and and get more information for for us to to feel comfortable with it. But I felt really good once we started going through not just music FTEs, FTEEs across the district and anyone who's with the certifications um for that. And really the biggest like I said with the closure of Washington school that takes um a half FTE right offline right away. So that's half a position right there. And so just looking at how and also so our staff isn't um the least amount of movement between buildings as well as as we can possibly was another discussion that we had in finance. We spent some time on that looking when that movement happens and and so forth. So >> yeah. So it didn't there wasn't a a strong bit of data whether
019we keep that position open or not. We still have more discussions on that. The concern I would have is is that at that by that point >> does it make it difficult to hire um um that that late in the game. So that's the only question concern I would have >> and I think when we went through the schedules um there were it was pretty well laid out. there just were a couple of unknowns that administration was going to finalize after talking um with the different programs. And so it it seemed like filling from within we had a lot of the boxes um filled and we were able to accommodate the the the consistency in that middle school programming. So >> without burning everybody else out in the process and replicating the issues that we
020had this year. So >> yeah. Yeah. And so we also just like I said, we also looked at those other programs that had less need to. So we want to make sure that we have full-time jobs for full-time equivalents for for those positions. So any other questions or discussions there? So again, Steve Buildamp is joining us by phone, but we've had some phone difficulties. So any other questions or comments from Okay. Thank you, Aaron, for for providing the written report, too. I appreciate that. That way board members could read it in in advance. So that was great. Okay, moving on. Um we have strategic plan progress monitoring. Any questions on the dashboard provided so any questions? I I'm feeling I really like how our strategic plan is coming together. Um, and we have regular reporting
021of it and um, regular monitoring and and I think it's also been able to help us refine some of the the things that we want to accomplish. So, so thank you. I believe Aaron, you kind of created that structure for us. So, I thank you and I do like the color coding of it as well. So, under board education, we have student engagement strategies. We have Stephanie Wall and Madora Pringle with us. Please come forward and hey, get all my supplies ready. All right. Hi folks. I'm Stephanie Wall. I'm the instructional coach here at the middle school and at Louis Lammore. >> And I'm Adora Pringle. I'm a social studies teacher in sixth grade and then I teach one class of Spanish one for eighth grade here at the middle school. So you guys are
022just going to get a glimpse of some of the different types of engagement strategy strategies that our middle school teachers use. As I was kind of making through this and getting to talk from the door, I'm thinking about different teachers as I'm making. I'm like, hm, how can I pull up what this teacher does and this teacher does to kind of showcase a bunch of different things that the folks use. So we're going to get started. I hope you're ready to participate and engage with us. All right. First up, we have a classic turn and talk. And a turn talk is where you can turn and talk with a partner near you. And I know that Steve is via phone, so we can do a group of three with Jamie, Owen, and Dan. And then
023if you guys want to smush, and then you could break off into two and two. Your question today, we'll set about a one minute timer is to talk with your partner. What does engagement mean to you? What's kind of your understanding of it? and we're just turning and talking. So, it's not going to be a share out time just yet. We'll have time to share out later on. Okay? So, I'm gonna set a timer and your job with your group is to turn and talk focused on student engagement and what it means to you. Title one, sixth grade English. for two years, but they only >> got about 10 seconds. >> I'm gonna wrap you guys up. I don't have my little uh singing bowl where I could ding you back together, but you can
024imagine ding and we're going to come back together. We just popped around just a little bit and it was neat to hear different >> What do you say? >> Oh, >> yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Via phone. We could do a recap another time. Um it was neat to hear uh folks different interpretations of engagement and how you can think about it in like homework level and in is this engaging work that I'm doing? Is it challenging? Is it meaningful to me? And then there was different um folks talking about like the connection like the engagement connection between peers and teachers. So it engagement is multiaceted. So that was neat to hear just some background knowledge that you guys already have. Come on little slideshow. There we go. All right. It would not be the start of
025a lesson if we did not have our learning targets. So I do have learning targets for you today. and we are doing a coral read. So, please stand up and we are going to read our I can statements aloud. And typically I'll even have teachers say clear our voices. We're going to say this nice and loud. We have two goals today. The first one is on like our participation and the second one is are more of like the learning target of like what we're actually learning about engagement. So, we're going to start with the first one. Ready? I can participate in classroom engagement strategies as a learner. The second one, I can describe what student engagement looks and sounds like in a middle school classroom. All right, that's our focus for today. You guys can
026take a seat. Good job. I won't have you do it again. Sometimes if we don't have everybody, we do it again. So, nice job doing it the first time. When I first came to the middle school here, this was the first thing that I learned. Everyone does everything. At first I was like, tell me, tell me more. Right? Like that seems pretty intense. Everyone does everything. And then I got to learn more about it and how it works at JMS. And what it is is at the middle school, we set expectations that our students participate. We do everything together to keep our students engaged. That doesn't mean right that everyone's everything looks the same because our learners are all at different levels. Some students may need to verbalize something. Some students may need to write
027something out, right? So that everything can look different. But the point being that every winner in our school has this expectation to be learning and to be participating together, which is pretty powerful, right? We don't want any sideline sitting in the back learners. Let's soak it in. I'm not participating. I'm too cool. No, everyone does everything and we try to find how we can bring that out in all of the kids. This next part moves into and it's a little dark so I apologize. On the left side in the little purple box it says looks like and then on the right hand side in the pink box which the color should have been a lot darker so I apologize. It says sounds like. So when we set expectations in our room, it's to help that
028engagement so the students can rise right to what we're expecting and we're setting the stage to be able to function in our classroom. So typically you'll see we need students sitting up, listening, asking, answering, nodding, note-taking, tracking the teacher. Those are all different ways that teachers can actively tell that a student's with them in learning. And as adults, those are things that, you know, we kind of do naturally, right? We might look at the board. We'll track the the person speaking. But those are things we have to teach our students. And then the other side is we get to see what does this sound like. So engagement doesn't sound like students just maybe sitting quietly doing nothing. Maybe they're engaged in their work and typing and that's what the output that we're going to see
029from them. But it could be we're looking at our partner talking. We are having that conversation face to face. We're checking our voice level because if there's 25 kids in a room, we need to again set that expectation of this is the volume I want you speaking at so that when we have these turn-in talks, think, pair, share, carous, all whole bunch of fun things. We have those expectations set so they know what am I supposed to be doing when I'm talking with this person? How is this supposed to look like? What's this supposed to sound like? So everyone can be heard. Anything else you want to add to that one? >> I hope you nailed it. >> Okay, that's kind of like the foundation. This is a little recap. So why do we do
030that? We want kids to rise to these expectations of engagement that we have for them. Giving them clear visuals, right? That everyone does everything with the little asterisk asterisks at the bottom. That's that's pretty clear. We review expectations with students either start of the lesson or before we move into some sort of activity. It reinforces learning for everybody and we can actively see the students doing and participating in the learning. So that's kind of the why. We have an example for you today. Me and Mrs. Pringle are going to model our expectation of this engagement strategy and then you guys as our learners today are going to be able to participate in what we modeled. Once you kind of do this modeling with any type of engagement strategy with learners, they typically can at the
031middle school level can catch on pretty quickly. could go over the modeling again if they need more support and reinforcement to follow those directions. So, you ready? >> We are going to do a question of the day. I am going to go be a student. Madora is going to be a student and we are going to act out a scenario for you. While we're acting it out, I have some look for I want you to think about us as learners. Are we both participating? Like if we're in the classroom given this question, are we both participating? What does it look like when we're going to be working together in a minute? What does it sound like? And then I want you to think about how can you tell that we're engaged? Okay, we're going to
032get our props ready. Thank you for bearing with us. Okay, ready? I'm gonna be the number one and she's gonna be number two. So, I'm an odd person. So, I'm going to share first. Okay, the question is, what book am I reading and why did I choose it? So, right now I'm reading Carrie Sodto is Back. Oh, do you want I should give you your note paper. Sorry. Carrie Sodto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reed. And I chose that book because Carrie Sodto, the main character of this book, was in another book I was reading. And this author likes to bring in characters from other books. And so that's kind of how I got hooked into wanting to read this book. Great. So Madora just jotted some notes about what I said and then I'm
033gonna listen to her and take some notes and then we're going to share back to you like you didn't just hear us acting it out. Okay. >> Okay. I am reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I love a crime thriller. I love a movie to go with the book so I can sit back, relax, enjoy it, judge it, critique it. but keeps me invested and intrigued the whole time. >> A crime thriller. >> Crime thriller. And it it's with a movie, too. No, very with a movie. >> It has a movie. >> Now, we're going to get the chance to share back to our group. So, we're modeling what you guys are going to get to do. So, my partner Madora, she just is in the middle of reading The Girl with the Dragon
034Tattoo and she likes to read those types of books because they're crime thrillers and they really keep her interested. She also likes it when a book is paired with a movie because she likes to kind of critique the two of them. So, that's why Madora is reading the book she's reading now. And Stephanie is reading Cara Soda Was Back because she just loves Carrie Soda and the author that brings in all these other characters. So, she wants to see the story continue. So, that's an example of what we would call um like a paraphrase passport. So, I'm listening to Madora. She took down notes. I kind of confirmed with her and vice versa before we shared out with the group. So, I'm gonna I might have to do some group adjusting. So, you might have
035to bear with me, but then you guys are going to do it with a different question. Jamie and Owen, you guys are going to be partners. Dan and Heidi, I'm going to do a little adjusting. Can you guys smush and be partners, please? And then Dr. and Christy, can you guys smush together? And then I can't see your name tags. I'm sorry. Jason and what's your name? Melissa, can you guys be partners? And I'll have you two pair up. Perfect. And then we're going to pass out these. And that might be a little small up there, but if you're a one or a two, odds can go first and then are even. Do you want to go one way and I'll go the other? >> Do you want pencils? I love her energy. All right,
036your question is, if you had a theme song that played every time you walked into a room, what would it be and why? So, your odd person will go first and then you'll flip-flop and then take your little notes because we're all gonna share out. So, we'll go around. We'll probably start with Jamie and then work our way around. Okay, you guys can start. I heard someone talk about touchunes. You have a favorite song on touchunes? Do we start? Do we need 30 more seconds or do we need about a minute or more? One minute. Okay, one minute. I'll set the timer for real this time. We'll talk about the We have 25 seconds. Just the first page. Just the first page. >> Got about 10 seconds to wrap it up if we can. That
037was really fun watching you guys answer all of those questions. I saw laughs and smiles and also panics of, "Oh my gosh, I forgot every single song I've heard. I have to find something. I also had to take a minute to think of a song. So, we're going to start with Jamie who's going to share what Owen said and then Owen will share what Jamie said and then we'll go around the room. Okay. >> Points if you sing it. >> That's a four. >> Yeah. So would be the final countdown by Europe that he pictures around. >> Oh, >> of course. Jamie is more of a classic rock girly, so she's going for the Almond Brothers classic, Soul Shine. So, she just wants to set the vibe, you know? >> Thank you for sharing. >>
038All right. >> Okay. Heidi's theme song is Walking on Sunshine because it reflects the fun and just very uplifting. Dan is a bridge too far. It's a war movie song with a happy lilt. >> Vocab coming out. >> I know. >> So Christiey's uh theme song is This girl is on fire. And she made that choice because it is her granddaughter's favorite song and they listen to it a lot and she feels like it gives them a lot of confidence when they sing it. Uh, and it's something very special for her, uh, is to see her granddaughter sing. >> Uh, so Dr. Lack picked the Rocky theme song because he likes to work very hard and give 100% every day. >> Melissa's theme song is I will survive. And I think that's that's fitting for
039her because I don't know if you guys remember, but she's the reason we meet now at 5:30 instead of 5:15. But, you know, she's got a lot going on in life and it's 99% positive, grandkids and and career and whatnot. So, that is the that is her theme song. I will survive. And Jason's theme song is um It's a Wonderful World. And he chose this because uh he said um he doesn't always succeed in in everything, but he tries to find the positive in everything and tries to reflect on what the long game is. >> And of course, as soon as time was called, my my theme song really should be You're going to hear me roar. But I thought of that too late. Aaron's theme song was Thunder Struck because that is the intro
040song for the Bison and both him and his wife are NDSU alumni. So, all right, we're going to knock it out of the park here. So, Jacob is an interesting individual. His theme song is uh Tub Thumping by Chumba Womba because uh when you get when you get knocked down and and get back up again. >> You need finger snaps for everyone who shared it took some bravery. Thank you folks for putting yourself out there. Oh my gosh, that made my I honestly that was really refreshing and just fun to kind of hear everybody and their little like glimpses of personality pop through through that other person. That was pretty special. Can I have someone volunteer to kind of just share like a quick reflection on that or takeaway before we move on or thoughts,
041feelings? >> That was the most engaging uh board education we've had in a while. >> Oh god, I'm glad we're not done yet. But wait, there's more. >> It's good to be students that are engaged. >> Come on, little slideshow. But wait, there's more. Oh. Oh, that was my song. Let me go back. My song was The Sound of Sunshine. That would be my entrance theme. I forgot I put it on there. I'll play it for you. >> Auntie, >> I know. >> Nice. >> From Bethany Hamilton, Soul Surfer. That's where I heard it. It's good stuff. >> So, why do we get to do that with our students in our classrooms? Couple things with question of the day, right? builds classroom community, which is really important for engagement. Students need to feel comfortable, to
042feel brave enough to share and to participate and to put themselves out there like you folks all have, right? So teachers will intentionally do different questions of the day, right? To get students to feel comfortable, to have something to look forward to when they're coming in. Um, so that's one of the reasons. And it also helps the teachers learn about the students a little bit more so they can cater different learning opportunities for them. Like there's so many things like hard rock like even all like hearing what everyone's specialties are like oh and I could think if I'm doing a biography unit on this person I know Jamie really likes hard rock right or class rock class rock sorry sorry class rock so she might be like it can just help the teacher kind of
043get to know the student a little bit better to then provide even better opportunities for them to serve them engagement wise >> yeah if Rob's having a hard day let's put on the rocky theme song lifting right up. We need this pickme up. And being able to turn and talk to someone in like a smaller setting can help students feel comfortable at first and then they don't even have to like share what they said. They're sharing what their partner said. So it kind of can lower their guard of like this isn't even what I'm saying. This is what my partner said. And so then it can help level the playing field and have all students sharing. And then lastly, precision partnering. I did figure out Madora where everybody was seated. I know we had a
044little hiccup, but teachers do a lot of like planning behind the scenes to set up different partnering situations for all different types of engagement activities. Um, do you want to share a little bit more about that, Monora? >> Yeah, so we can do precision partnering knowing that two kids, if we do this turn and talk, we know they're going to be comfortable talking to each other. We know they're going to feel open enough. Um, we can also use precision partnering using their test scores. So, okay, we're going to have a partner to do this assignment. I know this person is like middle of the road reader. This student is a little bit lower reader. Let's put them together so they can work together, bounce ideas off of each other. Or we can put two high-f
045flyers together and they can go take over the world with each other as a partner. So, there's lots of different things teachers do kind of behind the scenes to set up these experiences for students that people may not even be aware of. Lastly, we're going to have a moment to kind of reflect on our learning targets for today. On your back page, you have a wilt, which is kind of just a time to think about what did I learn today? and the focus is being on what did I learn about what does engagement sound like and look like in the classroom then there's time to reflect on your own participation because we ask our students to do this right it's a part of the accountability everyone does everything we are holding each other to these
046expectations so we're kind of reflecting on some of the learning today so first I'm going to give you guys some time to answer that first question what did I learn today and then glows and grows right what did you do really awesome with your partic participation today and a grow what do you want to do a a little bit better next time when you have to participate or be in a whole group setting. So, I'm going to give you guys some time to reflect on that. Take your time. But once you're done, if you want to put your pencil down, then we have a nice little physical signal. All right, I want to make sure you gave everyone enough time. So typically to end the lesson, teachers will give students either some sort of exit
047ticket to either recap their learning or reflection from that time. Teachers also have been adding in um like reflections on participation, right? Part of their Oh, I'm blanking on uh behavior. >> Citizenship, that's where citizenship grades as well, right? Accountability. We everyone does everything. And so then having students reflect on their participation in their behavior kind of helps them be aware and reflect on how was I participating in acting during this this time period together. The last site is really just time for questions or if there's any comments folks want to share, time of reflection. If you want to share out anything that you learned or took away, that is also totally awesome. That's all I have for you today. Does the board have any questions before they Jamie? Not so much a question, but
048just I really appreciated your whole whole um thing today. Um you it was very engaging for us board members as well. So it really shows what you do with our students every day. So thank you. >> Yeah. Well, thank you guys for taking time and like asking and being curious about it. It was kind of fun when Adam and Mr. Knox asked. I was like, "Oh, like this is coming off of coaching cycles and all of that awesome stuff that I got to do." It was neat to just see, you know, all of the awesome things our teachers do. I'm like, "Yeah, this is great. I get to like talk about like all of like all these ideas that all these teachers do. So, thank you guys for being open and making time to hear
049about them." >> Erin, go ahead. Yeah, I was just curious how uh this model or this uh um framework uh works with the u special needs kids and the English learners of people. It's kind of the exceptions uh to the to the general >> Yeah. >> population. >> That's a that's a good point and because everyone does everything but how can we access that for everyone because like you said it might be different. So for some students they might if they are an e learner they might use their iPad if there's some sort of question. the students are good about putting it into Google Translate either to then share with a partner or to have it speak for them to participate or the teacher might collect that or then in the special uh ed realm
050it could be I mean depending on the different engagement type of strategy you could have visuals or like oneon-one hand over hand like first we're going to do this and you can model it even more explicitly for them until it becomes comfortable but before then you might do it before a whole group so you kind of it depends on your delivery based on the students you have and how you want to roll it out with them. Does that kind of make sense or I can say more? >> And this is when like that precision partnering can definitely come into, you know, one student is >> comfortable using Google Translate with an EL student >> or we know one student has >> um >> just the empathy, the understanding to work with a special needs student.
051Obviously, we don't try and tire those students out by >> having to do that all the time, but that's when Precision Partner can really help um just ease them, getting them comfortable with it, seeing the model, >> and then keep pushing them to get out of their comfort zone even more and stuff, too. >> And maybe you don't even choose like this strategy like if it depends on the classroom in front of you. You could I mean, you could do just a turn and talk. You could do a think pair share where students have time to think on their own before they pair up and share. So I think you can choose like a different a different strategy for the different types of learners you might need. >> Yeah, you're welcome. >> Any other questions?
052>> Well, thank you again. I think we got a a a good insight into um some of the engagement that occurs every day in in Jamestown Middle School and and how our um students feel a sense of belonging there. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you guys. Have a good rest of your night. >> Thank you. >> Moving on our agenda, we have the superintendence report. Dr. Luck, >> I apologize. I will I will likely not be as engaging as your last agenda item. Uh, I wanted to start with the spotlight and I'm not sure if she left already, but Christy Hansen is our spotlight uh for this report. Uh, Christy most recently has been selected to serve on uh standards writing, a standards writing committee. Uh, that's a nominations process and application. And,
053you know, I really appreciate our staff that are able to and are willing to uh participate in standards writing at the state level. Um, we are standardsbased and it's really important that our teachers, North Dakota teachers and our Jamestown teachers are the ones informing and creating those standards and that takes a lot of work. It takes time away from classrooms. Uh, it takes a commitment to do uh and our most recent one uh was Christy Hansen unfortunately was here uh and she had to duck out unfortunately. uh but just want to recognize her and the work uh that her and all of the teachers that we have that serve on standards writing committees at the state level do because it is a significant amount of work and I want to make sure that we recognize
054those people. Um I have uh in my written report which you have uh I outlined spring enrollment and that was requested and I've I did a little breakdown of where we're at as of the 1 of April. Uh so it's a shade under 1900 students. So about a decade ago or 12 13 years ago that was uh around 2165 and so you can see that decline in the terms of in enrollment. You can see some plateau levels here too. Uh and you can see as um bands of students have come and and you see those plateau levels at the high school you know that's around 160ish uh students at each of those grade levels. Um and that flows kind of down into 678 where you see that bubble too. we had a smaller band of
055around 130 and that was kind of a standard for a little bit. Um and then below that you see around 115ish. So if you can just follow that cohort model through you see we are very topheavy in terms of our enrollment uh at the high school. It'll dip a little bit when our current middle school students get into high school. Uh but we are fairly consistent now around that 115ish uh for incoming kindergart kindergarten classes. So there is impact long-term. So we definitely don't want to think about our our enrollment as just a one-year number. You know, think about how those plateaus kind of play their ways through. And as we have those uh budget re realignment discussions that Aaron was talking about earlier, these are the types of data that re we really need
056to be considerate of uh and plan around. The worst thing we could do is make short-term one-year decisions uh because enrollment uh is one if not the primary indic variable that we need to plan around, it's certainly one of them. Uh, and so I think it's important to see um, and we have a little bit of nostalgia sometimes around we think we were what we were, right? And we can look at and say, well, Jamestown and Dickinson, those when I was growing up in Dickinson, um, Jamestown and and Dickinson were the same size. We the same size schools. We the same size communities. Well, we're certainly different than that now. And Dickinson's not a comparable for our community or our schools anymore. they are triple our size for from a school district standpoint. Now, that's
057not a good comparable for us anymore, but it does give us a sense, like I said, to extend a little bit beyond nostalgia and to look at what we actually have for enrollment because, like I said, if we aren't planning for what uh is coming, uh I think we're going to make the wrong short-term decisions. Um I didn't plan this, but we had student engagement results came. Uh we have a new test and I I bring this up when the the North Dakota student engagement survey is new this year and I've included uh in the dashboard I've included our scores. We're going to report on them later. Uh but you see how we compare to the state uh right now. But that's goal 3.1 and that's on the tab and like I said we'll talk
058about that in progress monitor them a little bit. Um I think that comes up in June if I I'm sorry July. Uh but um just a reminder two things. DSI DSIC has already began to look at this data and what does it tell us at a building level. We can talk about the aggregate and that you know what happens at the district level but really engagement is comes down to the building level. And so we want to make sure our DSIC teams are looking at their building specific data and then developing strategies around their building not just at the district level. Uh the second thing uh is just a reminder that this engagement survey is new this year like I said so it doesn't provide us the same historical data comparison that we've had in
059the past. So we can't just look at this data and say well in the past we had this score. It's not a great comparable anymore because it's a new assessment. So, I'm just passing that along. Uh, I wanted to to bring up uh support staff of the year. Uh, like we had teacher of the year, the process is going to look the same. Uh, and actually we were accepting nominations for support staff of the year uh through April 1st. And I believe we had 100 nominations for that or at least it was right around that number. I didn't get a final count, but right around a hundred. And so we're going to go through that process again. Uh and that will get whittleled down and eventually we'll have um support staff of the year to
060recognize just like we did with our two fantastic teachers of the year. So the next item I wanted to bring up is uh is titled path forward. If you're familiar uh in the la in the last decade or so, we've had a couple different um initiatives and we've partnered in the community a few different times. uh related to walkability and rideability to school. Um you you're all from this community, so you know walkability in the community of Jamestown and rideability for bikes is a challenge. Not a lot of connected roadways or sidewalks. Uh we ask, you know, kids in some areas of town might need to walk uh on the street or ride bike on the street. uh we don't have a a great walkability in our community and that's something we've struggled with and
061talked about as a community for much longer than I've been in Jamestown. But there's been a couple of different initiatives that we've taken on uh and they both been what's now called transportation alternative. In the past it was called safe routes to school. Uh and two projects that stick out to me. One is just what we did around the middle school to improve safety. uh those are the bumpouts putting an island out in front of the middle school. We were seeing uh you having safety concerns with students crossing and especially during drop off time and and the drop off lane uh that we have on the south side that's uh improved drop offs for families and and uh eliminated a lot of the double parking we were seeing on the west side. Uh and that
062was a you know a good um that was a good initiative and it certainly helped with safety. Um, and that was funded through uh the district's commitment. That's part of what we we have our special assessments for, pay for our portion of the safe routes to of that particular safe routes to school. Um, and the other was uh improving sidewalks around uh and by the CTC up to the high school uh right outside of um of the CTC center all the way through to track and then the path that crosses between track and uh the high school that was part of a transportation alternative grant that was written in this funded the same way. And now another group is working uh that group has uh you know facilitated by Jamestown parks and wreck uh and
063they've parks and reccks has been involved in all of these conversations that I've had uh the the other two that I've been involved with uh in the last few in last decade. Uh this one is working on a uh program they're calling path forward. Uh and then I included that um sheet but also then a draft bike map that they're working through. uh and uh kind of targeting the same idea. How do we improve and make more make it safer for kids to walk to school or ride bikes to school and what are those things that we need to do collaboratively as a community. So, I just wanted to bring forward the the work of this group uh and um appreciate the work that they've done already and just a commitment to making sure that
064we have good and safe paths for students to walk and ride bikes to school. uh related to or similarly uh a related issue is we've been working with the city of Jamestown uh on you know 7th Avenue right outside of Roosevelt Elementary like I talked about at the middle school. There's been some safety concerns over a period of time double parking and kids walking across the street. Uh, and we're we've this year seen some safety concerns outside of Roosevelt Elementary on that on on 7th Avenue Southeast. And so we're talking with them about what safety improvements could we do on the two crosswalks. So talking about bumpouts and an island and what can we do on the further south crosswalk as well just to make sure that that those pathways to and from school are
065as safe as possible. So, there's probably going to be a little bit more information coming uh from that because those are projects that we would uh need to go through special assessments to pay for. Uh but, you know, when we're seeing consistent safety concerns, um you know, outside and like I said, walking to and from school are things we need to really keep our fingers on. So, we make sure that we're addressing. Um, I just shared a little bit a couple different presentations. Uh, I presented along with another individual uh to the North Dakota Association of School Business Managers on planning for uncertainty and budgeting. I was also asked to serve uh or to present to the Hunt Institute. They have a mayor's leadership fellow fellowship. Uh so it's mayors from across the country. Uh
066they asked me to present on the challenges and opportunities with teacher compensation. And so I'll be uh going to Durham, North Carolina on May 15th to present to that fellowship group. Um we had a I've talked before our our MIT day of AI. Uh we had a process to get some nominations. Uh so we had 17 students that were nominated. I tell you they were all outstanding nominations. And it's one of those things where um not to be um you know hyperbolic, but you'd like to bring them all. You'd like to bring every kid that's nominated, but we did have to pick. Uh and so from those 17 students, we asked them to apply. 10 of those 17 applied. Uh and from those 10 applications, I looked at criteria of leadership, communication, curiosity, intellectual engagement,
067civic awareness, uh representation of JHS and North Dakota, and then reflection and impact and what they were hoping to achieve from being involved in the as a student senator in the state of AI. Uh and based on that criteria, uh selected Lena Hoffer and um Owen Sorley, both juniors. Uh and so they will be attending that uh opportunity with me in July, the July 17th through the 19th. And so we're going to be sending some social media out, make sure that they get uh some good recognition out on social media. I tell you, they're going to be great candidates. And I think they're going to learn a lot. And we're going to learn a lot from them uh because it's going to allow us to have a student perspective on AI that we can learn
068a little bit about from their needs and how they see artificial intelligence. And I think it's going to uh shape how we do our work as administrators and teachers. Uh but it also is going to have some impact in policy development too. So I have great appreciation for them and I'm looking forward to uh joining them at MIT. I think uh they they're going to have us very busy for a couple of days and I'm looking forward to it. Um the last thing that I had is are some simulations for reduction enforced non-renewals. And so I'm going to start this part of the conversation to say um or this part of the report to say we are not planning to do non-renewals. That is not what we're intending to do. We've had a lot of
069conversations about budget realignments. So I want to make sure that the intent behind this is not preparing for non-renewals. We aren't preparing for non-renewals. There were questions across the state. Jamestown is not the only place that's seeing uh concerns with budgets. Uh you've seen that in, you know, in some very high media attention in some districts has been given to non-renewals and um uh budget realignments. Uh and we aren't in that position. I think we're we're looking at uh priorities as we are and I think we're attacking the issue uh long term. But there were questions that came about from from what's happening in other places. And I felt rather than just try to make some assumptions or uh ask you know just do a simple question answer uh for one question I thought well
070maybe this is an opportunity for us uh and I consider it stress testing our policy. So what I'm going to do is and I've started this process already. Our reduction enforce policy has you know three different areas and and I can share it with you at a at you know it's it's policy DKA if you want to look at it uh but it's really very it it's very defined this is how reduction and force take place but what I want to do is do a couple different simulations do uh a hypothetical situations we're not going to use people's names or their reasonable faximiles of them we're going to just run a couple different scenarios with seven different teachers in a high school department. Seven different teachers at an elementary level in a specific department and
071run some hypothetical how many years of experience. What are they doing in the district? What kind of leadership opportunities have they taken advantage of? And we'll just create some randomized hypothetical situations and run through reduction in force. If the board directed me to reduce one of those seven individuals, who what person would it be? teacher A, teacher E, teacher B. Uh, and the purpose of it is just to engage in the conversation. It's like I said, it's we're not preparing for anything, but I had questions about, well, how is this variable viewed or how is that variable viewed? I would much rather be in front of that and have conversations about a hypothetical situation than try to deal with this when it's actually happening. And so, like I said, to me, it's about stress testing.
072Uh, and I'm gonna I'll do those simulations. Then we'll bring it to communications committee and we'll have a conversation about it. I'll share what I see from with this and what questions we had at communications in a report to the board when I do it. I anticipate that happening probably in the next 6 weeks or so. But I think it's a good exercise for me. It's been about 20 years since I did I've done a reduction non-renewals. Policy was different in in that district obviously than this district. But I think it's important to go through so everybody has is as it's as as much clarity as possible around what could really be a challenging thing. Uh if you haven't gone through non-renewals, I guess we have gone recent, not recently, but probably in the last
07310 years a reduction of force in this district. But um uh I think clarity, transparency is really as important as it can be in something like this. And I just want to make sure that everybody has a chance to have their questions answered and see how these variables uh play out in a in a in a hypothetical situation. So with that, I would stand for questions. >> Any Owen? >> Going back to the enrollment numbers. I had a question um in comparing these April 1 numbers to what we see on ND Insights. So the ND insights for this year that that comes from fall enrollment, right? >> Yeah. >> So um I was noticing and comparing those that uh that the elementary and middle level were pretty stable, but there's a lot of movement at
074the high school level and and overall we were down 29 students from a headcount standpoint at the high school level. Could you walk me through kind of what might be happening there? >> Well, some of that comes down to home education. Some of that comes to virtual instruction. what happens virtually. We have much more um open options for virtual. Uh we the biggest um difference we see comes actually in ninth grade where families are choosing home education at the nth grade level at a higher rate than what we've seen in the past. Uh and so that's one indicator that we're seeing. Uh but really those are probably the two largest well that and and those students that choose to either transfer or make the choice to drop out. Uh what what I can say is
075uh we have seen great success at Blue J Academy with retention of students that in the past were dropping out. Uh but our graduation rate is skyrocketing from Blue J Academy. Uh and operating through that school within a school philosophy uh and with that particular program has really helped us retain a lot of those students at the high school. Uh one other area that related to alternative ed that or with the blue jade academy that you might see uh I'm not sure that the student that the uh numbers that for ND insights accounts for blue j academy we com we combine them those might be separate in in ND insights I'd have to look >> okay yeah I didn't want to jump to conclusions without understanding what but then on the other end of the
076spectrum too I think you know you can lose yourself in ND insights and looking around lots of data Yeah, >> but we are asked a lot to look at these open enrollments and approve them. Um, and I don't think we've had a chance to really look at the big picture on net open enrollments coming in and leaving and especially at that prek level. Looking around at some of these other school districts, looking at their prek population on ND Insights, it's a considerable chunk of their whole school district. And so I wondering if we can get some better metrics on on um and I know uh Adam said too that there's going to be more efforts and and surveying those folks that are choosing to y >> open enroll in other uh districts around us. So
077getting that type of information might help us. >> Yeah, >> it's just really focusing on both of those ends. >> The most recent um presentation for our demographer and then I can bring that back up. showed specifically the ins and outs, you know, how many we were, you know, we actually have a net plus net positive. Most recently, we vacasillated between uh, you know, a loss and a gain for open enrollment over the years, although we've trended more towards net positives uh on on on open enrollments. But that's the most recent that you could look at if you look at that demography study. Any other questions from the morning? Jason, go ahead. >> A question on the homeschool ninth grade. Um, that's that's not obviously that's not specific to JPS. We're seeing that. Um, are
078we are we seeing the ninth grade the biggest group like statewide? Uh, or we don't know that or >> I don't know. I don't know statewide, but I will say that the nth grade this year has been an outlier for us. more home education than what we've seen traditionally. I don't know the anticedant for that but or if it's just an outlier if it's the beginning of a trend. Uh but we have seen I will say the uh NDCDE virtual instruction and and now that we're um buttoning that up a little bit at the state level uh I think that's going to help quite a bit uh with um with that. But we do see that increase at the nth grade level. >> Other questions? >> All right. And I if we look at those
079numbers um one thing that it did really stand out to me if we look at the early um grade levels versus the students that'll be graduating in the next two to three years and and just making sure that we are in front of that and and making the right dec financial and planning and educational decisions um to to support um the students that we have there. So, and thank you to the board for the the work you're doing on that. Moving on, um in our agenda, nothing under old business under new business, nothing under activities, buildings, and grounds. Under curriculum, assessment instruction, we have approval of the 2026 summer school courses. Is there a motion? >> I move to approve the summer school course. >> Motion by Jason. Is there a second? >> Second by
080Jamie. We have a motion, a second for approval of the 2026 summer school courses. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carried. Under finance, we have approval of the audit agreement, which is the same um group that we've been going with for the last two years. Um, is there a motion? >> Motion by Aaron, second by Melissa be a motion, a second for approval of the audit agreement. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carried. Nothing under operations under personnel. Approval A. Approval of the 2026 summer school contracts. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Melissa. Second. >> Second
081by Owen. We have a motion, a second for approval of 2026 summer school contracts. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. B. Approval of 2026 to 2727 support staff wage schedule. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Jamie. Is there a second? >> Second by Dan. We have a motion. A second for approval of 2026 to 2027 support staff wage schedule. Any discussion? Aaron covered this a bit in the finance report. Does anyone have we we looked at different scenarios and and um made make bringing forth a recommendation here. So any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. C. Approval of the resation of
082number one, Madora Pearlyberg. Is there a motion? Motion by Melissa. Is there a second? >> Second by Dan. We have a motion a second for approval of the resation item number one. Madora Pearlyberg. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carried. And thank you for the service to our district. D. Approval to hire for the 2026 to 2027 school year upon a successful background check and receipt of lensure. Number one, Paul Wanzig. Is there a motion? Have a >> motion by Jason. Is there a second? >> Second by Jamie. Have a motion. A second for approval to hire for the 2026 to 2027 school year upon a successful background check and receipt of lensure number one. Paul Wanzig.
083Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Oppose. the same sign. Motion approved and welcome to the district. Under policies and procedures, we have um approval of board policies 1, two, and three. Is the board okay if we do them together? Is there any questions on them prior to moving forward with that? Okay. Number one, amended policy DDBC bereavement lead amended policy ACCA sexual offender on school property. Three, first reading of ACCA-Briteria for granting parent offenders privileges to enter school property. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Aaron. Second by Jason. We have a motion, a second for approval board policies 1 through three. Any discussion? Any Melissa? Go ahead. >> I just had a question on the criteria for granting
084parent offenders. Um, is that something that would then be parents of that of that school would be notified? Because I know like if there's a um sex offender that moves even around town, that has to be disclosed. So, how are we how are we protecting >> our our students with that? >> So, there's state law around around how you address parent offenders. Uh, and so I meet with each of each uh, parent sex offender. Uh, and uh, some of those we hear through our SRO or or um, oftentimes they they make self-notifications and so we meet and talk about procedures. Uh, it really depends on a lot of different factors, but um, generally speaking, there would be a check-in process. uh it's not notification for the the school, it's notification for those in in that
085are responsible for um monitoring and um uh ensuring safety in the building. So we we make the notifications at the building employee level. Uh we don't make the uh notifications to all. >> Any other questions? We have a motion, a second for approval of board policies one, two, and three. Any other discussion? Any other discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. >> I oppose. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. We have nothing tuition or other items for future agenda. We did get a request for um in the future we'll do a report on on activities things like um enrollment opportunities um staffing at events those kinds of things. Any other items for future agenda? Okay. If not um if you think of something please or want to hear more about
086something let Dr. Luck and myself know. under meetings to be schedules. We have Monday, April 20th, 2026, school board member. So, we are going to meet at the arts center and not here on Monday, April 20th, and we're going to get a tour of the culinary arts program and and the investment um that we've made in that and and the partnership there. We'll start the tour at 5:00 p.m. Then we're going to have a regular schoolboard meeting at the art center at 5:30. Um, and it's hard to believe we're looking at graduations already, but we have transition house graduation on Thursday, May 14th, 11:00 a.m. at the transition house and high school graduation Sunday, May 24th at 2:30 p.m. in the civic center. And Amy will be reaching out uh to get um to see
087who's participating and attending um those. >> So, just a note, the transition house graduation is at the in the Thompson community room. >> Thompson Oh, okay. Thompson Community Room location corrected it on the agenda that they're all looking at just the printed copy still says >> so transition. So Thompson Community Room >> and it'll be on the on the school calendar as well. So or the the calendar of meetings. So any other Well, we're going to be scheduling a finance committee sometime in the next month. Um probably a couple weeks here. Yeah. I'm not sure if we'll hit it before then depending on people's schedules before the 20th, but we'll schedule that. um sometime um strategic planning I think um probably um May into June just um also recapping um what we've the reports and
088where we're at and seeing if we need to any make any tweaks or changes to that. Anything else from the board that in any other committees that I might be missing? >> Is there a GED graduation this year at all? Well, >> or no, >> we haven't had a notice yet. Um, we'll I can ask make sure we get that information to you. >> We'll check on that. So, um, and then uh what other comm health health insurance must be coming up too eventually here. So, some so just there'll be a health insurance meeting on typically on a Monday here in the next several weeks as well. So, otherwise is that it upper committees? Okay. Um, next on our agenda, we have possible executive session to discuss negotiation strategies. Okay. All right. And then no,
089there's no motion on that. Moving on, we have monthly superintendent evaluation section one, goal and vision setting in section four, curriculum and student support services. Please complete that. There being no further business before this board, the meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone. Hey,