001We will go ahead and call the October 14th, 2025 school board meeting to order. We will begin with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Aaron Schultz >> here. >> Mr. Bson, >> present. >> Mr. Brian, >> present. >> Mr. Darren Beckus >> here. >> Mr. Gil Borton here. >> Mr. Kevin Bard >> here. >> Mr. Mark >> here. >> All right. Next on the agenda is good news items. Yes, we have some very good news again tonight except Oh, I lost it. >> You lost it. >> Yes. Um this evening we would like to recognize this school board for once
002again earning the all award which is for act learn and lead. Uh this is an award that's given out by ASBSD and this is the top award that a school board can earn. Uh this is done by the contribution of the members of this board by doing things above and beyond simply serving on the board. So things like training, attending meetings, um advocacy, those types of things. Um so going above and beyond. Um our ASBSD cheerleader is here this evening. Um we're we went for the gold again, Mr. Alm, and we we got the gold. So yes, >> go ahead. I just to comment I just think this is a wonderful thing that transpired for this past school year and I admire that and uh as you know we the great participation in professional development.
003I do think this is a neat award for our community because they know we have a school board who does professional development in various ways. There's three different ways we we can achieve that as you well know. So, I think uh each one of you can be extremely proud of what happened and uh please go for the gold next year, would you? >> Thanks, Mr. Alm. Well, as you know, this is not something that all school boards do receive. So, this is a really big honor and I do appreciate your efforts. Um and >> this is our eighth this was the eighth year out of the 10 years the program's been in session. >> Okay. >> And I think one of those years we missed by a couple points. Anyway, won't happen again, Mr. Try
004not to. >> Congratulations to our board. >> All right. Thank you very much. Uh, we do have tonight's agenda in front of us. I'd ask for a motion for approval. >> So, move, Mr. President. Moved >> by Sharp, second by Dr. Borton. All those in favor of tonight's agenda signify by saying I. >> Oppos? Same sign. Thank you. persons wishing to address the board. >> Board remarks. Any board remarks for this evening? >> We'd like to thank our legislators for uh uh representatives for being here tonight. Uh obviously, this is a partnership uh that uh uh works well for all of us and we appreciate you taking the time to listen uh to what we're up to on uh and all the great stuff that's happening at the uh school district. So, we certainly appreciate
005that and we did bring out Mr. for all to keep you gentlemen in line just in case. So, thank you very much for that. Also, we have uh the uh approval of the minutes from September 8th and 22nd in front of us. I'd ask for a motion for approval. Motion by Olen. >> Second by Beckus. Any further discussion uh regarding the minutes of September 8th or 22nd? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I post same sign. >> We do have a consent agenda. Would anyone like anything pulled from tonight's consent agenda for further discussion? See none, I'd ask for a motion for approval. >> So moved. >> By motion by Murphy, second by Sharp. Any further discussion to be had on tonight's consent agenda? See none. All those in favor signify by
006saying I. >> I. Post. Same sign. >> Thank you. Reports of the superintendent, Dr. Guffin. >> Thank you. Our first item on the agenda tonight is our Central High School reports to the board and Dr. Uttermark is here to share what's happening at Aberdine Central. Well, good evening everyone. I'll get this running again, I think. Or maybe I'll pull a Mark Murphy and nothing will work. That's exactly right. That's Murphy's law. Okay, I think we have it up and and ready to go. Um, thanks again for allowing me to be here. You know, I get the I get the privilege of working with these people, these great kids at Central High School, um who are just a ton of energy. They keep me young. They make me old all at the same time, I think.
007But, uh it's it's a joy to work with with the with the kids here in the Aberine public school district. Um they're they're they're just kids and their hearts are just wonderful and I love working with them. Uh we're going to talk about a lot of good stuff. I got lots of I think pretty neat things to chat with you guys about tonight and I would really welcome any any questions along the way. Um, you know, and and a vast majority of this this really neat good stuff I get to chat with you about tonight, you know, has to do with with these great kids and of course our hardworking staff and imaginative staff and and uh they're just working their tails off. Uh, and their hearts are in the right place because they're just
008there for the kids. Uh, you know, it's very simple. So, um, that's what we're about. And so, we're going to talk about some of those things that we're doing. uh district goals. Uh that we have to talk about that because that's that that drives the things that we do on a daily basis. Chat about them a little bit here first. Um we'll get through those. But when it comes to student achievement, um the state assessment, as as you know, we're switching over from the South Dakota assessment to the ACT exam for our assessment. And uh I I'm just all in on this. The more you know, I had some reservations. I've I've I've been an advocate for this switch for for quite a few years. Um but with the idea that knowing that it doesn't
009come with challenges and and knowing what kind of what the end results are going to be at their after an inal switch. But um this is going to work well. Uh our kids are now taking a test that a vast majority of them it's a it's a high stakes test for where the South Dakota assessment they didn't necessarily consider it a high stakes test. And uh so it our staff is is just totally on board for doing everything that we now can. Um because it's a state assessment. This is we have the abilities to invest some some of our our school budget into preparing them in in a better way than we have been able to do in the past. Um because we're not trying to just um prepare our students to do well in
010the South Dakota assessment before. we are dividing our dividing our our power so to speak between the South Dakota assessment and the ACT exam and and now we can put all our eggs in one basket and uh so I really feel like our kids are buying into it. We tell them we can help you and u and when I say that they're looking in the eye and they're shaking their heads as I'm having that conversation with them. So I'm really excited about about the opportunities here and and what this can present on behalf of our kids and and making the switch for the assessment to the ACT. We're gonna have a day called the test of Palooa. Uh we're stealing that. Uh Kent Hansen came up with it. I didn't come up with it. He
011stole it. Actually, Kent Hansen, the assistant principal, he stole it from uh Rapid City, the Rapid City School District is doing it. And what we're going to do on the day that our juniors are taking the ACT exam uh as a state assessment, uh we are also going to have our our freshman and our sophomores take the preac exam on the on the same day. and um takes some a little bit of uh budget wiz wizardry to to pull that off, but we can and we're going to do it because we think that's money very well spent on behalf of our soph our freshman and our sophomores uh in regards to helping them be best prepared to take the ACT exam when when it's their time to come uh to do that. So, uh we're
012very excited about that. We don't have all the details worked out about how that's going to work, but um the that we have buyin by the students and we have buyin by the staff and I can't say that that has always been uh that we have had this much enthusiasm in regards to the the buyin on these things um until we've uh until we've taken this approach. So, we're very helpful. Uh also for student achievements, the math curriculum review year. Uh we're not sure, you know, how how that's going to go yet because we're still waiting for some state assessment things to come out uh in order to to work that process a little bit more, but meeting with PA math department um just did so at the last inservice last Friday with them, our
013math department. They're very excited for the process whether we are able to finish out this year or whether we have to go into next year to finish out that that curriculum review. Um I know they're very excited about it and uh it's going to be an opportunity for us again to review what we're doing and and move forward in a positive way. Um, another new exciting thing that is that is going on is uh to thanks to some legislation that has gone through is uh the GED inhouse program development that we are that we now have is uh in the past the GED was pretty much through the Department of Labor and uh now um we have the ability to to take over some of those responsibilities ourselves and to be perfectly honest I've always
014said this is this is the best place for this. This is the way it should have been all along. And uh so I'm really happy with this moves. And uh uh we are now working with some of our kids that are especially what we call our super seniors, our students that have been here four plus years with us um that that still have that they're still in the game. So we have to take our hat off of them. um they may have had life circumstances that have have given them curve balls uh or or uh not allowed them to to finish in the four-year uh window and they may be a little bit far behind where maybe getting their diploma is just not in the cards for them in their life uh and how that's
015going to work and uh but we have uh we have more than a handful of kids that are involved in the GE program that's inhouse and and working inhouse through our our our format there. Uh Deb Fenderson is a great help with that. She's in our our independent learning center program. Um, and uh, we're very excited about about that opportunity. Uh, this is definitely not I could talk about district goals and academics all night long. So, I'm just hitting some of the highlights and some of the new things. So, um, another one of the new things of course is uh, I think I don't Mrs. Call has shared with you, but um, we got a new literacy grant um, and uh, uh, that that came through a pretty significant one. We're very excited to work
016uh with with that grant and to do new things to promote literacy at Central High School. And uh so we are forming a literacy committee to help um as part of that grant process and in regards to what we're going to do. Very early stages of that. So you can't ask me any details about what we're going to do with that yet because we are just getting going, but it's it's a very it's a very exciting process. Uh any questions on any academic things? Yes. Question >> on the ACT. I think we were told last year by you Jason that most of the universities have dropped the requirement to take an ACT test prior to applying for that. >> Yes. >> And SAT is probably the same. My my question is kind of like and
017I think it's a great test to take and I think it's always had value. But if universities are not caring about that anymore, >> are our kids going to not care about that when they get to be juniors or seniors? because it doesn't matter if they're not requiring an ACT test score. >> That's a great question. Um, all right. And great commentary. Uh, first of all is as that happened just after CO. I think now that we get further away from CO and the the challenges with with testing and big big group testing and stuff like that is is that some universities are now starting to to bring it back. >> They are. >> Okay. >> So, I I don't know that it's going to I I'm not sure to what extent. Uh I I
018know there's going to be some universities that just won't bring it back because it honestly gosh it by not having this as a prerequisite they're they're it helps their enrollment or the ability to get more students in. Um, so I I don't think we're going to get them all back, but we are uh getting some back. And I say we, you know, that just the education community and and whether they do or they don't is be arguable either way as to whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. But make no question about it is the ACT score is still prominently used by universities whether it's a requirement to get in or not. Um, a vast majority of our juniors are still they understand that is there are a lot of universities out there
019that that have benchmarks whether it's 21 or 24 or 27 uh on the ACT even though you can get in but if you hit a certain benchmark you get an automatic scholarship and and get more funding. So um our in our course we we're doing our job. We're telling our juniors all about that or our high school kids about that and and and about how this is important, how it matters, and this could be worth thousands of dollars to you and just making a twopoint jump in the ACT can can really financially pay off in your favor. And um so that's that that is why the the the buyin is there and and um and our students still care. They care a lot. And for the freshman's and sophomores that we're talking about the preac,
020>> is that a requirement? 100% of the students have to take that and no experience. >> Um, >> anyone can opt it. Anyone can opt out because it's not a state requirement. >> Okay. >> But, um, right now is we are working under the assumption that all our students will will take it. It's free. There's no reason not to. It helps them prepare for it. But, um, is is is it a requirement? It's not a state requirement. It's just kind of our wish. Historically in the past, what percentage of our students roughly took the ACT in the past years? >> Oh gosh, you're going to put me on the spot. I have those numbers. >> About 50%, I think. >> Yeah. Um, no, I think it was >> higher than that. >> It's higher. >>
021Higher than that. >> Yeah. >> But not a ton. I'm trying to think about the number or percentage of kids that went on to post postsecary the four-year um the four-year programs. And so it have it would have to be between 60 and 70. Yeah, >> I could find the exact number if you want. >> I I remember 67% for some reason back in the day. But uh >> I wanted to ask about the GED. If these students um are able to take the GED, are they able to graduate with the other kids? >> No. >> Okay. >> Because they're not getting diplomas >> and schoolboard policy doesn't allow it. >> So the short answer to that is is no. Uh they have a an equivalent >> Uhhuh. a society equivalent. But um I'll get
022my PowerPoint back up here in a second, but uh no, they will not they cannot they cannot go through the ceremony. Okay. Uh district goals, uh wellness, health and wellness. Um this is always a fun one. Uh I've always enjoyed staying physically fit. So, anytime that we do stuff and we get into these little health challenges and stuff like that, I I get into them and I enjoy them. So, personally is is I always I always like the district goals and I always look forward to the wellness committee um um doing their job uh in regards to to kind of coming up with the plan. Uh Dr. Bour is is uh assistant principal at at Central High School. Uh she's the one that sits on our behalf on the district wellness committee. So, I asked
023her before this. I said, "Where you guys at?" She says, "We haven't had our first meeting yet. It's just coming up." So, I I don't have the I don't have the the grand details um on uh on on what the the wellness committee is going to come up with and what the challenges are going to be, but but we like it. Um obviously, the the health and wellness also pertains to our kids and and we do a lot of things there. We got a great school nurse. Um Tess Tessa Riggs is is wonderful. um she's very very active and along with our RP department and our health teachers uh in regards to to having a program that helps promote wellness and even really our health occupations programs now that we have at the ACT that's
024up and running and doing really really well is is another great promoter for our our students on behalf of health and wellness. Any questions about about that goal? Okay, school and community relations. This is the one. Gosh, if I start to ramble, I apologize, but there's so many neat things I could talk to you about with this. Um, you know, one of the things that that we've been really working really hard at the last few years is just our social media communications and um in reaching out to people in so many different ways and we have we have improved by just leaps and bounds um I'd say over the last over the last three or four years, you know, and and it really goes to the credit of a lot of people, you know, first
025of all, you know, leadership of Dr. Guff and really pushing hard and she's she she challenged me a few times in regards to doing it and doing it right. Um but you know people like Alyssa Dicki um is just incredible um in regards to what she does to help promote that. I two assistant principles that are just oh my gosh um you you it's almost unfathomable um based on kind of you know the generation I come from in regards to like what Dr. Bourne and Mr. Hansen do. Um they just flat out get after holy buckets. um they're getting so many things out there. It's it's you know I I I'm glued to my phone and and I go to the all the CH stuff out there and it's so much fun to celebrate all
026the things that are going on through the social media that that that we're promoting and um both um um you know Mr. Hansen and Dr. Board have done a great job and you know Mr. Jensen too. I mean you know from a district standpoint he's been so much help with us getting getting these things up and running and making sure everything is connected and working well. Um, so that connection with our community I think is is just um really really taken off in in a way that that's that's um that is so helpful because that is that's how it's done this day. It it just is it's the modern era and it's the modern way it's done and uh we are fully involved. Well, >> you know, other people that that really help us in
027regards to our community relations is um I also want to give credit to, you know, Gretchen and our foundation. They they're extremely helpful. Uh Eric Chaos in the Eagle Zone. What a great way to communicate with with our with our public and he does a great job with all the awards that we've seen. They they have won. So, those kids and and and that program is just incredible. >> I have to take our hat off to our parent organizations because we got incredible parent organizations. that if you could, you come into Central High School any given night, any given day, and you're going to see parents around all the time. Um, between our PTA, our music boosters, and our athletic boosters, and our pride parents and things like that, they are super super involved. Um,
028we have community members like involved in the junior achievement events where they're coming in so many community members out there in regards to our a tech programs and our internships out in the community. It's our community embraces the public schools and our public schools embrace the community and and by golly it's it's just a joy to watch it work together. Um during the Hall of Fame week we had a bunch of the Hall of Famers come in and speak to our kids and oh my gosh if you wanted to show up and be entertained all day long you could have just went from room to room and watch watch those presentations and it's practical presentations to our kids. It's it's what it's a they're just great great connections. We had parent teacher conferences this fall.
029I think all this stuff that we're talking about kind of comes together and and um and it our first one that we had this fall a few weeks back about three weeks ago we had parent teacher conferences and over the years with I think with all the other connections with the ability to to text and email teachers and to the ability of the parent portal and stuff like that. Our parent teacher conferences have been dropped off just little by little. The attendance has dropped off year by year little by little. I said, 'But we have done so many neat things I think with the social media and and promoting it and then and promoting parent teacher conferences using that stuff like that. It says we uh this fall we actually had the largest attendance at
030parent teacher conferences that we have had in probably the last eight or nine years and that's a really really neat sign um to get the to get the parents back involved wanting to be sit down in the classrooms and have those face-to-face conversations with the teachers again. So um we can see it very with numbers and statistically how much this is paying off. So, I I really love uh what we're doing in regards to the the school and uh community relations. Uh you know, I mentioned the the A Techch building. Um Robbie Johnson, who is who is new there, uh director at Tech, he is doing a wonderful job. What a great partner he has been and um uh with with us in in the main building. And uh he will come and do his
031own presentation to you. So, I am not going to steal all his thunder. I will let him come here and do all those things. When it comes to to to district um and community partnerships, he could stand up here for 20 minutes and talk about that for another 20 minutes. So, I'll I'll leave that for him. Uh any other questions in regards to school community relations because this is a fun one for me. >> Yeah. Um, one here is the internships and I I know we've seen this program really take off and ballpark. How many internships were last academic year? So, how many students do we have out >> per year? I'd say per quarter. Um, obviously around 50 or 60 per quarter. So, couple hundred. Yeah. Couple hundred. 200 250 internships per year per
032school year. Almost all of our seniors do an internship. Almost all of them. I know at our business we've been fortunate enough to have some of the high school interns and they just add a a new perspective, a depth and breath of uh uh bring a little bit of life and also just um help us understand like you said from a perspective that we don't see all the time. And so um love to see that program continue. >> Great program. Kids love it. they they learn so much uh with the internship programs is uh I'll be blunt sometimes they'll do an internship and they find out that they didn't they didn't care for it and here's the thing is and and that's that's not a that's not a bad learning experience that means that that
033they're now won't go to a two-year degree or four-year degree and start something that they're not crazy about doing and they found that out because they went through the internship programs. Now, a vast majority of them I think just reinforces what they want to do um because they're choosing that in the first place and it's where their interest and loves lie. So, I think a lot most of those experiences are really great experiences both for our kids uh and for our local businesses that are that are helping. So, um but yeah, no matter whether they they had a great experience or the few that didn't have such a great experience, either way, uh district goal is safety. Um, we've done some new things this year and uh they may have been brought up at at
034these board meetings before. So, I I you know, I won't spend a ton of time on them, but uh we did the emergency tabletop exercise before school started this year, kind of late summer, which was which was a great experience, very valuable for for the administrators and the people that took involved uh that were part of that. Uh for a couple years now, we've been doing safety audits and uh we're doing that now on a yearly basis in the fall. Uh and every year it's good. We get we're walking around our buildings. We're finding all the emergency shut offs for everything and we're going through uh with the emergency panels and knowing how to work those and and going through our all of our protocols and our procedures every single year in more depth than
035we have previously. We in the previous years we would go through it but we'd more or less go through it as individuals and now we're doing it as a team. And those conversations are are so valuable and and so much better um to make sure that we are all on the same page. uh safe schools online training uh staff students our sta well even students to some extent do that but uh staff all staff do that not just administration um and uh every year that seems to grow just a little bit and um and again a very very valuable experience it's a bit of a chore some of us cuss a little bit as we're doing it and oh my gosh I got to get that done and every time we get done we're glad
036we did it so uh obviously we do all of our drills uh fire, tornado, intruder drills. Um, we try to do them as at Central High School like all the other schools do, we try to make them as realistic as we can. Um, it's it's it's never just a routine thing. It's it's it's very serious. Every time that we do a drill, we talk to the kids about the seriousness of it. Um, here's the unfortunate thing is the the kids understand it. They understand that these drills are serious and important. And uh so I'm not sure if the lack of naeness from our kids is a good thing or a bad thing um this day and age, but um they they get it and we work real hard at it and the kids do too.
037Uh and of course we're having uh the ongoing process of mental health first aid training um for all staff members and I can't say enough good things about that and the importance of that. I'm glad that has been part of our our processes for the last several years. Any questions on safety? uh school culture. Uh here's another one that I I could go on probably on for way too long. So, um I'll try to be be brief, but my enthusiasm hopefully you you get it. Um but really really since the co years and we kind of got past the COVID years, um we've our school culture has taken a turn for a direction that I'm I'm just so excited about. And again, this has to do with a lot of I won't take credit for
038it. Not even in the slightest. Actually, I'll maybe take credit for in the fact that I got a lot of good people that are working really hard at it and are embracing it. Um, you know, so it's it's we're maybe getting the right people on board with us and and um and letting them run and doing a few things. Um, I will say is I'm not necessarily the smartest, most imaginative person in the room. Far from it. But I can usually recognize really really good ideas when I see them. and I got a lot of people around me coming up with some really good ideas and uh so we we have been able to run with a few things in the past few years uh that have promoted school culture. The very top one there
039is soar. Um you you've heard about before so I won't go into a ton of details about our our soar program. Our SOAR program works for our kids and for our staff members is our students uh we do a daily recognition. Every single day a different student is designated as a sore student. Um our students do the daily announcements. So, our students get to read great things about what other students are doing. Um, uh, the students that are doing the announcements are telling the other kids about the things that are other great things our our students are doing. We have a weekly staff recognition. And how you get this is you have to be nominated. We got a spreadsheet that goes out there. We send it out and we so we get a list of
040all the students that have nominated for the for a store student. And here's the really neat thing. We recognize one. You should see the list. You should see the list. to try to pick a a student every single day. Wow. It's it's really hard to do it justice because there the list is so dog on long. And the same thing goes for staff, the staff list, you know, we when it comes to and it's not just certified staff, it's it's when we use our staff, it's it's it's a custodial lunch. It's, you know, it's it's all the staff. It's the EAS. It's it's the the administrative assistants. And again, same thing is is a weekly thing. If you you look at the weekly list and the list is renewed every week. You don't what you're
041on you don't stay on. You got to be nominated again to get back on it for the next week. And it's still staff members 30 40 staff members every week on the list. And you can be nominated by other staff, you can be nominated by students and neither can nominate. So is the nominations can come from a lot of different places. Um it's it's just it's you know I I just to see it is is it's it's really a joy because you get to see how many great things how many different people are doing and um it's um it it's it's very heartwarming to understand exactly how hard our kids work, how kind our kids are. Um how they're looking out for one another. um our staff the same way. Uh our staff helping each
042other out or helping the kids out um going up and it's all usually the criteria is above and beyond. So we all know what they do. We know what their job requirements are. You don't get on this list for doing your job requirement. You get on this list for going above and beyond and and the list is extremely long. So what a joy that is. Um you know uh Dr. board is the one that initially came up with this, but everyone in the in the um in in in our building has really ran with it uh to to a to a very high level and a high degree. So um so I'm glad to see the sore stuff uh soaring the way it is. Uh the freshman experience is we have worked very very hard
043on that to make that a little bit better. We all know how important transitioning kids is to high school. Um, you know, we we uh we transitioned over to uh we've always had a group of of upper classmen that would help transition our freshmen in. Uh we've in the last couple years, our counselors have uh transitioned over to a a group called Eagle Squad. So we have uh every single year, if you want to talk about kids taking care of kids, you don't get anything for it. They don't get anything for it, but they show up. is we get we get 60 70 80 kids that will come up and and run are part of the Eagle squad and their sole purpose is just to help transition our freshmen over really well. We used to
044do just have the one like a one day thing where they would do it right at the beginning of the year one day. That was what the Eagle Squad did. Well, now they're going above and beyond that. They're meeting with the freshman. They go back into freshman super studies. They have so the conversations are now ongoing. It's not just the beginning of the year. Um and a one-time thing. Okay, now you're here. Now you're good. We can not worry about you. that's not the way it's working. We're going to worry about them for a longer period of time and throughout the year. So, hats off to the to the counselors and to Eagle Squad students that that are involved in that. Um, we're going to have our first ever freshman sore meeting this Friday. Um,
045so we're having a a just a a special uh probably about a 45minut um assembly just for our freshmen and we have never done that before. So, I'm really kind of excited to see how that's going to work out. um just to celebrate them coming to Central High School and getting through their first term. Uh because our first term ends on Friday and um so we're going to celebrate a lot of things with with them this this Friday. Uh couple of things that are new. We we've done we we started some a new switch into how we're meeting with our staff. And uh we tried one thing last year. It worked a bit. We thought we could improve it again. Um, so we uh um we're we're now having what's called we call grade level
046staff meetings, which is new for us. It's it's not it's nothing ingenious, but and it's nothing earthshattering, but um you know, all of our teachers are advocates. In other words, they have an advisory. When they have an advisory, they work with our they work with a certain grade level students and um as as as they do that. So now we're getting all those teachers that have freshman advisory, all those teachers that have sophomore advisory is and then and about once every four weeks about twice a term is is we're having a staff meeting with them very specifically to talk about um their students in advisory. Uh we want we're talking about how are they doing academically, how is their attendance, do we have behavior concerns that do we need to set up a behavior plan
047or something like that with them? And so is is and then as administration we we can share back with the teachers some of the things that we know and what we're working on with on when you combine that that our grade level staff meetings along with our our student assistance team program um which we have a group a set of teachers that work there and our counselors is I really feel like we are doing so much better um this year than we have in past years about reaching out to parents quicker sooner um in regards to to to possible concerns that that that might exist. Um, and we're making um more positive comments or contacts than we've ever made before in the past with parents. And um and I really feel like just even as
048a school, I feel like we're all on the same page better than we have been uh really, you know, for the for the first uh several years of of of my tenure. So, um I really like how that's going. And I can honestly say is I I don't want to jinx us, but um is last year when we started these these things is is we we got to see some we watched some improvement where our our failure rate dropped pretty dramatically last year statistically, but we know one year can be an anomaly. So we're paying really close attention to what what's happening now. And we are again the first term when I looked at the the the failure rate just this morning, I said how many kids are failing? We're getting close to the end
049of the term. Um, and we're trying some really neat hard really neat things to to help those kids that are kind of on the verge of failing to not fail. And right now the number of kids that are on that failure is just it's it's as low as it's ever been. And um, so our efforts are paying off and our staff know their efforts are paying off. When I say the efforts, it's staff staff is working their tail off. uh they're doing things they've just we've asked them to do some things they've never done before and they're not they're not just doing it they're embracing it and so I really love where this is going. So um in regards to to to um our our school culture can't walk away without mentioning the theater updates.
050I love how the theaters um the the new sound system in there um that that works with our our grounds crew and tech staff work really hard to upgrade that and it's it's working and what a beautiful upgrade that has been. So it was an investment by our taxpayers in our district into that upgrade and it's been a it's been a very wonderful um upgrade there working much more smoothly. Sound is so much better. So, uh, great job with the theater updates and, uh, it just makes our experiences when we have all tons of events there, holy mackerel, busy place, that theater, um, it just makes it so much better. And, uh, I never want to forget this. I I had to throw this last one on there. But, you know, our debate team, they
051they we give them all kinds of accolades. They stand up here every year, maybe a couple of times, but I really don't want to forget them in regards to the school culture. They do so many things in regards to school culture. um because they're they're not just active in debate, they're usually active in a lot of other things and they're they're part of our I think it's part of our school culture. But I just want to give a um take my hat off to them because, you know, they're out of over 3,000 schools that participate in the National Forensic League um programs is we're 16th in the nation out of 3,000 schools. And you're not going to find very many public schools in the top 100. They're almost all private. And so to be at
052that level, it's not just a little special, it's a lot special. And I want to make sure I keep bringing it up time and time again. >> Does anyone have any questions about us and things that we're doing at Central High School? >> I'd love to chat about it there. >> Sorry, I know I took a while. >> Just one question. And I usually ask the resource officers this question because I always worry about, you know, there's always turnover on staff and they're bringing in new officers all the time. I mean, I want to make sure that they have an orientation that they have to respond. High school, middle schools, they know which doors to go to, those types of things. Do we get any kind of report to know that they've officers have been
053orientated to know how to respond to central and where to go and those types of things? >> I think Dr. government will probably get that report a little bit better. But here's what I know is is I know anytime that someone new comes in is this officer Kernan brings that officer in always introduce them to me. I every time there's a new police officer, I always meet them. There's never a time I don't think that I haven't met them. >> Um so I know Officer Kernan does that. Uh he comes in and shows them around. Um but to to you know to what extent or what level I I can't really say. Um I'm not sure exactly what all their training is. That's not my level of expertise. But um I they work hard. I
054love our Aberine Police Department. Good people. >> But you get to meet them. >> Oh gosh. Yes. >> Good. >> Yeah. If I get pulled over for doing something I'm not supposed to do in town in my vehicle. I Yeah. I pretty much know everyone I'm talking. >> Other questions or comments for Dr. Mark? >> Thank you. I'm sorry for going. I appreciate your time. >> Thank you. Okay, Josh is gonna Next item on our agenda is our fall enrollment report. Uh, as you know, the last Friday in um, September is designated as our enrollment count day. Uh, so that day um has obviously taken place. Um, that was um on September 26th this year. I did add a slide to the presentation this year that I just wanted to to begin with. Uh what
055I will give you a couple of caveats to this, but what you're looking at is the top line, the red line is the birth rate uh for Brown County, and I got this directly from the Department of Health. Uh what I did then is I correlated the birth rate year with the year uh of the class enrollment. Now, obviously school year um and birth year are not exactly the same. uh our school year does not run January to December. There are certainly some children who are born in one year and certainly students who are born in another year but nonetheless it it is about a 50/50. So if there are some it does shift over but I just thought the correlation was rather interesting. Uh so the top red line then is the birth rate
056in Brown County. There are four school districts in Brown County. So we know that not all the children will be going to school in Aberdine. Croten Ipsswitch or not Ipsswitch on Northwestern or not Northwestern. um Frederick Roden and Warner. Yes. So we know that they all don't come to Aberdine. The blue line then is the our school district enrollment. And if you did lay those one on top of the other, you can see the trend line is almost identical with with two exceptions. Uh one of which Dr. Uttermark did address tonight and that is the very first one. So children who were born in 2008 or many of them that were born in 2008 are our seniors of this year. And I wanted to stay true to our enrollment numbers. If you looked at our
05712th grade enrollment right now, there would be 385 students on the enrollment count. Now, Dr. Uttermark mentioned that there are some students who take longer than four years to graduate. Those students would be included in that number. So, as you look at the chart, you'll see that those two points on the graph are closer together. That isn't an anomaly. That's just students who are here for more than the four years. We also have our uh transition learning program uh that also takes place. Students that are on an IEP that we do work with in various transition programs, those students would also be included in that count. So theoretically, they're really beyond grade 12. So that's why those two numbers maybe don't look exactly like maybe some of the others on the chart. The other one,
058and I have zero explanation for this, I'll just point it out and just it'll be what it is. But um in 2016, which would be our current grade four students, that was the highest birth rate that we had in Brown County. Uh but it did not necessarily correlate with our enrollment. That is the one year there was an exception to that. So we do look at this very very closely. Uh you will see our kindergarten number this year is 268. Uh our prediction based on the algorithm that we use which birth rate is part of that uh was 269. So it is a very works very well for us to make some predictions about what is going to be happening with enrollment. But I just wanted you to notice that the enrollment or that the
059birth rate in Brown County is decreasing which contributes to the decreasing enrollment as well. So purpose for having this. Go ahead Josh. The next chart shows um the our enrollment report. I just simply compared the last day of school uh which last year was May 20th of 2025. When we ended the school year we had 4,110 students. Uh please keep in mind we did have 98 early grants. So that does impact that number. And then when we started the school year we had 4,144. That is our our count for this year. So we actually have 34 more students um at the beginning of this year than we did as when school ended last year. Josh. Okay. So comparing uh September of 24. So our count day last year was September 27th. We had 4,242 students.
060This year count day was September 26. We had 4,144 students. That is a loss of 98 students. And you can see um a pretty equal split between losing students at the elementary level and the high school level. Um, it's pretty self-explanatory. When we graduate a really large group of students and bring in a class of 268 kindergarten students, we will see that decline. Again, this correlates very closely with the birth rate in Brown County. And the last slide is just a five-year um enrollment. We have gone from 4,416 students down to 4,144 students um for the exact same reason that that that very first chart showed. questions about the enrollment. >> We receive per student about $8,000. >> Is that close? >> What's that? >> Oh, public. >> It's that's a little higher. I think
061it's seven something, but >> other questions while she's looking. There's quite a few schools in the state that have lost students. It looks like down in the Sou Falls area, you know, Harrisburg and all those they were gaining. So, we're not the only county. We are not just I'm just accountable to this one. >> That's okay. >> Okay. I only know this one. >> It's about 7,300. >> 7,300. The loss of 98 students equates to about $850,000 less >> about 77 $73,000. >> The math is wrong. Okay. >> Anything else? >> Okay. Next on the agenda would be the approval of the SPSD delegate appointment. Yes. Uh yes. Um this is our annual uh delegate appointment with the delegate assembly will be in November. Uh that is in pier. Uh each school board has the
062opportunity to send one delegate and this is where some of the decisions are made for ASBSD in terms of advocacy and some of the direction for the um organization. Uh Dr. Bortnham has expressed interest in being our delegate this year. This board would so choose to nominate Dr. Bortnham as your delegate. >> I would nominate Dr. Bortam. All right, we have the nomination on the floor for Dr. Bornham. Do I hear a second? >> Second. >> While we don't necessarily need to take a vote on this, I I think we will go ahead just to show our full vote of support to Dr. Bortnham on this. >> Should I leave the room ballot? Yeah. >> All those in favor of Dr. Bortonham being our ASBSD delegate, signify by saying I. >> I will be her
063backup if she can. >> Thank you very much. >> Oh, thank you. I just hope I can be as good as Mr. M. >> Nobody can be >> representing us. I know. I know. I'll try. I'll try. >> No, it's an important position and uh thank you so much for stepping up and doing this. uh that does uh go right along with the additional things that the the board does uh to um continue to stay on top of what's going on uh on the state level and also on the local level and just the advocacy as well. So thank you for doing that. We certainly appreciate that. We do have need for executive session under SDCL 1252-1. I'd ask for a motion to go into executive session by Sharp. Second by Olen.