001Good evening. I'd like to call this regular meeting of the Jamestown Public School Board to order. It is Monday, November 17th, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. in the Thompson Community Room. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nationy andice for all. We'd like to welcome all those in the audience this evening. We have nothing under Does anyone have conflicts of interest to declare on this agenda? Any conflicts of interest? >> Jacob, >> if we decide to vote on any of the negotiation? >> Oh, sure. >> It's just Yeah, >> the same conflict. Yeah. >> Yep. Same one as normal. >> Okay. Any other conflicts? Okay. If not, um, moving on. Score norms. Steve, would you be willing to
002read the schoolboard norms? >> The board developed norms are to share and respect opinions and speak with united voice once a decision has been reached, execute all duties of the school board in compliance with North Dakota Century Code, properly prepare for meetings, and commit to assessing board effectiveness, and ensure high quality governance for all stakeholders. >> Thank you, Steve. We have nothing under public communications. Moving on to our consent agenda. Is there anything any board member would like removed from the consent agenda, Melissa, or clarification? >> I would like to approval. >> Okay. Where she put that? >> Yeah. Okay. We will can are let me see where we let me see where to move that under H under finance. Is that okay if we put that there? >> Okay. Yeah, we'll put a number
003we'll put a letter C under number four there under finance. Okay. And then um just one and the one A. Correct. The number two is okay. >> The minutes. Okay. Okay. Anything else? Anyone else would like to remove? Okay, we have remove we have moved um under E under other we moved number one and A under H number four finance to letter C. And so we'll um deal with that at that time. Outside of that, is there anything else anyone else would like to remove? All right. If not, is there a motion for the consent agenda except for 1 A? Motion by Steve. Second by Jacob. We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote. All those in favor say
004I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. Moving into our regular meeting. We don't have anything under recognition correspondence. Do student council reports tonight? I don't see that. Okay. Moving on to our board education. We have number one education competency DSIC procedures or DISC as we call it procedures to analyze stakeholder engagement. So we have some folks here but we appreciate them coming. Deb Hansen, Christy Hansen and Brian Knox. Please come up and introduce yourselves. And I think you have a presentation behind us. Correct. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Good evening. Um I'm Brian Knox. the principal at Jamestown Middle School and this is Christy Hansen who I'm sure you're familiar with and this is Deb Hansen who I'm also sure you're familiar with um who are great members of our staff and we've been asked
005to present to you the district school improvement process and explain how that whole component works but anytime you have educators of course the educators want to step into the role of education so Miss Hansen >> we're going to start good evening how you all doing this evening great we're going to open with a question but before we open with the question Um, I need you to go back to Thursday of last week because our PowerPoint was linked to your board minutes on Friday and I didn't want you to look at it, but I want you to go back to Thursday like you didn't see the our presentation and we're going to do a fist of five with this. The question is what is your understanding of our role of the district school improvement committee? What
006do we do? And the fist of five will be if it's five that means you have total understanding. If Adam would kick you out an agenda, you can go through the agenda. You can find open links. You can Oh, yep. You know what that is? You actually could come into the meeting and run it for Adam. The three would be, well, I know what some of the things are on this agenda. I think I have an idea. You might be familiar with a few. And the zero would be the fifth would be I really don't know what this is. Okay. So, the question is, what do you think our role is as the district school improvement committee? And on the count of three, I want you to hold up and I want you to hold
007it because I'm going to be collecting some evidence because with our new um focus model of Marzano, evidence is the key. All right, on the count of three. One, two, three. Hold them up. Of course, you would have a five. All right. Thank you. >> Four. Four and a halfs are always good to that one. Um, so I appreciate the that uh part of the teaching. So, we're going to come back as we always would as educators and make sure we uh do a good job and re-evaluate uh that pres this presentation. So, let's talk about what is the purpose of the committee. So, the district school improvement committee really serves three main components. The first one is an advisory role. uh we even though we have individuals who represent all of the buildings uh
008come together they will be looking at their data individually but then as a whole will be looking at that and helping provide information to administrators to the faculty and also to to you as schoolboard members. We also want to bring together all of our stakeholders. We want to have student input which I think is very impressive that we are actually utilizing student data. uh most districts uh kind of skip that component. So I'm really impressed as a school district that we are using student data. Uh obviously we want to get parent feedback as representing the family members, educators, and also the community. And then finally, we're going to work collaboratively to focus on ways to improve our educational instruction, our student performances, and of course overall the school as a whole. Here we show you
009who are the current members of the district school improvement. Like I said, every building is represented, including the school board members who um attend and they do share and there are monthly meetings. Sometimes they're not able to make it to all of them, not only schoolboard members, but also other members because we have other commitments, but it's regularly attended. Um and we have people who are there representing very well. The part that's really impressive with our as with this district is I've had the opportunity in my 30 plus year career to work with several districts who go through the school improvement process. And it happens about once every five years that they focus on it. And what I'm learning here in Jamestown is this is a continuous school improvement process. It's not something that we're
010just looking at and waiting five years for. It happens annually. We're looking at this input, this data to make sure that we're continuing to make good decisions. And for myself very impressed with that component. In this timeline you can see that early on we collect the data from various stakeholders and we'll continue throughout the year to be able to collect that data. But once we have it we start analyzing the data and figuring out what information that we want to focus on looking for things that we want to synthesize and focus on for improving and also recognizing the areas that we do very well with. So this is the timeline. You can see that for November we are currently focusing on analyzing the stakeholder survey which was presented back in September. Uh that information had
011been collected. Uh I will tell you some of us have jumped ahead of this. We've actually started analyzing this a couple weeks ago. Uh we were excited to get that data and figure out what that information had for us. One thing that's really nice is not only do we have one point, we'll have several points that will actually hopefully reinforce those areas. And I will tell you at the Jamestown Middle School, we've actually noticed that some of our data is actually correlating. What we're hearing from one stakeholder group is is also being supported by others. Now, through this process of Cognia, for those who've been in the educational world, um this has been around for quite some time. They've just changed the name of it. Um but the five-step data analysis is is really intense
012there and you can either see the visual or the explanation of it. But it's collecting all of this different uh data from our different stakeholders uh dissecting that or analyzing that information and then deciding what do we want that information to be used for using the findings and then establishing the evidence of how we're going to then move forward as a district. In the required data analysis, we're looking at student performance data. This could be at the building level. It could be in the classroom level. It could be at the district level. It could be at the state and national level. That data is very important. Again, we want to make sure that we're not just relying on one piece of data to make our decisions, but that and that we're also being able to
013find out that there's a correlation between those different data points. We then look at the stakeholder uh feedback and again uh that's really a key to this component. Uh we're currently doing a survey with our students to help plan for next year in getting their interests. uh it's not an official uh feedback, but it's important for us to know what our students want as we make those decisions. And then finally, the learning environment, making sure that we are evaluating our our staff, not only as administrators, but we also have other members who are trained to be going through the classroom and looking for those learning environment uh data points that we're going to utilize. And now we'll pass it on to Miss Deb Hansen. Um some of the data that we've already collected uh approved
014climate and culture surveys are basically what we've used. Um our parents would have received their survey during our conferences this fall. Uh students just finished theirs up last week. Um and then teachers and the rest of our staff have also completed those. Vital network instructional staff survey um is what we also use for our instructional staff. And basically on the 20th here on our meeting on Thursday, we're going to be digging into that data. We're going to synthesize the data, the findings, and provide ideas and brainstorm improvement or implementation plans. Um, we're going to be looking for themes and trends. And this is also the celebration part of it. What's going well? And then we're also going to be looking at areas for growth. The types of the student performance data. Um, we have the
015organizational data and you know these are the results from our initiatives. We have quite a few of them going on in the district. Uh, we have introducing academic literacy. We have project-based learning, Steve writing, uh, features of engaging math instruction, personalized learning. These are all pieces and when Christiey's going to talk to you in a little bit here about the learning environment data. Um, those are all embedded in our observation tool that we use. So, this gives us an idea these initiatives working. Uh, we also have program evaluations. uh we have our intensive programs might have transmath or read 180. They have unique data points that are already built into their program that we can also use um in our data analysis. Um we have the non-academic performance metrics which is the last one up
016there to where we look at attendance and disciplinary and uh you know participation in our extracurricular activities, measurements of skills and behaviors. um our MTSSB committee here at the middle school um they're now involved with SEC and they are taking some training on the positive behavior intervention supports. So we'll be able to pull data from that. Um I'm interested to see how our SPL behavior standards that we use for eligibility with the I can statements how we can pull that data in as well. Um student academic performance data we have summitive of course and then you got your standard proficiency scales that our staff has worked to put together. That's going to be an interesting tool to look at. Um, our inter interim assessments, uh, we already have the fall fast bridge for math and
017ELA. And, um, our state assessment, we'll be digging into that from the spring to compare to. And then, of course, we have our national assessments. Our eighth graders will take NAPE. Um, I look at our high school with our ACT and SAT scores. So, those will be some points that we'll be looking at as well. Good evening. Um, learning environment analysis. So, I'll go through number one, the Elliot observation data, and we'll talk about what Elliott means, unless any of you already have an idea. Anyone? We have a thousand acronyms in education. No takers on that one. All right, we'll get back to it. Um Deb had talked about the student engagement survey that we don't give till January. So we'll look at the results in February and then we take both those components and
018look at learning environments um back to Elliot. Any idea? No. Yeah. Yeah. Do you know >> close effective learning environment observation tool? So um there's a group from the elementary and a group from the uh secondary. We have six in our team that go around and we collect data in September and then we'll do it again in the spring. So what is our job? Um we're trained to go in and look at the context of seven different learning environments such as digital learning, active learning, engagement. And the tool is really nice because it focuses on the learner, not necessarily the teacher. We want to see what the learners are doing in the classroom. And they are rated on a scale of one to four. Four being very evident. One, it wasn't observed. So that doesn't
019mean that they weren't doing a good job, but you might not always see the digital learning. So that would be scored a little bit lower. Um we have seven different areas like I said and the data helps us refine and continue best practices in our classroom. So we take all of the performance data that Deb talked about, stakeholder feedback, learning environment which is the Elliott and then we come together and complete a selfassessment um later on. Is that May when we fill that in April? Okay. And that is where you will pick up As I stated earlier, Cogna, which was once referred to as advanced ed, which was once referred to as Northwest accreditation, um is is a program that continues to improve themselves. And under Cogna, there are four areas that they're really focusing
020on. And in this assessment, we'll have 30 standards that we'll evaluate looking at our culture of our learning, the leadership within that learning, the engagement that takes place, and the growth of learning. So again, taking those three areas that we've talked about, all those different analysis, and bringing them together to evaluate where we're loc, where we are at. This is an example of one of the questions that's looking at under the self assessment. Um, you can see that just like most of our standards where we talk about the one, two, three, four. They have different languages that help define what the standard is that we're looking for. In most cases you will see that there will be between a two and a three just like we would see with stu standardsbased learning just like we
021would see with Marzano. We would have that continued growth and areas that would be uh focused upon for development and then there also be areas where we would identify our strengths. This is an important one. You can see a breakdown of it just to understand the language of what they're looking for. These areas of improvement and achievement are key uh in helping celebrate the success of the district and also identifying those areas that we want to prioritize. It helps the board, it helps the school, um it helps the teams identify the areas that they need to put more time, more energy, more money, more resources to help make those changes to help improve the performance of where we're wanting to go with our next steps. As you can see with all of this focus, our
022main purpose of a purpose of this is to revise the strategic pan plan based upon that data and evidence. And this is where I think Jamestown really stands out. The strategic plan is a living document. It's not something that's created that five years ago was put into a booklet and we refer back to, but it's something that we continue to look at yeartoyear and continue to make adjustments to it as we as a district evaluate the areas of our success and the areas that we need to improve. So based upon the presentation you have today waking with all this wonderful knowledge in your head on a area of fist to five do you feel like you've had an improvement on your score? Now some of you are going to have a difficulty because you had
023were at a five already. So maybe there was something that we presented that was new but do you feel that you have a better understanding now of the purpose of the district school improvement process? Good job ladies. We did a good job there. Do you have questions for us? Or really, if you have questions for these folks? >> Thank you so much. Any questions from the board at all? Do we have questions? Okay. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you very much for coming out tonight. Moving on in our agenda, we have strategic plan progress monitoring and the dashboard. Um, did you want to comment on that, Dr. L? And then we'll do a motion for this to approval. >> Sure. I was just going to comment on the dashboard. uh you uh as has
024been referenced in the past, there are times in which, you know, we have all of the goals that have a specific progress monitoring or reporting date, but whenever we update them, uh we'll just update and and we'll include it as a as an update, even if it's not scheduled to be a reporting. So, you have that as an example a couple different places. improve staff leadership, staff involvement and decision-m even though that's not scheduled for May 18th. Uh there were some some updates that we did. So they're just added in the tabs. So I'm just making that reference. Proficiency of course is in there uh for this one as well, but also the communications plan. >> Mr. Gail, did you have some more information on the >> presentation there for the >> Yep. >> dashboard?
025>> Thank you, Dr. uh for inviting me to talk a little bit about our NDA plus results. So um at the last board meeting we gave gave kind of an overview and uh there were some questions that um led us to do a little bit deeper dive into resources that could give us more of those performance comparisons relative to this part of the strategic plan which the goal is to be top quartortile by uh 2030. And so some you know surprising findings uh and some resources that we were able to look through and it's going to be feel a little bit um like an eye test as we go through these uh just because we're using some scatter plots and it'll kind of give you maybe a little at least a little seat of the
026pants feeling for where we're at and where we're headed with this particular goal. So what is the goal? The goal uh as I stated was is to achieve that top quartortile proficiency in ELA, math as well as science. Uh and the time horizon is by 2030. Um the primary driver is having 85% of students proficient in those areas. Um currently in the current environment, 85% proficient would be the top. Um, and we'll see kind of those ranges of scores as we go through some of the scores that uh we collected here. So, we were able to look uh back through North Dakota Insights at 2324 and the data in science or in math and ELA science. we just have this year's scores and then we're also able to do some comparison with um some preliminary
027data that's not publicly available but we have access to be able to and we can um provide that data because we're just showing our own schools data on that. We're not showing other schools data. Um if you go to North Dakota Insights you can check out what all of the dots are on the scatter plot and later this year then those um dots will be named I guess uh it'll make a little more sense as I try to explain a few of these. So um what you're looking at here just to orient you to this style uh is we're comparing two-year student growth to two-year student growth. So, we're getting a linear chart and we're getting all of the elementary schools in North Dakota, the public elementarymentaries that are reported on North Dakota Insights. So,
028the blue dots on the left represent that continuum of schools in uh in sort of ranked order of where they fall in terms of two-year student growth. On the right side, you can see our schools in 23 24. So you can see where we're at on that uh continuum. Then if we go to the next one, uh we're looking at 2425. So we talked last time at the meeting about the new NDA plus assessment. And you can see um this is where it's going to be a little like an eye test. Do you like one or two? One or two. I like to do that toggling back and forth. You can do that on your own computer screen, too. But it kind of helps you show, gives you a little bit of a seat of
029the pants feel. Oh wow, we moved up and to the right, which is higher on that linear continuum. Some of the schools changed positions in terms of growth. Um, so we're just looking at growth in this linear chart. Um, in math, this is 23 24 along the continuum. You can see um where the midpoint is there. some schools on each side of that with growth in math and then in 2425 it sort of tightened up and moved a little bit more towards the center um when it comes to ELA in achievement. So now we've switched from growth of students to overall achievement. This would be that proficiency goal if we're if we're targeting 85% of students being proficient. You can see at the top of the chart over there in achievement is Gusner and Louis
030more um on that continuum and the rest of our schools spread out amongst that continuum. Certainly not the lowest in achievement, not the highest in achievement, but you can sort of see based on counting the dots where we're uh ranked. Each of those dots or data points might have multiple schools represented. So, if you were to go to North Dakota Insights and hover over one of those dots, you might see a list of 20 schools uh under one of those particular dots. So as you look at achievement then in uh 2425 again we see that trend where the uh data tightens up in math 23 24 achievement and then 2425 achievement. So, it gives you a sense of where we're headed and then uh and how we determined are we on track or not uh
031for this goal. When it comes to ele uh elementary student growth and achievement, this is where we get into a scatter plot. So, now we're comparing those two different variables, achievement on the left and growth on the right. And obviously, the goal is always to be both high achievement and high growth. But we're seeing where we're we're stacking up compared to other schools. The left graph, you can see the red dots, but just barely. And then as if you pull them out um into that continuum, you can kind of see where our schools stack up in terms of their growth and their achievement. So achievement on the vertical and two-year growth on the right uh on the bottom axis. So as you look at 2425 ELA, you can see a noticeable uh shift in the
032growth metric for our district. Uh not super noticeable in terms of achievement. And I tried to keep those the same on every one of these that I ran and copied and pasted in there, but I um want to check that as we're going through here, too. So with math 23 24 you can see um growth and achievement on the scatter plot. We have quite a few schools that are approaching that upper right quadrant where we want to be. And then in 2425 you can see the achievement drops a little bit. You saw that in the previous achievement slide but the growth still maintaining kind of in the middle of the pack. When it comes to Jamestown Middle School, we have a lot less schools that are defined as middle schools in uh the state of
033North Dakota. And that's because of um you know how schools condense and flow into middle schools and high schools. Uh but this would be any sixth through 8th school that would be comparable in the state. Um and you can see where we're falling in that top right quadrant quadrant when it comes to two-year student growth. um some way up in the top right um might be much smaller schools than us. Um they might have a smaller N. And so um in terms of the class A middle schools were definitely uh towards the top of those similar size types of schools or bigger schools were definitely towards the top terms of two-year growth for ELA. In 24 25 we shifted to the other side of the curve or of of the uh midpoint sorry and that
034kind of represents the the challenge of the new assessment. All of the schools shifted down in middle school and uh ELA proficiency. Uh but for us that's not where we want to be. We're not on track with that goal for math. Uh you can see that we were down and to the left uh in terms of two-year student growth and then um much improved but still not right up the midpoint when it comes to two-year growth achievement in ELA. I had to use my graphic arts skills because you couldn't we were in one of those groups of multiple schools and it wasn't highlighting red. But the the small um red dot there that shows where Jamestown Middle School achievement is in ELA in 23 24 and then you can see where it went to in
035202 or 24-25 math achievement and then 2425 math achievement. So slight improvement in math achievement but uh not as much in math growth. If you put it on the scatter plot, you can see that we're solidly in that upper right quadrant where we want to be in terms of growth and achievement. But there are some schools that have uh higher growth or higher achievement than us. And when it comes to two-year growth and achievement in ELA, you can see we're higher in achievement than the midpoint, but we're not where we want to be in terms of two-year growth. 23 24-year growth in achievement for math and 24 25-year growth in achievement in math. So again, improvements in growth uh still not breaking the midpoint in achievement with math. Jamestown High School, we are only able
036to get the achievement variable. they take the test at at 10th grade. And so we don't have a two-year growth uh projection from the state, but you can see that our ELA achievement uh putting us the third highest in the state in 23 24 and uh remaining in the in the top of schools in 2425 with ELA as well. Um so these results are um indicative of the entire system and working up into 10th grade and um you know very happy with those results. When you look at if you go to Northakota Insights and you hover over some of the other schools um this does put us above any other same size or larger school districts um in the state with ELA achievement. uh math achievement for JHS in 23 24. You can see us
037there in the top right. Um about about the 10th um cluster of schools I guess from the top achievement and then moving up uh closer to that fourth cluster of schools. And again when you look at schools of comparable size or larger um we're close to the top of that list. So, um, with that, I guess I'd stand for questions. And, um, this was a this was I feel like we're getting closer to the the mark of being able to effectively communicate the board's aspiration to be um, you know, really the number one school in the state. uh and in a lot of ways we're uh we're approaching that or we're on track for that uh and we know where we need to grow. Uh so I was able to con kind of condense that
038down into the last slide to just show by school where have we either already met that goal of being top quartortile or uh where are we on track and where have we not met that yet. Um, and so looking at, you know, the NDA plus data that we did last time and breaking it down into those bands, uh, our educators will be looking at that and saying, you know, are priority standards in the right spot? Do we have the right sets of data to make a difference on that? I think NDA plus data is important. It's one piece of how we educate kids and um you know so I I feel like we've got some good results. We're on track uh in a lot of areas. There's some that we've identified that we know that
039we haven't met yet and we need to do some work there. But uh overall I'm really satisfied with the analysis and it does give us uh a little bit of a cause to celebrate as a school district as well. Any questions from the board on the report? Owen, >> interesting data. Um, I'm thinking about that Cognia uh ven diagram or hierarchical thing of taking data and turning it into information uh and evidence. I'm interested in the your thoughts about how, you know, the the way that we're measuring these things against all the other schools in this unitless kind of standardized way. Um, does that take away from tracking how we are doing as a district year overyear if we're just looking relative to the state and not necessarily the looking at the actual like uh
040achievement of our of ourselves year after year I guess. >> Yeah. So the um we are able to get with the new North Dakota State Assessment like um a scaled score and those scaled scores are the uh there are groups of educators that get together to set the cut scores for the different levels of proficiency and I should correct last time um I think Mr. Roberts asked a question about what levels are available and I had said that there are three levels. There are three levels of scoring just for the bands. Uh so let's take writing out of the ELA test and there's three levels within that. There are four overall levels of score for the overall assessment and those cut scores are set by North Dakota educators and um that come together in a
041in a committee. So, for us to be able to look at year-to-year improvement, we want to look at that scaled score uh and the percentage of students that are proficient. Um, if we're comparing to other districts, they are going to be moving up and down that continuum. Um, I think that the the board's goal was to be top quartortile, meaning that we're in the top and I think at some levels we're achieving that and others we're not. Again, I would say North Dakota State Assessment is one piece of data. It's a piece of data that's useful for um maybe some overall program decisions, curriculum decisions, less useful in the classroom, uh less useful even at the at the school level in terms of informing our practice. Uh but North Dakota does have some new tools
042that we're employing at some places uh the high school and the math department particularly that do give us that standard level data in the classroom to make a difference for kids and we believe that that will help translate just like standardsbased learning will help us translate into higher overall scores that can be monitored at the board level. Um, so I think that to answer your question, we can look at the scaled scores and proficiencies year-over-year to see how we're growing um, and how we're growing cohorts of students. Uh, this goal seems to be driving us to be more aspirational in comparison to other districts. Good or bad, um, I think it's great to celebrate. Um, but I think we also need to pay attention to at the classroom level is that that's where we're going
043to make the biggest gains with kids, not necessarily um in comparing to other districts. >> Any Okay, Dr. Le, >> I was just going to follow up. You know, one of the things when when Mr. Gayler and I were talking about this presentation too, we really liked this quadrant. You know, um I think it's a good way for us to look at it. we can get trapped into looking at achievement and not consider growth. Um, and you know this allows us or helps us to do both. You know, if you look at that upper right hand quadrant, I call that the Goldilocks quadrant that gives you both. Uh, you know, and that's a I think that's a nice easy um visual for us to look at too. Uh, you know, are we meeting our we
044may not be, for example, meeting our our uh achievement target, but we're seeing pretty good growth. That's important to me. Uh, and we might be seeing high achievement in an area but not but not high growth or be very low on growth. Well, that is indicative of of some improvement areas too. Really, what we're trying to do is be uh at that uh Goldilocks in that Goldilocks quadrant uh at all levels. Uh but Mr. Gayler brought out an important point. When you look at the high school, that's really the summitative uh assessment. And unfortunately, we don't see the growth there because we don't assess that. But the the the growth at that 10th grade level uh in our mind shows that the system is building well upon itself. Uh and we're we're getting to that
045high level of achievement at the high school level. And that's that is a celebration I think. Uh but certainly bringing out some very u clear indications that u there are areas and when we're that we need to improve as well. Uh, and I I I appreciate the simplicity of what what we're looking at here. >> Any other questions from the board? Okay. All right. Thank you for sharing the data and the updates that we have. >> Thank you. >> For the board, um, is there a motion for strategic plan progress monitoring for strategic goal 4.2, to the NDA plus and NDSA performance comparison and the updated dashboard. >> Motion by Melissa, >> second by Jason. We have a motion, a second for strategic goal 4.2 strategic plan progress monitoring update and dashboard update. Any discussion?
046Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. superintendent's report. Dr. Le, >> so you have my written report. Uh the secondary design challenge really takes up a lot of the uh written uh report, although I to be honest, I'm going to skim over this because it's going to be part of our board retreat on December 1st as well. Uh what I do really want to bring up uh is is recognition and thanks to Mr. Gayler. Uh he went through a lot of work in working with our consultant to develop this design challenge. uh and uh um it really provided outstanding ideas to the district leveraging uh our staff to look at a large number of topics. Uh and as I've outlined in the
047in the report, uh we used an environmental scan to start uh and uh it listed a bunch of different ideas and topics. Then staff could um identify which topics they were most connected to. Uh and then this design challenge allowed them to work on this problem uh and develop some innovative ideas that can move forward. So part of our board retreat will be uh at least one maybe more but at least one of those design challenge teams uh coming forward and sharing uh their engagement in the process and some of their their ideas. really we're just trying to bring uh all of the experts uh in our district together to help us drive some innovation and drive some change. It was a I was a part of it. I know Mr. Roar uh were other
048board members too. I think Mr. Roar I know you were uh but involved in uh hearing those pitches uh and I was extremely engaged uh with the work that they had done and I was very very impressed with those that I got to see. Uh and you can see the different topics that you know there were shared uh there were some that were middle school uh specific and some that were high school specific but a lot of different teams working and you and I would hope that that as you look through that list I you know some of those uh connect with you in terms of oh those are areas that we could certainly want to improve upon or grow upon or build upon. uh and I thought they were again really outstanding ideas and
049I was appreciative of Mr. Gayler for uh organizing this into our secondary teams uh for taking this uh experience so seriously and really giving us good feedback. Uh moving on uh in the board retreat uh December 1st uh we're going to be working still as a finance committee later this week. uh we are going to complete that uh prioritization uh and then um you know my suggestion would be as I've outlined in the me in the report we might even want to consider another board retreat uh later in the spring uh as we start talking around um uh budget priorities schedules things like that that's going to feed into our facility needs and facilities discussions. Uh so that that might be something you want to consider between January, it's probably early but April at the
050latest uh to consider another retreat to allow us to really dig into uh you know a handful of solutions rather than try to do a lot of different topics and skim them over. You know the purpose of a retreat to really dig into some of these topics. Uh it is negotiate negotiation season starting again. So, I have uh included an updated board memo that gives you all of the very prescribed legal responsibilities of recognition of bargaining teams and things of that nature. Uh and so I would just encourage you to be familiar with that board memo so you know all of the different steps, but they'll all be embedded into the agenda. Um, so I have included just a little bit of updates if you have questions on uh board policy FFK and that's a
051board regulation uh that comes out specifically related to um expulsions in the past expulsions have been up to uh school years. I think there's sometimes a misnomer about expulsions that they last longer than they do, but uh in the old North Dakota Century Code uh it is only to the end of the school year. Uh and so one of the reasons why this ex why expulsion was expanded in the last legislative session. uh and that was uh pushed forward by school leaders who recognized this issue was that the same offense if it happened in September, if it happened in April could lead to very different uh measures of accountability. Uh because if they were both to the end of the school year, for one person that's eight months, for one person that's two. Uh it
052sends the wrong message. It's confusing. Uh and so this law was expanded to say you could go for a full calendar year. uh and that could cross over school years and so this board regulation has to uh be considerate of that. The other change in this board regulation that's new based on century code changes uh relates to uh student victims of sexual offense. Uh schools are now uh required to consider expulsion for protection. That does not mean that schools need to. It just means that you have that option to consider expulsion uh if it's necessary for the protection of a student victim. Uh in the past that wasn't part of the four areas that we could or the three areas that we could uh expel for and so that just expanded that law. I included
053uh an update on the science curriculum selection process. Uh and that's also my uh spotlight. I want to thank the curriculum selection team. uh that is a lot of work there's a lot of process that goes along with that there's a lot of uh investigation and alignment discussion that has to go along that I believe right now with science they're looking at eight different vendors so they have to consider you know how does this align with our science standards uh how does that work at the K5 level uh are there enough supports uh for teachers uh what's the quality of their online environment what's the quality of their materials uh does it support where we're going as a district in science? So, a lot of different work that this group is is uh going through
054and I've just outlined that in your um in your in the report. The snow removal, we're recommending a continuation and that's coming in your board agenda later. Sherbinsky's has had that snow removal agreement for a few five years, about five years. Uh and we're looking at wanting to continue that for 2526 and then going out to advertise for snow removal in the next school year. Uh looking at again another multi-year agreement. Uh I have included a draft communications plan. Just looking for feedback on that. That is part of a strategic plan goal that we wanted to complete by January 1st. We're a little bit early, but we want to make sure that we get appropriate levels of feedback for that. So, if that is something you would uh be willing to look at and give
055some feedback, I would appreciate that to make sure that we have a robust uh and relevant communications plan. Uh and I've just included just a little bit of information, the NDSBA winter seminar. In the past, we've called that the negotiation seminar. Uh there I'm happy to say that they're expanding that uh and looking at at more than just negotiations. I've listed the topics there, governance, workforce, and HR. superintendent evaluation, budgeting and finance, non-renewal, school election, advocacy, a 4-day school week, a very special topic that they're adding in and negotiations. So, uh, you know, really a pretty good opportunity, uh, if you haven't, uh, if you're not as familiar with some of those topics, uh, but I would encourage you to at least consider attending. That's more than just for our three negotiators. Uh so a
056good slate of topics and I think a an improved uh winter uh opportunity for schoolboard members. Uh but with that uh and just a a reaffirmation of the spotlight to our curriculum selection teams and those pilot teachers working on those products. Uh with that I stand for questions. >> Any questions from the board? Any questions? If not, thank you Dr. Luck. Moving on. Nothing under old business under new business. Nothing under activities under in buildings and grounds. We the noted approval of snow removal contract with Shbensky Incorporated for 2025 to 2026 school year. Is there a motion? Motion by Steve. Is there second by Owen? We have a motion, a second for approval of snow removal contract with Sherbinsky, Inc. for 2025 to 2026 school year. Any discussion? Melissa, >> what is the hourly >>
057Turn your mic? Thank you. >> What would an hourly rate be for snow removal? >> It it depends. Uh it's a great question. In the about five years ago, we we uh I think ranged as high as uh $70 an hour. >> Okay. Uh, and um, oh, so I'm getting the thumbs. It's higher. Uh, >> 125 for a skid steer. It was 270 for a regular size payload. Gigantic payload was like 400 an hour. >> Okay. So, so with this it really uh about five years ago though we uh transitioned from an hourly rate to the flat fee just to kind of I I think if you spread that out over 10 years you're going to have years in which you paid a little bit less. You're going to have years you paid a little
058bit more, but it all kind of is going to average out. Uh we looked at the flat rate because it's it's a better tool for budgeting and it all evens out uh in the end. Um, but I don't know what that would be for a hourly rate because it depends on how much uh how much snow you have, >> right? >> You know, >> I know. I just I just feel like I remember when we had this, we were just coming off of some really bad snow years and it seems like the last knock on wood, three years have just we've lost on this gamble. And um I don't I just I have a very difficult time. So, I'm looking at this and it we're going to be paying for the month of November. We're
059already at November 17th and there's been no snow removal and we're just paying out $7,750 for nothing. And for this to be also going, you know, six six months that were I I just And they only remove if there's two inches or more. And I don't know. I I just have a really difficult time spending. I understand it's a gamble, but I I really feel like we have since this contract began, we have paid more money than what our what the contract has been what we've been getting from it. >> Yeah. I I will say annually uh historically uh on an annual basis uh the hourly rate has been much more expensive for us. Uh there are certainly are years like I said in which you would you know spend more uh other years that
060you'd spend less but in the long term I would say this is been a a a good contract for us. It would be in the long term. Uh I do say uh as I said in my report um you know if we bid that out again for the next winter season we could ask for we could ask for an hourly rate. We could ask for annual rate. We could ask for an analysis of both. Uh we could do both of those things. But for now, uh a continuation of what we have to get us through the winter is what's, you know, is the agreement that's in front of you. >> Any other discussion? All right. So we have a motion a second for approval of Snow Revival contract with Sherbinsky's Inc. for 2025 to 2026
061school year. There being no further discussion, all those in favor say I. >> I oppose. >> I motion approved. Number three, nothing under curriculum assessment instruction. Number four, finance. We have A and B, review of general fund balance, review of monthly financial reports. Any questions for Christie on either of those at this time? Those are there for your information. No other questions. And then we have C approval of agreement with optimize ed strategic solutions to provide strategic plan dashboard and board automation services and number one innovation grant fund. Is there a motion? Motion by Owen. >> Second by Jason. We have a motion, a second for approval of agreement with optimize ed strategic solutions to provide strategic plan dashboard and board automation services and number one SEC innovation grant award. >> Dr. Luck, would you
062like to comment on this and I think there'll be some discussion from the board as well. >> Sure. There was uh I referenced this in my last superintendent report. Uh we did receive the seek innovation grant award uh in the amount of $15,000. That would be the same cost as this. uh this is uh a turnkey product or what's described as a turnkey product meaning uh there aren't continuing costs to uh these these services once we have them we own them uh they are ours to manage uh and so there's no continuing cost uh it is simply the the innovation grant which is a flow through so it's a reimbured I should say when we expend uh seek will reimburse us by the end of the Is there any discussion on that? Any questions? Melissa,
063go ahead. >> That answers my questions that I had because I was I was thinking that the grant covered that, but then I didn't know if after that grant if we were going to have to continue. So, thank you. >> Any other discussion? Okay. So we have a motion, a second for approval of agreement with optimized ed strategic solutions to provide strategic plan dashboard and board automation services and number one SEC innovation grant award. There being no further discussion, all those in favor say I. I oppose same sign. Motion carried. Moving into operations a approval of James River Medical Center for Disaster Shelter. Is there a motion? Motion by Steve, second by Melissa. We have a motion, a second for approval of James River Medical Center for Disaster Shelter. Any discussion? Any discussion? If not,
064assuming roll call vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. Oppose. Same sign. >> Motion approved. Under personnel, approval of the memorandum of understanding number one, Joshua Jones, special education technician. Is there a motion? Yes. I just talked about that just briefly. Uh what we need action on from the board is the approval of theou the corresponding staff member it would apply to is Joshua Jones. Uh he's the specialed technician. Uh that is not a contracted position. So that's something that flows through central office approval but I wanted to include the hire form just to connect the theou. So what I need the approval for is theou. It it outlines the conditions in which we uh provide that uh support for the coursework and how long uh Mr. Jones would need to to work
065with us to take advantage of the program. >> I think we've done that similarly with others in the past. So >> almost every other special ed tech that we have has gone through the same process. >> So we need a motion. Is there a motion for approval of memorandum of understanding? Motion by Melissa. Second my seat. We have a motion, a second for the approval of the memorandum of understanding for the special ed technician. Jason >> question. >> Sorry. Um, do the conditions within have they varied at all or is that pretty consistent? I I guess I'm just wondering if we would review this maybe annually and approve it as or since it's going to flow through the central office and the conditions don't change. Do we really need to vote on each one? >>
066Uh it's not a big deal. I'm just >> I'm not sure I understand the question. Well, >> you're you're the approval of the memorandum of of understanding is the contract between the the district and the individual into what would need to what conditions need to be met to continue employment. >> Right. Okay. And I was just thinking if those are pretty consistent with this position, is there a reason we need to approve it? >> It's an agreement. you're expending district funds to support the costs of the program. >> Uh and so that's that includes the conditions for further uh if if those conditions aren't met then we have to consider uh employment but also if there's a cost to pay back >> and Jason I think if it was just a policy then we just
067approve it once and then central office would take care of it versus versus this is actually a signed contract so then it comes through the board process. So that would be the difference >> and it's an individual person. You're you're making that agreement with each special ed technician. >> That's why it comes through. I see what you're saying now. Uh that it's not just one generalou. It's anou between the district and an individual >> and it's signed. So >> So we have a motion, a second for approval of theou. Any other discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. >> I oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. B. Approval of notice of intent to negotiate. Number one, Jamestown Administrators and number two, Jamestown Education Association. Is there a motion? >> I
068would need to approve of the notice of intent to negotiate. >> Motion by Jason. >> Second by Owen. We have a motion, a second for approval of notice of intent to negotiate. Number one, Jamestown administrators. Number two, Jamestown Education Association. Any discussion? Any discussion? Dr. Luck. I would just draw your attention to the to the link and that's specifying specifically that your your desire is to modify the negotiated agreement. Um and that petitions describing that negotiating unit and seeking recognition should be filed with the business manager uh of the school district in the immediate future. >> Any for the motion and the second? Any concerns with the the link language? Okay. So, we have a motion, a second for approval of notice of intent to negotiate with the linked language. Number one, Jamestown administrators, number
069two, Jamestown Education Association. No discussion. If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. Policy and procedures. Would the board like to go through all three at one time? Okay. Um, approval amended policies and regulations. Number one, first reading of policy BAB, board conflict of interest. Number two, second reading of policy BBA, school board elections and terms of office. Number three, amended regulation FFK-BR, suspension and exposion regulations. Is there a motion? Motion by Steve for one through three. Is there a second? Second by Melissa. We have a motion, a second for approval of the amended policies and regulations one through three. Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. Nothing under tuition
070and nothing under other. And I think we had one extra meeting that was on here. Finance committee is meeting five o'clock on Wednesday in the central office conference room. And then we have transition house Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, November 20th, 2025 at 11 a.m. in the transition house. District improvement committee meeting on Thursday, November 20th, 2025 at 3:30 pm in the media center at the high school board retreat on Monday, December 1st, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. in the different district office conference room. I'm just going to let the since we won't meet again till then, let the board know that um I'm I have while the rest of the board was all available that night, I do have a conflict later in that evening, so I may need to leave just a little bit early,
071but that was the date that seemed to work for for everyone. So, we're going to continue with that date and we will have some food available like we've done other retreats so you can come straight from work and plan plan on some food. And then we have health insurance committee meeting on Monday, December 8th, 2025 at 3:45 p.m. in the district office conference room. Schoolboard meeting regular meeting on Monday, December 15th, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. the community room in the middle school. Did I miss any meetings? We got them all. Okay. Possible executive session discussion negotiation strategies. Is there a motion? Okay. If not, monthly superintendent evaluations, section two, board relations and section five, community relations. Please complete those. There being no further business before the board, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone. Hey,
072hey, hey.