001Okay, we are going to call the meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationy and all. Okay, good evening. Deianne, will you please come up and give us the good news report this evening? >> Absolutely. We have lots of good news once again to share with you. Um, as you know, we kicked off our school year last Thursday and um, most people, I have to say, were very excited about going back, right? all the kids out there. Maybe not all the kids, right? But we received um a video that I thought pretty well sums it up how we're feeling about being back to school. Oh goodness. Sound would be good. Oh no, that was the
002best part. Let me see if I can get it to [Music] >> anything. Oh, can hear you can hear it very badly. Oh, so you guys. Okay. All right. Here we're gonna we're gonna play it again. >> Baby, back to school. Back, baby. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Baby. Back. Baby. Back to school. >> Yeah. Right there. Wasn't that worth it? Right. Back, baby. Back, baby. Back to school. Um, two students over at Eugene Field Elementary. uh were so excited to come back to school and uh we were we received that on Friday and thought, "Oh my gosh, there's just nothing better than that." Um they've got dance moves and um the voice to go with it. So, you know, they're learning great things at Eugene Field, which is our arts
003plus education school. So, they're definitely demonstrating their abilities and what they've um picked up over at Eugene Field. So, how exciting, how fun that they are super excited to be back. And of course, we are super excited to have all of our students back with us. As you know, um it's this time of year is a little bit chaotic with knowing how many students are going to show up on the first day. We do our best to get people to enroll ahead of time, but we always know there are circumstances uh where people are just coming into Sou Falls and and um send their kids on the first day. we will gladly accept every one of those students as they show up at our doors. Um, so our social media team has um been doing
004some work just out and about trying to showcase the excitement for the first days of school and as you may know we have web content creators in every building and they've been doing a bangup job also um showcasing all the fun that they're going to be having in the school year by staff creating videos um very creative stuff. So, um, this video is a compilation of some of the back to school photos that we took on the first day. Come on. Am I going to have to add audio? seems to be the issue here. But it's just music. So even if it has to be silent, it's it's good silence. So >> you can sing. >> Sing. No. No. I don't have that ability there. Again, you can hear it very quietly. [Music] So, lots
005of hugs, lots of excitement. I don't know if you caught the photo of Dr. Nold um being embraced fully by a young man over at Lowel Elementary and there's a little story behind that you want to share Dr. >> I do have to share the story on that. So there's a the young boy was walking up and he's a preschool student and uh his mother was walking behind him and I could see her filling with tears. Uh so sending off for preschool for the first time and boy's sitting or right in front of me and I kneel down and I just said, "Hey, give your mom a hug." And so he gave me a big hug. I go, "No, your mom." So >> student was listening and must have been told by his mother to
006listen to to the adults that speak with him. So he went over and uh gave Dr. Nol a hug and >> yeah, we'll take that. Right. >> So I and I don't even know in the chaos of it all if he if he got his mom a hug or or uh if he didn't after that. But regardless, uh just a lot of fun, a lot of excitement on those first days of school. Um, of course, we've had good news to celebrate and um our team watches very closely the analytics that pop up on on um our social media posts and uh Marcela Labau's ribbon cutting has done better than any social media post we've ever made um to my knowledge. 105,000 views and that's the number of times that the video has has played or
007um and then 54,000 is the number of unique visitors who who saw this post. And then interactions means people that liked, commented, that type of thing. And so, um, we're just obviously it was a a great celebration in in the fact that it was a ribbon cutting for a new school and the fact that we're celebrating uh a leader of South Dakota in this way and her family was with us and that made it that much more special. Um but super excited to see um how well that social media post has been doing. Um interestingly enough, Dr. Nold has quite a following in his social media world as well because most of the posts we've been doing with him have been have been getting good engagement as well. So, um, it all started back early
008in July when he took the reigns and grabbed a serving spoon over at Child Nutrition. And then, um, we just kind of we got some photos there and he's been happy to do whatever we tell him to do most most of the time. Um, but that first day of school photos, um, you can see that performance on our social media also did very well where we have 86,000 views. um reach uh of nearly uh the same number of unique visitors, 53,000. So, we're we're always watching things like this and trying to find out what um our community wants to see and how um how they engage with our information. Um am I Let me see. No. Boy, I'm just striking out here. There you go. Again, um on this slide, this is from the last
009month, um July 28th through August 24th. Um what I'm most excited about on this slide is to see all the increase in in views, engagement, that kind of thing. But um the from the nonfollowers, from people that don't normally follow our information um interactions, we've had a 204% increase uh from our nonfollowers. 3,741 people who aren't friends of the Sou Falls School District have been engaged and are are following this. So um we think that's pretty great. will continue to um provide engaging content and and let our community know what's happening in our schools. Um there are so many things to celebrate that we can't possibly catch everything, but our web content creators are in the building and they are able to capture um the essence, the culture of what's happening in their building, the
010excitement on a daily basis. And so we're really blessed to have that team of uh broader web content creators who can help us showcase the excellent things happening in our school district. So um just very excited to see all of that. Um I do have a a second good news report unless you have comments or questions about this otherwise I'll move on to the second part. >> Keep the new good news coming Deian. >> Absolutely. It happens every single day um in our schools and we're just um doing a a good job of uh encouraging people to share those stories with us and um we have a lot of things up our sleeves that we're we're going to be a lot of stories we're going to be telling in the future as well. So look
011forward to doing that. >> Okay. And for the second part of the Good News Report, um we have a special guest. Where did he go? Richie, come on up here. Um, Richie Hutchinson was recently named as South Dakota Association of Secondary School Principles as the 2026 State Middle School Assistant Principal of the Year. So, let's congratulate him. The honor recognizes Richie's exceptional leadership, commitment to student achievement, and lasting impact on the school community. So, this is a statewide uh celebration, but uh the organization allowed us to share the news locally first and then they'll be putting out some statewide information. And I asked Richie when he came, "What what does this mean? What do you have to do?" He's like, "I I don't even know. So, we'll all figure that out together. But I just
012asked Richie to say a few words about um you know, his role in the school district and um his role as an assistant president. >> Uh thank you for acknowledging it tonight. And I would say I just have to be honest that this award is probably more about our school at George McGover Middle School. And we've had teachers shown up for over a decade just committed to helping students rise and get better. And so I'm probably more a product of a group effort. And so I hope you know there's a lot of good work going on out there and our teachers are really committed to helping students who come from poverty. And uh we've just seen great things over the last decade. And I hope we continue to see those things. [Applause] I will say
013that out at we went out and and uh announced it out at George McGovern and there's a great ovation from the group there uh and great appreciation for the work that that Mr. Hutchinson does at the school there. So I agree it's a product of the people that work there, but a big part of that is the leadership team there as well and the work that they do. So it was great to see and very deserving. >> Anybody else? Short and sweet. Welld deserved, Mr. Hutchinson. >> Thank you. >> Well, I really had the honor and privilege to get to see you once a week here. What was it? Two years ago as a volunteer out at George McGovern and um what I noticed in you right away is that you embody the be the
014difference uh with your leadership style. Maybe could you share with us one thing that you just have found that that works with the the teachers and the students out there in embracing the be the difference? >> Yeah, I I'll actually share two things that I think are effective. Um one is we've done a lot of work around um top facilitation methods which is a specific way of engaging teachers or any group in a communication style that helps figure out what the group wants. So, I think one of the best things we've done is to actively engage their voices so that we're representing the talent that's sitting at the school and we're going in a direction based on the people in the trenches. I I think the other thing is um I'm I'm a West River
015boy and I say my leadership style is a little bit more of a Braveheart style. So, just me being out in the trenches, being in the classroom, being in the hallways and having my finger and pulse on what's happening so that I can be responsive and helpful um to the teachers. research says they're the ones that make a difference. They're the reason students grow. So, anything we can do to help and empower them. >> Excellent. Thanks again. Congratulations. [Applause] >> Okay. Gosh. Okay. Can I please get a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 811 2025? So moved. All in favor? >> I oppose. Seems sign. Minutes are pass approved. Um persons wishing to address the school board on non-aggenda items this evening. We have three. Um let's see. We will start
016out with Grant. And I'm not clear if Grant and Dave if you both want to come up together or each individually. Do you Does it matter who goes first? >> He would like to go first. Okay, Grant. And it looks like your topic is guardian caps in school. Um, I just want to remind you of a few things. Uh, when you come up here, please say your name and your address. Um, the you're not to give oral complaints regarding district personnel or personnel actions. Um those would be directed directly to the superintendent and the speaker may not offer personal attacks against any individual. Speaker may not give oral complaints identifying individual students. Complaints regarding individual students are to be addressed with the superintendent in private or in writing with the superintendent and board members in
017accordance with policy K. uh the board president at his or her discretion may request that the administration or other board members to respond to a person addressing the board immediately following the input or may be directed uh may direct the administration to respond in writing. Okay. So come on forward and you have I believe uh 15 five and together they have 15 >> 10 >> just 10 even though it's mentioned on this topic. Okay. Thank you. You have five minutes and state your name and your address. >> Hello, my name is Grant Hone. I live at uh 1201 East Plum Creek Road. I am an eighth grader at Edison Middle School and a member as the football team as a center. As I was on the line, my parents were concerned about concussions during football.
018One of my friends brothers has had to quit playing football due to the amount of concussions he has had during at school. This is a guardian helmet. It connects to the helmet with Velcro straps and can be removed from the helmet without any damage or any altercation to the helmet. Before this season, my parents bought me a guardian cap to protect me during practices. Before practice, I confirmed with my coach to make sure that I was able to wear it, but then later I was told I could not because it may affect the warranty of the helmets. I was told anything put on a helmet besides for mouthguards and visors uh may affect the warranty of the helmet, which I thought was strange due to the fact that during our games or sorry, during our
019practices, we would wear pennies which connect to our helmets with elastic. From the research I've done with my parents, there are no studies that negatively affect the u players that are wearing guardian caps. All I am asking is the ability to wear a guardian cap during practice so I can be safer during uh I am playing the sport I love. If you would like, I would pass around my helmet so you guys can see it. >> Sure. Thank you very much for your time. >> Thank you. Okay, Dave. And when you come up, please state your name and your address. >> Um, good evening. My name is Dave Hone. I live at 1201 East Plum Creek Road. I do have some documents that I'll be referring to during my brief talk. Would it be okay
020to pass that out to the board so you can reference them while I talk? >> Yes, that's fine. Uh, first I want to acknowledge how proud I am of my son who does not like speaking publicly but cares so much about this issue that he came in front of a room of strangers and talked. Members of the board, I think we can all agree that safety of our kids and students is a priority for all of us. I'd like to talk to you about the options as a parent to better protect my son when he plays football. My son joined Edison football team last year. We purchased a guardian cap for him to wear during practice. We tried to work within the system and asked coaches if it was okay, but were ultimately told by
021the athletic director that guardian caps would not be approved because they may invalidate a helmet's warranty. So, let's look at the claim that the use of a guardian cap may invalidate a warranty for a helmet. According to Guardian, the creator of the helmet, the Guardian cap, there has never been a single incident in the United States where a helmet manufacturer has invalidated a warranty because of the use of a guardian cap. The athletic director stated that the reason that we couldn't use Guardian Cap is any add-on equipment uh would invalidate the warranty. As my son pointed out, Edison football team uses pennies. It's an elastic aftermarket product that puts on the helmet. So, why is that product okay, but a guardian cap is not? The National High School Referee Association, which is one of the
022documents I gave you, say the guarding cap is not a violation of any national rules. More importantly, as one of the documents I gave you shows, in January 2025, Shook Helmets, which is a helmet my son wore last year and was just at football practice today and was given another shook helmet, entered into a partnership with Guardian Caps. According to their website, guarding caps do not violate a helmet's warranty, and they recommend the use of a guardian cap. So, the product that the school district is giving my son says the guardian cap is not against their warranty and they actually have entered into a partnership with Guardian because they feel it is such a good product. As a board, I'm asking you to use common sense when it comes to the safety of our children.
023There are no studies that show the use of guarding caps are detrimental to students or the practice. As a former football coach and former offensive lineman, I wish I had the use of a guarding cap because I remember leaving practice with headaches when I was a player. Guarding caps are currently mandatory for all NFL teams during practice. And a recent study showed that since the NFL is implemented the mandatory use of guarding caps, there's been a 50% reductions in concussions compared to the three years prior. Most colleges and a growing number of high school teams across the nation are utilizing guardian caps and practices. Notably, Brandon Valley High School booster club recently purchased guardian caps for their entire high school football team. So, how will it look when a town when players one town over
024are given guarding caps to use, but the Soufall School District says we can't use them because it's may invalidate a warranty. Even though, as I've shown you with the documents I presented today, it does not invalidate the warranty and has never invalidated a warranty anywhere in the United States. We are simply asking the school board to allow parents to better protect their kids in a violent sport. We are asking the school board to direct the athletic department to allow the use of guarding caps at all levels of school football, both junior and high school. I feel so strongly about this issue that my wife and I would like to work with the school district to organize a fundraiser so we can purchase guardian caps for all junior and high school teams. Um, and with that,
025uh, I just again thank you for your time and I'll leave a little bit of time if you have any questions for me. First and foremost, thank you for coming both of you and um talking about guardian caps. Um somebody will get back to you. >> Okay. >> And um we don't have all the information collected uh for tonight since this was the non-aggenda item, but what I can uh give you is a commitment that um the school district will be responsive and get back to you. um um soon. Um and we just want to thank you again. >> Thank you, Madam President. >> Thank you. >> Okay, >> Chad Bishop. Good evening. My name is Chad Bishop and I live at 7405 South Valencia Drive here in Sou Falls. I continue to respectfully request
026the George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm be required reading for all juniors and seniors in the district. I also renew my call to enhance the new social studies curriculum with lesson plans on the study of propaganda techniques and their use in our history. Today, I would like to address the school nutrition program and how some of the data is being reported. The meal viewer platform used by the district has supported supported both added sugars and UPC or GTIN labels since the 2023 and 2024 releases. Yet the district has not taken advantage of those features yet. Uh at least from the data available today. So I would request that you take action to change that. Tomorrow the menu lists a whole grain banana muffin and Meal Viewer reports it as having 15 grams of total sugar.
027But when I observed the same item under the same label a few years ago, it contained 25 grams of added sugar. Those are different numbers. Perhaps it's changed for the better. And if so, that would be praiseworthy. Including a universal product code UPC symbol or a GTIN, global trade item number label would help clear up any confusion quickly, and it should be easy to do within the system. It would also further uh allow further analysis of the entire ingredient list through the application programming interface that which allows rapid analysis of the entire menu across the district is a common capability that Malbeir already provides. Another example is today's frosted cornflakes kit. So Muer shows it has 53 grams of carbohydrates. That's mentioned that because I had to go try to find it. And yet Kellogg's
028smart label site lists the school specific product is only 28 grams in total size for the whole product with much less sugar. Meanwhile, a retail version that does align with that 53 grams of carbohydrate contains 19 grams of added sugar just in that one serving. Add the eight grams of added sugar from chocolate milk and that breakfast alone totals 27 gram of added sugar. Already exceeding the daily limit recommended by both the academy American Academy of Pediatrics and American Heart Association. The UPC code would be helpful to know which product specific product was being served. I would request that you do that for all prepackaged items. One more point, vending machines. I'd like to see the same sort of information provided for the vending machines we allow in schools. Um, an example, you know, everybody
029thinks it's good to replace soft drinks with with uh juice. So, we use Minutemade apple juice as an example. The serving provided in the vending machine is 32 grams of sugar. I'd argue that's the same as a Coke. Your pancreas and your liver don't know the difference. So, um, I'd respectfully request that this information be disclosed periodically. You can't manage what you don't measure. That's why I would focus on this. Obviously, kids can do go down the street and buy whatever they want or get it at home, but the meals provided by the district should not use what up 100% of their recommended daily sugar intake in a single meal or use up their whole sugar budget for the day. Sugar can be called a chronic dose dependent hippatic toxin. Chronic over time, dose dependent
030how much you take, but it's definitely a toxin. Your body has to clear a good portion of it otherwise you get sick. Kids are now developing fatty liver disease before leaving middle school. A condition that used to be reserved for 60-year-old alcoholics. I think we all know something has changed in the last 40 years. Spoke about the last time I was here. The CDC states that 90% of the 4.9 trillion public private health care spend in the US is spent on chronic disease and mental health. So imagine obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, neurocognitive dysfunction. It does turn out that the brain is a part of the body. Imagine what we could do with those resources if that was not the case. In closing, I spent over 11 calendar years and 17 commitment years volunteering within
031the district, partnering with both teachers and the administration. I am also happy to contribute to these efforts if there's an opportunity to do so. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Chair. >> Okay. Can I get an approval of the agenda? >> Some move. Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion carries. Um I would like to get a motion to approve the acknowledgement of a school administrator conflict of interest. So move. >> Second. Second. All in favor? >> Oppose? Same sign. That carries. Um can I please get a motion to approve the consent agenda items? Items A through E. So move a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any questions? >> Yes. >> Gail. >> Um, I have a question for Miss Dorman. >> Now, I know
032two weeks ago you gave us a great uh report on HR and hiring and where we stand with everything. in this uh personnel report, HR's been busy and there've been a lot of movement. I'm wondering if you could give us a kind of a an update on that and where are we now with our hiring and our numbers? >> You bet. Thank you. Um yes, a lot has h happened. A lot of ins and a lot of outs, I guess you could say. um which is common this time of year, but um I believe I reported a couple weeks ago that we had about 50 education support professional positions that we were looking to fill. We've got that number down to 30. So, there's still plenty of opportunity. If anybody's uh looking for time with
033children, this is the place to be. So, thank you for asking. >> Any other questions, comments? Okay. Thank you, Kale. All right, I'm gonna turn it over to Dr. Null for the reports of the superintendent. >> Tonight, we do have two uh reports that we will be presenting on. The first one is with our CLC programming and uh that one will be given by Miss Whmer and that's update on the summer programming information. A lot of good numbers in there as far as increase of use that we are seeing in our summer programs and our CLC program. So, Miss Whmer will present that information. I'm excited to see another update on community. >> Um, so I was typing this report. Um, I put in there we finished our second full year and I will tell
034you it feels like a lot longer than than just two years that we've been doing this. We had a year of pilot at four sites and then two full years. But I am very excited about the data we have to share with you and the things that are happening inside our community learning centers. So first starting off with our elementary just looking at enrollment comparisons. So I've kind of put up there the enrollment comparisons over the last three years. So that first um initial year moving from our pilot to our full CLC program. You can see the drastic jump in our enrollment numbers. And then this past year, we did see a slight increase. Not as dramatic obviously as that first full year into there, but we saw about 15 additional kids in our before
035school program. We only had one before school program. It was at um Pedigrew Elementary. So 15 kids was actually about a 33% increase there. Um there were only 30 enrolled previously. Um this year we have actually increased that to eight different sites and we have over 230 kids enrolled in the before school program. We had done some surveys out with parents and they indicated that that was a need and so that's going to be our biggest number to watch over the next year is that before school program and then we saw slight increases in our afterchool program. And then our summer program we saw about an additional 130 children in our summer program. We opened up two additional sites this summer from past summer and that allowed us to take in some additional kids. So
036continue to see that growth. Along with that growth, um we also see the increased need for scholarships. So this past year we had an increased request for about $130,000 more in scholarships to help support students. Some of that was due to loss in some of the federal funds that we had. And so we were able to work with our donors to get some additional dollars. We've done the same thing for this coming year. We've um been able to get some additional dollars from our donors to support those scholarships. We want to make sure that every child has access to an afterchool program if they want one. And so we continue to increase those numbers as well. What I'm probably most excited about when you talk about enrollment is our average daily attendance. So when you
037look at national research, we know that kids who attend more often and are there more hours have better outcomes. And so we pay attention to how many kids are there. And last year, you know, we saw kids um in those months where it's a little bit warmer. So the fall and the spring, we would see a reduction in our number of average daily attendance because kids would convince their parents, you know, I want to go home. Can I just walk home? This past year, we did not see the same thing. We saw our numbers stay pretty consistently high. That tells me that one, our kids are engaged. They're enjoying what they're doing. Um, and two, our parents are finding the engagement or the value to what we're offering. Some of that is due to our
038enhancements we offer. We have over 70 community partners that are coming in and doing different activities with our kids throughout the weeks, getting them engaged in different things. And I think that makes a significant difference. Um, and when we talk about our data on um, their progress in school, I think part of that is due to the increased number of days that they're attending and hours that they're in attendance in the afterchool program. So then moving on to that student improvement, like we've talked about before, we're very intentional since the beginning on collecting data on our kids. We know on a national level that afterchool programs have an impact on school day attendance, school performance. Um what we are waiting for is is this going to hold true for our kids here in Sou Falls.
039And for the second year, we have seen consistent scores in improvement in math and reading scores, um better attendance for our kids, and um better behavioral events. Chronic absenteeism is one I'm really excited about. Looking at how often are our kids coming in into school and looking at it compared to the general elementary population. So these are elementary age students. You can see over the course of the last three years there's been improvement of some of our general attendance, but when you break out those CLC kids separately, they've had a pretty drastic reduction in their chronic absenteeism. And so that's again encouraging um kids to attend more often, getting them excited not only about the school day, but the afterchool piece as well. We're also very intentional about connecting school day and after school, reinforcing
040those things that are happening during the school day. And so hopefully that is contributing to that um decrease in that chronic absenteeism. The other thing we did is um last year we just looked at growth of our kids overall. How well were the CLC kids doing? This year um we took a deeper look at, you know, what does that look like compared to the general population to know if that national data held true for our kids, our our CLC kids um performing at higher levels seemingly uh than the general population. And so what you're looking at up there is our median MAP scores in math for the spring of this past year. And it looks at each of the elementary schools. And in blue, that's the general performance of the elementary population. Green is um
041or the second line you're going to see is the CLC kids. CLC kids in green, those are the schools that the CLC kids have a higher median MAP score than the general population. The ones in yellow that you see there are the schools that they have the same score as the general population. And in math, we had one school that CLC kids are are performing under where the general population is. What this does for us is allows us to look at our kids as a whole and see are there kids in certain schools where we need to do more programming in one area or another um and how we can better support those kids. It also gives us an idea of are the things that we're doing in after school making an impact on those
042test scores um year-over-year. And then the second one you'll see up there is reading. So you can see there is definitely opportunity for us particularly in some of those score schools for us to increase their programming in reading to make sure that they are not performing below that general population. And so we'll work with those individual schools and the afterchool programming. One that I'd like you to pay close attention to for this one and the other one um is our Annie Sullivan CLC kids. They have had two and a half years of small groupoup tutoring through the 21st century community learning center program. And when you look at their performance in both math and reading, um those CLC kids are way outperforming the general population. And I think that just speaks to what some of
043that small group does. And I will tell you, um the two tutors that have been with me there for two and a half years are two high school students. And so you would think, you know, it has to be a certified teacher. And certainly our certified teachers in that um tutoring space can do amazing work as well, but I think it's interesting to see those types of results with two high school students who are just doing math and reading activities with those kids and keeping their brains engaged and we're seeing those results. So I'm really excited um to see more of that. We've got Garfield and Laura B. Anderson that have um jumped on that tutoring now. And so I'll be anxious to see in a year where their scores um are. When you look
044at year-over-year comparison, um one of the other things you'll see is that kids that are in the CLC, their scores are growing at a faster rate than the general population with the exception of for some reason in 22 23 um CLC kids rocked out the math scores. But other other than that, you can see year-over-year the um margin of growth compared to the general population um that the CLC kids have had. And so there the gap between the CLC kids and general population continues to grow year-over-year, meaning that we're getting that long-term impact that comes from kids being in the program repeatedly. Moving on to middle school. So this is our first year of middle school programming and so we launched um just last last week Thursday after school programming in three middle schools. It's
045at George McGovern, Ben Rifle and Whittier. So kids there can now stay until 6 o'clock in the evening. They've got activities planned. Each of those sites has a lead agency that is running that site, doing the programming, and then we have community partners as well as school district personnel that are doing um activity groups after that and engaging the kids in interest type activities. Um probably our biggest announcement um or newsworthy thing in middle school was the opening of our first Boys and Girls Club attached to George McGovern Middle School. So that ribbon cutting was about a week and a half ago. Um, excellent turnout and that new site is now opened up for those kids to be able to stay until 8 o'clock in the evening, full days on no school days. Um, just
046a really amazing opportunity for our students to engage in that. Um, our donors had the opportunity to come out and and see that space. Um, and a wonderful partnership with our our donors, Boys and Girls Club, and the school district in making that happen. Again, we were will be very intentional about data. So, as we go into the next year, I'll be able to bring data to you on um our middle school students, their attendance, their test scores, that type of thing as well. High school. So, high school um while we are engaged in some activities largely that the need that our families and our principles told us and in the high school area was connected to college and career readiness and promising futures is helping with that with the pilot project at Jefferson. And
047so while community learning centers will continue to support students and activities um we haven't launched anything fully in that high school because that is being taken care of um with the partnership with promising futures. The other thing that high schools have asked us for is intramural sports. And so we are looking at what opportunities we may have with community partners to extend intramural sports and give opportunities for those students who may not um make that basketball team or that football team but still want to engage in some type of activity. And then the last one we'll talk about is family and community engagement. This year we did our first full year of family listening sessions. So about half of our schools received a listening session where we went out to the school, invited families to
048come and um give us feedback on their school in general. We then provided that report to each of the principles um with both some of the strengths and challenges families identified and then from there the principles at the schools could identify one or two things that they wanted to work on in the coming year. um this year we'll do the other half of the schools and then we'll repeat that cycle. So that continuous improvement of listening to our families, finding out what's important, implementing things, and then going back and seeing how that implementation went and listening again um is part of what community learning centers offer. And then we continue that community engagement. We could not do what we do without our community. And so continuing to um invite others into the school, find different
049ways to engage community is really important um so to the success of our program. And with that, I will open it up for any questions. First, what we're going to do is acknowledge your report and then I'll open it open it up if that's okay. >> Sounds good. Yes. Okay. >> Um can we please have a motion to acknowledge the CLC report? >> So moved. >> Second. All in favor? >> I >> Oh, we should have voted actually last after we asked questions, but that's okay. Um, go ahead. Questions. >> Just comment. Uh, Rebecca has always been known as I think what did we call her? The queen of partnerships. >> Um, and that's not just by us, that's everybody in the community. The work that you put into building bridges with so many makes
050all of this possible. So, we're so thankful to have you within our district. Like, I'm choking up thinking about it, just thinking of all the opportunities that are coming through this, the big ideas that you have. Like, please continue to have these hairy audacious ideas and run with them, you know, and I just so appreciate you, um, your team, everybody that supports all of this. My family has directly benefited from this, so I'm appreciative personally. Um, I know the afterchool network had their for every dollar invested in afterchool programs, there is a return of $6.69. So that alone, you know, you reference a lot of the data nationally, but you're getting incredible data. Yes. Just within our district for scores. So, thank you. Thank you. Appreciate this. >> Thank you. I have a couple more
051pragmatic type questions, but your what is your to what's your enrollment goal? >> You set out where it's at. Do you have a goal in mind? >> So, every year we kind of set an enrollment goal based off of what we feel like we can reach for capacity looking at staffing. Obviously, we're licensed and so it's a one ratio. And so, we set our goal, I believe this year at um 237 for after school. uh we are about 96% to our capacity. Um so there is some opportunity there. Where there is most opportunity is in our title schools and so we are actively working with those principles to make sure that families know that it's available and that there's scholarship funding opportunities available just that continuous communication that we can take more more kids. Not
052at all of our title schools but many of our title schools do have openings. That's good information. And that also leads to the next question, fundraising goal. Um, was your goal 130 and you've met your goal? Good question. So, right now we do not um are not doing um a large amount of active fundraising because we were given a gift a couple years ago of a pretty large sum of money that would be able to sustain us for five to seven years. And so that's what we're currently using for our scholarships. About twice a year, um, I go in and meet with what's called the Access for All board. That's the board of donors who gave that that gift initially, and I have to request a sum of money from them to carry us through.
053Last year, we used about $1.6 million in scholarship funds. This year we asked for um additional funds because some of those 21st century grants were dropping off and not going to be renewed. And so we asked for about 200,000 additional this year um of that total. And so we'll be sitting at about um 2.2 million roughly this year is is what we're anticipating for scholarship funding. That will come from that fund. And then we also get funds from United Way. So, between the two of those, that's what makes up our scholarship funding pool. In the future, we absolutely will be going out and doing fundraising um and seeking additional donations, but right now, while we have those resources, we're kind of saving our our favors for a little bit later. >> If there's a donor
054listening and they have interest, how can they do they get a hold of you directly? Do they go through the community foundation? H how can they best make a gift? It's really up to their preference. if they have a relationship with the community foundation, they can certainly make that gift. It's called the access for all fund at the Sou Falls Community Foundation, but you can also make gifts directly to the Sou Falls School District or community learning centers um if that's desired as well. Certainly not going to turn down any gifts if there are those who are interested. It is making a significant impact for our kids and are for our families. And then my last question just for those listening so that they they're aware, but our morning program starts at 6:30 a.m. It
055does, >> right? 6:30 to 8 and then they can go to breakfast there as well in the morning. Breakfast is usually served about 7:30 in the morning. And so the kids have about an hour of interaction time and then they can go to breakfast and then by 7:45 they're usually out on the playground. Some of our schools start a little earlier or later, but morning program always starts at 6:30 a.m. >> And then the afterchool program, the one that stays open, the latest is is done at 8. >> Yeah. McGovern is the only one that's open until 8:00 PM currently. Otherwise, all of the others close at 6 PM. >> Excellent. >> Good. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Good stuff. >> Thank you. >> It is. It's incredible stuff and we talk quite a bit
056and we'll continue to highlight that just the community partnerships that we have that step up and and do things for our schools and so many of the things we highlight are dollars that come from outside of the souall school district general budget and it's people in our community that truly support uh public education and support helping kids uh and and the big draws from that when you look at it the increased enrollment and the daily attendance that increased the academics for those kids that increased uh and the increased attendance in school and so when we provide services for kids, it's truly dollars well spent and investment into our community. The second report that we do have is is on our professional development. So it's the things that we have provided for the employees of the
057Sou Falls School District to help them grow professionally and Miss Clawson will give that report for us this evening. >> Thank you. Thanks for inviting me back. Um, as many of you know, professional development aligned with our school priorities has been a focus for the last several years. So, I'm happy to report where we've been and where we're going this year. So, training includes support for staff that uh is 3,600 different staff members across our school district. So that is a lot of humans and it's a lot of different uh genres of people. I think when most people think of staff development, it's for our teaching staff and it's actually so much more than um only our teaching staff. So I'll start under instructional excellence and curriculum for our elementary staff people. We had um
058continued literacy focus for UFly. This isn't new, but it did expand into kindergarten and first grade in all schools and then second grade in our pilot schools. We've done some learning along the clarity for learning topic in elementary and have some really good momentum going and you'll hear about clarity again coming up soon. Um, new social studies implementation. So they had some learning on how to utilize the new materials for and then PLC plus framework as well. Some good momentum going there. In middle school, the CTE uh teachers collaborated in grades six 8 specifically on vertically aligning towards the high school career pathways. So that career pathways has been a focus and now we're making sure some of that aligns between middle school and high school. Science of reading training for reading development teachers and
059you'll see literacy sprinkled in throughout so many of our groups again this year. Um kicking off our math study, social studies study still going. And then I'd like to highlight uh a partnership with Junior Achievement. We've had that going on for a long time. But new this year, they did some specific training with our seventh grade teachers on the JA Biztown pilot that will be rolling out this year. So, that's exciting. In high school in August, they got some training on AI, which is um a big focus everywhere. Um, these teachers and staff got training on how to use AI as a tool themselves as well as how to teach their students how to use AI as a tool and not just a shortcut. And then again, curriculum is always in a cycle. For our
060K12 groups, again, you'll see quite a lot of partnerships with our community organizations. Our fine arts collaborated with the South Dakota Art Museum and did some training with their teachers on visual thinking strategies. Our PE teachers got some training with the Gopher sporting goods and new activities if they can do in PE class. And then special services did some engaged and on task training to equip staff with tools to help students develop targeted language skills. in the area of well-being and behavior supports. Our behavior support staff um did some safety care training. We're in the second year of safety care, so it was a refresher for some and new for others. And then AIM training um as well for our behavior support staff. And then student support services collaborated with many community partners a Vera
061LSS public health to get some updates of what's happening in the community. So we all have good collaboration there. Our leaders weren't left off the list of what of some staff development that they got. All of our U administrators and instructional coaches attended Clarity for Learning. You've heard that in the elementary world we've got great momentum. So now we're all have the same information on um success criteria, learning intentions. Our new administrators and interns went through crucial conversations um sped 101. And then our middle school leaders got some training, a little refresher on what the middle school model looks like and what successful middle schools um do. In the area of staff experience and excellence, we had a great kickoff day with our uh clerical training. We tapped into the hospitality training provided online from
062the South Dakota Department of Tourism. So, we highlighted some of their modules and then have worked with the school leaders to give our clerical some time to do those modules as well. And then health services things always need to be refreshed and updated there. So they they did that. All right. Looking ahead throughout the rest of this school year, you will we will continue on our literacy support journey. Our middle school was not left out of the AI training. They will get that coming up in October. and then con continued curriculum refinement across um all levels. And then additionally, we'll be adding to get some feedback from our staff from all staff, not just teaching staff, a little uh feedback form, a request form on the website about what what training they need and how
063they'd like to receive that training. All right, I'm ready to acknowledge the report and questions. Well, first we're going to get the motion on the table and then discussion. Do I have a motion to acknowledge the report? >> Questions, comments, >> Gail, this is great. I just love all of the different uh ways you customize the training and professional development to all of the staff. It's not just a one-sizefits-all, just like we uh try to teach our students that it's not just a one-sizefits-all. We recognize that with our staff, too. So, thank you. Good job. >> Well, and you're part of the grow our own. taking anybody that would like to further their skill set to become a teacher, moving that forward because there's been some real success and I know it's taken a few
064years to to get that going and running, but it's headed in the direction you all wanted it to go. >> Exactly. >> So, that's encouraging. Dr. >> And we will have a UFly the the reading program for the elementary report on that September 8th to dig into the details of that. We're seeing some great results in that. So, Linda McDaniel is excited to be able to give that report and and looking forward to it. >> Great. Okay. All right. All in favor? >> I oppose. Same thing. All right. Acknowledge your report. Thank you. >> Is that it? >> Okay. Gail, >> you ready for closing? >> Why are you gonna talk about our t-shirts? Because I want De I was going to >> Good job. Here we go. Well, first I'm going to say that
065it's been so fun to go around and and peek in on some of the preschool, you know, activities and the and the all staff gatherings and that and and to feel the excitement of everybody, but it's been even better to walk around town and to go different places in the grocery store or whatever and have people stop you and say, "Wow, that was really fun." Or, "This is a great start of the year. Isn't this Isn't this going well? And so that's been really fun. So I want to thank everybody and we're all modeling our t-shirts. >> We want to thank you because be the difference is the theme and so many people are the difference for so many kids. So thank you to all of you as staff for everything you do for our
066kids. Thank you, Gail. That sentiment is shared. Um, do I have a anything else? Okay. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Some move. >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I opposed. >> Journ.