001please rise and join us for the pledge foreign public for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right Welcome to our board meeting tonight uh president our president sarabeth is off or out traveling today for work and so is not here so I will be taking over so please forgive me for my it's been a while since I've done this so um we are can I get a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting held in today's 123 of 23 please so moved in a second take it I have a motion and a second all those in favor signify by saying aye aye those opposed same side that motion passes okay we have several people wishing to address the board tonight so based on the agenda we
002will be doing non-agenda items first and so we are going to start with uh Dan is it eisenvoss is that correct um and just because we do have some new faces today I'm going to just go through some of our um participation rules so this part of the agenda is available for individuals wishing to address the board about a district related subject individuals wishing to address the board must sign up prior to the start of the meeting with the business manager or designee the speakers limited to five minutes regardless of the number of subjects the person wishes to cover if multiple individuals sign up to speak on the same topic total testimony of the topic shall be limited to 15 minutes per side of the issue as determined by the president just some general decorum
003to keep in mind anyone addressing the board must give your start with your name and address you may not give any oral complaints regarding District Personnel or Personnel actions complaints regarding District Personnel are to be addressed to the superintendent in private or in writing to the superintendent and board members in accordance with policy Keb kebr the speaker may not offer personal attacks against any individual the speaker may not give oral complaints identifying individual students complaints regarding individual students are to be dressed to the superintendent in privacy in private or in writing and the board president at his or her discretion May request the administration or another board member to respond to a person addressing the board immediately following the input or may direct the administration to respond in writing so thank you for letting me
004go through that so we are going to start with Dan and we are going to be talking initially here about an educational gardening partnership and I do have three individuals that would like to speak on that so um you will each get five minutes total so we'll start with Dan and I guess I don't I don't know if Megan wants to go sorry we only have two people on that my bad two people um so you guys will get 10 minutes total on that and then Cynthia will uh like a one minute give you a warning as you get close if you happen to be looking up at that time yes unfortunately I don't think principal meets will be here to join us yet another obligation tonight but he was going to try to be
005here to kind of explain our partnership so I'm going to pause you really quick sorry unless you're going to say your name my name is Dan eisenboss I live at 713 South Maple Avenue here in Sioux Falls this is my wife thank you I'll let my wife introduce yourself hi my name is Megan eisenbos thanks for having us tonight it's good to be here we're here to talk about iron Fox Farm as kind of a good news report to the board and we just want to let you know what's going on with Eugene Field Elementary and some grants that we are pursuing in hopes that we can expand educational gardening to other schools within the district so Megan and I are owners of iron Fox Farm it is two blocks away from Eugene Field Elementary
006we've developed an educational gardening partnership with third and fourth grade classrooms about 130 students at Eugene Field and we're going to talk a little bit about that today so here you can see I don't know if you can see or not the this is what the lot used to be it was a vacant lot it's in a FEMA designated floodplain developers couldn't build there they could but it would have cost a lot of money Megan and I were fortunate enough to to strike a bargain with the seller and we have developed it into an educational gardening space with six individual garden plots for the Eugene Field students and then we have two larger plots that we do some production for ourselves and to try to give to the community uh to show you where we're
007at on the map here there's Eugene Field Elementary on the right hand side if you go two blocks west off 13th Street you can see where that expanse of grass is that's right around right along the railroad so that's kind of where it sits and then a Google Earth image shows what we've done with it here so we've expanded a lot of growing space unfortunately the rabbits have destroyed all our fruit trees so we're going to double that growing space this winter or not sorry this spring but we have a lot of exciting things going on and we're going to push this forward no matter what and we're going to try to involve more grades at Eugene Field but really what we're telling you about this but we're also looking for that good faith partnership
008that if we were to get a lot of funding we'd like to go to another school and do something similar so I'm gonna let Megan talk a little bit about our partnership with Eugene Field so when we got the lot we wanted to make sure we utilize the space the best that we could for our neighborhood and since Eugene Field is just a couple blocks away we thought it would be the perfect partnership and uh we Dan just cold called uh Mr Meese and pitched our idea and we're so grateful for him to be so uh Brave with this offer and the teachers that have been so flexible to help this become a success we first went into the classroom in the spring of 2022 so just last year and we had a couple in
009classroom sessions where we talked about how to read a seed packet get information that you need and then we had them make a mock garden plot to prepare them for when they came to the Garden when it was warm enough and then each class section of the third and fourth grade writers came and planted a garden plot as a class together we planted all sorts of things tomatoes peppers okra onions potatoes squash and then each student got to plant a seed of their choice which you maybe could guess each of them wanted to plant a watermelon so we had to kind of adjust as we went along then through the summer we had them we invited students and their families through Open House hours during the summer and then in the fall this last fall
010they they came back as fourth and fifth graders to harvest and we had them in different rotations where they harvested all the fruit or vegetables that were available and then washed them and then by the end of the session everyone had a bag of produce to take home and it was so exciting to see the joy in their faces and the excitement that they had about beets and getting their hands dirty and worms and caring for the soil and like just really really pure joy which was fun to be a part of we would not have been able to do any of this without the partnership with Eugene Field and and the staff there and um our volunteers and different organizations that we've partnered with we have one of our favorite volunteers here Mrs heitold
011a third grade teacher at Terry Redlin has been an All-Star for us um and just different Partnerships throughout the community and so this is just one example of what farm to school can look like we're one example of hundreds across the country of how different Growers are engaging with students to learn have Hands-On learning with their food whether it's a farm tour or a garden program at the school or procurement of local fruits and vegetables in the school lunch breakfast and snack programs so the greater goal for Farm to school is to empower children and their families to make informed food choices while strengthening the local economy and contribute to vibrant communities even and the cool thing about Farm to school also is that there are substantial funds available federally for Farm to school programs
012just today I was reading an article about a school a program in Kentucky where the University of Kentucky was able to get 225 thousand dollars for from federal dollars for Farm to school programs and they are impacting 10 schools right now in their region and expanding to more so then when I think about the positive impact that they're having in their students we just started with one year with just third and fourth graders from this one school and that was 130 students and to think about if Farm to school could grow in Sioux Falls like how many students and how much of a positive impact that can have for our youth and our community here in Sioux Falls one thing I failed to mention is I've been in front of the sport as a student
013of Southeast tech and as an instructor at Southeast Tech HVAC and now I'm a Community member in front of you I forgot to say that at the very beginning but thank you for letting us be here um where we're going with this so this map that I have is a USDA research Atlas food tracked Atlas and the yellow areas in the Shaded purple are designated food deserts in Sioux Falls I think believe there are six schools that fall Within These zones right now and what as a starting point for conversation and it's not a conversation with you but a conversation with the district when that time comes is how can we think about some of the schools that are there especially the Hawthorne Hayward and then I'm not familiar with all city and Jane Adams
014as well but I do know Hawthorne and Hayward are Title 1 schools and they are within the food deserts so there are families there that that could really benefit from not only educational gardening but having that food available to them at any time free of charge so if we're going to expand our partnership with the Sioux Falls School District we need Garden space luckily you guys have a lot of green space at your schools and you do have teachers that are interested in doing it but in thinking I would just plant the seed now and thinking about development or if you redevelop any school to think about how you can maintain some of those green spaces to maintain some of these opportunities for the kids that go there we would need a school as we
015need generous and flexible as Eugene Field my wife said it but the teachers there are amazing and principal means is amazing they've really helped us develop what we've we've had with our partnership and then we need funding so that's what we're looking for right now Megan mentioned there is funding for the Sioux Falls School District to go after for Farm to school to get fresh fruits and vegetables uh in the snack and school lunch program what we're looking for is expanding those educational Gardens and so specifically we're looking at a USDA Urban agriculture implementation project grant for up to 350 000 and I have just a real quick thing I want to show on that where one of the the core focuses that it has is to provide K-12 schools with educational resources or programs
016that increase student knowledge of and access to locally grown Foods emphasize the importance of consuming nutritious and locally grown foods and train students in careers in agriculture or Innovative production so we feel that really fits well with us to go back to the presentation but we also feel that within the District programs like CTE have a new agricultural program and that might be a really good opportunity to incorporate older students to get involved with younger students teaching and socializing working together and yeah and those schools are again they're just starting points for conversation I've talked with Rebecca Wimmer a little bit about this and with Andrew Jensen at CTE but really we're just here to let you know what's going on and and tell you that we're excited that if we were to get funding
017we really want that good face effort from you guys to say hey we want to continue this we want to expand this we want to give kids an opportunity to get their hands dirty and to get some food I'll show you that last picture thank you awesome thank you thank you for your time yes thank you guys great work all right next we have um Chad Bishop so Chad you will get five minutes if you will start with your name and address please and don't if you are here to speak and you are done don't feel obligated to stay you're welcome to but don't feel obligated good evening my name is Chad bishop and uh I live at 7405 South Valencia Drive hope did you steal my paper copy sorry um it's an attempt for
018me to share things um so I live here in Sioux Falls so I'm here today as a member of the Minnehaha moms for Liberty chapter I just wanted to thank president serenbets and Dr stabham for taking the time to hear our concerns about age-appropriate material in the libraries and for also sharing their perspective on the problem and providing guidance and how we might move forward together um so we did discuss some of the motivations for us starting a mom's really chapter here in Sioux Falls this piece I was going to keep short and just say thank you I was going to try to give you all homework there's going to be a link that I'll send to you as it's a comedic uh monologue by Bill Maher so now keep in mind he does use
019salty language from time to time but this last week we'll kind of set the stage for the discussion next week so I wanted to encourage the previous speakers a huge fan of farm to table and so I don't know if we can zoom in on that one but that is the 20 minute presentation I gave to the board a year ago about the nutritional content of the menus that are provided in the school district and so for those that are not familiar um we do serve USDA compliant meals and there are restrictions upon salt content and that sort of thing but there's no restriction upon added sugar content and so I guess I document in that video and have provided that material prior that um you can serve the USDA excuse me American Academy of
020Pediatrics in the American Heart Association will Define 25 grams of added sugar as the recommended limit for a child on a day-to-day basis the World Health Organization goes about a little different they do divvy it up by sex boy and girl and then by age and as far as the caloric composition of the meals that are to be served but um in this case I guess what I documented there is a handful of meals that were egregious because I was spending time I can't speak to All City actually we did have a garden for 11 years off and on and so parents are really supportive of a bad idea there and EIC would be great to bring those kids and give them the opportunity too so I'd highly encourage you reach out there you'll find
021lots of folks to help you um but um if you do understand the um the nature of the food served there are some meals that are really good there are some meals that are really terrible and you can serve up to 121 grams of added sugar in a day if you're eating both breakfast and lunch there and in the title schools where they do receive free breakfast some of those meals are are big offenders and I do cherry pick a little bit of that data but there is um overall it's a problem so we are serving a mix of Highly processed food I'm all for more Whole Foods so you'll see no opposition here but so I just wanted to offer that and say thank you appreciate your time have a good day thank you
022the next non -uh topic is regarding renberg Elementary and so we have three people who would like to speak on that topic um and they requested a certain order you will each get five minutes so the first person is Alexa mod so again if you'll just give us your name and address please thank you for the opportunity to address the board today I'm Alexa mod and I live at 2600 North Ayden Avenue and since learning of the proposed boundary changes for renberg a group of parents have gotten together and met virtually in person we've met with school staff as well as administrators to try and come up with an alternative plan than what was proposed this proposal to change the boundary for two years while we're building the new Elementary School on the West Side
023brings up many thoughts and feelings for parents involved it's apparent that we're concerned of having our children move twice within their Elementary years and overall the impact that that can have on their mental emotional and Social Development uh we recognize that strong consistent relationships not only with their teachers and classmates are one of the key elements in developing a well-rounded confident children hence why we're really eager to remain within the renburn family during the parent q a session last week one suggestion that was brought forward was to provide a Hawthorne bus stop at Kinder Academy which is located at Marion and North 60th Street that is one of the daycare facilities that does provide transportation from their facility to and from the school of renberg and so being able to allow that opportunity for a
024bus stop there before it would go into the proposed District what help alleviate some of that stress for parents involved um however today we also ask that you would consider grandfathering in with open involvement protections for the families that have expressed interest in staying those that wish to remain at renberg have submitted open enrollment requests as of already um as of Saturday that was a total of 15 requests and we're asking that you would approve those requests and notify those parents by the beginning of May but be ideal so we would have time to just be prepared if we needed to come up with any other alternate plans for transportation or what have you um allowing these students to remain at renberg would also help in predicting the numbers of enrollments as it's a nice
025stable community within our neighborhood um and it it would allow for that those next two years of the boundary shifts um or the proposed boundary lines to allow for some of those questionable enrollments within some of the um apartment buildings that have been developed in our neighborhoods to go to Hawthorne which has more capacity to take on some of those questionable numbers of kids that would come in um overall as the affected parents of renberg were asking the district to allow our children to be grandfathered and with those enrollment protections providing that applications would be submitted by mid-march which we feel the majority if not all have already been submitted and we're willing to help be part of that process and create a solution that serves all kids the best way thank you very much
026for your consideration thank you next I have Caitlin Snook hello thank you for the opportunity to speak today my name is Caitlin snook and I live at 2500 North Ayden Avenue I am a lifelong Sioux Falls resident so my first exposure to the Sioux Falls School District was long before I became a parent in fact Dr Knoll was my high school principal and I have to say standing here speaking in front of all of you is a lot less stressful than the one time I was called into his office [Laughter] I became a parent in the school district about five years ago when my oldest son Oakley started kindergarten at runberg elementary his teacher Miss hoglet was so fantastic that we decided to have a second child and a third just so that we could
027be parents in her class again all jokes aside there's something incredibly special about getting to experience that first day of kindergarten as a mom for the second time the way I got to I was heartbroken when I received the news that my first grader might not might miss out on a repeat of the wonderful I had your big brother experience that greeted him on his very first day at runberg and that my youngest might not have the chance to ever set foot in the school at all but then I realized what it would mean for Oakley who is the fourth grader this year if Oakley were the only child being affected by this that would be unfortunate enough but the fact that this will impact approximately a third of the children in this grade at
028this one school makes this more than just unfortunate more than just a nuisance more than an inconvenience that as parents we sometimes have to tolerate because we understand that school districts serve more than just our own individual child but as I said this is more than that this particular group of kids that happen to fall within the proposed boundary change which we fully understand the necessity for are in for a challenging path in an already fraught time in life the transition into Middle School is already hard enough the added disruption created by a change in your final year of elementary school a school that for many of them is the only School they've ever known is surely to cause complications developmentally socially and educationally I know everyone here knows these things too on top of
029that they miss out on the opportunity to finish their Elementary Journey at the same school they've known the school that taught them everything they know about school it's the place that has molded them into who they are today and it's not just about the learning that happens in the classroom it's the experience that they have in the hallways on the playground and with the past teachers that they have built a lasting relationship with my children still run to their old teachers and give them a hug every time they see them in the hallway I'm being sincere when I tell you it hurts my heart to think about this it's why I hope you can help us why I hope you can give us parents an option to avoid the scenario I just described overall as
030the affected parents of renberg Elementary we are asking that the district allow our children to be grandfathered in with open enrollment protections providing the applications are submitted by mid-march we are willing to help be a part of this process and create a solution that serves all students in the best way possible thank you thank you and finally we have Crystal shopping thank you we'll make you say it that's a hard one um hi my name is Crystal shopit and I live at 4703 West jacks I have a seventh grader at George McGovern who is thriving my second grader Thomas is why I'm here I wasn't gonna cry if the proposed boundary changes go through Thomas will go to three elementary schools having never moved first of all I want to thank you for hearing us
031tonight I want to thank you for what you do taking the time to thoroughly go through things that affect thousands of children which aren't your own is a huge deal the mere fact that you're sitting in those chairs tells me that you care about kids and I appreciate that it's funny I'm gonna go into my next line having said what I already did but I'm not going to go into individual appeal or emotional appeal because those things are prevalent in every situation I do however want to share with you why my husband and I chose Sioux Falls two years ago when we moved from out of state because I think it illustrates a foundation in this conversation when people ask why we moved from to South Dakota from Southern California many times I feel I
032tell them that we chose Sioux Falls more than South Dakota and the overwhelming reason we chose Sioux Falls was because of this school district when doing our deep Dives and our research we were so impressed and encouraged by The District's opinion of parents I believe that Sioux Falls School District sees parents as not only participants in their children's education but one of the biggest if not the most important driving force I appreciate this District values our opinion and overall view of what our children's educational Journey should be I feel in these boundary proposals I'm left scratching my head because that doesn't line up parents were not only not consulted I feel as if we weren't even considered on the west side instead of choosing an arbitrary geographical boundary why not look at families who would
033be best served at each School I believe there to be no bad schools in this school district it is my third year full-time subbing for this school district I've been in all of the high schools most of the middle schools and a lot of the elementary schools Sioux Falls does education well Hawthorne and renberg are both great schools with incredibly different strengths I think the board the district the school and most importantly the students would have been best served if there was some sort of discussion or outlet for parents to be a part of the conversation I think it would have been amazing to allow families to take audit of the things that both schools offer to see where they would want their child it's imp it's possible that with a little bit more upfront
034leg work you could have had a giant group of happy campers instead of a lot of angry people which I know no one wants but here's the deal I understand the predicament that the district is in I understand that people move in I'm one of them and buildings don't get bigger when I'm having a hard time understanding is why my little neighborhood is being singled out why are we being made to move into preparation for buildings that are not even built yet what does our group have to move three times having never moved why are the kids who were best served at renberg not being allowed to grandfather in is there a way to change the boundary is there a way to start this discussion even from scratch I have a lot of questions and
035probably even more asks but in the interest of time let me say the tagline you've already heard overall as the infected affected parents of renberg Elementary we are asking for the district to allow our children to be grandfathered in with open enrollment protections providing the application is submitted by mid-march we're willing to be a health part of the process and create a solution that serves all of us well again thank you for what you guys do I really appreciate you thank you um so just as a reminder I know that there are still meetings being held at some of the elementary schools and feedback is still being collected so thank you for coming tonight to share your opinions I certainly were heard and will be considered that in the big overall picture um and then
036our next board meeting two weeks from today is when the decision or the vote will actually take place so there is time for lots of considerations to be made yet so thank you okay so moving on to the next agenda item is people wishing to address the school board on agenda items and so I'm just going to go in the order that they appear on the agenda so we'll start with the Spanish Immersion programming update and I have three people that have signed up to speak um so you guys would get 15 minutes total five minutes each if you have a preference of who comes up when or no just Susan so again just start with your name and your address please I am Susie Muntz 1409 South 5th Avenue and I'm here as a
037parent of a kids massage immersion program as well as the Posse president this year the parent advocate advocates for Spanish Immersion and I wanted to take the time tonight to come and listen to the actual report and also to thank the district for investing in that sort of feedback from the organization or to continue to improve our immersion program thank you thank you good evening my name is Shannon Graber I live at 1720 East Edgewood Road and I stood here in 2008 trembling because we were starting the merchant program and my son has is now in his second year of college and I love the program so I am I continue to be interested and I read this whole heavy packet on the actual report I am a language teacher as well so it was
038fascinating to read I'm here because I just want to encourage to everybody that this is really good stuff but this is hard to read because it's technical but there's a whole group of parents and they asked me to come and sit in a meeting the current parents that they live this stuff at their supper table every night so it's real it just doesn't sound like this because this is technical language but they struggle with a lot of things and so I want to encourage you to let's make sure it happens to make this the best immersion program hey for sure in the midwest but maybe in the United States we have incredible potential and I saw it in 2008 with your commitment that and some of us are still here after 15 years but um
039so thank you for your work also and immersion education you know it's not just teaching children language to go on a trip the more I look at the news language immersion is a program that is making Sioux Falls look really good for one people in Minneapolis are watching us and that's exciting so we are doing good things but it's really going to help the world these kids are not only bilingual but they're like they get that culture part that's going to help our our society and the world so it's a great program thank you for what you're doing and I can't wait to see these things being implemented increment by it'll take some time but thank you thank you something else and I'm Alison pay Crawford I live at 207 East 29th Street and I'd
040like to reiterate what the two other parents have said this is so indicative of how the Sioux Falls school district has approached this program from the get-go it's been strategic it has been Forward Thinking and this report is going to be crucial as you guys know uh in building the success of this program for the future so thank you I am going to contradict something that uh Shannon said she says that she knows that this is going to take some time we really need to approach this quickly because we have kids in high school who need changes to be made we have kids in middle school who have changed who who need these changes to be made because this program is so robust and these changes are going to ensure that it continues to be
041so thank you thank you all right and then the next topic we would consider would be the legislative update so I do have two people who wanted to speak on legislative topics so I think we'll start with Michelle Clement sorry Amy go first okay so Amy Bruner um and so there's two of you you each get um five minutes very good thank you first thing I want to do is apologize my phone went off because I'm sometimes a tech idiot so I'm sorry um good evening my name is Amy Bruner and I am at 3420 South Alpine last fall my fourth grader came home from school with a book called the breakaways the book is a graphic novel and when I read it I was shocked the story included two middle school children at a
042sleepover they were pictured in bed expressing romantic interest in one another and then kissing fast forward a month or two and my seventh grader brought home the book Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Maas from her Middle School library book was also shocking because it described various sexual activities in graphic detail this book actually meets the Merriam-Webster definition of the word pornographic the depiction of erotic Behavior as in pictures or writing intended to cause sexual excitement at this point I started researching and what I found was disturbing I found that there were entire websites dedicated to creating awareness of a long list of sexually inappropriate books that are being made available and targeted to minors I searched the Sioux Falls School District Library catalogs and I found literally dozens of sexually inappropriate books are available
043to Children across our district in our school libraries going back to my seventh grader the book the haters by Jessica Andrews was available to her and downloaded directly from the school library onto her school-issued Chromebook the I'm gonna have Sue help me out here the language in that book is sexually explicit profane and educationally unsuitable for a child this age because the language is Harsh I'm not going to read it out loud but for the next 30 seconds I'd ask you to please read it on the handout that I've given you in order to provide full public disclosure the document that I handed you is the same one as in this QR code keep in mind that the school provided this to a seventh grader I'll start my 30 seconds now just an FYI for
044you this book is also listed in the school library catalogs as available by ebook to elementary schools across the Sioux Falls School District we parents are told there's a challenge process we need to go through in order to have the district evaluate whether or not a book should be removed but what about a process for the inclusion of books in the first place is there a vetting process if there is it seems to me it's clearly broken since we have a plethora of pornographic materials in our libraries available to children how do we stop the onslaught of similar books that will come in the future for every book we Challenge and possibly remove several more will take its place it's a vicious circle make no mistake this is not about banning books this is about
045age appropriateness of these materials we have rating systems for movies which restrict miners from viewing certain sexually explicit violent and pornographic materials so why are we allowing miners to access these highly explicit sexually inappropriate books from the school library you can imagine my surprise last week in peer when representative from the Sioux Falls School District testified as an opponent to House Bill 1163 which was a bill that would have prohibited the dissemination of sexually inappropriate material to minors in a public school library and provide a process for vetting materials due in part to the school district lobbyist that bill was killed at that hearing we were told that the bottom line with materials falls on the elected body of school boards so I'm here we have another legislative opportunity Senate Bill 193 will be in
046the Senate education committee on Thursday that bill is written a little differently but it would provide for a mechanism for a review of instructional materials and include parents in the process and help keep materials that are harmful to minors out of their hands in your current position statement the school district is saying it will remain neutral on Senate bill 193. but last week your statement said the same thing about House Bill 1163 in your lobby your lobbyist came hard against it so I would like to understand what is the school district's real position on this our schools are funded by taxpayers we parents trust you to educate our youth we have a right to expect that our children are not provided with depictions of pornography in their classrooms or libraries with that I ask you
047to support Senate Bill 193. thank you thank you and then our final speaker would be Michelle Clinic good evening my name is Michelle Clement I live at 4401 East Harwood Circle Sioux Falls 57103 I and other concerned parents recently testified in favor of HB 1163 as Amy mentioned it's titled prohibit the dissemination of material harmful to minors in a public school or public library well during the hearing there was a lot of talk and discussion about the process in which Library materials are selected and how one can challenge material they may find inappropriate for minors there does seem to be ambiguity and contradictions in the policies and process currently being implemented as Amy pointed out there also seems to be a conflict between what position you all decided to take on HB 1163 and what
048the lobbyists representing the district and School Board actually took so a lobbyist representing the Sioux Falls School District testified in opposition to the bill I'd like to share a couple statements he made at the hearing and I quote we have a pretty comprehensive policy that pretty thoroughly bets what goes into the library later he States and I quote the individual school librarians and departments as a whole reviews books and obviously when they're doing that they may not be reading all of them so his testimony defended the policies and process what he did not defend is the sexually explicit material found in our libraries so the lobbyist for the associated school boards of South Dakota also testified in opposition to H.B 1163 and he stated I quote here's the key Point Mr chairman and members of
049the committee the bottom line with materials in a school falls on the elected body of school boards he continued carefully defending the policies and process he did not defend the local body when I look at the Sioux Falls School District policies specifically nepn code ijk I read Librarians in consultation with teachers and administrators will select Library resources and materials a noticeable local control component missing from this policy the parents another policy I want to touch on is the discipline Matrix under sexual misconduct it states that one will receive a Class III infraction if they are found to possess pornographic material create pornographic material or view of scene writings drawings photographs videos sound recordings or the like we know there are in fact materials of this nature available in our libraries my next question would be
050is a student exempt from this infraction if the pornographic material is approved by the district thank you for your time hmm great can I get a motion to approve the agenda please second at a motion and a second all those in favor signify by saying aye I oppose same sign that passes Dan good evening thanks for the time tonight to come up here and recognize all of you as school board members the associated school boards of South Dakota recognizes the school board recognition week as February 20th through the 24th as you know we are not scheduled to be here in this room uh next week but we wanted to offer our thanks to you for all that you do a number of people have mentioned uh your work this evening but when you look in
051South Dakota law a school board is defined as an elected body created according to the laws of the state to serve as a governing board of the district for the purpose of organizing maintaining and locating schools and for providing educational opportunities and services for all residents citizens residing within the school district your own board policy ba goes a little more in depth to talk about your responsibilities enacting policies um concerning yourselves primarily with broad questions of policy rather than with administrative details the application of policies is an administrative task to be performed by the superintendent and his or her staff who shall be held responsible for the effective Administration and supervision of the entire School District It also says that you are to provide for the planning expansion Improvement financing construction and maintenance of the
052physical plan to the district as you know we've been involved in those conversations with boundaries and then again with construction of additional classrooms and and new schools as well prescribing the minimum standards needed for efficient operation and Improvement of the district requiring The Establishment and maintenance of Records accounts archives management methods and procedures further it goes on to say that you are responsible to approve the budget we are all working on the budget right now as well as many and I believe 19 committees working on the budget those committees include administrators principals teachers parents and community members who go over and review those budget packets as they come forward so we can make sure we're efficiently using taxpayer dollars of course estimating and levying the taxes for the operation support and maintenance and Improvement and
053expansion of the district adopting courses of study providing staff and instructional AIDS evaluating the education program to determine the effectiveness with which the schools are achieving the educational purpose for the district and providing for the dissemination of information relating to the schools necessary for creating a well-informed public that's a lot that that you all are tasked with doing every single day and so again we say thank you for the work that you have put in you are the equation that helps us be a successful school board or a school district and so we thank you for the time it takes for you to serve on this committee and again not only for your own benefit and the benefit of your own children but for the benefit of the 25 000 students in which we serve
054the asbsd has once again sent a certificate of recognition I've updated it with the most current and it will be hung in the in the back of the boardroom so again we thank you in advance of the recognition week for all of the work that you do second part of tonight's good news report yes thank you thank you second part of tonight's good news report is our school Spotlight on Edison Middle School and Amber Bloom is here to share with you hello my name is Amber Bloom and I am the principal of Edison Middle School this is my 20th year in the Sioux Falls School District in my fifth year at Edison I feel extremely fortunate to share with you all this evening about a place that I consider my home and the people my
055family my assistant principal Ms kallis is not able to be with us today as she is busy beginning the night of conferences which I will be buzzing back to following this presentation yep thank you Edison our motto is your light to the Future one team one dream work together to hold these Collective commitments and the work we do with our students we use the acronym TEAM together we Champion for all students expect excellence and growth advocate for student safety health and learning and meaningful relationships with our students parents and staff a little bit about our school we have 927 students at Edison I broke out each of the grade levels there for you we have approximately 96 staff members including teachers and support staff we serve in our home attendance area the Central and Southwest
056portion of Sioux Falls we are have 41 percent of student diversity 40.67 free and reduced lunch and we are home to the Spanish Immersion program at the middle school level and we have 321 Middle School Spanish Immersion students at Edison so they are a large part of our school a fun fact is Edison will be 70 years old in 2024 it opened in 1954 originally as a grade school and then converted to Edison Junior High in 1956. this video was made last year as an introduction of our school to our incoming sixth graders we're currently preparing for our sixth grade orientation coming up in March and so we're editing a few of the staff portions of this video but it's a great example of the great things we do at Edison and gives you a
057peek into the classroom and into the school hello future Edison cats I'm Mrs Bloom the principal of Edison Middle School we are very excited to have you join our school at Edison our motto is one team one dream we believe we have something for everyone to feel connected and find success we have an amazing staff and student body and we look forward to getting to know you as you begin your journey at Edison at Edison Middle School we have supports in place for every learner and their families including a full counseling office a building school resource officer school nurse a team of Administrators and many more to help you along the way at Edison students start their day at 8 55 am the day will consist of four core classes that include math language arts
058science and social studies in addition students will have an opportunity to take several of our exploratory courses that we call Encore classes these classes will consist of options such as art PE Computer Sciences music Spanish Career and Technical education and many foreign healthy meals are one part of making a great day of learning we have breakfast and lunch available every day breakfast is served every day starting at 8 30 a.m and each you will have a 30-minute Lunch Period built into their schedule there are many opportunities for students to get involved beyond that school day at Edison we provide a wide range of extracurricular activities some of these activities include band chorus Orchestra student council Athletics for 7th and 8th graders web kindness club and many more many of our students ride the school bus
059to and from school if you choose to provide your own transportation School doors open at 8 40 a.m earlier depending on poor weather conditions staff supervision outside of the building begins at 8 15. students are expected to be off campus by 4 pm however the YMCA provides an after-school program here at Edison for a fee each new school year brings about a sense of excitement as we welcome new and returning students and families to the Edison Community we look forward to seeing all of you cats in the fall [Music] one team one dream [Music] laughs there we go some points of Pride regarding our academic achievement at Edison Edison teachers just completed a winter data dig at our last in service We examined student scores in our map assessment growth from the fall to winter
060as well as Trends in our district unit assessments here are some highlights from our data dig when tracking our mapped data across a two-year time period we see a significant improvement in our students as a whole we are especially proud of our 8th grade scores as they increase their percentage proficient by 10 percent in Reading at 11 in math our semester test scores for first semester ended strongly and we're pleased with our overall student results we maintain above the district and state averages in our South Dakota assessment in both Ela and math in the areas measured on the South Dakota report card which includes student performance and student progress and finally during the 21-22 school year Edison became a site with English language learner programming we have different levels of EL support including newcomer sheltered
061and English language development classes some of our Spanish-speaking El students are able to participate in our Spanish Amer Spanish Immersion instruction through our heritage speaker program all El students take a Wida assessment and to measure their progress for the state we had a significant increase in four of the five areas on that Wida assessment and we are extremely proud of our El programming at Edison we have many other points of Pride I decided tonight to speak a bit about PBIS at Edison we are in our third year of implementation of PBIS at Edison and we're extremely proud of that work that's happening our Focus this year has been on continuing to strengthen our tier one practices which for all of our students include a focus on school-wide expectations our Edison core values which are listed
062on that screen and positive reinforcement of those expectations and values our teachers work hard to teach expectations reinforce expectations and Report expectations not being met as we are continually evaluating data and adjusting tier one instruction needs to support our building we emphasize positive reinforcement utilizing a program to give points to students we see exhibiting set expectations and core values those points can be cashed in and used in our PBIS store which is supplied by our generous and supportive PTO group each week we have a specific weekly Focus that is taught and reinforced using school-wide messages lessons and positive reinforcement by our staff along with our tier one practices we are in our first year implementing tier two tier two focuses on a smaller group of students that need extra support at school we use three
063main strategies in our tier two behavioral support system including check-in checkout which focuses on mentorship goal setting and coaching small group lessons focusing on regulation and school Success and behavior team responses and interventions to support the classroom and instructional needs of our students we are extremely proud of the PBIS teams working in our building and the success we see with our student culture Edison is a special place and I feel extremely fortunate to each and every day work in it what makes it special is the people our students our staff and our families we are all part of the same team to support our students dreams and their futures thank you very much as an Edison graduate myself and then I had both of my daughters go to Edison and they actually had a couple
064of my teachers it's very strange but it was very fun um it was very nostalgic we were the Tomcats yes times have changed they are now just the cat Tom um but it's the building is great um and my kids both had good experiences while they were there so thank you for your leadership and for presenting the great things that are going on in your building thank you all all right we are on to number nine um or sorry number eight we have no new conflicts of interest to talk about tonight uh approval of the consent agenda nine a through F can I get a motion so a second all those in favor signify we're saying aye aye aye aye opposed same sign that passes and uh 10 a can I get a motion in
065a second please so moved second okay I have a motion and a second um all those in favor saying five is saying aye aye opposed same sign that passes with one extension from myself all right we are here finally at number 11. anybody else need to stand up and stretch a bit um we'll start with the reports of the superintendent well we have a lot tonight on the agenda for reports so I'm going to list them all and then we'll just ask people who are representing those reports to come forward when it is their turn first of course is the Spanish Immersion programming update and we appreciate our participants tonight this is something that the district has invested in and I wasn't here the last time this was done but it's a good point in
066time to do this because we do have a unique robust program in our district we have something that many places would aspire to have where we have such full immersion opportunities for our students and yet we know to continue that good work and to expand and grow and refine it's always good to have an external set of eyes on that as well as our own internal experts who are working in that field or parenting children in that every day so Dr Zeke will bring that report to us then we're going to have a legislative update from Mr veek as you know things are moving a little more quickly now with things in committees and making it to both the house and the Senate floors then we have both first and second readings for a number
067of our policies excuse me this evening and so um we are in the midst of making sure that we're reviewing those policies and moving those forward tonight as well so with that I will turn it over to Dr Zeke for the Spanish Immersion update thank you Dr Steven good evening board my name is Kirk Zeke again and I'm honored to work with the Spanish Immersion program it's fantastic opportunity for kids in our city and it's just wonderful the purpose of this report is to provide the school board with an overview of the Spanish Immersion program review that was conducted by the American Council on the teaching of foreign languages also known as actful falls under the priority area academic success with the initiative embed College and Career Readiness skills there are two bullet points diversify
068language acquisition opportunities for students and expand cultural knowledge and most appropriately conduct a review of the Spanish Immersion program which just occurred for those who are maybe unaware of the Spanish Immersion program I have a brief glossy overview of the history that continues to grow and evolve in 2006 a group of interested people got together some are in the room and I had this notion that kids should learn Spanish in the classroom so we started in 2008 with one kindergarten classroom of 25 little students in 2014 the first class began at middle school as they transitioned then the program had grown so much that the district decided to build its dedicated Elementary at Sonia Sotomayor for one-way immersion and in 2017 those first kindergarteners entered High School in 2018 we had our first actful program
069review to help build and grow the program and see where we had been in 2019 we introduced two-way immersion program which began at Rosa Parks and Hayward Elementary schools and for those who are unaware the two-way immersion program has two classes and each class let's say if kindergarten is comprised half of the class of native Spanish speakers and half of the class of native English speakers and they have they switch classrooms that half of their day in Spanish and half of their day in English and that those those two buildings now have k12 and third graders in the two immersion program in 2021 we celebrated our first class of Spanish Immersion students as they graduated from high school and just this fall we had our second program review from act fall actual sent to reviewers
070to our district Paul Sandrock he's the actual Director of Education and Lynn Fulton she acts as a consultant for Axel and she's the Dual language immersion education specialist for the Delaware Department of Education a little overview of our program review in July and August they had the two Consultants had Preparatory discussions getting an idea about the district and where the program uh is currently at where it's been where the where the buildings are how many buildings are and such in September and October then they had a deep dive of program review documentation and in November they had a three-day on-site visit they observed classrooms and had multiple had interviews with multiple stakeholders when they went out to each of our five buildings they had classroom observations and interviews with administrators teachers and interns they continued
071to interview others and came to IPC here and interviewed Elementary principals and assistant principals they had another meeting with middle and high school principals they also had interviews with parents and instructional coaches and the director and coordinator of Spanish Immersion all these were separate interviews there are seven main areas of the review program goals program growth and articulation system supports proficiency targets curriculum curriculum and instructional practices and teacher and professional development and from that and from their experience in the district they came up with many strengths I've listed four here strong support from all stakeholders they kept saying that over and over again that parents staff uh interns anybody they spoke with really really enjoyed the program and found great benefit from it second staff and that's broken down into the three areas with the
072Staffing they're teachers and interns from around the world provide a rich cultural experience second that we have 11 interns funded by Posse we also have six interns funded by the district as well as bilingual instructional coaches that serve each of the Spanish Immersion buildings to help support teachers that ultimately help our kids and third K-12 language targets unify the program and in this part it's important to note that Spanish Immersion students have performed well on the AP Spanish language and culture exam so things are going well they're doing things right and finally here but not finally just the points that I have the district is planning for growth of the program as the two-way immersion program continues to transition and we'll go into Middle School so we'll have some more kids in middle school we
073need to find out what are we going to do with that then we had some recommendations and the process that we chose to go with with prioritizing these recommendations of where to start because we got together as staff we had our district in building Spanish Immersion administrators we had our elementary middle and high school curriculum coordinators and our coaches in the Spanish Immersion we got together and then the how was we broke out the recommendations we got into small groups we prioritized them by high medium and low then we had a whole group discussion and came out with the following four recommendations of high priority that need attention right away the first select the location of Middle School programming like I said we have third graders in the two-way immersion program right now that would
074entail 100 at Hayward and 100 at Rosa Parks those 200 kids in 2025 are going to enter Middle School and I'm not sure Mrs Bloom here anymore no that's right she had to go off to conferences but that would be quite a load on Edison so we have to figure out what are we going to do there second prepare for two-way immersion growth in the fourth and fifth grades by reviewing the current scheduling and ensuring dedicated instructional time for science and social studies that two-way immersion program is still relatively new we're only in our fourth year we've got some work to do to prepare for fourth and fifth grade third create a systematic professional development plan for Spanish Immersion staff and in addition Identify some consistent look fors that can help the teachers with self-reflection
075and peer observation and develop a high school and develop additional High School course officer offerings that Target that core content area as well as the elective classes so we'll do some investigation on those prioritized recommendations moving forward we'll share a summary of this actful report with multiple stakeholders including the world language immersion Global uh the world language immersion committee that was developed to help guide and provide additional insight into the program and different perspectives we'll work with District staff to create and Implement plans based on prioritized recommendations and will identify tasks to be completed that were also not on that prioritized list but there are other things that we just need to do and get done we'll continue to work on those and then finally continued Improvement of the program through analysis reflection and implementation
076so for this evening the administrative recommendation is to acknowledge the Spanish Immersion program review conducted by the tactful group I stand by for questions or comments anybody have any questions um no first of all I want to say that I very I'll disclaimer my kids are in the Spanish Immersion program I had one that graduated last year and I have a sophomore in Lincoln this year um and I have been very involved in the program since it's in such Inception so I do feel like I have a different maybe lens as a parent and then as a board member but I I greatly appreciate um as these parents said the um commitment to doing a review and knowing that we don't know everything and we have a lot to learn and so I'm asking for
077that feedback from other people who have experience I think is very valuable so I very much appreciate that um I think that some of the things that stood out to me in the report were definitely the professional development pieces of it um and I think that I'm I would love to see and I know that's in the works is kind of what that looks like and I think it's important that we when we say staff of Spanish Immersion that we understand that that means administrators at all the buildings um because immersion education really is very different than um your traditional education where you're teaching content but you're also teaching language at the same time and so I think um having been in a elementary school where it was a strand of the school it's it's
078challenging for that principal to almost feel like they have two schools and so how can we support those staff members in making sure that they feel like they're prepared and knowledgeable to be able to support the teachers and the staff and the interns and the students and families as well so I think the professional development is is super important and then I think the other challenge that I think we really need to focus on and Dr Zeke who did mention both of those but we kind of have both ends of the spectrum where we have the two-way immersion that really needs some some tightening up but we also have the other end where we've got the high school and so really focusing I don't know where you pick I think you have to do all
079of it because the middle needs Focus too so I just think um you know I love that you had small groups and you are people are working on it and so it's just that continuous monitoring of um of what is everybody doing at all those levels I'm I'm curious as we're in budget season what um what questions or what suggestions might come up that we may potentially see in a budget request I know one of the things that I would love to see is a dedicated Spanish Immersion instructional coach even if it was as a tosa for a certain amount of time to really dedicate and give a big push now and maybe that isn't as necessary three or five years from now when our curriculum is is stronger and the lessons are there and
080we've got enough people but I just feel like right now sharing that with numerous people is a challenge for that coach especially and we have teachers who could really use that support from that 6th through 12th grade so I don't know if that's a conversation that's been had at all regarding the budget and that role specifically uh I've not had that specific conversation with others but as we work and continue to grow we look to recommendations and we'll we'll uh continue to review and modify as we as we go okay I didn't ask this question before so I apologize if you don't know if you can get back to me but currently in our district how many students are encompassed within these programs I would say somewhere around 1550. so almost a high school basically
081right I mean for our number of students so I I think that I agree I think it'd be interesting for us to look at our budget and see how we can budget that that many students because we're looking at and I know they're not on high school middle school but that middle and high school you know that's the latest developments we've made and they really need to strengthen that up according to this report as well as looking at it is two schools because at Amber school for example right now one over one-third of her school is Spanish Immersion uh students at Edison and you add in those two-way depending if we may be split into two middle schools out the two two locations what whatever we do we have a lot of students coming down
082the pike so we really need to look at what we're going to do well and frankly at the location of where these students are coming from and what best meets those the demands of each of those families and and how the locations Factor itself but find that two-way immersion so I'm encouraging and the Heritage speaking program that um um principal boom talked about and just that exposure that the students get to each other is really Rises all tides and that's in our three pillars we looked at that high academic achievement we look to bilingualism and biliteracy and that social cultural competency that's so very important that in our two-way immersion that half of the students bring with that Heritage Spanish-speaking background yeah good work um do we have a time frame I know it's just
083says select the location but I feel like that's at one of our meetings we talked about a tentative like is that so are we hoping to have that identified by this fall are we talking about next spring has that been identified I feel like I heard that somewhere maybe not if I dream that I don't I don't think we've nailed that down yet I think that's still part of the discussions and it's part of that bigger picture of some of our other student program moves um but that's something our groups have been spending a lot of time on and we'll bring a recommendation and you know this is good um feedback and information and the challenge of the board of course is to balance all of this with all of our bigger pictures and with
084Esser dollars going away and that's something that I think we need to also keep reiterating as we hear the board update from Mr veek on the legislature what is our state allocating so that we're able to maintain what we have right now at current programming as well as making those adjustments to specific programs within our district to keep everything moving in a good direction and so it's a good time to advocate for that as well anybody else have any other I I know the amount of time that our staff have put in with this and so I want to thank Dr seek and Mrs Claussen and others Dr Boyce and and the people who participated in the feedback um with our visiting experts people took their personal time to give us good feedback and so
085we appreciate the the willingness of people to help us with this thank you next oh sorry um okay uh with no other comments can I get a motion and a second to approve the report and accept the recommendation or accept the acknowledgment of the report second I have a first and a second um all those in favor so you can probably be saying aye aye in a second or in a H all those opposed same sign okay that passes thank you next Mr meek it's pretty hard to read but uh everybody hopefully has it on your your laptops we keep this uh as you as we talked about last time we kind of we try to keep this up to date as we go through it and uh keep it uh really very live and
086so I am just going to you know all the bills the deadline for bills is over so I'm just going to talk about the bills that are still alive or we have a specific position um you can stop me if you have questions I'll just keep going until somebody has a question about something I'm saying um first up uh with the house bills 1014 is a bill we support it uh updates SLP licensure Provisions that has passed both houses 10 55 we support it's increased dollars for opportunity scholarships and that's been referred to House Appropriations 1060 yeah we support it's a increase in dollar amounts for bid requirements that's past both houses House Bill 1122 we supported it's a key bill it's 10th grade dual credit education killed that bill I think it was this
087morning I remember right yes some board got an update on that so that that that bill this morning and 11 23 is our bill as well and we support it it allows four-year terms for school board members if the school board is so inclined it was amended to allow two-year terms if the school board is so inclined um that is on the way it looks it looks like it's on the consent agenda tomorrow so that passed out of out of the it had no negative votes in the committee so looks like it's on the consent agenda for tomorrow I'll spill 11.99 we opposed it requires post-election audits for all elections that's in state affairs on Wednesday House Bill 1234 is key we oppose it it phases in vouchers for students at prior private schools and
088that's up Wednesday in education over to the Senate Senate bills three through six we support those are Juvenile Justice summer study bills they pass the Senate um 20 Senate Bill 24 is uh what Dr Steven was mentioning that's the governor's proposal which is five percent increase in state aid that was sent to join Appropriations Senate Bill 59 funds CTE infrastructure that was amended in committee and then an education committee and then referred to Appropriations Senate bill um 65 we opposed it reduces the required attendance age to 16. um that is on the 14th that is in education committee Senate Bill 76 allows the Secretary of Ed flexibility for provisional licenses that has passed the Senate we support that Senate Bill 118 is reduced tuition it includes Early Childhood teachers that are eligible for reduced tuition
089that's been referred to Joint Appropriations Senate Bill 120 is the bill to allow Industrial Development corporations a tax-free exemption on the property increasing it from 750 000 currently to 10 million that's in Commerce 214. I know they're looking at potentially lowering that amount and that bill might become a neutral for us that 10 million just seemed like a lot of money especially since there's no time limit on it Senate Bill 125 we oppose it prohibits new immunization requirements that's in the education committee and the 14th tomorrow I guess Senate Bill 129 we support and that increases assault penalties on School staff it's kind of similar to assault penalties for correctional officers and and the likes like that so that that would add schools to after that so we we support that and that's up in
090ed Senate our Senate tomorrow on the 14th so those are the bills that we have an opinion uh position on either oppose or support that are still alive and then the one that died today that was one of our key bills any questions comments no and just for the public um since we only meet every two weeks and vote in this sometimes our positions might change or because bills get amended Etc so it's always good to go to our website to go and look and see what our positions are live since those things do occur during session and so forth and then any other comments or questions can I get a motion to approve the legislative update please I have a motion in a second all those in favor please Burn by saying aye aye
091those opposed same sign that passes thank you and now on to the policies okay uh so reporting from the policy Review Committee here you know as a part of our continual review of our policies and regulations we have seven on the agenda tonight looks like a lot on the second page but that's just because they're in three different categories uh one of them is on a first read three are up on a second reading and for board approval and then the final three are up for approval on a review revise so on the first one that's uh just up for a first reading that's ikf the graduation requirements and it's accompanying regulation there's fairly extensive changes to this policy and regulation uh the reason is that all these changes are to remove the sunset language
092that's no longer necessary following full implementation of the change to the graduation requirements that happened a few years back um so with that uh those will be or this policy and its regulation will be up for a second reading on March 13th um if you have any comments you can submit those and uh for now I just asked the board acknowledge the first reading of this policy and its accompanying regulation so move to second okay all those in favor so you can remember saying aye aye aye opposed same sign nobody so those pass first read uh the next three policies jjab jjh and jji and they're accompanying regulations had a first reading last month and are up for a second reading and approval tonight the district did not receive any comments related to these proposed
093changes and if there's no questions I'd ask for the board approval of these policies so moved second okay we have a motion and a second all those in figure all those in favor signify by saying aye aye oppose same sign second read passes for those three and then finally the remaining three policies in the materials tonight are up on our review revise there are only minor changes to the first ee BB and that would allow staff to submit travel uh to within the district and neighboring school districts similar to the way that other staff submit uh their in-district travel which would just make it a little bit more efficient for central office staff and for that staff submitting their their travel reimbursement um and then the other two policies EF and jjg the policy Review
094Committee is not recommending any changes so with that I'd ask for approval of those on a review revised so moved second okay we have a motion and a second all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed same sign those also pass correct all right anybody else have any other comments or questions too much no can I get a motion and a second to adjourn all right all in favor signify by saying aye same sign for no and nobody opposed meeting is adjourned