GFPS School Board Meeting (June 16, 2025)

001We'll call to order the special meeting of the school board for Monday, June 16th, 2025. Our first item on the agenda is the pledge of allegiance. Invite you to stand as you're able. Item 2A, the level four grievance appeal. I would turn this over to Rachel Bruner. Is it on? Okay. All right. Thanks, everybody. Um, so I'm just going to kind of go through um the materials that you were sent. Um, first is the policy 4120. That's the grievance procedure for teachers. Um, section two is the definition of grievance. So, a grievance is an event or circumstance for which a teacher feels dissatisfaction and chooses to communicate the concern to his or her immediate supervisor. However, agreements must be directly related to the terms of the teacher's individual contract with the school district or a

002concern related to the terms of the negotiated agreement between the school board and any officially recognized teacher representative organization. Agreements must be in writing, give a clear and concise statement as to the specific pro provision of the negotiated agreement or contractual provision involved and must state the relief sought. Um, and then on page two of the policy, section one is the grievance guidelines. Um, paragraph A notes the one-year time limit to bring a grievance. And we'll circle back to that um, kind of as we go on. Section two on that page, grievance procedure. Um, we are in level four, which is an appeal to the school board, and today is the time and place for the school board to hear the grievance. Um, for those of you that weren't there or just as a reminder,

003there is no formal hearing process. Um, I recommend an informal process where both sides can explain their position to the board. In doing so, I'll go over the background of the grievance, the reasons the administration denied the grievance, and then the administration I I might ask them to speak as well on some of those things, and then the GFA can discuss why they believe the superintendent's decision should be changed. And then the board can ask questions um of either side um and both sides can continue to discuss the grievance until the board feels it has enough information to make a decision on the grievance. Um included in your materials is also the negotiated agreement. This is the one that was in place at the time of the grievance. Um the issue is sixth period classroom

004instruction on page 15. So if you just want to kind of make a note of that or turn to that page and leave it on that page. Um the the language says sixth period of classroom instruction. If a sixth period of classroom instruction is assigned, a secondary teacher so assigned shall receive payment equal to 1/8 of their current salary in addition to the contracted salary amount as determined from the applicable salary salary schedule. A teacher initiated request for a sixth period of classroom instruction shall not qualify said teacher for additional compensation. For purposes of this section, a secondary teacher shall be defined as a teacher assigned to teach in a middle school or senior high school. Um and then in the materials there are four separate grievances filed against the school district by the GFA.

005The first is to the principal at South Middle School, the second is to the principal at Schroeder Middle School, the third to Valley Middle School, and the fourth is to the principal at Red River High School. They're all dated um May 2nd, 2025. You'll notice the three middle school grievances are identical and they assert that middle school teachers should receive one hour per week of extra pay from April 15, 2025 or or to whenever it started at their school to the end of the year. Um, and then each of the middle school principles responded and those responses are included in your materials as well. Each principal denied the grievance stating that flex time does not constitute a violation of the negotiate agreement. And I know it might be kind of um lengthy, but I'd like

006each of the principles just to kind of read their response um as part of the record. So, Dr. Arson, you want to go first and then just go down the line? [Applause] All right. This letter is to acknowledge the receipt of the level two grievance on Friday, May 2nd, 2025 from GFA in regards to writer time as it pertains to the master schedule. The complaint sites article 8 section 4 of the teacher negotiated agreement which addresses teacher compensation when secondary level teachers are assigned extra class periods for the duration of the school year or semester extending a teacher's course load beyond the level of a typical full-time equivalent course load per the negotiated agreement. In the instance of the teacher um takes on an extra class, teachers are to receive the equivalent of 1/8 of

007their current salary for the year or semester during which they are planning and delivering instruction, assessing, retaching, and performing all other duties as required when teaching a class to a regular group of enrolled students. The grievance implies I got to put these on here. Sorry, things are getting a little blurry. All right, there we go. That's better. The grievance implies that the teacher should receive additional compensation for being assigned an extra class interpreting rider time, a 30 minute intervention period twice weekly as an additional teaching assignment. Red River High School disagrees with GFA for four reasons. One Red River High School principal and GFA building rep met with GFA President Melissa Bukup on December 19th, 2023 to to discuss the concept of rider time RTI at Red River High School. On January 6th, 2024, Red

008River High School received an email from Melissa Buup stating that rider time RTI should work within the contract as long as it stays a couple days a week. And I have the attached email there. Writer time RTI continues to take place twice a week and has not changed since a meeting on January 6, 2024. Reason number two, as stated in policy 4120, a grievance is an event or circumstance for which a teacher feels dissatisfaction and chooses to communicate the concern to his or her immediate supervisor. To date, no individual teacher at Red River High School has approached administration to express concerns regarding rider time. Number three, writer time RTI does not add in additional instructional minutes to the teacher's workday. Writer time RTI is a result of reducing each class period's instructional time by five

009minutes and combining those minutes so classroom teachers can have designated time to work with students from their assigned courses who have not yet completed tests assignments or or who do not yet understand the current content being taught which is part of the teacher's professional responsibility. RTI writer time RTI is not an additional class period as it does not consist of a uniquely assigned group of students meeting daily. Therefore, it does not qualify for additional compensation according to the additional course load compensation standards in the teacher negotiated agreement. Number four, according to policy 4120, grievances which reach level two shall not be valid for consideration unless a grievance is submitted in writing to the teacher's immediate supervisor setting forth facts and the specific provision of the negotiated agreement or individual contract allegedly violated and the particular

010relief sought within one year after the date of the first event giving rise to the grievance occurred. Failure to file any grievance within such a period shall be deemed a waiver thereof. Rider time RTI at Red River High School started on April 2nd, 2024. GFA leadership did not meet with the school regarding the issue until April 29th, 2025, more than one year later, rendering the grievance invalid. For these reasons, Red River High School does not support the grievance and maintains a writer time RTI is consistent with both intent and the letter of the negotiated agreement. Respectfully, Dr. Christopher G. Er, principal. And then the Sorry. And then the attachment is that email that you referenced, right? And that the board has that as well. Yep. Okay. All right. Do you want to just go down

011the line, Travis? Sure. This letter acknowledges the receipt of a level two grievance on May 2nd, 2025 from the GFA regarding flex time as it pertains to the master schedule. The complaint sites cites article 8 section 4 of the teacher negotiated agreement which addresses teacher compensation when secondary level teachers are assigned an extra class period for the duration of a school year or semester extending a teacher's course load beyond the level of a typical full-time equivalent course load per the negotiated agreement. In the instance that a teacher takes on an extra class, teachers are to receive the equivalent of 1/8 of their current salary for the year or semester during which they are planning and delivering instruction, assessing, retaching, and performing all the other duties as required when teaching a class to a regular group

012of enrolled students. The grievance implies the teacher should receive additional compensation for being assigned an extra class interpreting flex time, which is a 23minute intervention period that meets twice weekly as an additional teaching assignment. Flex time does not add any instructional minutes to a teacher's workday. Flex time is a result of reducing each class period's instructional minutes by one or two minutes a period and combining those minutes so classroom teachers can have designated time to work with students from their assigned courses who have not yet completed tests, assignments or who do not yet understand the current content being taught which is part of a teacher's professional responsibility. Flex time is not an additional class period as it does not consist of uniquely assigned group of students meeting daily. Therefore, it does not qualify for additional

013compensation according to additional course load compensation standards in the teacher negotiated agreement. Flex time is twice weekly on Tuesday and Thursday during what's called our prime time advisory time from 8:45 to 9:08. With that, I believe the implementing of flex time does not constitute a violation of the teacher negotiated agreement and as such the issuance of 65th contract is not warranted. I appreciate the association's commitment to representing its members and welcome continued dialogue to ensure clarity and mutual understanding regarding the terms of the negotiated agreement. The grievance procedure is intended to promote ongoing open conversation between a teacher and their administrator. I welcome continued dialogue with any teacher who would like to discuss this further. Respectfully, Travis Neil, principal, South Middle School. This letter is to acknowledge the receipt of a level two grievance on

014May 2nd, 20125 from the GFA in regards to flex time as it pertains to the master schedule. The complaint sites article 8 section 4 of the teacher negotiated agreement which addresses teacher compensation when secondary level teachers are assigned an extra class period for the duration of a school year or semester. extending a teacher's course load beyond the level of a typical full-time equivalent course load per the negotiated agreement. In the instance that a teacher takes on an extra class, teachers are to receive the equivalent of 1/8 of their current salary for the year or semester during which they are planning and delivering instruction, assessing, reteing, and performing all other duties as required when teaching a class to a regular group of enrolled students. The grievance implies that teachers should receive additional compensation for being assigned

015an extra class interpreting flex time, a 24-minute intervention period held twice weekly as an additional teaching assignment. Flex time does not add any instructional minutes to a teacher's workday. At Trader Middle School, flex time is conducted during a teacher's advisor adise time, raider time, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so classroom teachers can have designated time to work with students on their assigned courses who have not yet completed tests or assignments or do not yet understand con, which is part of the teacher's professional responsibility. Flex time is not an additional class period as it does not consist of a uniquely assigned group of students meeting daily. Therefore, it does not qualify for additional compensation according to additional course load compensation standards in the teacher negotiated agreement. The admin the administration does not agree with the GFA grievance

016that flex time qualifies as an additional period of classroom instruction. Regarding the district's grievance procedure, it is intended to promote ongoing open conversation between teachers and their administrators. I welcome the continued dialogue with any teacher for the purpose of ensuring clarity and mutual understanding regarding the terms of the negotiated agreement. Respectfully, Dave Noatsky, principal. Okay. And I'm reading this on behalf of Mr. Shai, who is actually at an RTI conference right now. Uh, this letter serves as a formal acknowledgement of the level two grievance submitted by the Grand Forks Education Association on May 2nd, 2025 concerning the implementation of flex time within the master schedule. The grievance cites article A section 4 of the teacher negotiated agreement which provides for additional compensation in cases where secondary teachers are assigned an extra class period for the

017duration of a school year or semester thereby extending their course load beyond that of a standard full-time equivalent. Under the agreement, such assignments require compensation equal to 1/8 of the teacher's current salary for the relevant period. The grievance contends that the twice weekly 26-inute flex period constitutes an additional class period, thus qualifying teachers for supplementary compensation. It is important to clarify that on non-flex days, teachers have 270 minutes of student contact time along with 49 minutes for team collaboration, 49 minutes of preparatory time, a 25m minute duty-free lunch period, 40 minutes prior to the start of the school day, and 30 minutes at the conclusion of the day. On flex days, teachers have 271 minutes of student contact time. 45 minutes for teaming, 45 minutes for preparation, a 25 minute duty-free lunch period, 40 minutes

018prior to the start of the day, and 30 minutes at the end of the day. Flex time does not add instructional minutes to the workday. Rather, it is implemented by reducing each class minute by four minutes and consolidating that time into a dedicated intervention block. This period allows teachers to support students from their own rosters in completing assessments, assignments, or mastering current instructional content as part of their professional duties. Flex time does not involve the assignment of a distinct class of students meeting daily and therefore does not meet the criteria for additional compensation under the provisions outlined in the negotiated agreement. In view of these considerations, it is my position that the implementation of flex time does not constitute a violation of the teacher negotiated agreement and as such the issuance of a six-fifths contract

019is not warranted. The grievance procedure is intended to promote ongoing open conversation between a teacher and their administrator. I welcome the continued dialogue with any teacher to ensure clarity and mutual understanding regarding the terms of the negotiated agreement. Sincerely, Theodore Shai, principal of Valley Middle School. All right, thank you all. Um, and then just to kind of ask you some general questions. So, Dr. Erison, so this has been implemented implemented at Red River the longest. You've had it for over a year. Um, just kind of can you explain to the board and to everyone how Ryder Time came to be at Red River? Um, yes. Thank you. So really writer time came out of teacher feedback. We came after and I hate to even go back to CO but really going back to CO right

020you know we had we had the shorten year we had the every other day we got back to normal the year would have been 2122 and I think teachers thought everything was going to be right back to normal right well what we found out is there was a lot of gaps in students learning during that time students were farther behind and teachers were really struggling working extremely hard spending their preps before school after school trying to catch kids up just running around and working extremely hard. Um and so out of a PD session we had we had an ed camp um kind of theme in the afternoon and ed camp is really where teachers pick the topics that they want to discuss and out of that PD session it really it came around connections with

021kids more time building relationships we're like how how do we do that how do we find more time how do we do a better job building relationships with kids and so that was at the very end of 2122. And so during 2223 again PD sessions, we thought, well, maybe that was just kind of a a really off year because kids were coming back to normal. And the next year, 22 23 really wasn't any better. I mean, teachers were still working extremely hard. Kids were still quite a ways behind. We kept on hearing, "We need more time. We need more time with kids. We if we had more time, we could catch them up, right? We could make a difference." And so that summer, um, we were able to take a team of 13 teachers, one

022special ed coordinator, three administrators, and some district people out to an RTI conference in Seattle to learn about RTI response intervention. And after that conference, teachers are like, "That's it. That's what we need. That would give us what we want to do. It would find the time to to meet with kids." And so we spent the beginning of the 23 24 school year from really when we got back from Seattle, middle of August through the end of March, studying PD or um having PD sessions with our entire staff, answering questions. We formed a guiding coalition that met every other week. Every decision that we made was teacher generated. teachers made the decision. Our guiding coalition made the decision. They represented every department in our school. They would take our minute our minutes, go back, share

023it with their um with their department and we just spent a lot of time answering questions, learning about it, PD, and then it was the guiding coalition along with um teachers in our building made the decision that we're going to start this on April 2nd. They decided that we're going to go two days a week. That was teachers decision. They thought two two days a week was a great place to start. They thought Tuesdays and Thursdays. They thought 30 minutes a week would be perfect. They looked at it as not taking away from their current class, but really banking 30 minutes twice a week to help kids that were struggling with content. When you look at the PLC, Grand Forks has been doing the PLC's for years, right? The first question of professional learning community

024is what do we want students to know and be able to do. The next question is how do we know if they know it right assessments. The first one is standards. And the third one is what do we do when they don't know it? That's RTI. RTI is taking that time when kids don't know it. It's reteing um providing support. And so that's really what we studied for that. And we took like I say that that was six months. It was very thoughtful. Our teachers really led it. They were the ones that were the voice. And so with their and actually Dr. Walters and Mr. Heley and I were like uh maybe next school year would be a little bit better. Maybe we should wait till the beginning of this past school year 24 25.

025And our teachers were no no we're starting fourth quarter. We want to start with our students fourth quarter. That was our teachers decision. So that's really what drove it. It was teachers wanting more time. And honestly, teachers and our teachers will say this, it has saved them time because instead of coming in early before school, instead of giving up their prep time to retach, instead of staying after school to give tests, instead of giving up all their prep time, now they have 30 minute chunks, two 30 minute chunks twice a week to retach, to provide extension activities, to give tests and quizzes. And so it's been really really helpful when this year started. Um you want to get wait a couple weeks to, you know, get some assignments in the books, get to know your

026kids. And we had students coming to us saying, "When's RTI going to start? When's writer time going to start?" And so our students have looked forward to it. Um our students really like being able to get their teachers in the middle of the day and it's been really great for our school. Um, and so overwhelmingly 80% of our teachers view it either agree strongly or agree that this is a good thing. 11% are unsure. So we have about 10% of our teachers that maybe don't think it's the best thing. But overall, when you have about 70 80 to 90% of your teachers that feel this is a good thing and you have 100 teachers in your building, I think that's pretty good. So it's been really great for our school. That's been great for our

027staff. Our teachers will say they get their prep time back and so it's been really positive. We've seen an increase in its student achievement. We presented that information to you back at uh in January. We had a 43% decrease in Fs. Kids are passing classes. We haven't got that data yet since the end of the school year. It's just been a little busy. Um so I mean it's making a difference. And so that coupled with our PLC, coupled with our attendance policy, we're seeing a difference. And it's been, and I can't stress enough how this is teacher voice. This was organic. This came from our teachers. Our teachers are the ones that wanted to figure out a way to get more time. Our teachers are the ones that wanted to get these kids in the

028middle of the day and not try to track them down before school, after school, on their prep periods. But when you have it between second and third hour and every kid is in your building at that time, you're able to catch these kids and you're able to provide additional support. Some of the things that our teachers are doing are just really phenomenal in their RTI sessions. So, it's been really great for our school. All right. Thank you. Um, and you talked about in your response as well that, you know, this was, you know, teacherled. Um you talked about it again here, but you also like talked to the GFA and the GFA agreed with you that this wouldn't, you know, amount to sixth period um classroom instruction under the negotiate agreement, right? Yep. That was

029our conversation with Melissa Bukup, president of GFA at that time and the executive cabinet. They she met with the executive cabinet to discuss this. And so we we met with Dr. Brener and the administrative cabinet. After that, we met with GFA. Good. And so, has rider time at Red River changed from last year to this year? Nope. Nope. Exact same format that we've been using. We hope our We're getting better at it. I can tell you that much. Right. You know, anytime you make a big change in your schedule to a high school schedule and you got to move 1,200 kids to a a lot of them have different classes every Tuesday and Thursday. They're going different places. So, we take 1,200 kids and move them around the building. And it's amazing how quickly it

030happens and where they get to and the support that they receive. Is this the plan for next year, too? Yes. Our guiding coalition has said that yes, we want to continue to do this. We think two days a week is the right amount. So, that's where we're at right now. And again, this is um this is from our teachers. When you say guiding coalition, who's on the guiding coalition is about 13 different teachers. So, it's department representatives from all different departments that are on the guiding coalition. And we meet, like I say, every two weeks, we have our um we have our minutes, we have our discussion, we have our action items. Um it's all driven by teachers. Teachers are the ones making the decision. Our notes are available on our Red River shared drive.

031All teachers have access to what's being discussed. Um we share with them at PD days, you know, and sometimes early outs. So, um, everything is really really there for anybody who wants to look at it. Awesome. All right. Um, and I know this just got implemented at the middle schools. Um, did any one of you kind of want to chat about, you know, why it was started at the middle schools and if it's kind of a similar concept to rider time? Yeah, I can start. Um, so 2223 Valley was identified as CSI. Um, and so we knew we had some areas that we needed to improve on. That was my first year at Valley. Um, and we spent much of that year planning um, and looking at our gaps and thinking what about how we

032can do things differently because we knew things needed to be done differently. Um, in the fall of 23 24 we implemented a a flex like time called win and it was really focused on literacy because that's where we saw a big gap. So we had every um teacher teaching some type of literacy strategy during our flex time. That was grieved and the grievance fell along the lines of teachers were teaching outside of their contract or their content area which was understandable. So we discontinued win and um still start kept brainstorming how we could move forward with providing something different for our students and Red River during that time started writer time. Um, and we were kind of watching to see how they were doing it and okay, they're not it's it seems to be working.

033It seems to be really positive with the teachers. I wonder if we can try it. Um, so then this fall at our middle school admin meetings, our team um kind of we talked about it and Katherine led a lot of discussions and work around what this could possibly look like at the middle school level. Um, and those conversations started in, you know, October, November. um and they were very gradual. Nothing was forced. It was what can we do differently within the middle school master schedule to um support student achievement. Um we we started creating guiding coalitions at our schools. Um so each of our schools has a guiding coalition. Travis, do you want to talk about your work at South? And I would just piggyback a little bit what Dr. Larson was talking. Um it's

034like how can we do this? We were listening to Red River and colleagues there, teachers, my own kids. How can we do this at the middle school level um with the data that we have kind of like Holly was talking, South was a a TSI school at that time. Um what can we do different? How can we do better? Uh so we did back in November like Dr. Larson was talking about, we started just kind of talking about RTI, having Red River come and present to us. Uh we got our instructional coaches involved in December. Uh and then we did form our guiding coalition and we started meeting February 7th and like Dr. Erison had said our guiding coalition, one representative from each team, everybody's represented itself. Uh and we met nine times throughout the

035course of the year leading up to it. Uh so really it came out of look at what they're doing, what can we do different, how can we better, how can we close that gap, especially at that data that you guys are looking at for middle school, you know, in particular. Uh this hits on all those things, the PLC's. So just really got excited and I'll just add a little bit to that as well. We had a similar process at Shrader when we met um and gathered our guiding coalition to uh include teacher voice in that as well. But uh you know the middle school model itself has uh time set aside. I mean we're we're in fact if you look at most RTI models um they're not high school they're actually middle schools that incorporate

036that uh flex time into their into their day. Um at Shrader we used our existing uh raider time our advisor adise time uh which has already been set aside for um uh lessons for example teachers teach lessons um on a on a regular schedule. Um so incorporating um some reteing and opportunities for students to uh make up quizzes and tests and assignments, our teachers found it very valuable even in the short time we um trial it this uh this spring. All right. Thank you all. Can I share one more thing? So I think as a testament to following teacher voice, no one of our schools is doing it the same. We're letting our teachers kind of lead the process. Um at Valley we want to hold that um home room RT time pretty sacred. We

037did not want to interrupt that. Um so our flex time is during a different time of the day and it was decided by our guiding coalition. The length of time was decided by our guiding coalition. Um and and that's really how this whole process has been led is through teachers on the guiding coalition then taking that information back to their grade level teams getting feedback bringing it back to guiding coalition. Okay, we need to rework something. And then it's just kind of a back and forth process to make sure all voices are heard. Thank you. And at the middle school, is the plan to continue this flex time to next year at all of your schools? Yeah. Oh, yeah. We want to Yeah. gradually work into it. Okay. Yeah. All right. Um and then the

038the other thing that was handed to you, I think you all had it on your um in your place today was a letter from Katherine Gillitch. the associate superintendent. I don't know, Katherine, if you want to just read that if you have it in front of you, too. And and this came back in March when the conversation just kind of started with the GFA from um when they kind of started the the process before the grievance, I believe. But go ahead. Yes, correct. And it was on the heels of a couple of meetings with um Mr. Olsen and um GFA representatives about the concept of flex time. We had a couple of different discussions about it. And um this was born from um those conversations because there were some concerns about it becoming something that

039we um not that we were articulating but it would grow into something that might be a problem down the line. So this was my way to address that to provide some reassurance um to get the pilot off the ground. So the date of the memo is March 25, 2025. It's to Mr. radios and GFA president for myself says the purpose of this memo is to clarify what middle school flex time is and is not and to outline the pilot timeline. The PLC process asks four critical questions. Number one, what do we want students to know and be able to do? Those are the proficiency standards. Number two, how will we know if they have learned it? Those are assessments. Number three, how will we respond when students do not learn? Intervention. Number four, how do

040we respond if they already know it? And that's where extension or enrichment comes in. The typical learning process involves acquiring new information through listening, reading, watching, experiencing, processing and understanding it, and applying that information, practice assignments or sessions, projects, labs, demonstrations, etc. to give evidence of true understanding. Our commitment is to ensure all students learn at high levels, which means they have access to grade level standards. The reality is that not all students learn at the same rate and pace and some will require extra time and exposure to understand a standard. Flex time provides teachers with extra time during the school day to respond when students do not learn. This is known as response to an intervention or RTI tier 2. Flex time is a 25 to 28 minute session two times per week. Time

041can be captured by banking a few minutes from each period of the day to be used for intervention or at the middle level by supplanting the advisory period. Building guiding coalitions should determine which is best for their building students and needs. Flex time is time to retach the content standards. Excuse me. Flex time is time to retach the content teachers are currently teaching in the curriculum for which they are licensed to do interventions. It is not an additional class and does not require prepping for unrelated content. It is not teaching outside their content area license. Teachers may also use this time for guided practice, working on homework and projects with teacher support or guided study hall, making up tests and independently completing homework with active teacher supervision. Teachers will identify the students they need to

042work with during team time or PLC time using the RTIuler platform. Students will remain in their team. An exception would be if an allied arts teacher requests to work with their rostered students who may be assigned to different teams. During the pilot, each core curriculum area may be given priority weeks. For example, in week one, the science department gets first pick of the students they need to work with. In week two, ELA and so forth. Guiding coalitions will determine what model best serves teachers during the pilot. It is also suggested that students report to the same teacher during both sessions during the week for the pilot period. The middle school pilot will run for four weeks proposed to begin the week of April 22nd, 2025 and end May 15th with a dry run the week

043of April 15th so students can practice getting to their assigned sessions. Guiding coalitions may choose to modify these dates. Feedback will be gathered once the pilot is completed to assess strengths and concerns. We are excited to trial this intervention opportunity based on the student achievement improvements other schools have recognized from similar models. We appreciate your willingness to do the same. Thank you. So I was mistaken. This was before flex time was initiated at the middle schools just to kind of give everyone peace of mind as of what it would be. Correct. Okay. And then we we heard from the principles that each school does have a guiding coalition. So it seems like all of these things were accurate that you indicated. Is that right? Correct. And as Dr. Larson said, that's why the model at

044each building is slightly different. Um, but again, that was teacher le um and teacher designed. Okay. Thank you. Um, so um moving back to kind of the grievance procedure, you heard all the principles talk about their responses. The GFA then did go to the next step and submit um their grievance to the superintendent and you have his responses as well. Um, Dr. Brena, Brener, do you want to read your responses both to the middle school one and to Red River? Um, dated May 28th. Yes. Do Do you want me to read the May 19th one? Um, you don't have to. Um, for it is in there just for everyone's knowledge the that there was a conversation and that they did meet per the grievance procedure and then after they met, Dr. Brener issued his written

045decision. But if you want to just read the written decision. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Uh this memo is to Brady Olsson, president and Joe Drum, vice president, Grand Forks Education Association from myself. Uh date May 28th, 2025. And the subject was step three, grievance response flex time implementation at middle schools. Thank you for meeting with me at 12:00 noon on Wednesday, May 21st, 2025 regarding the Grand Forks Education GFA uh GFA's grievance pursuant to policy 4120 and article 8 section 4 of the teacher negotiated agreement. I appreciate the time and engagement in discussing this matter and acknowledge the meetings held with district and school leadership to express your concerns related to the implementation of flex time at Shrader South and Valley Middle Schools. After thorough review of the grievance, relevant contractual language, supporting

046documentation, and the feedback gathered from all stakeholders, the district respectfully denies the grievance for the following reasons. Number one, instructional assignment definition. Flex time as implemented does not constitute an an additional assigned sixth period of classroom instruction as defined in article 8 section 4, the teacher negotiated agreement. The purpose and structure of flex time are designed to support student intervention and enrichment in a non-traditional flexible learning format. Teachers retain professional discretion over this time and are not required to deliver a traditional classroom instructional period as contemplated by the negotiated provision. Number two, teacher initiated participation and professional responsibilities. The flex time schedule was developed collaboratively at the building level with teacher input and its implementation is aligned with the broader instructional goals of the district. Participation in flex time falls with within the scope of

047professional responsibilities and does not meet the criteria for additional compensation under the contractual language concerning a six a sixth instructional period. Number three, compensation clause application. The district maintains that article 8 section 4 applies exclusively to situations in which a sixth classroom period of traditional instruction is administratively assigned as part of a teacher's regular daily schedule. Flex time as designed and executed does not alter the standard teaching load in this way and therefore does not qualify for the additional 1/8 salary compensation. As such, the district does not find a contractual basis to grant back pay or ongoing compensation related to the flex time schedule at Shrader South or Valley Middle Schools. We re remain committed to upholding the negotiated agreement and ensuring that any future initiatives continue to honor the terms set forth therein. We

048value our ongoing collaboration with GFA and welcome continued dialogue on how to best meet the educational needs of our students while supporting our educators. And then moving on to the uh one relative to rider time at Red River High School. This memo was also to Brady Olsson, president and Joe Drum, vice president, Grand Forks Education Association. From me, May 28th, 2025, level three grievance response, writer time at Red River High School. Thank you for meeting with me at noon on Wednesday, May 21st, 2025 regarding Grand Forks Education Association's following procedures outlined in Grand Forks Public Schools policy 4120. The district acknowledges GFA's concerns regarding the implementation of writer time at Red River High School and appreciates the opportunity to respond as part of the level three grievance process. Following a thorough review of the grievance,

049the relevant provisions in the teacher negotiated agreement, specifically article 8, section 4, and the factual circumstances surrounding writer time, the district respectfully denies the grievance for the reasons outlined below. One, writer time does not constitute a sixth period of classroom instruction. The language in article 8 section 4 refers explicitly to a sixth period of classroom instruction as defined by the assignment of an additional traditional instructional class beyond the normal teaching load. Writer time while scheduled within the school day does not constitute a traditional sixth class period. It is structured as a flexible intervention and enrichment block intended to support student learning needs through advisory remediation and other nonredit bearing activities. The nature and scope of writer time differ significantly from a standard course or instructional period. Teachers retain flexibility in how this time is used

050and it is not treated as a sixth assigned instructional class in the master schedule. Number two, assignment scope and contractual responsibilities. The writer time schedule was developed collaboratively at the building level with teacher input and its implementation is aligned with the broader instructional goals of the district. Participation in writer time falls within the scope of professional responsibilities and does not meet the criteria for additional compensation under the contractual language concerning a sixth instructional period. Number three, compensation eligibility. Because writer time does not qualify as a sixth period of classroom instruction under the definition and and intent of article 8 section 4, the request for back pay and hourly compensation from the 202425 school year onward does not meet the threshold for compensation under the terms of the negotiated agreement. Number four, response to GFA's rebuttals.

051The district acknowledges the January 6th, 2024 communication and reiterates that writer time was implemented with transparency and ongoing dialogue, including opportunities for teacher input in April 2024. Any concerns about retaliation are taken seriously. However, no formal complaints or evidence of retaliation have been presented and the district remains committed to fostering a respectful and open work environment. The district maintains that article 8 section 4 applies exclusively to situations in which a sixth classroom period of in of traditional instruction is administratively assigned as part of the teacher's regular daily schedule. Writer time as designed and executed does not alter the standard teaching load in this way and therefore does not qualify for the additional 1/8 salary compensation. Because writer time was implemented in April 2024, GFA's grievance has exceeded the one-year threshold of when an agrievance may

052be submitted. Conclusion: Based on the information provided in the applicable language of the negotiated agreement, the district finds no contractual basis for the grievance and respectfully denies the requested resolution. Grand Forks Public Schools remains committed to honoring the language and spirit of the negotiated agreement and to working collaboratively with GFA to support both staff and student success. We appreciate GFA's dedication to its members and look forward to continuing our professional dialogue. All right. Thank you. And then um the reason we're here today is that the GFA then went to level four and submitted the grievance um to the board. Um and you have that as well. I'm going to read that one um out loud. The issue pursuant to Grand Forks Public Schools policy 4120 grievance procedure for teachers. Grand Forks Education Association Association GFA

053is pursuing step three of the grievance procedure in response to Shrader South and Valley Middle School's flex time. On February 10th, 2025, Brady Olsen, GFA president, and Joe Drum, GFA vice president, met with Dr. Dr. Katherine Galatch, associate superintendent of secondary education to review GFA's concerns regarding the implementation of flex time. On February 27th, 2025, Mr. Olsen and Mr. Drum met with Dr. Glatch a second time. On March 20th, 2025, Mr. Olsen met with Dr. Glatch. Dr. Glatch responded with a memo dated March 25th, 2025. And I think that's the memo that you all saw that that she read aloud. On April 28th, 2025, Mr. Olsson and Mr. Drum met with Theodore Shai Valley middle school principal, Travis Neil, South Middle School principal, and David Natsky Schrader middle school principal to review GFA's concerns regarding

054the implementation of flex time. During the meeting, it was communicated that there was no agreement between the two sides. A formal written grievance was submitted via email um to those three principles individually by GFA President Brady Olsen on May 5th, 2025. Mr. Olsen received a response via email and disagreement um individually on May 9th. Those are the ones that um they read out loud. On May 15, 2025, Mr. Olsen submitted the level three grievance to Dr. Terry Brener. Per policy 4120. A meeting to review the grievance was held on May 21st. Dr. Brener, uh Mr. Olsen and Mr. Drum were present. A written response denying the grievance was emailed on May 28th. And that's the response that Dr. Brener just read. And then they quote the negotiated agreement section again. And they say all teachers

055at Shrader South and Valley middle schools were informed of flex time. And after factf finding reviewing the documents given to teachers and testimonials from teachers, it became clear that all were expected to follow the schedule of flex time. By definition, all Shrader South and Valley Middle School teachers were assigned a sixf period 2 days a week by the administration of GFPS triggering article 8 section 4. As per the teacher negotiate agreement, they are to receive six-fifth compensation for the time worked during the year. Dr. Brener's response included three disagreements on this issue. The following are the rebuttal statements as to each of those responses. One, the demands flex time sessions place on teachers. Interventions, guided work sessions, team study hall, or enrichment require significant planning. Teachers need to be compensated for the equivalency of one

056extra class period per week that they are providing these sessions per article 8 section 4 of the teacher negotiate agreement. Two, GFA recognizes the scope of teachers professional responsibilities and the need for compensation when an additional period of instruction in this case one period over the course of a week is provided per article 8 section 4 of the teacher negotiated agreement. Three, GFA recognizes that the addition of flex time to the middle school schedules places additional duties on teachers which they need to be compensated for per article 8 section 4 of the teacher negotiate agreement resolution. Um the GFA is seeking the district to pay one hour per week to each teacher at Shrader South and Valley Middle School utilizing their individual hourly rate. This includes back pay dating to the first day, April 15,

0572025. Flex time was implemented through the continuation of this schedule structure. Two, GFA is seeking all future instances to follow the language of the negotiated agreement. They also submitted a level four grievance relating to um Red River School's rider time and that's in your materials as well. Um it's very similar. They go through the background again. They quote the negotiate agreement again and then they say all teachers at Red River were informed of rider time and after factf finding and testimonials from teachers. It became clear that all were expected to follow the schedule of rider time by by definition all Red River High School teachers were assigned a six-fifth period two days a week by the administration of GFPS triggering article 8 section 4. As per the negotiate agreement, the art received six-fifth compensation for

058the time worked during the year. Dr. Arison's response included four disagreements on this issue. The following are the rebuttal statements to each of those responses. One, in clarifying the email Melissa Bukup sent on January 6, 2024, it was the understanding of GFA at the time that rider time would be piloted and further discussion on full implementation would take place in the fall of 2024. Two, GFA is bringing forward this grievance on behalf of teachers who are concerned about retaliation if they speak skeptically of writer time. Three, writer time is equal to a sixth period of classroom instruction provided once per week split into two sessions. Four, GFA believes this grievance is valid. The implementation of the writer time pilot was April 2nd, 2024. The full implementation of writer time began on the first day of

059the 2425 school year, August 27th, 2024. Dr. Brener's response included three disagreements on this issue. The following are the rebuttal statements to each of those responses. One, writer time constitutes a sixth period of classroom instru instruction as it is equal to one additional period of instruction per week. Two, GFA recognizes the scope of teachers professional responsibilities and the need for compensation when an additional period of instruction. In this case, one period over the course of a week is provided for article 8 section 4 of the teacher negoti negotiated agreement. Three, GFA recognizes that the addition of writer time to the Red River High School schedule places additional duties on teachers which they need to be compensated for per article 8 section 4 of the teacher negotiate agreement. And the resolution for this one that they're

060requesting is one GFA seeking the district to pay one hour per week to each teacher at Red River High School utilizing their individual hourly rate. This includes back pay dating to the first day rider time was implemented. the 2425 school year which began on through the continuation of this schedule structure and to GFA is seeking all future instances to follow the language in the negotiated agreement and here we are today. Um so ultimately um it's it's Dr. Brener's decision. and he did agree with the with the principles that neither flex time nor rider time would qualify for sixth period compensation for the reasons listed in the responses also as to rider time. Um his response or his decision indicated that it was past the time frame to bring a grievance. Um and I I do

061have some comments that I'll make in executive session as to my legal opinion more uh when we get into that. Um but overall I do agree with with Dr. Brener's decision. If the GFA wants to discuss um why they believe the superintendent's decision should be changed, they can do so now if they'd like. Okay. Good evening. Um GFA is presenting the following level four gre grievance for board consideration. through continued discussion and factf finding. GFA maintains the opinion that writer time currently implemented implemented at Red River High School and flex time piloted at the middle schools this last year violate the terms of the teacher negotiated agreement. Rather than restating the initial do initial document, we'd like to explain our perspective on how these directives violate our contract. To start, writer time and flex time

062requires student contract contact, rigor, intentional interventions, and other teaching method methodology. Through conversations with teachers impacted, GFA was initially made aware of the asks Ryder Time placed upon Red River High School teachers. In practice, these asks became more rigorous as the year progressed and as progress was observed for rider time. At the behest of the district administration, flex time was added to the calendar following the methodology of writer time. Through the course of the year, additional interventions have also appeared, all citing the success of writer time as their basis of operation. As outlined in the grievance, writer time is an additional class period of instruction. As the year progressed, the following information was passed on to GFA. The work required to make worthwhile lessons constituted the same sort of prep work for a typical class

063period. Teachers needed to rotate responsibilities as many saw this time as an additional rotating class they needed to teach. Emphasis on metrics was reported by all involved even in reports given to this schoolboard. This created additional pressure to do more on behalf of the teachers. Contractual understanding supersedes any individual opinion. When all of this information was gathered and pieced together, it was clear that the issue needed to be grieved and corrected in as timely of a manner as possible. Hence why we're here today. All right. Thank you. If the board has any questions from either the GFA or the administration, they can certainly ask. Um, now questions from board members. Mr. Cleven? Yeah, I probably have a few. Uh, hopefully they're short. All right. Um, does any of this require creation of new like teaching

064content and materials outside what's already being taught in the classroom? In other words, if you're teaching arithmetic, are you being now asked to teach calculus? I'm just using that as an example. In most instance in instances, no. But I know there I've we've been reported that there are some rotational things in which a teacher who does not normally teach that course is then um um given the duty to re re to teach a a course depending on that week. That's the rotational aspect from what we understand. So that that sounds like a teacher rotation scheduling problem, not a teaching new material problem. Would you agree with that kind of summary that that problem could be addressed if it were in fact I'll take it as a fact it's a problem but it could be addressed

065by rotating the teachers differently. Do you agree with that? I suppose however the the amount of preparation work still remains the same. Um and it's not just it's not just something that is is put together. It it it has been explained as if it's oh so simple to do these these 25 or 30 minute periods. You talk to the teachers um and and ask them the amount of work that's being put in and it is much more than is has been described to you today. Um teachers are spending their prep time which is precious time and certainly not enough to get all the duties done um within with for what is required to teach. Um, and now they're a having this additional prep added to their schedule to so when a a group of students

066show up for this prep time or for this flex or writer time that they have something to present to them um to those students who come to their classroom. So this may be a follow-up question then for any of the principles uh the these sessions is there an expectation that like a a the teachers actually I I'm sorry if I'm fumbing with my words here uh do they have to give a formal presentation and and presentation or a teaching moment or is it being available for students to ask questions and have questions answered? In other words, is it kind of student directed by question and answer or is there an actual component of teachers having to present material? Um, so there's different types of sessions. So, one of our sessions that we have would be

067the traditional help session where kids would come in, ask questions, get help on their homework, have a teacher there. We have some teachers that retach um a standard. So for example, a teacher maybe gave an assessment and there was a significant amount maybe there was a small group of kids that didn't comprehend it. So that teacher would then create a session, bring those students back in, retach the standard that they had previously taught. They're teaching in a small group. They're teaching it to a similar group of kids that have the same type of um struggle with that assessment. And so there's some retaching there, but it is retaching of already taught content. There's nothing new that they're being asked to teach during any of these sessions. Yeah. And I would add to that um you

068know, some of the guard rules that we had in place um it was reteing of the standard of the lesson that they had or previewing of a priority standard coming up. Um going back to the PLC work that Dr. Glatch was talking about, Dr. Harrison. Um, also they have to teach within their lensure area only. So the content area that they're teaching that they're licensed to teach, that's what they're doing. Not unless they do something maybe on a rotation and they said, "Hey, I'll do it. No problem." And it's optional at that point. There's no presentations given. Kids are coming in and getting work done. They're getting help. Teacher is not standing up and presenting for 30 minutes during this time. they're taking a skill or a standard that they just assessed on or they're

069pre-eaching, you know, um so and catching kids up and be teaching a standard. Something they'd probably be doing after school on their prep time, but now it's carved in to their regular day. As far as a rotational, I'm not sure if that was directed at rider time or a middle school. Um no teacher has asked to teach a class that they don't currently teach. Never. Never. As far as a rotational, we might have a teacher do a geometry lesson one day because that's what they choose to do and then the next time they might teach an algebra lesson, but they teach both of those classes. They're not asked to teach something they don't teach. And I can add to that, they're not really asked to teach, they create their own session. So they within the

070RTI scheduler, they look at what they're doing in the classroom and create a session based off of those standards. So if they're learning angles in geometry, their session might be a review of angles in geometry. We're not telling them what they have to teach. They are creating their own session. Just to add one more thing. And at the high school level, each department does it a little bit different, right? I mean, math is very straightforward, right? Um they have it really planned out. you know, English kind of does each grade level kind of does thing a little bit differently, but um however they want to do it in their PLC and however they want to best meet the needs of their students is the way each department schedules their their session and teachers schedule their

071session. Teachers create their own sessions. We have no part in the sessions that they create. Uh may I continue? I don't want to hog the time. Okay. Thank you. Uh but I've heard now a couple times some reference to creating a session that could that imply that out of diligence and professional rigor that teachers feel compelled to come prepared and not just you know bring the old stuff with them. Absolutely. Yeah. They the the the word retach keeps being tossed out. I don't know how reteaching doesn't require prep work. Um, it's not just simply I'm going to do this lesson again with you that I did yesterday. It's teachers finding the materials for the student that was missed. And when you get a a group of students in there, they may be at like five

072different levels of what they need. And a teacher has to prep for all of that because they don't just get 20 students in their classroom who all missed the same thing. That doesn't really happen in the classroom. It's it's 20 students who maybe this group missed some over here, this group missed over here. And so a teacher is having to put together materials and and a lot of times go back and find the materials and make make new copies, put up new content and and take them through all of those th those things once again. And even though they've done it once before, it does not mean that it is that it that is just snap of the fingers and it's done so easily as it is being described right now. May I have a

073point of clarification? And I I want these folks over here to correct me if I'm wrong. I respectfully disagree. Teachers are selecting the students they want to work with. So if there is a classroom um that has students in period 135 that have are missing that skill set, they're handpicking the students that they want to work with them. And so if that dynamic is what is being encountered, it's because that's the dynamic that is being created by choice by the teachers. I would disagree with that. Um, this is especially at the middle school level, this was not as organic as it has been described. It has been completely administration. When teachers have raised concerns, for instance, um, whenever a teacher brought up that this this appears to be a breach of contract, it is quickly

074shut down immediately saying this is not what we're here to do. We're here to talk about solutions and things like that. So much so at the school at at at our middle school I know that each uh session or week um has a focus. So on th this week the focus is on math. So guess what the math teachers need to be doing? They can't just be running a simple study hall. Some of them have to be doing guiding the the guiding practice doing reteing. Got to do all of this stuff. It is not just kids coming into the room and and making it sound so simple as that they just come in sit down and learn their things and go from there. It is focused and the pressure that the teachers are feeling because

075of the be legendary goals which are are very much pu pushed out as a part of the messaging of this program is is being put on the math and English teachers. They can't just simply do a uh a study hall and call it good. um in and and what is being already presented for next fall. There has been the the thing about the RTI scheduler is it tracks data and there um has been discussion about how there was an awful lot of uh um study halls and not a lot of guided feedback or guided um lessons and things of that nature. and and it's also being uh encouraged that teachers um uh are are are guiding their sessions with the priority standards that the district has, which is just like teaching a lesson. Now we're

076now we're back to teaching in a regular classroom. And it and they also want like the the pri the standards to be noted in their in their plans as they are submitted as a part of of the feedback in this in this program. It's it's being made to sound so simple, but you talk to the teachers and some of them are are putting in a lot more work um for this new thing that has been added onto their schedule. Yeah, I would just like to say one thing to that. He's right. This hasn't been easy. This has been a lot of hard work and our teachers are doing amazing things. It hasn't been easy, but they're doing amazing things for this. So, when we talk about simple, it has been simple. We've been talking about

077this for many, many months. We've been getting teacher input since back in December, January, February. Um, so simple, easy, no, it's been hard, but good work. And I think some clarification on some of the verbiage. The create a session, we just say that because that's what the button says on RTIuler. We're not creating like they don't have to create something. Create a session is the what the button says. You create a session. It's auler. It's on it's the software that we use. um the rotation of the different subject areas. We simply do that to so that we're not all fighting for the same kids. So we have different priorities for each week. So one week it might be a math priority week. That just means math teachers get to choose select the students for their

078session who really need a math intervention first and then the next day it opens up to all the other teachers to select the students for their sessions. The next week it might be a language arts priority week. That means they get to choose select their students for their sessions who really need a literacy intervention and then the next day everybody else gets to select. So that's the rotation. Um but we also have allied arts has a priority week. Um science has a priority week, social studies, everybody has a priority week. Um so that everybody gets a chance to have first selection of students who really need the intervention at that time. And that's just how the software works. We just have to do it that way so we can pick the kids who need the

079intervention first. Anything else, Mr. Cleven? No, I'm I'm That was a very good informative. Thank you, everybody. Uh Dr. L. Next. Thank you, Mr. President. Um as you guys know, I've came here shortly after Moses came down the mountain. So, I' I've been here a while, and I've I've I've watched my kids now, my grandkids, and and lots of my patients through the years struggle in various classes. And what I'm wondering is, you know, back then I I remember my daughter and my granddaughter especially, they were struggling classes. They they got help from their teachers and and I'd be emailing at 8:00 at night. I'm wondering what's what was what was what's different now compared to to back then because those those they weren't called art, they weren't called rider time, they weren't called interventions.

080They were helping kids who were struggling in various classes. And I'm wondering what's the difference between what they were doing back in the 80s, 90s, 2000, 210 up till a year and a half ago and and now I'm wondering what what is the difference and I'd be interested in hearing from any and all. I'll take a crack at that. I think the one thing and I just want to say Mr. Olsson said it is hard work. There's no doubt catching kids up and reteing is hard work. And I feel what our teachers were doing before is trying to catch them on their prep periods, trying to catch them after school, trying to catch them before school. Now they have 30 minutes in the middle of the day to reach these kids and to and to

081work with them and to help them. So I do agree with Mr. Dson. It is hard work. Anytime kids have gaps in their learning, anytime they need additional ways, it's it's not easy. And so I I will say that and I think the difference right now is that parents don't have to email the teacher and say, "When are you going to meet with my kid? when can you help my kid or get an email from a parent saying my student can be there every day after school at three o'clock. No, the teacher has meetings. They have prep to do. Now we say we will be sure your student gets into the RTI time to get the help that they need and then that frees up the teachers time after school. Frees up their time on

082their prep time. So, um I agree with Mr. Rollson. It's not easy. Um, but I think our teacher would say it's freeing them up on their prep times and they are able to reach some of their students that have some of those gaps. Other questions from board members? Yes, Miss Flynn, please. Um, could someone tell me um within middle school I Travis your letter had it kind of documented but middle school and high school what are the minutes of each period and how many periods are there? So like is it a 26 minute period and there's six periods or like what's the on a typical day not just flex time? Uh for us it's 49 minutes is a typical day and then on a flex day it's 45 minutes. And how many periods each? Seven.

083Seven. Including what I know as Raider time like that includes like home room. Yeah. In the seven periods when we started on April 22nd, we use this schedule Monday through Friday. So it wasn't just like a Tuesday Thursday because that was one of the pieces that came from our guiding coalition. We want the same schedule because with middle school kids and different schedules maybe Monday, Wednesday, Friday compared to just Tuesday, Thursday and then the whole week. So we kept the schedule Monday through Friday, seven periods. It affected periods one uh through seven by one to two minutes. Each period got shaved off. We also used like Doc or Mr. Nazki said, we used our prime time advisory time in the morning. So we only lost one minute periods one through three by extending the raider

084time a little bit longer. So we're 47 minute periods with a 24 minute um flex time on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Seven periods, correct? How about high school, Dr. Erison? How many minutes are each period in high school and how many periods do you have? Oh, our periods are 50 minutes and we have eight periods a day. Now, 8th period doesn't have a lot of classes, but it is an eight period day. And then when you have RTI, 30 minutes, 30 minute periods. 30-minute period for RTI. Yep. Like periods. No, our periods aren't 30 minutes. Oh, I'm sorry. The periods are 45 minutes. So we take five minutes off each period. And then RTI specifically is 30. Still eight periods. Yep. Okay. Same name. Um I think this was stated, but are you aware of any

085teachers teaching outside their content area? No. Okay. Um I will add to that I've had teachers that can I have no problem doing it. So I'm aware of a couple because they've told me they don't mind doing it. They want to do it to help. They want to do it to help math or ELA. So they've told me they want to do it. Sure. They're volunteering with their team. Would that be a teacher that has experience in that subject though? like maybe a PE teacher who's never had any advanced math class is not going to stand up and volunteer and say I want to teach math, right? Yeah. No. Is that for GFA? Is that uh there was some conversation about teachers teaching outside of their content area? So, could you share examples? Uh we

086we aren't concerned with that. That was last year with with wind time. Mhm. We were concerned about that for this the this this concern does not involve teachers teaching out of their content area. Okay. It's it's the the fact that they're that were not following the negotiated agreement. Okay. I'm curious on that because in your statement you had mentioned that there were teachers that were kind of teaching in other areas. Um so that was brought up with the rotation within uh so for example a math class if it's a math individual um students come in potentially maybe you know they teach uh geography or excuse me not geography um they teach geometry uh and an individual comes in that has a calculus related question if it's that teacher's turn or time in order to do

087so they'll do what they can to help that student if that's the classroom that's considered open during the RTI time block that's part of the concern that was being brought up at this time is we have teachers well not necessarily outside of their license area um and it was reported to us uh by two individuals now that that is common practice within um their departments at this time. Can you explain that just a little more? So, so I'm thinking a math teacher knows calculus, algebra, geometry. So what would behoove a student from coming in and saying I have this question? Oh, but it's only calculus day. I just don't understand kind of the the way that it was explained to me is individuals will come in and there are certain classes that they are uh

088more or less expected to go to for that day within the department. When they go to that classroom, the teacher that is uh teaching in that course will uh by their certification be able to teach um any number of math subjects. For example, just using math as the example there. Um, so if somebody comes in with a calculus related question, that teacher, that individual is certified. They may not necessarily be teaching that course at that time, but they have the content knowledge to ha to help the kid. Um, the individual that came forward with the concern uh came forward with that concern because he uh felt pressure in order to do that piece. Um, and uh it it's he doesn't want to come forward and express that pressure out of fear of retaliation. um and

089out of fear of situations like that. But that pressure piece uh is is very prevalent in the writer time piece right now. So speak to that really quick. Um at the middle school level, we don't have any open sessions. So students aren't able to just show up to a session. High school, Miss Dr. Er can speak to what that looks like for them. Um but middle school teachers are only teaching students who they have on their team. They're staying within their teams. So they wouldn't have anybody in their class that wasn't in their class with the exception of some allied arts teachers. Um they sometimes have to cross team because they teach all grade levels and all students. But they have a select they have a a uh now I'm create a session. They have

090a session that they created that a student would fit into that session. So they would have that there. But you can talk about open sessions if you want. I don't know if Yeah. And I think um when you talk about pressure, I think when when we met earlier, you said that was more colleial pressure. Uh Mr. Drum, not administrative pressure that they were when we met back in May that you said that for the for the most part that's what was indicated as well. Um and they they had indicated that it was uh a little bit of you know from their perspective it felt like it was both but they did express that there was a significant amount of collegial pressure. Yes. Gotcha. Okay. So yeah, like say each department does thing another way, does

091their schedule different ways. So in math, you're right, there might be a teacher that's focusing on that they're reteaching a geometry standard that day and one math teacher may have a help session and within that help session could be any number of math students who need help with a specific math question. So you know, you might get in a math help session, you might get a geometry question, you might get a an algebra question, you could get an algebra 2 question. That is true, but math teachers are all certified to teach those classes. So, that does happen in some of the some of the content areas. I think it speaks to the power of the system actually because instead of maybe one math teacher handing out makeup quizzes, you might have a math teacher in

092a department doing all the makeup quizzes. That's what happens. Freeing up teachers to do reteing, answer questions, get kids help during that session. It's a it's an efficiency standpoint and that's really kind of the way it works is right you know so a lot of math teachers teach three different preps they can't do an RTI session on one day for all three of those preps it just doesn't work so they pick one of their preps and as a department they make up the decision how it's going to work and they kind of it's kind of that um synergy that they create within their department to get help and so I just kind of want to go back to one of the questions Dr. asked about parents, right? So, we surveyed parents as well on our

093on our um feedback from and so question one, I feel writer time has a positive impact on my child's ability to be successful in school. 75% of the parents agreed. Um I feel that writer time at RHS has allowed my child more opportunity to complete work and master the content they are currently covering in their class. 72% of the parents agreed or strongly agreed. Um we have seen a positive impact on my child's stress level knowing they have access to their teachers during rider time to help um for to seek help and support and that was 60% of the students responded favorably to that and there's a large unsure like in that question there's 21% unsure right so um so that was just back to Dr. 's question. Um I have just a couple more

094questions. Um is there a version of this done in elementary school? No. No, there is not. Um there are interventions provided within the individual course or in individual school or individual classrooms. Thank you. Okay. Y So let me share an example because maybe what I'm thinking is not what I am assuming the answer to be. When my daughter was in third grade, um the teachers would work in their PLC's to determine which students needed to catch up, which students needed interventions. And so they would take those students out of, let's say, math, and they would rotate. So maybe my teachers or my daughter's teacher was Miss Corbin, but one of the other third grade teachers was the intervention teacher. So they would move those students to the intervention teacher. There would be some catch-up teachers

095and all three of those would still have a same period but they would specifically pair students with that skill set of that teacher. So when you said no, I'm thinking this sort of is similar. So can you expand on that? So what I would say is that within the confines of the way the schedule is laid out within elementary that they have that flexibility in there to to do that within the confines of their coursework. Um so with during math time or within social studies it's not laid out where they're going to have 45 minutes and go from class to class. um within the flexibility of the elementary day, they have that flexibility and they do utilize it within interventions uh to get the students what they need at the given time that they need

096it. Um but it's not laid out similar to the middle school and high school level um where they go from course to course. So we could say in some ways the intent is similar but maybe apples to oranges based on schedule. I would agree with that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um, was there a response from GFA to Dr. Galach's letter clarifying flex time, what it is and what isn't? Not really. We um, we had had that discussion and asked for those guidelines. They didn't feel like they went far enough to really make us feel comfortable with with what was being proposed. And after meeting with the lawyer, that's when um we decided that we needed to grieve. We did um alert Dr. Galach that we we were unfortunately having to go this path. Um but we

097didn't provide a response at that time. Um we also were waiting to see um how it was being um presented to um the different middle schools. Um and and it was it was distributed, but it didn't seem like the guard rails were there to keep this from being something um or morphing into something that it wasn't intended to be, which is one of our our big concerns is um it starts like this and then it turns into something different. Um, it could be it could be two periods this year, it could be three periods next year, it could be 45 minutes, and then all of a sudden we've got an an an additional period in the day. There's no stopping that train from moving other than us bringing these concerns to the table. And um,

098and there's there's no document written anywhere. in in the letter, the email that was uh presented by Melissa Bukup, um it it stated in there that um we would look look forward to seeing the guidelines from Red River. We never received any guidelines. We have no idea what they are. We don't know what they were initially and we don't know what they are now. And um this is the the one of our concerns. It's the contractual aspect of this. there's there's just the contract is laid out pretty clear. Um and it has nothing to do with how many minutes a class is. It's a class. Um and and and we're stating that the two periods consist like they pretty much equal out to one class period. So we're not saying that each instance of flex

099or writer time is a class. We're saying the two together. Um, so whether they're it it the the the minutes doesn't doesn't factor into the negotiated agreement at all, but um there's there's just no it's it's no way to keep this from becoming something totally different. And and we're already seeing it. We've seen it. You know, Red River, they they there are a lot of positives. We acknowledge that. And if I mean, and and they acted in good faith. There's just some unintentional consequences that are going on here. It it was it was done, like I said, in good faith, but it it it was done against the contract. And when we've brought these concerns up, it it's just kind of we're been told, no, it's not that and without real explanation as to why,

100you know, why is it not just because we said it's not? You're reteing, which is the same as teaching. teaching is in the word reteing. We're being asked to do these these things um that are additional. They are absolutely additional to to what our workload was prior to writer time, prior to flex time. And we hear a lot from the teachers who who are positive about it. You are not hearing very much from the teachers who have concerns except for when we are speaking over here. There's been a lot of data showing that that uh there's there's good response, but none of those questions, none of those none of that um uh survey presented as the question, are you okay? Are you okay with this if this breaks the contract? That question has never been

101asked. And so teachers maybe don't realize that this is a a breach of contract. And that is our big concern here. We spend a lot of time, it's called a negotiated agreement. And I love that name because we negotiated it together and um and you guys put a lot of work into it these, you know, Joe and the negotiation team over years and and it's a lot of work that goes into it and we want both sides to honor that negotiated agreement which we've worked so hard to create. Um, and so these are these are our concerns and and it's it's not the we're not here to debate whether or not the the the benefits um or that students need help. We we absolutely understand that. We are are just focusing on the fact that

102this added assignment and it has been added by the administration. Nobody no teacher has the option to not do it. They are required to do something during that time. they are they are required to take students into their class. They are required to take um some attendance. Um they are required to do something um during that time. And some teachers some teachers are are feeling the pressure absolutely to do something um as a part of the the the goals that the district has laid out and where the shortcomings are. Those teachers feel that pressure every single day and now are feeling the added pressure to get, you know, to to do even more to create more contact content with the same amount of prep time. And now the the prep time that they had devoted

103for their five assigned courses, uh, some of that time is being diverted because I've got a prep time or a flex time session coming up. And that is that is a fact. That is not an opinion. that is absolutely happening and and if somebody's saying it's not then they're not listening to their teachers. Um thank you for that. Um so just to clarify there was no response from GFA to Dr. Galat's letter. There was no formal response. No. Okay. Um there seems to be reference to prep time um in a lot of the conversations. Um, the grievance isn't related to prep time though, correct? Ask again. There's a lot of inferences to prep time, but this grievance isn't related to prep time. Correct. No, it is not related to prep time, but it does um

104illustrate, you know, the the the message keeps being sent out that this does not require any prep. Um, and we want to make the point that it absolutely does. um just like the other courses that the teachers are required to as a as a part of their regular course load. Um there was a couple conversation or a couple statements made that um many teachers have been impacted. Um do you have a number of like register complaints um from how many teachers have indicated that this is potentially a breach of contract or they have some frustrations with RTI or flex time? We don't we don't have an exact number. Um in part of this um on our part is is having to educate the teachers of what this is. And so um it's not being explained

105very clearly to them that um from the administration that this is a breach of contract or a potential breach of contract which we believe it is. So would you say that a majority of members of GFA have an issue with RTI or flex time? I can't say that. I have no I don't know. Okay. Thank you. Other board members. Yes, Dr. Erison. And then we'll go to Dr. L. Okay. Just quickly here, uh, Mr. Olsson, this was shared RTI proposal. This was shared with Melissa Bukup last year when her and I met regarding what RTI would be. So I can get you a copy of this if you'd like, but this was the RTI proposal we shared with Dr. Brener and cabinet and then Melissa Buup. So it was shared doc. Oh, please. I I

106would like to just clarify about um the amount of time that's being said that for prep and and being a prep at the middle school level. Fortunately, we have a schedule where um the core teachers meet in team every day for the same amount of any period 47 48 minutes depending on the school. Um and that time has been used to help um organize students in those sessions. And so um you know each of our schools rotate at least for social studies, math, science, and English. and um and those teachers are hap also happen to be the ones that have a daily prep period that allow time for organizing students and and and into those sessions. Um we've also been using our uh PLC time since it's really a part of the PLC process. We're

107able to uh designate some of that time as well so that content areas can um look at common assessments and and uh make decisions on um possible sessions that could be offered to help students. And so we plan on continuing to do that uh next year as well. Dr. L, just a quick question for the principles. Do you all have an an estimate um of of how many times either informally or formally an individual teacher has raised concerns about this process to the department chairs or the dean of students or associate principles or principles with at at each of the schools. I can speak for south to me. Zero for shrader. Um, one teacher, uh, Mr. Olson Valley hasn't had any come to me or Mr. Shy. Same. Nobody has come to me or Dr.

108Walters or Mr. Herly. I don't know about department chairs if they've spoken to department chairs, but it's never been brought. No questions. Mr. Manley. Um, and speaking of I'll just throw that this out there for the for the principles or the GFA, but um what's the impact to the afterchool time? Like we're talking with the teachers. They would um normally have to meet either before or after school with the students. Did does this take away some of that time? Does it eliminate it completely? Um I'll just throw that out there. I can speak a little like we have very minimal time in middle school to meet with students. Um 3:30 to 4 is what we have and by the time kids get their backpacks from their lockers it's really like 3:40 to 4. We have

10920 minutes which isn't a whole lot of time. There's also that barrier of the kids who ride the bus who have to get on the bus and go and then they don't have that opportunity to meet with teachers before or after school. So this is really built-in time for all students to have access to interventions and extensions. I would say at the high school level it's significant with what I'm being reported which been reported to me by teachers. One thing you got to remember in the high schools we have so many activities that kids get out of school for you know sports, fine arts. I mean it's just the range is massive especially in the spring of the year and teachers now can get them during rider time and make up tests and do some

110of that. So, um, our teachers would report that it's it's pretty significant that they save after school time. May May I circle back to a question about the teachers? Um, and this was unbeknownst to Dr. Larson, but uh, Mr. Shai did share with me that there were two individuals that said they approached him and said they didn't really think it was a necessary thing to do, but they were willing to try it. So, there was some concern brought forth that way. if you want to level that as concern. Other questions? Do is there anything to Mr. Manley's question that you wanted to speak to, Mr. Olsen or others from GFA? Yeah. Um the like like we said um or like I stated earlier, we're not really um focusing on the positives or negatives of the

111what it does. It's the contract that we're concerned that is um in breach. That is that is our biggest concern. And um and I I will note that um teachers do not feel comfortable coming and complaining about about things that they feel unfair to their administration. Um we've had teachers from each of the three middle schools and the high school come to us with concerns. Um and that's what we do. we speak on behalf of the teachers. Um, and I'll also like, you know, this is this is not just one school's contract or four schools contract. This is every every every teacher's contract. And and these these things the these types of breaches um although they may not directly um impact everybody, they could eventually. Um and that is our concern that um um that

112and and that is why we have been doing a lot of the the work as as people who have work with the contracts. We understand the negotiated agreement and that's where we um have been been the leading the the leading the charge on this subject and and the concerns. So these um I understand that the principles have said that teachers haven't come to them, but they've come to us. And I don't um I'm not sure if that discounts the validity of the concern if they're if we're if they're speaking through us versus coming to their principal. when um teachers have learned that this is a breach of contract and we've explained why they've they've they've thought, "Yeah, this is this is worrisome. This is something that that really makes um us concerned about where this

113where this is going." So, um I'll I'll add that. Other question? Oh, Dr. Erison, I just got to um go back to Mr. Manley's question. And I did have one department chair talk to me about from his department that didn't really seem that it fit one of our smaller departments. So yes, I do want to acknowledge that. Mr. CL. So in this whole process, not notwithstanding the amount of work needed to achieve success with the students, do the teachers still go home at the same time a day like their contract day is not extended? Uh is that an accurate statement? Now I'll ask this knowing it's it's oversimplifying the real issue. Yeah, it's but just humor me and answer certainly uh in the same way that a six-fifths is the exact same. I used to

114teach sixfist contracts. My day was not extended beyond the b-tobell schedule. There was additional work that was within the day but uh when I took on the sixfists I would go home at the same time as all of my other colleagues in spite of the fact of teaching one additional course. Yeah. Other questions from board members? I have two. Um the first is a question for for anyone uh particularly GFA but but anyone um you mentioned um something to the effect of um there's no way to keep this from becoming something different down the road. It's it's two per it's it's two of these now. Could it be three? Um we've not publicly heard any indication that it's going to change at all. My specific question is along the way either in the piloted part

115of the high school uh program as well as its full implementation beginning August 27th or this uh whatever ends up to be four or five weeks at the middle school. Any request to produce a guideline or guardrail document? Was there any conversation around, you know, as as we work through this, can we put something on paper? How do we how do we know what we're being asked to do? Can you just walk us through that process or conversation? That was the request that I had with Dr. Galatch. Um, and that was the the document that she shared. Um, it it just it still wasn't specific enough. It there was there was really it didn't really didn't answer some of our biggest concerns as to how this would turn into something different. Okay. So, I'm going

116to follow up and just press this question a little bit longer. Um where was the request then for additional you know we're still in a pilot before we look ahead to August. Um can we get a little bit more on this? Can we meet again? Can we walk through this process together? We we've heard described um collaborative process, creative process, transparent process, collegial process. Um and I get it. We all have different perspectives. We all have different lenses. um help us understand the other steps that were taken so that this doesn't become something different. Well, we we had um several meetings um with Dr. Glatch prior to the implementation. Our my initial email um was sent in January stating my concern that this would be a breach of contract. We met three times um and

117and really t and and and a lot of the discussion was on how this would be implemented and and what it would look like, but it still didn't answer the question of of the breach of contract aspect that we were so concerned about. and talking with negotiators um uh both present and past, they they said this this is this is exactly the six-fifths clause in the contract being being executed by the administration at Grand Forks Public Schools. And um at at at a certain point, we we had a timeline to to grieve some of these things and and we had to get that process started. and um and and that's where where it kind of got going after several conversations including the the three with Dr. Galach, the one with Dr. Briner, the the one

118with the three principles, the one uh with the three middle school principles, one with the high school principal. We we've had several conversations. Um but it it we've gotten the same answer each time. We've been told it's it's not a breach of contract. and uh and we have a a disagreement there. Uh my second question uh but I'll pause if someone has some commentary on question one. I thought I saw a hand somewhere if I'm not mistaken. Okay, so I'll move on to question two. Um is it true that the high school pilot started April 2nd, 2024? This is part of several questions. So this is at least according to our documents piloted beginning April 2nd or on or about April 2nd. Full imple full implementation August 27th, 2024. Is that correct? That was the

119understanding we had. Neither Joe or I were in those meetings. I was a vice president at the time and it was um presented that way at an exact board meeting that I was a part of. But I it was there was no details given very little to go by um at that time. Is there any information in the room to dispute those? We don't ever recall using the word pilot. It was full implementation on April 2nd. Our guiding coalition wanted to start it at the end of the year, but we don't ever recall using the word pilot. I have our proposal. It doesn't say pilot anywhere. We don't recall ever using that word. Thank you. the the letter I received on June 3rd. Uh there's a section that I'll read again um number one understanding

120of GFA at the time writer time would be piloted. Further discussion on full of implementation in the fall of 2024 uh point4 GFA believes this grievance is valid. The implementation of the writer time pilot was April 2nd 2024. Maybe there's a misunderstanding or other people weren't in the room, but but at least GFA's position is according to the letter I received, the pilot April 2nd um um that was the pilot in your estimation. Is that correct or incorrect? Because the the question I have is is is based on that summary of facts. Well, we're not we're not disputing the the pilot start from last year. We're we're disputing the full implementation that happened at the start of this school year. Um I mean it was it was not uh a whole year of um rider

121time last year. It started in April. So that's that's not a a full year of of implementation, but we are uh grieving the full year implementation that started in August of this year. Sure. That's fair. Uh so my second question then is um would you agree or disagree that the middle school from April 15th which was a test run April 22nd through May 15th um in your estimation is a pilot of this program. Yes. And that was uh outlined in some of the conversations with Dr. Galatch. One of the the um guid guidelines that we that I was looking for and was implemented was that it would have a start time and a stop time this spring so we could reassess things. So So my final question, I promise this is the last one. Help

122me understand then why the resolution for middle school calls for back pay during the pilot, but the high school letter resolution does not call for back pay beginning April 2nd. How I'm trying to figure these two out in my head. Well, as it was stated in Dr. Brener's response, it exceeded the one-year timeline for the writer time uh implementation from last spring, which is why we were grieving the start of this year, which this school year, August, August, so that would be within the one-year timeline. Um, and the flex time obviously it was in within the timeline. I don't have any more questions. Uh other questions from board members. I just clarify something really quick too. Uh on a question uh no teachers came up you know to say hey I want to file a

123grievance. I think somebody asked anybody come but through our course of our guiding coalition meeting nine times we had tons of discussion of how this might be challenging how we can get through it doing the right work. Um, and again I want to make sure I make clear the teachers have rolled up their sleeves and done amazing work. So had there been discussions about what are we going to do with this, how are we going to do this, 100% yes, but nobody has come to me and said, you know, I need to grieve this because of the sixth contract. But lots of discussion about there's going to be some challenges. This is new to us like anything. But our teachers rolled up their sleeves and did amazing work. others. Miss Flynn, I want to um

124acknowledge something that Mr. Olsen said earlier because I personally take agreement with it. Um as we are talking, I don't think any positive outcomes of RTI really matter in the discussion. If it means that we're asking teachers to do XYZ above and beyond. Do I agree that we're asking teachers to do above and beyond in related to this grievance? I'm not certain. So I think I personally can agree that if we're talking about positive outcomes in this circumstance, those don't matter if we're asking you to work three more hours of a day, right? Do I think that the implementation of some of these just like pilatoring a curriculum just like be legendary outcomes are important to our district? Absolutely. And I think sometimes we have to do things to try them and to work through

125them and to see how they're implemented. you had mentioned that you there was sort of this it wasn't done for a year yet and so we were waiting for it to sort of happen for a year. Correct. Like at the um high school level um I just want to make sure that I'm accurate in that statement. We you are waiting for the implementation for No, not for not not that was for a year. We have a year to grieve. So we we couldn't grieve what was done last spring. We we had to grieve what was started this school year. Sure. Okay. So um so your first when Dr. Brener said this probably is not grievable on the high school because of the first event that occurred. You're saying that our first event that occurred is

126the beginning of this school year essentially. Like they're not one and the same. Yes. Right. And how come there wasn't agree just I'm just curious. How come there wasn't agreements at the high school level prior to this school year? Like if if it was an issue last school year. Well, this is part of the problem where the the person who was in charge at that time is not in charge now and we are playing some catchup. Um and and we um we were only being informed as president, vice president by the teachers um after we became president and vice president. They w they weren't coming to us before that because they why why would they um we weren't in charge of GFA at that time. True. It has been since that time that teachers have

127come forward and raised their concerns and um and that's where we landed on this this outcome. Um, does teaching flex time take away from anything from prep time or prep time? Takes away prep time because it it it adds other other duties. I mean, you have the same amount of prep time, but now you're prepping for an additional thing. And what was being done prior to flex time? If a student came to a teacher and said, "I need help with X." How is that different? Uh the fundamental difference in the in the scope of this grievance is they're being told. It's the same thing as uh if a student comes to me at the high school level and says, "I need help on my science assignment." If I'm in the middle of grading, I can

128have them sit down. I can continue doing my grading and help them on that end. When it's presented in a form like this, uh there is an expectation of rigor, there's an expectation of structure, there's an expectation of meaningful interaction with the students, uh that is not present during something like a prep time. So, uh that prep time is mine that I can use to um you know, like I said, do my grades, respond to parents, do lesson prep for the next week. In these instances when it's uh set aside as this flex time or as this writer time that expectation is fundamentally different because when I open my classroom in this situation you know when kids are in here the expectation is you are retaching content or you're doing X or you're doing Y

129dependent on the school dependent on the administrator. Okay. Um, so why I personally believe numbers matter is when we ask about if anyone has come to the administration and they say maybe five, right? Those are individual conversations that can happen and solutions can be worked through. If this board is hearing that from GFA that we can't tell you how many teachers are are upset about something, we haven't done any surveys about perception of how this has worked. I don't know. I haven't asked a question yet. If a survey was done not only to parents but teachers, um it is a perception of mine that GFA leadership potentially perceives that there is a breach of contract and is now telling the teachers that there's a breach of contract rather than the the group of people that

130are in GFA saying, "We have a problem with something. we want you to grieve this for us. Now, we can argue back and forth if that's a correct way to lead or to to run an organization, but if I'm hearing from you as an example, less than 10 teachers have a problem with it. Less than 10 teachers believe it's an issue. to me a group of 6 700 teachers in an organization like GFA it's hard for me to understand that it's just four people in the leadership of GFA that have a potential issue with it rather than a group that you are representing. So numbers do matter I believe because I'm trying to understand is this a holistic problem at our school rather than a perception of what we think it may evolve into. And

131what I've heard is more about prep time rather than a six-fifths contract which is what the grievance is about. So, I'm I'm struggling with that. How many teachers need to be um need to come forward in order for a breach of contract to be expressed a valid in the in the policy? One. Okay. Then then does it we've we've have five. We've got we've got several then GFA has grieved there's been conversations. We don't know the the conversation was we had discussions with these individuals. I I don't a I I am agreeing that one teacher needs to come forward. What I'm fundamentally having an issue with is an organization leading a group of teachers that it is not a common problem and rather there's potential issues of someone just saying as leadership we think this

132is an issue. We're telling you it's an issue not a fundamental cultural thing that teachers have an issue with. So, so and that's my brain trying to think. Well, and just to put that at ease then, two individuals from Red River reached out specifically to me and said that this is a breach of contract and we're not having our names attached to this because we fear repercussion and we've been in this district long enough to know that that's the potential outcome there. So, we are grieving on behalf um technically of two individuals at Red River High School as well as uh three at Valley Middle School, I believe at least three at Shrader and a handful of others on that way. So, just to put you at ease, this is not an administration. This is

133not an organization saying we're grieving this because X. And to kind of address the timeline piece as well to reinforce what um Mr. Olson was just saying part of the reason that the delay happened was that fact fa gathering that factf finding those conversations that happened with the individuals that believed this was a breach of contract which sparked further conversations which sparked this direction that we needed to take in this regard um the individuals involved fear uh retribution from their colleagues they fear negative perception and again just to reiterate what Mr. Olson said, "We are not we are not arguing the benefits of RTI time. We are not arguing the good, bad, ugly or otherwise. We know we see the data. We understand that it's good. It's a contractual question that we have that uh

134we feel that this is and you know looking at black and white language, we know that this is something that needs to be addressed and uh needs to be grieved because it does breach our contract." I think part of the hard part and we've had this discussion is that if there's actual fear of retribution for a couple of things. First of all, we have policy that prevents that from being able to occur. And if it does occur, there's a a process that we would um embark on to make sure that we're not violating anybody's rights, that we're not retaliating against an individual. But it's hard because the the um purpose of this policy is to create open lines of communication. And so if we have an anonymous person coming forward, we have nobody with whom

135to communicate. We have nobody with whom to resolve the issue and with whom to have these discussions around. And that's where GFA felt compelled to to um step in. But really the policy is designed to open communications with individual teachers and their supervisors and to make sure there's a due process there. So I I just have question about this policy even applying to the situation because of the dynamic and it's a hard dynamic if if the fear is retaliation from peers um like if there's a peer pressure to keep this program in place that's not something that is um part of our policy as far as retaliation from administrators and that sort of thing. And I hear that being um intimated here and um again that's a hard dynamic but there might be a reason

136for for that peer pressure to be occurring. My last question was just a a process question. Um in section two of the grievance procedure item D, the last sentence says no more than three grievances shall be considered simultaneously at or beyond level three. Is this one or is this four? point me to what you're talking about again. It's on it's in policy 4120 section two under grievance. So it would be the second page item D. Within 5 days after the meeting, the superintendent or design shall issue a decision in writing to the parties involved. No more than three grievances shall be considered simultaneously at or beyond level three of this section. I think there's different ways to interpret that and I can talk about that in executive session. Okay. Other questions from board members? Mr.

137Cleven? Uh, as a as a contract grievance, it seems perfectly appropriate the GFA is handling this on behalf of their membership. uh the fact it's one or several other individual teachers who may or may not express uh an issue to their principal to me is an irrelevant question. uh if it's someone said earlier if it's one that's enough and so I think the discussion on number of teachers who may have a personal feeling on this is basically irrelevant and I respect the GFA for taking this up on behalf of their membership because I'm pretty sure it's not a comfortable spot to be in. So other board members Dr. Lun since I asked the question I'll I'll give the rationale behind it. I agree with you, Jay. I'm I'm more discouraged that if people feel that

138they are going to be retaliated against, that's what bothers me more than anything. Being in in healthc care for 40ome years, it it bothers me if if a nurse doesn't feel comfortable to be able to go to their supervisor and issue a complaint. So, it's not necessarily the numbers make a difference. It's it's that thought process. And I think Katherine, that's probably what you were trying to get to on the retaliation side of the of the statements. Not trying to put words in your mouth, but that's what I interpret it to be. That that is correct. In addition, I think you heard in many of the letters, there's a I I work with these fine folks every single day and there's a desire to communicate with their teachers. They repeatedly say they want to know

139if there's an issue so that they can work to resolve the issue. We we'd like to have that open line of communication, which is what the spirit of the policy is all about. Other questions from board members? Anything that hasn't been addressed that anyone wishes to speak to? At this time, I would ask for a motion to hold an executive session pursuant to NDCC 44-04-19.12 and 5 and 44-04-9.2 for the board to receive the school district attorney's advice and guidance on the legal risks, strengths, and weaknesses of its decision for the level four grievance appeal. Motion motion by Dr. Lond. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Manley. We'll take a roll call vote. Manley, yes. Excuse me. Anderson, yes. Podak, yes. Cleven, no. Larson is absent. Pomicino, yes. Flynn, yes. Lun, yes. Henburger,

140yes. Seven yes, one no, one absent. Motion passes. We'll now ask the members of the public who are attending the meeting to leave the room or are we convening conference room? Oh, the executive session will be held in conference room 3. So, the public is invited to remain here. We anticipate adjourning the executive session and reconvening the open portion meeting at approximately 30 minutes. So, at approximately 8:30 p.m. And so, we will pause so that we can reconvene in conference room 3. The minutes will show that the executive session was adjourned at 8:44 p.m. Uh the public of course is invited to return to this room and we are now back in open session. At this time, I would seek a motion to either deny the level four grievance appeal or to agree with the

141GFA's grievance or grievances related to the middle schools and high school. I'll make that motion uh to deny. So, I'm seeking a motion to either deny the appeal or to agree with the GFA grievance. So, your motion, Miss Flynn, is to deny the GFA grievance. Just to clarify. Okay. So, I heard grievance singular grievances. Okay. So, just before we get a second um motion issued two opinions, I am making a motion to deny both grievances. So, there's a motion on the floor to deny both level four grievances related to the middle schools and the high school. Okay, I'll second. And there's a second by Dr. Lun. Uh is there any discussion? Just for clarification, that means you agree with Dr. Brener's decision and the appeals are denied. Correct. Is there discussion, Mr. Cleven? Yeah. Just

142I I think the good faith the principles and administration acted upon when consulting with GFA at the start of the Red River High School process is a determinant factor here. uh everybody acted on good faith that this was compliant with the contract and that's how everybody proceeded. So, thank you for making the motions. Other discussion. We'll take a roll call vote. Lun? Yes. Pomino? Yes. Flynn? Yes. Anderson? Yes. Cleven? Yes. Manley? Yes. Larson is absent. Hodak, yes. Burger, yes. H, yes. Zero, no. One absent. Motion passes. Uh, we are going to meet again as a board to issue our written decision. Uh, we are adjourned.