001Please rise for the pledge. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay, very good. Uh, Dr. Nol has an announcement to make about do Dr. Moon. She was the Memorial Middle School uh, principal and he'll tell you a little more information about Dr. Moon. >> Good evening. And we did want to take just a few minutes to be able to recognize Dr. Moon who had passed away this past weekend after a courageous battle with cancer. Uh she was the principal over at Memorial Middle School and has served there since 2016. She had moved here to the Sou Falls School District, I'm sorry, since 2023. She moved here to the Sou Falls School District from the Hiron School
002District in 2016. She served as uh the middle school curriculum coordinator and also the director of federal programs before she was the uh principal over at Memorial Middle School. So her husband Dan and and her her children Nathan, Lillian, and Sophia were students in the Sou Falls School District. The youngest of which, Sophia, just graduated from uh Jefferson High School. So we just take a moment of silence to to recognize uh Dr. Moon. Thank you for that. and our our hearts prayers go out to uh the family and continue to work with them as as the group uh works over at Memorial Middle School throughout this week to make sure the needs of the students and staff are met there. So, we just wanted to make sure we lift her up. >> Thank you. And
003now we have our good news report. >> We do. Deianne will kick us off on that and then I will lead into a couple other parts of some incredible stuff happening in the SPAL school district. >> Thank you Dr. Nold. as mentioned, uh, here to present the first part of our good news report. It seems like we're consistently having more than one part of the good news, which we're really happy to be able to bring you. So, um, first up in just a few minutes, you're going to hear a report from Dan Conrad. He'll be giving a board report about college and career, uh, access and the success of that program. and his report contains metrics and future growth and and lots of good things. Um, and that is all uh able to happen because
004of Promising Futures uh nonprofit group in our community that uh really goes to work to support students and support our public schools. And so Steve Hildebrand is here. I'm going to give him the pleasure of sharing the good news this evening since his hard work is what uh brought us here today. So, Steve, >> thanks Dan. >> Thank you for having me. Um, we're excited to announce tonight that the college and career access program that Promising Futures brought to the district a year ago, which we have piloted at Jefferson High School this last year with a gift of 400,000, we are now in a position to expand it to the other three high schools. And uh, we're anxious to get in and do as much good work as we can possibly do. I have this
005ridiculously large check which we presented to Dr. old today for $1,15,000 that will provide a director of our program, 12 college and career advisors that will be spread out amongst the four high schools and uh a budget to support the work that they will do as well. So, we've been working incredibly hard to write a program that can be implemented in all four schools and we'll probably talk a little bit more about that. Um, but I did want to introduce Brian Aerman, who is our new director of college and career access for the district. And, uh, Brian is anxious to get started. We just hired him last week. And, uh, he's a currently an English teacher at Washington High School, I think, first hired by Dr. Null, then hired by Dan Conrad. So, he's got
006some validators in the room. Um, they say he's a good guy. Um, and I'm sure he is. And and uh while he was excited to have these summer weeks off to to do what he wants to do, we're uh we're going to put him to work right away and and uh get this program ready to execute as uh we start school in the fall. So glad to be here. Thank you. [applause] >> [applause] >> Well, I think the standing ovation says it all. Um, and how do you encapsulate all that energy and positive enthusiasm towards the energy that Brian will be interjecting uh into not just Jefferson, but all the high schools. Um and to have that sort of guidance and one-on-one that the students will be able to get to guide their next steps
007through high school and then beyond uh improves the community and the state of South Dakota. And thank you for the to the donors and to Steve for having the vision um and then being able to operationalize that vision with the hard work of gathering the funds and doing the pounding the pavement. um soldier type of work that he does day in and day out. Um so excellent work. Yeah, I know we're going to hear all the stats in a little bit, but I just want to say thank you, Steve, and thank you to all the donors who make this possible. What a remarkable program. And now we get to have it in all of our school high schools. So that is just awesome. So thank you very much. I'm excited to follow the pathway of
008the four high schools and see the great difference you make in kids' lives. So, thank you so much, >> Don. Right. >> Yes. Echoing all the sentiments. Um, I get to hear a lot of incredible stories of growth from my daughter's dad, Braden, who was one of the original that you hired. and just hearing how he's been able to engage with families that generally don't have those opportunities to get to the afterchool um seminars because they're generally working. There's a language barrier. Whatever the barrier is, he's just talked about how awesome it's been to be a part of some somebody's life and getting them across the finish line they didn't even know existed. That's the vision that you had of this. And again, I'm super excited to see the numbers, but just hearing the stories
009so far, like even if you impacted one kid to go into higher ed. We've already won, but I know you've done that time and time again. And as uh Rain's mom, thank you for employing her dad. [laughter] I know he's really good at it. So, it's a great program. We brag about it all the time. Um so, thank you for your dedication and good luck to you. Please reach out. I got asked a few times to come in and talk to students about social work stuff. So, however we can be helpful, I know all of us in our respective lanes would be glad to join. Thank you. >> I really don't have anything better to say than what's already been said, but I just wanted to say thank you as well to Steve, to all
010everybody who who donated, who's put their time and effort into this incredible program, and to just everything that Promising Futures does because it's it's remarkable. Thank you. That is the one thing I will add to that is is uh this is one of the programs and obviously this is a large program but there's been the programs that have helped to get kids up to college campuses in the middle school to make sure that they see what it is to be at a college campus. uh the program of getting books home to uh kids that aren't even in elementary yet to make sure they have something at the home for the families and the parents to be able to work with and on with their students to to make sure that they're prepared for kindergarten. And
011then the programs that help to get our elementary age kids to different sites, locations, including the zoo, and to be able to help with the literacy there. So, it's not just one thing. Uh we've been so fond of of Steve's work that we even gave him keys to Jefferson High School. Uh [laughter] they were Fisher Price keys, but uh they were good keys to start with. Um that was kind of a joking uh moment that we had there, but to make sure that they had space there to be able to work and get in and get things done at the school there. So I know uh being married to a counselor. uh they're excited about having it at the other high schools as well and make to make sure that some of those things that
012they just can't quite get to because they do an incredible job, but some of the things they just can't quite get to or put the same time and attention to, they'll be able to have that resource there to be able to help kids get to to whatever it is they want to do after high school. If that means to go to workforce, great. But not because they didn't know and didn't have that opportunity. So, thank you for the work that you do and in ensuring that our kids have those opportunities. Thank you. And I believe we have another good news report. >> I absolutely do. Tonight we have uh one more individual. So it's been a lot of good things happening. It's hard to get it narrowed down to two things. Uh we've been working
013on that. Sometimes three things. We heard uh at the last meeting from Damian Dean uh who took second place in the nation um in the poetry out loud and did an incredible job. Well, four years earlier, he was an eighth grader at Whittier and competed there in the poetry slam and had won the poetry slam at Whittier. While we did have an opportunity with a few of us, uh Don Marie was there, uh Steve was there as well to be able to judge the poetry slam at Whittier and the winner of that poetry slam was uh Naelli and Naelli Frius is here with us tonight. uh a lot of the the students there uh gave really heartfelt personal stories through their poems and that's a great way to be able to provide a story uh
014that really touches their own hearts, their own story that they're they're sharing with other people. Uh and hers was no different than that. Matter of fact, her she did such an incredible job that she was voted as the individual that won that competition. So, she's going to share that with us here this evening. So, Naelli, we will let you take the podium. >> [applause] >> Um, my poem is called Wrong Fairy Tale. He is the king, but I'm no princess. He is my savior, or at least he is to me. He is my flesh and my blood. He's who I call father. He's not famous, but if you look him up, he'll pop up. I promise. He's not the bad guy. Say he's good. I know it. I understand what he did. And yes, it
015was wrong. But you don't understand why he did what he did. I read and I read over and over again. He lost his best friend. It was self-defense, I said, because that is what I read. Yet he pleaded guilty. So just listen for once and hear what I'm saying. My heart was torn from my chest. It was ripped apart, shattered to pieces. And every time I count the days until I get to see him, the thought of leaving him behind as I walk out those doors just tears it even more. He's not the bad guy. He's not the big bad wolf to my story. She who is the evil queen is worse than my opinion. She who is my mother ran. She lied and manipulated her family. So he he is the knight in shining
016armor. King who's supposed to save me while I'm locked away. That's how it's supposed to be. But now it is backwards. I feel like the knight and he's the one trapped in the tower. And every time I try to reach him, I just come back empty-handed. This is the wrong fairy tale. So if people call me names and say I'm just like him, you're wrong. I know who I am. I'm better, stronger, smarter. So if you tell me things I don't care to hear, it still makes me wonder, is it true? Am I really my father's daughter? No way. I know I am better. So what if we have similar traits? We're different people. But when people come up to me, no matter where I am, and they ask, "Hey, are you Green's kid?" Or,
017"Is your dad green?" I stopped to think, "How do they know? They say it's my eyes, but his are green, mine are brown." But then I pulled along and my aunt just says, "You don't have to answer them. They aren't friends with your dad. They only knew him back when they were smoking together. That's what she said. I hate this. I hate being apart from him. Why did I have to lose my light? Why can't I breathe? What should I do? What should I do? Well, he's locked away for a click clack thing. It caused great fear and pain to others. But what about him? How does he feel? Has he forgiven himself? Has he forgiven himself after all these years? You see, all these years have gone by so fast. I was six. Now
018look at me. I'm 14. And if I could, I would go back. Be that baby that slept in his arms. But I know I can't. No matter what you do, you can't change the past. So why am I stuck in this fairy tale that doesn't make sense? The king is locked away. The evil queen is running free. Off with her head, she said. She is the only villain to my story because the king is the true hero. He is the king and I'm now the princess. The princess then knows her story. The story of her wrong fairy tale. [applause] Thank you, Naelli. And I hope uh we see you up here four years from now uh because you stay with it and you continue to tell your story and tell stories that that help other
019people uh through any type of problems that they have in life. So, thank you for sharing that with us >> and and thank you to our parents, guardians, teachers that have really helped to mold and shape and develop and encourage such talent. And you did a beautiful job articulating various perspectives and putting in emotion and reflection that is just uh really deep and rich and definitely created a stir I can is evidenced by all of us here and that is a sign of an artist. Most definitely. Absolutely. [sighs] Okay. [gasps] second time hearing it and it still brought tears to my eyes. Um, you have a gift, really special gift, and I'm I'm glad because it's going to be a way that's going to help you heal through a lot moving forward. I spent the
020whole weekend at the state penitentiary this last weekend and I received a medallion from the guys. I don't have it with me, but I would love to gift it to you because I want you to always remember that no matter what your family looks like, you can have strength to grow through it. and that you have people that might not be your direct family, but they're going to believe in you. The ancestors are so proud of you. Thank you for showing us your gift. And I know your dad is proud of you. Thank you for being here. And I'm going to be in touch with you Amber. Okay. [snorts] You're welcome to stay as long as that you would like, but you're certainly not obligated to stay for the whole meeting. So, don't feel badly
021if you're feeling like you're wanting to move on with your night, but you're welcome to stay. Uh, do we have any persons or first I need to get approval of the minutes of the meeting held on 52626. So, move Second. All in favor? >> I opposed. That is approved. I don't believe we have anybody wishing to address the board on agenda or non-aggenda items. Seeing none, we will move on to item number seven, approval of the agenda. I would just like to note that items 13 and 14 were added after we had posted the agenda, but what you see in front of you is the agenda for tonight. So, can I please get an approval of tonight's agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. We have an agenda for
022the evening. Seeing no conflicts of interest, we will move on to approval of the consent agenda items. That would be items A through D. Can I please get a motion to approve the consent agenda items? >> So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? That is approved. Uh I would like to now turn it over to Dr. Nold for the reports of the superintendent. Starting with our college and career access update. We will have uh the first report of the superintendent will be the promising futures college and and career access update through the first year here. Obviously, we've heard about the continuation in the second year uh but Mr. Conrad will give us that report from the first year. Mr. Conrad. >> All right. Tough acts to follow, I guess. First, the report
023was taken already. So, and uh and then the performance of a young student. So, very cool stuff. Uh so promising uh futures career and college access program started a year ago and my goal is just to update on our current performance from the last year and the progress that we have made. So with Steve and uh Brian here tonight, I'm going to start off with a story as well. So here's one student story from Jefferson as we look at the that whole purpose of college and career access. So uh this particular student first met with the college and career access adviser. She was focused on applying to Southeast Technical College to pursue nursing. Her grandma who immigrated from Honduras as her legal guardian and has always encouraged her to continue her education and Sophia wanted
024to do that. Um during a follow-up meeting, Sophia shared that her real dream was to attend South Dakota State University. A goal inspired years earlier when she visited the campus as an eighth grader through Promising Futures College Visit. However, she believed her GPA would prevent her from being admitted. When she learned that STDSU's requirements were within her reach, she her outlook completely changed. And once what a goal was unattainable suddenly became possible. And together with the college uh adviser, they waited until SDSU's free application period opened October and they completed both her college application and the FAFSA. And that FAFSA is a beast sometimes just to get through, right? Uh through that process, Sophia discovered that her independent status due to her grandma being her guardian makes her eligible for additional financial aid and scholarship
025opportunities. That day ended with Sophia leaving the office smiling. Uh the crew with SDSU pompoms in hand and a renewed sense of confidence about her future. As a first generation student, she continues to explore scholarship opportunities and prepare for the next steps toward achieving her goal of becoming a nurse. And that's one student's story from this past year and there are many. So the process started uh probably a couple years ago when Steve approached us at Jefferson about the potential of having this college and career access program, but really it came to fruition last summer with a $400,000 grant gift from Promising Futures. And that provided one director and four adviserss that worked at Jefferson High School. Uh with that donation, it also provided funds for travel and other opportunities for lunch, lunch and learns
026when we brought community members in to speak to kids. So it was more than just the staff that were provided. There was also opportunities. Where did it start? When we looked at national student clearing house report a year ago, we give that report each fall with Doug Morrison's group. Statewide 60% of the students enter a two or four-year college upon graduation that fall immediately following. Uh Sou Falls School Districts about 55% and Jefferson High School is 52%. And so the goal of career and college access is to close that gap. So while there are several factors that contribute to the lower postsecary enrollment percentages, one of them are the rates of poverty in the Sou Falls community and they are there. So students from low-income households face greater barriers in accessing post-secary opportunities. We know
027that and promising futures and the Sou Falls School District partnered one year ago to provide students with increased support in an effort to level the playing field and provide each student an opportunity to attend a two or four-year college if that was their pathway. So our goal in setting out is to increase that student and parent awareness. We know parents play a big role in this too. Uh with post-secary opportunities, financial support, military careers, first responder careers, uh whether it's police, fire, law enforcement, EMS, um but really to increase that percent of students who enter a two or four-year college upon graduation that following fall. So, what did our adviserss do? They met one-on-one with kids. They they created those relationships in the hallways. And it's not because others did not. uh there's just a
028lot going on inside a school and extra support is always appreciated and I think that's the piece. This wasn't created to replace anybody or because some group wasn't doing uh their job or things like that. It's just there's a lot that goes into this. So they assisted with college applications, provided families with FAFSA support. Uh they hosted lunch and learns where they brought kids in, provided them a meal and and brought in whether it was a healthcare professional, whether it was a military professional uh just so they could experience many careers and college uh opportunities, whether it's scholarship writing. Uh and then they also worked with providing job shadows, which was a big piece of this, but most importantly, they partnered with the counselors and teachers to ensure a collaborative approach to providing students with
029access to college and careers. So, a little bit of the data. Here's the numbers. So, the adviserss assisted 220 seniors. And so, that's more than just a meet in the hallway, things like that, but they're working with them and trying to help them find their pathway, whatever that may be. And there was times when they needed to refer somebody on to the high school counselors, which they did. Uh, but 128 students completing the FAFSA and 42 parents completing the FAFSA. A little bit about that FAFSA. At the end of the 24-25 school year, about 45 46% of the seniors completed the FAFSA for that following fall's college. However, this year, the data that we just got um says 54.5% of the seniors completed the FAFSA, and that's an 8.8% increase, which is a large number.
030Um, while there's many things that go into that and the college and career access advisors would refuse to take all the credit for it, I think some credit goes their way um because that's where they spend 50% or more of their time working on college scholarships, working on FAFSA, financial aid because we know financial aid is a barrier to getting to that post-secary piece. Uh, some of the other numbers, four-year college apps, two-year apps, they're helping kids with applications and they're also helping them get to individual college visits. Uh, and more to that list, it's also with that military recruiters, uh, 14 seniors, 39 seniors with job applications, resumes. They're just there to help kids find that next career once they graduate from high school. Uh, we mentioned job shadows, those 46 seniors, but uh,
031another result that Steve had mentioned earlier was this is the first year it was created. It takes some time to figure out what you're going to do and how to do it. And there's some things that happen that that align and there's some things that you need to put aside and say it doesn't work. But a big piece of that is we now have a guide book to help us as we build this out to the other three high schools. And that takes a lot of time and effort and energy. And that credit goes to to Steve and the access adviserss and the work that they have done for our next steps. You heard earlier this $1,15,000 gift provided by Promising Futures. So, we're going to expand to all four high schools. So, every high
032school will have that uh the exact allocation of those 12 college and career access advisors. We're going to take into account uh what that free and reduced lunch poverty rate is at each of the schools as well as what each school is doing, what their kids are doing in terms of enrolling in college the next year. So, we're going to take those factors in as we assign out the 12 college and career access advisors. Uh so, that's a little bit to play with. uh but they're going to be do those targeted activities which includes four-year universities, two-year colleges, military careers, and the workforce. And uh the Sou Falls School District um just humbled to receive this level support from the Promising Futures, but Promising Futures gets their support from the community members of Sou Falls.
033And so it's a real tied uh close-knetwork group that's thinking about kids in our future in Sou Falls. So, uh, very thankful that they're helping kids navigate that pathway. So, with the expansion, uh, the focus is going to remain students who will be in their first in their family to attend college. Uh, students from low-inccome backgrounds and also any student who needs college and career access support. Nobody gets turned away. Uh so much of this success is due to the dedicated work of the adviserss uh whose responsibility goes beyond the scope of existing staff and whose personal direct engagement with students and families has proven to be the most impactful strategy. So moving forward we want to close those equity gaps and ensure that every student regardless of school income or background has an opportunity
034to pursue that post-secondary opportunity. And lastly, as we close out the summary, these are the five things we continue to look at that advising, financial aid, access, support, apprenticeship, job shadows, military options and awareness, first responder careers, and college retention. Those still remain uh the targeted goals that we have. So at this time ask that you acknowledge the promising futures college and career access report as presented and I would stand by for questions that you may have. >> Thank you Mr. Conrad. Uh can I please get a motion to acknowledge the career and college college and career access update? >> So moved. >> Second. questions, discussion. >> Yeah. What did you say about college retention? >> Uh, as our kids get on, making sure that they just don't make it through the first year, but
035hanging on. Uh, so following up with those kids once they enroll to make sure that they stay with them. >> So, I don't know if this is a you question or a Steve question, but how do you go about doing that, following those kids? >> That is a good question. So uh I would I would start with saying that we know the kids that we had worked with and then um part of the group is they have that close relationship with our college of career access. So staying in contact with them and communicating them through the summer. Uh the goal is is that there's a lot that happens between when you graduate in May to when you enter the doorstep of the university in August. And so the way we've built out the program with
036the director and the adviserss is they have days during the summer where they're going to stay in contact and make sure kids make it to the doorstep and stay in contact with them. So uh right now preliminary ideas staying in contact through information that we have whether that be through email addresses or phone numbers just checking in with the kids and seeing how they're doing and making sure that they're staying with it or if there's supports that we can provide. >> Steve, do you want to add anything? >> Come on up. Come on up, Steve. because Dan hasn't spent enough time with me. Um, [laughter] >> so we've looked at programs around the country regarding college retention. You know, when a when a student goes to college, when they're a freshman, that's the biggest investment
037by that university is that freshman year. So they really want to keep those students on campus through degree completion um because they've already invested so much in that student. So colleges are now doing a lot more than they used to do. That being said, there's additional sports that we want to provide. So the first thing is we will identify a universe of students that we believe [clears throat] could use some additional um assistance guidance as they take that big step of going to college. It's a big big hard step. So the first thing we'll do um after we've identified the universe is we'll hold an event about a 4-hour seminar during the summer before they start college. That will be for any graduating senior going on to either college or technical school, not just the
038university we identify, but anyone in that universe. Um that seminar will be, you know, we'll bring in a residence hall director from a college campus to talk about, this is what you should be ready for, this is the kind of lifestyle you're going to lead, um here are the rules, just some of those kinds of things. So, a student walks into that residence hall with just a little bit more knowledge and comfort when they do that. Number two, we'll invite um uh admissions folks to talk about here's what you can expect when you get to campus. Um welcoming events for the freshmen. Um you know, where to pick up your schedule, you know, just some of the simples and basics. We're going to invite a college professor in to say this is what you're going
039to be expected by your professors. Um the performance you're going to have to have, the kind of assignments you'll be given, um the testing schedule, those kinds of things. Again, some some basic information, but all of it is just as to help provide just a little bit more. You know, as they've gone through high school, there hasn't been a lot of information coming to say this is what it's going to be like when you get there. We want to give them that information once they get there. And and as Dan said, as they're leading up to that, our adviserss are going to have days they're working during the summertime and they're going to be contacting these students just to make sure they're they have somebody to answer questions for them, resources we can provide them,
040all of that kind of stuff. But as they head to college, we want to touch base with them a week or so after they're there. Now, what questions do you have? Now, what resources can we help you get? we're going to have the ability to put them in touch with those the the the people on the campus that can can help them. Um but pre-Thanksgiving we're going to touch base again in January we're going to touch base again and you know into this the second semester we want to follow these kids give them all the knowledge and resources they need. You know a lot of these kids they've they've filled out the financial aid forms for federal student aid while they're seniors in high school. We try at that time to remind them you're going
041to have to do that every year. We we will make those reminders while they're in school. So, it's that kind of stuff, giving them resources. Um, I don't like this term necessarily, but we want to hold their hands. We want to be part of that four-year adventure for them and just give them all the the love and support they need to to stay there. >> She could probably stay up here, Steve. >> Yeah, possibly. Um, I could have really used this sort of support being a first generation college student in my whole entire family. Like, I didn't know you needed shower shoes. Gross. Like, I wish I would have known that. Um, my question is with this first um, pilot, what were you finding for Jefferson students that were their biggest barriers? We say poverty
042as a blanketed statement, but what were some of those real specifics that you were finding with your team? >> So, every family has a different structure, right? We're a melting pot. And so, students are who are um with a single mother. Um different circumstances for financial aid application that you're dealing with. the the example Dan gave of this young woman who um is a guardian of her grandmother, that provision in the federal law says that that student can apply for federal financial aid as an independent which means the grandmother's income has nothing to do with her income and that qualified her for the maximum PEL grant available. um immigration status. We've been a immigrant welcoming community for decades in Sou Falls and so a lot of our students are product of immigration themselves or their
043parents um were immigrants are are immigrants and uh that presents unique circumstances. We had one student who a a senior at Jefferson um African-American student, no I'm sorry, Hispanic student who's she's here legally. She lives with her older sister. Her mother lives in Guatemala and her father lives in Spain. Both of them speak Spanish um not any English. One of our adviserss speaks fluent Spanish himself. He spent six hours dad was a financial contributor to his daughter here. Um, so he had to be on that federal form um, for federal student aid. And our advisor spent six hours on the phone speaking Spanish until dad was able to press submit on that form. And again, this young woman got the maximum PEL grant available to her as a result of that good work that our
044adviser did. So >> those are the things that every when a student comes to talk to us, their situation is going to be different than everybody else's. And so it's doing individual case work, >> which is so critical. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> I'm curious. Hold on, Steve. [laughter] >> Don't sit back down. I'm >> I'm curious about the the pilot. What what you learned that you're going to change as you expand to the other schools? Boy, good question. You could ask our new director. Um, I think there's quite a bit. Um, one is the realization that I just talked about in terms of the unique family structures. Financial aid is the biggest barrier for especially a low-income student to take that big leap going into college if they don't have federal student aid. And
045thankfully now in South Dakota, our South Dakota Freedom scholarships, which is a very significant scholarship for for low-income families, if they don't have those, those kids probably shouldn't go to college because they're going to be wallowing in debt. you know 60 70 80,000 at the end of four or five years. So the amount of time we are spending working on financial aid is probably a larger percentage than what I expected. What I would say is our four adviserss at Jefferson have become very quickly experts. They understand how to work the different family structures. they understand what is absolutely needed before that um FAFSA is submitted to the government and uh that is so valuable. So as we begin training here in August with the new team that will be a huge portion of what we
046train on is all the different kinds of circumstances that we can think of to get those um into the brains of those adviserss so they really know what they're doing. Number two, I would say is we have to work harder and more intentional about getting families, parents involved in this. Their signatures on those um federal financial aid forms are are critical and we can get a lot more work done if they become involved at the beginning. We need to engage them. Number two is they should be part of the discussion with their child about what that child wants to be when they grow up, right? And so getting, you know, creating college and career nights in each of the high schools where we really work hard to get um families to come together to explore
047options for these students. Um I would say number three is when I started working with this, I was one of the people in our community that didn't know anything about the career and technical academy. I knew just a little tiny bit. When you take a tour of that facility and understand the work that they're doing over there to help kids enter the workforce, you can take three welding courses and get incredibly well-paying welding jobs right out of high school. If you're a kid that's going to the workforce straight out of college, straight out of high school, you should not pass up an opportunity to take coursework at the CTE Academy that is free, that provides college or uh your high school graduation credits. Um there's just every reason in the world to leave your friends
048for a couple hours at the high school and go take these courses. you're going to make more money in 20 different academic fields um by doing that. So, we are going to work more intentional and much harder to make sure every student we interact with understands what the CT Academy can offer to them. That's a huge huge benefit to these kids. So, there's a lot more. >> Okay. >> Steve, have you and you maybe have uh listened to the Malcolm Gladwell podcast? >> I haven't yet. I still need to do that. You told me about that. >> Okay. It has some really compelling data surrounding high performing, high achieving kids that have gotten scholarships,'ve gone off to college and just did not feel a sense of belonging because there wasn't much preparation done. And so
049some of what you're doing speaks into that. Um, and it may u be impactful to to listen to that perspective. >> And if if I could just highlight one of the things that Dan talked about, One thing I didn't know going into the program is that on the border regions website, we can actually pull up the 400 seniors at Jefferson High School and see whether or not they've submitted their federal application or their free application for federal student aid, the FAFSA, right? Tracking that information is incredibly helpful. Um because if there's, you know, 200 kids that have completed it and 200 kids that have not, we have a university of students we can go back to right away and say, you know, is this something you want to do? Or if you're not collegebound, that's
050fine. Or if your parents are in a higher income bracket, you don't need to unless you're applying for some scholarships. Um but that data is really important and it's readily available to um employees in the school district. So we can pull that up very readily. But at the end of the school year, we can also compare it to last year's data. I just want to underscore we increased and I don't want to take all the credits for for this. We're going to take a bunch of it. Um we didn't help every kid complete that form, but we helped a lot. And to increase it by eight and a half percent in that very first year of our program means that eight and a half percent of the students at Jefferson now have an opportunity to
051get uh federal student aid and uh that's just a very very big deal for these kids and that's just the the best work we can do. Steve, if there's somebody listening um to the update and has interest to donate to Promising Futures and the mission of your organization, can they go to a website? What could we direct them to? And we've got Morgan and Barry here. So, how do we direct interested people? >> So, promising futuresf fund.org is our website. You can find contribution links there. And I I appreciate that opportunity. The second thing I would say is today I think we posted so sometime this week the job posting will be available for an additional hiring of nine more college and career advisors. So if people in the community are interested in in those
052opportunities that will be live on the school district's website um shortly. >> Excellent. Thank you. Yes, Mr. Kra. >> We went we went to the expert which was really good. Um, and I think that's the passion with which Steve speak to a program that he's helping to bring into our school and uh he's passionate enough to do the research at two different cities um that have put something else in place and so that's the exciting part with working and it's cons constantly evolving which is really good to meet the needs of kids. >> Very good. We're going to quickly take a vote. All in favor? I I opposed. We have acknowledged the career and college and career access update. Thank you. Thank you again. >> Yeah. >> All right. The second report is the summary
053or an update on the process or progress of this facilities task force uh planning for the future. And I've got I get to do this one as well. So here we go. So when we look through it, our priority areas of the task force uh academic success, it attaches to all of our priorities which which is the importance of this work. But what we did is we left you in January and said we're going to build this task force. We got the directive from the school board to say build this team. We created a 30 member task force team. Uh we accepted applications during the month of February and during that two weeks it was open, we had over 140 community members apply to be a part of this task force. And from that 140
054we selected 30 uh which was difficult to get down but the goal of selecting the 30 was making sure we had a diversity uh a diverse representation diversity in the district making sure all four quadrants of the city of Sou Falls Sou Falls School District were represented making sure there was diversity of experience careers uh and just really making sure we had a cross-section. Uh in addition to the 30 task force members, we had three chairs and uh we'd like to thank them for their work. Uh Natalie Eisenberg, Tony Ericen, and Mickey Lundine were the chairs. And we also uh brought in um we partnered with the Donovan Group uh who works as an educationbased uh advising company to help with uh task force like this. And so Jerry Gallagher helped support us during this
055journey and we appreciate his work. So the goal was that we were going to come in and review this Souf Falls school district and city of Souf Falls growth projections. So we wanted to get the first meeting was let's build out some background knowledge. What do we have? Uh we wanted to prioritize current facility needs, future facility needs and uh wanted to look at projects that could be supported by a potential uh future bond. Uh but those things had to be aligned to facility standards. They had to be designed to allow the district to expand or contract as the enrollment moves throughout the district. uh and we wanted to make sure they were developed to ensure fair and uniform access for students throughout the city. So regardless of where you live, it's that fair and
056uniform access. What we did as a district leadership team in preparation for this, we we visited with our schools. We visited with our administration. They had visited with their teachers and parents and community members. So we had a group of projects that had risen up to the top. And from that list, we've tried to prioritize it ourselves and bring forward 38 projects to this task force that they could review and put their lens on as community members and we presented it to them. So that was one of the things that we did in this task force planning. So here's a recap of our four meetings. Uh the first meeting uh they were across six weeks. Uh the first meeting was all about building background knowledge, building some camaraderie of the team and that happened on
057April 8th and all the way up to the last meeting which was all about consensus and uh ranking the final priorities of projects 1 to 38 and that happened on May 20th a little over a week and a half ago. So with the exception of the third meeting all the meetings took place at IPC right here in the boardroom and they lasted about two and a half hours. That third meeting was a great field trip where we got to go out and see some buildings and see what did it really look like in the school. So with that first meeting, uh we talked a little bit about historical enrollment of Saul. So we're starting to level off. We've heard this throughout the year in several boards. We're about 24,000 kids. Uh and and they needed
058to know that where are these kids coming from? So we looked at a population map. Each dot on this map represents a student in the Sou Falls School District. Uh if you look at the areas, we're heavily dense densely populated with kids kind of in the southern tiers and southwest. Uh but you do see a couple pockets that are highlighted on the map. Uh you also see straight at the top of the graph that the piece to the north of the airport would be all that stuff that leads up to Renburg. And what we learned from the city planners again is that that's a flood plane and it's not going to get developed out with uh family housing and things like that. uh in this present tier if you look in the northwest the the
059left top lefth hand quadrant the star represents George McGovern and Marcelo Leau their approximate locations is represented by that yellow star but you look at there's space there to grow there's room for housing that's coming in and we needed to hear from the city is that five years is it 10 years is it 20 years what's the projection and then when you work your way around uh counterclockwise the next arrow on the lower left would be uh land that was annexed via the Lennox school district that we had acquired And there's a there's a opportunity for population growth there. And then you see that little small square with that bottom arrow and that's that southwest corner from Roosevelt High School on 41st in Certoma. There's that pocket of land there that has been undeveloped and
060there's a potential for that to be developed. When you put R so just kind of that the star is where George McGovern is. When you lay that over the city growth projections that star on this map still represents Marcela and George area. What you need to know is the blue squares. The city anticipates those are getting built out in the next zero to five years. So that's tier one expansion. And you can look at the numbers when we're talking another 740 kids 18 years or younger coming into that area. Is there anticipation of the next zero to five years? Uh the green is six to 15 year growth. So it could happen in six, it could happen in 15, but that's that next layer by the city growing out. But that's the area in that
061northwest quadrant that you see growing around Marcel Labau and uh George McGovern and we're in a position there to handle that growth we think pretty well. Uh the next area this would be the expanded area the Lennox annex land that we acquired from Lennox and we're looking about three to 400 students. If you want an idea where this at we know at Memorial Middle School 22nd Street runs on the north side and we know that 26 runs on the south side of Memorial. If you just take those two tracks straight west, you would run into this segment of land. The star on this map represents Memorial Middle School and Discovery Elementary site. And so you can see three to 400 students. This is our district boundary map. Here's what the city planners told us. Uh
062they shared that that's a blue highlighted area. So we're looking for growth in the next five years, zero to five years. 860 individuals under 18, right? Um, and then six to 15 years out, uh, we're adding another 181. That's that little green area in the lower lefthand corner there. So, it was very helpful for the task force to get an idea of what city planning looks like. And here's the parcel uh, in the southwest corner of Roosevelt that's been open and that'll probably open up for development here. But they're projecting uh, another 470 kids there. And and when you look across that western side, Pedigrew, Discovery, Hayward, uh, they're starting to fill up. While they're not at capacity yet, we still have room for kids. Uh but when you add these to it, it's starting
063to fill up. And so it it makes the potential for a Westside Elementary School uh something we need to think about and consider. The second meeting, we had an electrifying school funding presentation along with the CIP project toolkit. Uh I'll summarize it more quickly with just the good old chart. Uh there was pictures, graphs and all the good stuff. But the essence is giving the committee a background. What are general fund dollars used for? How do we how do we get general fund dollars? About 84 85% is for salaries and benefits. That's not a pool of money we use for buildings to build buildings. Uh when we talk about capital outlay, it's about prevention and maintenance. And the school board, you guys levy that to make sure we can keep our buildings up to date.
064When we talk about big projects like new buildings and uh large additions, renovations, then we're talking about a general obligation bond and that requires a 60% community vote to support and that's like a mortgage loan. We can get the money up front and start doing the good work right away and then we have to pay it back. Uh meeting three, between meeting two and meeting three, we went through a ranking tool. So we tried to share with them. So the last half of that third meeting or second meeting was all the projects we had listed trying to give them a detailed book of projects and that probably became a little bit overwhelming because there was just so much information. So we took the the third meeting and we went to we went to a road
065show. Uh so we said let's take a look at our middle schools. There was a desire to see those. So we started at Edison uh gathered we had a bus come in and we went to Whittier Middle School and saw what an early 1900 school building looked like in the now 21st century. And uh the committee got to tour that, ask questions. The principal, Miss Paladino Hazes, gave a tour of it. We left there, drove by Terry Redland, got to see a little bit about that school, and then we headed off to Ben Rifle. So if we started in the 1900s, we were in now in 2020 when Ben Rifle was built to see the disparity or the difference that is there. And then we finished up with mid-century modern at Edison Middle School, kind
066of in the 1950s model. Uh what they took away is they the extreme sense of pride each principal spoke with regards to the building. And while each building had a different birth date, uh what you saw in each building was the logoing that said, "This is what makes you a Wolverine of Whittier." Uh it's what makes you a Ben Rifle. It's what makes you an Edison Cat. Uh and and that was powerful. They they saw the passion and pride, but what didn't go unnoticed was the fact that we need to do something about Whittier. And they said that, right? Just the number of stairs and all the other things that come into it. So that brings us to our fourth meeting and it was all about building consensus and trying to get a ranking for
067each project because the task was prioritize this list of projects we brought forward to you these 38 projects and prioritize them. We need to know what's number one on your list and what's number 38 on the list and here's the fruits of their labor. Uh this is the tenative project ranking. This would be the top third projects and you see at the top of the list is a wittier middle school with an overall ranking of about 1.37. Uh the ranking system we asked them between meeting three and meeting four. We asked them to complete their very own facilities rating site. You'll see we as a district rated things as a critical high impact. It might have been a significant impact. It might have been a moderate, a minor, or a low priority. We asked the
068committee to do that as well. So coming into the final meeting, they had an idea of what they thought was critical, what they thought was significant and moderate. It may not have been what the person beside them was thinking, but that's what consensus was building. And when we put those two scores together, this list was produced. So this is the top third. Uh we'll share with you all 38 rankings. This is not intended to say there's a cut line here somewhere. The goal was just to say it's a ranking of what's most important. So here's the middle third. Um some of this has been abbreviated uh probably more than it should have been to give an accurate description of what the project is. So uh take that uh we intend to come back in August
069to the school board and share a more detailed presentation about the projects each project the ranking and next steps. So just know that more details are to come. And here's the bottom third of projects uh that they had rated. And you can get a brief look at those. But again, their decisions, we asked them to align it to our district mission, vision, and uh priorities. We asked them to align it to our facility standards. We asked them to align it and allow us to expand or contract as our enrollment moves. And then also to develop to ensure a fair and uniform access for students in every building. Those were the priorities. So our next steps, we're going to come back to you in August as we kick off the new school year and share out
070the next steps that while the task force has created a priority ranking, we want to hear from the community of Sou Falls. And we're going to do that through a survey. And that's we're going to try to survey students, staff, uh teachers obviously are in that staff category, but parents, the citizens of the Sou Falls School District. We want to hear what they think and get that feedback. uh we're going to host a couple listening sessions in September, November to gather continue to gather information and then we want to come back to this task force in December and share the information we gained in the fall and then also based on that information put together some form of a budget projection as to what the impact would be. And then once we get those things
071together, we want to come back in January to the school board and say, "Here is the task force recommendation." And uh at that time determine if we push this to a bond vote, which would take place in April of 2027. So that's a broad overview of a lot of things. Uh the beauty of that task force is 30 people came together, built relationships. We did organize them in groups of 10 and and they're passionate and they got to see our schools and and they got to hear uh they got to bring forward their perspective which was very helpful and beneficial as we produce this list. So what I would ask as uh just to highlight I guess I would reiterate they identified the replacement of Whittier and a new elementary the west side as the
072top two uh projects in that group along with uh some other developments including some additions or renovations to an Edison, a Garfield, a Patrick Henry um and also some district-wide security updates that would be there. and those security updates, there's a significant value or cost to the cameras and other things that go into security pieces in our schools to make sure our kids are safe and that's where they put the priorities. So, at this time, uh, I would request that you acknowledge the task force report as presented and I would stand by for questions. >> Excellent. Very good. >> Can I please get a motion to acknowledge the school district facilities task force update? >> So moved. Second questions, feedback. >> I just have a quick comment. Uh, with the exception of the tour, I
073was here for the meetings and what a great process and such engaged people. So, I just want to thank everyone who was involved in in making this process work. Thank you very much. >> Yes. Thank you task force members and thank you in advance to the community members that will attend our listening sessions. Getting community feedback is so important for us in our district. Okay. All in favor? >> I opposed. Don said I too. [laughter] I I heard you. I heard you. I think I heard everybody a resounding yes opposed. We have acknowledged the update. Thank you Mr. Conrad for your time. I just I just quick want to draw Shel's attention that there are some people out there I think for voting information. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. At this point we have Becky Dorman
074to come forward. We are doing an application waiverss of administrative rule where we will have a public hearing. Good evening. Um I am here in preparation for the upcoming school district. So it's good to be ahead of these things. Uh preparing uh to apply for three types of waiverss concerning our teachers. The first is for the kindergarten through fourth grade endorsement. This would be for our Spanish immersion teachers that come to us from other countries mostly with secondary education degrees because that just seems to be what they come here with um to give them access to the proper certification they need to teach elementary. The second uh is a plan of intent waiver. This is for our teachers who are certified South Dakota certified educators, but they're working toward their endorsements in different areas to
075help fill uh positions for us. And this is to give them access to the third year that the state allows them to have um if we have a waiver on file for them. And then finally, um the last waiver application will be for those who are pursuing special education coursework who will become special education teachers for us, but we have to wave some administrative rules in order for them to do that. >> Excellent. I'm going to now open this meeting up for since it's a public hearing for any public input. We have anybody here wishing to address the the board on the application of waiverss of administrative rule? Okay, seeing none, we will close our public hearing and we will have a motion to approve the application waiverss of administrative rule. >> Second. Any questions,
076feedback? just a matter of acknowledgement of the work that you do, keeping all of the paperwork straight, the people straight. That is no easy task. >> Thank you. I I will be back because we still have two and a half months of hiring left, but [laughter] this gives us a good start. >> Thank you for complying to all the regulatory aspects that we need to. All in favor? I >> opposed. >> We have approved the waiverss of the administrative rule. Thank you. All right. Well, hello Brett. >> Good evening. Uh, tonight I have 15 policies uh for consideration on behalf of the policy review committee. This is a part of our continual review of our policies and regulations. These are up tonight on a review revise with minor revisions to the policies and their accompanying
077regulations. Uh the first policy is E A um regarding transportation. First three are transportation related and all the changes here are um updating the reporting insurance and license requirements for staff. Um and this is being done at the request of our insurance company. Uh policy EGA communication services. This is just some updates to language with some outdated language um relating to, you know, technology advances and whatnot. So, mostly with cell phones. Um but that's the only change there. Policy IHCA, summer instructional programs. This is just a quick update to language to our current practice. Policy III, class size. There are no changes recommended there. policy JNDC, acceptable use and ethical use of technology resources. Again, this is an update, you know, related to, you know, new language for technology. Um, and then updating some references
078to job titles, departments, those sorts of things. Um, policy, this is probably the most significant update in here, but mostly just in the regulation. Um, and this is an update to current practice and to provide some uniformity at each specific level. So, you know, all ele all elementary schools the same same with middle and high school. Um, so you you treat the grading and the recovery systems the same at those levels. And that was kind of the that's just a quick overview of the the changes there. Policy JCA, this is our open enrollment policy. Um, and the quick just a quick change here to the numbers for elementary class size to reduce by one. And that's in accordance with some decisions made, you know, through the budgeting process this year. So that's just up to
079date update that policy to account for that. Policy JB, no changes there to our entrance age requirements. Of course, the law hasn't changed on that. Uh policy JBA, just a minor language change there. Policy JG, no changes. Policy JLCD regarding med medication administration, there's just an update there to comply with a new law from this legislative session. So, we want to make sure we get that done before next school school year. Policy JQ, student fines, fees, and charges. Just a small removal there um in our language to account for onetoone devices for students. So, just some unnecessary language that was in the policy. And then finally, policy keed, public concerns and complaints uh for programs for students with disabilities. There are no changes. So, I'll stand by for questions if you have any. If not,
080I'd ask for approval of these 15 policies and any accompanying regulations. >> Can I please get a motion to approve the 15 stated review revised policies? >> So moved. >> Second discussion. Um really the only one that I wanted to call out and and uh Brad talked about this already but in case anybody didn't catch it. Um JCA the policy uh the there was a reduction in our elementary open enrollment for each grade level went down by one student. So that will support smaller class sizes for um those grade levels. So, I thought that was something that that we had talked about in previous work sessions that everyone uh had agreed that we wanted to do and um and we got we're getting it done. So, way to go. [laughter] Okay, very good. All in
081favor? >> Opposed? >> Those are approved. Thank you. Uh we will can I now get a motion to move into executive session per South Dakota codified law 1-25-2 um 4 and three. Uh and I believe one of you that makes the motion will do a recess with the time that we will go back into executive session. I'll let Gail, she has the specificity around that. [laughter] I move that we recess until 6:48. At that time, we'll move into executive session when we go back into regular order. >> Excellent. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. We are now adjourned for this meeting. Thank you. Recess.