001Please to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for Nice to see everyone. Um Josh will be absent tonight. We expect Jen get started. Um we need a motion and a second to accept the agenda for tonight. We'll make a motion to accept the agenda. I'll second. All in favor say I. Again, same sign. The agenda is accepted. We have no one signed up for open forum. So we'll move on the communications and um the director of business services on auditive report. Thank you madam chair members of the board. First one we have is enrollment. Um you can see our enrollment there. We're at 3202 as of Monday. Monday 10:13. Yes. Um so still hanging at that you
002know we budgeted 3200. We're still hanging at that 3202 but because of Wildcat Academy is where we're hanging off there. So, with those 28 kids in there, that's what's keeping us above in our enrollment. Um, you can take a look at the the graph. Doesn't show a lot this early, but you can see went down a little bit from September to October, which is fairly normal, but we were down from the last five years for the last Yeah, this is the fifth year on there. So, any questions on enrollment? Okay. On the DBS monthly report as of September, um you go right to the graphs if you want to Michelle. Thank you. You can see the general fund is showing revenue under expenses, but odd thing is is we we get two payments from the
003state every month on the 15th and the 30th. The 30th did not get posted until 101. So, we are not seeing our revenue all of our revenue in September. they can just get enough cash to cover our payroll on 9:30. But yes, so that's why that's showing that and you'll see the same thing when we get to the treasures report. Um community service things are looking good right now with revenue above expenditures and you can see compared to the last couple years we've got a big shift there. So that's good. Food service is looking the opposite there. But again, we purchased a lot of equipment over the summer. So that's why it's going to show that way until we get closer to the end of the year to kind of even that one out. Um,
004then on the treasures report, keep in mind the last one we're showing revenues and expenditures on the treasures report, which we're still working on making this pretty. We'll get there. Um, Michelle doesn't like it. Uh, this is cash only. So, we're just showing our cash. And if you see over on outstanding deposits, that 2.6 million, um, that is where we've got the, um, I love Bren just put on cheaters. That's really small. It is really small. Um that is that deposit that we should have gotten on 9:30 but it's so it's called standing. Um some exciting things our auto fieldwork actually finished today. They were here for the last time today. Went very well. I will give credit to Lauren on that year two and she was just rocking it. So it went really well.
005We have a couple of items of course we need to finish up and then the plan is to have them come and present to the board in December. kind of the same the same December meeting where I'll do truth and taxation at the beginning and then we'll have the audit reported financial meeting. Any questions on anything? Is it an audit to not get paid by the state on the date you expect to get? Yes. And so do we know why I don't I was trying to figure out why we were so far off and then Lauren's like, "Oh, I think I know what it is that that 9:30 did not get posted into our account until 101." So, we'll we'll do a little digging and try and figure out why that happened. I don't know.
006That's a good question. I will ask. Yeah. Thank you very much. Questions for Oh, Madam Chair, our missing board member will be here in 10 minutes. All right. Um, we'll move on to the student representative update. Nice to see you. Yeah. Hi. So, I have my list here. It's kind of like the end of fall season for activities and stuff like shifting into winter. So, there's a lot of like sections and finals and stuff. Um I believe today that some cross country runners just made it to state I believe which is very exciting. Very exciting. Um some tennis players are going to state and then volleyball and football are sort of entering like the section these playoffs. Um hopefully they do well. I think that they're going to have some tough competition but I have
007faith in them. I think they can do it. Um, I know that dance just had their tryyous. They have their JV and varsity teams picked out. Uh, it sounds like they're still getting some stuff figured out maybe with their jazz or kick. I don't really know, but they're they're figuring that out, which is exciting, too. They've gone to state for a couple years now, so I'm sure it'll be another great season. Um, the musical, that's what I'm in. We are currently sort of finishing up our sets. So, we have like big set pieces and props and costumes and stuff. and we're getting some more like community outreach stuff planned. Um, our show dates are the 14th and 15th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd of November. So, the two weekends before Thanksgiving. And on the 15th, there's
008going to be like a little munchkin party, which is for younger kids right before our show. And the show's at 2 o'clock. So, I imagine that would start around the But we're pretty excited about it. We have some new stuff kind of coming up this year. Um, for student council, we are about to go to Craig's Resort for our fall retreat. That's like a leadership opportunity where we get to like learn the next new big bright things. We see a keynote. It's pretty enlightening. It's pretty fun. Allows us to like network with other people, too. So, it's pretty exciting. And we're getting started with our Veterans Day ceremony planning. So, that's going to be on November 11th. Um, it's usually a pretty good ceremony, so invite the veterans you know in the area. Um, the
009Chicago Lakes High School select Choir just got a visit from the college choir from UMD. So, we got to sing with them a little bit and learn a few things. That was really cool. Band just had their fall concert. And then just in general, like in school right now, people are getting ready for Halloween, so they're going to dead end and stuff, but finals week is next week, so it's getting a little tense, but it's also not like the end of a semester, so not those core classes. But yeah, I don't I think right now it's very much a transition period for a lot of people, but it's it's going pretty well, I'd say, individually. Great. We're wrapping up first quarters. I know. Well, I think it's weird. Yesterday, I was entering high school as
010a freshman, graduating, so for sure. fast for you. Um, and just as an update about student representatives, Sarah and I are going to interview the candidates either November 4th or six, I believe, one or two days. So, we'll be adding a junior member and then so we'll be back to two. That's exciting. Yeah, totally get there. Thank you for your update. Any other questions for Anukica? All right. Thank you. And then are there any board committee updates from anyone who attended any committee meetings? I did virtually because it was the health and safety was the half hour that I could attend before our meeting and and there was you know I guess I'm just going to make a statement that there's a pri you guys know this but there is so much going on here
011I mean even in the health and safety and it takes a whole bunch of people to make a lot of things that nobody even knows about to make sure that it all runs smoothly. I guess that would be the end thing that I would say. But there's custodial training. You probably saw the penguin sign out here. Walking like a penguin because we did get actually frost this morning. There safety reminders about um oh snow removal and salt playground safety, ocean inspection. Um it was $18,000 that they raised or that was a grant that went to replace some lead issues uh for primary school Taylor's falls to replace faucets and that the high school in Taylor Falls switch out drinking faucets too. That was some lead abatement things. I don't know where that grant comes from
012but state. So we we take advantage of those types of things. There's a fairly extensive injury report and it was kind of said that maybe the custodians were a little short-handed and rushing around and maybe some of those things caused as result of that, but we're back to full strength and I don't know if that's fully true, but I said they had hired some more people and things were seem better. Staffed. They're fully staffed. Okay. some doormats from another grant that were purchased at a discount that go in front of door one and the back rear door and then some Wildcat Center. Dan had some things about Wildcat Center. And the last one I just want to say which I'm going to try not to giggle too much. They were having an issue because the
013diving board needed to be greased thinking it was the thing underneath. Yeah, they wouldn't grease the D. We want kids slipping off. So anyway, I thought that was a little fun there. But anyway, there's a lot going on as always in a report of what's been happening in health and safety. Very good. Sarah, Brenda, do you have anything? You attended the legisl the spread. You can talk about that, Sarah. No, we were all there. But it was a it was a great forum. was not hugely attended this year. Um, just be a product of the last election year, but it was really good to connect with our legislators. I thought that was a really good conversation. Um, they're hearing us. They they understand the problems we're facing. So, that's that's a really good thing. Very
014good. All right. Thank you. We'll move on to the superintendent update. So I'd like to start by just highlighting that part of our process and if we're looking at a bond campaign is that we have to submit information to the state of Minnesota Department of Education to the commissioner to review and ensure that it meets the criteria of uh what we're trying to accomplish and give a positive comment back from them. Uh I am really pleased to tell you in a very efficient and quick manner this time we've already received that back and it's came back as positive. So, we are pleased. It's another uh piece that just allows us to keep moving forward and get this work done. So, just grateful for the opportunity to be able to submit that early and also get
015it back in a more prop way than we did before. Uh Strive mentor program. I just want to just put a plug for that really quick. Strive is a program through Rotary which focuses on mentorship. It's generally uh specified for seniors in high school, but we wanted to shift a little bit with eighth grade students this year and we had our second meeting today and it's just a really cool experience. I want to tell the board members, you want to come to one of the meetings, it's really in the morning, reach out to me. I'd love for you to just come and see what's going on. But today we have Katie Malshaw come and do goal setting with our parents and it was just a really powerful experience with her presenting but also our mentors
016working with our mentees for the eighth grade. So, just I'm really excited about the work we're doing, the impact we're making on kids lives. Uh, and the other cool part is today I met with a couple of the deans from that who we have a really good partnership with. They'll be coming out in December to do a college and career readiness piece with our kids, which is really exciting. So, um, really just happy about the work they're doing that again find ways to impact kids positively. The last thing I want to talk about today is that I have a student leadership group that I meet with at the high school throughout the year and a representative of freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. And there's about 16 people in the group. And we just spend time
017talking, listening to what's good, what things they want us to get feedback on, and just sharing information similar to what we do with other groups around the district and our community so that we're having this open dialogue about just what we can do to make this the best place experience we can for our students. And one of the activity I gave them was give us some positivity. what what's going well for you in your experience at the high school and also on the flip side some narrative pieces of where can we find different opportunities to get better on stuff and I'll say this um the opportunity slide there was literally only a few things on there which was great because it shows we're doing some really good work and we had a good dialogue on
018that but we had a lot of positives and there's a power I want to read a couple so I think sometimes especially I feel like in today's day and age education gets bum wrap for maybe not doing all the right things and not preparing and you know we're talking about data tonight and I think there's so many misnomers. I just want you to hear from the voice of kids and good things are happening our schools. The first one talked about homecoming week that that was a celebration for them because the coordination pepfest walkth through football game. This person was a senior. They talked about how important that is to have those moments and how awesome it was and how was put together to really celebrate kids. There was a compliment about student council as well,
019the events they're doing and how awesome that is as well. Here's one that said, "The best part so far has been going to all of my last senior football games and also when I assume team won the Cambridge." I think the best part of the year so far is going to go wild and going to all the school events for free. In case you did not know, we made this available for kids this year was a conscious decision we made for 9 to 12 to not to pay for this. I learned so many positive things from students today. Makes me feel really good we're making. I think the best part of the year is just having good teachers. How does it not feel good? Congratulations people over there. The best part about all the activities
020that are going on and the vibe the students bring to the events. And then the last one I put down was I talk about the best part of the school year is being with friends and seeing new and old teachers. It's really easy sometimes to pick things apart and I just want people to know good things are happening here. We got good people. We got good kids. I talked a lot about with them is that they set the tone for the things we do and how proud myself, the principal, other people that were there. Just you guys do a great job representing our district and we're proud of you for that. And just it's it's been a really good start to the year. So I don't want to ever lose track of the good things
021are happen because there's a lot really happy and more horrible things and I give you credit for talking to the kids. I just think it's so important and a lot of them you know 16 of them important voices to hear. So I'm glad I'm thankful you did that for sure. All right. Any other questions? Oh w Okay. Um, so it's listed below the positive review and comment, but later on we're going to do the resolution. No resolution. Okay. Okay. Sarah, we're to you. We're going to hear from our director of teaching. Are you going to give us? Hi. Okay. So, this is our um presentation on how we did assessment wise last year in the spring. But I thought we would start with this short version, a little sample test I would like you to
022try to take. Um let me take a minute. See if you can answer these five questions. She's so uncind all people to participate as a backdrop for the board and the public. We do our super but I am only going to give you one minute just Like state testing high stakes times. Can I use my first question? No. Maybe. Not very good. You're not very good at All right, we have about 10 more seconds. Just time. Yes. Can you even show us this stuff? Can you even show us this? All right. Do your best. Okay. So, questions number ones through three are from a 1980s Iowa basics test, grades three through five. So, number one, the answer was C in case you want answers. Number two, the answer is C. Number three is B. Now,
023questions four and five are from sample MCA questions that are um like what kids would get nowadays grades three through five. So number four is B. Yes. And five was C. Yes. You don't have to share your answers, but I what I'm wondering is just when you look at Yes. There you go. system just um if you don't mind just like give me a minute reflection like what is difference? What is the difference between questions one through three versus four and five? Oh my goodness. seems so basic. Four and five are problems within a problem. Multistep any other applications. Y I did not put any reading questions on because we wanted to do something short. If you get a reading passage now in the MCAS, it's multiple pages of the story and then there's about
02410 questions that go with that one story. So, it was hard for me to like show you a snippet. You'd have to read a whole story to be able to to do a reading question where like number two would have been what would have been in the reading type test back then, just a straight up vocap question. So, I guess I wanted to ground it with this to show you like if if a lot of people have a perception of what state testing is like from what they experienced in like an Iowa basic test. The test has greatly changed for state assessments to what kids are getting on the MCAs now. I mean they are multi-step. They have more um problem solving and analytical thinking that you have to do to be able to get
025to an answer. You can't just do one simple uh calculation and find that answer for math or for really for reading. You have to always go back to the text and look at the line and find it and then interpret that line again to be able to answer it. So I just I think sometimes this is like I don't know if the public knows what these tests look like because they are under locking heat like you can't see the actual test but we can get some sample questions. Do you know when that change sort of happened? I said there's over a time period but when did the transformation which like just like going to mult I mean every time the standards change they revise the questions. So, like right now, math, we're going to get
026a new math test this spring, which means we should not compare those results to what we did for math last year. And so, those standards, they shift every 10 years in statute. So, then the test will change following those standards change. I'd have to go back and look like where did we get more complex like I don't know how many years that answer. I give you a quick guess. It's around no child beyond early 2000s. Okay. because that's when the rigor came up where again schools were expected to get 100% by a certain time period and when the legislation came up from Georgia Bush. So you saw the difference between an Iowa basically stand for nine tests back in the day to now that went to state tests that were all right and I guess
027like that's a good answer because I feel like that's the when I started teaching so it's always kind of looked like this for us but like not what I got when I was right. Yeah. So some like first of all why we assess just in general I think it's important to know it has three main reasons why we assess students. One we need to know if they're learning the standards. So the MCAs are written for the Minnesota standards but we also have classroom assessments that do that same thing. The second reason is our teachers want to know if the strategies they're using are effective. So when they get the assessment to kids learn what they wanted them to learn but also like if I tried something different in first hour versus third hour what was
028more effective for kids? And then the last reason we assess kids is for um for them to reflect and understand if they're learning. So when we look at that, there are different assessments you can give. Standardized assessments I have at the top of the pyramid because there's not very many of them. They're very formal. Um they're summitative meaning like usually they're one time at the end of the year in which you taught and so they don't give a lot of feedback on the purposes two and three which was to guide your instruction or to guide students reflection on their own learning. It really just gives us feedback as a system. power host systems doing on those standard. The more effective ones that we have more of are the classroom assessments at the bottom. Those are
029the best ones because they hit all three of those criteria. Benchmark assessments are kind of the middle ones like um fastbridge testing like what you do three times a year to see how kids are growing like in math and reading. Those are your benchmark assessments. So, I just wanted to kind of ground that before we dive into the data. So standardized assessments, you know, one time a year, they really don't give us a lot of feedback like instructionally because even once you look at the results and you're like, "Oh, maybe I should have done this different." That whole cohort of kids are gone and now you got to do it with a different group. They might come with a whole different skill set and different prior knowledge. So yeah, how many days of testing is
030there for MCAs? Depends on the level you're talking about. So let's just say fifth grade. Fifth grade. I mean, they're going to do at least two days reading, but days as in two hours. Yeah. Two hours reading, two hours math, and fifth grade it's an hour. Uh two in science. So roughly probably six days, six hours. Some kids not. So some when I hear teachers talk, they say, "Man, it's just a lot lot of testing because that much testing to be focused that that much." The junior year gets hit the hardest in high school because they have MC science and math and then ACT plus if they're in any AP. And what are the high stakes of MCA tests like for the junior year? High stakes for a kid is they're not they I mean
031it it does not affect the child's life at all if they do not do well on the MCA tests. Um they don't need it to get into college. They don't need it to graduate. They don't need it for credits. So we're just asking them to try their best so that we as a system can look at how we're doing. there's a little more stake in the game K through well I'm giving K but three through eight because we do use it to help us determine what kids maybe get into advanced classes but once you're in high school it's self- selecting into your advanced classes so it no longer really matters for the child it's got to be inherent driven I guess that they want to do well um so what aud reminder um it's grades
032three through eight get ELA and math and then um 10th grade is when we do ELA or reading. 11th grade we do math. 11th grade we do science. Um and then science is also fifth and eth. And this came up at the the community presentation on it. This this exactly align with the federal law as Minnesota took what are the minimum amounts of times you have to test kids on some sort of standardized test and Minnesota adopted exactly that because some people are like how come you only do science 58 and 11. Well that's that's what Essa says. You have to do it once in elementary, once in middle, and once in high school. So we do we do it at the end of elementary and the middle and then and then you have to
033do science during the year in which they take biology. So it's a life science test. Um so that's way science has a brand new version. We just so like it got re like done last year. So we're still kind of digging through that data. It just got released. It was a delayed release because of the new test. So I only have um reading and math results for you tonight. Um so in general on the left is what you've traditionally have seen as a proficiency. So as a district reading so this is third through 8th grade plus 10th grade we were 56% proficient meaning kids exceeded or met the standards and then the state was 49.6. I included the partial on the right because I feel like it's a little bit of a misnomer to be
034like kids who are partially proficient on the NCAA's are like failing or not successful or can't read. They are probably the kids who still get B's, C's, and D's in high school and can read, but they might have missed that meat score by one point, two points, three points. I mean, and it's that one time test. I mean, it's one day, one time that they take this test. Um, so I think I think a better way to look at it is to include those partially proficients and then we're sitting close to 80% of kids who are probably going to graduate and do just fine. The kids who get the does not meet, those are the ones we're most concerned about. And for the most part, they will probably be special education students or kids getting
035intervention already. So, we're well aware of them and want a program to help them. Anyway, add one thing real quick. You saw this last year and we actually going to use this for our annual report as well because we feel like the story is not being told completely and we actually tested with some of our people in our super back in September and got a lot of good response on that makes sense because again we are so programmed like this is the only number and then nothing else matters. There's so much we do and she'll get into that stuff, but just wanted to let you know we're showing this for a second year. You'll see this number actually come out as well and talk more about it in our reports for the community too. I
036think it's important because when the public sees the first number, they're like 50%. No, they can read. They can read. They're just right, you know, and even the reading test, it's not a reading, it's not a reading test. I mean, you have like yes, you have to be able to decode, but you need to be able to do inferences and analysis and character. Like, it's way more than just can you read? Yeah. And then the next chart I just thought, okay, if you included that partially proficient, where would our percents be over time? And so, we're the green bar and you can kind of track us over time of where our proficiency is in reading as a district. So, that's all grades. And then compared to the states, if you included that partially proficient, I
037feel like then we're hovering closer to that the high 70s into low 80s range for that. I'm just going to make a comment here because the center for the American spearmint experiment came out and I think a lot of us probably saw that and not only did they put proficiencies for example crank public schools 81.25% they gave a letter grade for it. So they chose the first proficiency which if you look at ours is 59 that would mean we'd be uh D+ traditional grading scale. Is that Yeah. So they literally graded them uh with that proficiency as a grade like a percentage. So 59% if you average it up it' be 60 it' be a D minus. So that's how they looked at those things. Exactly how we are constantly battling I guess the the
038rhetoric out there. So they did this for every school. How does your third grader stack up with reading? I don't know how many saw that. But it's it's it's so deceiving when you see that and and I think we score pretty well yet and it's a snapshot. We know those types of things. But I'm just saying those are the things that we're battling. Somebody wants to look it up. Look it up. Third, how does your school stack up? Third grade reading proficiency center for the American experiment. I just curious, is that just Minnesota schools? Just Minnesota schools. Yeah. So why is that a red rock central Matona? Minnotonka. Okay. What do you think? Well, they're a D+ you know. So the highest score is a C plus at 79.41%. Which we could talk about a
039traditional grading scale anyways on 100, right? It's not a grading. you can't even score on. Yeah. I'm just saying just looking at the general publicies and I've seen it on Facebook at least a dozen times. How does your third how do your third grade reading in your school stack up? Yeah. And that's kind of the thing with that which proves how we look at the data actually matters because people are basing their rhetoric on how they choose to look at the data. our math. I mean, if you want to see math, so if you look at the traditional proficiency, it just meets and um exceeds maybe 56.6. If you include partials, we're a little over 80% then in math. And then again, trend data over time. If you do it by partially proficient, we're again
040always kind of in the high 70s to low 80s the last few years. So the other thing I want to talk about is this is this is one data point I feel like the public really looks at MCAS but we look at it so much more and there are other ways to know whether what we're doing is working. So like I just wanted to show you a couple other things we look at. For example, we can pull all grades of kids and so like this is a chart of just um the last few years of all the high school English classes, all levels. So kids in an intervention English class to an honors or an AP English class. And then if they got 70% or better in that class. And so in general, you'd want
04170 to 80% of your kids to get a 70% or higher, that would tell us our core is working. And then I had to clump it by terms because some kids take it term one and term two and some kids take it term three and term four because of the block system. So I had to chunk it out by terms so you could see it. But in general, we're meeting that. So when you look at English classes, all of our kids are getting at least an 80 80% of our kids are getting at least a 70% or better, which tells tends to tell us that our core English classes are doing well. And then I we can and we can do this at middle school. We um elementary grades are a little like that's done
042a little differently, but middle school and high school, you could look at this a little bit more. Obviously, there's a lot of subjectivity with grades, but it's one thing, another thing we could look at. And then math, we do the same. those scores are a little tiny bit lower, but again like math probably took the biggest hit with COVID. So when you're looking at how kids came out of COVID and how their grades came back and um we have a lot the sequencing and math changes a lot more with your advanced track and kids potentially like not having like intermediate algebra and going right from advanced eighth grade into like they don't have that additional algebra like you have sequencing more issues with math which makes it a little different when you compile those kids
043together into one data pool. But we can se we do I mean I do have the data where it separates out by kids in advance classes, regular classes, intervention classes. So it's just more data we can look at to see if our core is working. And then another example of data we look at is this is the percent of kids who are in any access intervention for math and reading. And you can see in the last three years the percent of our kids getting it. This is like tier 2 intervention or support. This is not special education students, but like it's declining, which tends one conclusion you can maybe draw to that is if your core is working well, then you have less kids who need to get intervention and that's been declining over the
044last few years. Can you separate that out? Yes. Math and reading. Have you noticed a difference of the latest trend? Yeah, like it um both are following the same pattern. Um we do get part of this is just resource allocation. We service more kids in reading than we do math and part of that is just staffing as well. Um so we do have more kids serviced in reading intervention but that is the same trend. So we do we actually drop it out. We also have behavior. So we have math we have reading we also have behavior data and then we also look at kids who were in intervention then how many exit because intervention worked. So again more data like any data you want you basically have but I feel like that does kind of
045tell you the health of your system. If your core is working well less kids should need intervention. Um, and then I thought I'd just show a couple literacy data. Now, granted, I didn't want to do every grade everything because it's Thursday night and you I mean there's I could show you every grade in every subject area and that would be a lot, but in general, this is what we're looking at if you wanted to see a sample. Like letter sounds are a really good indicator of how how kids are doing in kindergarten. And this is our fall to spring growth last year. So, in the fall, 51% of our kids knew were proficient in knowing their letter sounds and 31% did not meet their target in the fall. But then the growth, and this is
046districtwide, so both elementary buildings, we went up to 71%. And I think the other key is like we really shrunk the red like the 31% of kids who were not even like did not meet the target letter sounds, only 9% still couldn't meet the target letter sounds. Um, so we look at that data again as an indicator of how our reading is doing. like in kindergarten. In first grade, a sample is segmenting. Like if you can break apart the sounds into their individual components and again we see that kind of growth and for the most part that's how almost every grade kind of looks is like they all have growth from fall to spring. Um it doesn't quite have as much growth as the grades go up um as the reading also gets more difficult.
047But that's the other data we'll look at every building looks at their building level data and then we look the district MTSS team looks at the district level data. So, I just wanted to bring it back to this. Remember, there's three kinds of assessments. So, those classroom assessments are probably the most powerful. And I didn't show you any of that, but that's like the quizzes you take in class or the end of the chapter. That's going to give the teacher the most feedback on what they need to adjust and do. Benchmark assessments are the most the next best helpful. And that's kind of like that letter sounds an example of it. And then your MCAs would be at the peak for your ACTs. Be that final one. Do you have any questions? I just have
048a comment. I love this kindergarten slide. I just love that because I had a reader or I had a kindergartener that was so excited to start kindergarten because she was going to learn how to read and it didn't go well for her. So, I just thinking back on that if she had been part of the letter things, things would have been a lot different in our life. So, I love this slide. I did share with each of you that article. I think it's those are the kind of things that we do have to address because I know I've been already confronted on that half a dozen times and I just think we have to and I actually responded back to the author of that article and I did have a dialogue back and forth with
049this gal who was who wrote that article and and you just can't get anywhere. But you should look at it and if you look at that, the whole state of Minnesota is in trouble. And that's how people view that, too. And I I think there's enough people out there that that look at that and they really publish that. So, I do think we need to, you know, not to be too concerned about it. We certainly need to combat that, I guess, at least with that so they understand what what MCA testing is. Other data we could could show to is um there's data it's called. It's tracking kids once they leave us like how well are they doing once they go and that's getting more robust and so we can look at what percent of
050our kids go on and do like go into college and finish college or how they do in the work like we can track some of that data to also show that what we've done here sets kids up for success and they're doing okay when they leave too you don't need more work but I think sometimes when I read this and we've talked back and forth Brian too about this that I I I think there almost needs to be some kind of a response months when you see that. But I don't want to bring too much light to it, but it's all over the place. I mean, you don't have to go very far to to find that it's been on several meetings that I've had. I I think sometimes they require somewhat of a response
051to those kinds of things because I think you maybe you've even seen it in your soup for the soup. I don't know if anybody said anything or people called or you hear it, Sarah, but it'd be it'd be really nice to have just a district bullet point. here's our response to this kind of stuff. I think as our annual report finalizes for next month because we're we're in design mode right now, we have intentionally taken our assessment data and started to do this new narrative. So I think we're going to have a very good response moving forward to put a new standard on the table. So that's going to help us a lot too because remember in essence everyone's going to see that report as well. So that they'll have it at their fingertips but
052more importantly we'll have it to say this is the real data. And you're right. I mean, it just goes back to perception. I will say like said, we we sort of showed this to our folks in the room and tested this out a little bit and just said, I mean, are there things you want to poke in this or do you think they don't understand or that doesn't make sense? And I felt like our response was really authentic like no, I get it. We did a lot of it was we just didn't know even like the test itself that opened up everyone's eyes and turned the whole thing off to like wow. It was a longer version too comp. Exactly. was like, I can't believe the difference between the 1980s and now what our kids
053have to do. And what Sarah didn't share either is that when you took the two, people were more successful in the 1980 version and people struggled on the other one and we're like and we did it was a third fourth grade sort of level test. So I think it's just good to get that perspective because again once you get it and actually do this you're like wow I Well, I hate to say it those of you there in this room took those tests. I don't know. I'm starting to question. It's kind of interesting. I think having this bad I just think I wish I had this in a Z. I could just Okay. Answer the questions. It was hard to find the like the 1980s. I always because that's also under lock and key. Like
054I had to do a little like dark web digging to try to find questions. I don't know if it's dark. I don't know what it is. It's probably It was googly. He was just googling but it was like you know old images somebody scanned in too I don't know if you going to be arrested let's be honest you're doing so well but I was just thinking don't share it because I don't know where I mean I had to pull those questions from but I think the exercise is really useful and then it's a question that you can come up with the legislative form what has changed and I think that's really powerful to say if the tests themselves change as we update it's been um so as we respond and and address these questions that's
055really powerful this is really okay and I think just the presentation you gave today is exactly how we need to address this we need to say this is how we frame it. This is how we use assessments. This is how our kids are actually doing by multiple measures. Right? It's important to just keep sharing that message. Well, one thing that came across really well this soup with the soup event which anybody listening should go that was really those events. Um the the point of those daily that that classroom assessment level stuff is that we then can intervene on individual learners and improve their outcomes now versus taking those OCAs sending them off and saying good luck but we missed you. You can't read now but we missed you. This is constant intervention. Yes. Well thank
056you. Thank you so much. Okay, we are going to move to the consent agenda, but before we vote on the whole consent agenda, I'd like to pull out Brenda Carlson. We'll vote on that separately. We need a full board here on I think and we don't we don't have Josh. So, I think we need to pull Brenda off until the whole board. That's what we've done in the past. Yeah, I don't think that's Here's what I'd say. You could do it tonight. We can check into it and we'll do it again. I think we just told it I haven't checked on what's official. Half the time I'm usually done coaching by the time it's okay. We're way for tonight. We're going to pull out and we'll need a motion and a second to accept her
057head contract. Um, so anyone would like to make a motion, we'll make a motion second. All in favor say I. I. I'maining against same sign uh Brenda's soft coaching contract passes. Now we'll go ahead and we'll cover the rest of the that includes claims and accounts personnel the rest of the personel listed certified agreements extra agreements other I make a motion to accept the rest of the consent agenda items. I'll second all in favor say I same sign. Rest of consent agenda is accepted. Looks like we have no business. So, we'll move on to new business. We have some donations. Um, we have the Jean Hus Foundation for Community Education Robotics for $4,000. The American Legion for school supplies and winter coat drive for 1,500. The TF Parents for Education for TF Playground Swing Mats
058for 1250. Um, in memory of Herb Janganger, we have Shag athletic scholarships for $4,400 and then CL PTO is donating for Lakeside for $9,300. So, we'll take a motion, a second. We'll do it as a roll call vote. I'll make a motion. I'll second it. And we'll start with you, Sarah. Sarah, hi friend. Jen, I Jeff, and Lorie, we accept the donations and we thank this community for always being so generous to our schools. All right, we're moving on to the Minnesota High School League Form A. And this is something we do every year. It's attached. I don't know if there's any questions about it, but it's basically our um participation in the Minnesota High School. Correct. Oh yes, Brenda's the video comes later. You can watch it three or four times like I have
059if you want to. So second to accept the Minnesota high school form A as presented. I'll make a motion to accept the form as we have a motion and second. All in favor say I. I. again, same sign. The motion passes. Cory Becker is here to talk to us about the insurance rates, which I'm sure are going down. I uh would duck a lot less. Uh I don't know if I have much to say about it this year just because we didn't have to go out for bit this year because we insurance company last year. And part of our rate cap is you can't um search other companies for a better rate. Um by law we have to go out every two years. So next year would be another at the end of the year.
060Um but they they went to our rate cap. We were projected with our um claims plus ratio to be higher than what the rate cap was. So it was a very smart decision last year to stay with Blue Cross Blue Shield. Um otherwise we would have seen a larger increase than what we are already seeing. So um differences up there are the total cost of it. It doesn't break down our contribution versus employee contributions. It's just the total cost year over year of what the difference is. Any questions about these insurance numbers from anyone? What board members do we have on the insurance committee? I was just going to say we did have insurance committee meeting was really a reporting of what the rates are going to be. Oh yeah. Didn't want to be redundant.
061Talking about the claims loss. So, if there are no questions, we do need to make a motion and second to ex to approve these insurance rates whether we'd like it or not. Want to make a motion to accept the insurance rate. I'll make a motion to accept the insurance rates. All in favor say I. I. Again, same sign. The motion passes. Thanks, Cy. All right, we need a resolution from the board to call for a special election. Um, need a motion in the second winter roll call. So, the entire resolution is in the board book. So, we just have just have a small paragraph here. um resolution relating to determining the necessity of issuing general obligation bonds and calling for a special election providing at the February date again. February 10th will be the date
062of our election. Um anything to add before we vote on this? Now I do say for anyone that's watching this or wants to know is that we spent four months going through after the election surveys, conversations, discussions, assessments to try to figure out what we want to do to come back because these needs are not going to go away. Uh I thought we came with a really good plan and which really focused on sure we still got the work that needs to get done done but trying to take an approach to really lessen the burden financially knowing that again we're a highly taxed area as well as giving some choice in the matter. So I think we've really taken a lot of perspective and I'm proud of the work that we've done to come up
063with this to really address the need. Yeah I would just say that there was questions about like oh when why are you running it in February? I said, "Well, that's about as quick as we could get it up." And you know, of course, that wasn't the real reason for the question, but we do know that we have to pass these things and we have to get it back out there to the voters and and I don't think people realize how much is involved. You just I think a lot of people just think, well, you just say, you know, you put it on the ballot, that's kind of all there is to it. And obviously, we've been doing this a bunch. You're probably getting better and better at it all the time. That would be one
064thing that I would notice. We we have changed a couple of things and it is getting better and there's some things that we've learned about such as postcards which I addressed again today on social media and and I just think we're just doing it better and it takes a bit of time to get that all together like a lot of things again those happen behind the scenes we just we just make a resolution all the work that goes behind them there's a lot of hours behind it lot of hours all right if there are no further questions We'll take a motion and a second to accept this resolution for calling for a special election. I'll make a motion. Motion second. Second. Have a second. And Sarah will start with you again for the roll call.
065Sarah, I the resolution passes to call for special election. All right. If if there isn't anything further, we need a motion in a second to adjurnn the meeting. I so move. I second that one. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor of the meeting say I. Again, same sign. The meeting is adjourned. I'm closer.