001We will now call this meeting to order. Please stand and join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. [Music] Next on our agenda is the approval of consent agenda or addition removal of consent agenda items. Do we have a motion? Madam President, Vice President Schwarz, I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Thank you. Do we have a second? I'll second. Second by Mr. Seeks. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. All those oppos say I. Motion carries. Our next item is the approval of tonight's agenda. Do we have a motion? Madam President, Mr. Seats, I
002move to approve the agenda as presented. Thank you. Do we have a second? I'll second that. Second by Vice President Schwarz. Any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor, please say I. I. All those opposed, say. Motion carries. Our next item is business topics,formational topics only. Our first one is our four goals. And tonight we have behavior solutions co-authors, John and Jessica Hanigan, addressing the board. Welcome. If you guys could please come up to the table. [Music] Hello, thank you for this opportunity. So, my name is John Hanigan, one of the co-authors for behavior solutions and just want to first thank you for supporting this important behavior work. I know that, you know, post pandemic on the we support schools across the country and there's been an uptick in challenging behaviors on campuses nationwide. And
003so I really appreciate the the the way that this district has really dove in, rolled up their sleeves to to support the the behavior work schoolwide. And so as we started this journey, we we began with the tier one. Are you introduced me? We're married. Okay. So if you didn't figure that it's all right. I'm Jessica. I'm Jessica. Nice to meet you, too. Go ahead, John. Make sure. Okay. Then you aren't shy. And we're also a comedy show. So So uh the focus was year one, tier one. So schoolwide prevention. So having those systems and structures in place, really teaching behavior similar to how we teach academics. So that first good tier one instruction. And so want to give a shout out to the school administrators that have really done a outstanding job in uh
004in rolling up their sleeves and putting putting that work in place. And so now the focus is on on tier 2, so targeted interventions. And so when we see students that need a little bit more to to really change some of those challenging behaviors that sites may be seeing that we target exactly where what life skills students uh might need to have explicitly taught so that we see a reduction or elimination of those challenging behaviors. So, um, really just trading the treating the behavior work similar to the academic work where we focus on essential standards for behavior similar to academics and then pinpoint where those gaps are with students struggling and we teach them similar to how we do with the academics. Yeah. And I just again wanted to echo the leadership, your district office
005leadership, your site leadership and educators. Um, we just really fell in love with your district. um a couple a year it was about a year back when I think a couple attended our workshop and then made the huge investment of your leaders being able to come learn with us and they've just done some great work. So um a couple things really quick. Behavior solutions is a multi-tered system of support for behavior. It is not a program. It is uh a systematic approach. We're building the capacity of your amazing leaders and educators to make sure we have what we need in place to produce productive empathic members in our community one day. So, what do those skills look like for school and in life? And um just wanted to give you a couple of highlights um
006from today. We had the opportunity to meet with again another just huge investment. We know what time of year it is. Uh but we have the opportunity to meet with what you all call the blue teams like your intervention teams to now start that next level of okay when we have repeated kiddos now needing behavioral needs or mental health needs what does that look like and what are we doing how do we know if that's working or not so some glows I um I just wanted to share just every team was there the admin was um there a part of the process process. Uh we're positive. We're asking questions. We're open to learning. So, um that was that was really positive. Every team has made huge strides in tier one prevention. And I know just
007like every other system, some, you know, are further along than others. Um and I know it's sometimes different in middle school and high school as well. So, we have those differentiated conversations. But every team has made huge strides in in that area. Um, and so we were really excited to see that cuz we want to make sure you're getting outcomes for kids in your community. That's what we want. We want you to get the outcomes we got at our schools and our districts. Um, and anything else to add to that? There's so much more, but I think those were some of the key points. Um some areas of like the next steps that we're also s suggesting suggesting to continue the work is um now making some of those behavior interventions more visible meaning um
008you guys have provided some great resources counselors social worker psych I mean great amazing people um in in your schools um so we really want to continue doing the work of systematizing some of those more formalized interventions. So if you are if you do have a kiddo failing, if you do have a kiddo with repeated tardies, if you do have a kiddo starting to bubble up with behavior, what are we doing about it? Also to support our teachers and our kids, but also in addition to and how do we know if that's working or not? So we really want to hone in on that piece. Um, and that's what we started talking about. So, a couple things we started talking about today, I think two huge takeaways is making sure that menu of interventions on
009the campuses are very visible. So, um, you know, if a student isn't responding to the schoolwide stuff, they're not responding to the classwide stuff and maybe they're not even responding to some of that additional that, you know, layers that teachers are putting in place. Then what? and how do we add those layers of support and make sure it's a community approach and not just landing on one person. So, I think that's going to be just huge just to solidify and then having that menu at each site of some of those formalized interventions and what's the goal cuz why are we doing this if we don't know if it's working or not. So, we want to be really clear. I'm not saying they're doing that. I'm just saying in general we want to know this is
010improving tardies. this is improving discipline and not because we're not disciplining but because it's changing behavior. You you get what I'm saying? Like we want to get to that level of monitoring the supports and I think that that that captures for me the two main themes I think is the next step for everybody. So again, thanks for supporting this important work for the students that we serve as uh as it aligns with the district goals, the district mission and vision. Okay. Go ahead and Mr. Smith, you have Yeah. And I'm actually going to make a presentation. Yeah. So it's okay if we take a question and answer session here afterwards, but I just want to echo what uh Vanigan stated and thanking um Madam President, the board for an investment and Dr. Luke last year
011took uh our uh head principles to uh California to meet with Anigans to lay out this plan and that that followed with our leadership teams and how can we have the systematic approach in building uh behavior uh academic and social behaviors in an expected manner and uh last year uh our leadership teams went through uh uh an approach uh called the behavior integration assessment to identify the work truly How can we collectively own and identify that? And what the beautiful thing of this was is that it took a good decade of district of Dickinson public school district work and wo it together. I'm talking PBIS uh restorative practices, trauma informed practices, uh character programs, curriculum, all these things that we we we get lost in the weeds act. And it gave us a platform and
012a structure that was uh directly connected to high reliability schools and in different agencies. And so uh through this what you have on on the presentation in front of you is that that work uh from the tier 1 um behavior integration assessment where this year uh we we became uh ready to have building behavioral smart goals. And that was something that uh was maybe a little bit foreign that was specific, measurable, achievable, uh relevant and timely to what we're seeing in our buildings. And how can we expect that if we're teaching it and then intervene upon it? And so, uh, you can just look again, um, it goes month by month, um, some quick celebrations from this, and the numbers aren't exactly outlined there, but, um, by the month of February, all building smart goals
013that were identified were achieved. And that's to go back from the beginning of the school year where it was less than half that were achieved. And, um, so far this school year, there's been 35 building behavioral smart goals established, and 24 of those 35 have been met. And we're getting better. Um some of the beautiful work that's happening in our schools and our leadership teams and with with our students is the fact that uh where we might not meet a monthly uh smart goal. We're understanding that's work on the adults. When the adults will change, the kids are going to change. The students are going to get better. And uh one school specifically uh had to identify disrespect. Disrespect in Mr. Smith's class is a lot different in Dr. Luton's class. And so how can
014we get together collectively to reinforce that after identifying that um what's essential? And so that's been some really uh um foundational work from last year to this year. And I took I I wouldn't call it cartoon. Um the magnitude of this infographic, if you will, is uh certainly alive in Dickinson. And it's really the the seriousness of that. Our students lives are uh hanging in the balance. If you just take a look uh at these different items, um how can we make sure that we live by the mission of Dickinson public schools, success for all, and that we we are meeting students where they're at. And I mean, it's pretty self-explanatory. And so then, um as the Hanigans just stated, we wanted to be intentional on how we're going to continue to uh intervene on
015those academic and social behaviors, life skills, so that we can help our students uh be choice ready. Um, and I'm just going to go through elementary, middle school, and high school real quickly. Um, some highlights so far this year in those building smart team goals and then into intervention teams. Um, physical aggression was one building's uh, behavioral smart goal and was to reduce uh, the amount of physical aggression during recess and happy to celebrate. A great point of of celebration here is not only did we meet that goal, we superseded it by over 50% in reducing um physical aggression during recess within one month. And that's through that tier one instruction and then that intervention. That's at the elementary level. And there's some other items out there that we have copies of. Um the middle
016school um student agency talk about high reliability schools. One uh middle school uh staff member reported during an intervention team meeting that a student who uh had out of school suspension um decided a behavior academy uh replacement skill as the reason that they have not been kicked out of class since like a month ago. And so our students are staying in class longer uh learning more and understanding the why the importance and the intrinsic interest to get that academic content because they're feeling cared for and they're making the connections on what those academic and social behaviors are. Uh this is uh this is something that the high school celebrated earlier this year. Um, wow. And, uh, even though we're giving some, uh, uh, shout outs to Breakfast Club here in the title, um, it's certainly
017something that should open your eyes as far as the number of suspensions have been reduced by nearly uh, 66%. And um yeah, I was visiting with the high school leadership team and they're crediting not only the behavior solution work, but the continued refinement of what that work is in having those evidence-based interventions. Uh the development and collective ownership and responsibility to teach and retach that behavior uh matrix, tier one behavior essentials, which is like a guaranteed and viable curriculum. And then we have uh interventions out there that can match with the legging skill set that our de that our students are demonstrating. And so just within a year we're seeing some some profound um results uh from this framework. So that's incredibly exciting and a lot a lot of applause to our our high school
018team. And as I just briefly mentioned really um you know our our our clients are the students. Uh the greatest asset that we have in our community are our students. and maybe when the dolls change, the kids will become change. And so I'm just excited to to um do this work and so grateful for everyone's commitment to doing the right work. Thank you, Mr. Smith. Do we have any questions from the board members? Question. Um this is great to see and I kind of answered the question. I could already see results which is great. So my question was going to be sometimes when you start something new, it takes a little while to get it and put it in process and do those things. How long I mean is that normally a one-year process? Is
019it a two-year process? When do you think people are kind of peing uh once they go through this? I think if the school's journey at the with the implementing the professional learning communities is uh that's a 3 to 5 year process or the high reliability schools. Uh so I'd say it's about like that 3 to 5 year process that uh year one tier one year two tier two because you can't focus on everything all at once. So, uh, after about that, 30 years is where you typically see those kind of results, but you're seeing them now. So, it's even even bigger. It's great to see that this is being measured as well. I think those who are not in education don't realize oftentimes that behaviors impact, you know, we we measure everything else and when
020those scores are low, I don't think the general public realizes that there's so many other things that are affecting some of the test scores or how we are doing in in the classroom in a school building. So I think this shows that it does it makes a difference and just to see what the high school the difference at the high school I mean that's amazing and I I want to thank you guys for the work. Thank you for the book as well. Each of us received a book and Mr. Smith thank you so much for the information shared. Thank you all so much. I'm sorry I'm a copper class. Thank you. Our next item is the update on the Dickson High School rebuild. Mr. Mr. Thank you, Madam President. Just a quick update. These uh
021these are sent weekly and we do put them on our website so the public can see them. Uh the last two weeks uh we obviously the end of March, March 31st, we began demolition. Um all the most of the trees are gone now that were in that area. as a tree guy. That kind of makes me sad that they were in the way. Uh the greenhouse came down. Now the greenhouse building is coming down this week. Uh there was an old diesel tank uh that was uh underneath the ground. Actually, that that slope that kids walked on uh all the time and that used to run the uh diesel uh engines that actually heated the steam system uh which we got rid of a long time ago. But uh we had to excavate that tank.
022Had to bring in the department of health and test the soil and all that. So uh you'll start to see the football storage and that greenhouse. Uh it was actually our maintenance shed. Our maintenance shed is now going to move into the 700 pod until we can hopefully move it into the yellow building. So um you'll begin start to see those things. You'll probably start to be see excavation. Uh we're still uh quite a few weeks out from that, but yeah, those uh those are can be found on our website and they're updated weekly. Any questions for Dr. Sean? Thank you for the update. We will move on to the superintendent report. Dr. Luton. Yeah. Uh currently uh kindergarteners. We just added two a little bit ago. So we're on T on rate where we
023have been in the past where we'll probably see that 300 maybe a little over 300 number which is where we've been the last few years. So uh 19 sections of kindergarten still um hopefully uh that we should be okay as long as we can balance those classes which we did a lot better job this year than than in years past. As I look at a kindergarten teacher in here who likes to send me emails sometimes. uh teacher negotiations, administrator negotiations uh began this week and we have an executive session after this just to go over the financials. That's typically what happens. Um our second meetings will occur after Easter looking at uh seeing what the legislature does. The legislaturator's um now amended 1369 to be three and three. So hopefully it stays at that. Um,
024governor's budget had two and two. Uh, there's been a lot of groups trying to fight as you know um uh education funding over the last uh since the new since the uh new funding formula in 2013. Uh the average increase has been about 1.85% a year. So it's it's uh that has not kept up with inflation obviously. Uh we have our employee appreciation open house on May 7th. Uh that's uh we have that light dinner and then uh we um say goodbye to retirees and and people who are resigning uh and people who met major milestones. So uh Dickinson High School graduation is May 25th at 1:00 p.m. Southwest Community High School is at 7:00 p.m. on May 21st. And we have our largest graduating class ever at Southwest High School. There's 28 right now.
025So uh Mrs. was good. All and her team do an amazing job over there. So, uh, Cognney accreditation. We got the our final Cognney accreditation done. Uh, we got the paperwork and and we're all good. We did a nice job. We had a lot of a lot of kudos from them. The only other I might add is um on our website you can see the letter regarding uh the high school and the mascot and then uh update on a timeline uh and we've updated that on our website. So committee work right now narrowing down uh over the over 850 submissions uh for possible name replacement. So not 850 different right but 850 people participated. So or there 850 I suppose someone could have participated more than once but uh that ends my superintendent for board
026madam president. Thank you Dr. Lou. Any questions? Okay hearing none we will move to our business topics. Our first one being Wednesday late starts at Dickinson High School. Do we have a motion? Madam President, Vice President Schwarz. I move to approve the 2025 2026 Dickinson High School calendar to include late start Wednesdays as presented. Thank you. Do we have a second? I have a second. Second by Mr. Wilkey. Any discussion? Dr. L. Madam President, just one little update. I visited with Mr. Brandt and you know there's been a lot of discussion uh in our workshops primarily uh over the schedule AB late starts and Mr. Brandt just feels like there's going to have to be some changes when the new school opens. Uh and so trying to just stay with uh the what we've been
027doing now until that point. as an example, the last year of the pods, uh, we'll those pods will come down in January and we'll be short an art art classroom and a couple science classrooms. So, just the staggering of of what we're going to have to offer. There's just a lot of uh a lot of things going on right now up at that building. So, just maintaining what we've been doing is probably the the near future anyways. Okay. Thank you, Dr. L. We will start a roll call vote with Mr. Rowski. I Mr. Sigs I Mr. Wilky I Vice President Schwarz I and the chair votes I motion carries. Our next item is early resignation benefit. Do we have a motion? Madam President, Vice President Schwarz, I move to approve the early resignation benefit for
028Patricia Shesley, pair professional at Hart River Elementary, Annie Michael, speech language pathologist at the early childhood program, and Carla Ratkkey, head cook at Hart River Elementary, with an effective date of May 22nd, 2025. I further move to approve the early resignation incentive for Tammy Greenfield Peterson, Lincoln Elementary Principal, with an effective date of June 30th, 2025. Thank you. Do we have a second? I will second then. Second by Mr. Wilkey. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. All those oppos say nay. Motion carries. Our last item is open enrollment applications. Madam President, Mr. I move to approve the open enrollment applications for four children of Marie Sherman from Bellefield Public School District to Dickinson Public School District and a child of Megan Early from Bellefield Public School District to Dickinson
029Public School District as per the open enrollment policy. Thank you, Mr. CC. We have a second by Vice President Schwarz. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. All those opposed, saying motion carries. Our next item is public participation. Mrs. Peterson, do we have any requests for public participation tonight? Madame President, there have been no requests. Thank you. And our next item is executive session. Do we have a motion? Madam President, Vice President Schwarz, as per North Dakota Sentry Code NDCC 440419.1 number nine, I move to close the meeting and go into executive session for the purpose of administrator and teacher negotiations strategy. Is there a second? I'll second. A second by Mr. Siks. Any discussion? Hearing none. I will take roll call vote beginning with vice president Schwarz. I Mr.
030Wilkkey I. Mr. Ricowski I. Mr. Seks I. And the chair votes I. Motion carries. The executive session will be recorded and all members of the governing body are reminded to limit their discussion during the executive session to the announced topic. Any collective decision, collective commitment, or other final action by the governing body must occur after it reconvenes in an open meeting unless final action is specifically required by law to be taken during the executive session. The prohibition on taking final action during the executive session does not apply to providing guidance or instructions to our negotiators. Board policy BC AAD executive session allows a certain allows certain individuals to be in attendance at the closed meeting as directed by the governing board. The following have been asked to be in attendance. The school board members, Vice
031President Kim Schwarz, Mr. Jason Ordikowski, Mr. Brent Seeks, Mr. David Wilkkey, and Chair Michelle Orton. I also request the following be in attendance. Superintendent Marcus Luton, business manager Stephanie Hunter, and recording secretary Twilight Peterson. At this time, we will convene an executive session. We will now ask the members of the public who are attending the meeting to leave the room. As a matter of convenience, in case you unexpectedly need to leave, we ask that you take all bags, purses, coats, and personal belongings with you. We anticipate adjourning the executive session and reconvening the open portion of the meeting in approximately 60 minutes or approximately 6:27. The minutes will show that executive session began at 5:27 and was attended. Okay. We will now ask everyone to Madam President. Yes. But we can I don't know if
032it's going to take that long and if it does I always open the door and walk around see if anybody does want to come back in. So Okay. So we will have Dr. Loop step out. Yeah. Yep. I wouldn't think it take an hour though. It's probably a 15 minute thing. [Music] Yeah. [Music] [Laughter] Yeah. memorize what I want. Sorry, Twilight. I got ahead of myself.