001Go ahead and call the April 4th 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. Schultz here. I'm not sure that's Mr. Brian Sharp present. Mr. Vel here. Dr. Gil here. Mr. Kevin Burkard here. Mark Murphy here. All right. Well, I think we have a number of people in the hallway for some good news items. We do. Yes. Here they come. Good evening. Good evening. Hello. Welcome. So, uh, tonight we have four four students that, uh, are qualified for the International Science Fair. Um, it's in Columbus, Ohio this year, uh, May 11th. Um, so there's four students.
002Two of them are a team. So that's Corbin Landis, he's a freshman, and Anna Alberg's a senior, and Breen Sanchez is a junior, and Kiana, sorry, Kira. Europe. Sorry, Karen Dillman. Um, they each, uh, they each have a project they'll be taking and if you have any questions for them, I'm sure they I'm sure they'd love to tell you about their projects. Love to hear it. Tell us. All right, I'll start off. Yeah, Corbin and I did a project, partner project. It was a biomed um, part of the science fair. Anyway, it was 3D printing for AI trans catheter aortic valve replacement. Yeah, basically trans catheter aortic valve replacement otherwise known as TAVER is a minimally proc minimally invasive procedure done on patients who have calcification buildup in their aorta otherwise known as aortic stenosis
003and what this does is it causes the aorta to narrow and therefore the patient has a harder time with their heart beating and then leads to heart failure. So, Metronic, which is the company that um we like worked with through this or got our information from, Metronic makes four different sizes of Evolute R valves. Um 23 millimeter, 26, 29, and 34 millimeter. The problem is each um patient has a unique size aortic valve. And if they're like right in the middle, the doctor makes their best educated guess as to which one would work best. If the valve ends up being too large for the patient's aorta, then it'll cause pressure to build up and then they'll need a pacemaker as a result and then if it's too small, it will like fall out of place
004almost and then the patient will need to have another procedure done in order to fix that. So what we did was we took a picture of a taver valve. In this case, it was Evolute R, but there are many different kinds. We took a picture and then we upload it into AI into a software program and then we're able to create a 3D printed model of variety different sizes proving that it is possible. Corbin, anything? Yeah, Corbin did all the 3D printing for this project. Uh, I mean, she got the fundamentals of it. It's just the software kind of just takes the pictures and analyzes them and kind of create has an algorithm of creating a 3D model for it and generating like different models. You'll finally get the right size and shape you want.
005And then we use the 3D printer. The most generic, cheapest like uh method of 3D printing is FDM, which is just plastic goes through a nozzle, hot nozzle, and it extrudes. Uh but realistically, in the future, you'd most likely use something like SLM, which is selective laser melting, which is basically a cube of powder in which a laser will melt the powder, and it can turn into metal. And that's way more precise and has way less points of failure. question. I'm I come from the medical field, so it's interesting to me to hear you guys talk. How does a senior tie up with a freshman to do a project like that? I went to Wholegate Middle School cuz I knew they had 3D printers there and I talked to um the tech teacher there and
006he said, "You know, you got to talk to Corbin Landis. He knows how to 3D print." So, I found an advocate and then we worked together from there. Perfect. Cool. Second question is why in the heck do manufacturers only provide four different sizes or five versus a variety and put it on the physician's responsibility to kind of guess which one's going to work best. Yeah. So I I think it's just more of like a it's just a manufacturing thing. Four sizes work best. This has like a 90 to 95% success rate, but I mean there's still those five to 10% of people that are typically in their um like geriatric between 60 and 80. So, and they still need they should still have successful procedure. So, I think it's just costefficient and time effective to
007only print out four sizes. So, are you going to patent your program here? So, how did you know that this was a problem? Um, my aunt Sarah Alberg works for Metronic. She's actually very successful there. And she used to work with Evolute R valves. So, she like took me to the website and I was able to talk to her about some of the problems that were going on within it. And yeah, and we kind of took it and ran with it. This is a ext like kind of an extension from last year. Last year I made prototypes of different valves and this year we actually made different sized evolar valves. Okay, that's cool. Where you going to college next year? never guessed. Um, I'm Breen Sancher. My project was on food additives and their effect
008on enzyme activity. So, in my uh project, I used a preservative called sodium propriionate, and it's really common in like baked goods to um avoid mold growth and all that icky stuff in your food. So, um what I tested was how does this affect how the carbs in a food in the food item is broken down into um glucose or a simple sugar molecule. So my mom, she's a type 1 diabetic and she often struggles with um hypoglycemia, hypoglycemia, and a lot of that is um just not dosing correctly. She'll take the correct amount of insulin for the number of carbs she's ingesting, but it's still spikes and every and all of that. And it's a lot easier in today's society. But my hope was to use the information that I gathered to maybe get
009this a little bit more accurate. maybe take your insulin 10 minutes after a meal instead of the um preferred 15 minutes that a doctor says. And then so what I did was I put different concentrations of the of the propionate the preservative and the enzyme which was and uh I put different concentrations in in different test tubes and I used um iodine an iodine solution to determine how fast the reaction occurred. And uh I just used that information to figure out what was the optimal concentration of the the enzyme and the preservative and what kind of worked out with what. Yeah. Questions. Um what was the process to win this trip? Uh what what was the competition that you had to go through? So my category I believe was biochemistry. and biome. Yeah. And medical
010biomedical biochemistry. So, um there were a couple other students in my in the AP bio classroom that had like similar projects. So, we kind of we didn't necessarily like work together, but we definitely like spun ideas off of each other. And then, uh you show up to Northern, put your poster up, and go through the motions and hope you answered the right questions correctly. Is it a statewide competition or regional? Region. But there's four regional I think in South Dakota. So this is the northeastern region. Okay. I'm Kira Silman. My project was anthocyanin and zoazenthyli combating coral bleaching. So zoazenthyli are the microscopic photosynthetic microorganisms that live in coral and they supply them with all their nutrients and they're really vital for the coral's life. And when a coral bleaching event occurs, they're what actually
011gets expelled from the coral and causes them to eventually die. Anthocyanin is a photosynthetic accessory pigment which increases the absorption spectrum of photosynthetic organisms and it also has been found to have a lot of abiotic and biotic factors that make it valuable to the organism. So basically what I tested was if the application of this pigment in the zoenthali could increase the photosynthetic products and make it more resistant to the stress environments that are causing um coral bleaching. And so I basically put it in conditions similar to ocean environments. One with increased temperature and one with incre or lowered pH. And then I just tested it and let it run and then found out it kind of worked before they died. Wow. Questions. You guys are amazing. Awesome. Somehow I wasn't enrolled in those classes.
012Kira, where did that idea come from? Well, last year after my project, I knew I wanted to do like real coral, but I don't have the money or the time or the resources to be taking care of a real coral. So, as I was researching and going through the motions, I found about zoenthali. And I just like kept them in my fridge. It was much easier to experiment on than a real coral. So, do you want to be a marine biologist or something like that? I'm actually terrified of the ocean. I like hate the ocean so much. So, congratulations. Fantastic. So, when you go to the the international, what does that all uh entail? And yeah, Kira, you went last year. I did go last year. It's just a giant convention center and everyone from
013all these countries are there and it's kind of similar to Northern where you just get like rounds and rounds of judges. It's only one day though you actually get judged. But the rest of it it's kind of just like a Yeah, it's like a convention. You get speakers and you get like contact groups. Like each category you're in has a really big sponsor. So like I know for my category the sponsor is like Google. So last year in my other category I got to meet like the guy who owns all the windmills even in South Dakota. So yeah, it's kind of like a networking event and if you win, you win big money. But it's very cool. We pass around pins that say South Dakota. So we have some South Dakota pride up there. And
014you won't wear that t-shirt, right? No. Wearing it. Well, congratulations. Quite an accomplishment. Will do us proud. I know. That's for sure. This is why I taught fifth grade. Okay, the next item on our agenda as far as good news uh just wanted to announce that the Aberdine Area Chamber of Commerce uh did select the A Techch Academy at the recent Abbey Awards uh as the community impact award winner. Uh this award is given uh to a business that makes a significant and positive difference in the community through their dedication, contributions, service and initiatives. Uh the impact serves as a testament to the power of community involvement and leadership making them true pillars of our society. There were several outstanding um businesses that were in this category for the award. Uh Mr. and I were
015pleased to be there to accept the award and just wanted to congratulate the A Techch students and the staff for all that they do to make this award very possible. Yep. That's awesome. Congratulations. That's quite an award. Awesome. All right. We do have the uh agenda in front of us. I'd ask for approval of tonight's agenda. So moved. Motion by Dr. Bortn, second by Olsen. All those in favor signify by saying I. Oppos. Same sign. Person wishing to address the board. I have none board remarks. Uh Dr. Borham. Yes. Um last night we well Mr. Alman and I both uh took part in a webinar and I don't know if the public knows that we're there's lots of you know ways to be trained and to learn about other things. And last night it was
016on how we develop our staff, our children, our famil family's mental health as well as it came up physical health and everything. And I had to brag about the competition that's going on with our schools and things and I kind of mentioned that that was a positive that we have here. um other schools were sharing, you know, the limitations of smaller schools, but I thought larger schools like ours, it's hard to get your faculty to all know each other and and to be able to work together like a team. And one of the ideas I thought was really cool was um one of the schools said they have high- five Fridays and they said that um each Friday and of course we have lots of schools but they said they have u they greet the
017kids in the morning with high fives and they invited the school board to do it at one of the schools and I thought oh hey that would be fun if we did that. Another one was they had a health fair and I know we've talked about that, but they were saying that their health fair days was for all staff and that they were actually bringing in more ideas about um what's offered for the lunchrooms and it was for families and for kids and stuff. And I just thought, you know, there were so many different ideas and yet all our schools are different. And what I liked was that we were sharing with each other and finding out that all we're schools really do care and school boards are trying really hard to think of ways
018to help our develop our school so they have positive, you know, things that go on and so I I just thought that was really positive. I'm glad I could take part. Yeah, it was very nice. Yeah, I think one a couple of things they kind of agreed on I think was that water is really important in this process when you look at the physical needs and uh oh yeah that's a good idea. Well, but I think the support from one school to the next and the techniques they're using, you know, it's not a a real thing yet. It's something that's ongoing with physical and mental health. You got to keep working at it. And uh the simplest things sometimes are the best, right? Anyway, well, and the conversation started with the fact that South Dakota
019is one of the top um states with the highest suicide rates. And I thought that was so sad because and that was kind of what drove the discussion was how can we make sure that you know we have open communication and that that doesn't happen. Well, thank you very much for that update and the great work from the SPSSD. I just think too along with that we earn 50 all points and uh the end of the year is coming folks and so don't hesitate to uh take a webinar here and there and we certainly would hate to see us miss the goal but anyway. Yep. It's a little advertising. Okay. And you have some comments, correct? Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Uh just uh wanted to make some comments uh here not too long, but I
020did formulate this yellow sheet here and uh it has u you know 14 different bills here and I thought these were probably certainly very interesting and uh really impacted towards education of course and uh some direct directed right at school boards as you know and as you can see Um um I guess uh down at the bottom what I've done there is HB 1235 I just put some extra wordings there because sometimes up above it might not be totally clear as to uh what the bill was about or the details. So I did a few of those particular comments. South. I think um you know there's some very interesting voting patterns and by the way I think we're seeing this kind of patterning in some other states too. So that's interesting too. So I guess
021prepare for next year and see how this voting takes off. Uh once again uh I would like to um u mention um if you go to at the top house bill 1093 uh just for clarification that requires a capital outlay certificate to be held on three different dates and that's the major part of this March March uh June or November like after the third Monday and uh we know that uh the the process hasn't changed from the past. I can't ever remember myself and maybe someone else can is when the school board proposed u having a capital outlife certificate that it was ever referred which is in the law to the public. So unless someone else remembers that I can't and we did pass a lot of them but uh the basic thing here is
022the the time three times a year March June or November. So, um I guess if you go to House Bill 1239, um changes in the um provision to access u obscene materials in public library. Um just change some of the procedures there that concerns library and people who have an objection through it. [Music] Um the questions you see 1180 and 1185 uh those never made it to the Senate. They were killed in the House finds that um I think um that's the main comments that I would like to uh make about it unless you have uh some questions um concerning any of the uh the bills. Um So, okay. Well, that's that's the summary for this year and uh we'll see what happens uh next year as we move forward with it. So, um and
023thank you for the alerts. Thank you for the com uh comments that you made to legislators and I do believe this and I'm pretty sure we made a difference. At least we like to think we did. And there was a lot of these bills that were killed just by word of mouth. And you got to remember legislators do listen to the home folks a lot and not in all instances, but uh they really do keep a scorecard for some of them. So, thank you very much. Um keep up the good work. Um okay. Um just a couple other things from ASBSD. Um um at our board meeting last week in Sou Falls, we spent a couple of days there and uh we just we reviewed the strategic plan and one of the things in the
024strategic plan, we spent quite a bit of time on it uh was in our goal one which is a board engagement goal and uh we suggested that maybe in one of our webinars that we uh take a look at the public school aspect and focus on that maybe in a webinar or two and you know sharing and promoting the public school concept that's really a significant and important thing so I think it's something to keep in mind and uh I know as our group um finalizes the strategic plan and uh improvements in board engagement by the way the board engagement goal that we've had for about uh seven or eight years uh it's amazing ing the growth that we have and what we've added. For example, the webinars the last two three years came about
025that's really impacting schoolboard members across the state because they're taking these opportunities to u really examine things and and learn from it. So we're very uh happy about the growth in the board engagement goal. have uh three other goals too. But and we so we spent uh quite a bit of time on that. Uh also uh we looked at we surveyed about 35 different bills in education. We took those that might be very not too meaningful. U maybe they are. And we looked at those and just to see what impact people in our crowd and our board of directors uh were seeing that would impact their school. And there's some instances where this does happen, not in big school districts, but a lot of times in in small districts, and they're looking for uh suggestions,
026too. Um I did mention um our A Techch Academy getting the Taylor Commerce Award and explained to them what it was about and they uh wanted to know a little bit more. There were some questions and I told them about the enrollment that we have been increasing since 2015 and how it uh really has impacted students and and what it's meant for many of the students at Central High School and that we're very proud of it and I know there was eight or 10 questions that wanted some more information and I thought that's really good that's very good information uh for other people to know. uh I think the ATEX in some schools maybe it's still the the old shop writing I'm not sure but uh it's something that people are very interested in and
027knowing how important it is um I guess uh that's kind of uh the the main points I guess u one of the things we did we had a social event and I just have to mention you know what it was it was axe throwing And uh I really practice a lot. I think I wore out everybody in the room. You know what? My score was worse than anybody's in the room. You know, they tried to teach us how you throw it. And uh my uh Tyler Pikner from our office was seems to be very good at it. He had a I guess he had a sharper axe, I said, or something that would stick. And uh so he said he'll tutor anybody that uh wants to uh participate or come back. So I told him
028I'll be back sometimes. So anyway, it was a lot of fun and uh the two-day meeting was uh was very good and I guess we look forward to the the convention that's coming up. It's probably the next big thing. So um that's my message. Thank you. All right. Thank you for that fruitful report and uh appreciate all your work that you do uh for ASBSD and um following all the the legislative happenings. And just to feed off one thing, you did say uh a number of people did reach out to the legislators, but uh um our staff and concerned citizens came out to a number of the legislative coffees and I think that made a big difference as well. That's really nice. Thank you to to them for that. Did mention that about our teaching
029staff. In fact, I think I did it at the last meeting and this one this uh last past week. So, that is significant. I'm glad you com you commented about that. Thank you, Mr. Wilson. Couple comments, Dwayne. Perhaps if the target was different, you would have hit it more frequently, you know, so maybe we should ex I think you're right. Yeah, maybe we should change that next year. Um, a couple other just comments. The webinars I've always thought would be helpful. I've always said I wish they would provide those at no expense. This one was free. Was it free? Okay. Because a lot of them I see I'd like to do some of them and it's always a fee associated with that and and you know we pay dues to them every year. So I
030just thought maybe they could probably as far as our um officials here that that you look at the scorecard. Obviously Mr. Manhard does not support public education very much. Looking at his voting record people just need to know where he stands. and he said that publicly I think at one of the Cracker Barrels that he's just very much private school supporting and uh not very positive for public schools. And I've always said our district 3 representatives are not my favorite people. I think they say they support public education. I'm not so sure that's that's true. Um so that's my opinion. Um but I think people need to pay attention to the way these individuals vote if they have any support of public education. So it's pretty telling and it's public information and I think people
031need to know the voting results of our legislators in 1, three and 23. So y try to carry on the tradition. Thank you very much. Any further board remarks? Seeing none, I will ask for approval of the minutes from March 10th and March 24th, 2025. I'll make that motion. Second by Burkard. Any further discussion? Mr. Sharp. Mr. President, I'd like to move to amend the March 24th minutes to strike the approval of hub city roofing and replace the vendor with guarantee roofing and sheet metal for the central high school re-roofing project. Can be the same money. It's just we inadvertently put the wrong vendor in as a mistake. So, thank you very much for that. There's a motion on the floor and a second by Olen. Uh so we do we have any further discussion
032related to that? We have a motion on the floor to amend the March 24, 2025 minutes to strike the approval of the hub city roofing and replace with the vendor with guarantee roofing and sheet metal for Central High School uh roofing project. Anything else to add to that? All right, seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I oppose. same time. All right. It was moved by Sharp and seconded by Olen to amend the March 24th, 2025 minutes to strike the approval of hub city roofing and replace the fender with guarantee roofing and sheet metal for the Central High School roofing project. All voted I on that for recording purposes. Is there any other further discussion related to the minutes as amended for March 10th and 24th? We do have a motion
033on the floor already for the approval of those minutes. Is there any further discussion? The amendment will also also attach attach those to those minutes. Yep. So, all right. I got a little lost here now. So, I need the formal vote. Okay. All those in favor of the motion as amended signify by saying I. Oppos. Same sign. Thank you very much. Next item is the consent agenda. Uh, anybody wishing to have anything pulled from tonight's consent agenda? I move the consent agenda. Second move by Olsen, second by Sharp. Any further discussion to be had on the consent agenda. Just uh again want to thank everyone for the contributions to the public schools there. There's a number of donations uh from businesses and individuals and thank you uh for those. All those in favor of tonight's
034consent agenda signify by saying I. Oppos same sign. All right. reports to the superintendent. Dr. Guffin. Thank you. The first item on the agenda this evening is our district counselor's report. We have three of our stellar counselors here with us this evening. Annie Faulk, Mr. Prol, and Ashley Glender. And they're here to talk about the district counseling program. Good evening. Evening. Thank you so much for having us and giving us a few minutes to let you know what's going on in the counseling department. Um, we greatly appreciate working with our relationships with Northeastern Mental Health, with the um, local private practice clinicians that we get to work with, the Salvation Army, the Department of Social Services, and our school resource officers, Officer Wolf, Olsen, Klene, and Kernan. We so appreciate them. We also enjoy the
035relationship that we have with NSU and their counseling education department. Um, many of us act as site supervisors for their graduate students. It's a great relationship. I hope the learning goes both ways. It I think it certainly does. Um, the addition of our special education school counselors has helped the case loads immensely in our building. All of these collaborations are part of what makes our team of school counselors in Aberdine effective and a continued support for the school community. And we also enjoy working with each other. We're very lucky to be able to communicate with each other about shared families that we share between buildings and levels. And we also um we also call on each other for ideas. Ideas for students that we're working with that maybe we've reached a point that we need
036some help or these guys are always just a phone call away if you need a lesson idea and I greatly appreciate that. So, I will just take a couple minutes and talk to you for just a second about what's going on at the elementary level and then these guys will we'll talk about the middle school and the high school level. Um, at the elementary level, we continue to focus on our students mental health both inside our school building and and outside. We try to be a be able to support them both at school and at home. We do weekly classroom guidance lessons and our topics are varied but include such things as uh bullying, personal safety, career exploration. We um we communicate between counselors, teachers, and administrators, and that benefits us in keeping up with
037each other and with our students needs. We enjoy supporting whole school activities. Some of those are like Red Ribbon Week. We enjoy that immensely. and homecoming. From an elementary level, I can tell you that our kids are so excited to have any students from other buildings come. We've have athletes come to our school. We have the band, we have band groups come. We've had um show choir kids come in. We just enjoy that so much. And we do a walk through. The graduates have, this has been something we've been doing the last few years. The graduates come and walk through our buildings in their caps and gowns. And that's a very special day for us. So, um, we also focus on family engagement. We try hard to to include and have the families come in
038for everything positive that we can. Each school does things a little differently, but that's that is a focus and a goal. Um, we are just about ready at the elementary level to start with our transition activities for middle school. We spend quite a bit of time with our fifth graders trying to ease some of their concerns about moving to the next level. And um to do that a lot of a lot of times the eighth so we have eighth grade students come to our buildings and they do panels and we have discussions and then of course our kids do get to go visit the middle schools for a tour and that's that's a day that they look forward to and they always come back feeling better feeling much better about what's to come. Um, we
039have had some of us have had a relationship with Luke Social Services that they have provided some mentors for our buildings and that's been kind of new this year and we've um, for me anyway it's been new this year and it's been a wonderful program that we greatly appreciate and I as we were thinking about what to add to what we do in the elementary school there's something new every day but this is a little highlight of what's been going on. Okay. Mr. Vanna White over here. Um, so I'm Ashley Clander and I'll talk to you a little bit about what's going on at the middle school. Um, the middle school has been having another successful year with their web leader training. Um, and web where welcome everybody. Uh, day program to start out their
040year for their incoming sixth graders. Um, the middle school counselors continue to support their students, their classroom teachers, administrators with academic support and goals. social emotional skills and support and also the career exploration. Uh the Golden Crew is in their third year at Simmons Middle School um kicking off or building off of the CHS Golden Hour. So there were 11 students this year that were selected and trained and currently are spending their time weekly with the sixth grade students on core enrichment, helping with homework, mentoring, all those really great activities to help them along. Uh, Simmons Middle School also has held its third annual dream big week, which is dedicated time to promoting some post-secary options and preparing our eighth graders to enter the world of work and set goals for future part-time jobs. Uh,
041they had colleges like NSU, SDSU, and Lake Area Technical Institute uh, visit and hosted some student success seminars with their eighth graders. They did mock job application stations and celebrated inclusion week partnering with the chief classroom to spread information to the school as a whole and have some fun activities together. At Holgate Middle School, their web leaders have volunteered within the community and again this year have worked with peer mentors to new students in their building and doing homework help and some tutoring. They assist the elementary schools in the Red Ribbon Week, which our kids love it when they get to come over. Um and they've had lots of fun with the fourth and fifth graders this year. Uh they have a busy spring ahead of them both at Holgate and at Simmons as we
042get ready for our transition activities. Um from Mike Miller, OM Tiffany, CC's Lee, Lincoln Mayoverby, we all get to have a great experience with our middle school which we greatly appreciate. Uh the sixth grade minute meetings have also taken place at Holgate Middle School where uh Mrs. Brener has the opportunity to try and touch base with each and every sixth grade student for a short period of time and just get to know them during their first few months of school to help build that connection. Um month monthly counselor classroom time from October to March in sixth grade and quarterly lessons in 8th grade along with lunch bunches and small groups round out her activities as well. Very busy at our middle school. All right. And I'll kind of fill you in on the high school
043then high school side of things. Um currently they're continuing to provide weekly food bags which is something like in the elementary and the middle school we do as well where it's just kind of a like a snack pack program that runs through um the Salvation Army. And along with that they've added in things like shampoo and deodorants and hair brushes and just kind of any extra things that might be needed. Um the gened school counselors continue to lead their uh Eagle Squad programs which support freshman orientation. Uh Eagle Squad is members stay connected their freshman group throughout the academic year. Um they going into advocate groups once a term to provide ongoing peer leadership and leaders are also involved in their eighth grade registration pro uh presentations and that's the like this side of things.
044I know I'm more at the elementary but that transition those programs transitioning kids from elementary to high school or middle school and middle to high school is it's really great to have that. So um that's a big positive. So, senior one-on-one student conferences along with early graduation meetings are also being held in terms one and two. Uh, they're currently holding junior one-on-one student conferences which will be completed by the end of term four. So, getting the juniors ready for next year. Um, uh, post high school planning is also priority during these times. So, they're kind of getting obviously getting ready for what's what's coming next. colleges and um updated and shared resources to advocate teachers uh provided during those PD days uh just for post high school thoughts and what what's going on when they
045walk out the doors here soon. Um we've completed course registration for 2526 school year for grades 8 through 11 to help them get ready for staffing needs just where we're going to be at for next year and continue to use online resources for several procedures including schedule changes which I'm sure ongoing. Um, we have communicated with the South Dakota legislation decision to increase the dual credit rates from to uh for 25 26 students and parents who are registered on the parent list serves and emails and provide information for the term four newsletter. And then lastly, put out a student services newsletter each term that is full of great information um that's going on student services for for the particular term and various opportunities. They also um mention the website which is great too. they have
046kind of up-to-date scholarships and just things going on that are constantly changing. So the the website's also a great resource for um kind of post high planning things. Anything else that you guys want to mention? I just personally say thanks cuz just lately just feels like sometimes we're in the spotlight for not so good things in education. So I feel appreciated and just supported by the AD school district and school board in general. So, um, for for me, I just know that it's it's nice to be in a district where you feel like your job is supported. So, thank you for that. I'm sure these guys would agree. Anything else you want to add? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Have a time. Thank you. Comments from the board. Always got a comment or two. Um,
047I also serve on the Aine Public School Foundation board and a couple of our endowments have um allocated funds to needs of students and schools um or whatever counselors, principles, teachers identify. Do you guys feel that you have access to that and are aware of that and and know that there's funds available if you identify children in need for different things? Yep. I know I've used it even this year through is it the class of 1971 or 74? 74. Yeah, you know, we do. Um I think we get emails kind of every once in a while just as a reminder of some of those things and especially in the winter time. I know on our in our school, I'm sure these guys are the same way. We use them a lot for like snow pants
048and boots and gloves and hats and just co coats, things like that. And then um just other needs that come up. So those are a huge benefit uh just for, you know, the extra funds that we don't always have. It's good to have that as well. So yeah, I'm glad you're aware of that. Yeah. My second question is, it's not even a question, it's just your comments. Um, at the national level, u Mr. Kennedy now is talking about addressing autism and that's more of a special ed probably issue, but I'm sure you guys deal with that all the time. And he says we're going to find a cause or solution. Do you guys have any thoughts of why we see increasing numbers? It seems like every year we get the report from Nicole and it's
049like the numbers just keep increasing all the time and it'd really be nice if there is a way to figure out what the heck's going on. I wish I was smart enough to get an answer for that one. I think evaluations, you know, there are many more evaluations being done that had been done in the past. So diagnosis, I think, is coming. Do you see more kids with autism in your opinion? I think we I see more kids are identified as as being diagnosed with a with being somewhere on the autism spectrum, but um yeah, so I don't know I I don't know if that is a mechanism of our evaluation processes and our our testing or if there's there's more. Of course, I won't get into my thoughts on I think I think that
050some of our environmental things have changed. Yeah, all environments, parenting, lots of screen time, lots of interaction. Those are my questions. Yeah. Any other comments? It just feeds off what Dr. Borton was talking about earlier today, looking after our kids, looking after um our our staff as well. And uh you folks are on the front lines, and we appreciate what you do each and every day. We know there's a lot of challenges out there and uh that you make uh you are part of what makes the uh learning environment a safe uh location for a lot of our students. So, thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Um the next item on our agenda is the approval of the workers comp agreement. Yes. So, our premium this
051year increased by 20.7% or $56,000 from last year. This is based on a three-year rolling average. So, we had a lot of claims and a high dollar amount of claims fiscal years 22 and 23. 24. It actually decreased by quite a bit, but the overall um claims in the pool also decreased. So, um us as a percentage of the pool, we're still on the high side. We're about 14%. So that's the reason for that increase. The actuary is expecting us to see a decrease or no increase next year. So hopefully we'll see some relief then. Why the what do you see as the major reason for the increase in claims even though they're down? that is there a certain segment that employees are filing because of a certain situation or um I guess I haven't
052noticed anything specifically. I see the descriptions and there's all all kinds of different things things we should be doing educationally to help prevent things from happening. We do meet with um someone from the productive trust each year and he guides us on how we can try to lower our claims. So we do try to lower them when we can but a lot of them are out of our control. So like what slips, trips, and falls. Yeah, a lot of slip time really accidental muscles and stuff. An accident, you know, we do know that when we took a look at this at our meeting that was one of the things from the business report um fact that insurance companies, you know, in general the rates are just plain moving up. But I realize it depends on
053your claims and all of that, but uh this isn't just an isolated incident at all. Um if you look at it, it's pretty favorable from what I have seen. That's a very uh proper look at it. So I would make a motion to approve of the workers compensation bill. Motion on the floor for the agreement. Um there a second. Second. Second by sharp. Any further discussion to be had on this? Just a a point here. Uh so it was increased 20 how much percent? 20.7 20.7%. And our state aid was increased by what? 1%. 1.25. Sorry. So, and we see this across the board on other insurance things, 9% increases, 20% increases. And so, when people are having those discussions on how come we're not giving this or that, do we have anything that inflationary
054went up 1.25%. Everything's 9 20% beyond. And so it's a it's a challenge for for all groups. So uh with that we have a motion on the floor. Second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I sign. Thank you. Okay. The next item on the agenda we did complete a successful negotiations uh process with all of our bargaining groups. And so the agreements will be forthcoming here. Um each of the agreements we did agree to the same um provisions for each of the groups. That would be a 1% salary increase uh and the 6% increase in insurance which the board will continue to contribute a single premium and then just some very minor um language changes throughout for each agreement. So the first one you have in front of you is the hourly staff
055negotiated agreement. So movement we have a motion on the floor by Sharp. I'll second second by Murphy for the hourly staff negotiated agreement. Any further discussion to be had about the NE hourly staff negotiated agreement? Just a comment. I wish we could do more for our staff all the time. 81%. That's kind of a slap in the face actually, but I mean that's what we're given to deal with. And uh again, 87% of our budget is salaries and benefits. So, uh it isn't doesn't leave us a lot to spend for other things too. But it's difficult to uh I find it difficult to negotiate when you only got one% to even talk about any further discussion to be had. All those in favor signify by saying I oppose. Same sign. Thank you. Okay. Again, the
056same provisions. Uh the appropriate for the Aea negotiated agreement. So moved by Olsen. I'll second this. Second by Dr. Borton. Any further discussion to be had about the AEA negotiated agreement? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Post same sign. Okay. The next is the approval of the administrator negotiated agreement. So moved. Motion on the floor by Olsen. Second by M. Any further discussion to be had about the administrator negotiated agreement? I ask for a roll call vote. Yes, please. Mr. Brad Olsson. I. Mr. Brian Sharp. Abstain. Mr. Mr. Schultz. Hi, Mr. Dal. Excuse me. Dr. Gil Bordon. Hi, Mr. Kevin Brickard. Hi, Mr. Got that recorded then. Okay, very good. Okay. The next is the approval of the district administrator contracts. So move, Mr. President. Motion on the floor by
057Sharp. Second. Second by Olsen. Any further discussion to be had? All I would like to say is I appreciate all the uh negotiators that were at the table with us. It's always been very professional, very cordial, and said I wish we could always do more, but sometimes you're dealt and you are. So, I'd like to thank the negotiating group here, uh, Mr. Olsen and Mr. Sharp for their leadership on this as well. Um, and yeah, just to reiterate, uh, everyone knew what we were going into and, uh, understand that this is going to be not only this year, but moving forward. There's going to be some tough conversations to be had. So, thank you to everyone for that. All those in favor of the district administrator context contract signify by saying I. I. All right.
058Next item on the agenda is the annual approval of the South Dakota High School Activity Association membership resolution. I'd move approval. Second motion on the floor by Olsson, second by Sharp. Any further discussion to be had about the SDHSAA membership resolution? Is there a fee? Perm or however that's any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the resolution signify by saying I. I. Same sign. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is the approval of the first reading of the K12 language arts adoption. Mrs. Call has information about language arts and more. All right. Well, I'm always excited to talk about um adoptions that we're moving into, but I just wanted to let the board know that the one that we're moving into now is a K12 adoption. And in the past,
059we've always done elementary and then a secondary, but we just felt that this is something that we need to do all at once. And there's a lot of moving parts to the language arts curriculum adoption and you're going to find that there's some new things that we're going to introduce. I could talk about this for probably an hour because there's it's just so in depth, but I'm going to keep it to a short short amount of time tonight. So, I'm going to start just a little bit with some of the things that we've done in the past. The typical things that we've done as far as looking at the new state standards, we've continued to do that. We update our curriculum documents. We always use some sort of a rubric that reflects the current changes
060in um teaching. And you've probably heard the term science of reading. And so those rubrics were designed to reflect those skills that are important in teaching in early literacy and throughout high school. So we did update those rubrics and we use those as well. And then um the elementary reviewed about nine different curriculums this year and we really spent a lot of time doing that. We actually started this process last April with developing a literacy committee and developing a literacy plan at the elementary level. Now, we haven't moved that to the middle or the high school yet, but that's to come. So, we'll talk about what's going to come in the next four years. But what I wanted to do is also highlight some of the things that were new this year. So, before we
061kind of went down this adventure, we wanted to make sure that the principles and the committee was trained in what we were looking for with curriculum. So the first thing that we did is I convinced Dr. Guffin and all the principles. I said, "Hey, how about you take this course with me last summer and it was kind of the backbone on science of reading and how you select a curriculum." So we took that course for I thought it was important for us to know and support our teachers before they moved into that work as well. So then this school year, the elementary and the preschool staff participated in Ames reading proficiency and they used all of their staff development days. Every minute was spoken for to do this training. It was about 40 plus hours
062in time in school and then an additional 15 to 20 hours outside of school. They will get some credit, but I feel like we we're all on the same path as far as this is what's good to use for teaching reading. So some other things that we asked the committee to do is to just go a little further and they did two extra days of instructional training just on explicit reading which was great. Our kindergarten teachers piloted a UFly foundation reading program. The committee also developed a 90minute block of reading so everybody will be doing the same consistent skills. And then as you notice at our kindergarten literacy night or kindergarten signing event, we did start handing out early literacy events or activities for kids to do so they could kind of start some of
063this work early with families. And then also I'd like to introduce Bailey Moore. She has really been doing a great job at the elementary. She's our new literacy coach. And it was so nice to have Bailey on board because she could take care of some of the things at the elementary level while I could focus on the secondary which was very helpful for me. So, we've talked about this term science of reading many times, but as you know, the science of reading is actually just it's not a curriculum. It's just the research. It's like five decades worth of what is good teaching for language arts. And I'm going to turn it over to Bailey to kind of let her take it from here and kind of expand on some of this information. So, yeah. So,
064um, as Camille said, this is really the backbone of what I have been working in and a lot of what I do is guided by the science of reading. And then some of the the models that I'm going to show you really quickly, but one thing to note is the fields of study included in the science of reading. It's not just literacy. It's not just reading. It's all eight of those areas that come together and really um ties to kind of make the what, the why, the how reading happens. Um for children, there's also the simple view of reading that's listed there. And so um when we're looking at how children learn to read, it's a combination of both word recognition, that phonics piece, the phmic awareness piece, but then also language comprehension. And some
065of that comes from conversation. It comes from vocabulary. It comes from background knowledge. All of those things. And all of that together gets us to the goal of reading comprehension. Really reading comprehension um is the goal. That's what we want our students to be doing when they're proficient readers. Um so my position, so obviously it's it's new this year. So, some of the things that I've been able to do this year, that's just a a list because every day is really different when I'm working with teachers in all the elementary schools, um working with the students kindergarten through fifth grade. So, um a big piece of what I do is instructional support. So, working with teachers on um evidence-based practices and seeing how those will work in their classroom, helping find resources, looking at data.
066So that could be individual student data, classroom data, and saying how are we going to take this data and help it drive instruction and help it drive student achievement. Um providing literacy resources. So again, based on those evidence-based practices, now let's find you a resource that can work in your classroom for that specific student. Um differentiation. So every student, yes, there's practices that are great for whole group or the whole class, but you're going to have those students who need specific interventions or specific tools to help them and and I can help with that. Um goal setting, observation, and then um curriculum imple implementation. So as we're going to be going through the new curriculums, I will be there to support and make sure that um the resources that we have align with the goals
067that we have in our district literacy plan. Um and just kind of that the perspective that um on student achievement, how can we how can we reach that student achievement? How can we reach those goals with the tools that we have? Um one thing I want to note is the AIM pathways training. So teacher training in the science of reading is huge. Um having teachers, knowledgeable teachers, knowing how to teach reading and what's happening and being able to identify when students need something specific, that's a huge piece of that. and staying on top of those things. So, I think us doing the AIM pathways training, it was a lot for our teachers. It was a lot of work for our teachers. Um, but I think it's going to pay off. It's going to have it's
068going to show in the things that we're doing for our students going forward. So, um, so just to kind of tie into where we're going with curriculum. So, that simple view of reading that I showed, um, this is a more detailed version of it. So there's the two areas. The word recognition is on the bottom and then the language comprehension is on the top. So that just breaks it down into more specific things you're looking at when maybe you walk into a classroom, not those broad areas. So when we were looking for curriculums at the elementary level and at the middle and high school level, we're looking for programs that cover all of these areas um for our students and our teachers. So um at the elementary level, I'll just speak to this really quick.
069This is just a diagram to show the two we we are using two programs at the elementary level. Um and so for kindergarten through second grade, UFly foundations is um a program that's going to cover just that word recognition piece of the reading rope. Um and so again that's just that's whole class um explicit instruction phonics and phmic awareness for kindergarten through 2 grade. And then um the SAS MU literacy will cover the other areas of the reading group and then we'll cover all areas for third through fifth grade. So as Bailey mentioned the elementary is going to use two programs foundational skills for youly and then the sabos my view and my focus is the intervention piece that they use. Middle school is going to do into literature which is a Hton Mifflin product.
070Now, you're probably wondering, okay, why why is there a Hton Mifflin in the middle of all the SAVs information? Well, the middle school was really looking for something that was very robust in writing and they have a wonderful program that supports writing and the foundational skills support and so they selected the EQ literature and then the high school went with my perspectives. And for anyone who wants to see the course documents that accompany all of these programs, you can find those on our web page under the educational tab under curriculum. So the last part that I want to just briefly touch on is I'd mentioned that we created a literacy program and a literacy committee for the elementary and this program actually or plan actually goes out for four years because there's just a lot
071of different pieces that have to on be ongoing. And so these are some of the things that we're going to move forward with and look for literacy grant money to help support some of this. So obviously purchase some supplemental materials for our title programs, our special education, and then also our EL students. We're going to continue that development of our district-wide plan and committee. Continue to train as new staff come in. We certainly don't want to just stop training this year, but continue to train new staff as they come in. And then continuing like Bailey said that monitoring of assessments and how do we use that information to move students forward. Certainly promote early literacy with families and provide that education on how do you start teaching some of these skills to a second a
072two-year-old three-year-old and a four-year-old. So good conversations at home reading to your child. And Baileyy's going to head some of that up next year which are some different activities for families. We'll continue with uh having the literacy coaching position and then also the South Dakota Department of Education has um started a South Dakota literacy conference that'll take place in the summer and hopefully that we'll send some teachers to that as well. Questions that you have on the language arts adoption this year. Question. Um the research you said had gone back decades. Was it mostly done by the federal government at that level or is it by private institutions? Where where was most of the data gathered? There's a mix. Some of it's done through universities, some through private individuals, but it is just a mix
073of kind of a whole collective group of research. Mr. Sch. Yeah, I find it fascinating that you broken reading down into word comprehension and or word what's word recognition and reading comprehension. Does the word recognition continue past second third grade? I mean I mean I know words get bigger and all that but I mean does that specific training follow past early ele? It does. Yeah. So the early phonics and phmic awareness is really I mean you start at letter recognition you get into the sounds um but then when you get into third fourth fifth grade when students are fluent with those decoding skills then you're working on things like morphology and you're working on Greek and Latin roots and you're using then you're using those word parts that contain meaning and then they're using those
074to help them decode larger words and and then make meaning out of those larger words. So it really does grow and that was one thing that we looked for in that transition from second to third grade is is how can we address those those morphology needs. Sure. Does that help with second and third languages also then? Um kind of goes both ways. So knowing having knowledge about other languages really does help with those things. So um some of the conversations I've had with students about certain words why is that word why does that have a different pattern? It's gets us back to where that word originated or what language that came from. And cognates are really big. So, I've had some great conversations with our ESL teachers about how we can use that to help
075with word recognition, too. Thank you. And all my research was done with literacy development, and I'm just I'm really impressed by this whole program. So, this would speak your language. It definitely does. It takes him back to grad school. Yeah, because we've known this for many years, but it's putting it all together and being able to use the data to continue growth for the kids. So, it's great. In your opinion, is this one of the best curriculums out there? What we're using right now? Um, I have not seen the SAS one in practice. I can speak to the UFly foundations that we're piloting in some of our kinderg kindergarten classrooms. Um, and the student the the student data that we're seeing is really really encouraging. The things that I've just seen anecdotally in the classrooms
076and hearing from the teachers is phenomenal. I'm very excited about that program. I'm I'm excited about SAS too. I just haven't been able to see that one in practice yet. High school has used SAS before. Um, they have the my perspective the 2017 version. This is completely redone. So, it's great improvements. So, they were very pleased to do that again. I recently had a conversation with a parent who's had two children go through elementary school, one as a kindergarter right now, and just anecdotally commented like, "Oh, this child is so much further ahead than my last child, and are you doing something new?" And I didn't go into this big long explanation, but it was noted by this parent that something's different and it's better. That's great. I I should mention that of all the
077training that we did as well include the preschool because it does start there, right? So, um they they took a course as well. That's awesome. I don't know if this applies to us, but I I am interested in preschool children. I have granddaughters actually, and one of the most important things I do, I think, for them and I enjoy so much is reading to them. I am amazed. They will sit there and they will listen to me read to them for hours and they will grab book after book after book. Is there something more we should be doing in the Aberdine district to try to reach and I know that's not really our job but I mean I think reading two year olds, three year olds and four year olds is amazing and they they
078want to listen to somebody read to them but I think they're me personal. Sure. Okay. Just my educator opinion. There's three things that I think that any parent can do that are very simple early on. Read, read, read to your child. Have conversations that introduce different words. Have a two-way dialogue. That's great for brain development because 90% of your brain happens before the age of five. And then also limit screen time because um your brain also needs to understand communication and that happens with two-way communication and you don't get that through a screen. So um it's important to you know you can't read body language or facial expressions. So those are probably the three easiest things any parent can do. You know what I was thinking? Something like a reading night for parents to bring
079their children and just have people sit there and read to all the children. And I don't think we really have that in place or anything like that, but it might I don't know just I think it's so impressionable for those young kids to be exposed to that. I mean, it's amazing what they catch on to. Pretty soon they're reading the book to you. And it's nice that we have a very nice public library that you can access for free. So, I totally agree with every thing you said. If I could get my voice out, it's the interaction between adults that's that makes the reading so rich because you're talking to them. They're also equating being close to you while you're reading to them. So, they they get the impression that it's an awesome thing. If
080you ever um observe Head Start, they've they are supporting everything you're doing, too, but they have three and four year olds, so they're really working on all those skills. And we used to get children in preschool that had never held a book, and they didn't know what to do with them. And one of the worst things that I've ever seen is a young child picking up a book and trying to swish it because they're so used to screens and they don't realize, you know, that books are open. And um if parents can do that, they're ready when they come to school to just know that a book has all these wonderful things. So yeah, if we could do more, you know, and if families are aware of that that talking to your kids helps vocabulary
081development and all those other skills. So great. You talked about kindergarten signing day. You hand out some some some literature to the parents. Do you do we give them a book also? All kinds of goodies. Yeah. So, we we found some early literacy, early math um activities for families to take home, things that we we promoted that parents do with their child, but it could be something that a child just having exposure to things. So, we had three different activities in those kits. One was um a it was math related, but it was matching numbers to a a quantity of objects, so early um numer. And then we also had a like a water writing book which was great because it relies on very little for the parent. They don't need a pencil. They don't
082need a pen. They don't need a whiteboard. They just fill the pen with water and they could do some tracing and early letter writing. Um then we had an early literacy kind of phmic awareness sound matching activities because um we talked about research but one of the things that research shows is that sounds first is really important. So building language and that oral language in the preschool ages. So those are some things that we provided in addition to literature, in addition to other things. So we were excited about that and I've heard from parents, they were very thankful and a lot of positive feedback about having those materials at home. Thank you. Yeah, that's great. Just one last thing that there there is a price tag to this as well, right? and all the conversation
083talked about the science and the all this, but I I think what our board would look at is say that this is absolutely worth the investment and that uh whatever we can do to uh further educate and find every pathway for our our children to read and we'll invest as much as we can. And that that is a sixy year Yes, I'd move first reading of the uh K12 language adoption. All right, we have a motion on the floor by Sharp. I'll second. Second by Dr. B. All those in favor of the first reading of the K12 language art adoption signify by saying I. Same sign. See no other uh agenda items. I'd ask for a motion for adjournment. I'll make that second by second by Sharp. All those in favor signify by