001e [Music] e for St good evening I'd like to call this regular meeting of the Jamestown Public School board to order it is Monday March 3rd 2025 at 5:15 p.m. in the Thompson Community room in the Middle School we'd like to welcome all those in the audience this evening please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and the na indivisible withy and justice for all and I'm just going to we have students in the audience tonight um your section will be coming up just shortly and then I'll give you instructions to meet me over on on this side as your name is called Dan would you be willing to read the board Norms the board developed Norms are to share and respect opinions
002and 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 Dan um we have no Public Communication under conflicts of interest I have a conflict with number 5A the approval of the partnership with University of Jamestown that is my department so I won't be voting on that one any other conflicts of interest to declare Melissa I have a conflict with the same um area there and then I also have a conflict when it comes to the um contract with Ben Smith as I work with him okay any other conflicts of interest to declare Jacob okay okay any other conflicts okay we
003had some declared previously and then anything else any other conflicts of interest for the board okay all right moving on to the consent agenda is there a motion motion by Steve is there a second second by Jason we have a motion a second for the consent agenda is there any discussion or any items you'd like to remove from the consent agenda for further discussion or clarification any items any discussion if not assuming roll call vote all those in favor say I I oppose same sign carried nothing under other moving into for a regular meeting so we have some recognition tonight and this is one of my favorite Parts Jacob would you read the life smarts team and then students as your name is announced just please come right over here um I have a little
004item for you and then go up to the stage for a photo and we'll just take every a picture of all everyone together all right Jamestown High School LIF smarts team captured the North Dakota State life SMS Championship on February 12th team members include Ryan sininsky Carson Bayer Jaden gmad Ethan Atley Shane Martin Marshall creger [Applause] perfect you can come up if you want to take a picture up here feel free [Applause] so our next group is the North Dakota All State academic team Owen would you read those the school board uh would like to congratulate students who placed at the North Dakota All State academic team so Lucas slipetz earned a bronze medal and students who earned honorable mention were Ryan seninsky Cody velt Camp Jayla Hofer and Olivia kinta [Applause] got [Applause] and
005congratulations to all of the students that received those Awards and work very hard to um study and practice and plan for these events moving on in our agenda we have nothing under correspondence or reports under D strategic plan progress monitoring strategic Focus two leadership for learning goal two are you doing that one Mr gayor yep okay deck already I'm having a little trouble with that not turning on I guess okay um well I'll just go without um thank you and Dr L feel free to fill in if there's any uh gaps in this presentation but uh goal 2.2 um under our leadership for learning strategic Focus really has to do with uh educating the whole child and so um part of what we identified as a goal and this comes right from our accreditation standards
006so this ties in really well with um what we're going to talk about next is a focus on what we call non-academic skills in addition to academic skills says it's connecting all right so uh when we look to Define non-academic skills um we've kind of approached that a little bit differently at all three levels so I separated that out uh or the presentation by um the levels elementary middle school and high school but our goal is really that we identify those non-academic skills and then we find ways to effectively communicate them to students and parents um and and then also for us as Educators to continue to focus on those non-academic skills uh we do have some progress um each level again has a little bit different progress um this is the process that we
007will be going through or have started at most levels um and so each um each of those levels is an a slightly different spot but we want to make sure that we have plenty of input on our educator side um that we gather some input from our stakeholders um including students and and parents um as we get those goals more and more refined and that we are able to train teachers and have reporting platforms that can support effective reporting uh because it's not something that we're necessarily used to at least not on the level of what um we've interpreted that strategic goal and what's in the standards within cognum so uh We've taken some steps at the elementary uh We've identified our platform which is able to do that uh Empower uh learning is able
008to be the platform to collect those skills and to monitor those skills over time uh the Elementary uh we started out looking at a state framework that exists um for life skills and we found that to be a little bit more complicated than what we um would have liked for elementary students and for teachers for utilization and so um about mid year as we were ready to start to roll that out um teachers gave us feedback um and our uh three of our schools are involved in what's called tier 2 training for mtssb which is mtss for behavior supports those schools that were in that process uh came and said you know we'd like to take this back to our elementary leadership team and rethink um how we're approaching life skills uh so in our
009elementary schools we have consistent schoolwide expectations around the themes of being respectful responsible and safe and we felt like it was going to be confusing to students to add additional life skills things like perseverance um when those could be embedded in the feedback and the uh expectations that we're already teaching so we put a proposal together and uh rolled that out to Elementary staff on January 20th and got some really good feedback again uh from Educators as they were in that presentation and so we paused that and now are back to the drawing board based on that feedback uh we have a elt subcommittee that looks at those skills and they are meeting again next week um at the middle school um Having learned a little bit from what uh was happening happening in the
010elementary uh the middle school has already for a number of years I'm not sure how many years uh but have been giving feedback on what they call a citizenship grade um and that uh has revolved around pride in self pride in others and pride in school and they've they've also got a a system to support celebration of those skills and and quarterly feedback for those Stu for students in those non-academic skills as they're looking at what they want their standards-based report guard to look like they're um shaping and mirroring the uh Elementary and thinking about respectful responsible and safe uh and designing around the expected behavior that we have um routines procedures expected behaviors all kind of fit with the development of students um and we think that it's important in fact um in some
011ways it's as important or more important than some of the academic feedback we can provide and they've got a draft that's under review U they're establishing what will will it look like how frequently will we provide that feedback to students at the middle school level the high school level uh has actually is actually um experiencing two different kind of Pilots with this one is one I guess it would not be a pilot it' be a practice and that's that all of of our CTE teachers already give feedback on what we call career ready practices so we've identified based on a state list of 12 different elements um the state refined that down to just these five critical areas and we actually are providing feedback and have been providing to feedback to students for about three
012years on that framework of career ready practices so things like being a responsible employee technical skills within that uh specific area communication skills problem solving and teamwork so students get those feed that feedback through the power school platform there's a whole another tab within power school that says Power School standards and you can click on that to be able to view that feedback but we haven't necessarily published that um to parents because our CTE teachers continue to learn about giving that uh feedback and what frequency is realistic with that feedback so that's a pretty important set of skills and I think career ready practices resonates with people um the challenge is uh we've been implementing this for a few years and now Advanced CTE has redone those career ready practices so the timing uh of
013deciding what our skills at the high school would be um is kind of unknown I guess if we want to adopt one framework and then move to the next but the practice itself I think is what's uh what we've learned a lot about um and that kids value and we value the the opportunity to give feedback in those areas uh in addition to feedback I think is the importance of teaching um those skills some of those are directly in their standards and so they wouldn't be considered a non-academic skill but some of them are very important uh in any context of life um simultaneously we also have um uh with under Tony McIntyre's leadership um implemented a platform that around the a set of skills that are defined at the state level so the state
014of North Dakota um gra got all these stakeholders together and said here's a set of skills that we think a graduate should have uh and they had identified them and they identified degrees of um accomplishment in those areas so adaptability communication critical thinking perseverance learner mindset empathy and collaboration where the skills identified by the state of North Dakota um in our English classes in their senior year they have a Capstone project a larger project that they work on and some smaller uh projects too and Tony is basically piloting a platform uh it's called the Mastery transcript um or Mastery learning record is more specifically what he's using out of that platform and it just uh paints this picture and you can see that in your slide deck probably better than you can see it up
015there paints a picture of those skills in a foundational level and an advanced level and students can basically submit evidence kind of like a portfolio and then it gives you a visual of where they've submitted evidence so in the schools where this platform is used uh some of them use it for graduation requirements but some of them just use it to highlight student strengths and then to be able to share that out when they're making their scholarship applications or to share that out when they're um applying for a job um so that people can see evidence behind the skills that the school has certified so it's an interesting pilot um and uh as we look at students submitting that evidence there's a instructor component where you have to certify that evidence and we're just trying
016to determine what's realistic um if that's a viable platform or not and uh appreciate Tony's efforts in kind of piloting that out all right uh overall we're still um in the ear very early stages of identifying these skills and the processes uh for measurement um we're getting some proof of concept and getting educator feedback and our next steps really are to gather that stake wider stakeholder feedback on what the skills are and how that information might be useful um we did in our accreditation receive some feedback on um that we've begun that process but need to continue that process as well so um I do have a few action steps here uh to continue alignment and pil um pilots and planning at all three levels um and then start to get into more of that
017community and family feedback uh so that we can refine our non-academic skills I'd stand for any questions you might have on that uh goal or feedback as well thank you Mr gayer are there any questions from the board any questions Jason when we get into talking about non-academic skills um like for example responsible arriving to class on time um what does that look like then on our new 1 two 3 4 scale is there what would a report card look like I guess my main question is how are how how will that be meshed with school policy in itself um does that make sense cuz we're talking about a whole different you know ball game when we talk about non-academic skills what will the parents expect to see um if expectations aren't being met great
018question so um some schools middle schools and high schools that have activities will tie the non-academic performance to eligibility for students um there's a real steep uh climb to get there in your confidence and accuracy so what you're talking about um with your first question is again it would be on a four-point scale and you essentially build out what those proficiency scales are so we're further in the process at elementary uh Middle School is working on the process for that in high school they've just adopted some Frameworks that already exist and are on that four-point scale so both the state portrait of a graduate has descriptors for the scale and uh the career ready practices also have those descriptors and they're on a four-point scale with three meaning the expected behavior and four exceeding the
019expected Behavior or skill and and some of those benchmarks parents won't necessarily need to wait till until conferences or report card time for some of those correct like if if it's a chronic issue so that's what we were challenged with at the elementary level is um the assumption is that every student starts at a three right when it comes to behaviors expected behaviors um that those are what we're teaching to that's what we expect that's what we build our routines and procedures around and so um to be able to collect evidence on that in our platform you teachers would have to enter three threes just to start the year and then as they're providing corrective feedback and lessons they'd be able to adjust on a behavior scale when we're talking about skills at the high
020school level so responsible employee or teamwork and that sort of thing um that's a little bit different because you have to submit evidence that you can uh you can and so we have to set up the opportunity for them to sub that evidence rather than just looking at the expected behaviors we haven't started to discuss at the high school should we just all coales around respectful responsible safe but then you build out those durable or life skills that are important within that same framework um it's a little bit different at each level would be the answer any other questions from the board okay all right is there a motion for strategic Focus 2 leadership of learning goal two motion by Jamie is there a second second by Dan we have a motion and a second
021for strategic Focus to leadership for learning goal to any discussion any discussion if not assuming roll call vote all those in favor say I I oppose same sign motion approved under board education we have strategic competency cogni accreditation review Mr gayer as long as your standing up there want to share that with us yeah thank you um excuse me uh so our overall score which is what you know everybody um looks for is a 321 which 300 and above means that you'll be accredited and you have noteworthy practices uh I'm told that that's a fairly high score and uh so we're excited about the overall score but really where um where we start to make a difference is identifying from these findings what's valuable for our strategic plan so that's kind of the lens that
022I took in um analyzing this and that's the lens that we're asking our district school Improvement team to look at this report uh is you know what of this is important at your building level and the impacts and then what's important for the Strategic plan I'm going to highlight a few areas uh that I think are really important and the board will receive the full report but uh currently this is a preliminary report until it goes through its quality assurance process uh which means that a few other external reviewers within the cogni organization need to look at this and say that it makes sense based on the evidence that we submitted uh first thing I want to highlight is our noteworthy practice uh which is that we prioritize uh our students or Learners well-being um
023creating a positive safe inclusive environment that promotes emotional growth builds resilience strengthens connection between student staff and Community if there's something you want to be commended on it's that kids uh as one of our DSi members said kids you know feel cared for in school and and kids that are cared for learn uh I think that's something to definitely hang your hat on there's two standards that are connected to that node worthy practice and that has to do with how leaders cultivate and sustain a culture that demonstrates respect fairness um Equity inclusion and it's free from bias and Learners well-being is at the heart of the institution's guiding principles so when they look at our mission and vision when they look at the leadership that is provided by you and others in the district uh
024they believe that we cultivate a culture that supportive of learning so pretty important and that's our noteworthy practice the other thing uh people want to look at right away is what are the areas of improvement that they've identified um so when I say that they've identified this uh really that's our district school Improvement team uh that's the Elliott reviewers that go into the classrooms that help us identify these areas so a lot of our own we have the expertise within to identify the areas to grow and it was confirmed by the people um that came in and did our review and two areas for targeted professional development uh one in integrating digital tools and they have excuse me a very specific definition of what that looks like so it has to do with students integrating
025digital tools produ to produce unique Works integrating digital tools for collaboration uh because those are things that are emphasized in the workplace uh the other piece that they said was cultural awareness into the curriculum um and that uh has to do with um implementing resources as we've talked before where we you have Windows into other cultures and then mirrors to see yourself reflected into that culture or into other cult um into the curriculum so those are two important things that um they identified um development of teaching strategies that incorporate interactive and student- centered instructional methods to improve student engagement uh I can interpret that uh there are two standards that have to do with that and that's that students are engaging in experiences that impr improve their self-confidence and love of learning and that instruction
026is monitored and adjusted to deepen individual student knowledge of and understanding of the curriculum so that has a direct connection to our work within s um and U student engagement M uh and confidence in learning so by being more clear um with what we want from students and paying more attention to what their individual by student by skill level is um will be striving to reach that uh area for improvement as well uh the last one is to increase opportunities for student voice and engagement excuse me and uh that's specific to standard 19 which is that students or Learners are immersed in an environment that promotes and respects student voice and responsibility for their learning again there's a direct connection and a lot of our DSi members made that connection to standards based learning increasing
027student ownership of that learning by being really specific about what we want students to know and be able to do and then for them to be able to even self-monitor their learning you know at a developmentally appropriate level the other thing that it means and I had to ask this question of the reviewer um is that we need more opportunities for student voice in the decisionmaking in our schools so things that we've done in the past like student Summits how might that apply across different levels or some schools have um student cabinets whereas other schools don't have anything like that they don't have a student advisory type of uh group so that's something to aspire to it's something that's currently not not uh explicit in our strategic plan but it might be something to to
028think about or for the board to consider um overall I'm uh proud of what um has been shown to us and excited to maybe uh be able to share the full report with you guys um when it comes to our analysis of each of these areas they rated and that is the DSi teams work every year is to do that analysis of student performance to do that analysis of student engagement um they rated us uh at a four level in almost every uh one of those areas and the network average usually hovers around a three and so uh they were impressed with our analysis and coming up with building level goals based on building level data uh that then feeds up to you guys um to set the Strategic priorities for the district um each
029of the individual standards get a rating as well um and we were above the network average in all but about three of the standards that kind of corresponds with our areas for improvement as well um I think I'm going to leave it there and probably we'll have another opportunity or the board will for sure get the full report once it's gone through quality assurance and with stand for any questions on things that I can answer at this point Thank you Mr gayer and thank you for your work on this um are there any questions from the board at this time okay all right no questions and we do look forward to the full report as well so thank you thank you next on our agenda we have the superintendent report Dr Lu thank you you
030have my written report um you know looking at Personnel just an update to the board my original timeline felt we might have a recommendation for a JMS principal at this meeting uh just with some further discussion and how timeline went for the interview process we'll anticipate uh that uh recommendation at our next meeting uh but the group is working uh they've done a fantastic job thus far uh and um interviewed four candidates and looking forward to further deliberation on that later this week uh ele with Washington Elementary transition uh we are currently working on uh that FAQ that we've talked about before really we're kind of holding back on that until boundary decisions are made and once the boundary decision is made because there's going to be so many questions related to boundaries we wanted
031to make sure that include that in the FAQ so uh as soon as that decision is made we'll be able to prioritize that information um you know I'm happy to report that we have had an additional uh three placements with our certified staff since our last meeting that leaves one and uh I already anticipate having that decision made with that last uh teacher uh at our next meeting uh some things already in the works there uh feel really good about that recommendation uh but it will be dependent on some actions you take later on in this agenda but I feel uh like we have a we're very close to having all of our teachers um placed uh we're looking at then our next step would be our professionals we have other staff that have already
032been placed other non-certified staff that have already already been placed and uh I would anticipate by the end of March uh we would have pretty much every placement done uh and I feel really good about the process that we've done thus far and the uh how we've been able to match with preferences I think that's been really a a good step it's been a lot of additional steps uh but as I talk to our staff they feel uh good about the process um so uh one of the things I want to point out is um with um you know there is impact based on title one I have one two staff members that that uh are are will be placed in Title One or or just general interventions I do just want to point out
033and I've had this uh discussion with the board before but I continue to be disappointed with uh the state's transition to the used model uh that will impact us to around 90 to 100,000 full allocation hasn't come out yet uh but that uh you know the additional amount to our general fund expenditures is more related to that used model change than it is to the to the additional FTE to title one and and um and to interventions uh had we had that full 990,000 um and we're talking about half of that could have been devoted to this FTE shift uh into into one additional FTE position but um but I I feel good about the placements I think we certainly have needs in interventions uh it is well worth the general fund obligation regardless of
034how Title One funding uh breaks down uh so it's well worth it we certainly need the intervention support but I'm happy to report that we're feeling really good about uh this process and and being able to to place our teachers uh and soon the rest of our non-certified staff pretty soon with uh the next item that I have is the partnership with University of Jamestown and the lead the way uh just want to recognize you know just another example uh of you know how this partnership with the University of Jamestown is so beneficial uh where and how appreciative we are to the University of jameston to offering us uh this Business Partnership but as you can read it provides a 10% tuition discount uh for all of our JPS staff in certain programs now it
035doesn't apply to the teacher leadership academy uh but it does apply to undergrad business studies communication studies Behavioral Health master of arts and Leadership master of science and clinical counseling uh MBA master of it leadership and doctor of leadership programs so in all of those instances being employed by Jamestown public schools equates to 10% tuition discount so a very generous support uh by the University of Jamestown and that'll be coming up later as a approval for that Business Partnership so we certainly thank them uh for making this outstanding partnership offer to us um I did include an updated survey timeline uh for uh Community interest in a in a referendum and I see I left a h half a sentence written there uh leave of absence later on in the agenda you'll have um a
036you know action on a leave of absence and and because of where the March 1st deadline fell I wasn't sure uh what recommendation I would be making we did not get a written notification uh so when you make that uh when you make that uh motion the appropriate motion would be as I've written in quotes here the voluntary resedation and waiver of the right for Reemployment uh you can reference that statement and that's in that aligns with policy uh and that just means in our leave of absence policy you can request that leave of absence but you need to provide written notice of of an intent to come back uh if the intent to come back is is completed by March 1st uh then that continuing contract continues in this case we did not so
037our assumption then is that voluntary resignation uh with the legislative updates um uh the bill 2241 on um Charter Schools uh really very easily passed the Senate so we can anticipate that that would uh you would likely see the same uh over in the house uh I was happy to see that micro schools did fail it was narrow but they did but that did fail a couple different examples from ESA uh education savings accounts uh are still out there uh I would draw your attention most to Senate Bill 2400 uh whatever esas look like it's not going to be any of these examples there's going to be lots of different discussions and negotiations between what passes what's amended and revised and before a final comes out but I draw your attention to 2400 because I
038believe it's going to look likely look most like that and that's simply my assumption uh but I believe it's going to look uh I think something in in the esa world is going to pass and it will likely look similar to um I did include House Bill 1222 this time and that's a requirement for public school students to have the opportunity to recite the Pledge of Allegiance uh easily passed in the in the house and will uh similarly pass in the Senate uh 1369 I've brought to your attention before as well and that's the funding bill disappointing to see uh uh the House Appropriations or the house I should say in Appropriations stripped down from 3% 3% to 2% 2% elimination of the special lead factor a separate bill to address El weights uh also
039was unsuccessful I believe though that there's still opportunities to have discussions in the Senate side about returning to 3% 3% uh getting that special lead Factor increase back and even the possibility for E I would like to see us even look to that risk factor as well uh but we'll see that's those are big asks uh but I would think at I will say that I believe that our budget should be built around 3% 3% because I think that's what is likely to be uh the final bill um so 1475 uh disappointing to see Universal meals for all K12 students uh not be successful but I do want to pass out uh that there was a separate bill that was approved if you remember correctly last session there was um um a bill that approved
040that's reduced meals or or would be the the difference would be caught up by the state so there are full meals for anybody that uh is at 200% of the poverty level for a full for for completely uh reduced meals or completely free meals so there is no reduced meals anymore the state picks up the difference uh what the house passed is increasing that from 200% poverty level to 225% Poverty Level uh so there is some movement in that Universal meals although I still think that there is some level of momentum to bring back uh the question has been uh or or what I'm hearing is that uh that there was concern about 9 through 12 students in free meals and Universal meals uh greater of support for K8 so that's what we're hearing I'm
041not I'm not sure I completely understand the logic because we aren't because the concern was many of our high school students leave campus and eat off campus anyway they have open campus privileges but those are not students we get reimbursed for so I'm not really sure I understand we might have to just help to educate um that particular fact because that is uh you know that that to me I'm not exactly sure uh one other bill that I would bring up is I want to touch on it I'm I don't see where it is it is the 2% uh the 2% uh bill for the that the Department of Public Instruction could issue a penalty up to 2% of foundation Aid uh if a district is investigated and found to be not in compliance with
042with uh thank you 24 yes 21004 um my while I was happy to see that the bill was amended away from Shell to May it's still one of those bills that I I'm not sure I understand the intent uh because it feels like a bug looking for a windshield to me like I'm not sure I understand what problem we're trying to solve um and I have yet to find a specific example you know help me understand what isn't happening now that should be happening that would denote uh this bill and I still have not heard that uh and I would think that we would need to have some specific examples around what isn't being complied with currently that should be complied with that precipitates a bill uh that has you know executive branch overreach like
043this one does uh so it still remains to me uh to be a concern although I feel like it is it has the inertia to pass um the last thing I have is a spotlight uh we decided to Spotlight pamy scherber this month uh and I want to recognize her for her commitment to reinforcing the importance of life lifetime activities and also integrating them into the Elementary uh physical education curriculum so she was instrumental in adding archery to our elementary levels uh and she has also actually across the the K12 Continuum but she also received recently external funding uh to incorporate fishing into K through 5 uh Elementary physical education uh she beyond that she serves as the SP lead for physical education uh and she is a very active member of our district Wellness
044committee so I just want to recognize Pammy and all of the work that she does all the great work that she does and provides uh supports to our kids so with that I would stand for questions yes the board expresses their appreciation as well any questions um regarding the superintendent's report okay Jason so Bill Bill 2104 the the 2% or the the investigation piece um will it be up to the superintendent then to to determine the procedure for that correct okay yeah um I I just I I would hope that the processes everything at the local level has been otherwise this could be a Floodgate of just random I'm not saying that's going to happen but uh the process still should be you know exhaust every every level of the chain of command at the
045local level so not that any of us have yeah I would hope that to be the case although I'm somewhat dubious that that administrative rules will be written that way uh but again I would just like to understand the the rationale for why the bill um give me some examples of what isn't happening I think that's the most important piece that I have not yet heard any other questions on the superintendent report okay if not moving on our agenda we have nothing under old business under news business we have nothing under activities under buildings and grounds a approval of Elementary School boundaries um if you remember at our last meeting we sent this to facilities committee to um take a a little bit deeper dive um we had all the information but it was a
046lot of information and and also we just wanted to um also part of the facilities is is our administrators so we can understand um operationally H you know how the how this looks and plays out and and so I would like to hear from our facilities committee Aaron would you want to start off yes so we've uh met on this one at length and uh discussed the different pros and cons just kind of walk through it logically um uh in comparing uh each one against each other and then how each one is uh uh stands just on its own so um just starting with the 1A um which is basically the model where we um Define the boundaries and the an attempt to uh not affect as as few people people as possible uh and
047then the uh 1B is more of a model where we're affecting more people but then we're getting a an improved balance um from an operational and demographic effect standpoint point so um so really the only um benefit in the 1A that we came up with is just the fact that yeah that's just a for the initial um implementation of this it's uh the least uh intrusive um but there there's still some issues with how we balance everything else in there and that's where the 1B came in um there is a uh slightly more um intrusive in as far as the number of people that affects initially uh but when looking at um you know that that's a a one-time non-recurring type of uh con uh there is a recurring benefit in being able to balance
048that uh the demographic model which then relates into uh operational efficiencies and how we can better instruct the kids uh with those demographics being balanced across uh all the different schools um and then along with that then is the benefit of uh U not affecting in the case that we do move forward uh with other changes to the district facilities and whatnot uh then this is basically we don't have to affect people twice it's um we can make the change to that a little bit more streamlined in the in the event that that decision comes so um we also discussed the the 1C model um and really going back and forth with some of the data on that that one uh didn't really come out as any additional benefit there was just some cons and
049how to uh and how the number of people that are affected and how that longterm within the next five years and how that plays out so um so that's where we came to the recommendation uh to uh proceed with the um the the 1B boundary model um recognizing again that that is a more intrusive but it does um give us a recurring benefit in the operational scheme and uh teaching the kids so thank you Aon Jason with that um we did couple in with uh the implementation side with this then making sure that okay if we do this scheme then what does that look like in terms of waivers um and uh how we address kids um and so we want a couple you know make sure we recognize that that's that's a part of
050all of this here as a part of the board uh review is you know what that what those waiver what that waiver scheme looks like and how we're treating um the rural kids so all right thanks Aaron Jason go ahead yeah Mr Roberts did a excellent job of of summarizing I would just say um you know 1B last meeting our our you know a priority is we don't want this to to um disrupt too many that that was kind of our or you know minimal number of people I would just say that it's a little more of a bigger Band-Aid to pull off uh 1B uh but if we talk about what's best for the entire District not only now but in the long term uh we feel it's it's it's a a bigger um
051bullet to bite but um it it is the best option for all of the kids in elementary in the district so um other than that Mr Roberts did great thank you Jason Steve I don't think I guess I don't have much to add but the uh the impact numbers we did identify that those would be the max numbers we don't know uh where that would fall exactly but the numbers are are a Max number it could be it could be less than that all right thank you Steve um Dr Le did you want to follow up with any I have some other thoughts comment Melissa a couple of things um one of the things I'm noticing here is that you're talking about splitting families um is that going to be the choice of the families
052or is that going to be something that is is going to be um assigned by the district um and then the other thing is if we're going to be moving all these families all over the place um I feel that that is going to be something that the district should be um uh providing busing and wondering how that is going to affect um the the current busing situation so to your first question um there are some additional considerations the the committee did talk about if you look at um the end of page two and into page three what's listed what you're referencing are some additional considerations uh and what those considerations do are those are some operational things that we identified and discussed at facilities to further minimize Steve talked about you're talking about the
053maximum now remember these two plans 1 a 1B 2 a 2B are built around the students um uh that that every waiver would be eliminated and you would simply move into whatever School you reside you know whatever boundary you currently reside in you are simply moving to that um and that is where the bulk of outside of the retirement of Washington um which we know there are a a group of families and a group of students that regardless of whatever option you select in boundaries are going to be impacted the question becomes how can you minimize after those students that are going to be impacted because you're retiring a building uh and so we did Identify some other considerations that can minimize from that maximum of just taking everybody based on residence uh and so
054one of the things that was discussed uh is uh we eliminate the waivers generally kind of follow along with the plan that they've had but starting in kindergarten so any student that's in a grade one or you know a grade K now through grade four grade you know fifth grade students are going to be moving to the middle school and it doesn't impact them anyway but if you look at just incoming implementing the boundaries the hard residential boundaries for incoming new registrants so basically honoring the waivers that have already been offered for every student in grades one currently in grades K through four okay next years 1 through five that would impact that would lessen that impact significantly because now you're not moving those that have already been honored waivers you're saying you wave to
055you wave to Rosevelt well you're still going to be able to go to Roosevelt um what you're referencing is what if a family were to have a fourth grade student it's those Legacy waivers that I've talked about before so say a student has a third grade a family has a third grade student and now an incoming kindergarten student if you're talking about making a Hardline decision and say okay starting with kindergarten that you know you have to go to your boundary school and there are no waivers that family would have to make a choice what do they want to do with their third grade student do they want to keep them in keep the one in Roosevelt and the other in Louie where their residence is or do they want to move both to the
056residents that's the only option uh that that's would impact that but that actually lessens the impact to the families because it's only those that have the Legacy waiver we're essentially eliminating that Legacy waiver idea um the other factors that go along with that is in the short term if we if we don't go to Hardline boundaries and take every student K through five or K through four um and say Hardline boundaries we might have some a handful of sections and a handful of or a handful of grade levels and a handful of buildings that get larger than what we would like and that's what we did in or that's what we looked at in in item number two under those uh those considerations setting targets uh caps where we would introduce waivers again if a
057grade level gets above 22 for K through two uh because primary the smaller grades you know are a little Focus area and then three through five at 24 now we look at class sizes and go while that seems like a big number across the state those are you know we have Elementary buildings across the state that are as high as 26 27 28 so us setting caps at 22 and 24 are not unreasonable uh and that would be if they hit that cap level like we might in a fourth grade at Lincoln next year if we make looking at these boundaries and existing waivers then we would have to then we would open up waivers in a very limited capacity specifically for that grade level in that building so if you're assigned to so say
058there is a fourth grade that's a little bit larger higher than that 24 per class uh and um then you would open up the waivers for that specific group and then you could use that to balance the other side and Mr Roberts mentioned this uh looking at the rural areas right now we have have established boundaries for all of the rural areas you know if you live in this part of town you're at Guster or Washington or or Roosevelt or Louis LaMore uh but we have other students like our open enrolled students and they're simply placed and we can make Common Sense decisions just like we do with open enrollments you know where you know if a a student lives south of town well they're we're probably going to recommend them uh if they're outside
059of the city limits uh to be in Roosevelt if Roosevelt doesn't have the right balance you know then the next choice might be Roosevelt so something that's next closer we're not intentionally you know going to push people further than they need to be or if they're coming from the reservoir you know we have Lincoln and Guster that make more sense than other District or other uh buildings in the district uh but that would be another con uh consideration that we would put in place to say that we're that we're to help us balance those class sizes that we wouldn't have Elementary boundaries in the rural areas that we would just place them and that would help us balance and it allow us to make some common sense decisions there as well uh one other thing
060that I wanted to point out with the demographic distribution that I think is really important we've talked about title one and we know that there would be a balance of those uh and that allows us to uh provide um Equitable uh Services even though we provide a general fund contrib uh a general fund lookalike program uh that is not at all done at the same level we have fewer interventionists if that's the case uh but beyond that you know title one has a lot of different you know you're talking your access to Grants are often times uh determined by your uh free introduced lunch percentage uh your poverty level um and what this does is equalize that balance right now uh if we adopt 1A that's 20 the range is 26 to 52% that's you
061know our lowest um boundary school has 26 or our lowest Elementary level would have have 26% poverty and our highest would have 52 if you look at 1B that's 39% to 49% that's very compressed uh and there's lots of different benefits that I could talk about for that the other Factor the only thing that I I didn't hear that got brought up uh was after school programming that is our current uh grant for after school programming requires Title One you know that is the that is one of the crit that is one of the uh expectations to be eligible so one of the eligible eligibility requirements uh is Title One fun Title One eligible if we can get all of our schools to Title One eligible every family every Elementary family would have access to
062um the after school or could have access to the after school program uh when we have and I talked about this with the waiver analysis in the past um one of the biggest reasons we have we have waivers is access to after school programming and so if we had that at every building you'd much more EAS be able to say boundary schools now we don't have that other family indicator that that pushes people to request waivers um summer summer program yeah but that you know those are the conditions um the other conditions that we talked about you had one question on Transportation I believe the impact of transportation is going to be fairly minimal uh I would recommend that you maintain the same 10 block radius uh and then you bus uh outside of the
06310 blocks uh but I think the the impact would be minimal I did ask on that I haven't heard back from harlos yet on the specific impact but my analysis would be it would be relatively minimal go ahead Melissa just a followup question um if you're if you're using the rural areas to kind of balance balance out those schools I'm assuming that you're not going to each year move Mo those students they're they're going to be it's a oneandone balancing correct reg thank you for bringing that up but registration is uh registration is the determinant so if during registration we place them at Lincoln that's where they're going uh and that's where their siblings would go in that setting Aaron now would also apply to the open enrollment as well correct we would treat open
064enrollment and Rural students exactly the same any other comments from the facilities committee Aaron Jason and Steve okay and just one thing that I just want to reinforce you know um the committee did here the concerns about making the minimal amount of impact uh and um you know to to Mr rert points earlier um you are planning in advance for the potential for any facility changes and there there would be less impact actually uh if uh if um uh additional facilities or changes to the boundary brought online you'd actually be making less change but that's also the reason why we felt so strongly about looking at those considerations to minimize the impact right now I think that we have uh class sizes right now that we can accommodate the majority of those uh those current
065waivers in our current K through 4 students uh so I think that the impact outside of Washington which would have to move regardless is really going to be pretty manageable for families Jason so then for families who are watching when can they expect to hear from the district or uh you know some some the next steps we'll work on the messaging on that once the decision is made and we can draft those FAQs uh that's when we'll make those notifications out and you know we're working with uh we asked RSP already uh for apps to make sure that uh you can plot out where you're at and and uh you know right now we kind of have you know less detailed maps it's just kind of in areas uh and we want to drill down
066to to get a little better sense so you know we plot into to power school so we can see when the registrations come in what boundaries they would be in uh but that would be coming in the next week and a half two weeks questions from the board comments any other again I know the facilities committee spent quite a bit of time um going through this and discussing all the options and I appreciate their work on it um I at first was thinking minimal impact but I appreciate the extra information to um that was provided and and your work yep go ahead Melissa yep yep sorry I'm I'm just just thinking here as as a parent of a person as a person who has major transition issues um if if there is a a fifth
067grader who is going to be affected by possibly having to be moved is there a waiver that could be in effect because you're going to be moving a fifth grader and then you're going to be moving again the following year if we say no waivers and we've we have a situation like that especially if they're on an IEP or something to that effect are there going to be any type of exceptions to this to this role just a reminder we're talking about um this year's fourth graders their waivers would be honored the only impact would be Legacy waivers and then a family would have to make a decision on what's best for their family family but in in the instance you talked about uh a current fourth grader that's waved to outside their boundary school
068would be able to stay in that boundary school because we're going to honor their waivers the current waivers uh but a new fourth grader moving into the district uh and as soon as they as soon as this would be enacted uh they're going to be placed based on their residence moving forward we're going to every new registrant whether they're kindergartener or a fourth grader would be based on their residence but current waivers we'd honor it seems like a happy middle ground as happy as we can make it any other questions for discussion is there a motion I move to approve the boundary option 1B there's a motion to approve boundary Option 1 B I second that and a second by Jason motion by Aaron second by Jason any further discussion any further discussion and yep
069um and Christie is's ready to do roll call vote if there's no other discussion or need more information okay go ahead Christie there was no conflicts for this one right no okay Owen McKenna yes Jamie Bear yes Heidi Larson yes Jason Roar yes Jacob Meyer yes Dan tweeton yes Aaron Roberts yes Steven bellcamp yes Melissa gleon unanimous pass motion to approve unanimous me and I think the community can understand by the the questions and the discussion here that we're very appreciative of our communities and families understanding um this this is not a light undertaking of of um you know changing things for little kiddos and and so we we just want the community to understand that we um put a lot of time effort and got second opinions on on this um before moving forward
070and we we have a lot of information that we purview as well as having a committee even spending time taking deeper Dives just to make sure we didn't miss miss anything and so it was a lot of work um undertaken by the board and and um it it uh and if people have questions we'll have a plan for some communication for this as we get more finalized with those boundary lines and do you have anything to add about communication for this as well you as I think Mr Roar asked a great question you know I anticipate U FAQ in the next couple of you know next 10 to 14 days we'll get that out to our families if there are questions they can email me uh but I would encourage people to you know be
071patient and wait until that um um until that FAQ comes out and then we'll be able to publish that um and and make sure that people understand what those implications are thank you we'll look forward to that moving on in our agenda we have nothing under curriculum assessment instruction nothing under Finance under operations a approval partnership agreement with the University of Jamestown is there a motion motion by Jacob second by Aaron we have a motion a second for approval partnership agreement with the University of Jamestown any discussion any discussion and we had a couple conflicts on this vote um Melissa and I being no further discussion all those in favor say I oppose same sign motion approved and I'll have Dr Le sign sign that under Personnel review and approval of notice of recognition of
072Representative organizations for negotiation um number one and two the administrator unit and the teacher unit um these documents do uh look familiar to you the previous ones did not have the signatures and so we're approving it all with with the signatures included um at this meeting is there a motion is there a special motion are we okay y okay Aaron motion by Aon is there a second second by Dan we have a motion a second for approval of review and approval of notice of recognition of Representative organizations for negotiations number one administrator unit number two teacher unit Dr luck you had a comment yeah and just uh for a point of clarification what you're looking at here is you're looking at page two and be and lower uh your responsibility right now is to ensure
073that uh the signatures represent 50% plus one of the units when we did our review uh they're more than much more than that 50% so uh you know that has been reviewed and they do represent 50% plus one or more than 50% plus one in both the administrators and teachers any discussion any discussion if not assuming roll call vote all those in favor say I I oppose same sign motion Carri B approval to hire for the 2025 to 2026 school year upon a successful background check and receipt of relation insure husan Wako is there a motion motion by Jamie second by Steve we have motion a second for approval to hire for the 2025 to 2026 school year upon a successful background check and receipt of Li sir husan Watco any discussion if not assuming
074roll call vote all those in favor say I I oppose same sign motion approved C approval of resignation at the conclusion of the 2024 to 2025 school year number one Ze Willer and Caitlyn coost is there a motion motion by Melissa second by Dan we have a motion a second for approval res res destion at the conclusion of the 2024 to 2025 school year Zeb Willer and Caitlyn coost any discussion if not assuming roll call vote all those in favor say I I oppose same sign motion approved and welcome hosana and thank you for your service Ze and Caitlyn D update of leave of absent request for the 2024 to 2025 school year num number one Ben Smith and for this there's a motion in the superintendent report Aaron so I'm move to accept the
075voluntary resignation in waiver of the right to Reemployment for Ben Smith is there a second second second by Jason we have a motion a second to update a leave of absent request for the 2024 2025 school year number one Ben Smith any discussion any discussion if not assuming roll call vote all those in favor say I I oppose same sign motion approved and thank you Ben for your service to our district e um we have the approval of the superintendency of evaluation um that is we'll start at that in a second I just want to a couple comments um I met with uh reviewed everyone's um comments and the comments are always helpful uh and I spent last Wednesday I met with Dr Le we talked about a a few different topics um we talked
076quite a bit about the Strategic plan which has been um it kind of puts us all on the same page and helps us move in the same direction and the progress managering has some accountability to that and I also um we also visited I think it also might be a good idea for our strategic plan um committee to we haven't met for a little while just to meet and kind of regroup and and and kind of review things as well so we'll put that on the calendar in the future the other area um of discussion was we talked about communication and and maybe either what other kinds of communication channels that we could maybe use to to reach a little bit um broader outside of our just our families and our districts on our list
077serves and and so we we talked about some different ideas um there as well and then we also talked about the timeliness of the the agenda and those kinds of things and and um he's uh Dr Le and Amy are trying to start populating the Google Drive now on Tuesday and Wednesday not all the links will be active but the documents will start to be populated um and when you receive the email on Friday that means everything is is is done um but if you want to get a head start on because we've had a lot of information in the last few few weeks to to review and if you want to get a little bit of a head start on Tuesday or Wednesday um and that um that can be something to look forward
078to back to the communication I think even just moving forward with some some of the initiatives in our district even in some of our subcommittees we could even have some some discussion in those as well whether it be facilities or strategic planning or um we can also just make sure that we also discuss that communication piece of of what we're doing so any questions from the board before we move forward with this okay so for for these evaluations um we have six sections one through six for each section um I will name the section and the score the score is on a Liker scale for The public's information a scale of one through four number one being ineffective and number four being highly effective so it's out of four and what I looking for from
079the board is either a motion of satisfactory or a motion of unsatisfactory for each section so we'll go through each six parts any questions on that before we get started okay section one is goal and Vision setting that is a score of 3.64 is there a motion of satisfactory or a motion of unsatisfactory for section one goal and vision setting Dan I move a rating up satisfactory we have a motion of satisfactory is there a second second by Owen we have a motion in a second for satisfactory for section one goal and vision setting any discussion any discussion if not assuming roll call vote all those in favor say I I oppose same sign motion approved moving on to section two board relations that is a score of 3.66 out of four is there a
080motion for satisfactory or unsatisfactory for section two board relations Jason I would move for satisfactory rating under section two board relations we have a motion for a approval of satisfactory rating for section two is there a second second by Jamie we have a motion a second for section two board relations any discussion any discussion if not assuming roll call vote all those in favor say I I oppose same sign motion approved moving on to component three Human Resource Management Dr luck received a rating of 3.4 42 out of four for component three human resource management is there a motion for satisfactory or unsatisfactory rating for component three we have a motion by Melissa for a satisfactory rating is there a second second by Steve we have a motion a second for satisfactory rating for component
081three Human Resource Management any discussion any discussion assuming roll call vote all those in favor say I I I oppose same sign motion approved moving on to section four curriculum and student Support Services Dr Le received a 3.48 out of four rating is there a motion for satisfactory or unsatisfactory rating in section 4 I move for a satisfactory rating on section four curriculum and student Support Services motion by Aaron for a satisfactory rating in section four is there a second second by Jacob we have a motion a second for section four curriculum and student Support Services any discussion any discussion if not all those in favor say I I oppose same sign motion approved section five community relations Dr received a 3.43 out of four rating for Section Five is there a motion of satisfactory
082or unsatisfactory rating for Section Five Owen we have a motion for satisfactory rating for Section Five is there a second by Owen is there a second second by Dan so we have a motion a second for Section Five community relations for a satisfactory rating any discussion any discussion if not assuming roll call vote all those in favor say I I oppose same sign motion approved this is our last section section six operations and Resource Management Dr Le received a 3.70 out of four rating for Section six is there a motion for satisfactory or unsatisfactory rating for Section six Jamie satisf section Jamie motion for Section six for a satisfactory rating is there a second second by Melissa we have a motion a second for satisfactory rating for Section six operations and Resource Management any discussion
083any discussion if not assuming roll call vote all those in favor say I I oppose same sign motion approved we've completed that and we'd like to thank Dr Le for serving in our district do you have a comment I do uh I always appreciate um the the feedback that I get it always matters uh quite a bit to me I like the discussions that Heidi and I or the board president and I get to have about what it what is occurring that we want to continue or expand in areas of of of improvement uh and you know Dr Larson talked about those already uh but I take all of the feedback that I get very seriously so thank you for taking the time to provide some critical feedback so we can continue to drive for
084improvement one other comment that I wanted to make is that sometimes opportunities present themselves um that makes sense to explore uh in my case that was an opportunity that I felt like needed to be considered Ed and as it relates to hiring anybody that's ever worked to me with me worked uh through with me in a in a hiring process knows that I believe beyond anything it's about fit um and um one of the things that was reinforced to me throughout this process that I got to explore recently is that I fit best here at jameston Public Schools um and I'm beyond thankful to lead this District uh and to work alongside uh really very talented dedicated uh and just fantastic Educators that work here so thank you for that opportunity uh to continue to
085learn and and Lead alongside them so thank you thank you Dr L any other comments from the board or questions okay moving on under policies and procedures we have nothing nothing under tuition or other items for future agenda do you have any items for future agenda if so just let Dr luck and myself know Steve uh this isn't future agenda but on the the superintendent evaluation did we have to do an overall okay thank thanks for the question Steve we just for these we do each section separately so I think years ago it was a little bit different but yep Dr L I have one potential at least a work session concept Dr Mr gayor and I were talking about I'm moving I'm thinking ahead Adam Dr gayor uh Mr gayor and I were talking
086about and there's been some discussion at the at the board level around standards based learning standards based grading uh as as Mr gayor and I talked we thought maybe there's an opportunity to expand and not necessarily a uh a new board member orientation or onboarding but if if there is an opportunity to uh have a work session with board members that are interested around standards based grading a place where you can go to ask questions a place you can go to get a little bit more information uh we're going to work on uh finding a date sometime at 4:30 you know a prior to a uh regular board meeting uh for the board to come in and so if you have questions about standards based learning uh if you have um you know anything in
087particular you want to spend some time uh getting some additional information on or asking questions just let us know not a requirement that the board members would attend but if it's something you feel like you need more more if you have questions you want answered uh just email us uh Mr gayor and myself let us know and we'll schedule something uh so we can uh you know to continue to educate the board on standard space learning okay thank you any other items that came to mind as we were thinking here okay meetings to be scheduled we have a district Improvement meeting on Thursday March 6th 2025 at 3:30 p.m. in the mey room at the high school health insurance committee meeting on Monday March 10th 2025 at 3:45 p.m. in the district office conference room
088we have a regular school board meeting on Monday March 17th 202 25 at 5:30 p.m. in the Thompson Community room at the middle school are we missing any committee meetings that you know of Okay I uh do we feel like facilities needs to come together again as you get more finite boundaries as you get more information well the facilities committee will need to meet in the next month or so to talk about summer projects planning uh and updating extended capital projects plan and and if there is any uh important topics related to boundaries we can add it to that agenda that agenda that'd be great yep and I appreciate the I know the facilities committee is met probably more often than other committees but I do appreciate appreciate their time so um thank you Aaron
089Jason and Steve appreciate your time um strategic planning I think we'll try to within the next month or so maybe not necessarily before the next meeting but in the next month or so um just meet um as we move into the next fiscal year just review things if if that works for everyone um next on our agenda we have possible executive session to discuss negotiation strategies okay no motion and then we have monthly superintendent evaluation section two board relations and section three Human Resource Management please complete that there being no further business before the board this meeting is adjourned thank you everyone for your time he