Grand Forks Public Schools School Board Meeting (April 28, 2025)

001We'll call to order the regular meeting of the school board for Monday, April 28th. First item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. We invite you to stand as you are able. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 1 A. The reading of our schoolboard meeting norms. Miss Flip. Be prepared. Be on time. Value and respect each other. Exercise thoughtful deliberation and conversation. Be professional at the board table and when visiting with the general public. Speak up when the norms are not being followed and advocate on behalf of students and keep the community in mind. Thank you. Item two, the approval of our agenda. I would entertain a motion to

002approve tonight's agenda. It's been moved by Mr. Palmino. Is there a second? Second by Mr. Manley. Any discussion? Take a roll call vote. Lun? Yes. Flynn? Yes. Palmino. Yes. Larson is absent. Cleven. Yes. Hodak. Yes. Anderson. Yes. Manley. Yes. Burger. Yes. H. Yes. Zero. No. One. Absent. Motion passes. Under item 3A. These are our classified and certified employees of the third quarter. Uh Dr. Brener. Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have two people uh who we're recognizing this evening. First of all, we'll recognize Tim Delmore, classroom specialist at Red River, who is a classified employee of the third quarter. And Dr. Walters is here to uh talk a little bit about Tim. Tim is not here. He coaches track in the spring, but he's also a little bit elusive about being recognized. So, it's one

003of the two reasons why he's not here. So, Dr. Walters, Mr. Burger, member of the board, members of the board, thanks for allowing me to be here. It is my pleasure to introduce Tim Delmore uh as a classified employee of the quarter. I had to get some notes from Dr. Erison as he wasn't able to get be here. So, he asked me if I could fill in. I said, "Sure, let me know." And if anybody knows Tim, he's been around for a long time. Tim is a a one-of-a-kind person. Uh last week when we introduced him to the staff with the award, Dr. Eric used the expression of the Swiss Army knife of Red River High School because there isn't anything in our building that Tim hasn't been involved with in some way, shape, or

004form. Uh he's a one of a kind person that his heart as big as this room. He's been in education for over for the past 49 years. He retired nine years ago, but if you know Tim, I think the joke is he's retired three or four times now as it's all been said and done. Um he hasn't left the district yet. Since his retirement, he's done numerous things for Grand Fork schools, whether it's online schooling during COVID, long-term subbing in various locations throughout the district. And then the last two years, he's been our classified specialist at Red River High School. And every morning he shows up at 7:30 in the morning. First thing he does, he says to Buffy, "Who am I today and what am I teaching today?" And then she gives him his

005classroom assignments for the day and Tim goes about his business and he'll stop in at lunch and say, "You guys need me anywhere? What can I help you with?" So, um, always willing to do that. Uh, he shared with Dr. Erison the other day that he's lost 7 pounds this year from the steps he's put in going from classroom to classroom. So, um, Tim does it all and we're honored to have him there. Uh other things he does for us, he's also helps supervise our our uh NDCDE students and their tests. So he's their proctor, unlocks the tests there. It's very common at 8 in the morning when Tim's standing there with us. Mr. Delmore, what time can I come take my test? So, and he's willing to be flexible with his schedule to do

006that with them. Um if he doesn't have any of those assignments or we don't need him as a sub, you can find him in a special ed room, you can find him in our intervention room or a resource room or asking us in the office or the office ladies what he can do to help. And then like Dr. Brener said, part of the reason Tim isn't here tonight is he's still involved with track. Um our students and staff know that whether it's related to the building or anything with activities, Tim is going to be the one that's going to be willing to help. He's been already inducted into our Hall of Fame as a coach and he still is out there every day doing everything he can to help kids make sure they have anything

007they need to be successful whether it's in the classroom or at um at practices. uh the students of Red River and and our staff, I will say our staff as well are so fortunate to be able to work with him as a teacher, mentor, and a coach, and we couldn't be more proud of him. Um I can't think of anybody that's more deserving for the classified employee of the month than Mr. Tim Delmore. Thank you so much. I I'll bring this plaque up if and hopefully you could you get this uh to him, but just uh we'll nudge him to watch this later. So, if we could all show our appreciation for Tim Delmore. [Applause] Next up, we have our certified employee of the quarter, uh, Terresa Osgard, who is a title one coordinator at

008South Middle School, and she is going to be introduced by Mr. Travis Neil, principal at South Middle School. I told I know I told him about that too. Uh first off, Teresa would be pretty proud of me. I said I was going to print it off old school like Dr. Walters said I'm going to Teresa talk I'm going to go for my phone like everybody else does otherwise I'd have paper. So good evening uh board members. President Burgerer, Vice President Anderson, school district personnel and student members. Uh, my name is Travis Neil and I'm the proud principal at South Middle School and I am ecstatic to recognize Teresa Osgarden, a dedicated middle school leader as the certified employee of the quarter award recipient for Grand Forks Public Schools. Known for her unwavering commitment to excellence

009in education, Teresa consistently goes above and beyond fulfilling all of her responsibilities. For the past three years at South, Teresa has demonstrated a deep commitment to students, staff, and families by building strong, meaningful relationships and always going the extra mile. And I truly mean that when I say that, going the extra mile when things need to get done, Teresa is always there and willing to support. A true jack of all trades, Teresa brings remarkable versatility to our role, stepping in wherever needed and wearing many hats with ease and enthusiasm. Whether leading staff PD, compiling data, organizing school events, helping students, fixing all of my mistakes, or offering any other support to fellow staff members. Teresa handles each task with skill and dedication. Her flexibility, resourcefulness, and can do attitude make her an indispensable part of

010South. I know that I can always count on Teresa to meet challenges headon and find creative solutions that benefit everybody. South Middle School is honored to celebrate Teresa as the certified employee of the quarter, recognizing the outstanding contributions she makes every day to make the South community such a great place to be a part of. Congratulations, Teresa. And she wants to say a couple words. Thank you. Yeah. Um, I can't do my job every day without my staff. My staff is amazing at South Middle School. um also have great mentorship under Travis Seal. So I want to give just a shout out to him for the last three years kind of shown me the ropes of how administration works and give me advice and also give me time to be honest and have hard conversations

011and sometimes vent and he's always there to listen and not judge. So I appreciate that very much. So thank you for Travis and thank you to myself staff for all the work they do for me. [Applause] Item four is our public comment period. I do not have any public comment cards turned in. Is there anyone in the assembled public who wishes to speak at this time under item 5 a K through 5 and 9 through 12 ELA curriculum resource adoption. This is under uh discussion for tonight. We'll turn it over to Amy Burch. Mr. President, members of the board, thank you so much for having us here this evening. Um we will do two um presentations in one today for you. We will have a K5 um presentation and then a 912 presentation. We'll stop

012as always when I'm here. Please feel free to ask questions as we go through. There's no appropriate time to have the conversation. And so just let us know you have a question. Um before I start um I am subbing in for the wonderful Nicole Crafting who is under the weather tonight. So just make sure that you understand that this um goes the credit goes to her. So part of our process for their research and then the pilot phase is to do a research phase and through that we um brought together all of these lovely humans at the elementary level to study. What is it that we need in an English language arts adoption? What are the essential components? Um what do we have to look for? So we try to pick a vast variety of

013humans within our organization to make sure that there are many perspectives represented and we're doing best by kids. From that um we took opport the opportunity to do a really extensive pilot. We had 60 teachers participate in our pilot of Witten Wisdom. The ones with the asterric did double duty. They were part of our steering committee and then also piloters. I would say that this is a unique pilot and the reason why we were able to do this is um through our adoption we were looking for a number of things which we'll touch on but one of those is connectedness to middle level curriculum um the middle level had already adopted wit and wisdom and as I talk about our process as we went through that extensive process only one um curricular resource was really

014um recommended by every single steering committee member to be piloted. So we really invested heavily in Whit and Wisdom which then allowed us to have so many piloters. So when we look um two weeks ago I was in front of you talking about be legendary and talking about those progress monitor goals or those outputs that we look at to measure our success and those were looking at our overall goal to improve English um proficiency rates. So we're connecting this as an input to achieving that goal. So I'll talk a little bit our process. So I said when we come together the first um thing we do is we take a half a year to research and review. What do the nor new North Dakota state standards tell us or the current standards? Um what are

015we looking for? What does current research tell us? What is our shortcomings of our current product that we're using our curriculum? What are we looking for in the next? Those are the processes that we're going through. And then as we pilot, we're looking for does the resource have the necessary support materials? Are there appropriate assessment components? What is that teacher experience? There are great products that are really hard to use or there are products that are just okay, but they're really easy to use. We're trying to find that just right Goldilocks moment um to make sure that we're getting that for teachers as well as the student experience outcome and then an overall review. So as we look um this is just a friendly reminder. We did extensive work with our steering committee on making

016sure that the background knowledge around the science of reading was there. To be on the steering committee, you had to have completed both volumes one and two of letters. You needed to at least um taken part in part of the AIM Institute, which is the state's version of how people met House Bill 1388 from the last bianium. Uh we also partnered with SEEK. Um SEEK had come up and they had done some presentations on all those beautiful strands of the rope. What do they actually look like in a curricular resource? And when we were doing some of that vetting and we were talking about syntax, how could we see that within a curricular resource? And then um the University of Florida Literacy Institute, UFly, we've um actually had the privilege of working with one of

017their lead authors on some of the work to evaluate our curricular resources. So our first look is always what do the state standards tell us to teach at each grade level? And then as we're going through the curricular resources, we're looking for that alignment. These are all the vendors um that made it through our first round of vetting. So after our first round of vetting, what we did is we did a deeper dive into these. Um these are the ones where our representatives from seek when they came up and did their presentation they were saying this is what decoding looks like in wonders. This is what it looks like within amplify CKLA. And then from here we went and we did deep dives with a number of vendors to learn more about their product. Once

018we did that, we landed kind of where I started the story is Wit and Wisdom was the only product that had 100% p support from the steering committee to pilot. The next one had under 50% support. So, we had really thoughtful conversations with executive leadership, with all of our elementary principles, our instructional design coaches, and what we did is we asked ourselves, do we do a really intentional pilot with an intent to adopt? So, that's where we landed. We used some of our CLSD grant dollars to have our coaches take part in a Witten Wisdom leadership cohort, which we talked about last time. It's over 90 hours of professional development and the purpose of that is they become trainers not only for wit and wisdom but the science of reading. So if you approve in

019two weeks this adoption really we have people 11 people at the elementary position to actually do all of the training and onboarding for our teachers. We also invested heavily in making sure that our pilot teachers had the right support. So that middle graphic to um shows a little bit about the back to school PD that they did to get ready for the pilot. And then we captured February 17th of professional development day and we said what components can we start onboarding for teachers now to make the lift and the load a little lighter in the fall. So we spent all day on the 17th going through like complex text and why is that important and when we looked at those all of that is an attempt to make people feel more ready and when we

020onboard something new it's a little lighter of a lift. So the selection was wit and wisdom. Um after the pilot the support is still there from our pilot teachers and our steering committee that this is it. this is the product that we need to help us move um student achievement. So really um Whiten Wisdom had already done some of the lifting for us. Their company has already done the alignment standard. So we can go into that document and see how everything aligns and is covered at every grade level for our North Dakota state standards. Ed Reports is a nonprofit that rates um curricular resources and all parts of Witten Wisdom have the highest rating of meets expectations. You can see each grade level. It's true for each grade level. The second part, we've talked about

021this before. So really great reading is the bottom strands of the rope or the decoding part. Whiten wisdom is the upper strands of the rope. the the comprehension piece. So you have to have both especially in your primary grades to meet the science or how the brain learns to read both parts of that rope. So while we had come to you before during ESSER to ask for an expenditure to have an expenditure to purchase really great reading, this is now the formal ask to continue that work. And then the part that we've added is really great handwriting. The reason why we have attached really great handwriting is because we know that reading and writing are interconnected and those verbal pathways when they match through that instruction just strengthens that encoding or the ability to write

022the transfer to writing. So we did some more alignment study and research. Again, really great reading is approved meets the highest uh ranking of meets expectations within ed reports for all of the grades in which we would ask to use it. K1 and two for tier one instruction. Remember tier one is what everybody gets. So here is the ask the expenditure ask for wit and wisdom. um the initial onboarding is more expensive and the reason for that is you're buying all of the core text. So, wit and wisdom is novel picture book based. So, you'll see all the places I can go. You'll see bud not buddy. And that initial investment is to buy all of those core text. And then the ongoing investment is three-fold. One, it's the student consumables like the student workbooks.

023It's also the um student digital access and then the teacher online digital access. So the witten wisdom per year I have the student breakdown cost. So year 1 is a heavier lift of 93.86 but then years 2 through 7 the total cost is $31.95 per student per year. Um really great handwriting and really great reading. Initial investment is the same as the ongoing. So it's $72,628 a year for a total of 38.50 per student per year. And so you can see your total um investment is 1.573767.5 million. So before I turn it over to my fabulous colleagues at the secondary or high school level, are there any questions or wonderings that you have about the curriculum or our process? Any questions at this point, Dr. L? And you can maybe answer this after the secondary

024if you if you want to. Um, and you could probably talk on this for five hours, but you don't have to. Just just briefly, could you explain to to me and the rest of us a little bit how do we tie ELA from elementary to middle to high school? How do those because sometimes they're islands of themselves, but but I know there's a ton of collaboration even among elementary, middle, and just maybe just briefly explain that to us. So that's why we came to you a few years ago with an asked for an expenditure for Esser dollars is because that was the biggest gap was middle school. They didn't have a curricular resource or they didn't have the core text to teach English language arts. So what we're trying to do now is kind of

025a backwards map. And we started with middle school, picked a really high quality resource and and now looked at how does that fit into or if it would fit into elementary and we well it wasn't by chance, right? It was by design too. We wanted to go through an authentic process, not just say we picked Wit and Wisdom. Aren't you so happy? We wanted to give teachers voice and choice in that op in that adoption and that recommendation for you. So right now what we'll have is we'll have a K8 consistency with a curricular resource. The variance in there is always the art of teaching and so now we have to look at how do we provide professional development. So there's still the art of teaching but there's also the science of teaching and what

026we do. So in how we execute tier one instruction, how we provide interventions that more time and support, all of those are going to be our work for the next several years and getting really clear, really concise on that. And then high school takes a stance where they're not necessarily learning how to read anymore, but they're learning how do I consume text? How do I take that and and um put it with what I already know and then how do I think critically about world issues and apply it to those things and and how I move forward as a human. So Andrea and Mary will both talk a little bit about what they're proposing because Dr. Lenn, you're exactly right. It's a little different when you get to the high school, but there has to

027be continuity and consistency throughout even though there's differences. Other questions on the K through five? Yes, Miss Flynn. I have a comment and then then a question. Just looking at the sheer like amount of people that had hands in this is impressive. And I think sometimes we take for granted when you come here and you're just like it's this much money that um you know it's hard to like oh that dollar amount is hard but I mean the extensive process that goes into we are finding resources that are going to make the experience of our students continually better. Um I just appreciate that so much from that committee and um echo that for likely high school too. So um my other question is uh kind of a silly one but um I don't know where

028it fits in here but what the heck happens to cursive cuz I hear all these things about are we doing cursive? Are we not? Does it fit in academically? So as a a curious parent uh I'm just curious about that. Good question. So, thank you for your kind comments and all of those people put in hours above and beyond their contract. So, I appreciate you taking time to acknowledge them. Uh, Cursive is still alive and well. So, Cursive right now lives at third grade and we have been using a product called Handwriting Without Tears. It's part of the learning without tears suite. Um however the decision was made to not continue because the verbal pathways and the introduction of the letter scope and sequence does not align with really great reading. So it causes confusion

029for our most tangled learners. So when we think about um the transition to really great reading that's because as the letter is introduced we're also introducing the verbal pathways for the formation. So um that'll be a step in the right direction for us. cursive will move to second grade with really great reading. So, two years of manuscript and then second grade will move to cursive. So, this year will be a catch-up year if you adopt. Um, coming up next year, we will actually have second and third grade learning cursive simultaneously. Other questions, Mr. Cleven? One is, by the way, you've put a new word in my vernacular. I use the phrase wondering constantly now. Oh, good. So, thank you for that. Um, this is obviously a purchase curriculum product. Like, not saying we should, but

030could we do without? And that's merely a a question of curiosity. I'm not trying to imply this is not money well spent. No. Um, so, can you create your own curriculum? The answer is yes. And you'll see that demonstrated in about 32 seconds here. Um that is the stance that the high school team has taken is to write their own curriculum. I think what's different at the elementary level is when you're trying to interweave those foundational skills with the the skill to actually read or consume text. It's very difficult to find a scope and sequence. Do we have brilliant teachers in our system that could do it? Yes. But when when would they do that work? And even if they wanted to do it as a summer project, it would be many people over many

031summers to create a product like this. And I I would expect or assume that a standard curriculum standardizes the instruction. So all the kids are generally getting the same thing. And that sounds like a positive. Correct. So it falls into guaranteed and viable. So when we think about high reliability schools and we think about guaranteed and viable, that's level three. Level two is effective instruction in every classroom. And I really believe that Dr. Marzano designed the framework that way because you still have to have the art of teaching. I know many people predict AI will take over in a decade. I'm not there yet. I'm not a believer. I don't have cause to believe because I see the instructional shifts that teachers make every day to make a curriculum come alive. I haven't experienced that

032with AI yet. So, well, I think you had me a guaranteed inviable like that resonates. Uh, and then uh last just comment uh love the encouragement of handwriting. Uh, I mentor engineers at work and I'm always telling them, "Write it down. Sketch it out because the act of sketching seems to make things stick." And I read something the other day. They did a brain scan of kids writing or kids typing. And one was super active, one was not active. So, these are kind of empirical observations I have. Uh, but I do appreciate the handwriting component. No, you're right on. I just read a research article about the difference between reading on screen and reading a text and the same with handwriting. So, you're right on uh Dr. Glatch and then I believe Dr. Brener. So,

033please go ahead. Yeah, first of all, I appreciate you getting nerdy over there, Jay. That was well said and very true. So, thanks for the warning. Um so, so to comment on the curriculum, I've shared this with um with Amy. I've shared this with Matt and other settings. I have been in this business a long time and I don't like I know guaranteed and viable. I know that the rationale behind it. I've never really been excited about a curriculum like I am about wit and wisdom. And the reason is because what I've seen at the middle level is not just the rich content is not just the sciencebased but it's paired with instructional strategies that allow all kids access. All kids access. And you've heard us talk about AVID programming advancement via individual determination. A

034lot of the strategies within the WIT and wisdom curriculum really align with and overlap with those strategies. It's about collaboration. It's about deconstructing. And so I'm just really excited when we talk about our test scores and changing the be legendary trajectory. I'm really convinced that once these curricula meet in the middle um we are going to see some exponential gains. It's it's really um fascinating. The other thing that's fascinating, and I know we have a long agenda tonight, um, but it's worth commenting, is we've been doing instructional rounds at the elementary level, watching teachers teach the reading, really great reading and breaking down phonetical sounds and the way students engage, it's unbelievable. I told Amy, it's like watching magic. If any human being in our country walked into any one of our elementary classrooms and

035saw the magic that those teachers do in teaching kids how to read, it is absolutely phenomenal. And the reason we're there is because of the science of reading. We know better now. We know what works. And um it's I I'm really just excited about it. And and there's no price tag on teaching somebody to read. I mean that if you think about the literal price tag for kids who who don't learn how over the course of their lifetime uh $1.5 million nothing others. All right, we'll move ahead then to the the high school steering committee. Yes. Okay. I will introduce you to the wonderful Andrea Altapeter and Mary Drum. They are going to be the representatives for the high school team that did the work on their curriculum adoption proposal that button. All right, Mr.

036President, members of the board, thank you for allowing us to come and share the high school um ELA process. Um you'll see that there are a lot of similarities, but also quite a few differences as well. Just as we get to 912, things do shift a little bit. So, similar to elementary, we put together a steering committee of um our core content teachers nine through 12 um at all three of our campuses to make sure that we had representation of all teachers grade levels. Um so that as we move forward and looked at different uh curricular resources and materials that we had strong viewpoints and represented pretty much everybody. Um, similar to elementary, we also have the same be legendary goal. Um, so we've been talking a lot about um, what proficiency looks like and

037how do we help students grow with that. So, you know, very similar again with the resources that would support best student outcomes. So, our pilot and research process again was similar but also different. Um so we um as a committee came together and we looked at several different companies. Um what we learned and what we notice is that um K through 8 has had quite a push for the science of reading aligned resources with knowledge building curriculums. But when you get to high school, it kind of goes back to probably what we've all were familiar with with the anthologies, the intro courses, the survey courses. Um, so as we were going through those resources, we all kind of had that epiphany of like this is really the same as what we currently have, except now

038there's more online components, maybe more consumable workbooks. Um, so as a group, we all kind of agree like these are nice, but not necessarily essential to the goals that um, we're trying to accomplish together as an ELA team. Um but because our pilot team was so thoughtful, they didn't want to make that decision for the whole group. So we actually had um one of our PLC's last spring was to bring those resources to the whole ELA team. And as they were all looking through those resources, it was again the same. Um this looks very similar to what we currently have. So, not that we necessarily needed to replace our textbooks that we use, but how could we maybe infuse the curriculum that we have to meet the needs of students today? Anything else to add,

039Mary, that I'm missing? Um, I don't think so. That was Yeah. All right. So, this was our process for unit development. um which I will show you here in just a minute. But we started together as a whole English department 9 through 12 and really thought about like what does it mean for students in Grand Forks Public Schools to start in 9th grade, work their way through all four years because English is a required course that students take all four years of high school. And what does it look like when they are ready to graduate and walk out our doors? What are the skills that we want these students to have? what are the experiences that we want them to have? Um what does it mean to progress as a reader, as a writer, as

040a communicator, um as a critical thinker, too. So, as a as a group, we spent time coming together creating that vision um as a whole department. And then we broke off into our smaller grade level teams and work through that process to what does 9th grade English look like? what does 10th grade, 11th grade, um 12th grade is broken into senior comp and senior lit. So what does that look like as well? Um during this time we also have new ELA standards that um were revised and presented to the state. So during that time we also did vertical alignment and crosswalk between our old standards and the new standards. So, as we were really thoughtful about what that progression of English looks like from 9 through 12, we also looked at the priority standards that

041would be essential to help students master the skills at each grade level. Um, so you'll see the the crosswalk and the vertical alignment. So, um, as you know, standards spiral. Um, some standards are standards that we work on every day. Some standards take a lot more time to dig into and unpack. So um we were very intentional about the standards that we aligned with our units. Um from our units we created essential questions that um we aligned our resources to so that students could really dig in and um engage in that inquiry process thinking about some big critical questions while exploring literature, non-fiction um and then several writing and and communication components as well. Uh we did all of this work during up our PLC and early release times. Um we maximized CLSD funds and

042used um dollars for summer curriculum work which was really helpful in moving this work forward. Um and then we've also had um some curriculum work days throughout the school year as well. Um because summer work is great but not everybody can make that work with schedules and families and summer school and so on. So, um, we've also been able to get a lot of our work aligned during our curriculum work days as well. Um, this year, our adoption process or our pilot and preview process was slightly different. So, our grade level teams really took the time to look at our units of study, look at the resources that we currently had, and then um spent time together as a group looking for resources that could s like infuse um highinterest engaging texts, um lit circle

043studies, um memoirs, those types of things so that we could add and enhance to our um our unit. So those those teams um requested novels. They previewed them together. Some groups piloted um units of study like 9th grade piloted a um graphic novel of Romeo and Juliet. You know, it's something that's been in our curriculum for a long time, but just a new way to make it high interest um for students. So that was just an example. Some teachers worked with those um units and novels. Um, but overall we read the novels, we made consensus, how do they align, how do they not, and then we move forward with our recommendations based on that. So, I'm not going to talk uh like read all through this, but I just wanted to give you a snapshot

044of what the work that our high school English teachers did together. Um, this was actually a really cool process to be a part of. Um, so you'll notice that the the bolded terms are the pieces of um like what we think is really important in a high school curriculum, what that progression looks like. So we have a vision for our students. We have a mission. Um, which it's really helpful to be grounded in that because when we have conversations, we can always come back to that. Does that align with our mission? Is this the vision of what we want to see our students have the skills for when they graduate? And then we also talked about the progression of our program. So what does it look like? How is 9th grade different from 10th and

04511th and 12th. So you'll notice our units of study have our essential questions. Our big theme is just how do we tell our stories for 9th grade? Um so each um unit has an essential question like I said before. So nth grade is really about those foundational skills that students need to be successful in writing in all core contents, not just English. So non-fiction is a really big focus. Um in um 10th grade English too, we've kind of do a deeper dive into aspects of literature and narrative writing. Um, so this is really I mean we still do research and presentations like that but um narrative writing is really the the focus for 10th grade. And then in English 3 11th grade American literature is the foundation that we use. Um we explore American texts,

046but we are really focusing on um critical thinking, digging into author craft, um thematic analysis, those kinds of um those kinds of tasks, but we're really working on that critical thinking. Junior year is a big year. A lot of things happen in junior year. Um so thinking about how stories influence them and also how they can be critical thinkers and consumers of content is the goal of English three. And then finally our last um year composition and literature those are two semester courses. Um so senior composition is really focused on the craft of writing um self-expression communication word choice how that impacts audience. Senior literature is really thinking about how literature um influences and reflects culture um individuality um and thematic expressions like that historical context um as well as um personal insights that students

047can gain. And then as I alluded to earlier, here's the standards progression. So we did um a crosswalk between our old standards and our new standards. And we really made sure that our um priority standards were the the heavy hitters so to speak and not just I can read grade level you know comprehend grade level text but I can critically analyze read deeply I can write research. Um so they are um all represented and the so if they are represented as a priority that means that we have um common assessments that we have created to ensure that we know what mastery of those standards look like. Um if they aren't indicated doesn't mean that we don't teach them. It just means that they might not be um the heavy hitter standards that we are going

048to do a full full assessment on. So for our adoption um the selections that we are asking for we are um updating our textbooks for writing instruction because we know how important it is to have consistent writing instruction from 9 through 12. Um we're also looking for replenishment of our anchor texts that we currently have in the curriculum. Um those are texts that all students read. Um, we've done a lot of work between campuses when we talk about anchor texts and like what is a common experience that all students in 9th grade will have in Grand Forks public schools regardless if they go to Central or Red River or community. Um, we're also asking for some additional novels in verse um memoirs and highinterest novels for literature circles to build in some more student choice.

049So, it's great to have all class novels, but it's also really powerful when students have choice in what they are able to read and then have common discussion. So, even though we read different things, we can still talk about some of the same um themes and background knowledge and and things of that nature. Um we're also asking for um memban which is vocabulary development focused in grades nine and 10. So our initial expenditure um is $194,000 that includes um our our textbooks, our novels, our first year of mem and our ongoing expenditure is that memban um program as well as just um replacement of books as they maybe get lost or damaged, those kinds of things. So we always have enough um resources to meet our student needs. So our total investment over seven years

050would be $284,000. If you have any questions questions on this high school proposal from board members. Yes, Dr. Hodc. I want to congratulate you because I can when I started going through this it was just wonderful. Um the old English teacher who started in 1980 did not have what you all have and the accessibility. I want to congratulate you for doing the deep dive into the curriculums that are out there and also having the courage to say no. we're going to stand up for ours and what we know. Um, also the fact that you work together for those three and then the consistency that I'm seeing between the width and w and the wisdom and the reading and it it's just growing together. Um, it'll be exciting to watch our scores, our test scores as

051our students um, get this. But I just need to congratulate you and I can tell you right now this old English teacher will be supporting this 100%. Thank you. Thank you. Others Mr. Cleven the seven-year duration is common. What's the reason for that? Do you want to take that Amy? Sure. It's just the companies usually want no more than a seven-year commitment. One, it's their um cycle to distribute new materials, right? It's kind of like when you buy a new tablet and you get the new tablet and the new operating systems a little slower on the old guy and then you also get to buy the new adapters and plugins. Curriculum companies are no different, right? They're always upping their game and reflecting. So, seven years um seven years is common, 10 would be less

052common but acceptable. Um but you find yourselves in those wonky areas of not having the appropriate resources to match the new research. Others Dr. one I'm wondering how the other departments physical education math use ELA you know the guidelines and stuff and and I'll explain why cuz when when I was in school at at UND my wife worked in chemical engineering and she worked with a professor who when they turned in the term papers to him he sent him to the English department and they corrected him first before before he even looked at it from an engineering standpoint and I thought that was fascinating so I'm just curious how How do how do we incorporate English with math because it's because it all blends together. I know that there is collaboration between departments um trying

053to align and have consistency with writing and expectations right so I mean especially as we're working on that MLA format in English and then are we switching over to APA in a different content right so I think that um and I can't speak for everybody but I know some departments are are really good at collaborating to provide some consistency yeah let Mary talk Hi, I'm Mary Drum. Um, and I teach all ninth grade English at Grand Fork Central. Um, at our PLC days, something that is a common theme is, uh, John Strandell, our principal, will bring up this, um, this culture of reading. So, it's not just necessarily in English, but he'll give us time, um, to meet with our department, and say, "Okay, well, what does reading look like in science, and what does

054reading look like in math or in in physical education?" Um and just off of the examples from one of the earlier PLC's this year when we came back and we shared um after that planning time science will have like graph of the week and they'll talk about well not just reading paragraphs but how do I read a graph and how do I interpret a graph? Um and for physical education well obviously you have to go over vocabulary right which is such a big part of reading and um understanding the differences in body and position and exercises and stuff like that. And then um not just being graded like on your performance, but like oh well do you have that knowledge? Do you have the do you have the background and the vocabulary for that um

055and then like in math class word problems everybody's favorite when we were younger you know it it brings in a whole other layer um to learning math. So they're like yeah like we got to talk about not just uh like the math part of that but like what's the question asking right? So they talk about reading and math like that. So I obviously can't speak for every department but from our PLC early outs which have been absolute blessing um when it comes to collaboration um I do know that other departments are working on that. Yeah. Yeah. Um just to add a little bit more um the last couple of years especially with the CLSD grant at the high school level we have been talking about disciplinary literacy. So what does reading and writing communication thinking

056look like? um content specific so that everybody doesn't feel like they have to write an English paper when they're you know writing something in science you know so how do we respond in in the content that we are working on so that's part of it but um yeah there's there's that collaboration and that those conversations that are happening across buildings others Miss Flint I'm curious about since the curriculum is built in-house what continuity plan is. So you both leave tomorrow. Is there something written down? Who's the one that's facilitating it? Who's teaching it? How are we assessing it? What does that plan look like? Yes. So um we are housing our core resources within the curriculum warehouse. So the scope and sequence is available. So we know the priority standards that each grade level is

057teaching. um the unit of time pacing guides um and then within our grade level teams we have our our units of study. So that's kind of that tight and loose like what is tight? What is um consistency for that guaranteed and viable piece. So we have our resources, our essential questions, our standards that we are teaching um within that unit. um what are formative assessments at the end. Um and then as as we kind of split away from district level PLC where all of our English teachers are coming to together um to do some of that day-to-day work within our building level PLC's so that you can have those discussions of what does what is the needs of our students in our building but we're still working towards the same goal and still working towards

058proficiency. So that has been a really big conversation the last couple of years. Um that shift from teaching in isolation to teaching collaboratively. Um with that conversation of guaranteed and viable. It's been a shift. It hasn't been easy. Um but it was really cool. The um last PLC that we had before knowing we were presenting today was to have our um you know consensus of we're committing to this. this is our curriculum, we've created it and we are teaching it next year and everybody agreed. So um so that is really cool to see that commitment that everybody made to each other at that time. So I think a lot of that work will happen in PLC's um and just that collaboration time that happens at the building level. Uh Miss Michaela Skinny, do you have

059something? Yes. Um, so I'm an 11th grader at Red River High School and I did not do me for 9th grade and 10th grade and I was just wondering what exactly is it and how is it benefiting other high school students and is it a are teachers able to decide if they want to use or not pretty much is what I was. So I'm going to answer part of your question and then I'm going to let Mary talk to the other part. So um part of the CLSD grant was piloting resources and materials. So for the last um I would say a couple of years the CLSD grant has been something that we um used to purchase Memban. So because it was a grant and the grant wasn't able to purchase a curriculum right because

060we don't want to supplant um it was optional. Um and through that optional you know teachers opting in we were able to get some really good data to make the the decision to um ask for this to be a 912 cons like everybody will be teaching it. So that's one part I'm going to let Mary talk about the process. Um nice memban word supplant as well. I believe that's early level two. So um I um immediately jumped on uh on board with me when we started. Um and first of all meine would be academic vocabulary and practical vocabulary that teenagers would need to move from that um like that child vocabulary into the the vernacular you need as an adult especially somebody who is collegebound or going into um a career where it could be

061reading heavy. So words like turbulent or impertinent or behest, right? Like words that we don't commonly use in everyday casual conversation, but words that you absolutely need to know. Um if you are leveling up textwise, especially like uh senior senior level and collegiate uh text, you're increasing your Lexile levels and you're increasing your writing vocabulary. Um and as far as like how it's braided into the rest of the curriculum, I mean, I only teach ninth grade. Um, but we braid me vocabulary into our uh, Kelly Gallagher sentence of the week grammar instruction. So, not only are they getting grammar, but then those words are being reinforced because they're seeing them in their grammar sentences and they're writing with them and then they come out in vocabulary. Um, and then you have kids who will come

062up with just their independent novels and say like, "Mrs. Dum, I found a mean word." Like, that's awesome. Right? We've got like a bean board and we'll take a picture of it and put it on the wall. Um, and again, like I'd absolutely uh I I wouldn't walk into somebody else's classroom and be like, "Oh my gosh, you're not using Memian. How dare you?" But it's been a really really invaluable resource um with kind of just an or an organic um an organic way to build vocabulary and it fits every students. So I'll have a couple of kids at the beginning of each year saying like, "These words are too hard and I don't you know, I don't think I'm at the right level for this." Well, then um you can reach out to me

063and support and honestly they're back to you within 20 minutes which is wild as a teacher used to waiting 24 hours to 48 hours um and they'll say oh okay well like let's recalibrate and some of those students who might be struggling with their word list um they get recalibrated and like they might get placed down a level back into eighth grade or seventh grade to fill in those gaps but then like the more membient they do they can test up and up and up and eventually that vocabulary gap closes. And just being able to have those giant word lists, like in level one alone, there's four or 5 hundred different words. Um, being able to have that and all of that curriculum is is personalized um and uh and reinforced through the program in

064and of itself. Oh man, that's taken off so much work off of my shoulders. So now we're we're using those words um more organically and more intentionally like in reading and writing. So we're reinforcing them instead of okay kids, here's the same 20 words. Let's make flashc cards. And now great, we all have the same 20 words whether or not you can actually use them. Um, but that's my that's my little cheer for me and it has made a huge difference. Other questions? Yep. Go ahead, Dr. Brener. Thank you. I think the board has heard on a number of occasions tonight the importance of our PLC process, our professional learning communities, and the early dismissals. So, uh, thank you to the board for continuing to invest in those 14 early release days. Uh, a lot

065of what they're talking about tonight is much of the work that they get done during that time. But having said that, uh, Mary and Andrea and Amy don't get all that work done during PLC time. A lot of that work is done outside of the contracted day. Um, and so I I just want to thank all three of you and your committees uh, for doing the really heavy and important work. And we couldn't do this work without Amy's leadership as a chief academic officer, instructional coaches that the board has invested in. Um, you know, part of part part of me is not jealous isn't the right word, envious uh that you know, I was in your role before we had all this kind of support, but we did start with the PLC process. And I

066I can go back 16 17 years ago when Austin Buffam uh one of the authors and gurus of RTI MTSS when he came to Grand Forks and led professional development uh along with a couple of other colleagues at the center and he was working with high school teachers and did the four corner uh activity. Let's just say the one corner was Utopia. That's the type of high school that you wanted and every teacher walked to that corner. Uh but when he started talking about practices and standards and what do you agree on in terms of assessment, we were kind of all over the place. And so Austin, you know, came over to me shoulder-to-shoulder. He said, "Terry, I think you know this, but you have a little dilemma. Your teachers can't agree on what should

067be taught and at what grade level, in particular at high school." So this whole I don't want to even call this full circle. What this systematized process has done is has created equity across our campuses, across our grade levels. Uh Dr. Glatch talked about it earlier, the pacing guides that now I'm hearing pacing at the high school level. I just want to stand on my chair like Tom Cruz did on Oprah several years ago. No, I won't do that. Uh and and just just give you a standing ovation for getting to that part at at the high school level. That's that's been a journey to get there. So, I probably said more than I intended to say, but I have to say one more thing. Uh, when I was the director of curriculum and instruction

068and professional development, one of the last purchases, curricular purchases that we brought to this board was well over a million dollar expenditure um that we amized over seven years. And that was a benchmark for K5. And that was I don't even know if Cadillac is the right word anymore. Maybe it's Aston Martin or Maserati, but that was that was the pinnacle of what we could find. Uh but now you see all these other braids in the rope, the science of reading that are just so we know more that we know more about how reading instruction should occur. So um so what you have in front of you that you won't act upon tonight, but we'll be back in a couple of weeks um is a wonderful investment and it creates opportunities and equity across our

069school district. Thank you. Any final thoughts from board members? Any final thoughts from any of the three of you? just I can't say enough how thankful I am that I get to work with all these wonderful people who are willing to do really hard things because none of these things are easy and it's easy to go by the wayside and say we're good enough. But what's fabulous is to work with people like these ladies who are so hungry for all students to achieve. It's just Grand Forks Public Schools is a great place to be right now. It's phenomenal and we're really lucky. The other thing is I just want to acknowledge we still have much good work to do. This is a great start and we have great things in place but this is just

070the launch pad for what we're going to do because there is a lot of good work to do to get to equity to get to all and we we will get there but it's just the first step. So thank you. Okay. Thank you. One final reminder that uh this item five were recommendations for discussion. So you'll see this as recommendations for action at our next board meeting. Moving on to six. 6A is our consent agenda. I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda in tonight's board packet. So moved. It's been moved by Mr. Cleven. Is there a second? A second by Mr. Anderson. We'll take a roll call vote. Hodak. Yes. Larson is absent. Manley. Yes. Cleven? Yes. Anderson? Yes. Flynn? Yes. Palmino? Yes. Lun? Yes. Burger. Yes. H. Yes. Z no one

071absent. Motion passes. 6B. Our general fund financial statement. Mr. Brandon Bombach. President Burgerer. Members of the board, I get to present to you the financial statement for the first nine months of the year. That's through March 21st or March 31st, excuse me. The uh highest level here, revenues, were just over $102 million and expenditures at almost $83 million. That puts the revenues over expenditures of almost $19.5 million. As you'll see as we get to the close of this report, that's where we'd expect to be. Uh and then from here, as as we draw closer to summer, we'll see that balance um go back to some more um normal levels in the summertime. The report is made up of two reports. The first being the general fund financial statement. That's the actual against the budget. So,

072starting on that second page, you'll you'll see two columns. The first of those two being the budget column and then where we're at through March 31st at that point in the year. The first page of that is a summary and you could see that total all revenues were sitting about 79% of all uh budgeted revenues whereas expenditures are about 64% of of budgeted expenditures. Um so that uh puts us in a positive place. There's a lot more detail that follows over this next um two pages here. Uh the one really thing I'd point out as far as how we're tracking on the actual expenditures versus budget when we look at those subcategories of salaries and and fringe benefits, we'd be, you know, relatively where we expect. The other expenditures, which is a a big kind

073of miscellaneous grouping, is actually tracking a little bit lower than where we have been in previous years. So that could be uh certainly seen as a positive as far as savings on the budget goes, but there's there's still some time to pass. As we approach this time a year though, we start to put some restrictions on when uh new requests for purchases can be put in. So April 1st, we we have a deadline for no more out of town purchase orders to be submitted. And then May 16th is uh we can no longer submit purchase order requests for in town purchases. So as we draw nearer to the end of the year, we have our incumbrances known and this reflects our our actuals to date, but it starts to come into focus as all. So

074we start to see the picture of how this budget will come together. The second part of this report is the year-over-year comparison. Um so that first page of that report does summarize again the revenues and expenditures and you can see as of March 31st 25 compared with last year at the same time revenues are down 1.3%. Um whereas expenditures are down you know 4% as a um yeah as an aggregate number. I made some notes here too. The one that I'll point your attention to uh is the primary resident tax credit. As we watch throughout this year, our local tax proceeds are coming in and they're lagging as compared to the year prior and that's because of the primary resident tax credit and the county has sent over a large sum payment in the month

075of April. So, in the next financial statement, you'll see that catch up just a little bit. Um otherwise my notes are there but skipping to the last three pages of graphical representation you can see the consistency among our revenue. Um again just down slightly from the year prior expenditures and a similar trend with and down slightly more. But then when it comes together to the general fund balance, you'll see that we're getting to a point of March and April where we'll see the the revenues and expenditures even out as the payments are made out to our our teachers and staff who leave uh for the summer and we'll get to that ending fund balance that we talk about quite a bit. But all told um appear to be a little bit ahead of where we

076have been in the years past. There's a lot of information in these things all the time. happy to answer any questions. Otherwise, the administrative recommendation would be to approve the general fund financial statement for the period of July 124 through March 31st 25. Questions for Mr. Bombach? Yeah, it's uh it's page two. It's the monthto-month report. The local sources revenue, what generally is that? And is that being off cycle? Is that like a timing thing or that will catch up or is there an issue there? Page two on the comparison report here. Yeah. Well, it's it's the second page of 10 of the PDF itself. Okay. Page one of the of the monthto-month comparison. Sure. The budget versus actual. Yep. So the you're you're describing local proceeds where we've budgeted 33.7 million. Correct. And we

077we're showing about 23.4 million. Correct. Yep. Great question. So local sources at the bottom of that same page, it starts getting a little more detail. The bulk of those are attributed to the property taxes, which is related to the comment I made too, where it's been lagging a little bit, but it's going to hop back up here in April with the primary resident tax credit. You can see there's other things in here though associated with local sources including the impact aid that comes from district 140 to district 1. That always happens at the very end of the year. So for example that single transactions 3.25 million and there's other explanation within there too. That's that does it. Thank you. Other questions for Mr. Bombach. I would seek a motion to approve the general fund financial

078statement for the period of July 1, 2024 through March 31, 2025. It's been moved by Mr. Palmino and a second by Mr. Manley. Any discussion? We'll take a roll call vote. Palmino, yes. Anderson, yes. Lun, yes. Flynn, yes. Larson is absent. Manley, yes. Cleven, Hodak, yes. And Ber, yes. HS0 no one absent. Motion passes. 6C. Thank you all for your patience. We will have our summer school directors sharing their plans for the 2025 summer school programs. Each giving an overview of their programs and and then they'll be available for questions. So not sure. We're going to start with Dr. Glatch. Okay. Thank you. Yes. And Evan, you can make your way to the microphone as I introduce you all. So, I want to thank as well the team in the audience right now for being

079here uh late into the evening to give a summer school preview. We do this every year. It's a precursor so you know what to anticipate for the summer programming. And so, our batting order is as follows. We have Evan Peterson who is in charge of intro to Kay as well as elementary. Mr. Matt Baky is pinch hitting here for Kayla Ericson who was unable to make it tonight. From there, we're going to Trevor Lennon to talk about the high school program. um on to Teresa Oscaren, also known as certified staff member of the quarter, um to talk about the middle level programming number one and Mr. Nick Peterson to talk about the summer rise program at Valley Middle School. Uh Mr. Bohan will then come in and talk about driver's ed and the batting cleanup

080is Allison Peterson for Spa. You got your order back there? All right, very good. Thank you, Evan. Take it away. Um thank you for having me. I'll start off first with Intro to Kindergarten. Um, for those that are aware, intro to kindergarten was cut last year. We we didn't have it. Um, we brought it back this year with some state funding that we're able to use um for our incoming kindergarten students. Um, currently, as we sit at 5:30 this evening, um, we have 219 students. Um, that is down from where we were at two years ago. Um, but not having it, um, obviously we're we were kind of expecting lower numbers. Um, so our goal in the future is to obviously increase those. Um, our communications department did a great job of getting out our

081social media posts. Um, and then our our teachers and admin at our elementary schools did an excellent job of um, bringing back the program during kindergarten roundup and making it a opportunity for parents to sign up their children as they come in, incoming kindergarteners um, in the fall. Um with that we have um our dates are set July 28th to August 15th. Um we have to have 60 hours of instruction um set by the state to be funded. Um so we have 15 days uh 8 to noon um of intro to kindergarten focusing on math and reading um for those kids. Uh we do not offer busing other than um our special education students due to the age of the kids. They are four year olds and 5-year-olds coming into intro to kindergarten. Um and

082then there is no breakfast or lunch served um for those students as well. Um we will have pairs. Our goal is to have a one one pair in each room. Um then depending on the size of the classrooms, the state says 25 to one. Um we understand that that's a high number for a student who's never been to school before. Um so Mr. Baky and I met this morning um and kind of determined that our number is probably closer to 18 to 17 depending on the school and depending on the enrollment that we have um at each individual school. Lake E Lake Egassy and Winship will be housed at the Head Start building um due to construction at Lake Egassy. And right now we have 49 students. Um Phoenix and Wilder will be housed at

083Phoenix due to construction at Wilder. Um Sentry will be by itself. They have 36 students. Um Discovery and Kelly will be host Discovery Elementary. Um we have 71 students there. Um Viking will be by itself at Viking Elementary with 18 students. Um Ben Franklin and Lewis and Clark will be housed at Ben Franklin and they have 18 students and then Twining is all by itself with nine students. Um are there any questions about intro to kindergarten? Questions for Mr. Peterson. I just have one. You spoke of a year gap without having this program and now securing some funds. We're appreciative of that. What does the medium-term landscape look like? Can we expect that we've got a solution? Will will can we look past this year? If someone can answer what we might expect going forward.

084Uh thank you, President Berger. Uh members of the board, I would anticipate that the state has uh jumped on board with the uh the offering of this being a funded program um within our summer school programming. And typically when that happens, we see that the longevity of that continue moving forward. And so we're excited about this opportunity to be able to put it into our funding formula and seek that reimbursement uh through this avenue. And so um one change though that you've seen as a result of that is is the additional time. Um previously intro to Kay was not offered to this extent of the 60 hours. And so to get that reimbursement we have to meet those hour requirements. Um the other hurdle and challenge that we have but also at the same time

085is is a positive and success. we want to celebrate is all the work going on at all of our school buildings. Um that has presented in the summer, you know, that time frame for to get all of that work done in a short threemonth period. Uh which really isn't a total of 3 months, but um there's a lot of work to be done in that summer. And so it displaces some students into different buildings. Um and that presents a challenge at that point um for some of that. Um, but knowing that this is a uh, you know, long-term or short-term uh, problem because we're going to have all of it done um, as you'll hear later from building and grounds director Ellwin Elwine um, about all of the the great work being done. Um, we

086anticipate being able to be back in our buildings uh, in the future. So, thank you. Any final questions for Mr. Peterson? Thank you. Okay, I'll move into summer school now. Um this is current kindergarteners through current fourth graders. Um this program runs June 2nd to June 20th. So the Monday after school is out for 15 days on the same requirements by the state are 60 hours of instruction in math and reading. Um contracted hours for our teachers and I should have mentioned this for intro to Kay are the same. Um teacher contracts are 76 and 1/2 hours. So, four hours of instruction for 15 days, a half hour prep. Um, and then they get four hours of setup and four hours of takedown due to um teachers moving, teachers changing classrooms. Um, and then we

087have a teacher meeting that's hosted here at MSC um in a couple weeks to go over curriculum, go over our standards, um what their day looks like for all those teachers. Um for our locations, um Phoenix, Wilder, and Winship will be all housed at Phoenix Elementary, and we currently have 81 students, um K through 4. Discovery and Cali will be housed at Discovery Elementary. We have 138 students. Sentry and Lake Egassy will be together at Sentry. Um we currently have 198 students. Um Ben Franklin, Lewis, and Clark, and Viking will be at Ben Franklin Elementary. We have 144 students. and then twine will be by itself. Uh out of 20 they have 22 students. Um due to the summer months, our admin will not be out of contract. They'll be done with their contracts. So

088we have what's called a TOSA um a teacher on special assignment. Um myself, I will be at Ben Franklin um supervising and administering the kids. Um and then we have Ryan Voss who's a dean of students at Valley Middle School and Ashley Vinci who's a dean of students at Lake Egassy. They will be at Century Elementary. Um Ryan has been there for two years. And then Ashley Vinci has been at Lake Egassy for two years as a summer TOSA for us. And then we're adding Bailey Andrews. She's also a toast or a dean of students at Lake Egassy. She'll be a a TOSA at Phoenix Elementary. Um she has background with Winship as previous roles as well too. So, there will be some connections and some familiar faces for her to to help students and

089help teachers when there's support needed for those for those kids. Um, where we stand right now, we're at 583 total students, current kindergarten through current fourth graders. Um, previous numbers, those are up from last year. Um, but down from pandemic numbers, um, looking before the pandemic, they're kind of on par to where we were at um, before the pandemic. So those are those are good to see. Um we will also have paras for our students that have uh need supports. Um and then those paras also serve as supervisors during lunch and breakfast. So their hours are 7:30 to about 12:30. Um as we serve breakfast and lunch at the buildings that qualify with the state. Um totally between the two programs we have about 8002 two kids signed up for intro to kindergarten and summer

090school. Um it's promising. It's good to see and um that our parents are signing their children up for summer school to to enhance their reading and and math. So any questions for summer school or anything that came up about entering kindergarten? Questions about the elementary summer school program for Mr. Peterson or about anything we've heard so far? Okay. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. All right. I will uh I get the opportunity to present on Encore. Oh, I thought it was on. Thank you very much. Saving me. Okay. Um uh uh board president uh Burgerer and members of the board. Um I will present on encore uh for director Kayla Ericen who is unable to make it this evening. Um and I have a short little snippet I'm supposed to read here. So I'm

091just going to follow instructions and read that. Encore will be offering afternoon programming that will run 12:30 to 5:30 on June 2nd through June 20th. Um so that falls in line with uh the elementary summer school. Um lunch will be served um that day on those days uh from 12:00 to 12:30 um by offering programming. We hope that it helps encourage participation in summer school that parents have a full day option for those 15 days in June. Um programming will be held at three of the locations, Century, Ben Franklin, and Phoenix. um those attending summer school at Discovery have the option to join for the afternoon at one of these locations. That is primarily due to um lack of interest at that building. Um low numbers as well as the lunch option. Um they do

092not qualify for the lunches that we can offer at the other schools. Um and so having lunch provided they can travel there, have lunch and then stay for the encore afterwards. Uh programming participants will be provided a snack, academic enrichment activities, STEM experiences with Gateway to Science, and much more. Last year we had 95 students attend at our locations and look forward to having more this school year or the summer school year. Any questions for me? Questions about the Encore program for Mr. Baky? Okay, thank you. Thank you. I'll hand it over to Mr. Lennon. Is this on? Okay. All right. Hello, school board members. My name is Trevor London. I'm the high school summer school director. Uh again, this year, uh summer school, uh for high school will take place at Redver High School

093and run from Monday, June 2nd through Wednesday, July 9th, with classes running from 7:45 a.m. to 12:25 p.m. There are two semesters to summer school with the first semester spanning from June 2nd to June 18th and the second semester from June 19th to July 9th. Students can take a full year course that runs the entire school day with a 15-minute break from 10:00 to 10:15, or they can choose a 2-hour semester course such as physical education, speech, or health, which runs from 7:45 to 10:00 and then switches uh 10:15 a.m. to 12:25 p.m. Uh the registration window for summer school opened on January 21st and will remain open until May 9th. Uh as of uh April 23rd, we had 316 students enrolled. That number has now gone up to 343 uh for the core classes

094that we offer. Uh course offerings include English, multilingual classes, history, government, economics, physical education, and health. We will also have teachers taking students on foreign exchange trips for German and Spanish. Students will also be able to take online course courses through the North Dakota Center for Distance Education. Grant Fork Central and Red River will also offer credit recovery options, otherwise known as CRO's for students that have failed a class with a 55 to 63.5%. Uh students will be able to come to the um first week of summer break and complete standards aligned units in an online course to recover the points needed to pass that class. uh with uh staffing um it's kind of hard to tell until that uh registration window closes, but I estimate that we'll need to hire around 20 uh certified

095staff members and about 10 classified staff members. With that being said, are there any questions? Questions about high school summer school for Mr. Lennon? Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the school board. My name is Teresa Oscar and I'm the middle school summer school coordinator for the summer. Um, I'm presenting information in regards to South Shraider entwining tonight. Nick Peterson is my teacher of special assignment that will be in charge of the summer rise program and he'll be representing Valley on their behalf. Our summer school this year will run from June 2nd to the 27th with ELA and math. You may notice that this is a four-week instead of a 3-week program. My teachers had asked for an extra week because last year when we did our star scores, we had

096a lot of growth and so they wanted to have an extra week in there to increase our students um education. Also, the Valley Rise program does run for five weeks, so it kind of matches up with them as well. All South and Shrader students will be located at South this summer due to construction on the office and entry at Shrader. Um when this decision was made, I personally called all the Shrader families and they were okay with the move. I greatly appreciate the Trader families and their flexibility during that time. Twine will also be at their home school as well. This year we were able to get registration open in the beginning of February. messages were sent home by the schools, Melissa Baky. And then I also created some um handouts with QR codes for

097fifth graders, sixth graders, and seventh graders to give the fifth, sixth, and seventh grade teachers to give to their students during parent teacher conferences in February to kind of help build up some traction of enrollment. Because of this, we were able to host our Twin site this year. We currently, as of last night, have 107 South Trader students registered. um nine students at Twining. This is an increase for our 80 students we had last year. Um so we're still anticipating some growth within our program. Our ML students do not register after the WEDA scores get published on May 1st. So what we do with our ML program is any level ones and twos, we'll say with our ML teachers at South, if they're level three and four, we introduce them into our regular summer school

098classrooms. So they don't get those scores until May 1st. Then we can start registering those kids as well. Uh, part of my job is to look at data and assessments at South Middle School. So, I know data is important when it comes to talking to the schoolboard. Um, I'm currently working with Jen Spice on having a summer school star window open. I'm also having conversations with our special ed program. Um, just make sure that all of our students with IPS have proper supports in place as well. I want to bring up a topic as well of discussion from last fall. Um, we did have a science SEM program last summer. It was discussion of continuing it this year. I did reach out to all the middle school science teachers in December to see if there

099was interest. We did have a meeting with those teachers as well. Um after having conversations with them, we didn't have any teachers that are interested at this time to uh try to create a a curriculum for our summer school science program. Um in talking with Dr. Katherine Glatchel, we are going to continue that avenue yearly to see if we can build some kind of interest. We just need to find the right teacher to have the time available to be able to provide that for our kids. So, at this time, if there's any current questions, I can help with that as well. Questions for Miss Oscar? Dr. L. Does the extra week of summer school require an adjustment in the budget? Is that something the board So, I talked with Mrs. Clatch about that. Um, because

100we're still going to get the 60 hours that we need required by Centry Code. She said that we would be able to provide for that. So I did clear that with her before I we got the approval. We need to do something. No. So the 60 hours is a minimum in order for us to claim reimbursement, but we can go up to I believe it's 120 at the other end of the spectrum. Turn it off. There you go. And I will say too when we had the conversation in the fall, the question was why was South and Trader 3 weeks and valley was longer? And so we're trying to kind of blend it together and see because we did have the data to prove that there was improvements. We want to see how that works

101again this year. I'm I wasn't questioning that. I was just wondering if the board needed to make an adjustment in the budget for that is all I was I fully on board what you guys have done. Other questions from board members. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, uh, ladies and gentlemen. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to come and share out about RISE. Um, and also thank you to Teresa. Uh, she's done so much behind the scenes with logistics and, you know, getting kids signed up and messaging and we're we're really appreciative of that. Um, just a recap on Rise. So, this comes from our Levvenia partnership that we've had for a few years. um at kind of as a as a way to address CSI uh at Valley. Uh our RISE program has

102been a success for two years and continues to serve as a strong model for supporting students in both academic growth and confidence building over the summer. Uh all of our curriculum is is researchbased and is is geared towards preparing students for the next year. Um so structure and content is going to look similar as it has before. Uh we still are continuing to use like curriculum resources that we were able to purchase with ESR dollars three years ago. Um but our numbers have grown is one of our changes. So our very first year we we targeted that only at incoming sixth graders. So we had about 25 students. The next year we had a little over 50. Um this year we're almost at 100. And another change will be that we're also hosting ML students

103uh at Valley as well. Um we've had conversations and partnerships already. So, like Teresa said, those students aren't included in that number, but we've already had conversations about depending on their levels, like how they can fit into that rise structure in our day. Um, we will um continue to use our fiveweek model, but kind of hearing from families. We tried to shrink our profile as we've built our capacity. We have almost all of our teachers that have taught for the first two years coming back. So, we've been able to shrink uh what we need from Levvenia in that partnership from on-site coaches the first year to that week gap of synchronous training for all our teachers. Uh and then this year we're going to do asynchronous training, meaning that we can start day and date

104with the other summer schools, run our five-way program, and then be done before the 4th of July, which was pretty big for families. There's a lot of drop off in attendance after that. So, um, yeah, I think that would be the biggest changes and, you know, consistencies that we have. Is there any questions about Rise in particular that you might have? Questions for this Mr. Peterson. Thank you. Thank you. As Mr. Bohan makes his way up. Um I want to share with the board just in addition to the summer school K8 program, many of you are familiar with what's called the therapeutic learning center and recently meaning at the end of last week um a proposal came forward and we're looking to offer some summer programming there. So really what we'll be able to do

105is claim um student average daily memberships in accordance because they're all signed to home schools. Um, but our students there, we want to make sure that they continue learning and there's going to be a a literacy focus and but literacy and life skills focus because many of our students are learning those life skills to to help them um navigate some of the stressors that are in front of them. So, that's going to be a really important gap filler for our students at the TLC. You're up. Uh, Katherine, thank you for the baseball reference earlier. I'm going to see if I can drive in some runs right now. There we go. After which I hope Ally hits me home. Driver's ed 2025 is ready to roll. Uh we plan to serve right around 300 uh students.

106Again, as a reminder to the board, most driver's ed students are 14, 15, 16year-old young people. Uh nearly all of them Grand Forks Public School students. anticipate 17 instructors this summer uh for our six-week program that operates in three two-week segments. Uh we're planning very similar operation as we have in the past including our arrangement with Ryel and Grand Fork Subaru uh to secure vehicles for driver's ed. Last thing I need to remind the board is last fall uh we did uh increase the fee, you might remember that conversation from the fall from $300 per student to 350. uh main reason being staffing costs. Uh we have been implementing that change and all seems well. Uh with that any questions I may address? Questions for Mr. Bohan. Thank you. Good evening members of the school

107board. Thank you for having us here tonight. My name is Allison Peterson. I am the director of the summer performing arts company, most affectionately called Spa. Uh registration opened uh 7 uh the April 7th at 10:00 a.m. As of today, there are 865 students registered throughout our programs. This is on par with registration for this time compared to last year and the year prior. We are using the same facilities as last year. Red River, Central, Sharon Lutheran, Discovery, Phoenix, and South. We are offering the same programming as last year, which is our prek program, elementary, middle school, high school, bands on the red, voice lessons, instrumental lessons, summer strings camp, my spa, which is our special needs program, and also providing guest artists to add an arts component to the ML summer school program. Our

108high school shows, which are the most public kind of viewed um part of Spa. This year, we're doing Guys and Dolls, and that'll be at Grand Fork Central. We're doing the show All Shook Up, which is an Elvis Presley juice jukebox musical, and that'll be at Red River High School. There are 68 students currently enrolled whose families have requested financial assistance to date. Um, they have varying requests of needs. Most of these families will have their uh registration fee reduced by up to 80%. Um, extreme hardship cases may have their fees waved entirely. And once again, this is made possible by our generous donors and granters. And as I have mentioned before, we we used to write grants and use a portion of our donations for expanded student opportunities and purchasing and maintaining tech equipment

109and tech needs for the productions, but now we've kind of had to shift to use those funds mainly for staffing and for other operating expenses. Um, for example, Bands on the Red, MySpa, and the ML guest artists are all grantfunded programs. So, all of these run solely by grants and donations. Um, we did receive some happy news today. Um, at uh 4:00 I received an email from the Giving Hearts Day team. Giving Hearts Day is a big uh fundraising effort that SPA uses to it's kind of our big fundraising push day. Um, once again, we got first in donor retention. That comes with a $6,000 award and we were first um there were 624 charities that participated in Giving Hearts Day and we got first in donor retention, second year in a row. So that

110is a testament to the awesome donor base that we have. And uh it just it it really shows how what a supportive community we have. Um but we've been fortunate for all of the support we received from the district and from the community as a whole and we're looking forward to this summer. I'd be happy to entertain any questions. Questions for Miss Peterson. Dr. L. is the reason for using Sharon Lutheran. Is that because of construction? The summer schools. Yep. Summer school at Red River. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Other questions? Miss Flynn? I noticed that there's just one small conflict with timing of some of spa and summer school. Oh, yes. So, for example, like middle school, there's only one section, correct? But middle school, uh, summer school runs simultaneously to that time. So, have

111you guys heard anything about I wish I could do spa but I'm taking summer school or I wish I, you know, could do summer school, but I really want to do spa or anything. I I have not. Um, we we've had a few people that um it happens with some of the elementary sessions, too. And unfortunately, then the sessions that they want to get into unfortunately have filled because they're the first to fill. But, um, middle school is kind of the the tricky one because that's the time and the location that's worked for us for the longest. And so I we're not in a position to add another section of it. Um and then the staff that runs our middle school program is also the high school staff in the afternoon for the that do

112the productions. And so it's we'd have to hire a whole new staff to do it at a separate location unfortunately. Other questions. Thank you. Thank you. Got all the way through the batting order. Uh what's the score? I don't remember how many they were, but they all won. Uh the administrative approval, uh excuse excuse me. The administrative recommendation is to approve this summer school programming as presented this evening. So I would seek that motion. It's been moved by Mr. Cleven. Is there a second? A second by Dr. Hodc. Any discussion? Yes. One thing, Dr. L. Just a quick stupid question. You know, I've only been on the board for 25 years, but why is this coming to the board for approval now? There's no budget attached to it or anything like that. Are we actually

113going to vote no on programs that all the experts have decided? I'm just I'm just it just I thought of it as a present. It's like there's no budget attached. Why Why is it coming here? Um, so whenever we have a summer school program that we uh offer within our school system, we have to fill out um what's called an MISO3 or summer school approval through DPI. And through that um on the report, it has to be schoolboard approved in order to offer that. Yep. Correct. So it's uh one of the requirements that we need to do to offer the programming within our district. Other questions, Miss Flynn? So then why do we have registration open before it's approved? like should this shouldn't this be earlier then? Fair point. Um but it's one of those

114steps that we go through um relative to making sure we've crossed those uh te's and dotted those eyes uh in the anticipation that the board would approve that. So other questions? There's a motion on the floor to approve the summer school programming as presented. Any further discussion? We'll take a roll call vote. Larson is absent. Pomcino, yes. Cleven, yes. Lun, yes. Manley, yes. Anderson, yes. Hodak, yes. Flynn, yes. Burgerer, yes. HS0, no one absent. Motion passes. 6D, finance committee report with consideration. Uh, I know uh Mr. Palmino chaired this last meeting. I'm not sure if you or Brandon Bombach's going to lead this off. Yes. Thank you. Um, President Ber, members of the board, happy to introduce this. There were two items discussed at the finance committee on on April 16th. Um, the first is

115really about strategic and anticipated projects. It was it was a good conversation, kind of a broad conversation taking place addressing uh some of the facility assessment that Jonathan and his team had undergone to this point related to HVAC safety, envelope improvements, different interior finishes, roofing and plumbing. It came into context during that conversation just to sort through some of those priorities and they were bucketed as such. But I would consider that was really just the first or ongoing broad conversation that'll continue at both finance committee and facilities committee with a goal of informing a longterm facilities plan something in the fall of this year. Um but really to put that into a document and a focus that would be renewed and revisited each year a little bit further. So that was the first item. The

116second item, we spent um a little bit of time um hearing from Brian Opsaw. He's with Brady March Associates. He had helped uh lead the uh this year or last fiscal year, fiscal year 24. And sorry, I meant to point out these audited financial statements is on a separate uh separate cover memo. So just after the meeting minutes and so he took us through a presentation of the audited financials for both school district um one and Grand Forks Air Force um based public school district 140. So in your packet you'll have a a long list of electronic pages to include both of those audited financial statements as well as the management report. Um tonight we're joined again by Brian Opsall who will um take us through the presentation of those documents and at the end

117of course he'll be available for any questions as will I. Good evening. Um as Brenda mentioned I was able to meet with the uh finance committee a couple weeks ago to go through this in a little bit more detail than I plan to tonight. Uh so tonight's presentation is mainly just uh some high points and allow you a chance to ask some questions if you have them. So um couple things to point out before we get started. Uh no difficulties performing the audit. Uh no disagreements with management. We appreciate all the help that we get from the staff. There's a lot to get through um to get it done on time and and obviously lots going on in the district. So we appreciate all the help that we do get. um into the auto report.

118And I'll throw some page numbers out there if anybody's following along u electronically. Uh these will be the actual page numbers, not the PDF page number. So just keep that in mind. Um when we get into the audit report, pages 2 through five within district number one is the independent auditor's report, which is uh where we've issued an unmodified opinion on the financial statements. that is considered a good or a clean opinion that the financial statements are fairly stated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. It is management's responsibility for all of the numbers and the footnotes within these financial statements and then our responsibility as auditors to ensure that they are reasonably stated and that's what our opinion is stating. So, uh once again a good opinion. Uh the second section of the report

119is known as management's discussion and analysis and runs through pages 6 through 12. This section is probably the easiest read if you're looking for just a snapshot of the year. Um it had has some information as far as the reasons why things maybe went up or down, but uh the rest of the uh report contains lots of extra information. So if you're looking for just a quick little snapshot, that's section I would probably read. Uh pages 15 and 17. And this is uh where we get into your balance sheet and uh income statement. The general fund ended with a fund balance at the end of June 30, 2024 of 11,431,131. The number above that, which is your unassigned fund balance, the unassigned basically means it's not restricted or earmarked for any other purpose. Uh the

120balance was two $10,285,51. One of the things we look at to determine health of the district is we take that number divided by your general fund expenditures. Uh you're at 7.8% at the end of June 30, 20 uh 24. Uh like to see that probably 10 10 or more for sure. Um you know, we talked about this a little bit. the finance committee that bigger districts can have a little bit smaller fund balance just because the size is is a lot larger and there's some other things hitting the percentage that I'm giving you that makes it probably worse than it is because the true percentage is supposed to be on your operating expenses but there are some capital related items that are part of this calculation as well just by the way that we did

121that so just keep that in mind but uh right now or at the end of June 30 2024 at 7.8% 8%. Um, all of the funds end with fund balances in the positive, so that's a good sign. Uh, page 17 shows the changes within those funds. Three lines from the bottom, you can see the general fund was down $570,564. Uh, we'll see how that compared to your budget here in a minute. Um the other funds with significant activity was your building fund which uh did have about $35 million of expenditures for various projects. Um and then uh the food service fund had a transfer to cover some some costs within that building fund as well. So overall uh with with the capital related activity, the the funds were down $1,719,156. Uh page 52 of the

122financials then shows uh the budget to actual. Um and it's broken down a little bit uh differently than most budgets just because you're budgeting basically for fund 10 which is your general fund. But when we report on the general fund and the report it includes some other funds because of the way that um like student activities for example gets rolled in here because of some changes in standards etc. So it gets broken down a little bit. the overall number the bottom right corner on page 52 uh you're better than budgeted by about $1,312,319 combination of some additional revenues as well as less expenses uh than than what was budgeted for. Uh the last section of the report then gets into our our various uh reporting. Pages 57 and 58 is our government auditing standards report.

123really a high level overview of your internal control structure at the district. We have two findings uh one related to auditor preparation of the financial statements which is a repeat finding that virtually all districts have just basically saying that the auditors are putting these together. Um we do think that that risk is mitigated by the fact that you review and approve these financial statements before they get issued but there is a risk since we're the ones putting them together. And the other comment or finding that we had was related to adjusting journal entries. Uh there was a few entries that we made to put the financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Uh various things such as the new lease standard um other things within the the debt issuances etc. So we did

124help out with that. Um pages 59 through 61 is the uniform guidance report also known as a single audit. Uh we have unmodified opinions on the uh two programs we tested which was title one as well as the corona virus capital projects fund. Uh so those are considered clean opinions. Uh we did have one small finding related to just some support that wasn't available on title one uh related to uh some of the private schools that you have to include in some of the narrative. The supporting documentation just wasn't retained. So we weren't able to tie it out, but uh things have been changed or put in place since that point to fix that. So that is district number one uh in a nutshell. Does anybody want have any questions on district number one before

125I move on to district 140? Questions for Mr. Dr. L? Brandon, could you explain the the title one and the private schools just so that the rest of the board knows like we heard at the committee? Well, actually I'd invite uh Matt to help out with that. Yeah. Um yeah, thank you. Uh, no, you're good. Uh, thank you, board member Lun, uh, members of the board. Uh, really what it ties back to is a transition of multiple people in multiple positions, uh, not having the materials, uh, carried over from years to year, as well as, uh, the transition of new administration at the public schools and their system not being able to go back to previous months, uh, to look at the, um, free and reduced lunch numbers in previous months. Public schools or private

126schools? PO or private schools, I'm sorry, nonp non-public is is what I meant. I'm sorry. Um, and so they their system was not able to go back to the previous months. Um, and so we've put in a a uh position where we'll capture what is called worksheet G every month from them so that we can go back every month and see that. So other questions than what we've heard so far. Okay. Oh, Miss Flynn, we haven't heard it yet, but just curious. I just like you thought like why are we doing this? Um, we don't typically approve the district 140 financials like every month. So, just curious why we approve their audited statement. Well, all I would say is we've brought this to District 140 already and they did approve it as an actionable item

127last week uh at our last meeting. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, and this has been a practice as a board since I've been here. And I would think that that's just related to the role, the unique role that District 1 has over the financials of District 140. And so knowing that is a presentation to you as well. This is less of an approval is more of an acceptance of what's provided. Okay, I'll just move on to 140. This will be pretty quick to uh just less within the report. So same same thing pages 2 through four is independent auditor's opinion where we've issued an unmodified opinion on the financial statements. Uh so a good or clean opinion on them. Uh the second section which is pages 5 through nine in this report is this management's discussion

128and analysis section of district 140. Um pages 12 and 13 this is where we break out. They basically have two funds within district 140. You have a general fund uh which has a fund balance of $6,677,927 and then a capital projects fund uh which has a deficit $2,642. So basically a break even. Um the changes on page 13 lines in the bottom. The general fund was up $899,546 and the capital projects fund was up $324,972. A lot of this funding um or almost all of it comes from federal sources like impact aid money, etc. Um page 24 shows the changes uh from the budget to the actual uh a positive variance on the bottom right corner of $587,225. um the the federal sources that impact aid money is very tough to budget just because you

129don't know when it's coming or even how to calculate how much is coming. Kind of depends on what's what's there. Um so that's is a large part of that. Um page 26 shows the different funding sources that you get through the federal uh government. 5,890,613. We've typically always tested impact aid which we did again this year. uh going forward, you might have some testing to do over the community investment uh fund as that activity ramps up here in FY25. Um and then finally, we get to the reporting section. Pages 28 and 29 is the government auditing standards report. Uh we just have one finding on that related to us preparing the financial statements. Uh we didn't have any adjusting journal entries for district number 140. And then the uniform guidance report pages 30 uh through

13032. This is uh an unmodified opinion then on the impact aid program. So uh we didn't have any issues or findings when we did that testing. So that is district 140 if there's any questions. Any questions from board members? Yes, Dr. Brener. First of all, thank you Brian. Thanks for being at finance and thank you for being here tonight. Just want to uh highlight and underscore and uh point out again that uh we're two years away from collecting our total 100% lot for impact aid uh dollars. So you can see that there's a really healthy fund balance uh district 140 that's really going to help us get that uh new school project across the finish line. So thank you. All right. Any other comments from finance committee members before I seek a motion to approve

131receipt of these financial statements? All right. You can see here that administration and finance committee recommendation is to receive the June 30th, 2024 financial statements for each district. I would seek a motion to approve receipt of these statements. It's been moved by Mr. Palmino. Is there a second? A second by Dr. L. Any discussion? We'll take a roll call vote. Cleven, yes. Manley, yes. Hodak, yes. Anderson, yes. Flynn, yes. Larson is absent. Lun, yes. Palmino, yes. Burger, yes. H, yes. Zero, no. One absent. Motion passes. Uh, before we move on to 6E, I just clarification uh just because it was under action. So 6D1, the strategic and anticipated projects discussion. Anything else on that from finance committee members or that was the that was the consideration to go along with the action item. I just

132want to make sure we didn't Yeah, I I think what we just been working on is is Jonathan's working on a report card on all our schools and I think when that's ready to come forward, it'll be a real nice tool that we'll have in our our toolkit here to move forward so we know what's coming. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. comfortable moving on then? So 6E, contracted staff resignation and request for release from contract and waiver of liquidated damages. Dr. Brener. Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh in front of you, you have a a memo from from me regarding Maline Constein and her letter of resignation. Uh she's a social studies teacher at Shrader Middle School. She's been there for the last 3 years and she's uh resigned effectively last Friday due to her husband

133receiving military relocation orders that require them to move out of state immediately. She requests a waiver of the liquidated damages under policy DKBB because the military orders were received sooner than they originally thought uh would occur at the end of the school year. Reasons the board may grant a release from the contract are found in the regulation DKBBR. The administrative recommendation is to approve Maline Constin's resignation effective last Friday and to wave the liquidated damages under policy DKB. Thank you. Any questions for Dr. Brener. Would seek a motion to approve Maline Constin's resignation effective last Friday, April 25th, 2025, and to wave the liquidated damages under policy DKBB. I'll move to accept the recommendation. It's been moved by Mr. Cleven. Is there a second? Second. A second by Mr. Anderson. Any discussion? We'll take a

134roll call vote. Manley, yes. Lun, yes. P Larson is absent. Pomcino, yes. Hodak, yes. Cleven, yes. Flynn, yes. Anderson, yes. Burger, yes. HS01, absent. Motion passes. 7A, announcements. Are there any announcements? Uh, Mr. Cleven. Oh, Dr. L, if you go first, please. Well, yours will surely be more exciting. Well, I I just was going to remind board members that Grand Fork Central's National Technical Honor Society induction ceremony is not this Wednesday, but next Wednesday, May 7th, at 5:30. Uh um I I think it's they're good to go to and they're important to go to. They're they're really inspiring, just like some of the graduations. So, if any of you have the opportunity to go, I'd appreciate going. I think it's they're very good. Yeah. Thank you for that reminder. And now, Mr. Cleven, if you

135don't mind. All right. Uh, Mr. Paul Mossino and I attended the local government affairs committee meeting this afternoon at city hall and the we will be at May 12th meeting. we will have the opportunity to review and take action on a tax incentive for an expansion at Surus Aircraft or whatever their formal title is. Uh they're asking for a 10-year incentive at 100% rate. So that'll come to us on the May 12th meeting. Um couple highlights of that. Uh it's about an $11 million expansion. It'll add some employees like up to five is what they're predicting. Uh in their grand scheme, it's the precursor project to larger expansions that will add more substantive numbers of employees about 20 or 30 they're forecasting and they think that'll be about five years from now. Um, so that

136again that'll come to us for approval May 12. And then the other one that was just five were presented for just kind of information. One is that Agristo potato processing plant. Uh they had some representatives there that just presented some highlevel input on the on the project background. And then there's four commercial developments that will also be seeking uh various tax incentives. Uh those will come to us in anywhere from 2 to 5 months because some of them have planning and zoning things they got to do for changes to planning and zoning etc. so forth. Uh and Agristo didn't really state a timeline other than sometime in June or July. So, we'll have some some pretty big projects to be reviewing here in the next 5 months or so. Thank you, Mr. Cleven. Uh, Dr.

137Lun, just a clarifying question about that. When you say that'll be coming back on May 12th, is that to that committee or to the board? That'll come to us as a board. Okay. On May 12th, it'll come to the board. Okay. Thank you. Other announcements. Board requests for future consideration. Anything from board members. 7C. Schoolboard meeting norms. Miss Flynn, how did we do? Great. One word. Great. I should give you some MBAN lessons. I'll come up with a different vocabulary word than great. Scrumlescent. Well, uh, as you can see, if you've been following along with your agenda, um, we're still a long ways from adjournment, and that is because, uh, item eight on our agenda is an executive session. Uh, so at this time, I would ask for a motion to hold an executive session

138to discuss security system planning is allowed by North Dakota Century Code, sections 15.1-9-60, 44-4-19.21, 2 1 44-04-24 44-04-25 and 44-4-26. I make that motion. It's been moved by Dr. London. Is there a second? Second. A second by Mr. Cleven. We'll take a roll call vote. Anderson, yes. Hodak, yes. Flynn, yes. Manley, yes. Lun, yes. Palmino, yes. Larson absent. Cleven yes. Burger yes. HS0 no one absent. Motion passes. We'll now ask the members of the public who are attending the meeting to leave the room. If you're over 60, you get a bathroom break, too. It's not what it says here. We anticipate adjourning the executive session and reconvening the open portion of the meeting at approximately 8:30 8:35 p.m. Uh at which point we will recess to travel to Red River High School and reconvene the

139meeting there before adjourning. So evidently we've got to wait for folks to shuffle around. Uh but we uh we'll start the recorder here momentarily.