Grand Forks Public Schools School Board Meeting (February 24, 2025)

001e e e call to order the regular meeting of the Grand Fork school board for Monday February 24th 2025 the first item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance invite you to stand as you able flags are in the Southeast corner of the room agenda item 1A the reading of our Schoolboard meeting Norms Mr cevin thank you uh number one be prepared number two be on time number three value and respect each other number four exercise thoughtful deliberation and conversation number five be professional at the board table and when visiting with the general public six speak up when the Norms are not being followed and number seven Advocate on behalf of students and keep the community in mind thank you uh before we move on to item two approval of agenda just a couple

002items of note uh board member Joel Larsson is joining us by telephone and and we also have an illness so um Twining principal Mr Chad cka is out sick so when we approve the agenda I'll be looking for a motion to approve the agenda with the deletion of 3B we'll come back at a later meeting with the report and celebrating success from uh Twining so with that item two I'd be seeking a motion to approve tonight's agenda with that one deletion we'll take out 3B and come back at a later meeting it's been moved by Mr cevin is there a second second second by Dr hodek we'll take a roll call vote L yes thomasino yes Flynn yes Anderson yes clevin yes Manley yes lson yes Kodak yes Berger yes nine yes zero no zero

003absent motion passes item 3A classified and certified employees of the second quarter we'll start with the classified employ of the second quarter I believe this is Darren King there we go you think a technology guy would know how to turn a microphone on especially a guy who worked in radio for many years too I probably should have checked the mic but uh good evening president Burger members of the board it's really my pleasure to be here tonight uh with uh introduce you to uh our uh classified IT specialist and he is the quarterly winner of this award Logan Cornelius Logan is like I said an IT support specialist and you know I'm just starting to get to know all these folks and I'll just tell you my little story with Logan as I started to

004get to know Logan the first thing I noticed was he's Cur he was curious asked a lot of questions about a lot of things he was really um he was really um aggressive in trying to go learn things he was always trying to learn more and more and more and then on top of it he's really smart and he's got great customer service skills so he's got kind of the whole package in the it support world and I couldn't be more pleased to uh for him to win this award get this recognition because of the great work he does for us the reason really why we nominated him not because of all the other great things was because we had a it support specialist go on long-term leave and he just stepped up and doubled

005his workload for about 3 months went from six schools to 12 schools and just took responsibility for it and uh just got the job done without much of a blip so we're just really thankful Logan's part of the team and you want to say anything there young man I don't know oh okay he doesn't that's okay we it's okay he doesn't so anyway thank you for that thank you thank you very [Applause] absolutely uh next up our certified employee the second quarter uh so Valley principal uh T chai well greetings everyone today it's an absolute honor to recognize our certifi certified employee of the quarter Lisa vek someone who embodies dedication uh teacher servant leadership and an unwavering commitment to both staff and students of the Grand Forex Public Schools as an instructional coach AVID

006coordinator Title One coordinator you can see she does a lot of things she works leis Works tirelessly with our teachers and our students so that they receive the highest quality education her support just isn't about strategies and data although we do spend a lot of time on plan do study act Cycles those types of things but it's about building confidence fostering growth in our students and our teachers and celebrating everything as we move forward no matter how small or how great her passion for education is evident in everything she does and her positive impact ripples through Valley Middle School on behalf of all of us thank you for your dedication your heart your Relentless pursuit of excellence and most of all your unwavering belief in Valley Middle School congratulations [Applause] Lisa congratulations microphone is yours

007thank you thank you move on to item four public comments we're about to enter into the public comment period for our meeting although state law does not require us to hold a public comment period we have chosen to do so because we believe it is crucial for us to hear from our community members about their concerns and issues having said that please note that the board is here to listen the public comment period is not designed to be a discussion accordingly please do not expect board members to respond to your concerns or questions now this is because we take your concerns and questions seriously and want to have sufficient time to process and research issues if need be we will however respond to your questions and concerns at a future meeting or have proper staff

008get back to you at the appropriate time I also want to point out that under state and federal privacy laws we are unable to entertain any comments or questions about school district Personnel please know however that we take Personnel concerns very seriously on these matters we would ask that you would go through the appropriate administrative channels finally we recognize that right now in our nation and in our community we are polarized on a number of issues that said we want our Schoolboard meetings to serve as an example to our students that members of our school board board and members of our community can deal with controversial issues in a civil Manner and demonstrate demonstrate mutual respect for one another in that Spirit we will insist that all speakers and members of the audience maintain Civility

009and respect for any Divergent views that others possess we ask speakers to please address their comments to the board directly finally I want to remind everyone listening that you may submit written comments to the board in lie of speaking during the public comment period if you so choose the board will now entertain public comments each individual speaker is allotted up to 3 minutes the individual time limits will be enforced so that all members of the public who wish to speak may be allowed to do so at this time I have one comment card that has come to my attention are there others who wish to speak during the comment period tonight if so please make your way forward I'd like to invite Megan Olsen to the microphone uh Brandon bomach will help you get that

010turned on and way you go thank you um thank you all for being here tonight and um for so many of you who have humored me already um good evening my name is Megan Olsen um we'll hear shortly um an update about the boundary lines and I read the memorandum packet and um want to understand and draw attention before we start to the area called the southern island um which is currently set to drive through Zone 4 to zone 9 and while it's true this area is not walkable to any school we don't currently have to navigate through any other um school's traffic pattern or congestion to get there so I am excited to listen and learn to all that I don't know at this point um but if we're naming that growth is moving

011south I am here to wonder with you all why um why we're driving so far north through another Zone to get to our newly proposed school that's already historically pretty full um I understand there's no Vote or decisions tonight but I also didn't want to come in at the 11th hour and um not have any concerned voiced so thank you all thank you this leads right into agenda item 5A demographic task force and boundary lines update Dr brener thank you president berer uh I have a memo that's in the board packet and it's fairly lengthy but I think it's important to frame uh Rob's conversation with us tonight uh not only for the people who are in the audience tonight but for the people who are watching at home plus we'll have this recorded and

012we'll have this archived as well so uh tonight Mr Schwarz is with us he's the principal owner and CEO of RSP and Associates and he's going to be presenting the latest iteration of Elementary Middle School and High School boundary lines given the feedback from the social pinpointing and online survey uh feedback from uh RSP that RSP and Associates received following the January 15th and January 16th public input sessions important to note in tonight's presentation it's not finality it's not the final product that is the newest boundary lines are an update for you in terms of where we're at in the process of getting this to as close as right as we possibly can addition important to highlight is the boundary line considerations will not go into effect until 2026 27 for the elementary and middle

013school at the earliest with a phased in implementation process at the high school level with a yet to be determined timeline phasing in also suggest options that provide Patron flexibility yet the movement of students to address capacity and Staffing challenges continue to be a concern uh Mr Schwarz will highlight that during his presentation here shortly the question has been asked and it's a fair question why now why is it necessary to redraw boundary lines and the answer to that includes several components there's an increased enrollment pressure on Sentry Kelly and Discovery Elementary schools with special education programs expanding due to an increased in student identification the number of elementary schools requiring additional special education space is a real challenge the district is bound by law to provide a least restrictive environment service for students with

014special needs next we've had to move some students from Valley Middle School the present Valley Middle School to Shader due to capacity uh issues at Valley Middle School so with the new Valley Middle School being constructed and coming online in January of 2026 with the capacity of 650 students we have an opportunity to better balance our Middle School enrollments next Central High School enrollment will continue to reduce or decline with the present defined attendance areas thus challenging Staffing pattern and course offerings at Central High School there are programming and opportunity inequities between high school campuses balanced enrollment allows for Equitable academic and co-curricular activities next new housing continues to push to the southern part of the city and finally and this isn't a comprehensive all-inclusive list for the past several years a large portion of

015high school in District transfers from south to North have been approved to balance and enrollments and true we do have some students from North who transfer into Red River going south um but predominantly the larger number is South going to North so when the school board generated its prioritized boundary line CR uh criteria prior to the establishment of the demographic task force and the administrative boundary lines committee the top criteria were one projected enrollment and building U utilization was a priority number two keeping neighbor neighborhoods intact was a priority and number three there was a tie between fiscal considerations um and students impacted by the boundary line shifts while balancing socioeconomic indicators was not listed in the top three by the board but was included in the overall Schoolboard guiding principles this became a central

016topic of conversation within each committee's work specifically with administrators and while professional dialogue around this topic ensued there was not 100% agreement internally on whether or not that should be a driving factor in creating new boundary lines a question for the school board tonight will be is balancing socioeconomic indicators important to each of you from this point on uh Mr Schwarz will discuss Community input themes and how the present iteration of the boundary lines address in part those themes now I would like to turn it over to Mr Rob Schwarz thank you for being here Rob good evening glad to be here glad to be your servant in talking about what does this all mean to this point and so I will dig a little bit deeper into some of the points that Dr Brer

017mentions I'm going to for sure focus on what we heard from the social pinpoint survey and then I'll talk about the evolution of how we got to this revised plan and things for you to consider that I would classify as tradeoffs there's always challenges in these plans with definitively saying this must happen in one particular way some of it's timing some of it's where students are located some of it's where our buildings are also located so everyone on the board you're familiar with the work that we've been doing with you for nearly a decade the way that I've mapped out this agenda um we'll just dig into this right now um we had an original process that was set back in September 11th um so I'm showing you this here where we were going to

018have a decision for adopting the plan at your March board meeting um there'll be more discussion that you all have with where we are in this process what needs to be maybe added on or maybe there's other direction of research that you all may um figure we need to look at this gets us to where we are today where um here we are February 24th we're giving you an update and really what I wanted you to see between the two is is we kind of modified some things where we even added in um an additional meeting so that um the task force could be able to really dig into some of the information they were hearing from the community I do want to take it this time I don't know who out there is or

019if they even want to stand for being on this committee they should I want to thank them for the work that they did um there was a lot of Investigation they had to do beforehand and many of them living in your community had to answer questions um that weren't fully answered in this process at the time we were going through it so I know that was challenging for them and I know that where we are today is because of many of those conversations I want to spend a little bit of time on this Ace concept if you remember when I went and presented to you on September 11th I said this is where we're going to come back to this is the overall theme every single process that we are embarking on where we change

020boundaries and we're at this culture part remember we talked about academics and we know what's happening in your buildings we're planning for those changes with special education and and other things with your multilingual students um we know what our economies or economics are but where it comes down to is the culture how do people adapt to what the changes are do they accept the changes that have been expressed in Dr Brenner's introduction into this process does it meet some of the things that we're hearing from the buildings do we need to change them that's where this plan is at this point and it's less about as if it was even any about RSP less about us and more about what do we do for kids and what are those experiences going to be like for

021those students when any of the changes are approved we had some objectives so Dr Brer went into where we had some enrollment challenges of of too many students um with had some things considering do you have more of a east west break of what visually um the two High School boundaries would look like we're planning for a new Valley uh building opening in 26 27 with 650 students so we had to factor that in we also know the base is going to be having a new K8 building so how is that going to impact um students that are on the base less about what we're doing in our boundary plane because you have to be on the base or a military person to be able to attend those buildings so um again just acknowledging that

022there's these things that are happening in your community we had these guiding principles this was the framework for us to be establishing when I say us it's the committee the task force um what we've presented to the public and even what our team was looking at with any of the changes that we um would be contemplating um through the data um reconing of scenarios um I did want to as well bring up that future boundaries were to anticipate some of the changes at the neighborhood and you see in parenthesis with have things with demographics and development changes so this could be even more than new developments there's there's change over in some of our developments where we may have older kids or we may have no kids um and that's what we've factored into our

023enrollment forecast of what could be happening the last piece that gets into the cultural elements is that last bullet point grandfathering student options this is how you would implement the plan if you notice it's something that would come from Administration in the information I'm presenting to you tonight um will show what that could look like with a grandfathering so you get a sense of what does that look like how does that timing um start to happen and and then you start to consider is it something that we want to do if we're going to make changes we had the prioritization of the boundary criteria again I want to also State all of our criteria are important but back on September 11th um when you as a board were looking at how do we set the

024the metrics by which we would gauge any of the boundaries these were the top three and there's four criteria page 11 gives you a general breakdown of what happened at each of these admin meetings or the demographic task force you get a sense of what where where and how did this plan evolve the way that you're seeing it presented tonight background information is also enclosed in your packet so you have context of what is our existing Elementary boundaries how does that shape out with what the forecast U might be for the number of students um we have this capacity and that was an ongoing element of change um I talk about in this presentation the original capacity we generated for you back in 201819 it was reverified through a process a virtual process with the

025building principles to get at some of these numbers so there was some some movement of some of the levers of trying to understand in its Purity is it a two-section building three section building I'll talk about some information on a future slide of what this means more than just an absolute number but that was the metric to know do we have too many kids too few kids how does that relate to our current attendance boundaries with everybody attending where they should attend based on those boundaries so reside not the attend that's movement of students we have your existing Middle School boundaries and again what that forecast would be if we kept those boundaries and then your High School attendance zones and then what that would mean for your current High School boundaries we created this

026census diversity index um we've changed a few things along the way so for clarification of people that see this column one we change to diversity of the population this is all census data so this isn't anything looking at your student data or the students that are in your building this is those census block datas um that are from the short or long forms that were filled out the education attainment isn't what you're able to get with the GPA I would hope you have higher gpas than 2.0 right um this gets at there's five different categor ories the census has we narrowed it down to three because all this is three-point systems um basically what this is indicating to you is their attainment of different levels of education at high school to Associates to a bachelor's

027to a plus degree and so the closer you get to three the more likely you would have persons in that census block that makes up each of these attendance zes being closer to doctorate level as you move to the right with the Census Data um and County data sets we're looking at what income and home values are so you get an understanding of again how does that relate in each of the zones and then poverty getting at um census data so this isn't the free and reduced lunch um status of students our whole focus of this was to move things because free and reduced lunch is a protect a class of persons and we can't make decisions based on where free and reduced launch kiddos are so this is a way to understand the makeup

028of the community as it relates to whatever the boundary is you'll see this as a metric even in the revised um concept this evening and then we show what the number of students are um in 24-25 and then the aggregate um final index score is is the average of of those four columns so that was kind of the diversity index I spent a little bit more time on that because we talk about that that came up quite a bit in the public inputs and in um the survey results here we show you the breakdown of our current situation of the feeder of when you're physically in those zones how does it transition with the top table from elementary to Middle School the bottom left is how it would be if you look at those Elementary

029zones into high school and then the one to the right of it is from middle school to high school so you can see we have um some existing challenges um of having complete feeders this is natural from middle school to high school because two middle schools don't fit nicely into one high school so whichever Middle School is chosen then there's at least one that would be chosen that would be split between your two high schools there's a lot more we can talk about feeders if we want to get into that we then have the existing demographics um where we are showing you things that are from the student data with the ethnicity we even show you what that is currently with the free and reduced lunch and with the multilingual students the multi multilingual students

030was important because one of the things that's been happening in a transition um here over the last couple years and as you look to the future is where will those students go to school and if you go back to some of our um guiding framework points um is to have those students going to their neighborhood school um we also in order to help address some of our challenges of where students are where facilities are and in some cases where facilities are not or where um students are not um one of the questions um that was asked um with our committee is how did we have so much residential development built so far south without there being facilities right so another way to to ask the question of how do we get kids to these buildings

031sometimes is related to where we don't have buildings and so how do how do we get them there within the construct of the capacity of our buildings the programs of the buildings and it's going to be a little bit challenging is we look at some of the data sets to guide us and that was kind of the point of of this visual was to illustrate where we have kids physically at and how does that relate to capacity so when we're looking at um area three you can see we don't have enough Elementary Middle School capacity in that purple area as it currently sits what that means then is we had to move some students out of the purple area into the orange or blue areas so just giving you some context also obviously over in

032area 2 there's no high school that's there so there's no high school to move them to those kiddos have to go to a building that's not physically in what that zone would be so again this was just a metric to understand um where students are how does that relate to our buildings and capacity to drive some of the conversation of why in the world are we having to do some of these changes and how does it get predicated or how is it a domino as we move through through um trying to create um a scenario that's workable with the capacity of our buildings and the programs that are going to take place so that got us to um the social pinpoints um information that again appreciate um the persons in your community completing this I

033think we had a little over 900 persons um that completed this and we have different ways in which we're showing you this information so what were people thinking that took the survey whether they were at the public inputs or they took it later um to No Surprise there's a greater number of persons that would disagree with what is being proposed um it's different it's not the same it's not what people anticipate it when I move to a particular area whether um I'm on the south side of town or I'm up by the university there's there's some changes and they're happening um throughout the community to be able to make um what you're going to be able to see tonight we also broke down the themes that were occurring in particular elements and I believe we

034have seven different categories on this page I'm not going to read through all all of them but you can get a sense of where people's sentiment was and these were things that um we've tried to to work through in some capacity um some stuff and bring nice suit tonight you must have got the memo um some things that we've even worked with Brandon on with some of the financial implications we're not going to know all the transportation until until this plan is put in place and that plan doesn't get put in place till 26 27 right so we don't really know who the writers are but what we do know is when we look at these boundaries how does it start to impact who already would be on a bus versus those that would maybe

035need to get on a bus to get somewhere how does this impact areas where we have crossing guards or other mechanical devices to safely move kids across the streets um those are some elements that again as you start to look at some of these things there's not one thing that's going to make this revised plan perfect there are going to be holes if we look at this from any one particular lens so I'm not up here to tell you this is a perfect plan it's a plan that's really addressing a lot of the things and I'll kind of walk you through that when we get to the plane um that we were asked to address here we also broke those survey comments down to what we were specifically seeing with each of the buildings um

036so again you get a sense of of down to that narrow level what what people were thinking and is there a way that we can accommodate some of these things that was kind of the next step that's what I asked our team to do how do we start to address this but everything went back to our guing principles and our prioritized boundary criteria all right so one of the things that at the last committee that they found um very helpful was a lot of these bullet points that I'm going to really talk about the last few bullet points the most most and it's really getting at there's no magic number that says when for instance if you're a two-section building that would say you would be um providing services to 224 students when you hit

037225 it doesn't magically become something where oh no we got to change a boundary we had to change a program or whatnot but what we do know when I provide that range to the right of what you would look at for a two section three section all the way down to five sections the close closer you get to that higher range that means you're going to be at the higher side of what a class size would be and that also may put you in Jeopardy of do you have the right amount of physical classroom spaces if one of those grades would need an additional section to provide the right space for that education to take place it's really easy at the elementary level um I'm probably going to knock this microphone over just wait um

038but as you can see what I tried to illustrate here is how do we get it some those capacities and so I want to go back up to the functional capacity right above those ranges so what was really important for um the committee to understand is when we came up with what this functional capacity is it took into account how there are other programs already taking space in the buildings and so we were not going to displace anything with your special education so if you have an ASD program or um some other specialized program that's taking place in the building or for instance let's say you have resources that are using a classroom where you might have four to six adults in there to have different pullouts we weren't changing that that was staying as

039a part of a need for that building and I think that was important to say there's some values of things may have to happen differently in these buildings because of the services the students need they're going to continue to need to be evolved and adapted as you go through this process and that kind of the whole point of the functional capacity how can we start to be proactive if we're seeing a need for some programming how can we put it into some buildings and not negatively impact the program that you're trying to expand but also the students that are receiving the gened programming in each of those buildings all right so from all that there were some different um things that happened from the survey the conversations of what we try to um establish at

040each of the grade bands so at the elementary level um what was really came out very loud and clear was the closer you are to that Elementary building the more likely you should be at that Elementary building and that makes sense now a lot of the changes when we go back to the public input was along the idea that we we wanted to keep things compact so that was the conversation and so we started to move some things with Phoenix and Lewis and Clark coming down into Viking and then we had that Domino right if we go back to the public input so that was kind of how things started to track and then it was some other themes of Washington we didn't want to cross East and West um across Washington we wanted to

041try to establish that if you're east of Washington here's some buildings you go to I already Illustrated in the analysis earlier with the three regions what some of our challenges are so as we started to move into this it became clear C that the areas that were specifically south of 55th Avenue I know it changes as it goes east but generally 55th Avenue um those became what you're seeing in this revised as a island that could go to Viking what that meant was the area of Viking that's west of Washington um now would be going to either Sentry or Discovery so again trying to as we start to move some of these levers you can start to see there there ends up being what I would call tradeoffs um areas that maybe at the public

042input were held I'm going to say harmless they weren't moved it's more normal of what you are seeing now are are changing because of uh our optic of how we want to address things as we moved to the Middle School um it became apparent in our conversations that we're going to have one Middle School that breaks I'm currently a Trader um here in this proposed plan it would be Valley and there's also was a a move and understanding that we have an opportunity with a new building do we try to put more students in the new building and so you start to see kind of if you think about a dial things start to move one way or the other to to address where the buildings are and what school attendant zones are aligned up

043to it then as we got to the high school um because of making Shader complete to Central this moved things at the high school level where we went even further south um I'm going to talk about some of of those elements when we get to the map so um it it started to move things in a Direction Where We get a balance of enrollment and we start to change some things um that may be different um from the standpoint of where you bought your house and where it's always been um and one of the things I think as a board we we talked about we knew on September 11th we're going to be pushing ourselves in directions that we've had some many many conversations in the past and now we have some data we have

044a process how how how do we and do we need to move things in the direction that you're seeing in this revised plan the last piece that we have on here is this grandfathering and student options and so we we will show you something with a phased approach and and a start date that wouldn't begin until 26 27 again it's an example to help you understand how do you move this through and how do you make some of the changes with minimizing some of the disruption and when I say minimizing the disruption um I know firsthand that as a family that's changing boundaries it's disruptive even if it's something that's phased in um we'll talk about the phasing and how that becomes a little bit less disruptive we also added in a component that the

045capacity of the buildings will also be something that you have to consider in a grandfathering um which would also include what programs are there so we've had some different conversations with the task force about what's happening in in specifically the high school buildings there may be something different it's driven by students feet right you probably heard this before it's your board meetings if I'm interested as a student to be in one particular social studies program or math program I'm going to choose that right and so we had some conversations about what that means well that's going to be a factor too as you look at anything with um grandfathering student options so it's kind of our starting point how do we start to give you some data to understand how do you uh potentially move

046in that direction ction so again here is the revised committee updates and so some of the highlights here um are obviously if you're on the Air Force Base you're staying at elementary school there right um the big changes that you see is south of 55th Avenue um that gets um uh taken to Viking the area that was in Viking west of Washington um portion of it goes to sentury a portion goes to Discovery now how we're able to to work this remember I said in that that lower Zone we need to move students out um what we start to establish here is Lake agasse comes South and I want to do a throwout because I've been pronouncing this wrong so much last night I I was talking with five ladies and they said Rob you

047need to think of De Bears so deir right so saying the name correctly tonight but shout out to them and there's some valuable things when I'm out in your community I want to tie into to some of this that's that's important is understanding why the changes are there we we talked about this with the committee that there's storylines that have to come out of why we're doing these changes because I may be in an area where I don't feel like there needs to be a change everything um is is normal so Lake agasse coming further south allows us um to get some students that are on the South Side um up into the northern end when you start to look at this with the Middle School from the on these maps that dotted line represents

048those existing boundaries for each of the buildings um you can see how um this is going to start to establish um shider coming north um and then being um having its southern part in the rural area no longer associated with shider so a few few of those rle kits um this is generally what the the Middle School boundaries in the revised it's more telling how does the middle school then go into the high school so shraer becomes complete to Central and South is still complete to Red River and Valley is split between central and Red River to come further south um what that means for some of these numbers so again going back to to what we have for our capacity range um some of the conversation individually with Elementary um building principles um has

049been hey when I see let's say a 484 choose a different School different capacity um I can have more kids I have 493 students there now um but you're saying I'm overc capacity going back to those ball points we can have more kids in that 484 um we just have to be cautious on how many more kids and how long that is and what impacts does that have on your programming what impacts does that have on let's say the lunchroom your drop off pickup times um there there ends up being a a impact when you start to get to those High sides so again how it Associates to that absolute number illustrates whether it's over capacity or under the 70% utilization you'll see that as well for the middle school and the high school um

050what's really interesting with this boundary when we look at the number of students um look at when we get out to 29 30 well even before then were basically 1% um if everybody went to the building with no transfers you physically live here as you're seeing all of these changes that happen naturally in each of these planning areas um we have a pretty equal um number of students um percentage wise moving through the system um within about a 100 students um in each of these buildings want to talk a little bit more about um what you need to take from this diversity index tool um this is just a way to evaluate again the population and when I say popul the people population um there may be differences in the students that are being served

051and there's differences even more when we start to look at who's attending these buildings so for instance when I have a multilingual program that's in concentrated in one building that changes what the demographics are in that building when it's now pushed out into all the buildings um you start to see a Equalization of what that distribution of those students are um so this is really just a metric not to to hang your hat on as wow look there's less blue or there's more blue as we look through this um I think what's important about this is when you look where there's something that's maybe different than where it is now so let's say there's more blue highlighted areas where you're more than 5% from what that District average is um that may mean you have

052to provide some different supports um based on what the variables are of the students that would be in those buildings so again this is just a metric to to try to understand the the peoples um in general that are in these these categories when we look at the students that are impacted by a boundary change since nothing would be taking place till 2627 um is the assumption that we made here this starts to look at for the elementary this year's kindergarten through third grade how many students we currently have and when I'm looking at that leftand column where they would be going to school with the current boundary as I move to the right where would they be going to school so for instance alphabetically if I look at Century um there's 40 current K

053through3 students um that would be changing and going up to Lake agasse so that's how you read each of these um in its absolute I also wanted to just give you a sense that if you said we're not going to do grandfathering student options for the high school I give you kind of an understanding of a year prior so we're looking at that bottom table of 8th through 10th graders what would that be and that's quite a few students right and so uh this is why we started to explore and we told you we would get to this point student options grandfathering the other point gets into feeders so one of the things that really I think resonated with um the group The the committee is what you're seeing on this page um along with

054being viets colors or or blocking was when we start to look at how students would move through the system so if I move into a house at elementary where am I going to go as as I move through the system and so we still have some some breaks um at the middle school and you can see that happens at Ben Franklin and Century um when we get down from thinking about those revised Elementary boundaries and how they are associated with the high schools it's a complete 100% so if you think about that Elementary boundary 100% of it completely feeds either to Central or Red River we go down to the the bottom table which is the Middle School to high school I mention we we have to have a split in this case um it's

055Valley that splits and it's basically about a 37 63% split so 37% of Valley goes to Central 63% go to Red River um if we want to have again I'm giving you some tradeoffs if we if we want to not focus on the elementary to high school being as complete we you can you can move some of these these dials a little bit um but you have more disruption and that was one of the things we heard from the administrators the building administrators is when you more definitively know where you're going to go to school it makes it a lot easier to to line them up as they go into the transition of Elementary to middle and middle to high school ideal State being complete feeder we can't accomplish that then as we look at

056the the demographics again just that breakdown of what it is um for each of the levels with the current students not what it would be projected the current students if you applied this boundary how is that Associated all right this is an exact pull out of what we presented to the committee that I thought um is is really importance um for the community to to have as as some of the understanding of this phasing or or grandfathering um option so based on where a student resides and what their grade level is and what building they currently are at starts to drive how you would look at what student options could you grant um and so I'm listing off um this example and I have a visual that comes up that I think illustrates this a

057little better some other things that um we thought were important um for this conversation of a comp apprehensive boundary examination and potential change um that may even get into some of your programs are listed in these other considerations so some of the the benefits or detractors for student options um things about is there a student option grandfathering that may be extended further back is it the middle school and we talked about other projects we've worked on where um they basically made it like a 12year plan which basically um if you're on Administration there's really no plan right because you're always just moving kids to um buildings of choice um we also know there needs to be communication of what it's going to mean as we start to have more of these multilingual um sites or

058opportunities in the buildings and then we want it to be very specific about why student options if it's just at the secondary level and specifically High School why is it that um that's that's really important but I think the last element and this is why it's bolded and underlined is is how and this is not any indictment that there's dishonesty happening it's just hey we want to communicate that how the changes that we're experiencing in the buildings they're different and we're trying to make some changes proactively rather than um looking in the future going wow if we' had made those changes now um we'd be in a def different better place for how we serve students so again it's that storyline it's that cultural piece um that that is really important and and I heard

059that um at the committee level I heard that even last night with these five ladies that I bumped into um over dinner where it's like things are changing in gr forks and how we're needing to do things um it's going to be difficult and um when I went around with those five ladies um quite a few of them would be impacted by this plan um so it's not necessarily popular but it's again how do we address this and how do we do what's best for the students when those changes occur and whatever those changes are so we evolve from that so a little more about the the phasing I think this visual helps you see how it gets rolled out over the course of four years and so if you implement this for 26 27

060you can see that the 10th and 12th graders um going into that school year you would still be able to stay at your building what we do know this came up in one of our conversations how many people might before 26 27 say hey if this is going to be the new boundary change maybe I just want to go to the building that I'm going to be assigned to right we already have some of those choices with intradistrict students that are choosing either to go from Central to Red River or from Red River to Central and more from Red River to Central so there there may be some some choices that may happen that also could get bu built into this year two in 2728 you can see it becomes one less grade and we

061also added in that it would be siblings um that are coming up that their older sibling would already be in the building that would be eligible to continue in the building that would have that student option um we had other conversations about Legacy families and what we ended up determining and what we're showing you is that would start to put a classification of type of students and what happened in the past and um that's not anything that we wanted to um see be part part of what we're showing you tonight so I want to at least pull that out that there was some conversation we wanted this to be uniform for every student and it just happens to be where you reside and how that's associated to a boundary um we also worked um with

062the committee um with this consensus idea and I'm giving you the results where I just was like Hey where where are you at with this revised and so um on two of the questions 11 people answered and on the last person 12 people answered why I don't know that always happens every time we do this there's always someone that didn't answer um um completely on some of the questions but this was just to give you a framework of with the group that was there on the last night um where were they sitting with what was presented to them and how it started to get back with those guiding principles and those boundary criteria um the other thing that I wanted to bring to your attention is with this process so I know um Dr prer

063Brer and Katherine they they've talked in um detail in previous meetings about hey we're feeling like maybe this is going a little bit fast we need to to have some more time to to ponder reflect and see how and if these changes are necessary right because some of the things when I go back to the high schools um we have um adequate capacity in the current boundaries of the high schools for changing some other things and there's some other reasons behind that so some of the things that you potenti ually could examine or highlight it here um that um could revolve from things that you heard at the public inputs I know quite a few if not all of you were at the public inputs so you may have heard things I imagine as you've

064gone to church you've gone to the grocery stores you're out and about in the city you've probably heard other things so you may want some of those questions answered um you may want um the demographic task force um to work through some other iterations um to a good point of hey we have we have Island this is something new um how does this maybe fit into a greater picture right so one of the elements that um I'm going to go back to the elementary map because I think this is kind of an important piece that as we started talking um through this process it was hey this maybe has evolved into more of what I would call a facility master plan and planning for where things go so we're continuing to move South right all

065of the stuff we've showed you in the enrollment demographic report all the developments so does this start to position some opportunities of how we look at our inventory if there is a new Southern Elementary that's built this starts to to create something that in the long run not to throw something out that we're building a new Elementary because we need dollars for that right but strategically when you start to look at some of these boundaries that's what our team starts to look at is we don't want to come back here in 2 years or 3 years even 5 years with the existing inventory right we want to set you up that you have something that is long lasting even though that wasn't voted in your top three duration of boundaries my goal is they last

066a long time so how can you start to put this in that as you analyze the need for capacity and not having facilities in the South um that's really deficient right that's that's creating some of our congestion in the city um as it relates to cars just trying to get in and about with e you're going north and south or east and west so that that was kind of one of the things that um again just trying to give some understanding there's so so many different um variants and conversations that that um came about um go back to my last side all right so really just um trying to provide some communication some context why are you seeing things the way they look now why is it that it looks like you went even further

067south we told you we didn't want to go to Central further south and now you're showing something that goes further south well when we have a complete Middle School to high school and we change that Paradigm from it being straighter that split so now it's Valley that's split um this is this is what you would be able to achieve um with what those boundaries look like um so I mentioned like future building options I said new buildings it could be um additions right and some remodeling we've we've had that conversation in the past um we talked a little bit about programming where you have programs there may be some opportun unities that as you look at some of these other capacity opportunities um we can use buildings a little bit differently and so um it's

068really kind of exciting that we're really leaving you with some some leg work of a larger work which is your facility master plan um my last two pages I think plus my mouth's getting dry and I don't have water so that that always ends it um when we look at this I wanted to give you some perspective Ive of tradeoffs and so I I try to have our team not be biased in how we are looking at these tradeoffs of what's good or bad but if you start to do something that says hey Lake agasse can't come South um so if that's the case well then we can't do certain things in the area where um Viking is that's west of Washington the current area right so we have to change some things around um

069we've talked about like with with splits right so here's some things that may or may not happen is as you look at things for you to consider because um I was thinking about if I'm in your shoes and I have this revised plan and it's it's a little bit different than what we had at the public input well why in the heck do I would I like this and if I want to start going a different direction how do I leave you with some um talking points of how do you get there and you're not just like blindly saying well I want this area or this area um that get it gets you in those particular categories um the other one I did did want to talk a little bit about this because I think

070this involves another layer of of involvement and that's with the Air Force based task force and if we're going to be changing um those kiddos going from Central to Red River um there's another layer of communication that would need to take place there's another layer of conversation of is that good is there um some trade-offs with that so again just trying to bring up some some realities of what in some people people's mind may be a good thing may actually not be such a good thing um depending on um the variable that you have um and then we get down to the process update so with that that was my last slide oh thank you Dr questions for Rob after this report we'll start with Mr Paulino since since I'm the oldest I'll start uh

071I have just some comments and and I didn't I also have some uh areas where I'm confused on uh number one in my mind I'm just going to lay this out here I I feel that the the railroad tracks and deur Avenue is the biggest B border problem we have across this city because there is limited numbers of access to go across that and that's why it concerns me with the the high schools being switched currently our high school kids are going east west majority of there are some going north but what the switch does is change it where we have 400 plus kids going north south and they have to cross that barrier to get to their new location and if you ever went down Belmont Road between 7:30 and 8:30 in the morning

072it is the worst traffic jam in the whole area because of the car is coming and going and the second part of that at the central area many years ago I worked on a committee that Pro worked on the parking for Central in which we bought out houses in which we Clos buildings and we fought with the city council to get enough surface parking area when you're adding 60 plus cars to that that school you will not have enough parking for those cars and I'm sure somebody will say well just use a parking ramp well most parents do not want their children parking in a parking ramp to go to school that's what we got out at the last comet or last time we did it and before those are my comments on the high

073school area the comment on the elementary I get confused on on the lake Agy issue uh I go to Lake Agy probably twice a week with my grandson and they are overcrowded and I understand the option to move 65 kids from Lake Agy to windship I understand that and they are on the east side of Columbia Road so their distance between their houses in in wi chip or lake Agy are pretty close but in return then we free up 65 spots at Lake Agy which they need but then in return we're moving 40 kids from centry school across the one border the MS the railroad tracks to go to Lake agasse we gain very little in easing the out the number of kids at Lake Agy I I think the better plan for us and

074being the oldest centry school was built with the idea of having four wings on it there are currently only three Wings you can add four to six classrooms on that fourth wing and the lunchroom the media center and a gymnasium was design to serve the four wings so I I think we need to investigate that before we forced kids to kindergarten K through 5 to cross that border to go to Lake Agy and and I I last meeting I I think we I talked a little bit about having a public for in which next year to visit more about this because currently we have heard from 800 a th000 people but I think we need to hear from the whole city we have heard very little from Lake Agy area who are going to be

075directed to Red River they may be totally opposed to that but they haven't voiced their opinion on it and I think in a public form we can give a presentation to the 250 300 people who are there break down into small groups and then have back and forth communication of what we're trying to do so I I think our first goal here and that would give us time to look at additions you know when we did a survey for the uh Valley Middle School project one of the biggest things the public said is they would rather see us add on to schools than build new schools and and if we can add on to Century school that would take pressure off of Discovery it would keep the kids from centry at that school and it

076would expand Lake Agy for more room so now we accomplished three options there I think we have to have the uh bking relocatable eliminated before we ask people to leave a school and go to Viking and then by the way your child's going to be taught in a relocatable without a bathroom you know I I think those are things we need to do first and that's why I think we need to move this down the road have that public for and then give us time to work out a facility plan that our Century school you're going to be overcrowded for a year because we're going to be adding on to your school and it's coming in 2026 liking you will have a little more room because we're going to add on and get rid of

077your re relocates and that'll be done by 2026 and Wilder we as to look at that area so those just bunch of comments did you want to clarify anything from board member if I can respond what what I want you and this not like a I'm not going to respond like hey you're wrong right it's going to be more that can you see how we change some of the levers if you go back which is why I put the guiding principles if we would have said we're going to put an addition on Sentry we're committed to removing the Portables the conversation changes so this is the value of like here we are today with the revised where really what we're talking about is is moving towards something that's our a facility master plan to say

078hey because of this and this then hey we're we're going to be able to do something different along with who who or what the persons are that we serve if you go too far south with all the things that You' stated um again that if we can't move them to Central then how else do we start to resolve it so I think it's great the points that you've made but it just illustrates that um where we are is very different than what we thought taught on September 11th did just a followup did did your committee talk about traffic did they have that discussion because I I think that is almost more important to me than to have kids crossing the those railroad tracks the conversation about traffic is that it it's there right whatever building

079we go to and it's it's hard to put a magnitude of what that does with trip counts and um then we put in like railroad crossings I get all all those things so the the magnitude of the transportation where it was Quantified of what that potentially could mean um is something Beyond like the scope that we had here for like what I would call like a traffic study impact um that would be something that would probably be a good thing to look at yeah because if I think if we can continue to keep our students going east west that is the safest means for those students and and then the last point of the East West versus North South is a deeper conversation of how do we address some of the changing demographics and and

080developments because that came up continually at all levels public input I don't have our team doesn't have an answer that's going to fit into hey this is going to be best transportation wise or this is going to be best on how I maybe had perceptions of where I live is where I go to school um so I think that's going to be part of of your points of this ongoing conversation of how do we address some of the changing things that um we're trying to address other board members questions Dr Len I have a simple question probably not for you probably more for our administrators when we talk about diversity index and and maybe I'm oversimplifying this in my mind isn't that part of the purpose of Title One schools and things is to assist

081those schools that need extra help or am I thinking wrong about that I'll go ahead and take the first swing that that does address the socioeconomic uh indicators of each of our schools uh based on free and reduced and how they qualify for uh for federal dollars So at the elementary level I believe there's we just have two three three non-title schools thank you three non-title schools at the element level and zero at the high school middle school we have um two Valley and South that answer your question Dr L yes it does and I understand that this diversity index is more more than free and reduced I I understand that but that it does answer my question thank you Catherine can I also add another comment to that that's important is is that this

082identifies where they currently reside versus where they attend and so that's an important difference as well too um the other thing that the component that you also need to be aware of is that in a lot of larger districts if a high school were to qualify for Title One Services doesn't necessarily mean that they receive Title One Services um so they may qualify but they don't receive that as a result of our title Rank and serve process that pretty typically happens where we move those Services down to the elementary side of things so that as they move up the system that hopefully that process is taken care of and and students provide get the services they need at a younger age where that impact tends to be greater other questions from board members Dr hodek

083um first of all I'm glad that tonight we're not making a decision on this because I have gone through every document amrod that has been presented and looked at and such and I have a lot of concern that I would want to see us address and I think the first way we're going to start addressing them the ones that I've been hearing recording taking down and so forth that public forum would be the place that we get because currently there is so much comment about from the very start of the process how the um demographic task force committee was um by biased towards Central so and I have no stake I don't have kids in this school system one way or the other but that continues to be one of the pieces that is brought

084up also the fact that the data appears to be muddy somewhat when I look at and I'm focusing on um Red River in Central right now and I look that the change of students exchange would be 330 versus 368 I believe those are your numbers then are we throwing one problem to a school system and not really dealing with what we need to be dealing with I'm concerned then also as well that um what are we talking about um even um Dr brener when we said um the fourth Bullet in Your memorandum about that there are programming and opportunities inequities between high school campuses if that's true shame on us going to say it flat out okay um because I've always been a taxpayer in this school system since 2000 I've been a professor at

085the the university we've I've worked in those schools and everything else and I can honestly say I've had the joy of educating those administrators I've never heard of programming and opportunity inequities that if a student couldn't get a class at Central that it was being offered off at Red River the student was able to go there so I would find that very hard to find out and ask about that and then when we say Equitable academic What specifically are we addressing there when we say co- extracurricular activities again um what opportunities are not being offered at Red River that Central has I just there's some of those things that I'm just I still don't have enough of that information so that's why I say Rob I think some of the data is flyed there flawed

086excuse me I believe that there are voices that have not been heard um and I do believe that we would have to address these disparities or these inequities and to see if there are other ways of resolving these issues before jumping into um changing the borders because I think the other things that we haven't talked about right now is the fact that um tonight we're going to be talking about the virtual high school and from what I've seen from um Katherine's notes that's 150 students okay in that high school so what if those 150 students come from Red River or if they come from Central what's going to happen with those we have the new tech center that's coming up is that going to change some of those inequities and those program um opportunities and

087such so to me there is so much here I I I just want to say I thank the Committees for the work that they've done but in the Norms that we have as a school board it clearly speaks number seven about that we Advocate on behalf of students and the community and I believe that we have not heard from our students and we have not heard from the community so I would ask us to go back to that I believe that we need an extended time I think that we need to look at the information that's just for some reason if it's muddied and just got lost it's not here um we just have to definitely make sure that all voices are being heard would you want an opportunity to clarify some of those yeah

088so if it doesn't have to be tonight if if we would know what the the areas of Muddy is so that way whether it's RSP or Administration they can get into providing that Clarity that would be really helpful other questions for B Miss Flynn and then we'll go to Mr K I have a couple questions first and then I'll um give some of my comments um so with the data um Dr hodek alluded to this a little bit that there's kind of a flip-flop of maybe one thing that we're addressing now but then it kind of flip-flops to another so um specifically focusing on like the Central and Red River diversity index that so the last sentence of the packet says or the second to last sentence the proposed concept improves the difference of demographics

089between high schools quote per or parentheses per diversity index tool census data but what's in the numbers is it actually it flips from Central to Red River and then it widens the the issue so I'm just curious how that statement is accurate when those numbers yeah so so what it does is the the 1.86 I think is the number so it's at Central now and in the revise that becomes I believe what it would be um with um the change what happens is the this distance between what the r the range is becomes smaller when we look at the Revis versus where we were in the proposed concept and so um again it's the lens it's like the the data saying um something and it's like what part of the data do we focus on

090is it the the low number is it what the range is and and demographics is really a very difficult piece by which you want to put your measure of what you're going to do for your buildings because I would suggest and I would highly recommend that this statement is known is whatever your socioeconomic um area is you have the ability to learn and this system works towards providing those learning opportunities for those kids it will be different when you start to have more of certain groups of people and I think that's part of the conversation of the data of what are we seeing that's different between some of these buildings and is it something that can be addressed through programs or is it something with with boundaries or is it something in a myriad of

091of those options or something alog together different so um I wouldn't put all of of why I would do a boundary change on the demographic beyond that we know that the type of students that are going to be in these buildings they may need different services and I think that's where it gets to hey did you change one Challenge from one building to the other building um that's something that we're working with with Administration like does what does that mean in how you allocate um some of your uh resources whether it's Title One resources it could be hey we need two foreign language students of let's say French I mean whatever your program is it may now be a little bit different um but we've heard enough from some staff um through this process that

092there there's just some natural things that are happening that you can't do different things with activities or with um some of the courses and so what is the means by which you make those changes and it's it's difficult no easy answer I understand um I understand that I think my comment on that or or My question is more alluding to it if we are truly balancing it doesn't seem like what is the current proposal and the numbers that indicate those new I mean you're even looking at the ESL numbers let's just pick one from the big chart and it is important I mean there's like four slides that deal with demographics and diversity in this presentation so you're taking 5.3% of ESL at Central and 4.7 at Red River and then that becomes 1.8 at

093Central and 8.1 at Red River I mean that's a huge to me that widens the problem it doesn't balance it and so I think if we are if to to answer your question Dr berer are we is balancing soci and economic indicators important to you yes I think I don't think anyone on the committee would say no but this doesn't balance it and and I would also ask for the committee's makeup I think it's important to have an understanding and to have the board understand how the committee was made up I mean Dr hodak alluded to it there's one representative from Red River and there's two principles from Central so just that alone is like okay where's that coming from but I don't see any teachers on the committee the two outside members are not

094current parents of students in the district I believe I don't know how many of the committee members have children and I think the the frustration that I'm feeling right now is we had a public forum and people gave their opinions and in no nowhere on any of the the data that I saw from the themes were I think you should move the boundary lines farther south for Belmont and create an island to Viking I just I mean I I I I just don't I am having trouble understanding as a board member I don't I've read through these things multiple times and I don't understand how we have a committee that is in my opinion not representative of our district making these decisions I trust I've you've worked with us for a a long time and

095every time we get data from you it is thorough and significant but there's a disconnect for me on how things are getting to the board table and because we're not present in that we're seeing it live and on time just as the public is so um so my comment to your to those questions are specific to that diversity piece I just I don't understand how that balance is secondly because uh I was already coming to the meeting tonight um I have a husband at home who um I said I would take and and share our comments as a real life example of how this could impact a family so we currently have three children um two who are in the school district one is at Trader Middle School in sixth grade one is at Discovery

096Elementary School in third grade and one is in preschool our current house is just east west north I'm not good with geography um I work in sales not not geography um we are near 62nd so we just nor thank you um we are near 62nd um I with the current changes this is this is what our impact would be to our family we would have to drive are high schooler cuz currently right now one there's not busing to Red River so that's a problem for the district we would have to drive our daughter to Central High School to start at 8:00 p.m. Phoenix and 4th Avenue North yeah sure am Phoenix and 4th Avenue North are have are are currently I think still under study with how crowded that intersection is and how dangerous it

097is and that's City or that's like a city council no study so now we're taking as Bill alluded to all of these families down Belmont to through a through an elementary school section trying to get through this intersection right that's already problematic then we would have to come all the way back to Viking and and beat the residential traffic to have our our son be in elementary school at 8:20 and then navigate through an another Elementary School which by the way if we just went that way we would pass on our way and then we would have to drop our daughter off at Trader by 8:40 it is it is a logistical Nightmare and I we are privileged to have the flexibility to do that I choose my own hours I can work whenever I

098want want but for our family even with that flexibility it would be very problematic and I am willing to trade off there have been families that have emailed me and said I want my kid to go with their friends who in elementary school and my response to them is how many friends do you have now that you met in elementary school like there's a trade-off right like I get it we we want also resilient kids um but that for our family I I communicate that I would share that real life example because I bet you that there's a variety of other circumstances where especially this island is is really problematic for for families and I disagree that we can't or should not have the conversations about Transportation until we decide the boundaries because like I

099said we currently don't have a morning bus for Shader in our area we don't have a bus for Red River either way so what would that look like I I mean we have to have accessibility questions off or like understood before we make decisions about the boundary lines I just don't think that it's it's possible to make decisions without that data piece um the last comment I have and then I'll shut up for now is I'll also qualify this by I'm a a Grand Fork Central graduate I take a lot of pride in graduating from Central I was a military kid I was happy to get on the bus at 6:45 a.m. every single morning to come downtown and go to to Central my confusion then exists I don't even know what page this is

100um hold on one second analysis okay so we're on 28 analysis of the survey comments by the committee there is a need to address under Central High School there's a need to address disparities to attract more students and improve Community perception so that's one and then concerns that Central's image needs revitalization to greater pride and engagement within the community ideas to increase participation and build stronger school spirit were suggested if you have ever been to a Central High School graduation all of they talk about is tradition and pride and image so I don't know what these really mean I have an idea of what I can perceive these as meaning but I'd like to hear from the committee members or the district District in what there is a need to address disparities to attract more

101students to improve Community perception means so I'll hit two things first we can only go by what people responded to in the survey right so um that was things that came up um quite frequently in their responses so um whether that's true or not true it's a perception that of the roughly 900 persons there was enough people that were in that particular um response about Central they mentioned something that it came to that level the second about Transportation um I want it fully stated it's Transportation was discussed it's a part of the plan what you have before you is if let's say through the explanation that you have um shraer then you would say should not be completely feeding into Central so you would go more towards what it currently is right because you can't

102go further south because of Transportation but then that directly starts to impact how do we change some of the things that um we're seeing with some of the demographics and some of the realities of students and program choices they have or they don't have and that can be for both things so where I'm trying to tell you is that to look look at each of these variables in just one myopic saying it is this doesn't justify some of the other metrics Optics that are happening in each of the buildings or in the plan itself and so this is why having some time where you guys can dig in and you start to see particularly with those tradeoffs um I started out this isn't a perfect plan it's a plan that came about and you can

103see a majority of the the persons there whether you agree or or disagree who should be on the committee where they had some congruence on what you see with addressing the most amount of the challenges um they went that they had to address going back to um if we put additions on sentury we say we're removing the Portables at Viking um the conversations change a lot right what what could the capacity be at Viking if we take the Portables offline and we put additions on there um yeah our conversation is quite a bit different and I think even with the committee they said hey this as a body of work gets at as best addressing what we all thought at September 11th and I think they as well have a certain sentiment of what use

104the Border saying that hey now that we're looking at this and we're seeing some of the impacts um we don't necessarily like what some of that them are and maybe we don't necessarily um agree with how it may be moving one of those levers a little bit farther One Direction than the other thus the conversation of do you have a is it a a formal public input is what's been suggested is it some other meetings um at this point you guys are I I believe Dr BR they have the you guys have the ability to say here's here's some ways we want to to move this so I applaud you for honestly giving your your feedbacks here because um that's how we'll move this to where the community accepts it I'll give my Solutions instead

105of my just uh disagreeing commentary um I think if the current committee is in place then there need to be a waiting Factor put on the consensus votes because of how heavily it's weighed to one side in my opinion I think teachers need to be on the committee I think safe kids who works with preventable injuries and does traffic pattern should be on the committee there's there's an underpass that goes to Viking so there's no reason why we can't use that as a on the other side of Washington like I get I get where things are going I get the split but I just think that when you talk about the myopic view I'm looking at some of these and and kind of nitpicking some of these things because it's not clear and the data

106is not clear and when I read something that says we need to attract more students that comes of the analysis so if that's the analysis from all the survey results fine I understand why we maybe can't see the entire survey um but there's also not minutes from the committee meetings which again it's not a board member meeting it's not they're they're open meetings right but like these are too big of and drastic things for our community that like at the very least the conversation should be captured by 13 people or 12 people and and it's hard to understand when you as like you are presenting options and we don't see what those options are from the expert the committee can say no Rob we don't like those we want this and then you come and

107present but like you shouldn't be the one to necessarily stand up and Advocate we are getting this presentation from the committee like I want to hear from the committee members to justify why we have a report that seems to be more drastic and going the opposite direction from what public feedback we've gotten so I also agree with Bill's assertion I agreed with it last time I think this this timeline is too short to make these decisions I mean at this point we could consider Red River and Central being a 910 and 1112 that would solve all the diversity balance everyone goes to the same school they just go two different years I mean has that been considered yes I think facilities wise like we should be looking at that um but I just I I

108think the committee needs more diversity I think the we need a a longer timeline I think we need to be more creative with options I also I don't know one thing I haven't also said is is there's no GF Air Force based representation none that I mean that's concerning to me we're how are we a partner with them I just I'm feeling a little bit disappointed on this process because while I think you have done a thorough job Rob in getting us data sets that we need and collecting input it is not easy to analy 937 input and the district has hosted two forums and we had opportunity through survey we've had opportunity for people to email us I just think that there's too many ramifications on families without like actual hard evidence as to

109why we are suggesting the changes that we're suggesting and I'm concerned that if we continue on this path and we don't take a hard pivot that we are going to D destroy trust with the public and our staff and our families and that is not okay just a reminder this is not a public forum this is a meeting held in public for the business of the school board um so if you can allow us to conduct our business uh without the interruptions appreciate the engagement in the process uh but not the diversion from the conversation thank you do you want to respond before we move want to no no I think all those valid points that's that's kind of where it's at with you all deciding what where do you want to move this this

110heavy heavy heavy item uh Mr cevin and then I'll put uh board member Joel Larson on alert that we haven't forgotten him so if he has to something he wants to add uh I don't want to forget him yeah of course well I'm not I'm not curtailing any of the conversation but I just wanted to give Joel a uh a minute to prepare so uh Mr cevin yeah just as we Ponder why like it's always a good question why are we doing this is the do nothing alternative viable uh I just would come back to slide number 15 in the presentation uh that's kind of where I go when I when I wonder if if this is worth the the effort right now and I I think this slide for me does show that we've

111got an issue that needs resolved uh so this process is very important very timely but it probably can be deferred in light of other discussions that we seem wanting so so just refer back to this slide as kind of my home base on the why thank you uh we'll go to Mr Larson on the phone and then I believe back to Dr lond and Dr hodek yeah thanks Dave um there were times that I I guess I did want to interject but Amber and recently Jay have kind of said what I what I've been feeling you know it it's it is do nothing a viable op option because it feels like it is at least in the near term and um it's it's something I'd like to explore and understand more that's all thank you

112though for the opportunity Dave uh Dr Len well I'll be even less popular than I have been and I won't get any clapping probably after I'm done hopefully I won't get stoned when I'm done after this but but but um I know I'm losing my train of thought uh I I think I I I agree with most of what everything's being taken but what we've been at fault before with this board through the years and I'm part of it as well as at some point we we are going to have to make a decision we're not anywhere near being able to make any decisions now or anything like that but I've talked to lots of community members I had one a few weeks ago who started talk to me while I was serving communion and

113and I'm thinking oh my gosh this is not the time to talk to me when I'm handing out the Brad but but but I mean I've had a lot of people and and every I think everybody has said we need to do something it's clear we need to do something but and that's not in my backyard and and and I'm just as guilty as everybody else about that yeah I think that's a great concept oh but I don't want that affecting me we as a board have to look at what's best for all the kids in the district because no matter how hard Sherry reaches out we're not going to hear from 100% of people and we have to we have to look at what's best for the community as a whole and and there

114are going to be times that that people are going to be upset no matter what we do if we if if you're thinking we're going to get 100% buying you're you're smoking something uh so I I I I think we have to realize that we have to what's do what's best for for the kids for the family for the teachers for everybody but it's not going to be there's not going to be 100% buying I I I do think we probably need to slow the process down one of my questions and you guys can answer it afterwards is the pro this the capacity problem seem to be more at the ele Elementary level than than at the high school level does this have to be a K12 process that we have to do all all

115at the same time or do we split it up a little bit it and I and I do like getting more public input but again we've gotten what 1,500 people we're not going to have 40,000 people that are going to going to give us input we're going to have some and and I don't know why we need to wait till next February for a public form I mean we we have one we have to be obligated in that in that year based on state law but that's not to say we couldn't say well we're going to in October or November we're going to have a public form more a couple of public forums or something like that so I think you know that that can be done I do think we need to get more

116input from the community and and I would Define the community as what you all have said families kids staff o other people other experts I I think I think all that but at at some point we're going to have to make a decision and and again it probably doesn't have to be tonight or March or next September but at some point we're going to have to make a decision but one of the questions I I have for for Robin Administration is is does it does it make much more sense to have a K12 decisions all at the same time or or or do you say okay well let's deal with the the more immediate first and then keep working on the subsequent I'll take a a a stab um it may be a value it's

117more about the implementation so our greatest stress is at the elementary level and and I do want to point out slide 15 what's really important is that bottom row where we don't have the Air Force Base capacities in here we're between 95 and 97% full that's really really full you would we'd ideally want you at 85 to 90 so you have the flexibility of classrooms and the management of of what right and so that gets into some other past conversations that you guys have been trying to figure out is it new buildings is it additions is it a combination of that and the dollars so so to your point a little bit of a weave is there could be where you address the most um difficult situation first but when we start to add some

118of these other variables of do we put an addition on sentury do we have a new building do we elim the the modular Portables at Viking we need to know that those are possibilities so that as you map this out you can say hey we're we'll make the elementary change it starts let's say um it could start in 26 27 or maybe in order to do parts of it you can't do it until 27 28 and and I think the value when you look at it from this perspective is you make the community know that there's there's a problem and the way in which you're solving it is through some of these other resources Beyond just saying we're going to change a boundary and that's kind of been our challenge at the elementary level is

119it's so tight to to get things where it Maps out just with the number of kids in the capacity it's tight and then you start to get into what these students will need um it's even Tighter and and that's what we've heard from the building principles of hey we can have more kids than you senior and you can but do you have the right spaces totally different questions so yes I think you could do something where it's not all implemented um it's based on the gravity of what we're trying to address and I think there's some other talking points with data that will help you understand is is there some differences at the high school is there things with transportation that hey it may be nice that we get kids from Shader to completely go

120to Central but um the transportation is too much of something to overcome having those type of conversations laid out with the tradeoffs in a decision that may not be popular you may still move towards something that's shown here tonight or you move to something different um I think the communication of that is key and you probably need time for that to happen administrators want to weigh in on this and then I think you've got a follow up but anyone just okay uh back to you Dr Len well the other Dynamic and I I guess I feel bad for our administrator sitting around the room is we're talking about changing the dynamic completely talking about all of a sudden doing additions and things like that and that's that's that's huge dollar amounts that's that's not we're

121going to put a $50,000 addition on and and so I mean I think that just that just that concept that has there has to be a ton of discussion around that because that also means going back to the public and saying part of our way we're going to solve this issue with capacity is we want to add addition X Y and Z but here's the dollar fiscal amount attached that these are these are not I mean it's easy to talk about but it's it's that would be a major undertaking and would require a lot of thought discussion planning and input from the public uh to Dr hodek I'm really grateful that we've had this opportunity to discuss um I think that we need to look at the solutions that are out there um for what

122these issues are Rob one of the things that I was impressed with is the graphic explanation that Ace that you've got from academics to economics and culture and in each one of those areas you have different I don't know if they if I would call them parameter or things that speak to address to that specific area I would expect that we would hear from the individual principles or schools um you know 21st century learner is that evident in every school is it being done College and Career ready so that I could start to understand more so some of these so-called inequities or disparities that are there because if I look at those and then talking to teachers and I get no we all do 21st century NOP we all do College and Career ready they

123you know we all are relevant and rigorous with our um curriculum class sizes we're doing everything we can to maintain them all across the board enrollment and capacity so then I keep going okay repurpose of schools okay and I actually people have said to me well we don't understand what that means well when we start talking remodeling additions new construction Bond referendums and all those sorts of things that does go to the economics and that information alone would be very beneficial to us as a board to be able to understand what's possibly in the near future for us and then longterm as well because then I also look at the culture that you have um in that Ace where you talk about Athletics and activities club and organization student engagement parental inv parental involvement Traditions

124pride and safety again and I have been blessed to be in a lot of districts um throughout my career I don't think I have ever found a stronger District than this district and addressing these issues within each school we have principles that are topnotch and expect the best for their school and that they fight for that so if we put all these paramet ERS this graph together and ask them to show us I think that would be um more beneficial for the people that are outside that are saying there's no problem there's we don't understand it so that's all I'm going to say thank you other board members Mr Manley yeah I'd have to say that I agree with uh amber and Bill about um the transportation going up Belmont and possibly Cherry Street too

125where I guess I live on Cherry Street and just looking at the revised plans here there's G to be a just a ton of traffic going up those two streets well up and down both and and with Amber driving uh past four five six times a day honking and I'm going to have to take time on my day and wave at her as she goes by I might need a wrist brace to to compensate but um as driving yep but if we can maybe look at uh East West options like like Bill was talking about I you know we we have uh Gateway and demur um 32nd a lot of those are four lanes and and trying to uh shove all this traffic down two lane roads is going to be a a tough sell

126so I guess that's all I have thank you others Miss Flynn yeah I I am aware that my comments are very critical so I appreciate being able to provide space to feedback good bad ugly great whatever um I just I think it's important that we let the public know that this is a work in progress there has been a lot of time dedicated to it already I just think that we need to do a better job at working together with Community Partners and to that perspective I think that it would benefit the city and maybe even the the um County Commission to be a part of some of these conversations whether it's a personal invite whether it's again a seat on the committee but they they need to understand the impact that only having develop

127a lot south of town is having on the strain of schools and and what what we need I think that they need to understand like I is there growth and stuff for the congressional district for the sake of how we are narrowing ourselves and going to be Grand Fork Thompson at some point you know I mean I I think that we need to work together with them so that they understand the struggles that we're having and if there's any proposals on you know maybe they're studying a traffic thing and they're not aware that we're doing this and so that you know that it happened with Discovery and how Discovery was built and you know trying to get different underpasses and and what not after the fact and so I just think if we can be

128more ahead of proactively communicating with our Community Partners we can all be advocates for the same cause which is the betterment of our Community which is having access to Great public schools which is name your great thing about Grand Forks um so I I just think having the city maybe even County a breast of these conversations it would be very important other yes Dr glatch yeah so I appreciate the conversation as well I think it's it's really thoughtful I like the idea of more time I like the idea of more voice and all that sort of thing one of the things that I think we can't lose sight of is that when we have these conversations Dr Len kind of alluded to it a lot of emotion comes in right and people love their schools

129and I think that's a tribute to the great Educators that are inside of those buildings I heard Dr hodek say we have principles that are fighting to make sure we have culture that is built that is positive and supportive and I think within that comment also comes the concern is that I don't think we should have to have some educators and some principles fighting harder and some of the Dynamics that we have right now I think if we take a a hard look at it creates some inequities and we can get you that information and get you that data that we could resolve differently by resourcing differently which would require us to take a look at how we are providing extra staff or extra supports beyond the title dollars to those buildings we could do

130that but there are discrepancies that come just from the mere fact and the mere um component of privilege like when we look around this table and look probably geographically where the majority of us reside and we look maybe out in the audience and I don't know where everybody resides out there it's probably from people who live in the same demographic area that we are discussing right now that we're worried about and imbalance switching the other way we have to make sure as Dr uh I think as Bill said that if we have more public voice and public input we have all voices and we have components of our community that are working so hard to to just survive and put food on the table they don't even know that they should be advocating they don't

131necessarily know what the Avenues are to do so so we have to make sure that we are not overlooking that those populations and so again I appreciate I think we're going to get there we have other avenues in which we can explore to do this and do it right and that's what I'm hearing is the commitment here and so I applaud you for that um because we want to get it right but there's opportunity that's in front of us right now that I don't want us to overlook as well thank you I would Echo that sentiment Dr glatch it's clear that board members are digging in to this work and I applaud and and appreciate that um to Echo one thing that Dr Lun said earlier um we do need to do something and I'm

132not here to prescribe what that solution is or what the timeline looks like uh but and again to Mr cevin as well I don't believe doing nothing is an option uh and I also think I think earlier someone said maybe it was you rob a 12E plan is no plan uh so uh you know the easy solutions we would have found them already this is this is hard difficult work uh there's a reason we're wrestling with this uh not only are is it difficult uh comes with challenges but we're also wrestling with it because of how important it is uh and how important it is on behalf of all of our students um we as board members were elected to serve this entire district and not a neighborhood or a school or a point of

133view and so I would implore all of us myself included um to work on behalf of all of our students all of our schools all of our staff the entire Community um we have to take the bigger broader view uh and I'm in favor of whatever steps uh are necessary to find as close to the right decision as possible yeah please when I was a building principal uh turning around a school or turning around a school it wasn't always about the end result but it was about the process uh when I was the director of curriculum instruction assessment and professional development it wasn't always about the end result but it was about the process so I I share those uh two pieces of information because while the outcome is still what I would consider far

134off but not so far off that we're talking about a Next Generation Um it's still the process is going to be as important as the outcome and what I've taken away from tonight's board conversation uh with community members sitting here listening to the conversation intently is we do need more time uh and that's one of the recommendations that we are making that we do want to be taking the right amount of time so that we can be thoughtful but there is a push and pull and all of that and I think you heard Dr glatch talk about that there is pressure at the elementary level um when we talk about uh additions to buildings uh I had a walk through with Dr saxberg several weeks ago and we we came to a landing on the

135south side of his building where there were two large windows that looked like a place for double doors and on the outside of those two large Windows was a cement slab that in itself was the place to put this addition on centur Elementary School when it was built in 198 9 um so the uh so the plans are there but there does come a cost associated with that and I think we even heard it maybe talking a little bit longer than I intended to but we heard it at Red River on January 16th uh from audience members saying just go to the state and get the money from the Legacy fund and add on to the buildings that you know I wish it was that easy um you know we're going to bismar trying to

136get something more than 2% uh for all of our 1,700 colleagues across the district so uh just just to summarize I just want to emphasize that it is about the process um I'm certainly fine with having more voices uh whether we expand committee I I think probably more so than expanding the committee it's expanding the community voice and we have uh we have mechanisms to do that um and we'll be happy to do that and provide more space for people to weigh in uh at the end of the day and and Mr Schwarz has said it eloquently um when we pull one lever there's going to be another lever uh another lens where some folks might not be happy um but we're in the we're in the muck of it uh that's what I talked

137about as a building level principle and when when we're in the muck sometimes we can't see um what that end result looks like we're going to get there and we're going to get there in a very thoughtful uh communicative Manner and uh voices will be respected and represented and I've certainly appreciated uh the letters and the emails that have come my way the phone calls that have come my way um everybody has had a respectful uh way of communicating their concerns and I do appreciate that and value that um as your superintendent thank you any final thoughts Rob before we put this agenda item to to rest and a reminder to all listening and watching this is uh on tonight's agenda for discussion so there was no scheduled board action but do you have any

138thoughts or or next steps things for us to consider uh as we move forward from here just basically we'll be talking about what those are and then how can we come alongside to help better communicate and advocate for where this solution needs to go so I appreciate that time with you guys thanks thank you for your time and your work the committee as well thank you move on to item 5B uh this is a fraud update I believe Brandon bomach has a statement yes president Berger members of the board um just thank you for the time this evening as you are fully aware in the fall there was a fraud incident uh within the district and since that time we've worked with Grand Forks Police Department and so wanted to provide the board an update

139as to where that's at right now and and the community an update I have prepared my comments tonight so I'll just read these off um tonight so on August 16 2024 the school district was a victim of external fraud and an uranous AC transfer of two 2,239 66559 was made to the incorrect bank account by the start of the next billing cycle that's the start of September the mistake was discovered and quick action was taken District administration took immediate steps including inactivation of the vendor from our system notifying Our IT department we froze all a payments to outside companies we contacted our bank to report the fraud we contacted the GR Police Department to file a police report we filed a report to the internet crime compliance Center that's a component of the FBI and

140filed the incident with our insurance agent these actions led to immediate actions on behalf of those bodies to recover the funds due to the hard work of the authorities 1,296 n359 has been recovered this coupled with $100,000 of social engineering insurance coverage culminates in a total loss to date of $842,000 $729 63 these dollars are directly linked to our building fund this means these dollars are not a part of the general ledger or the daily operation of the school district but rather they are from a fund with a mandated use for Construction and building maintenance this incident was isolated and perpetrated by external actors there is no ongoing concern or suspicion of internal fraud or embezzlement furthermore a third-party forensics investigation was completed verifying internal findings that our system was not breached but rather this

141was social engineering fraud or fishing scheme it is important to highlight that District Personnel in the business office were victims of a crime and that message has been clear to those affected by this fraud activity although internal processes were followed regretfully the fraud was not stopped in response Administration has improved systems and provided training to key offices and personnel and furthermore improvements to cyber security broadly awareness training and system defense across the district are well underway the investigation is ongoing and more may be recovered at this point Administration wanted to Prov provide the board and the community an update on this matter although we are hopeful for additional updates from authorities in the near future we understand these investigations can take some time and we do not expect any updates in the near term uh

142Administration has and will continue to worked closely with the gr Forks Police Department throughout the investigation and in preparation uh of this update today so they've seen and read through this as well happy to stand for any questions thank you for that up any clarifying questions from board members Miss Flynn um sometimes you don't know what you don't know so given the scenario that happened have we or are we looking into increasing our insurance policy related to fraud or anything like that to potentially if this did happen again recover more money or more resources we appreciate the question president um Berger um member Flynn so we asked ourselves that same question as I read out loud here was $100,000 was uh covered by social engineering um Insurance U we investigated that question working with our

143insurance agent um they said cyber security coverages can be larger usually those are um more related to breaches in the system Etc whereas social engineering um is something that's driven by human behavior and you won't find uh many insurance carriers to increase beyond that sometimes in the context of a broader cyber security policy you can increase that um that that loss amount to 200,000 um but the information we had gotten when we explored that question is is really beyond that you wouldn't find an insurance company that would offer such a coverage and and do we have coverage for breach so if we did have that scenario happen are we covered right broader broader security um we are focused on increasing that we're actually rolling out um some key components to really enabling further cyber security

144coverages like multiactor authentication which hasn't been in place in the district um we're taking the opportunity now okay thank you is it fair to say that taking some of these other steps like two- Factor authenic authentication making more robust systems internally is a prere it of a broader larger coverage in other words it might help on on both sides to take some steps to shore things up uh before uh the district for example is eligible for a broader larger policy means both protection on the back end but a smaller likelihood of something happening is that fair way to say mean to be properly covered by cyber security broadly speaking you need to have certain things in place including those fundamentals of multiactor Authentication in a school district it's been uh you know a little complicated

145because you have uh users like uh staff members who might have that cell phone in their pocket and you have students who are prohibited by policy to have that cell phone in pocket so working through those details and um we're lucky to have um Darren King our manager really helping work all those um things out other questions for Mr bomach Dr Len just a comment thank you Mr King is quietly sitting behind the curtain there kind of like dating game or something so back there but but I'm I'm I'm just assuming the public will understand that this is an ongoing criminal investigation and although all of us are curious minds there's information that just cannot be brought out because of because of an ongoing investigation or Andor for security reasons for the future so I

146I would agree with that in crafting this letter we were thoughtful about what detail to include and really the the motivation is to provide an update to the board is to provide an update to the broader Community um it is true the investigation's not done but uh it it's my understanding that it might not be done for a long long time and we thought an update to the community was deserved before that point um so yeah appreciate that understanding of the community other questions uh I know we still have Joel on the phone Joel do you have anything for Mr bomach nothing from me thank you any others thank you move on to item 6A this is a consent agenda I would seek a motion to approve the consent agenda as it states in your

147packet I heard a motion from Dr L second from Mr palino we'll take a roll call vote Anderson yes Flynn yes clevin yes hodak yes thomasino yes Larson yes l yes Manley yes and berer yes nine yes zero no zero absent motion passes 6B Head Start quality improvement plan we'll start with Mr baky and then I believe Tracy Johnson is here as well or you two can decide you should at least catch each other's ey so you there she is there she is okay um yeah so I will hand this pretty much right over to director Johnson to discuss um as part of our grant um this is a another step that we need to go through um and so I will hand it over to director Johnson to discuss thank you thank you Brandon

148good evening thank you for having me tonight I bring um before you tonight a quality improvement plan that ensures head is abiding by The Head Start program performance standards specifically uh standards of conduct policy 13290 with direction from the regional office of Head Start the plan was updated um it was updated to reflect that the Head Start staff receive annual training as it relates to the standards of conduct um on their higher date and annually thereafter staff sign off on the policy that it is is in the employee agreement personnel file in addition to um having the standards of conduct policy we offer a lot of other professional development through the school year and the multi-tier system of support framework along with the pyramid model framework that also ensures staff are abiding by the standards

149of conduct policy in addition we have implemented the staff health and wellness policy as a result of the updated performance standards and along with that we're giving time um to staff to collaborate along with the Frameworks that I mentioned um to talk about standards of conduct as it relates to um classroom at this time I can take questions if you have any regarding the quality improvement plan Mr baky I'm going to actually add to that um and so um as you'll see through this um Head Start is uh continuing to work on everything just like all of our schools um and this really puts the emphasis on how do we continue to build upon what we currently do within professional development um as you'll see in the memo from um director Johnson you'll see that

150this group also or this plan also got presented to the Head Start policy Council which unanimously approved it as well and uh Dr hodak sits on as a part of this board as well too and so um going through that process is continual Improvement as schools we continue to do um and Head Start is no different in their Grant perspective so Dr hodek if you want to offer anything given that you sit on the policy Council and then we'll open it up to board members all I can say is I'm absolutely amazed and impressed with director Johnson there it's unbelievable what she's done and continues to do the other piece of I've been um privileged to be on a couple of calls with the feds and I'll tell you we need to do something about

151that because it is it it's just it's cumbersome and complicated and when it takes away from her staff and her from working with kids and doing things and everything else it's you know and little sidebar I asked Tracy after the last can I get snarky at the next one you know stuff and she goes oh no you don't need to rest assured baky did last year so I think we're taking care of things so I want to see Mr baky snark it's just an aside uh any questions qualifying clarifying comments Mr cevin this is routine to meet policy and ordinance right there's no underlying issue we just got to periodically do these things okay thank you other questions Mr Larson none from me thank you seeing none the administrative recommendation is to approve the quality

152improvement plan you see in your board packet do I have a motion it's been moved by Dr hodek is there a second second by Mr cevin any discussion we'll take a roll call vote Flynn yes hodak yes Anderson yes Manley yes Lun yes clevin yes pomino yes Larson yes Berger yes nine yes zero no zero absent motion passes thank you 6C the finance committee report I know there are two uh two different considerations under here but I'll start it off with Mr Palo well I'll turn it to Brown on the busing sure sounds good so uh if that's all right Mr bomach uh 6 C1 the discussion on Transportation routing software student ridership tracking this request for proposal if you could take that for us please that's great I'd be happy to talk through that

153and then just as a note um Chad Dustin with construction Engineers is here for that second item um there was a good conversation at the finance committee about um really what would be a need for transportation routing software as well as um student ridership tracking um really we had done some preliminary work in the past and it really had come up again about the requirement of how we can really improve our busing system in conjunction with Valley bus uh really for the safety of our students um currently uh some of the practices there could be improved upon like the roster of of who would get on a general Ed bus it's different with special education those are really discreet pieces of information we know who's there with general education not every student rides every day

154and so you have this this roster that's on the bus uh and should you um get into any trouble or not you have to work through that roster to find out who's who's on the bus that day um this system would allow for better identification of of Who's On The Bus by uh enabling some rfids to scan when they get on the bus it would even blink if you got on the wrong bus I mean it would help with a lot of that organization um and it would it would work in conjunction with our current student information system or power school as far as those rosters go that's just one example of a lot of different benefits that really could be brought forward the committee explored those and ultimately did um support the direction that

155Administration would like to go and put out a request for bids so we can get back um discrete information we really have touch space with three different companies so we're hopeful for three different responses that we can put next to each other with the plan to bring it back to the board on March 17th for consideration so you'll note uh board members this particular item uh does not have action requested because as Mr bomach alluded to we'll have bids to look at on March 17th uh are there questions for Mr bomach or comments from the finance committee related to 6 C1 I uh we'll take Mr palino's comment and comment I had is it provides the opportunity for parents to be to see where their children are are on the bus and this would be

156very helpful for special education kids who have to be picked up off the bus so we don't have the bus sitting outside of the house beeping his horn waiting for Mom to come out she can Mom or Dad I'm sorry Mom or Dad she can they can look at their phone and they know the bus is two minutes away and I think it would speed up cuz some of the special education buses gets longer in the day because of waiting for that action as well as as the regular dealer buses people can follow where that is especially when it's 45 below zero and somebody wants to pick their kids up at the stop they'll have that opportunity U Mr clevin there's this all installs on current software and Hardware there's no secondary costs or is

157that part of the RFP that would be part of the RFP we'd want to understand that um currently there is some on the buses which are owned by Valley bus they do have some capability but for their own internal payroll and things like this interface where this would be most likely new hardware that would interface with a student ID or a badge okay thanks other yes Dr hodek my question is will this have capabilities so not only for the parents but for the school so the principal would be able to track those students as well too or the special ed teacher yep absolutely they would be live information it would it would much improve the understanding communication of what's Happening other questions Mr Anderson I just wanted to comment that I I certainly appreciated this

158item coming forward and the thoughtfulness um bringing this forward identifying an opportunity here to utilize technology um to to do something for us and and the perspectives that were provided by um um both Mr baky and and Dr glatch around how this would assist also um I just appreciate this being brought forward giving us the opportunity to look at this entertain this um and understand what the expense would be um for the safety of the students others yes Miss llynn does any of the RFP uh categories have something about like um uh bus route timeliness so like if the bus route was going to be late or if like is there a text that gets Mass communicated like things like that glad glad you asked the question president berer remember Flyn is that uh communication's

159a central part of this whole tool and so not only do we think it'll improve efficiency and be more accurate but if something were to happen this system would enable us to send out a message across all families and uh depending on vendor responses we think we know at least one has the capability to send it out in many different languages other question questions or comments Mr Larsson don't want to forget you nothing from me thank you Mr baky can I just add to um Mr bombo's comments not only will allow us to be able to do it in multiple language our current system that we have set up to do that doesn't allow us to do it in multiple language and and IT department and Communications Department is working tirelessly to get that to

160work and has finally been able to do a successful launch of um a small group and and hopes to be able to do that but this would be able to do it do that at a much expedited process and allow us to do it on a very uh specific individuals and families as well as I will say it also allows us to do it to specific people on the bus um and so really targeting our uh communication and um utilizing technology to do that which has been would be very beneficial um from that route side of things um in elementary we have quite a few students that bus so um it it is a huge impact on our daily operations others yes Miss I did see on the news a article about a bus and

161it was like a little old guy driving the bus and when the kid was getting off he scanned the back of the kid's backpack and padded him on the back and and I was like that's really cool but I didn't know how to ask like can we have something that scans kids so like you know I didn't know like how to bring that up so I'm exced that we're like talking about it from a safety perspective of like yeah this is we're like there could be a 5-year-old riding the bus and so I think this is a good communication tool so yeah my my last wondering is does this could this fit into the scope and scale of Safety and Security upgrades throughout the district you know how do we how do we use the

162the referendum funds obviously three buckets Valley Middle School Central Kitchen Safety and Security uh even though this isn't a specific building the bus the transportation model is an extension of our buildings and so I look forward to seeing how that fits into the picture we'll look forward to this coming back in 3 weeks on the 17th thank you uh 6 C2 consideration of bid results related to Safety and Security enhancement at Lake agasse Elementary School do you want to get this one Mr and we do have a representative here from community contractors to answer any questions on the spreadsheets but uh the committee is recommending that we accept a guaranteed maximum price of 794 780 for a total project cost of 941 8814 for the Safety and Security improvements at Lake aacy I believe this

163is a savings of very close to $200,000 from the original estimate but maybe if you want to I'll let Community contractors walk through the yeah Construction Engineers that's right though um yeah so generally as you're seeing a lot of the numbers went down uh part of that was due to when we pres had our previous SD budget there was a small addition off the front entrance area uh so not all the savings that you're seeing there are just subcontract or pricing savings there was a reduce or reduction of the scope of the project uh but generally things came in well um the one kind of outlier there is electrical after scoping out them and kind of discussing with the district it sounds like the firearm arm panel in that building is I don't say obsolete

164but uh end of life we're not they're not able to upgrade that panel so uh part of the The increased cost on electricals replacing the fire alarm panel at Lake ay as well as adding an enunciator panel in the front office area as well too so make a motion to accept the recommendation of the comme okay so we have a motion to recommend approval of the guaranteed maximum price of six am I getting this right 794 sorry 79 4780 uh is there a second and second by Mr Manley uh since we moved right to a motion is there any discussion or clarifying comments Mr Larsson nothing from me I'll take a roll call vote Larson yes Manley yes L yes thomasino yes hodak yes Anderson yes Clin y Flynn yes Berger yes nine yes zero

165no zero absent motion passes 6D certified laptop replacement appas this is the aforementioned Darren King and just just as uh Darren is coming up here I'll just offer a comment uh Darren has a longer history than me in this District but just in these few short years I should remind you that with some of the co dollars those those first phase dollars they were used to invest in in uh laptops for our certified staff and so we had purchased those out outright what you're seeing here is a solution now that those are aging what we do with the next step okay uh president burer and rest of the board uh good to be back again it was a lot more fun the first time I was here because I wasn't asking for money all right

166but what's before you is the is kind of the first step in dealing with the five-year aged out certified staff computers across the district um I'm a big divide and conquer I took the biggest Bunch first and thought we'd get those out of the way um and you can see um because of the the situation we're going to go back to leasing which the district has a long history in doing it's a really good way to approach it um apple is offering 0% financing so really it's free money it's really hard not to to take advantage of that opportunity when it presents ourselves it's a four-year lease then we'll have an option to do something at year five whether we keep them for a fifth year they will have resale value at that point there

167might be a it might be a better deal to to resell them into the resale Market which is um something that's pretty viable right now with especially with Apple devices so um with that we did have uh the attorney review it had to make a few changes but I think in general uh everybody is comfortable with it and just looking for your consideration to move forward with it clarifying questions for Mr King um Miss llyn with the lease specifically I know we kind of have technology budget and things like that but Are there specific pools of where this would be paid from like is there title dollars that are allocated a portion or is it just kind of general fund technology expense that that would be a gend fund technology expense okay and I'm assuming

168uming that also buying these outright could potentially like when we lease is there any sort of like if it's broken we can send it back type thing or like what's the maintenance I don't know that's that's really a great question and like a car yeah there is a short warranty on these for defects okay um Apple does have something called Apple Care which you can get for three years uh it's it's quite expensive like to the tune of a couple hundred, on this purchase to to get threeyear coverage on all these devices if we were going to do a three-year lease there's some logic behind getting Apple care because that means for the three-year lifetime of it you don't pay anything if something goes wrong with them so there I mean there is logic but

169you're going to pay like I said about $200,000 more over the life of the of the use so it's not cheap for three years of coverage okay I'm going to fill in the blanks here before we move on I'm assuming that most of the time if you get a three-year Apple Care on a four-year lease you can anticipate most of the problems to happen in that fourth year where you're not covered anyway yeah so what what we have done in the past is we tend to buy a few extra we kind of self-insure ourselves so instead of spending $200,000 on on Apple Care we might buy an extra 50 units so that we've self-insured ourselves every time we interject different models into our build creates a lot of work um churn for us so it's

170it's better for us to have 50 extra replace broken ones than it is to buy the newest model of a machine when something breaks because that's the gift that keeps giving sure thank you one offs in it so what I'm seeing here is that since it's a 4-year lease you're going to be here to see this through so we have you for at least four years are you prepared to make that promise um a member Flynn I'm probably not prepared to make that promise but um I'm definitely here for now and I'm still having fun so don't get me wrong we'll see if it keeps going that way it should Fair answer Dr hodek um yes Darren I noticed that it's said someplace in here that we have an outstanding balance um with apple um

171as of and maybe Brandon to as of 3:15 2025 so are we have we been leasing no no we don't so this is the first thing that we are actually going to be correct Dr Hood I think the the piece that you might have saw was we've negotiated the payment to July 15th of 2025 okay so even though we'll be able to receive these and hopefully turn them around and get them out in the hands of teachers before school's over we don't make our first payment till July 5th okay of 2025 that was kind of the Lynch pin right of the negotiations the last six or seven weeks with apple was if they could do that for us then we could try to to move forward quickly with this okay thank you other questions Mr

172Larson no this all looks good thank you I would seek a motion to accept um the Apple lease for the laptop replacement for certified staff it's been moved by Dr hodek second by Mr Anderson any discussion yes Mr cevin read through the attorney's comments I mean there's no Contracting problems here I'm particularly curious about the indemnity um no so I was ready I was ready to make the comment on what she was really looking into is some sentury code that prohibits multi-year leases and that's where the work had to be done to um put in place like a a auto renewal unless either party protests um from what I'd gotten from reading it and talking to our attorney there was there was no problems to answer your question okay thanks any other discussion take a

173roll call Vote clevin Yes Larson yes Amino yes Len Yes Man yes Flynn yes hodak yes Anderson yes berer yes nine yes zero no zero absent motion passes 6f District calendar for 2025 2026 and tenative start and end dates for 2026 2027 Dr glatch General I'm sorry let's go to 6E maybe there was something about wanting to hear from someone else but Brandon one more one more turn for you 6E general fund financial statement Mr Brandon bomach thank you president Burger um first format here summary within the memo is just that between the period of July 1 through January 31st as first 7 months of the year revenues were nearly $70 million where expenses were um nearly $61 million resulting in $8.8 million Revenue overe expenditure at that point in time um you know the

174drill in the two different financial statements the first I would just you know again articulate Point like to point attention to where State sources have now come in at at that point through January 31st come in at 74% of what is budgeted um local sources are just coming on so only showing just under 15% of those those will come in the spring here and then Federal sources are on reimbursement basis and they kind of sprinkle throughout where amongst the expenditures you can see that consistency level right around 47% of the budget um happy to comment uh or answer any questions on the first report if not or I'm just moving to the second report that comparison report it's always a good look to see where we're at this point in point time in this fiscal

175year as compared to last point in time um and you can see that those local sources are up year-over-year State sources are up year-over-year and then that Federal piece is down quite a bit again that's the when we pull those Esser dollars out of the equation they're going to show down and a lot of those had fallen into other expenditures and so you can see that on the expenditure side that our other expenditures have really been reduced greatly the only comment uh that's really change or I've added here in the the comment box is the eighth one majority of rent expenses have moved from the general fund to the building fund so that was a that was a a deliberate decision from last budget to this budget and you'll find that in the other expenses

176categories where you can see at this point in the year we've only we've spent $78,000 on rent whereas last year at this point it'd be 358,000 so a deliberate effort to free up the general ledger for those and then um just kind of in conclusion here with some of the graphs um revenues you can see the um graphical depiction of that are just a little bit lower than last year again related to those Esser dollars coming out the expenditures are in a similar fashion there and then this is where we come to the general fund balance and we see like I kind of alluded towards what I'd expect to continue to see is a convergence of those three lines here the green line would become a little bit more where we'd expect it to be

177rather than where it's shot up and that's due to we expend the federal dollars and we have to wait a month or two to get the revenue to match those dollars and so that makes our numbers look really good for some of the interim months I'm happy to answer any questions here but otherwise the administrative recommendation would be to approve the general fund financial statement for the period of July 1:24 through January 3125 questions from Mr bomach yes Dr Len I haven't asked you for a few months so I'll ask you uh ending fund balance are we tracking where we think we're going to be at the end of June um we I would say that we're we're tracking according to this budget and we're really we're optimistic that we come ahead coming out of

178the last negotiations we knew the first of those two years would put us down a little bit and the second year we could come back and hope and contribute towards that goal of growing the ending fund balance I would say you know just in the recent development of the budget it's going to be difficult to get all the way to 15% % by 20 the end of 2026 but um this budget's I think helping in that process other questions Mr Larsson n thank you seeing none I would seek a motion to approve the general fund financial statement for the period of July 1 2024 through January 31 2025 moved by Mr Paulino is there a second second by Mr Manley any further discussion I'll take a roll call vote Manley yes Anderson yesak yes clevin

179yes Larson yes pomino Flyn yes L yes Berger yes nine yes zero no zero absent motion passes 6f District calendar for 2025 2026 and tentative start and end dates for 2026 2027 Dr glatch thank you I appreciate your enthusiasm about the calendar um as probably second most popular item uh next to demographics so um according to policy ABAB um the board is required to approve the start and end dates each calendar year as well as the blackout dates and just a reminder that the blackout dates are really there to protect teacher time around important junctures of the school year so that might be conferences might be report cards all those things tied together that way and and the number of blackout dates um vary by level according to kind of the the lift that is

180required to get ready for those important events um our committee has a few Collective goals that I'd like to highlight and you'll understand why I'm highlighting them when we get to the calendar itself so um first of all I want to protect the best interest of teaching and learning at all levels that is really what we're here to do it is our commitment to our kids in gr Forks Public Schools we also want to to meet that goal protect instructional time fluidity consistency and intentionality as much as possible protect teacher preparation professional learning community and professional development time is our third goal and finally just use the calendar to inform constituents so we have a different calendar that Cindy helps um craft in the end for internal constituents versus external um constituents you can see

181the whole s of factors that we take into consideration it's a pretty long list ranging from und's academic calendar to um start and end dates required for our CTE um online Center things of that nature um so of note uh and on the second page here it says and important for constituents to understand the overall flow of a school calendar in any given year is largely determined by the dates upon which major holidays fall and I will just be straight up transparent with you the next two calendars are a bit uglier than we would like them to be because of where those um dates start and fall our committee has had a lot of debate we've gone back to our building um or the people that we represent and ask for an awful lot of

182input we tend to survey and our committee and you know Dr Walter's left I thought he was maybe hanging out for this discussion um but we always joke because if we it doesn't matter who we survey it could be families it could be teachers it could be administrators it's like 4951 Joe is uh confirming that over there um as far as any of the the given nuances so um just know that when you look at the calendar in the end there's been a lot of thought um and input that's gone into it so for the 25 26 school year the recommendation is for kindergarten through 9th grade students to begin Wednesday August 27th 2025 and 10th through 12th grade students to begin on Thursday August 28th 2025 all grades will then conclude on Thursday May

18328th 2026 you can see on that calendar that's been flushed out um blackout dates for high school 18 dates middle school 20 dates and Elementary School 21 dates and again that is for the reasons that I described earlier the recommended start and end dates for the 2627 calendar then include kindergart through 9th grade beginning on Wednesday August 26th 2026 and 10th through 12th grade students beginning on Thursday August 27th 2026 with all gray ending on Thursday May 27th um an anomaly or I don't know if it's a anomaly but it happens every few years that um graduation will likely Fall a memorial weekend that calendar year you can see the um District calendar committee representatives there that is also dictated by policy um so the administrative recommendation is to approve the 2025 2026 start and

184end dates and blackout dates for teachers as presented and tentatively approve the 2627 start and end dates knowing blackout dates will be presented at a future time I'm here to entertain questions questions for Dr glatch yeah Dr L was there discussion about the spring break Lots because i' I've actually gotten more calls about spring break than I've gotten about demographics in the last and actually started before your committee was even done so clearly people were leaking information to the public because I've gotten calls from February about it so I'm just curious yes lots and lots and lots of lots of discussion around spring break and really in a nutshell what it came down to is if you think about adding so on this calendar for those that can't see it in front of them um

185spring break goes down to 3 days the week of March 9th um instead of that entire week we looked at then where we would um take the two additional days off and try to plug them in and I'm going to go back to the December um calendar because it typically Falls around what would be the winter holiday break or the Christmas break and there were a lot of opinions about giving that whole two weeks and how that is the counter to that um that's really in a nutshell you know we anticipate and really we have enough data to indicate that there are families that would choose to take early vacation on either of those planned breaks um and we also know that there's not always direct alignment and I think this is the Cal I

186honestly I should have looked this double checked this it's either this calendar or the one we're drafting out for next year that doesn't fully align with und's proposed break either but again we're looking at what's best for our students and UND D's break I believe was at a time that it was like we just came off of a super long winter break and then we're going to go on break like 3 weeks later it didn't make sense instructionally for us so we take all those things into consideration long answer to a short question follow-up question so so and this was the frustrating part for me these people all had these calendars and they're asking me about the board stuff and I had no idea what they're talking about and and and the vast majority said

187why don't you ever go into June June 1st or second and I said well there's spring bra or there's there's summer school and stuff like that my my problem and I realize it's not the board's discussion and I I wouldn't want to be on that Committee just like I'm not sure I'd want to be on the demographic committee because because the the board our responsibility is end date and start date and blackout date but the problem is is when when the constituents aren't happy they don't call the committee they call us and and and so so so that that's the problem and I didn't have really good answers for them because I I don't understand why we can't go a little into June I don't I don't understand why we have to try and always

188end in May myself either so but I couldn't really answer because I wasn't aware of what was going on yeah I mean if the board is is um interested I could probably put together all of the things that we take into consideration that even go beyond the list here um there there are impacts to like our retirees paychecks and when they can claim benefits if we work uh Beyond a certain point in time that's been modified a little bit so it's a little less of a sting but that's one of the confounding factors we mentioned summer school we mentioned um I there're just really a myriad of things and and the other part of that is um the even the way our weather patterns work um we we talk a lot about that when buildings

189and now that we are getting most all of our buildings eventually equipped with um air conditioning that'll probably be taken off the table but there's been um challenges there in the past as well my my point is is it it's like when we do entitlement programs for whatever you know you you start an entitlement program and then people expect that so now we've we've we've given them that week for a few years and now they're expecting now we're taking it away so I think somehow we have to educate the public that this isn't always going to be a week it's going to be two or three days and I can guarantee you from the people I've talked to uh we're going to have pretty high absentee rates that Monday and Tuesday of that week people

190are going to call their kids in in sick because of it that certainly Could Happen thank you other question from Miss Flynn and then we'll get to Mr pal I too have gotten a lot of questions and it's very interesting to me how the community like just is so like when is the calendar coming out like that like there's a lot of people that are like we're waiting for gfps cuz we do our calendar even my daycare is like we follow whatever Grand Forks public school does so um I I know from I think it was 2 years ago two things happened one was that the N US system changed their calendar after it had already been released so then spring break was different as a result of their change and then we did our

191work to match it and then they changed so we got feedback from that and I think that was the same year or subsequently the next fall was when the way the dates felt over winter break we only got like six days like it was very very short and I think I heard from a majority of people that they would prefer to have their winter break at least who have came to me um because not everyone does go on spring break and I think the benefit is you know people say that about UND my husband works at UND but the reality is that students are gone he still has to work so um I think there could be an opportunity here I bet you we are able to collect data on those short winter breaks when

192we have people taking time off but we likely have not really captured spring break because it's been a whole week and so I'd be interested to learn how many families take that Monday and Tuesday off but the reality is is if a family is going to choose to go on vacation then they're going to go anyway so um I I I think this is uh I appreciate all the discussion that's gone into this I appreciate the attempt to try to match up things um but I I do think like you said I I think there's a lot to consider in this um and the thought of going to school in June is like I don't know um no way but um so thank you but yes the the feedback I've gotten is we wish spring

193break would be a week but I'd rather have winter break longer so other questions for Dr glutch P I just would like to thank you for only three days spring break as a grandfather who has a babysit the whole week this year I think there's a lot of more kids that don't go on spring break and don't leave town that are in town and looking for babysitting and only having three days instead of five thank you uh Mr Larsson uh only laughing here at Bill's joke appreciate that uh any other questions otherwise the administrative recommendation is to approve these start and end dates for 2025 2026 and the blackout dates as presented and to tentatively approve the 2026 2027 start and end dates knowing those blackout dates will be presented at the future I would

194seek that motion it's been moved by Dr hodek is there a second second by Mr Palo oh I'm I'm gonna give Mr Larson a a second uh any further discussion we'll take a roll call vote Kodak Clin yes Manley yes Larson yes Flynn yes L yes Anderson yes palino yes Berger yes nine yes zero no zero absent motion passes 6G consideration of gr Fork's virtual Secondary School Dr glatch thank you chair Burger so um you can see in the memorandum that we're looking to uh seek approval of opening of virtual High School in gr Forks Public Schools this has been something that's been under study quite honestly since covid um we have gone through cycles of um surveying our constituents to see gain interest we've looked at pros and cons um from the economic standpoint

195etc etc and the reality of it is we need to dip our toes we feel strongly we need to dip our toes into this these Waters I think our most compelling piece of data of of late is the number of students who request enrollment in North Dakota Center for distance Ed classes um and that's primarily done for course flexibility and we believe that this will allow us to regain some of those enrollments and and control them more inhouse so a few details about the design as it's currently proposed is that um creative name right gr Forks virtual High School um it's we're looking to start it as a 92 virtual campus um students could enroll either full-time or they could enroll part-time especially if they're seeking um credit recovery options so it really creates another

196alternative pathway that we feel will be in the benefit of students we are going to suggest a bit of a Twist on it and it's mentioned here that it's a hybrid model but I'll explain that a little bit more by hybrid model the vast majority of the content would be delivered asynchronously through an online platform the online platform has um ulum that aligns with State Standards it has instructional videos it's a very robust platform there would be a mentor teacher assigned to each student that would then work with the student and their family on the pacing of those courses uh work with them on um any hiccups that they encounter in the learning process on tutoring sessions things of that nature so that would all be done virtually if you will or over online mechanisms

197we also and this is a bullet point on the back on the back page are going to require students to come in during key summative assessments to make sure that there's Integrity the teaching and learning process we do that right now with ndcde classes when kids take end of unit tests major assessments they have to come on to our campuses and be underneath under the guide of our eyes so to speak to make sure there's academic Integrity we are also going to enhance that at times depending on the the content area to have demonstrations of learning you're all very aware that we have to um commit to having students emerged Choice ready and with that comes evidence that we communicate well uh evidence that we can um problem solve and so we anticipate students coming

198in to maybe give mini presentations on a science experiment um things of that nature so it's going to be within reason but there will be times that we will be able to then validate those Choice ready scores or Cho Choice ready indicators through those assessments as well so that's why it's listed as a hybrid but really it would probably be a 9010 or even a 95 5% home versus face Toof face if that if that makes sense if you're if you're still with me there um uh in addition we would require weekly checkpoints with their assigned Mentor teacher so that that person can make sure that the student is a well and healthy it's one of the things that we really worry about with online learning is our kids in a good state of mind

199um that's something that we're committed to and we we struggled with over over covid um to make sure that they're on Pace make sure their families are well informed as well of their pacing um and that's really kind of it in in a nutshell the next um steps here is that once the board approves this I will need to reach out to the Department of Instruction they will give us a unique building code and so this virtual High School will um follow all of the guidelines and uh requirements put forth by the state of North Dakota to be accredited um to make sure that we're following State Standards hiring credential teachers and things of that nature um there is a cost estimate and I have to put a a a clarification on that the cost

200estimate is just that it's an estimate it's based off of current contract language for uh predicted average salaries it's based off of current um per pupil enrollment reimbursements from the state we know all that is going to be under review and as soon as we enter negotiations um and currently by the um legislator as well legislature as well um the number of teachers and staff we hire will really be determined by the enrollment so this is just an estimate of how it could look in the end we know we need to have um Mentor teachers we know we need to have special education specific support so that we can provide those supports as reasonable in that platform um we know that we want to have some additional tutoring support via um and we can cover

201uh IEP minutes as well using some uh classified staff we know we need to have a part-time administrator um overseeing this Academy um or virtual school I should say um and uh some onboarding and trading costs there so you can see the grand total of the cost predicted estimate is $383,500 caveat we're just transferring students who are currently in our building primarily we did survey and and then did an extra survey to our homeschool families because we're really optimistic about um capturing back some FTE there and there were um six homeschool families even after the end of the second um survey that indicated they would be interested in coming back to us so that's a step in the right direction I imagine once we are more established we will um gain more capacity and more

202momentum and perhaps even more um students from the area open enrolling into our district uh requesting virtual enrollment so we're we're kind of taking a chance here but there are other districts that have been quite successful in um providing this as an option for their students um whether or not I'll just get in front of it um we debated largely about whether or not we open this up to Middle School at this time we want to start um with the high school because of their where they're at developmentally um and we're open to that in the future so at tonight's meeting um right now I'll respond to questions otherwise we're going to be um seeking approval of the gr Forks virtual High School effective the 25 26 school year questions for Dr glatch Mr cevin

203so the rale for this seems to be entirely pragmatic like we're doing a thing because others are doing a thing is there an academic benefit to this like our experience in covid wasn't good our kids did fine but generally it created a lot of issues and this doesn't seem to help that so I'm concerned about the academic side so what's the proof this is not like a step backwards academically great question so a couple different things what you just described as one of the reasons we're very we're adamant about making sure there's some face-to-face contact UM from a wellness standpoint from an Integrity of learning standpoint that's why those demonstrations of learning are going to be required as well as those those required conferences even though that is virtually as well with our um Mentor

204teachers um there is a benefit to answer your question transparently not all kids are wired well for online learning many kids do well in that platform and we have I shared with you before n dcde data that says that about 30 I think at that time it was like 34 to 36% of our students did not perform well so in our proposal and I didn't share with you the handbooks and the guidelines and the attendance and all all that sort of thing we have um will be very specific about um checkpoints that if not met um after additional supports are provided that we would bring kids back into campus so they don't just fall off the planet and fall behind and they're learning drastically we also think Jay there there are families and students right

205now that quite honestly um still will are fighting us about stepping on to our campuses and this gives us an opportunity to to recapture and re-engage and gain capacity with some of those students who are still um in a place right now that causes us concern for them long term um so and then finally from a choice ready stpoint and if you think about college and postsecondary um have any of you taken an online asynchronous course or even a training course or to renew a licensure it's really part of the type of learning that our students need um to perform well if they're going down that pathway um being more familiar in how it works to to be in charge uh and empowered in your own learning so we just have to try to screen

206the right kids and get the right kids enrolled there so we don't create an unintended consequence well I think you just hit one of the follow-ups sorry Dr Len if I may uh how do you identify students who can succeed in this environment and then if it's not working what's the do first off will participants know that that it's an ongoing experiment if you will and they can go back they might be forced to go back to school how did we share that information with them and then how do we Implement that if it's not working academically yes all of that is uh spelled out in the handbook that we have crafted so that would be part of the pre- conversations with counselors with building administrators we know um that students have to have a

207um certain degree of reading um comprehension level to to to increase their chances of doing well when they're independently learning so that's a big indicator we will screen with families um we also know that there has to be some sort of organizational and commitment system at home um that they know that they are uh have to sit down for a certain amount of time we have parsed out the recommended amount of time per day per class um there are pacing guides that we can um monitor uh kind of in real time and share with families so they can monitor as well so really there are some it's all about the conversation UPF front and in the end families have that opportunity they can enroll they have the choice um so there might be some skin

208knees along the way um we have some skin needes in our buildings along the way right now that that's not the best learning environment for some kids either so it's just provides another pathway Dr Len a comment for Jay and then a couple questions the other student that would fit this is I've got several patients who cannot function in a classroom because of medical conditions and anxiety or things like that who who literally this is this is their only option and so there's and there's not a lot of them but there are some out there that that that would benefit from that um one of my one of my two questions is is what if we get two people that enroll with this is this kind of a low volume class that you don't have

209it then or are we stuck with are we stuck with enrolling two students and having all the support staff around it great question so again the the opening of it the success of it depends on student enrollment um we did a survey with our families we had 86 uh students whose families indicated that they'd be interested in it so by all predictions or predictability we'd have enough to have at least one teacher hired and maybe a part-time um special education support person yeah the other quick question I and I think you you you mentioned it but the part-time AP I assume AP is associate principal is that a new hire or is that somebody who at Red River or Central that we have capacity that they can do that part-time job in addition to their

210job yeah I don't think any of our APS would say that they have much capacity right now so that's a fair question it would be a contract then and we still haven't uh ironed out all those details and I'll I'll um transparency again but there are a couple of different approaches that we could take there it could be an extra contract that if there is a say there's a teacher who's aspiring to be a an administrator that we could um look to work that into their time we could hire somebody independently that that's you know from outside the district or inside the district or somebody who's interested in just taking on that role maybe moving out of the classroom it can manifest itself in a variety of ways but we'd have to make sure they

211were qualified that they had the skill set and all those sorts of things um we've talked about an opportunity with the CTE center opening maybe doing some shared um supports there so uh and and with that would come some reimbursement because it is CTE um so we've really brainstormed a lot of different Avenues to get that stood up if you talk to Elon Musk I wouldn't mention any of that stuff so other questions he doesn't call me yet I mean I think that's coming down the line there but yeah Dr hodek approximately how many students do we have um participating with the north Goa Center for distance aded and do they pay a fee or is it the school district paying that fee uh I don't have at the at my fingertips right now that

212number but it's uh in the hundreds and again I wish Dr Walter was here so we could maybe add that to the Friday focus with Dr brener um maybe Cindy would remind me to get that to him um but the what was second part of your questions oh we are it's incumbent on the district to pay for their enrollments now there are there are a couple of bills that are in the works right now that would shift that responsibility back to families that's where it originated um or put some um empowerment in districts to better to screen or to preclude kids from enrolling especially if they fail the course um so we're monitoring those bills because the price tag last year was just short of $100,000 and this year we're up to I want to

213say 138 yeah I think it's I think it's 134 spend so far there's more incumbrances so it'll it'll likely exceed that number one other thing to just also note Dr hodak is that when you see those numbers that isn't just high school that's um there are some middle school there are some Elementary um for various reasons whether they're not able to be in the building for whatever it may be um but we have some students at the elementary level as well as at the middle school level that also are doing Center for distance education courses as well well I think this is an excellent idea I'm very pleased to see it I know while I had been at UND a lot of UND parents would speak often that this would be very beneficial for their

214children um because they didn't always like the North Dakota Center for distance Ed because it was very difficult in various areas and such so I was very pleased to see the description of the people as well as what the students would be expected to do and I think that that will make for a successful program my last question is what about other students students that are not so-called Grand Forks will they be allowed to come into this as well such as our Christian schools are Manville laramore Thompson and such too yeah great question so that's that's what I was trying to allude to earlier is that I think especially once we're up and running we will attract more open enrollments and they would just need to apply for open enrollment and under the same um

215guidelines that are they would to open a rle in our physical schools right now y thank you other questions for Dr glatch miss Lynn I think um we've been talking about this for a while and I think the board has largely been pretty supportive of this um so I'm excited to see it come through um I I don't necessarily have concerns about the timeline starting in in like the 25 26 on our end my my larger concern is will the state be able to handle that timeline especially there's a DPI kind of maybe possible change going on and um then what does that look like for recruitment you know like uh of students what does that look like for Teacher recruitment um and you know possible training and things and then my other question is

216are there any grants that we're aware of that could help us cover some of the costs or upfront costs before we get kind of that payment back you know the the goal would be for it to be a little more cost neutral um but up front we'd kind of have to pay and then get that money back so cost wise Grant and then um the timeline more so at the state level above us great questions I don't believe it takes much for the state to just push the buttons and according to the contact that I have there I've been in contact with Joe kosi is his name and he um all things virtual run through him so he said just fill out this form and we'll get it up and running the deadline for it

217is April 1st so uh we we're slightly ahead of that timeline right now we're a little bit behind schedule when it comes to enrollments because our high school kids have already enrolled for courses quite honestly and so um there will be some kids that will unenroll and enroll here so that is going to be a bit of messiness um regarding our our typical Staffing but otherwise I think we can go ahead not every teacher is going to be interested in doing online learning again we I think a lot of teachers learned a lot during Co um but we have a couple who are really talented right now um and able to do that there's one person in particular that um is uh primarily virtual supporting our um some of our alternative ed students and our

218students on IEPs who kind of what Dr Len was describing um and has had really great levels of success um supporting students virtually virtual meetings and things of that nature so we have some people who are really good at it um um so just the sooner we can get them in the right seats um the sooner we can backfill their seats if they're pre currently you know part of a a building assignment so my my last question is sale so how does because I think there's some natural overlaps and I recognize there's maybe some differences too but have you talked about utilization of resources or sharing Resources with that and then do you anticipate any of those students potentially utilizing this program over the current setup or you all transparency the online program is the

219one that we use at tra at sale currently and there are some students that we have on a bit of a hybrid right now because they are full-time working um not inclined to come to school as often as we want them to so we are already using it creatively with that population um our sales students really need us by them many of them to help guide um to help support in that sort of things so I think this is yet another pathway I don't see it replacing so I think for the community perspective it would be really helpful to articulate the differences between Community sale and this potentially because I I do think on the surface it seems like there's some natural connections or and of course like we're not going to highlight Johnny Smith

220you know needs this specific but um those are program opportunities that we can offer to students and meet those needs um but I I just think from a public facing standpoint I think it' be important for us to highlight the differences of why we're maybe investing in this and those other programs as well others yes Dr hodek when I was at the state department this fell underneath my position and at the time we were just getting into it but our problem that we had identified with school districts where there were too many students taking courses online out there that those courses um those companies hadn't been vetted all right so as soon as we would receive a school district saying okay we're going to take care of this within having that person you know or

221that school district be the Watchdog and everything else then we said yes go so with Joe I don't think it'll be a problem at all and I applaud that we're going to be doing this I just check in with Mr Larsson do you have anything nothing from me thank you any other questions seeing none I would seek a motion to approve the gr Forks virtual High School effective for the 2025 26 school year mtion approve move by Mr Manley is there a second second by Mr Anderson any further discussion yes Mr forget one question yes please is this program like ongoing for the foreseeable future or is there a trial period yeah I put this in the category of all of our um enrollments and class sizes like even uh course offerings if there's not

222enough enrollment we move them offline and Shuffle kids into a different passion area or whatever other questions we'll take a roll call vote Hino yes L yes Larson yes Flynn yes Anderson yes hodak yes Manley yes clevin yes Berger yes nine yes zero no zero absent motion passes 6h superintendent evaluation committee report superintendent March 2025 evaluation Mr Anderson yes thank you I'll give a brief overview the superintendent evaluation committee did meet on February 19th to review uh the survey feedback uh 13 board members did fill that out both from City and base boards um tool utilized and the content of the tool um was the same and which was agreed upon in the fall um of our prior uh uh survey as a committee we walked through the entire survey discussed points of interest common

223themes opportunities for growth um Dr brener walked through his reflection and takeaways also with the committee um the committee's unanimous recommendation following our our pretty extensive discussion uh was to forward a draft uh evaluation that finds the super intendant performance to be satisfactory in all areas to the full board um with that I would open you know I would ask that we would open for any other committee members to make any comments following that um I would also ask that we have asked Dr brener to um provide Dr Brer an opportunity to you know comment on his his takeaways also Mr Manley uh as Mr Anderson said the the the survey went very well um and not only the gr Fork School District but the grandforks Air Force Base I would like to thank everybody

224for the not only the rankings but the text and the the the words that you supply and just know that those are as Mr Anderson said those are read and thought about and and cated on by Dr Brer himself and and they're not taken lightly they're not just ignored um they're they're taken to heart and and things will be done yeah I would agree I I appreciate the conversation around common themes and uh lifting up some opportunities uh to bring other reports to to the full board that was heard loud and clear uh opportunities to hear updates uh about uh you know this uh this or that investment that the board has made on behalf of students and and hearing those so uh just know that we are looking at um what that timeline could

225look like um understanding the flow of information that that was spoken about uh in a number of different categories um Dr brard do you want to take the next uh next piece I think you said it all president Burger uh you said what I was going to be talking about but no that's that's okay uh again I want to thank 13 out of 13 board members uh both District 140 and District 1 for completing the tool it's a lengthy process it takes you a couple of hours I'm I'm grateful for your commitment to that um I I still um and from the perspective that I'm growing and will continue to grow and will never stop growing um until that time until that time comes and um you know as far as the themes um uh

226president berer really really highlighted on some some of the comments were very specific and I was trying to balance what's operation what's board policy what we communicate What's Understood um but there there was enough of that that indicated to me a little more information needs to be shared with the board um so I actually mentioned it uh to U executive cabinet today that we'll be looking for different ways to have their voices included either at the board table or in some form of a communication at least a couple times a month uh if it's not at the board table it would be uh in in a communication that comes from me so thank you for that feedback I appreciate it very much and I I just can't you know underscore enough that uh chair chairman

227Anderson really takes the committee through each of those domains uh methodically and goes through those 92 Pages uh and really allows uh the committee to reflect and allows me an opportunity um you know to weigh in as well so I've got a number of things in my notes um that you're likely going to see in the very near future based on that feedback so I'm grateful for uh for your feedback and I'm uh most grateful for the time that you all put in to provide that feedback so thank you questions from board members Dr Lun Dr brender mentioned the 92 I don't know if you meant Pages or questions but has there been any thought by the committee or will there be a thought by the Comm but looking at a different evaluation tool that

228maybe is geared more towards his job description rather than a catch all of everything districtwide I know Sher mentioned it I think in December there you're shaking yeah yeah I mean the conversation has certainly been had and and we've heard that feedback both in in October when the fall survey was done along with this one um so yes I I I certainly have taken that note um for for you know next fall when the tool would be um uh decided on talked about and so on and so forth um you know I I I think it's a a good conversation to have how it how it fits well with the requirements of Sentry code for the evaluation vers versus uh what's best to um you know best for us best for the district um best

229to assist in the growth process all of these things so yeah short answer yes thank you for doing that I think Paul MSO and I were just too lazy to change it so but you guys can do that other questions and Miss Flynn um I two things I think if we look at changing the survey method or however um I don't know if this will apply but currently there were some questions where I still was like I want to put na like I don't know that I can answer it and so maybe I didn't leave as much comments during that section or I I kind of rated um so I think that that would maybe be a consideration depending on what we switch to um I also I have been dealing with sick kids for

2305 weeks and had a kid in the hospital and so um I appreciate the um communication by Cindy as a reminder you can see I was the one that was 11:25 p.m. on the 17th so um we got a text and a couple emails and so I just think that that's it's this is probably the first time in a long time where like it's been 100% completion and so um I know we all get busy but it speaks to the engagement of how how we want you know to have that relationship with Dr brener and understand the kind of give and take and um you know give a re well-rounded uh evaluation so just a comment about her comment um when she was saying she's thinking about saying na on some things there are a

231lot of us shaking our heads yes if we're doing an evaluation and we're going to put na it's not a good question uh Mr Larson before we forget you thanks Dave nothing from me any other questions I just have one other thing to lift up from from the committee Dr brener is fond of sharing credit and uh and and giving lots of other folks Kudos many of whom are seated at this table uh some of whom have presented tonight some of whom have gone home for the night um and so yes that's true they're they're tremendous staff people um I also want to say that um there's there's a person and a team and and some of the credit and I think it's reflected in this evaluation um also needs to be reflected back it's

232it both and so there are lots there lots of commendations all the way around um I know the board's responsibility is to evaluate our one and only employee and that's what we're talking about here uh um but there is a broader picture of the health of uh of these positions uh and so thankful for that any other questions seeing none I would seek a motion to approve the superintendent's March 2025 evaluation as presented and find the superintendent's job performance to be satisfactory in all areas it's been moved by Dr l and a second by Mr clevin any further discussion I'll take a roll call vote Anderson yes Flynn yes hodak yes clle yes Larson yes Lun yes Manley yes pomino yes Berger yes nine yes zero no zero absent motion passes 7A announcements are there

233any announcements y Dr brener uh just on the of your your concluding comments here president berite was out for a couple of days I think most of you knew that um and I do want to thank our team of kather Matt uh Brandon um and in the entire team who uh picked up some pieces uh that I wasn't able to uh take care of or they were just really really communicative with me about things that I needed to know while I stepped away so just want to thank uh thank our team for uh reaching out and saying we'll do what we'll do what it takes to keep the district moving so thank you other announcements Mr Larson I'm going to ask you once for these two combined any announcement from from you or any any

234request from you for future consideration nothing else from me thank you okay we'll move on to other board members requests for future consideration yes Miss Flynn um curious if we could get an update on strategic planning um it's it's been a while since we've had the conversation about board pay and um given tonight's discussion I'm curious about a presentation on inequity or Equity within the district in terms of program op operational academic offerings Etc thank you other requests for future consideration 7 Schoolboard meeting Norms Mr clevin how did we do very well and because all of us did our homework on the superintendent evaluation we were very well prepared thank you and we are adjourned