001we'll call the meeting into order please stand and join us for the pledge and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice throughout thank you um president serenbetz is traveling today so I'm filling in in her role so I thank you in advance for your patience as I go through this can I get a motion and a second to approve the minutes of the meetings held September 26th and October 3rd please second hey I have a motion in a second all those in favor signify by saying aye aye oppose same sign that passes um for tonight for people wishing to address the school board on non-agenda items we do have um kind of three different topics um so we have one person for one topic but one
002person for another topic and then we have six people for uh one topic so how this will work is that typically the maximum number that one person can speak is five minutes and if there's more than one person then the maximum time actually there's more than three people the maximum time is 15. so what I thought I would do is start with the two people who are kind of on their own topics and if the six people that want to speak on the same topic you are more than welcome to each take your own take your time and that's about two and a half minutes each or if you have if you wanted to organize and have three people be spokes people you could have five minutes for each of those three people so whatever
003you decide is fine but I'm going to start with the other topic so that if you guys wanted to make some plans you're welcome to do that okay uh just a reminder for public comments uh this is where we take uh comments from individuals wishing to address the board about a district related subject an individual wishing to address the board on a district-related issue must sign up prior to the meeting which you have done uh the speaker is limited to five minutes regardless of the number of subjects the person wishes to cover if if multiple people sign up to speak uh the total amount on that topic will be limited to 15 minutes per side anyone addressing the board must give his or her name and address the speaker may not give oral complaints regarding
004District 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 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 addressed to the superintendent in private or in writing and the board president at her discretion made 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 just wanted to review that so I'm going to start with Amy Bruner if you would come and state your name and address fees and then we do have our little reminder we'll give you a reminder at one minute
005left and at 30 seconds and you have five minutes thank you good evening I'm Amy Bruner and I'm at 3420 South Alpine Avenue I'm just going to make it quick be way less than five minutes I was in front of you a month and a half two months ago to ask about Provisions for busing I have a child who goes to Ben rifle middle school and there was some challenges with regard to that to busing in the walk Zone and there were some parents in my neighborhood who had concerns about continued busing and you guys worked it out and were my kids getting bust and we're happy and so I just want to say thanks and that's all awesome thank you very much appreciate that foreign okay um next we have Chad Bishop if you
006want to come to the podium and state your name and address please and again you have five minutes good evening my name is Chad Bishop I live at 7405 South Valencia Drive here in Sioux Falls I guess I titled this diffusing political tension and education continued so first let me Begin by saying that my assumption is that all teachers administrators and staff share my good will and best intentions for our children and our community when I last addressed this body I asked you to consider the following I invite you to create a forum for the discussion of sensitive topics like critical race Theory social emotional learning diversity inclusion and Equity help the community understand what the Sioux Falls School District means when it uses these terms help defuse the artificial tension that arises from your
007constituents assuming the worst when they see the results of policies incorporating these terms and related policies in other communities today I again Ask is it possible to do bad things with good words in my statements from last October I specifically asked what diversity means with respect to your hiring and firing practices I followed up with this inquiry last month two weeks ago I asked you what the district means when it uses the word equity I touched on the overt racism and racial discrimination that was seemingly captured in the Minneapolis teachers Union's contract negotiations to excess or lay off teachers who are non-persons of color first I ask that the district stayed clear of being racist and using racial discrimination in their hiring and firing practices last October when the district said that an increase this
008is a quote from the transcript on YouTube so you apologize increase the diversity and we continue to use that we want the number to grow and to be a more accurate reflection of the student population that we serve and this is specifically referring to teacher diversity so I asked what do you mean by this what do you mean by do you mean cultural diversity do you mean diversity of thought or are we so shallow as to just mean racial diversity for example if we were to hire a Yale educated African-American yet woke teacher in the hopes that they would better reflect the first and second generation Swahili speaking Refugee Community here in Sioux Falls are we so shallow as to think that this achieves our stated goal just because they look the same are you
009aware how socially conservative the refugee population is have you ever attended a church service how about the Nepali speaking community and one of their home church services what about the Spanish-speaking Catholic Latino community are you seeking to check the box on racial diversity and run the risk of offending students and their parents both culturally and intellectually every day again I'd ask for more discussion more debate not less set up a forum invite the public and lastly again I ask is it possible to do bad things with good words thank you for your time foreign okay so then we'll move on to our last topic um do we do you all want to speak is there somebody that you want to speak on your behalf and is your name one of my pink slips Jason I
010guess we had a string of speakers and we're hoping to just use up our time and whoever ended and get to speak is that okay um everyone will get about two and a half minutes okay so as long as everybody stays within that time frame or I suppose if somebody goes more I think our our goal as if someone ran over that the people at the end of the list just wouldn't get to speak to use up to 12 15 minutes okay so one person can't speak more than five sure no mine will be less than five okay mine will be more than two so okay for the conundrum happens that's right okay so if you can just state your name and your address please thank you my name is Jason Knutson I live at
0115804 South lazy Bridge uh Dr stavum and the board member thank you for uh our opportunity to speak on behalf of the Lincoln gymnastics parents in support of our team and to highlight our concerns for the plan to transition the Sioux Falls program to All-American gymnastics our daughter has been a part of the Lincoln team since seventh grade she was that prior to that a club gymnast since the age of two this story is similar for many of her Lincoln teammates and because of that most of us are intimately intimately familiar with both club and school sponsored programs so because of this experience we're advocating for the school programs to maintain their independence although it may seem like we're intentionally bringing this up at the 11th hour to the state neither the gymnasts nor the
012parents that received any official communication from the athletic department regarding the significant change in how the program will be managed rather we only recently Heard it Through the rumor mill from others who are concerned and recognized for the threat it poses to the future of school-sponsored gymnastics in Sioux Falls please allow me to outline our primary concerns about these proposed changes as we understand them the times that are being proposed for practice are weekdays 6 a.m to 8 A.M and 7 to 9 PM with further restrictions on the evening practice demanding fewer gymnasts in the 7 to 7 30 slot additionally with the time limitations placed on Wednesday evening practice practices this effectively means we will have one last day per week these teams aren't unreal these times are an unreasonable Demand on a number
013of levels particularly for the Middle School members of our team this will not allow students who must work the ability to participate and still maintain this role in their families many of the students on these teams maintain rigorous academic schedules that will force their studies late in tonight as they will not arrive home until 9 30. not to mention this sacrifice of sleep they must make for this how will the students from the 6 a.m slot be able to make it to school by 8 15. also these times require the students to be driving early or late at night in the dark often in Clem in inclement weather all the way to Harrisburg additionally many of the other evening school activities will have to be missed to attend practice at these times as the entire
014schedule is set up to work around after school practice routine these times are offered alone these times we are offered alone will be an insurmountable barrier to many of the students and families particularly those living far to the north and west of this gym and even more even more so for the financially disadvantaged families in the same vein most of us have been to All-American and are aware of the current schedule and layout of the gym likely we are being offered these times so as not to disrupt the current club's gymnast schedule while this is understandable from the Gym's perspective we have significant concern that the high school gymnast needs will continue to be secondary to the needs of these gymnasts additionally currently during the time of overlap with the gymnasts there at all American
015our teams find themselves struggling for warm-up space and equipment to use until the others have left this combined with your pre-season open gym sessions and a lack of Wednesday practice further diminishes our gymnast ability to prepare and train for this season another significant fact is that additional pre-season open gyms all being crucial to prepare for the season and refine the routines will now come at an additional cost further straining many of the families who want their student to have a chance to participate fulsomely in a gymnastics but that they cannot bear the additional financial burden we understand the entirety of the public schools equipment will be given to All American at no cost while we are struggling to understand why this would be the case when the value of that equipment is almost certainly into
016the hundreds of thousands of dollars much of this was purchased in no small part by parent and booster club funds this money was donated to ensure the gymnast had safe reliable equipment to practice on when the budget did not allow their purchase in a timely manner however donating them to a private gymnastic club with no guarantee of when or if we'll ever be able to use them will be a better Bill to swallow for many of the boosters and parents lastly and most importantly this transition would profoundly jeopardize the safety of these gymnasts in many ways the district has struggled to maintain minimal coaching numbers for a few years now after these changes have been made known we now only have two coaches for the entire city with not much optimism for recruiting more at
017this point this places the gymnastics gymnast coach Rachel at an unacceptably high level resulting in a dangerous lack of supervision and spotting forcing gymnast not attempt any advanced moves or try to them unassisted no reputable gym would ever allow anything close to a 30 to 1 ratio that this plan engenders so neither should our program accept it irrespective of our practice location ultimately and although we've been fortunate to have no serious injuries as the season wears on access to trainers becomes an integral part of staying healthy and avoiding more serious injuries we are told that there will be no access to trainers at the All-American facility and that gymnasts who need trainer attention will have to seek it right after school this isn't realistic four hours prior to practice and does nothing for the needs
018after practice we're all struggling to understand the rationale behind this proposed plan because for the life of us we cannot see any advantage of the program or how it increases access for the students of this District kids who don't have aspirations to become athletic Olympic athletes but just love and want a chance to participate in gymnastics to contribute to and to benefit from the camaraderie bill is to take pride in being a member of their schools team to have an opportunity to compete in a sport that they maybe couldn't otherwise afford absent a cogent explanation this feels to us like a step-down plan to phase out school-sponsored gymnastics thank you I'm sorry your time is up your name and address please my name is Eva Knutson I'm at 5804 South lazy Ridge Place good evening
019to good evening Dr Steven and school board members my name is Ava Knutson and I'm a senior at Lincoln High School co-captain of the varsity gymnastics team I'm speaking behalf of of not only my teammates but many girls who compete for the Sioux Falls School District I first joined this team when I was 11 years old a seventh grader coming out of the Excel program at all American one of the first things that my coach Les ever said to me was yes I'm here to teach you about gymnastics but more importantly I'm here to teach you about life and now as I stand Here mere months from graduation I can confidently say that he has done just that High School gymnastics has allowed me to participate in the sport that I love while also maintaining
020a healthy balance between my social academic and work lives virtually everybody else on our team is involved with more than one activity and I speak for all of us when I say that a practice time of 7 to 9 pm or 6 to 8 A.M will greatly burden those of us in choir band track work and AP classes five of us on Varsity or seniors which means five of us are undergoing the college application process as we speak all five of us are high Achievers embarking on very different paths but all important nonetheless personally High School gymnastics was a massive part of my application in places such as leadership in sports and extracurricular activities it was only due to the accessibility of the sport over my six years that I was able to include it
021with such magnitude on my application I see great Futures in the middle schoolers and underclassmen on my team and um I stand here today to advocate for them and speak against their potential chance to lose such an opportunity that I have in our gymnastics room at Lincoln there is a wall with signatures from Seniors on the team dating back to the 1980s aware that I may be the last aware that our names will be forgotten under fresh paint I proudly proudly assigned my some of my greatest friendships blossomed in that gym and some of the happiest and consequently some of the saddest days happened in that gym but because of less and because of our wonderful teammates that Jim was a safe space safe space for all of us a place where we went and
022could unapologetically feel what we needed to feel if this contract is signed we will not only lose our home but the security of it High School gymnastics has never been about perfection and state titles at least not for me high school gymnastics is about offering a welcoming accessible environment for girls who simply want to do the sport that they love as a six-year member on the team has an academically successful student athlete and as the 11 year old girl who had the chance to continue doing gymnastics I asked school board members to seriously consider this detrimental effect this will have on many young women and their patients thank you for your time thank you name and address please my name is Les Coyne 5308 West 56th Street vice president writer Dr Steven members of the
023board my name is Les Coyne I've been the head gymnastics coach at Lincoln for 23 years and this is my 30th year of coaching High School gymnastics in South Dakota I want to thank you for this opportunity to speak to you tonight about the contract between Sioux Falls Public Schools and aaga That was supposed to be on the agenda tonight but since has been removed I'm concerned that it was removed because season starts in 19 days the contractor you were supposed to approve tonight is not the contract that Kevin Knapp the other coach and I have agreed to Kevin and I were asked to attend a meeting in May approximately five months ago and at this meeting we were given three possible options to save gymnastics in Sioux Falls we're given option A B and
024C option A was crazy option b was all American option C was whatever Kevin and I could come up with so we mainly chose option b that was aaga it was presented that we'd only have to do this for one year an addition would be built on and then we could go back to normal times in this contract that is not in there um Kevin and I asked at this meeting if we could share this information with the parents and the gymnast so we could get some feedback from them on this and we are told we are not able to share this with them I told them at this meeting that if we did option b I would lose my assistant coach of 10 years and that did happen having two young children and a
025husband she was not able to coach anymore so she went to her boss resigned her position of gymnastics coach and was told that it was pretty much just a one-year sabbatical and next year she could come back and coach on September 16th and 17th was the first time that I've ever seen this full contract and Kevin and I met on Sunday went over it and then we sent people um our Corrections and stuff and our concerns and still nothing about the date of the new gym was on there and still we did not like that equipment part of the contract on September 29th an email saying that the contract was vetted by both aaga and Sioux Falls Public Schools was sent and we're waiting for Gene's signature and the school board's approval would be done
026tonight at this meeting this is when I decided that I needed to let the parents know and let the gymnasts know of what was going on that I didn't think this contract was in the best interest of Sioux Falls Gymnastics on Friday October 7th I got a text and then a phone call about this email that I had sent out to the parents then later I got another phone call about the same email that I sent then on Sunday October 9th the contract approval was pulled from this agenda that's when we found out about it that last on Sunday that it was been pulled from this meeting I just I don't understand why it's pulled when we only have so much time before season starts in closing I stress to you that's a school board
027think about the concerns from the people that you've just heard from think about what the parents are telling you the gymnasts the coaches and the public please do not approve this contract as written please let us keep gymnastics at the school this year let's have true meetings about what is best for gymnastics or what is best going forward with this board of gymnastics in Sioux Falls I thank you for your time four minutes you have a total of four minutes left your name and address please my name is Rebecca mager my address is 6429 West 56th Street Sioux Falls um I am very appreciative for this time to speak to you as well um I'm proud to say that I'm a Sioux Falls School District employee I'm a coach and and I am a graduate
028of Lincoln High School here in Sioux Falls um Lincoln has been my home for the past 20 years and I'm so proud of all the kids that showed up today because it's like having my own kids again sorry I'm that speech was Ava's speech wasn't perfection I want to really reiterate something that um Jason said and that's that this is a huge opportunity for kids who don't have the money to go to a club gym I grew up as that kid I had a single parent she was the one who worked two jobs to take care of all of us and tried to put us in a sport play a play an instrument and make sure we had a job in order to make sure that we could do those three things she worked over
029time to make sure that we had everything we need what I ask of you now is to not take that opportunity away from another girl who wants to do a high school sport who wants to do gymnastics who wants to be a part of something in their building in their District something to create school pride and I found that at Lincoln and all of these girls have found that at Lincoln as well so I just ask that you think of the one thing that maybe your child loves or that your niece or nephew or what have you and imagine if that were about to be taken away this is a very emotional day for a lot of us here and I can't stress enough how important High School gymnastics has been to not only crafting
030my career but you'll be receiving emails from some of my gymnasts as well that were um that that were able to jump into leadership positions and go to law school and put that on their applications in order to show that they were a part of something and that they were part of Lincoln gymnastics and that they were part of Sioux Falls gymnastics and I think that that's a huge Testament to our district I think it's a legacy and I don't want to see that taken away for any other child or student in our district so um I just ask that you consider especially since I was the head coach for Washington for a couple years considered the time and the times of the um of the practices but also consider the fact that most of
031the Washington gymnasts that plan to come out for gymnastics when they were told they would have to drive themselves to Lincoln which is not even quite as far as some of the Jefferson or Roosevelt kids would have to come but they'd quit gymnastics because they said yeah I can't afford the gas or I can't do that or I can't drive across town in the winter my parents don't let me so please consider that consider the kids in this District who really want to be a part of gymnastics and a part of something in their schools and show some pride for that thank you for your time thank you we have one minute left the name and address Lana Bauer white 1101 South Monticello Avenue and I was the Gorman head gymnastics coach from 1994 to
0322006 and we've always worked out at a facility it's been very tough for a Gorman High School to do that but we're lucky to have a good place right now I want to share an experience we had at all American we had worked out there for several years and had a contract and one year we started the season and about a few weeks in somehow it hadn't gotten signed between our school system and All-American and in the middle he doubled the prices on us and we had no place to go so I really want you guys to be super careful of looking at this contract and what it says because Les has already said it's changed since what he was shown we were told it was going to be doubled we couldn't afford it and
033so thank goodness Roosevelt High School we had to go work out there three days a week and only go to All American twice this week because of the price that he increased so I it wasn't a good experience we are now at a different gym and very happy there but I really want you to look at that contract over thank you thank you very much [Applause] thank you to everybody for their comments tonight we appreciate that um and then I know that there is a meeting tomorrow night I believe with parents and some Administration to answer questions further and to continue the discussion so hopefully many of you are able to attend that as well thank you 4 30 in the Lincoln Library for those who didn't know we have nobody wishing to speak on
034the um on any agenda items and I will pause and if people don't want to stay for the entire meeting you will not hurt my feelings at all so I'm going to pause so if anybody wants to leave they sure can thank you foreign can I get a motion and a second to approve the agenda for tonight second all right I have a motion in a second all those in favor signify for saying aye aye aye all opposed same sign that passes and we have the good news report thank you and I'm pleased to bring you another two-part good news report so I was great when we have lots of good news to share we are going to start this evening with counseling coordinator Patty Lake torbert who is here with representatives from this to
035Empire United Way to share information about funding that allows District social workers to fill the gaps for families in need of food so I'll invite Patty to come forward I swear I have the best job ever I haven't been to the school board that often but it's always about good things so um for the third year the United Way has given the Sioux Falls School District 100 000 in gift cards to help families um this is not a gift that we were expecting but so so grateful for these are gift cards that are distributed to families through our social workers our counselors our Liaisons it was a process that was developed during that kind of a height of covet and still a process that we use the need has continued though as we move forward
036as we see families living with food insecurity for our families living in poverty and for our families that do not meet the guidelines for free and reduced lunch so who are some of these that families and students that are being represented by receiving these gift cards um I put out I was telling earlier that I put out an email and saying you know give me some stories and oh my gosh my email was filled with stories of people that had received these gift cards and what a difference it made just to highlight a few it's the pregnant teenager with a limited budget but still coming to school and still making education her priority and was able to do that with a little bit of help it's the new family to Sioux Falls that was homeless
037but now both parents are employed and have secured housing but needed just a little bit of help at a certain time it's a family facing the electricity bill or the electricity being turned off but we're able to swap out for one week being able to pay for food this way and then being able to pay the electric bill with money that they have set aside for food the single dad that needed a detergent and hygiene products but the next paycheck wasn't for about two weeks away and in the last one well there was many more but last night I'm going to highlight is a family that was still hit hard with covet the high school students were able to finish at one particular student in the family was able to finish their CNA certification to
038their health careers course at the CT Academy and is on track for pre-med so pretty impressive so come on up I'd like to introduce to you at this time and recognize the president of the Sioux Empire United Way Alan H Turner the second and also the community impact director Christina Reese and I'd like you to recognize some for this week yes [Applause] foreign and I I just wanted to let the board and Dr Steven know how much we appreciate this partnership being able to directly impact those lives and uh through the schools beginning to identify those families those students and those individuals that need the help so thank you for the work you do every day appreciate it I'm just going to interrupt before you take the mic Christine is uh Alan you began your
039tenure in July may all right so relatively new to our community and Diving right in and so we want to formally welcome you to Sioux Falls and appreciate the work on behalf of our school district and it's been good to see Alan already leading the strategic planning process right away and you know some things that kind of greeted you as you came in the door so job well done and welcome and I just wanted to add you know this fall um every fall is kind of the time where people can pledge to United Way through their employers and So for anybody who's wondering what does that money do I think a lot of times we hear about things like girl scouts or you know some different non-profit organizations that benefit and maybe Girl Scouts isn't
040one so sorry if I misspoke but um you know there's different organizations but this is obviously a huge need that many people don't even know about likely and so a gift that size really is a significant gift to um probably hundreds maybe even thousands of kids over the course of the school year who would really take advantage of those things simply from detergent you know someone who needs deodorant somebody who needs you know something that their parents just can't provide for them so really impactful gift that if people who are listening or watching have the opportunity to participate in providing that they can do that as well by their employer donating so thank you very much for the support thank you part two the next part is good news from the Sioux Falls Public Schools
041Education Association executive director Allison struck she's here with a quarterly update that includes a focus on three programs that the foundation is is working on so I'll Have Allison come forward all right well good evening school board members we're excited to be here tonight and one of the first things we're going to share is just an update on the guitar partnership with pepper entertainment at Jared Johnson the CEO was going to join us tonight and he had a last minute conflict but his accountant Terry Bott is with us representing pepper and we announced this partnership I'm thinking June or July this summer and we started a beginning guitar class at the four high schools there's 25 students in each class there's already a wait list for the spring but the goal was really to engage
042our students who may not have had exposure to band or orchestra or choir you know we're reaching a different demographic students and Deanne and Ben Schumacher in her Department he visited Washington High School and filmed a short video so you can hear from the students the impact that this guitar class has had foreign service and they had 180 staff there and the technology wasn't working and that was my fear for tonight that we would try and get this video to work and we would have technical difficulties value anything from our it friends this computer was just swapped out today perfect she just muted it but it was it was unmuted before we can probably send the link out afterwards cars it won't hurt anything to be able to learn how to play a few chords
043here and there [Music] when they announced that they were doing it I play guitar in eighth grade and then stopped so I kind of just wanted to do something that was music and something that was fun and easy but also like a little bit challenging every day we go in we grab our guitars and then we'll start with like a warm-up something a little easier and then we'll probably most days we learn new chords because none of us have played so everything is new which is really fun so we'll learn new chords we'll play some songs sometimes we play like sound off so like half the group will play then the other half will play so it's like different every day I play piano for most of my life learn to try and play tougher
044a few months now I tell the class first year I decided to take it it's pretty fun I needed an art credit and I was going to take dance too because I took dance one but I had AP Spanish the same class period so I was like well I gotta find another art credit and my counselor was like oh well they're introducing a new car class do you want to try that I was like of course of course I want to try that I really want to learn how to play the guitar and I haven't gotten to take a music class at Washington yet so this was like the perfect opportunity it just a line perfect it's it's music it's easy but also challenging and learning guitars it won't hurt anything to be able to
045learn how to play a few chords here and there and the guitar is this really fun instrument to play and the class is super super chill it's a class for everyone and then kids that kind of just want something to do that's more Hands-On and it's a different environment it's like you're in a band room instead of a regular classroom so it's like a nice change of scenery with more Hands-On instead of just listening to a lecture which I really liked it's a lot of fun um yeah it's fun to go play guitar as a friend yeah I would like to say thank you it's a good break in the day going to six periods starting I'm going to play guitar for 50 minutes it's also really relaxing to be able to just go play
046a fun instrument like the guitar I want to say a big thank you because I really really really love this class and it's a great opportunity it's something that I wouldn't have gotten time for because I'm in multiple APS I'm in a lot of extracurriculars and so I've never gotten the chance to play the guitar and actually discover that I enjoyed playing the guitar and it's really nice because I've tried band instruments I've tried orchestra instruments and nothing really stuck but this one was this is really fun and I take it home and I show my parents and stuff so I'm just really happy that they put this together [Music] [Applause] foreign so like the students said we'd just like to extend our gratitude to Pepper to Terry and to Jared with his initial investment
047the district was able to purchase the guitars and the curriculum going forward they'll be donating a portion of every ticket sold back to the Sioux Falls School District and then those dollars will help enhance our Fine Arts curriculum so thank you so much for the donation [Applause] next I just wanted to take a minute to promote Public School proud grants we have opened the application Any teacher in the district can apply for up to ten thousand dollars teachers will have eight weeks to submit so we will close the application on December 5th and then the proposals will be reviewed by a group of Administrators the tech team and the grants committee and then we will announce the awards in the spring of 2023. and last we have been very busy the last couple of weeks
048doing our Goodwill tour and staff appreciation events Vernon ID Motor Cars has provided a generous gift to the foundation so that we can provide treats to staff in every building this week we were at Jefferson McGovern CTE Pettigrew and John Harris and I think we have seven or eight stops next week so the purpose is really to go in and thank staff for everything that they do and then to share information about our grant programs and then this year we also received a significant donation from the seed for Success Foundation to go in and provide meals and special treats to the staff members in our title building so we provided a catered meal lunch to staff at Terry Redlin today we'll be at Laura B Anderson and Horseman tomorrow and then next week we're going
049to try a pop-up coffee bar in partnership with scooters at Whittier Middle School so teachers will be able to order their their specialty iced coffee drinks so again the purpose is twofold we're trying to build out our teacher appreciation efforts and then also share information about our grant program for educators so thank you thank you very much I love that you're targeting you know the populations in our schools both students and teachers in regards to the guitar class we're always looking for classes that can kind of engage students who maybe haven't found that spot and I think one of the students said that great like I tried band and I tried Orchestra and it just didn't fit but this seemed like a really good fit for me so anytime we can really widen the classroom
050opportunities for our students as a benefit to everybody so thank you for your current and future partnership and continuing to make that a great program and thank you for your work Allison all right there were no new conflicts of interest to approve today can I get a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda please I have a motion and a second all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye opposed same sign that passes and then I have uh 10 a 1 and 2. so Sanford can I get a motion and a second for approval of that I have a motion and a second uh all those in favor signify by saying aye aye oppose same sign and that passes with three eyes and one abstention from myself and we are now
051to the reports of the superintendent Mr Morrison good evening Dr Steven School Board I was here uh a month ago to give you some preliminary enrollment numbers and so now I'm coming back to you with our final enrollment numbers so again the purpose is to provide the final FTE numbers based on the active enrollments as of the last Thursday of September which in this case would have been September 30th so that's the date that we reconcile uh with the state and then that's what eventually our funding has driven off for the rest of the year pleased to tell you that we saw very little change I think on our preliminary basis we were about 194 more than where we were last year and we ended up at just over 200 versus prior year so that's
052good news that we had that growth Junior K down a little bit which we saw in the preliminary numbers and same with uh Pre-K and so overall very little change on the total one Pre-K and Junior from last time uh if you look at it over time you can see that we now have gotten back to where we were pre-pandemic we had a you know during that covered year we had a very small kindergarten class for whatever reason and we've just now started to Rebound in on that and then this year finally got back to where higher than we were during the 1920 school year so that's good to see the last couple years of steady growth there uh looking at it by grade level you can see this is basically a function of how
053um each grade rolls through to the next so we have uh in elementary school we grew by about 163 kids and that's really because the kindergarten class uh was bigger than the outgoing fifth grade class and so with what's good news on here is that our kindergarten class is still in that 2000 Range which is where we've seen it historically other than the one year there Middle School down a little bit again a function of how each class rolls through and in high school we're seeing an increase so that's kind of the general Flow by grade level when you look at it and I'm looking at it by school I think I pointed out last time there were a couple areas that we were on the elementary school we saw a lot of growth in
054Rosa Parks School area which is something we continue to watch just from an ongoing boundary perspective and then we saw growth again at the Hayward and [Music] um and renberg as well so kind of on both extreme sides extreme East and extreme West kind of seeing increased growth patterns there as we knew there would be over time as those develop out there Middle School you can see has stayed very much flat to where it was in the prior year and we didn't really anticipate much much change there and in the high school as you can see again we expected Jefferson to grow because of the now having a full uh you know ninth grade through 12th grade and that was offset at Lincoln and Roosevelt so again nothing too alarming that we saw there very
055predictable and then the last thing I did want to point out is that um you know in the 2021 year with the pandemic we saw our open enrollment these are kids open and rolling into our district we saw that take a dip in the 2021 year we grew last year and we grew again this year so open enrollment is starting to we're seeing more kids come into the district and then what this chart will tell you is where they're coming from their home District so you can see our biggest areas that where kids are coming from is a Brandon area the Harrisburg Area Mt and Tri-Valley so that that West Side over there and then you can see on the right hand side to schools that they are going into so obviously the Spanish Immersion
056program is a big tractor for our district and you can see Lincoln High School and Edison Middle School probably where again where that cohort of Spanish Immersion is moving through so again good news to see that um return back to where it was back in the 2019 uh time frame and so really the final step for us is that um we will reconcile down to the Ft with the state and uh and Dr stabum will sign off on that funding at the end of this month and then uh Todd will start getting the checks rolling in and but the good news is it's uh it's a higher enrollment than it was last year so with that I would ask you to acknowledge the fall 2022 final enrollment report all right anybody have comments or questions
057well it's good to see our numbers bouncing back and I think that's very informative especially with looking at new Elementary School building and so forth where where we're going to need that growth and what this is both as a city as well as our school district what we're doing so and I think in the next the next school board meeting Deanne will give an update on demographics and how those have changed so kind of tie in with that yeah and I think to your point Cynthia let me talk about um new schools you know we don't want to wait until it's too late and so it's that being proactive and and thinking ahead and saying here's our numbers we're growing and continuing to see that Trend um it's nice that we're back at that pre-pandemic
058um right and now we obviously hope to kind of continue to grow in that 200 and so we will need at least one elementary school and then they will all just kind of funnel into the to the right remaining schools too so good to see us back on that track again I'm just happy to see kind of normal trajectory restored and I think that was a big question mark and it is still across many school districts in many places about enrollment and what what that was going to look like so I'm just kind of happy to see the predictable pattern and that's a lot easier for planning purposes yeah all right can I get a motion to acknowledge the report on the tall enrollment we have a motion and a second all those in favor
059signify by saying I I opposed same sign that motion passes and I get a motion to move into executive session sccl1-25-2 pair two so moving second all right we are in moving into executive session thank you