May 5, 2026 at 4:30 PM - Monthly Committee of the Whole Board Meeting

001I'll turn it over to the clerk for roll call. Member Banks. Here. Chair Eater. Here. Member LaFontaine. Here. Vice Chair LaFontaine. Here. I'm Clerk Mixon, I am here. Treasurer Sedesky. Here. Member Williams. >> Here. Superintendent Megas. Present. Assistant Superintendent Bonds. Present. Deputy Clerk Zunich. Present. Uh Executive Assistant Brown is excused and in her place is Board Secretary McCarty. Here. Roll call is complete. Thank you. I will now turn it over to Assistant Superintendent Bonds for the rest of the meeting. Thank you and good evening board and thank you for joining us all of you guests and presenters. So board, I am really excited about tonight's meeting because there's a lot of information and I love when we start a meeting off with our students. So I'm going to call up our coordinator for our Check

002& Connect programming, Sarah Lalanne. She will provide an update related to our Check & Connect uh program and she will have the opportunity to introduce all of her guests and our students who are with her. So I will turn it over to Coordinator Lalanne. Hello and thank you. We're glad to be back here tonight. When we met with you guys in November, we really talked about the data, the statistics, the absentee rates, the graduation rates. But tonight we're going to talk about something different. We're going to talk about the lived experience that comes beyond those outcomes. What makes Check & Connect work isn't just the strategy, it's the relationships. So I'm super excited tonight to have some students with us, to have some caregivers with us, and to even have MDE with us to talk

003about those relationships. So we're going to start with the students that are here. The way this is going to work tonight is I have one question for each member that is here. Um cuz we would like to take all night, but we know we don't have that. There's a long agenda. Um and then at the end you're able to ask anyone questions, but I'm going to go through all those that joined us tonight first. So, first, um I'm going to have you introduce yourself, Izzy, what grade you're in, and what school you go to. I'm Izzy. I'm a 10th grader, and I go to Denfeld High School. Izzy, can you please describe a time when you were struggling and your Check & Connect mentor checked in with you? Um I get very bad anxiety. So,

004like at school in the mornings, I get like very overwhelmed with everything. So, I go to Check & Connect, and Faith always gives me the support that I need. If I like feel sad or if I'm like upset about anything, she always gives me the support I need. Thank you, Izzy. Do you want to introduce yourself? Hi, my name is Antonio Brown. I'm a senior, and I go to Denfeld High School. Antonio, what is something that your mentor has done for you that's really stuck with you? Um there Faith is my Check & Connect mentor, and whenever I need help with like grades or honestly anything, like I go in there for lunch every day cuz I don't like the school lunch. But, even like everybody in there so friendly. Kim, she was she's an

005ex-Spanish teacher, so sometimes she could give me some pointers when I'm struggling in Spanish. So, it's like really nice that they're here. Thank you, guys. Is there anything else that you want to share about Check & Connect or your mentors? Okay. You guys can go sit down, and we'll have the parents come up. Thank you, both. Thank you. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Lynn, would you introduce yourself first, please? My name is Lynn, and I'm Hi. My name is Lynn. I'm Izzy's mom. Okay. Lynn, thank you. What did it mean to know that you have someone at school that you feel like really knows your child? Um it is huge for me. Izzy had a lot of um I kind of troubles coming from middle school to high school and with Check and Connect

006it was just very comforting that there was somebody that she could go to with um social anxiety, um any any homework issues, but especially navigating high school um ninth and 10th grade and I feel like it has made all the difference. Uh she's a totally different kid than when she was in junior high. She her grades are fantastic. Um and that [clears throat] wasn't always the case. She loves going to school. She loves having Faith there for her as a Transition to high school is really hard. Um First semester of ninth grade was rough. I think as it is for a lot of students. Um and we were connected with Check and Connect during that kind of into that second semester of last year and since then the relationship with Faith that Natalia's had has

007been extremely beneficial at sometimes like don't even want to go to school, but I get to see Faith today and like that can sometimes be one of the only reasons that like the motivation to go to school is like those touchstone people that she has at the building and one of those people is Faith. And the like overwhelm of like high school and assignments and organizing and like those are those life skills that we have to learn to be functioning people and that's hard and when you're getting behind in your homework and like Faith can sit down and like help Natalia make a plan of like, okay, what assignments are we going to work on? How do we get those grades up? What incentives to get you to class? And like, there's been classes where

008we didn't know if there was going to be credit. And Faith and Natalia worked really diligently together to make a plan that felt doable for her. And she was able to achieve those goals because she had Faith as her person that she can go to that can help make it seem more manageable when it's really overwhelming. And I don't know without Faith and without Check & Connect if we would be as successful at Denfeld and just in high school in general as we are without. Thank you. We have one more parent that just came up here. Would you come up and join me? I didn't know this would be a big thing. I would have dressed better. Sorry. >> [clears throat] >> So, did you? Yep. If you just want to introduce yourself and your

009the age of your child and what school. >> Yeah, I'm Jeric Muma. I'm Kobe Muma's father. And Jeric, what do you want the board to know about how Check & Connect has supported your family and how you feel like the communication has changed with the school since you've had Check & Connect? Well, I can say one thing, my son struggles with going to school. He's like a lot of other kids. But he really wrestles with that and without Check & Connect and the two ladies that really help him out, he wouldn't continue to go to Denfeld. He probably would have given up a long time ago. I kind [clears throat] of think about I'm also a pastor in the area as well. I also think about like Jesus and he's going, you know, leaves the

01099 after the one. I feel like the Check & Connect people are like that. The ones that are on the fringes, the ones that are struggling that don't really kind of fit into the mold of school and the ones that really need extra help. That's what's been my son has been receiving from Check & Connect and from these ladies. My wife actually was supposed to come here and speak today, but she was working. And so, I kind of got roped into it. But I But I honestly have felt so proud of my son. And when he comes home, he talks about these Penny and who else is it? Sorry. Penny? And Kim. I I apologize, Kim. He talks about them all the time. And it's almost like a second mother to him. You know, both

011of them. And he just speaks so highly of them. And it's been such a blessing and for us, too, because I see a new light kind of just turning on for him. He'll come home from school and like he's doing better because of Check & Connect and these two women in his life and what they're doing. And so I know being in school in general, like sometimes we think everyone can learn a certain way and we kind of just put them in this box and here you go. I know we're trying to figure out different ways and learning paths. But for some reason, this one really works for him and I want to hopefully continue for other kids like him in school. They have opportunities to have people like this be able to invest in

012them and make them feel heard, seen, and help them be able to learn and be successful. Thank you. Will the two of you and the MDE come out, please? So, we have two MDE [clears throat] counterparts with us. And the reason I brought them here is because they have walked alongside our Check & Connect program and myself for the last 10 years. Um and they not only help us with fidelity and implementation, but they help us with the relationships. Um so, Chris, I'll have you introduce yourself first. Uh hi, my name is Chris Reynolds. All right. That that Sure thing. My name is Chris Reynolds and I'm as Sarah said, with MDE. Chris, why are relationships like this critical and important for student success? Well, I think when we're talking about students All right, there

013we go. When we're talking about students participating in Check & Connect, often times, as several people talked about, some of these students have become very disenfranchised with school, just not feeling like they're a part of showing a history or pattern of not wanting to attend school. So, having these relationships within Check & Connect where students feel like they are valued, that their time in school is important and productive, and that the relationship itself is authentic, that often can be enough to to get the student in the door. And I think Check & Connect also has holistic approach where they also bring in the family, too. So, that piece is is critical. Thank you. Ellen, would you introduce yourself? Sure. Hi. My name is Ellen Asic. I work with MDE with my partner here. He did

014fail to say he's a he specializes in working with ALC, so he's got a just a lot of good background. I'm the nerd. I work in implementation science. So, yes. Go ahead. Sorry. No, thank you, Ellen. So, since you've been working with Duluth School District, how has the implementation of Check & Connect here helped drive some of the other programming throughout the state? I don't know even where to begin. First of all, like to I want to get back to that relationship piece. To have the relationships that you all have developed between schools, between administrators, between divisions, along with teachers, mentors, and you students. I mean, these relationships go all the way up with us. You guys have been a truly remarkable and a national exemplar in implementing Check & Connect over a decade. I've

015been partnering with you all for about 12 years. We stand on the shoulders of other people who have done this before, but it has come you know, you have you're getting some return on your investment in in some one most special ways in terms of the relationships and stories I heard, but also um I don't know what to say. This has been the most meaningful work I've ever done in my life and I'm about to retire soon. So, um thank you. Thank you for inviting us and congrats on the great work. Thank you for being here and thank you for all the families and students that are here tonight. I think what we heard is really what the data can't fully encompass, right? We just heard a couple stories, but we have several. We have

016We had to turn away parents and families that wanted to be here and talk about Check & Connect tonight because really what Check & Connect is about, it's about going from being unseen to being known. Right? It's about being starting at risk and becoming on track. Check & Connect works because every student has one person at school that they can turn to who notices them, who follows up with them, who refuses to let them call fall through the cracks. And a lot of students, like we heard tonight, the relationship is the turning point. Building that solid, safe, and secure relationship in the school is really what makes it happen. So, it's not all about the credits and attendance. Yes, we want those. We want to see those increased graduation rates. We know that Check &

017Connect's attributing to that, but it's about belonging. It's about trust and it's about building those relationships. So, we are just here to say thank you for your guys' continued support for Check & Connect um and we hope that there's a lot more students that will be impacted with Check & Connect in the years to come. Thank you and I want to take this opportunity to say thank you and thank you to all of the mentors, uh you know, for all of your work that you do with the students and mentees as well. Students, thank you for showing the courage and coming up here and sharing a part of your story because uh this work is important and you are making a difference in students' lives and so we really appreciate all the hard work of

018all the staff who are, you know, rolling up their sleeves and doing the hard work to build those relationships, and and thank you students for also, you know, responding to some of that support and reaching out to those caring adults. I mean, research shows that if every student had uh one caring adult in the building, you know, it would make a real big difference in their lives. So, um great job to you as well. So, I'll take some questions. Superintendent Magers, and then I'll come around to others as well. >> [clears throat] >> Sure. I I too want to say thanks to uh everybody involved. Thanks thanks to you, Sarah. Thanks to the mentors. Thanks to the students. And um couple of things I would say uh even though we were going through some really

019difficult budget times and our grant for for our our Check and Connect program had come to an end, I know we weren't able to to save every position, but we really chose this our principals and others uh chose it as a very important priority, and so we we reallocated as much funding as we could towards it. So, we really tried we kept the vast majority uh impact-free, um but we realized that there's sacrifice cuz there's fewer people, but but it was very much prioritized because we see what a difference it makes. And then I would also say uh to our students too that that um sometimes struggle with wanting to be in school and struggle with anxiety and things like that. I I I actually struggled quite a bit when I was in in school

020and and didn't like coming and had a lot of anxiety and had some people who were mentors to me. And so, I uh recognize the value of it, and I would also say even though you might see yourself as struggling now and and and whatnot, maybe you'll be running a school district sometime and you can you can think about how you can how can you improve systems and and reach out to others. And so, really I'm very very proud of each and every one of you for for stepping up even though it's hard to do sometimes. So, thanks to everyone. Member Banks. Yes. Thank you very much. I um was taking some notes here and I kept hearing uh the name Faith. And then Penny and Kim. Are they here? I do want to give

021a shout out. We do have our whole of Denfeld checking in connection through here. So, if you guys want to stand up so they see who you are. Awesome. >> [applause] >> I I just wanted to just take a moment to thank folks for the awesome work that they do with our students, our children, and anything we can do to make the quality of education the best it can be. I think we should be doing. So, thank you. Thank you. Uh board members, if you could just put your um mic in front so I can see the green light if you if so I can call on you if you have a green light. Also, I'll be remiss not to say thank you parents, you know, for all your support of the school and the

022program and every your students. So, I want to make sure you're acknowledged parents as well. Member Mike Schultz. Thank you all for taking the time to be here and helping us understand the amazing work that you do. Um it's always good to have the schools come to us when we're not able to get to you every day. Um and thank you students for being here. Thank you MDE for making the trip up and or over wherever you came from. Um and sharing about how Duluth is a a national example. That's incredible. Um I know that our funding stream for this has come from various spots um and various entities in the past. And I'm hopeful that we can send this portion of our meeting to those entities that have supported us in the past or

023are in the process of having to step back support because of their funding streams so that they can understand that um the investment that they put into our school district and into our community to strengthen our schools, to support our kids, um so that when we are in a situation where there are better funding sources, um we can be first in line to to have some of those conversations about making sure that we're supporting um groups and programs that are obviously working really well and making a big difference. So, hopefully we can make sure that we are getting this information out to not only our community members, but also um to those who have supported this uh with funds in the past. Thank you. I appreciate that. Adele, that's uh I heard some raw footage

024right here uh from our parents and our students uh it you know, it can be used to help support the program and in messaging. I would like to acknowledge that we do have Linnea Marsh in the back. And Linnea is the Deputy Director of St. Louis County and one of our biggest supporters through COVID. They really helped us scale up how Check & Connect is done done in the school district. She still believes in the program and she chose to be here because it means so much to her. So, thank you, Linnea. Member Loeffler Kempton and then member Loeffler Kempton. Yeah, I [clears throat] I want to I guess again agree with all the thank yous for being here and um from MD students, families, and and our staff. So, just really thank you. Um

025I really appreciate what uh member Michael Self said and I also encourage us to get the word out, get this portion out as well. But uh this program I've always loved as a board member that's been around for a long time supporting it. Um when you have brought students and families uh here at the table with us. So, I just a huge appreciation. Um uh we can get these great presentations, but hearing the students speak, hearing the families and parents speak really means a lot. So, thank you and uh I know we've made investments in it as well as have had great partnerships and we hope to continue it for students across our district. Thank you. Yeah, and I just want to add to all of that, too, and and just say that um I

026have a privilege to have been able to work almost daily at the Denfeld site as a as a coach after school, but a retired teacher and get to walk by the check and connect room. Oftentimes I use it for after school speech tournaments and and work. So, I get to see the inspiring um lighting and the inspiring um you should see their class their their space. It it's a beautiful space and I can see why our students feel welcomed and safe. There's inspirational quotes. There's you know, paintings. There's just all of this richness that goes into the environment that um at least our team of check and connect mentors at Denfeld and others I know in our district. I think we still have an East um um check and connect staff one um that that

027is reaching and and and helping as well. So, but the other thing just kind of um partnering after um member Mike Sell's um comments and the funding streams and the challenges we've had there. And um member Laffler Kemper and I and and others too, we go down to the capital to um advocate for funding. And these are the stories that they really want to hear. So, you know, Superintendent Assistant Superintendent Bonds when you said, you know, we have it right here. We should have been videotaping it right now. But again, I hope we can maybe reach out again to our students and to our staff because um I I think I think there could be some legislation that, you know, goes towards the check and connect proven through data, a fact they have on students

028so that we could get more opportunities for grants, more opportunities for funding through legislation that says, you know, there's a need and I I I know that they they don't have any money either, but you know, sometimes they'll do that small program that's This is not a small program, but it that proves success and is willing to put some funding behind it, too. But I just appreciate all that you do. And I like the stories. Thank you. I appreciate it. And so as they are transitioning, I wanted to make the community aware that you will notice that we pulled an audible. We started with Check Connect because our first presenter, Mr. Ray Queener, had a conflict and he's running a bit behind. So, once he gets here, we will pull another audible and have him

029start after that presentation. So, next up under supporting every student, it's our social studies curriculum review and adoption presentation. Our directors for secondary and elementary schools, um please join us as well as we have London Goody as well as Susan Schmidt who are our secondary teachers and coordinators for social studies. Welcome. He's closing the doors now. So, I'll turn it over to Hello everyone. I'm Susan Schmidt. I'm the content lead for secondary social studies. And I'm London Goody. I'm the content lead for elementary. I'm I have a little bit of background for you on the social studies standards and where we are in the process. We have you can see in our slide presentation here. We received our new standards from the state in 2021. They were the typical one to two year process of

030rewriting standards. We still have social studies standards are into strands, so your uh typical the history uh economics, geography, and civics and government. And then and a fifth strand was added this year as well. Uh we have some new shifts. Uh some of them were shifts that were we were starting to see with the last batch of standards, but they're really emphasized in this set. Um and so these shifts are much of it is instructional shifts. So, we have been looking a lot of our process has been changing and looking for more development for teachers in how we teach social studies. So, those shifts include um one of the biggest one is an increased use in the inquiry process. And in the inquiry process I it's very similar to like the scientific process, right? Students

031will um produce their own questions ideally or or teachers present them with questions, what we call uh you know, like essential questions or compelling questions that students then can investigate through sources. And um often that that process also includes some problem-solving or at least coming up with plans on how to solve a problem. So, the increase increase use of the inquiry process is embedded in all the standards K-12 across all of those strands. Um there's also a focus on disciplinary literacy skills. In the past our we had a second set of standards that were just content literacy skills. Those content literacy skills are embedded in the social studies standards, so it's all all together and um just kind of be because it is just timely is that yesterday we had the secondary teachers at least

032had a um full almost full day training of literacy content literacy, so that's that's really helpful. Um so, within those standards um there's an emphasis on reading, particularly primary sources, writing about social studies, and then communicating findings. Um, so that's that portion. There is an additional strand that was added, which is called ethnic studies, and I know there's a little bit of confusion over the different requirements for ethnic studies. Um, the the state requires that there are ethnic studies courses that are available to students as electives. These ethnic studies standards are separate, and they are attached to the social studies standards, so they would be required. Um, and those are K-12 as well. And then, kindergarten through eighth grade, uh, this this was a part of the previous set of standards, but a very interdisciplinary

033model, meaning interdisciplinary within the social studies, that instead of having um, just third grade be history and just fourth grade be geography, we see those all five strands in every level. Um, for example, in the middle school for, uh, seventh grade, there's US studies, which then encompasses geography, civics, history, um, economics, and ethnic studies all together. So, those are the shifts, um, that we are seeing both in the content that is the concepts and content that is, uh, required of teachers, but also in some instructional shifts that are needed as well. Um, for the adoption process, there's just a timeline there really quick to show you kind of where we are. Um, we received the standards, and our committees started analyzing the new standards. We, um, we started as a K-12 group, and I had

034the K-12, and then we were able to add London, so you came on right around that 2022 mark, I'd probably say, right? Um, so our committees conducted a needs assessment with our staff, students, community members. We looked at what are the differences between the standards that existed prior and what we would need to address things that we didn't have um potential resource gaps and knowledge gaps and professional development needs. Um our committees reviewed sources um and uh began revising written curriculum. Uh right now secondary the process of writing their unit plans and pacing guides um aligning each of those standards to a unit in every course 7 6 through 12 and then identifying resources for them. So. And then this past year elementary um we had a committee that piloted two different social studies curriculums,

035Studies Weekly and Exploring Social Studies Minnesota. Um so most of this year was spent with our committee. We spent the first half of the year doing Studies Weekly and then the second part of the year piloting the other one. Um and then came to our recommendation which was the Exploring Social Studies Minnesota. Um oh nope nope. Um so the Social Studies Committee um thought that Exploring Social Studies Minnesota was uh the better option out of all the ones that we looked at and then the two that we piloted for lots of different reasons. Um on the forms that we gave teachers that piloted uh Exploring Social Studies Minnesota outranked by quite a bit. Um something that was really special is that it's fully aligned to our our new Minnesota state standards which is kind of

036unheard of for curriculum. Um, so we're really excited about that including all of our new ethnic studies standards, which I think teachers are really worried about implementing and want to do a good job. So having curriculum that does that for us really well is really great. Um, it is a lot easier on time, which is definitely a struggle in the everywhere, but especially in the elementary classrooms. Um, specifically for social studies is that's the only one that isn't tested in the elementary level and so it's hard. It's often something that kind of falls on the back burner. So um, picking a curriculum that teachers can do in a short amount of time is going to be helpful in making sure that it gets done and done well. Um, it was less expensive and they the

037publishers consulted with representatives from Fond du Lac of Lake Superior Chippewa. Um, so they approved all of the materials um, from an indigenous standpoint as well. Um, you can see if we can go back one actually. There's only one secondary resource noted at this point and I'll I'll mention first the kind of struggle with finding resources London kind of mentioned. There's nothing that is written except for Northern Lights that is written for our Minnesota standards and they are quite different. Um, than many other places. And so we have really struggled to find much for secondary that's going to fit our needs. So I'm hoping that I can kind of differ that decision until our teachers have had more time to really see what it is that they need. Um, so sixth grade is is intending

038to purchase the newest edition of Northern Lights. It is written by the Minnesota Historical Society and it's so it's so it is specific again to Minnesota standards which is which is very rare. Um, the course for sixth grade is Minnesota studies. And then so it is it it will fit that completely. Now, we that publication of that book is still is still ongoing. So, we don't have that book in front of us even yet. We received a few chapters. Um, but they're still writing it actually. So, the um, the crunch time is coming. Um, sixth grade teachers felt that with the the chapters that we've been able to preview, they're feeling confident that it will be a good resource for them as it has been in the past. Um, Minnesota Historical Society has a large

039um, set of um, folks that they lean on to have approval for their their content. And so, we're pretty confident with that one. Um, we're less like I'm less confident in being able to find something wholesale that will fit our high school courses in particular. So, it's still a work in progress for that. So. Um, so Brenda Sparks and Jen Larva here. And um, we're just um, here to support the work of our social studies um, folks that are doing the lead uh, the lead work with our um, committees. We also did want to mention that um, all of our resources have been gone through with our district advisory committee. Um, and I believe we came twice to the district advisory committee or was it just once? I felt like it was twice that we

040talked about. Once? Oh. They came once. They came once, but we had them further conversations twice. So, the district advisory committee also had taken a look at at this a couple of different times, too. So, as far as the cost goes, you can see on the board. I mean, this is how much our initial investment is going to be, especially for the exploring um social studies. Uh one thing about exploring social studies, there's no annual cost for us. Many times when we purchase a new curriculum, there's uh an annual cost as far as um access to the digital resources. This does not have that. That's great. Another thing, what we call consumables, so those workbooks that you get, they with this purchase, they give us what we call the blackline master. So, the master for

041those workbooks, and then our print shop can print them for us, which is great. Um that's quite a cost savings, and so we will have this initial investment, but then annually, we won't have um a big cost. So, that as we move forward with curriculum, that's going to be something that we need to keep in mind. Um so, this fulfills um those things for us cost-wise. I believe member Laffler Kemper was first. Great, thank you so much uh for this update and some of the background on um uh uh the historical society and and who you reviewed this with and that. So, really appreciate that. I did have a couple further questions about the cost then and um I guess I I just want people to understand the cost uh more. And so, um I

042think you highlighted a few things uh we we get often from people um are our kids um not having any hard cover books anymore or are books to bring home particularly with social studies. And can you kind of shed some light on why uh particularly for middle school and high school, we tend to have more online these days than the hard covered books. I mean, I remember when I first got on the board, getting books passed around to us, and we've kind of moved beyond that a little bit more, but we still have them. So, kind of on that kind of train of thought, if you could share some background. I'll start on that. Um for secondary, I think some of it was a push from COVID and having the the accessibility of Chromebooks, but

043even before that, um social studies chose to pilot using Chromebooks before the pandemic. And so, part of that is because um when we start reviewing a textbook, especially if we want to say we're going to pilot something, we may be looking at a textbook that by the time it gets in front of students full full on, it's maybe 5 years old by that at least. I have a couple of samples in my room that are from 2020, and if they were to be adopted, they would be 8 or 9 years old by by that time. And then we're expected to use them for 10 years. So, hardcover textbooks are a dilemma because we know that being able to read hard, you know, like paper copies of things is beneficial for students, but for a very

044quickly changing content area, it can be really difficult to stomach spending that kind of money on a hardcover resource that is really only valuable, even before the digital resources were widely available. Um you know, I was using a government textbook in 2012 that had a 2002 copyright, I think. So, that that will happen. And so, it's just it's a lot more conducive to our subject area that changes so quickly. Especially for me, I teach I teach government. So, it's helpful to not have your presidents in the back of the book run out at, you know, Clinton or something like that. Thank you for that that background. And just kind of maybe a follow-up to that is we we do have, though, some hardcover textbooks available for students who might need that that way of learning?

045Um well, it depends on the the course. So, seventh grade right now is looking at a resource where that would have a hard cover component. And likely what that would mean is a classroom set to be more um budget-friendly. And so, students would be able to And sixth grade has been doing this a bit for the last few years, too, where they have the in-class um set. So, there's 30 in a room, and then students use them in class during the day, but they have access to the online resources um outside of class. And I think that depending on the amount of textbooks in a given building, sometimes students can check them out from the library, as well. Chair Darger Um to continue member Loeffler Kamps' um line, I looked up explore exploring social studies

046and seeing that it's done by teacher-created materials. So, we're not using McGraw-Hill, we're not using Cengage, we're not using any of those huge textbook companies. And this to get this curriculum for this for $244,000 is I'm actually astonished by the price. So, nicely done. Um those big publishers like McGraw-Hill and Cengage, you would I mean, they are millions of dollars for us to equip our not only our schools, but then to use the online, and then to continue to pay subscription fees. Like, this is I'm I'm honestly blown away. And it's [snorts] great to have um a textbook or a license using this teacher-created materials because it also um the people who teach the material have been involved in writing the lesson plan. So, very nicely done. I just I just really wanted to compliment

047you and bring attention to equipping our K through five social studies on a revamp for under 250,000 is very nice work with a with a great book as I look through it. And then the Northern Lights for sixth grade for 9,500. I mean, these are this is fantastic. So, nicely done. Thank you for your work and I just wanted to lift up how extraordinary it is we're getting this curriculum for that amount of money. So, thank you. Quality curriculum, I should say, too. Very good curriculum. So, thank you all very much. And also, they they came yesterday. And we had all the training for the elementary teachers with this curriculum. And we had two trainers come. So, within that, too, they're providing professional development. And they it was in-person, on-site. So, they've been very accommodating

048in addition, so. And then you said we have the masters for the workbooks, right? So, we have the masters. >> We own we will own them. Good job. Member Banks, sure. Thank you very much. Can we go back to major shifts, that page? With the new social studies. Just a quick question. Bullet number three. Um I can you share with us, if you have this information, from a local perspective or local standpoint, did you especially within the African heritage community, did you uh consult with anyone here in Duluth uh related to the um ethnic studies program as relates to Duluth because there is a significant uh uh number of uh I would say resources that could help with that. Uh did you consult with anybody in the black community, for example? Or um I know

049you said you've consulted with the Native community. Uh but have you consulted with any folks in the black community or African heritage community here in Duluth. Um for secondary, I will uh note that we're still in the process of developing and so we have a an elective ethnic studies course that's ready to be reviewed by community members. Um I think that's a summer this summer part of the process. So yeah. Thank you. Superintendent Magers. No, [clears throat] I just wanted to say uh thanks to the committee and and for all the hard work that was done in making this election. I I think social studies right now is more important than ever. I think it's an incredible It's always been an incredibly important topic, but I think given the um just the uh importance of

050making sure that kids are well educated about uh government and about about uh culture and history and trends is is incredibly important. So thanks for walking that careful walk and and choosing great materials to uh to um prepare our kids for the future. Member Mike Sundin member Lofood. Um thanks for making the time to come here after I'm sure is a busy long day. Um I appreciated having the presentation and being able to see some of the um uh materials at a district advisory committee that I sit on. Um so thank you for sharing that with our community members who are there as well. I was wondering if you could um just share a little bit more about the curriculum adoption committee and who sits on that. Um I know that we as a board

051you know have the ultimate like approval of the curriculum that is served in our schools, but I know that I trust those that are you know given the task of evaluating and deciding on um what we should be having in our classrooms. So I just wanted to hear a little bit more about the people who are part of that process and make those recommendations to us. Sure. At the elementary level we have um we we have teachers at every grade level that is on the committee K through 5. Um we try to have two to three on from every grade level. And then we try to always have um someone from the Masaba Kong school or part of our school at Lowell and the Spanish immersion at Lowell and Myers Wilkins. Um and so that's

052kind of who sits on the elementary committee. And then a lot of the teachers on that committee piloted. Um but it for some that we couldn't get a teacher to pilot on that committee, we reached out to have other teachers pilot it. Um at the secondary level, uh we have had a really difficult time getting enough people to serve on a committee um across this across the city and across grade levels. So what we were finding last year is that um at committee meetings, I would have maybe three or four people there. And three or four teachers in let alone provide enough input. So um what I did this year is to use professional development days when I knew that all of our staff was together. And so they have been doing a lot of

053that writing themselves um as larger course groups. Um it's kind of a captive audience. So that they they have to do [laughter] it. Um and so then the intent then is to have a committee and you know, review that work. So but yeah, that has been the biggest struggle for me has been to convince people to serve on this committee. And um in folks that will say that will be on it but then then can make the commitment to be there. And so I've taken a little bit different route to make sure that the that this work is getting done. And then we have something that we can we can show that work and get input and feedback on it. So. Well, I'm very glad then that we have those extra professional development days booked

054into our contract and our schedule so that we can have our staff working on this important work um for our kids. So, thank you and thank them when you see them next even though they may have done it begrudgingly. So, appreciate it. Member Lowfoot and then member Banks. So, I I would like to go back to that major shifts in social studies because I I was confused when we talked about the addition of ethnic studies strand. And did you say that it's it's not required that ethnic studies has to be a um an elective, but it's not a required? Was that what you said? >> No, there are two different state statutes. One of them is that schools need to provide electives in a variety of areas. So, we have a literature course, we have

055we have a variety of courses across disciplines that qualify as an ethnic studies course. Okay. Those [snorts] have to be available for students to to choose from, right? This social studies standards, those are required to be implemented within the courses. So. So, there are ethnic studies standards? Yes. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. That that clears it up. Okay. And then my second question was really about are we are we concerned then that we are not finding curriculum choices for our 7th through 12th when when elementary seems like they're already adopting and piloting? Is there a deadline that we're supposed to be um rolling out our new social studies standards like next fall, but we're still not buying curriculum? Right. For our high So, and and yes, we are we are I am behind. I'll I am

056behind in this um because of the this the time that it has taken for teachers to get to know the standards and and be able to review materials. A lot of in once when we're talking about some of the big publishers, their target audience is the are the large markets, Texas and California. And so, they're not written for our standards and there are a lot of unique pieces to our standards. And so likely what we're looking at is if not a resource that can be supplemented with other things. Like do we want to spend hundreds of thousand dollars on a resource and then have to supplement? Or are we going to curate primary sources and other things ourselves or some sort of combination of those two things? So yes, it is definitely a concern. We

057are not I don't I can't think of any course, maybe economics, where you could put a book in front of a teacher and say here's everything you need to know. Can't it's not it doesn't happen in our in our standards. Um on the on the benefit to that is our teachers have had a lot of practice at doing that because our resources are old. And so they've had to supplement and find things along the way and of course with the pandemic and using curated sources from a variety of places. Uh with the inquiry process, a lot of that is in involves reading primary sources which are widely available from the Library of Congress and other places. So Thank you. Mhm. So I'm seeking clarification on something you said earlier. Uh you mentioned again Native Heritage

058and Spanish Immersion as a part of some of the makeup of the committees but have not heard um maybe maybe said it but I've not heard anything on whether or not there are African Heritage or black folks uh in that process. And I'm wondering what the outreach is as it relates to having black folks, African Heritage folks serving on some of these committees. Uh a lot of whom have are credentialed and can serve in a uh wonderful capacity to assist you. Uh but you haven't mentioned any of those folks. Are there folks from the African heritage black community serving on some of these committees? If not, uh I would be remiss if I didn't ask the question, but I would be very concerned and I am uh that if that's not the case, um I

059would suggest that uh some kind of outreach be done uh because we're we're trying to say we have ethnic studies, we have this, that, and the other, but the makeup of the committee is um I hate using this word, but sometimes it's whitewashed. And we can't get the right uh folks from my perspective on these committees to help to make these programs work. So, I'm I'm putting that out there as uh for clarification sake, but I'm actually very concerned that I have not heard African heritage or black folks uh mentioned as a part of the committee. Well, I'm on the committee. >> [laughter] >> Um but I You work for the district. Yes. I uh when I mentioned um Spanish immersion and Misaba Kaung, those are just our programs that we have in our school

060of our immersions of our immersions schools. Um so, I mentioned those as making sure that we're including them, not just our English immersion school part of it. Um we did do reach out to through our forms on um to community members, parents, and our staff, and our um students as well. But I understand the concern. Yeah, I'm not being critical. I'm just asking for clarification cuz I'm just listening and taking notes and I'm just trying to learn about the process. Thank you. And I would just add that since our teachers at the secondary are the ones that are meeting to do the the paperwork paperwork part of it. They were were wanting to have something to be able to present at that point. So, when that's that's our process right now is we want something

061to be able to explain here is where we are um using these units and things like that. So. Member Loff Luck Kim and then member Myxal. Thank you. Thank you and and London, it's great having you here. Yeah, and your perspectives. Um can you just again maybe for the public's uh background a little bit um how often does uh social studies curriculum get updated uh the state standards? Just really brief again to put some context for the public. So, I've been doing this for a while. Um so, you saw me do this the last time. Um the it used to be a 7-year rotation, now it is a 10-year rotation. So, we get new new new social studies standards the same as any other discipline. So, we're in that rotation with math and and ELA

062and everybody else. I would just like to can you remind us the grades that you teach and the locations where you're teaching? I am at Duluth East and I have primarily seniors um American government and politics. And I'm at Lowell and I teach fifth grade. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you and thank you for uh sharing and and all of the work and thank you for the teams who have been working on this hard work all year and well, longer than the year, right? Um and I would be remiss remiss not to also say that yeah, as you know, board um 10 years is a long time to go through a curriculum adoption in you know, places where you know, resources are more plenty. You know, we're we're able to go through adoption every

063five, six years um and that and those are the cycles at the most 7 years. And so, we are where we are and as a district I'm just pleased that we are able to continue to uh use the resources we have to make these adoptions, but we would always uh welcome more resources uh to have um more updated curriculum and it's it's just a process. So, um but as a district we always try to squirrel money away to to make these things happen, right, Small? Right. Thank you. Ne- Next up, we will have a presentation provided by our director for technology, Greg Krieger, is coming up as well as uh Director Larva is assisting as well. Um, I'm part of that team. They're going to share an update related to our artificial intelligence project rollout

064and plans. And also >> We've also asked Cindy Miller. Yeah, we've also asked Cindy Miller to come and participate with us. Welcome, Cindy. So, I'll turn it over to the team. Good evening. Uh we're here today to to talk a bit about uh where we are at with our AI rollout as a district uh and feedback that we have gathered through a variety of mechanisms uh since we've last spoken uh with this group. Uh so, I'm here tonight with Jen and Cindy have uh when we get through that. Right. Um so, since we've last come to the board, um we have actively sought out some feedback from some stakeholder groups and so we wanted to share that with you tonight. Um, we've had some speakers come to listening sessions and um, some of them have

065come from the University of Minnesota Duluth and so we invited um, two of those professors in for some great conversation around their concerns um, and had a great um, I guess kind of brainstorming up ability with them as well. Um, so again school board listening sessions we've been hearing students, we've been hearing um, from parents, we've been hearing from people in the profession. Um, we've also had conducted some student surveys. You'll see a little bit of student survey data a little bit later, but we've had some student surveys that we've done. We've come to the district advisory committee meeting. We did it in March and again in April. So we've come a couple of different times to the advisory committee. And we've also have some results from the secondary teacher survey that was following um,

066some professional development that we have done with our teachers. You can go on to the next slide. Thank you. Um, some of the things that we have heard in those um, conversations that we've been having with folks is that um, some of them is around career readiness that career readiness is important and that employees are seeking AI skills in candidates and they're expecting their employees to leverage AI in their work set in their workplaces. There's still a lot of uncertainty about AI and its impact on student development. Um, it kind of feels like a social experiment is what we've we've heard the phrase around that a couple of different times. Um, we have a lot of concerns um, especially from professors and from our teachers around cheating and how can we redesign our instructional approach

067for addressing how to handle AI um, being available to our students. Not even us rolling it out. This is us it's available. They're using it already and now. So, how are we able to have conversations around what instructional approaches should we be using with kids so that, um, I don't want to say AI proof it, but kind of that's kind of the theme of it is like how do we how do we know that this is what the kids have really learned? Um, so again, the next one would be shifting in pedagogy. So, how are we accessing assessing that student knowledge? You need to really know your students. So, we have talked a lot about knowing and valuing our students this year through our, um, teacher evaluation process. And so, you need to know and

068and have that understanding of your background of your students in order to know if if this is their original work. And then also preparing students for their future is some key work of the district. And so, those are some things that we've been hearing as we've been, um, having conversations around AI. Uh, so from late April into early May, uh, a thought exchange, uh, survey was put out to high school students, uh, for them to share their thoughts and rate other thoughts of their peers. Uh, and I'll go through, uh, several points that we have learned from the results of that thought exchange which just recently closed. Um, among our students, uh, their environmental impact of AI is a major consideration that they're expecting us as district leaders and staff to take into account with

069the use of AI. Uh, there are certainly concerns surrounding ethics and cheating. Um, many participants suggested that we should use AI sparingly, uh, with a desire, uh, to retain a strong human component, uh, in in the educational system here in Duluth. Um, there were concerns expressed about teachers' use of AI and curricular content generated by AI and the varying quality of that content. Um and there was also mention of the district's need to consider the impact of AI on student mental health. Um additionally, from this thought exchange, um students see how AI can be used as a tutor to help them learn and understand. Um AI helps locate helps students locate sources for research. That was brought up in several thoughts. Um AI can help explain content in ways students understand best and in different

070ways than their teacher may be teaching them. Um and it was mentioned that AI can support learning when it's used responsibly. Uh I mean, I'll continue into some excerpts from the thought exchange. These These were largely quoted exactly. Um so uh understand that the wording may not be exactly as one of us as presenters would express the same thought. Um I heard generative AI is very harmful and dangerous to our environment is one excerpt brought up. I feel like making sure the human AI balance in submitted work and its importance is reinforced. I believe that AI does not belong in schools unless all ethical issues are addressed. Um AI can support learning when it's used responsibly. AI helps me learn how to do things and give me new ways to figure things out that might

071help me more than what I was taught previously. AI takes away from interpersonal relationships between students with their peers and their teachers. We need to teach people how to responsibly use it. If we want to learn something, um AI will teach us how to learn it. Uh and finally, using AI to boost what you already know or give you ideas on how to start a project is a good use. It allows us to expand our knowledge and learn things we wouldn't have learned normally. We also did a staff survey and I'm going to report about that staff survey. Um 81 and a half, well, almost 82% of our teachers uh report that students are using AI and calling it their own work uh as they hand it in. Uh some FIED teachers, by the way,

072noticed that they weren't using AI in FIED classes. Um once, granted, this is another question. Once granted Gemini access, uh when are students allowed to use AI? And this was um had everything to do with the um syllabus statement. Um what they said was that um you students are only allowed to use it when permitted by a teacher for a specific assignment, which is 100% correct. Uh rate your agreement. The common language tool will help me have conversations with students about their ethical use of AI in my class or with my students. Uh it looks like most people felt like, yes, it'll it'll help me get started. Um some thought, yes, this is the best thing ever. And some thought, mm nope. Not going to be helpful. This was the first time that they had

073seen the um syllabus statement, too, in it during that survey. Then um you've seen this before the common language tool and one thing that I want to point out is the syllabus statement is right there at the bottom. Um with the bold letters misuse of AI is a form of academic dishonesty and may result in consequences. Some of the comments also from teachers had to do with what administrative support will I have when a student is um when I find that a student is academically dishonest, what happens next? And so go ahead and go to the next one. Um that's why we wanted to make it very clear in the syllabus statement um what will happen next and how and how that goes. Um what our expectation as a district is um And this syllabus

074statement has been included in next year's student handbook. Yeah. And [snorts] so it's been added to the handbook and we have added pieces of things to the academic dishonesty portion of our student behaviors as well. All right, so here's the summary of what we've heard. The district should focus on intentionally use of AI as well as other technologies that we shouldn't just be focusing only on AI that there are other things coming out in the computer science realm that we should be considering. Um we should be seeking AI use to be isolated to purposeful lessons. Um there's concerns about equity of access. We've heard environmental considerations. Um we've heard that there's a perceived over use of technology and that there's a desire in our community to limit screen time. We've heard that there's a potential

075for decline of critical thinking skills by over-reliance on the use of technology. We've heard um that this is a societal experiment with some undetermined results. Um and we've also heard that it has the ability to help tutor students and enhance learning and help students learn in new ways. So, we're kind of all across the spectrum when you think about it. Uh after reviewing this feedback, uh the next steps for the district going forward are uh really focusing on building staff capacity and student readiness as we begin school this fall. Uh no student AI rollout date is planned at this time. Uh we we have additional messaging to parents about the district's plan and uh educational efforts surrounding AI this uh September uh as the school year kicks off um and as staff are in their

076training, we'll be bringing in William Grobman, a K-12 AI trainer, uh here on site in Duluth to train teachers uh on AI and uh help with this rollout. >> [sighs and gasps] >> Um additional improvements in content will be added to the district AI website. Um you there'll be continued examination around research uh related to AI uh and its use in schools and how it impacts student learning and development. Uh we'll continue to engage with AI champions and our peer districts uh and engage with student groups here in our district. One of the other things that I'll be doing in my role as the computer science lead in the district is uh to develop AI competencies under um for grade level bands. For example, for elementary grade levels, for what um kids need to know

077and be able to do in middle school and also in high school. Uh, I'm looking at um, skills progressions um, used throughout the country and um, also developing digital literacy progression. Um, I'm using a lot of what I've seen in Colorado Ed Initiative.org. If you're interested. Also, um, Danette Ceebo is my supervisor, my computer science part of my job supervisor. And today we planned our goals for next year. Uh, and all three of the goals have to do with um, building capacity with students and teachers and professional development in not only AI, but other areas of computer science. Um, in order to get away from screens a little bit, we'll be looking more at physical computing and um, so to take some of the screen time away. That was something that was mentioned um, at

078the parent academy. I presented um, at digital citizenship and digital safety for families at the end of April. And um, so that's that's something else and um, so all three of our goals have to do with building capacity with our students and our staff. And um, also family engagement and how we can let parents know what we're doing with AI in particular and uh, other technologies in our district. Oh, yeah. I didn't know that was okay. Um, there you go. Thank you. Um I think going going forward go forward those other two pieces there, those are what she just talked about. So, the progression. So, those are just example. Yep, there you go. Thank you. So, some of the key messaging then for our community, um we wanted to to say why why we are

079looking at implementing AI um using it with teachers as our our beginning point um is preparing students for the for the future. And, you know, Erin talked about how computers are are employers are seeking AI literate candidates um and we know that fluency in these tools are going to become vital uh skills for the future career um efficiency. Um we also want to deepen critical thinking. We know that um there's some concerns about critical thinking and that comes up loud and clear, but when we use it appropriately, can it help us gain to help our students gain a deeper understanding and help them encourage independent thinking. And, so this little image that I have on here, which I kind of thought was pretty cool. Um this comes from this Ellen or L Crenshaw. You can

080see that down there um at the very bottom of the image. Um using it as a Socratic tutor and how can we have um students shifting away from using AI as answer giving to be in a way to support thinking. And, so here's um a student prompt template there like, "This is what I have, but don't give me the answer to the question. Ask me guiding questions and if I make a mistake, point it out gently and ask me to correct it before moving on." So, it's giving like you're setting up the parameters around AI like, "I need help learning about this and this is what I want you to do." And, so um I just thought that was a a pretty cool way that we could we could tap into utilizing AI to help

081our students. Um some of the things that I thought were really interesting about um how to enforce AI use um, so if students are being given the opportunity to use AI, using the common language tool, a teacher has identified that you can use AI for brainstorming your topic. One of the things a teacher could then do is require students to submit their AI chat link. So you could actually a teacher could actually see the thinking process and see what the kids are doing, um, with the AI prompting that they're doing. Um, grading conversations instead of just answers, like having that conversation around around any answer that they're giving, like how how do we do that? Um, looking for the effort, that thinking, that participation, um, and rewarding the problem-solving process. It's not about the answer,

082it's about how we're getting to the answer. And so if we were to make some shifts that way instructionally, um, that would support student learning even if they are using AI. And just give you some ideas of what that builds in them. Um, that empowers our educators, too. Like we've talked about the common language tool. So if AI can act more like an assistant or a tutor, um, you know, with our students, it can also ask uh I can also act in ways that can help our teachers with administration administrative tasks. So when we think about like the social studies standards that we just talked about, um, having AI help us with with some things with our standard alignment, like being able to provide feed some documents and say, "Hey, what what standards are we

083would we have gaps in? What what do we need to build up a little bit more?" Um, it would give that our teachers more time then with direct student interaction. They're not spending so much time in that managerial piece of it and the writing piece of it. They can actually move forward with some more student interactions. And then, um, a proactive response. We're addressing the reality of AI usage in society. Strict detection is no longer a viable sole strategy. Um, it's not about using a tracker to catch kids. It's more about how do we responsibly teach kids. We know that kids out there have access. Parents are giving them access. And so, how are we um handling that reality in the classroom setting is what we're really moving towards. >> [clears throat] >> Cindy, if

084you had anything more to say about that? I know that um I don't have something to say about that, but um I'm sure that there's a budget concern about how much money we might be pouring into this kind of um uh development and uh to date, the district hasn't spent any money on um AI development in our district. So, there's no worry about that. Uh grants have been um applied for and received, and that's how we're funding the professional development for um those of us who are leading um the initiative here. Thank you. And the next slide uh is uh questions. Uh but before we get to that um and I'll start calling on individuals, I also want to just take the time to thank the team um who has been working on this all

085year long. It's been a a project uh that has evolved over time. I want to thank all of the uh community members who provided some feedback on all of our students and our staff related to our AI our AI rollout and Gemini rollout because I want to make sure that uh the com- community recognizes that we have been listening and we have been responsive, and I hope this demonstrates that we are truly doing so. Our next steps, as it uh as we shared tonight, you know, it's really going to focus on building our staff's capacity and our students' readiness as well and just making sure that we are really doing our our diligence to support our students and our staff and make sure our students um and families are really thoroughly communicated with how AI

086is used in the school district and how we plan on using it in the future. So, I want to say again, thank you to the team for all of your efforts to continue to bring us up to speed on it. So, I'll call on individuals. I'll start off with Superintendent Magda and then member Lawful Kemp. Sure. And I think this we all recognize this is being a very very very nuanced topic and very timely topic. Probably one of the most critical topics that the school districts are wrestling with right now. I think the point about screen time is something that is very valid and we want to consider how do we work with the community and think about appropriate use of screen time. And then um I I have to admit that I'm I'm sort

087of torn on this because I I do see I do I have listened very carefully to the the concerns moving forward or about moving forward and I also hear concerns from people about wanting to make sure people are prepared for the for the future from a marketing not marketing perspective but from a job market perspective. I also think one thing that we've noticed lately is it's almost it's becoming almost impossible to avoid AI. The new Google functions have an AI enhanced mode. So, basically you can use the Google function to dive into AI and have a do an AI product for you just through the search. So, I think that you can you can put prompts in and it's kind of like you know, spell check. We might have been able to avoid it for

088a while and and have people use dictionaries but it is becoming very pretty much uh part of many of the different mechanisms we use whether it's whether it's our search functions, whether it's computer devices, whether it's our our phones. >> [clears throat] >> The AI is is around us. So, we have to think about how are we continuing to enhance the abilities of staff? How are we considering uh how we we enhance the knowledge of our students um so that we can move forward. So, I think it is important that we continue this work. That we don't we don't just say we're not going to do anything AI related for the next year. That we continue thinking about how do we enhance our uh our ability to serve our students. How do we how do

089we work with our our uh students on appropriate use of AI? Uh like we said, we didn't we don't have a set time for um roll out of Gemini on our on our systems. But again, there's there's an AI mode on on almost every search bar now in every every device. And so, uh we we can't pretend that that's not there. Um So, with that said, I I think that that you know, the work that this committee is doing trying to be very thoughtful. I think we're I was talking to Cindy beforehand and and she was saying she feels like we're better prepared than than many many other districts. And I think that uh continuing to watch what other districts are doing is important. But I think also um some of the environmental concerns that

090are out there, too, are are important. Um But it's it's just a I'm I'm concerned that if we don't continue to move forward with AI in some fashion, that we're we're going to be doing a disservice to our kids because because it is part of the the future and it is part of it's part of the present. It's not just part of the future. And uh pretending like kids don't have access and pretending like kids aren't going to be using their phones and uh using the Google search bar. Uh I want to make sure our kids are well prepared. Uh we we um I I just think it's it's critical. So, thank you for your good work. Member LaFollette Kelly. All right, thank you. Uh thank you, Greg and Cindy and Jen. And I I

091also just want to thank you for pausing um back in January or so when uh we were hearing a lot and and we as board members had a lot of questions and thoughts ourselves and and and doing more work uh to gather information. Um so that's a hard thing to do is to pause and say, "We need to uh keep looking at this differently and hearing from more people." So So thank you for that. Um I I know that engagement has taken a lot more time. Um I uh I agree with uh what Superintendent Magus is saying too about, you know, this is probably one of the most critical topics that districts are are facing, board members are boards across the state are and and country are facing. And um so um I I I

092have two questions. Uh one is maybe I missed it, but when you talked about um meeting with the UMD professors and many uh some of them came and spoke to us, gave us great packets of really good information that some of us read. Uh and many of those parents are are many of those professors are also parents in our district and with high school kids and and younger kids and and so I need to trust them because this is not my expertise at all. Uh so is there anything I guess else you can share with us about what you were hearing or what guidance maybe or thoughts uh that you received from um the the UMD professors you worked with? And then I have a second just comment question. Uh I'll certainly let Jen and

093Cindy chime in as well. One thought that came through in in those discussions was that if we could limit AI instruction to a very intentional exercise in a dedicated physical space uh that that that uh would be desirable uh and might help uh with um helping students kind of categorize it as a different activity than the rest of their learning um and uh keep one separate from the other. Uh I I won't say that our facilities are are designed to to necessarily support that in all of our schools um with with not a lot of labs uh left out in our uh secondary schools, but uh it that was one topic that came up and uh how could we physically separate that instruction not not um not ignore AI entirely, not uh avoid teaching about

094it entirely, but but do teach about it, but make it very intentional and separate from uh from other uh instructional activities was one suggestion. So, I saw some confusion. Um we we've talked about the our walled garden as being within our district our technology and and keeping it safer within our walls. They love the concept of the walled garden, but they want it to be more of a physical wall, like a room that you're going into it. And I know that that that's something that's that's quite challenging for us um with with what we have going on with facilities. Um but that was a very interesting conversation and I think enlightening. Um and I don't know Cindy if there's anything else you wanted to add. I think the main point that they um we had

095Dr. Boysen and uh Ryan Goei come and chat with us. Um and the main thing that they um were asking us to do was to remain intentional and keep it as keep your relationships with students, teachers relationships with students at the forefront. Don't don't take the easy route. Um necessarily. But keep that keep the relationships um with your students cuz that's the most important part. Yeah, emphasis on that the human connection in education and making sure that that students really do work to to figure out the answers to things and and to learn that it's not done for them within an AI tool. That was very clear in their communication with us. Okay. Great. Thank you for summarizing that and I um I uh think we heard that in uh some of your goals, your

096your future goals. Then my last just comment was so back in December, we like Cindy said, we really were in the forefront of adopting an uh AI policy regulations on the use of it. So, I really appreciated the work you did then as chair of the policy committee to bring that forward early so that we're being responsible and and providing safety. The NSBA now has adopted a new a model policy in March. There was some trainings on it. I'm just wondering again as chair of the policy committee if we need to review the regulations or the policy now that we kind of slowed down a little bit and um uh you know, if we need to relook at that again and tweak it. Thank you. I I think it would be good for us to

097consider reviewing that policy. I was just reading a study from Education Week and they said that in the country so far only 13% of districts have an AI policy. And so I think we're like you said, we're in the forefront of having addressed it to a degree, but I think with as quickly as things are evolving, it's important for us to um to look at that. I also have been sharing resources and we've been sharing resources with our team about different institutes and institutions that are studying it more deeply. I know there's a there's a summit in St. Cloud coming up in in the coming weeks and and >> July 13th, 14th. >> Okay, July 13th and 14th coming up. And we have four people from our district registered. Very good. And I think that

098things like that are really important. I just was also reading that there's a a summit in Boston of students that are gathering together to to work on on district AI policy. So I think they one thing they talked about is the importance of having um having student voice in in this because quite often students are the first adopters of technology and so the the first people who see the benefits, the first people who see the drawbacks and so considering um student voice in this is important and we I was actually we were talking about how surprised we were about the the strength of student voice that is coming out in in many ways related to this and so I think thinking about that is is it's a very nuanced piece but policy I think making

099sure that our policies are are from a governance perspective are strong is critical. So that's policy just for board members regulation 524.1 and then March NSBA had a lot of information um available on their model AI policy. Thank you. Member Sadowski then member Williams. Thank you Greg and Cindy and Jen for being here and for sharing. Um I first wanted to just say thank you for the ways that you've engaged our community uh not only our students and parents but our community members who've come to our public comment and just following up with them. We have a lot of really educated folks who are passionate about this in our community I think, and it's just good to um listen to their perspectives. So, I appreciate you taking the time cuz I know you're really busy

100on that. Um I agree with Superintendent Megas that this is a you know, I'm I'm very conflicted about it, too. I have my own opinions. I have a lot of questions. I see um how complicated uh AI has made teaching very quickly um just with my own student who is a junior at East. And um appreciate the teachers in the way that they've tried to navigate it so far. Um I know that we've heard a lot of concerns from our student school board reps here. Um and um anyway, let's see. I have a I I also wanted to talk about the parent communication. Um being a parent myself, I do and then and just hearing from constituents in the community, I'm glad to hear that you're going to be communicating more. I um have gotten

101feedback that a lot of parents haven't heard about this. So, I know that um maybe we've tried in a couple different ways, but I I'm glad to hear that you're going to be trying in other ways to to connect with parents because um for a lot of them uh they're busy, probably working a few different jobs, and maybe they hadn't heard and hadn't had an opportunity to kind of weigh in. So, I appreciate that. Um I I like that you included the on the last page the Socratic method and like looking at different ways. I'm just wondering um my first question, I guess, is how are we going to be supporting teachers in learning these new methods? I feel like AI has come along really quickly, and a lot of teachers have been teaching the

102same way or similar way for really long time. So, um I'm just wondering like how are we going to build that into our um professional development days next year. Um That's my first question. I guess a follow-up would be how are we going to help teachers test how are they going to make sure that we're testing for that learning piece. Yeah, thank you for that question. So we are contracting with William Groovy and he's from Groovy education which is with the V even though his name's with the B when you look at in in the thing but it's Groovy g r u v y. He's been working in the state of Minnesota for couple of years now really he started out just small and has really grown and helps teachers it's mostly his help for

103teachers and how to make your workload easier how to handle some AI that's coming into the classroom. We're starting with him in September and potentially expanding you know, we'll see how it works how it goes but we do know that we have in almost every professional development day. We have Department time and so I feel like that's been the most benefit for us is to be able to have the science teachers coming together and talking about what they're seeing in science or the social studies teacher and that's where we're pushing out some of the like here's how we can help you with your content area how to how to how to build your documents how to help and use it with your your lesson planning with our teacher clarity work that we're doing. So we're

104trying to embed what we can embed within those Department time meetings as well. I have not met with Annie recently to know what the whole plan is for scaling it out. I've I've a little busy with some other things but I know that there that she's been actively working with a team and they met last week I believe the the the group that meets and kind of helps plan some of those things. I know there's a staff development committee, but the TLE subgroup that works on it was talking about staff development last week. So I'm not sure exactly what those plans were. Yeah, we really will have the the ability to to to hone in that training on targeting specific groups or specific topics that that we find most relevant to the district and our

105staff as we go about planning the details of it and that's still several months away. Okay, thank you. Um I know that at least for me as a parent with my student it's already I know we're talking about rolling out AI, but we also recognize that it's already here and I've had my own student be impacted by different the different ways that AI is here in our world right now and one of them is my student doesn't want to use AI for ethical environmental reasons and I'm and I'm really glad they're that he's getting those critical thinking skills. Um I could see where AI might also support critical thinking, but I also I'm concerned about it taking away from critical thinking, but one of the ways that's negatively affected my student is um he's taking

106out words out of his essay um that may that AI may um that an AI checker may say, "Oh, this is AI because you use these words." And so my student has taken out words that he would have normally put in to an essay for fear that his essay would be pegged as AI. So I hope that um so I've seen that impact my own student um in our schools now and so I just hope that we're going to be supporting teachers through this. My my hope is that we would, even though it's here, we would we would pause until we're really fully trained because I think that there's a lot. I don't even know you know, if all our teachers are aware of some of some of these things. So I do appreciate your

107work on it. Still concerned about it. I'm a little concerned about the use of perceived technology, over use of technology and the perceived desire to limit screen time. I've read enough articles to to with a lot of data that show that our kids overall in the United States have way too much screen time. So I don't necessarily agree with the little word perceived in there, but I'll stop for now. I might have other questions. I'll let some of my colleagues jump in, but I do appreciate you being here and the work that you're doing cuz it cuz it is here. Member Williams, then member Mixon. Okay. I have a lot. I'll try to be fast. First, I want to say and I regret not saying it when there were more teachers in the room. Happy

108Teacher Appreciation Week. Thank you all so much for everything you do. So anybody watching live or watching later, thank you teachers. We wouldn't be here without you. I also want to go back to something Cindy and maybe Superintendent Magus said just about us being ahead or feeling as we are ahead of the game compared to other districts. So I'm curious what conversations have been had with other districts and where they are with a rollout. And yeah, I appreciate that we have paused and that we're being intentional, but I am curious about that. I'll let you answer first before I ask a second question. Uh so I'm part of two organizations. One is Minnesota Generative AI Alliance, uh which is the St. Cloud um the group that will be presenting in St. Cloud um professional development.

109Um and the Computer Science Teachers Association um and two things. Um what I hear from other districts in the state of Minnesota are is that uh students have been given willy-nilly access to whatever AI tools they want to have access to. Uh there's no policy in place. There's no uh language common language. There's no syllabus statement. Some of the things that we've prepared in our district um they don't have, and they're trying to figure out how do we jump back from that. Um [clears throat] and also on the national stage um Well, same kind of thing. Thank you. Um Yeah, I just I lost my spot in my notes. I I do appreciate the pause in our rollout, like I said, and just being thoughtful. Um I That's probably all I have for questions. I

110I echo, I guess, what uh member Sedowsky said about appreciating the Socratic method. I really um I really appreciate the template in there, um kind of prompting students to say, like, help me learn, don't give me the answer, but help me think critically and learn. I'm I'm really grateful for that. And that has everything to do with developing relationships with your students. And knowing your kids is going to help detect whether they're using an AI tool or not. Um if your kid at the beginning of the school year uses those things in their um early assessments and your teachers have gotten to know your students, then they can use the big words and they won't be flagged for um potentially uh going around the learning instead of actually showing what they know. Thank you. Member

111Maxwell? Thanks for being here and continuing to engage on this topic with not only us, but also our community. Um I really appreciated in the District Advisory Committee when we had teachers actually speak to how they're using technology in their classrooms. It sounds like there's really some creative uses that are intentional that are with our students um at all levels um that would be great for our community to hear more about in the future. Um I just want to recognize that this is such a rapidly changing technology. Like just a few years ago, like this was not even like on our radar screens of having to, you know, tackle as a school district, as educators, as board members. And so it's actually kind of difficult to know like what exactly is the right, you know,

112position to have on this because we know that tomorrow it's going to be different. It's especially difficult for me as a school board member because I'm trying to think of this as a my governance role. Um shout out to Mr. uh Queener in the in the audience there. Um but, you know, how to how to continue to have these conversations. But I personally feel that no matter where we eventually land with the use of AI in education and um uh our students have access to it, whether it's on their district um provided devices or their devices at home, whether their own personal phones or their family's computer at home. And I feel that it's important for us if we're if our job is to set up students for success, to make sure that they have

113um the tools they need to use the foundational knowledge to use um this technology in a safe way, in a reasonable way, in a reliable way. Um So, recognizing that that means that as a district we need to, you know, give support to our educators to be prepared to do that. So, um I again just want to thank the the um the team that's working on this, the focus that we're giving to our educators to make sure that they're fully trained, um and that they're feeling comfortable to to explore these topics in their classes, and to our community members and parents who are engaging with us and telling us what their students need, and uh what their expectations are for our district as well. So, thank you. Member Lock from the Kim. Yeah. Uh you

114Thank you for your comments, uh Member Ika Sai. I I just I I guess wanted to touch back on um how we're ahead of other districts, and I I happened this weekend to talk to some parents um in other smaller districts, and and they were asking me about this very topic, and uh I was talking about us putting a policy in place back in December, and and and that we were going to be having a presentation this weekend, and so go to our YouTube, and uh our our today, and and so I I think um uh I'm I'm glad that we are uh being thoughtful, and we're um uh pausing, and we're we're training, and we're doing all the things you talked about, because we are as a bigger school district uh even though we

115maybe haven't invested as much money as um we we we could be um uh in a lot of things related to technology. We um uh we're being looked at for how we're proceeding uh with this discussion and with this implementation. And so, again, I just uh really uh thank you um for your leadership for this thoughtful presentation tonight and and just again, I know other uh smaller districts are looking at us uh right now. So, I appreciate it. I have a question. All right, it's not how that's supposed to go, but I do have one. Um I want to know what is the the right forum for us to be able to um have students involved and empower our students and um two-part question, um how do we get information to the people? What would

116be the best way? And I guess Amber, I'm asking you. Um um school newsletter or like what what is the forum to be able to get info to the people? I think that's the golden question in the in the in these busy busy years, you know what I mean? Our parents are I think busier I'll I'll just say they're very busy. Um and I know that we have Adele, who's really good at our communications. And so she probably has some really good ideas, but I would say um using utilizing all the tools that we have available, the Parent Square newsletters, um it might be nice to have a um I don't know if I don't know if it's forum is the right word, but uh and you know, and then talk to our students, too.

117We have amazing student school board reps. We're trying to get our um citywide uh student council student council going. Um and so I know that our student school board reps, I know both of our high schools have um groups of students. I forget what East is called. My kid's on it. Point of View, I think it was called, but where they're giving feedback to to the principal. So you could ask those students cuz they're often from all sorts of different groups of students within the high each high school. Um and they're bringing that back. So. And if I could jump in and I'll come to you member Lowfoot. And that's one of the things that I've talked about with directors um regarding that is make sure that we connect with those student groups cuz there's

118a lot of leadership groups in our high schools that can uh they're looking forward to being um you know, met with and have opportunities to share their perspective. So, just trying to figure out the right process and um how to get to those students and engage in those conversations. So, those would be the the vehicles. But, I understand you know, when it comes to parents, you know, the right mode of communication for our parents and families, we have to continue to figure those things out because if families are not uh made aware of the things that we're doing, we just have to continue to explore how can we get that information to our families in in different ways beyond Parent Square. Uh so, we'll we'll keep exploring those things as a team. Member uh Lowfoot.

119Did you want to reply back? It kind of looked like you were Uh yeah, sorry. I was just going to Are we going to put something about this like eventually, maybe not this coming year in our student handbook, but the next year? Um when would it make sense to have information about or would it not make sense? Putting in the syllabus requirement and the student behavior stuff in the student handbook, is that what you're asking? >> Yeah, I'm just asking is that does is that a good place for some of this information? >> So, um Adele and I work on the handbook and we and we work with principals um and so, we've been making some drafts and those will be coming to you. Um I think it's June that we have to get the

120approval of the student handbook. So, we should have everything ready for you next month where you can see and we'll highlight and call out what we have added into there for that. So, that'll be for the handbook for 26-27. You You been very patient member Lawful and then member Lawful Good. These are more kind of observations too from just my experience or my background is that um I think that we will see a more energized teaching community coming out of our colleges that are now also training our teachers to be more, you know, committed and knowledgeable and uh and I wonder with our college professors that have fed back to us, you know, what is their role in making sure that the teachers that are in the education department are getting instruction and getting professional

121development so that when they come into our school systems that they have that background. So, I'm I'm always encouraged because I have seen student teachers over the last 2 years, 3 years when I'm in the classroom working and and they're incredible and and being out of the classroom for for many years, I don't realize that the growth that has happened in their um educational, you know, opportunities at the college level. So, that's one thing is I wonder, you know, how we can tap into colleges and I'm really glad that we have had some college professors here in our community and I hope they're willing to have their concerns, have their um their warning signs about what what needs to happen in the AI community, but they're willing to come and meet us halfway with a

122solution as well. We know, we've heard that there are many many that are just want no screen and we've got to meet somewhere in the middle for all the reasons I've heard around there. So, that's that's one point. Um but our incoming teachers I think will have some, you know, incredible energy to come into it. I also this has not changed in my 49 years of teaching education, relationships, relationships, relationships. And so, if that is somewhat where there's some training going on as well, we just don't need to continue to lift up that ability that teachers have and sometimes the way that the the the workload on teachers right now and budget cuts and and more standards and all of that, but oh, if we could just get them to breathe and and remember that

123and I actually, you know, I you know, we we get to see it. All of us are in buildings. We have students that go to buildings. You know, I I hope that Duluth teachers, you know, we we do have an incredible staff that knows about the importance of relationships. So, um that what I have to share is that um that we have to come somewhere in the middle of what what some are saying are the extreme no screens, can't have, you know, there to the fact that we have an obligation um as education facilities to make sure our students are prepared for their future, which is going to include and has include AI. Thank you and uh thank you for clarifying what will be in the handbook for us to look forward to uh when

124we review it in June. So, thank you. I I had one I was just looking over the uh this one more time and uh remind me the syllabus statement that you have here, which is is really a thoughtful statement. How is that either currently being used or will be used? Yes, we designed that to go onto all of teachers' syllabuses for each course that they're offering to students so that they're going to get it multiple times every class that they have. That would be just part of their syllabus. Um and we would have it included. Um so, every year when we do the student handbook at the very beginning of the year, there's there's a presentation that goes out to our students around things like harassment and bullying. We're going to add this piece to

125it as well so that there's some discussion with students around what academic dishonesty means in the in the age of AI. So, so this hasn't been used yet, but it will be >> next year. Okay, excellent. Thank you. Seeing no additional lights, I want to say again, thank you to the team for all of your work on this project and continue to, you know, flesh out for us. Thank you. Chair, we will we will be pulling in another audible at this time. We'll pull up Ray Krainer, who will be joining us to the table. He will start off with the presentation. If I go back up to the agenda under advancing equity, it's going to be the district analytics strategy discussion and presentation by Ray Krainer. And I'll turn it over to Ray. Good evening.

126Thanks for having me here. Very interesting conversation. I'm glad I could be a part of the audience to to hear that. So, tonight, we're here to report our first report on the demographic and housing information that we did with the school district. Um, this is a really a tale of, I think, three things. First, what is? So, there's a lot of data that we will report on in terms of where things are as of today. I think the second piece is what could be. So, we have projections and we have modeling that we'll talk about. And then probably the most important then is the What is the strategic strategic implications? And where can the district spend time to navigate how the what could be could be changed or modified. So, it's kind of the big

127picture. Um, I know us math teachers uh love charts and graphs and data and so um I'll I'll do my best to control my enthusiasm. Um so, if we go to the next slide, um this is a real high-level overview of the what is. So, the district population is your census population within your district boundaries of 94,000 84. And you can see that that is um up since 2010 uh about 1.45%. Um your school district, Duluth Public Schools, is not um exempt from the historic national birth rate decline. Um we're seeing evidence of of this everywhere. Um there's very few exceptions of the work that we do where this birth rate is um different. And so, you're you're in line with what's happening nationally. Uh also, when you have uh large birth rate decline, you

128then experience an enrollment decline, which again is you're following a trend. So, the district um went from 8906 to 83 um from 2010 to 2026. Your market share, which we define as the percent of students that are living in the school district and attending a Duluth public school. So, 67.3% of the school-age children are attending a Duluth public school. One asterisk to put to this is that it doesn't mean they're attending their neighborhood school because they could be attending a different um elementary school as an example or a different middle school. Um we don't distinguish between the two, but they are 67.3% are attending a Duluth school. When we look at what could be, your largest potential is when we combine some modeling that includes development and a different assumption for market share, you could

129see an 8.6% growth in the next 10 years. Um, of the four models that we did, that's the only one that has a positive number. And so strategically, we'll talk more about market share because that's that's probably the single biggest lever and opportunity the district has. If 67.3% are attending Duluth public schools, 32.7 are choosing other options, which can include private, charter, open enrollment out, and home school. So, there are some structural things that are outside of your control, your declining birth rates, you have an aging housing stock. And they right now can't be reversed. They're not anything in your control. And there's one variable that is, and that's how you navigate your market share strategy, which we'll talk more about. Do you want me to do questions as I go or Why don't we

130do Why don't we do questions as I go? So, we'll just do a slide-by-slide if that's okay with you. Any any questions here on our high-level overview? Member Sadowski and then member Myksl. On on page four, the executive summary slide, where you highlighted the declining enrollment from 2010 to 2026, I know that I'm just wondering if you've looked if you looked at year-over-year cuz I know that we've been growing pretty well over the last few years. We've had to increase our ADM, for example. So, I'm wondering have you Did you notice any like micro trends within that segment, instead of just 2010 to 2026? Yeah, so the the 5.9 is capturing the beginning and the end. And there there is fluctuation. Um many school almost every school district had a significant dip in 2020 to

1312022. Um so, there there is growth that um on a rebound that happened. Um not unlike any other districts. So, there is the there is the up and downs. Um but overall, if you look at 2010 to 2026, it is that decline. Thank you. I'll I'll add one little piece to that, too. When we do projection modeling, we are looking at a 10-year historical trend. So, we build our what's called a cohort survival metric, and that's grounded in 10 years of history of the school district. Cohort survival is how many third graders become fourth graders the following year, and that percentage then is becomes the base for your modeling for projections. Turning to community demographics, again, this is looking at the data from a census base, which is the base uh data set that we

132start all of our modeling. Um we get the US census. This has been adjusted for 2026, so it's a 2020 census uh adjusted for 2026. You're following, again, trend that we see in all the districts we work with. You have uh an aging population, and your largest uh growth cohort is the 65 plus. And if you look in the last bullet, um your median age is 37.4 today and projected to increase to 38.7 in 2030. So, the census modeling um tool gives us a 5-year snapshot. When we do enrollment projections, we're looking at 5 and 10 year. Um race and ethnicity, um you are continuing to become more and more diverse, and you can see the trends there in that data set. And then in the lower right-hand corner, you'll see the immediate the income

133snapshot, your median household income uh at 67,000 in 2025, uh projected to increase to 72.9 in 2030. With a student household median income of 84 right around 84,000. And you currently have 43% of your students uh families living in households below 75,000. Member banks. Thank you. In looking at the race and ethnicity piece there, um will you be adding information regarding our native heritage population? I don't see any information there, or is that combined somewhere in this? Uh in in the full report, we do break out all the groups. Okay. >> Correct. Thank you. Turning to birth trends, um here uh uh similar to the enrollment trends, you do see some of the ups and downs on your birth rate trends. So, you had some uh um, declines and increases, declines and increases, and that's

134that's true of your neighboring districts as well. Um, when we looked at this with the, uh, cabinet, um, oh, 2 weeks ago, um, I did point out to them that one of the things we look at with our birth rate charts is how does the trend go for your district overall, then look at the trend, the ups and downs by your elementary schools, which is how we report birth rates, and then transition to your neighbors, um, to see how their rates. And so, we want to look for any kind of discrepancies in patterns of, you know, for example, if if Duluth was significantly declining, but you had a neighboring district that was increasing, we'd want to explore that deeper. But, again, you're following your trend, um, uh, much like your neighbors, all of your schools

135are very similar. There's a few anomalies, but by and large, um, the roller coaster, my affectionate term for a bar graph going up and down, is very similar across, uh, across your your district, your built district buildings, and your neighbors. You do have a few schools where you have a steeper decline. Um, there's a lot of factors that do impact that, whether you have, uh, aging population in that area, you're fewer families. So, the births are happening, but just not in those neighborhoods, and then conversely, you'll see the growth areas of Lakewood, Homecroft, and Lowell, um, where you're seeing some percentage increases, which indicates, typically, that there's some development opportunities there. You have younger families moving in. Questions on birth trends? Your housing characteristics, um, 75% of your homes are single-family homes. Again, very typical

136to what we see in our our studies. Average home value currently at 296,000. You have 75% of your homes are built pre-1970 in the school district. So, that would be a little bit on the higher side than several districts that we've we work with. And then 91% of your students living in single-family homes. What's captured in the upper right, the student yield per housing unit. We pay attention to this under two conditions. One, if there's new developments going in, we want to know what is the ratio of of students coming from single-family home, which currently your district number is 0.24. But, we do look at that by elementary attendance area. So, we do adjust for if if a development area is a 0.4 and another one is a 0.18, we don't apply the district threshold

137across all of the district. So, we do look at it by attendance area. That gives us a more nuanced projection. Um And the second thing we do for housing sales is we're watching for if neighborhoods do start to turn over. So, if empty nesters are leaving and younger families are coming in, we want to be able to have a capture rate of at least for an estimate of how many students might be moving into to homes. Yes. So, on the home sale trends and strategic context, because I live in Lester Park, I'm just kind of curious and they're the only one mentioned only decline and can you explain that a little bit more? Uh in terms of the sales that were happening the so I don't have the detail in front of me, but what

138it would indicate is that they they were coming off of a peak number of sales and then they're we caught them on a decline. Okay. >> Um because they houses sell differently in different parts of the district, um but we can definitely follow up and get you the specific details. Okay. Yeah, I I just it looked like it was kind of singled out, so I just wanted a broader explanation. So >> Yeah, we can definitely look at it, but typically if we see a negative, they're coming off of they might have had a mass number of sales and now they're having fewer sales, so they're going to get marked as a negative compared to um other areas. And Ray, maybe you're going to uh discuss it. Did you uh share what the strategic um implication

139um that you share Can I ask a question real quick? >> Oh, it's for the chair. Thank you. Um so can you I So when I'm looking at the birth trends, so we see we have steep declines in birth trends on where we see Laura Mac going down 45%, but then we also see Laura Mac growing in home trend sales. So do you think I I'm just trying to put together sort of like what you talked with member Lawler Camp. So we have maybe Laura Mac is sitting in a place where we have a stagnant market because we have people aging in their homes. So we're seeing a decline in Laura Mac, but now we're saying, "Okay, people are starting to sell those homes, so that area the real estate is going up, so maybe

140we could expect at some point that that decline in Laura Mac then maybe reverse." Good. Yes. Is that sort of how I'm reading those pieces of data together? So like member Lawler Camp saying, "Okay, so Webster Park maybe's coming off of a boom, But we still see Okay, because Lakewood makes sense. We see a ton of home sales happening in Lakewood and we also see a huge increase in Lakewood's population. So I'm just Is that I mean, we can't Am I inferring something sort of correctly? >> Correct. Yeah. >> Okay. So, um which is why watch watching sales both in terms of the sale happening and then the population moving into the sale is important. Um we have had places where there's been a lot of sales, but no kids. And so sometimes we have

141to pay attention to the value of the homes. Are people moving in that are already empty nesters and they're they want to just move there. Um so we have to pay attention to both parts of it. Both the number of sales and then the number of students that are yielding. >> coming in? Okay. >> just and even though it's not a house sale, thinking about new construction of apartment complexes and things like that as um a factor in just thinking about like we had the new development right here next to the district office, but those are kind of luxury smaller apartments that aren't necessarily um having lots of births and and lots of families. So, so it's looking at the the uh rental market as well to some degree. And then one other question, can

142you I'm trying to figure out what the student yield per housing unit mean? Are we looking at this piece of data to say, "Okay, when we have single family homes, then we yield students out of there versus if we have apartments built in areas or manufactured homes." So, the highest rate where we see students coming into our schools is the single family dwelling. Okay. >> typical with with all school districts. Okay. Thank you. Yep. And strategic implication? So, the the strategic implication language and I touched a little bit on this is that um there's not a lot of control the district has in terms of your um housing environment for controlling growth. Uh especially with uh with aging, you can't control who's moving in and out. It's harder to control. Your best opportunity is those

143that move in, making sure they're fully aware of the opportunities with Duluth Public Schools. Um in developments, you're you're you don't have an abundance of developments. You have some developments, so that too won't recover your enrollment loss. So, you don't have enough development to to overcome the the enrollment loss. And so, it's a it's an awareness uh specifically around the sales that we want to monitor over time. Um or if if there's um we don't we don't um project uh miss and rumors. So, we only project developments that are permitted and plotted. So, if somebody might be selling a big piece of property, we always pick on the Johnson farm. When the Johnson farm is ready to sell, um everybody thinks it's going to be next year and it could be 10 years. So, we

144don't project that, but we do want to pay attention to it. And I don't know if there's a Johnson farm in the Duluth Public School area, but that's the one that I use as an example because uh you know, a big piece of property like that that's is sold to a developer could turn into 300 homes pretty quickly where it's been agriculture for ever. So, we want to monitor those, but we don't we don't um do projections against them until they've actually something's happened. That was a long answer. Did I cover it? Yep, you did. >> you. All right. So, as I mentioned in the historic enrollment um trends, so we do go back 10 years um and you can see the snapshot in the bar chart where we're looking at your elementary decline. You

145do have a bubble at your 6-8 middle, so you actually have a growth in your middle level. Um and of course those students will matriculate to your 9-12 buildings. But overall, as we mentioned, the the K-12 is is seeing a decline even though it's been up and down over the years um from 2010 to 2026, a decline of um uh what was that percent? I forgot that percent already. A 5.9 6%. Um when you look at the cohort survival rates, um you're you're a little on the lower side on the elementary numbers. Uh typically we see elementary for a district uh much like your characteristics closer to 100%, but you're not significantly low. Uh middle is probably right in line. Your high school numbers are really strong. So, your cohort survival in your high school

146grades is really positive and it's making up the difference from from elementary. So, we might want to study the elementary a little bit to find out what's happening um why you might be losing um from grade over grade cohort survival. So, that might be an exploration area that we want to pay attention to. 84% of your students uh moving to the right do attend their neighborhood school. So, you have about 16% are choosing another um Duluth school uh other than their neighborhood school. And you can see the breakdown by the um grade span areas, elementary, middle, and high. So, that's a look back. I should have amended. We We looked back. We looked present. And now we'll start to look toward the future. Any questions on historic? Member Laffler, Kim. um Just a reiteration. Oh,

147sorry. Did you have some? I had a question back on the housing, but let's go through and we can go back to that. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Absolutely. Just reiterating uh cuz I I mean I was I was chatting with Simone for a minute and thinking about Phil and back with our enrollment and you know, we've been reporting lately that our enrollment is going up and it has gone up uh some in the past 2 years, but this is more of the 10-year trend. So, over the course or actually since 2010. So, really looking at more of a 16-year trend. So, that's where the drop is. Okay, um market share analysis. This is where uh I think the district has the biggest strategic opportunity. Um 67.3% uh is your current market share. When we get

148into the projection modeling, what we did is we took um We do all the modeling by uh elementary attendance area and then within the elementary attendance area, we are looking at census blocks is what we call them. So, smaller subsets of the attendance area. And so, when we say we model 70% market share, that means we're taking every census block up to 70% is how we do our modeling. You'll see it it can become a little confusing because 70% of every census block actually puts you at a 75% district market share rate. Cuz we don't bring anybody down. We just bring anybody below 70 up to 70, which increases that. So, this is for sure a place where um there's opportunity for making sure you're communicating um the great programming you're doing, what opportunities there

149are, um getting to families as soon as possible, ideally when they're moving in to make sure they're aware of of what you have to offer. And then also knowing um deeper why why families or students are choosing other options. And so I think there's there's some opportunity there. We can put 70% into an Excel document and do a projection, but that's not going to make it um magically materialize. So there there'll need to be some further conversation and strategy for how might you address the market share. But this is going to be your biggest lever for opportunity to potentially even grow over the next 10 years. Just Just to add um I think some of the investments that the board has approved. Uh thinking about different things we've seen in our our business uh thing

150with with uh contracts like our contracts with Schoolmint. Uh we've had some focus campaigns for the district, but also focus campaigns for specifically for Laura MacArthur and we're doing Denfeld and Lincoln. Uh I think those are our they they pay off very quickly. You know, you spend a few tens of thousands of dollars on on on enrollment campaign and it takes one or two students to to make up for that amount. So I think that uh we are seeing payoff with that. We haven't had uh that that move forward and want to say thanks to Adele for the work that she's done to help coordinate that. And I think the other piece that I offer to districts too, it's helpful to there's no one answer as to why a family chooses um an opportunity different

151than Duluth Public Schools. Um nor is there one reason why you get 344 kids coming in from other districts outside of your um border. It could be convenience, it could be child care, it could be uh proximity to work for the family. Um it could be the type of educational offering. For example, you're not able to compete with a uh um religious private school as a public entity. So, no matter what you do, you can't compete with that if that's what they're looking for for an option. But, I think making sure that your programs and services of what you are offering are made well known, communicated widely and broadly as early as possible, it would be a a great continued conversation. And clearly, 344 families are or 340 341 students are coming in over a

152number of families, and they're so they're choosing to come into your school district for what you do offer. So, the point being we we don't want to draw conclusions until we have good data sets to know exactly why they're coming in and why they may be choosing other options. So, we go to the next slide in our modeling, as I mentioned for the purposes of our projections, we did model 70% for every census block. And you can see that um both in terms of the bar chart and then the big gold number is that if you obtain 70% district-wide minimal, you'd add about 1,218 kids to the to Duluth Public Schools. And you can see the the segregation of the um numbers by by grade span, 670 elementary to a 993 middle and 254 high

153school. And then that would give you an overall market share of about 77%. Cuz you have you have many census blocks that are well over 70% now, so comments or questions on both current market share and our modeling? Do you mind if I talk? Do you mind defining census block one more time? So, this block is a um uh Probably the best way to describe it is it's I think it's a political boundary around um because they do they do change over time. But, that's how we get the data from the US Census is that they put it in a census block. Now, they don't they're not contiguous with any of the district boundaries. So, we have to often times the boundary line splits a census block, but it's a smaller subset of a of

154an area unless you're very rural. If you're very rural, you might have um a couple of census blocks in an entire elementary attendance area as example, but you have multiple sub blocks for every elementary attendance area. Is it appropriate to say that a census block is a smaller subset of a geographic area? So, like a neighborhood, like a development, would those be considered census blocks? They it's done it's done by population. >> By population. >> Yeah. So, it's not and they they do change every 10 years. Got it. All right, thank you. Is it like a standardized number? So, this area has a thousand and then we're looking like this census block has a thousand people in it and if we reach a market share of 70% of the kids in that thousand is is

155that kind of what it they're standardizing by a population versus a geographical area? Um the census block has a defined number we know the number of students in that census block. So, if there was a thousand students that live there and we model it, we'd be taking we're modeling 700 students coming to Duluth public schools, 70% of it. But, it's not like each census block has 1,500 people. A census block can have different numbers. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Exactly. It's not the fault The the pausing is I don't know that I'm not sure the rhyme or reason how or why they get developed the way they do. We just are handed a data file when we get the census information and that's the census blocks for 10 years. Member Lar Floy camp. Just a

156side note just cuz I heard someone from the Minnesota demographic office or whatever it uh do a presentation on this very thing. So go to their uh website because he this our presenter explained it very well. So anyways. The what I would add is that um as a former business manager um and a in a suburban school in the Twin Cities we didn't have the ability to project by census block. So all of our numbers were factored across the entire district which made my projections much wider than what you're what you're seeing in our projection modeling here because we can tighten up the area and we know um both in terms of the yield per Hollis and then also percentage of students choosing um Duluth public schools or not. Um when there's no guarantee um

157it's much like weather forecasting before you even get to the modeling. Um it's based on a set of assumptions and if the assumptions come true then the projections come true. Um but what we have seen with uh the the uh system that we are doing all our projections with we're typically within a percent of what we're projecting. The farther out you go the wider the percentage but within a five-year range we're typically um pretty tight. And I I will toot our own horn. We are also one of the only um projection companies that do grade by grade school by school analysis. So for someone in HR, when you're trying to do budget and staffing, those numbers are vitally important to have as accurate as possible, so you're not overstaffing or understaffing a building. You're allocating

158resources according to numbers of students there. Most projections, which I used back in the back in the day, back in the early 2000s, was all percentage based. So, we base future projections on the percent of fourth graders in a school this year, we're assuming that same percent applies next year, where we're actually looking at real kids and real people and projecting them accordingly, which gives us a great deal of accuracy. Number base? Thank you. On the um open enrollment out and in, can you um say some more on that? It seems like the percentages are uh pretty significant. Uh can you talk a little bit more about that and how that uh is impacting our school system locally? The The number of students choosing? Well, the percentages. Like, for example, Oh, the like Proctor and

159Hermantown? So, 844 students are open enrolling out. Of those students, 45% of them are going to Proctor, and 20% are going to Hermantown, and then the rest are distributed elsewhere. Those are the big big numbers. So, So, basically, we have a net loss of about 500 students when you put the two together. Correct. And then, the same thing is true on your open enrollment in. You get about 33% of the 341 from Lake Superior, 32% from Proctor, and 22% from Hermantown as a large large factors. Does that enrollment out enrollment in when you think about uh focusing on on uh working harder to keep our market share, does that give you any indications when you work work with other districts like should we be focusing more on Lake Superior since we have a pretty good

160chunk coming in or should we be focusing more on Proctor and Hermantown since those are the ones those are the districts that seem to we seem to be losing students from. So, like when you think about the market analysis, like are you better off focusing on the students you're losing or the students that you want to gain? Or some of both? Uh I think I think I have three three points and two of them are editorial. Um the first is I want to know why I would want to know why anyone is choosing out or what anyone is choosing in and and try to understand that data set. Secondly, and then I would look at um the potential population um from your neighboring districts if you were trying to market if if they're you know,

161picking up a couple of percent from Proctor yields more than picking up 20% from um Lake Superior, then your efforts are where the bigger population is. Um and then the third piece is that um not only do we want to know why they're coming and why they're leaving, but how do we how do we shift that pattern? Because it's not just about Oh. Um I thought you were pointing at me. Sorry. Um we want to know uh could you reverse that? Could you um entice some? And again, some families are making decisions for certain reasons that you can't address. If my child's daycare is on the path out of the district boundary, that might just be a choice they're making. Or vice versa, if they're coming into town to to work, they're they're going to

162bring their kids here. But we would we want to know why. Dell. On top of the why, I would say that marketing to Lake Superior is probably not very prudent to us. One, it is a 20-minute drive. Two, they mostly want to open enroll into our schools that are already closed. So, Lester Park, Congdon, or Denfeld East. So, they will ask to open enroll into those schools, we'll assign them to the West Side schools, and then they typically say that they're just going to stay in their district. So, that wouldn't be wise just because of the side of the town that they are on. Um so, I would if I were to market, I would more focus on the Proctor. We know that Proctor brings their buses into our district. So, they're choosing to leave

163Duluth Public Schools cuz it's easy to go to Proctor, and we need to find out why they're choosing Proctor over our school. Thank you, Dell. You beat me to it. So, uh I'll just go to member Laviolette Campion. So, I would agree with that, but then if we know that um just cuz again, I live on the east end of town, so I'll say that we have an interest by the Lake Superior uh potential uh families or um the townships to come in, then maybe we just need to rethink um our space issues to get more students in the spaces also that they may want to that's close to where they want want to be or they live. So, right? I mean, this is some of the thinking we need to do, right? Yep, agreed.

164And I I as you shared, it's a varied approach, right? We'd have to do all of the above. Look at programming, you know, why are families, you know, choosing other programming options? You know, do we consider after we take feedback or get feedback from our community, um those who are selecting those options, you know, what are they desiring? And then do we consider magnet schools of some sort? I know people might say, "Well, we've already done that." Well, it depends on uh the kind of programming that might be of interest and we might have to consider that. I think Della is right. Uh looking at uh Proctor, we've been pretty um in my mind, we are kind to our partners and our neighbors, and at the same time, we need to be more uh aggressive

165at uh marketing the schools that we do have and keeping those students in our uh district as best as possible. And it's not a disrespect to Proctor, it's just making sure that we are providing options uh that those students are wanting and desiring and keep them here. So, I think it's it's all of the above. Um if you go back to multiple-choice tests. Superintendent, if I could. Um I think one of the things that the study showed us that we don't go into great detail here yet, but I think it's it's important for us to uh we sometimes sometimes studies bring up good questions, and I think one of the questions that came up is when we're looking at the enrollment when we're looking at the market assessment and when we're looking at the capacity

166of the buildings, it there's an appearance that we should have more capacity than uh than than it seems that we do. Be- And I think that depends partly on where where the students are attending. So, what I'm saying is we've had uh as you saw a a drop in enrollment in the uh district overall over the past um past 16 years, yet you know, we've had pretty much the same number of schools during that time. That was after the long-term facilities plan or close to when that that occurred. And so uh we are looking at uh doing some additional capacity study work, working with uh ICS and also with our facilities crew just to to really truly examine because I think what we're seeing too is there's different space usage now than we've seen in

167the past. Like we have when we have community schools uh that that takes up space. When we have um when and not taking up space, I don't mean that in a bad term. It just means that there's space usage. Uh we have community schools. We have more interventionists. We have behavior groups. We have co-located mental health. We have um we have um more Head Start work going on in our buildings, more early childhood. So there's a lot of space usage. And so what we're we're trying to do next is really figure out what is that space use usage and how does that potentially apply to this because on paper we should have enough space for all the kids. But part of it also comes down to potential, you know, boundaries work or things like that

168too that that we need to need to think about. So it's it's pretty nuanced, but I think uh I think that was one of the things that that was kind of a surprise for me is that, you know, on paper based on the number of schools we have and what our enrollment is and what we've done previously if it seems like we should have more space than we do. And even even when you think about your um capacity information that's 8-10 years old your buildings are used tremendously different than 8-10 years ago in terms of programming. And so which is necessitating the need for why we we want to get an updated capacity before we present our facility facility utilization. >> Okay. Um so now we're going to look at what could be and what

169you see in this chart, this is a high-level overview of your K-12 um projections. And this is looking out the full 10 years. Um in the full report, you'll you'll be you'd be able to see um both five and you'd see every year five five years through 10 years as well. And it's also broken down by elementary, middle, high school, and then each school broken down, but the same modeling exists for for the all the projections. So you have your baseline, which is your 2025-2026 October 1 count of 8384. Um scenario one is looking at birth rates and cohort survival. And so 10 years from now if that's the path that uh materializes, you can see the decline down to 7,801 students K-12. If you add in the development um at at an appropriate build-out

170rate, so um there's differing philosophies on build-outs. Um some some assume the build-outs are going to happen in three to four years and then others say it could be 10 years. So we we have to listen to both and try to ascertain how fast we think it's going to be built out, but if we say everything that exists today is built out in 10 years, um that decline drops uh by about 80 students. It improves by 80 students. So you're you'd go from to 7801, you're at 7883. If we look at 70% market share only as a lever, that brings you up to 9,000 uh 20 students in 10 years. So every every census block is getting 70% of the students coming to Duluth public schools. And then if we combine all of them together,

171you would have 9,102 students at the end of 10 years. So you're including your person cohort, your development, and your market share all roll up into a combined of 9102. So again, the same the same structure applies to grade spans, elementary, middle, and high school. It also applies to every every school for the breakdown. So clearly, I mean, it's pretty evident that the strategy is in in uh scenario three of addressing market share. Questions on the projections. Remember, Michael. Um you mentioned earlier that um this is like weather forecasting. Um and that your the farther out you go, the wider your projections will be. You mentioned that your five-year numbers are usually fairly accurate based on your past history at other districts. So do we get five-year numbers? Um they're they're in the full report.

172They're in the full report? >> Yeah. When do we When is the full report available to us? Um I'll let Superintendent answer that. The full report? Sure. I think we can make the full report available as soon as you'd like. So we can do We wanted to share the summary first to get kind of give the the high-level overview, but I'd I'd be glad to share the report immediately. And then does the full report also then include site-specific data? Mhm. And will we have a walk-through about the site-specific data in the future or no? It It follows the same trend. Um so the the piece that that is uh missing right now is until we get the capacity numbers updated. We didn't want to present a facility utilization. And so, um this is all the

173same in the report, but we've taken out the facility part of it, which is telling another part of the story that's important, but just not ready to go yet because we want to get those data updated. But it you'll if you looked at uh any school, you'll see four lines unless there's no development. If there's no development, you're only going to see the three lines. But what does the cohort survival rate look like? What does the um development, if it exists, what would that line look like? What does the uh market share line look like? And what does it combine? So, all kind of four lines. Um the first two are always going down. And market share is the one that makes them all turn up. That makes sense. Yeah, I look forward to seeing

174that. And then what's the timeline then on your getting the capacity data so that you can then provide provide us information about facilities? Sure. And actually, uh Simone and I have been working with uh ICS. So, we we looked at the overall report. Is that just No, it was a it was a week ago. So, we we got the first level uh view of that. And what we discovered is we we thought it would be it it tells a incomplete story to just have the the information without the capacity study. So, uh we talked with uh ICS and um Simone and I were working with ICS just just today. So, we started the conversation, but they they're beginning the uh capacity work and they should have the capacity work done relatively quickly. We let them

175know that we're on a advanced timeline. We want to make sure that we have that. Our concern is that again with the the incomplete picture it shows if we if we shared the whole report out now publicly, I think it would be uh better for us to have the full picture with the facilities capacity study. So, Simone, you want to comment on where we are with those conversations with ICS? Good evening. The information has been sent to IES. I included Ray tonight in an email. Um we believe the study that was done in 2016 was more of a fire marshal study. So, how many kids could be in every room or it be in the in the school. So, we're going to be doing a comprehensive functional study. And they're going to be working contacting

176site administrators and asking how many kids are What are we really using the classrooms for? Um I know we have itinerant staff in some rooms and that's the information we want to report to you. Like where do we stand today and not where we were in 2016. So, when we saw the full study, we realized that it really didn't paint a true picture. So, we're going to take a pause right now, get that information. Um everyone is aware that we're on a timeline and they have the capacity to start that work immediately and you know, I hope we can get it to you soon. Probably I mean it could be a couple months, but it will be accurate information for all of us. I think it's timely and I think we all need to know

177what what we're doing in all of our buildings. Member Maxwell? When you do this um demographic work for other districts, is there usually a capacity study component that is needed for those projects as well? And so, but this seems as though this is something that we are having to do um without realizing we were going to need to do it in the beginning. So, I just wanted to get clarity on why we weren't uh planning on that from the very beginning. Um the the timing of um from the time we did the project launch to now didn't allow the the ability to do that. Um and we usually take the capacity information from the district. Um we we have done some on our own, but it's very expensive and time-consuming. We're not capacity experts. But,

178I've sat with Is it Is it exactly what Samola said? Sitting with principals and walking through buildings. Um and it just takes time to do that. Um so, even if even if that project had started a few weeks ago, cuz I think this is only 3 weeks into this from our analysis from our start date to this analysis, um they it wouldn't have been done to have that for night tonight anyway. Great. Thank you for the update. Seeing no additional uh green lights. My last slide, um so we we see that there's six um strategic priorities that you may want to consider. We've talked a lot about number one, the market share recovery. Of um a really intentional effort to um communicate the program offerings for the district uh to increase to each census block

179to 70 ultimately a 75 overall district percent. Um number two, the birth zone strategy for so for elementaries that are limited in um market share growth and development growth to make sure that you're planning accordingly for staffing and right-sizing programming within those buildings. Number three, family recruitment. So, having a a conversation around what that could look like um under uh my former role, um one of the things that we did uh is that every new We were We had one hospital in our district, but every newborn that was born in that hospital was equipped with uh um sportswear from our sports team and a couple of books from uh a foundation that that did uh I'm blanking on the name. Read Anyway, something readers. And so their first uh exposure to the school district was

180before they left the hospital. Um also having really um great relation I'm not saying you don't do these, but really great relationships with realtors because they too are a first um a first insight to the school district. I think the third thing is internal communications. So um you put You've heard me say this before uh a school district's best communication um vehicle is your staff. And so making sure that that um as they're talking with people in the community, um their understanding of the program offerings and the benefits of what you do provide. So that kind of all falls underneath family recruitment. And it links a little bit to number four. Um what distinguishes uh Duluth Public Schools from other opportunities? What is What's What's your differentiator? And so knowing why people are choosing you

181um could be a uh a really important opportunity. Capacity is a TBD that'll be coming soon. Um and then that was as Superintendent Magus said, we'll be able to provide the full picture of not only where your enrollment could go, but how do your facilities look into the future um to house them. And then once the whole picture is having conversations on how do you structure and right-size your your buildings to um grow accordingly or staff and resource accordingly based on what the trends say. So, there's a lot of moving parts, a lot of great conversation opportunities, I think, for your the school district. Um And so, uh we know what happens if things don't change. We can see that trend. Um but there is some levers, I think, the district has to to be

182able to exercise to have an impact on um the future. And it's it's happening all over. I mean, everybody's having the same types of conversations. This I was just going to say, based on the prior questions about timeline for the capacity study, we have uh I I have um requested a more precise timeline. ICS said they're they'll be working on it really quickly, and they're so they they've given given indication that they're prioritizing it, but I let them know that the board had some um interest in more precise uh timeline. So, as soon as I get that, I'll forward it on to the board. And I was just going to mention, so this is a this is a high-level summary of approximately 85-page very detailed Um if you like the bar charts and numbers, then

183that is full of all of that data and information, and um and we also then will start to build. There's an online tool that the administration have access to to be able to do some scenario planning, um what-if scenarios, uh what things could look like that you have access to, which I'm envious. I wish I had that as a former business manager, um to be able to have that kind of conversation in real time with your data. Uh so, it'll be a very very valuable asset to the to Simone, I know for sure, and then also the cabinet, as well, as they have discussions. So, there's more to come. Um Member Sadowski. Yeah, thank you for this presentation. I heard you say and it totally makes sense to me. It's really good to know, you

184know, why why some of our families are going outside this district and why why they're coming in. Um it totally makes sense that sometimes it's just a logistical uh issue, but then sometimes it's more than that. So, it's good to know. Um Superintendent Magda, this question is more for you. I remember um a couple within the last couple years, I heard you talk about this and different ways that we can collect that kind of feedback from parents. Um can you remind us what you what we've been doing um just the last few years to try to um get that data. And then, obviously, we can try to make a plan for the future to improve that. But I I remember hearing about that at one point. Am I remembering incorrectly? I'm searching the depths of

185my memory now. And I I I think uh Or maybe it was a conversation about that this is really important. So, I'm glad it's coming back up again. >> we we do work through the the enrollment group and we do follow up with families. Uh Simone can probably address that more, but I'm also thinking about as I was as I was looking at that, I was thinking what new opportunities do we have? And we have um tools like our um thought exchange, you know, I that that might be something that that conducting some thought exchange work around this could be helpful as well because that gathers more nuanced data. Um that's a really good question. I I remember we had a conversation um I would love for the district be able to send a postcard

186to every family and say, "Hey, can you tell us how many kids are in your family?" Um because we should be probably doing that on a yearly basis. But, you know, due to budget, we haven't done it. Um and Phil, who's sitting here, our MARSS coordinator, does a really good job. He and I sit down, we do a 3-year projection through ADM we, through MDE. And um we watch our trends. So, you know, when I hear all of this, I'm really happy that we've chosen to stay really conservative with our budgets uh as far as predicting um our enrollment. Um you know, we have seen a couple of upticks the last couple of years. And I hope we are on that trend, but um you know, Ray and his team, they're they're taking data and

187handing that to us. So, as far as getting that information out there, we we we would have to make a commitment to, you know, we probably should do it yearly is send out a postcard. You know, are we going to get responses? I I would like to. Um I don't know if that is something the way people are reaching out anymore or is it more um you know, is it through a survey? So, I think I'd like to see the data from all of this and then I think we should take a next step and do that work. We we have done uh or I I had done some of this work in in other districts like in in Green Bay, we were doing uh more of that work. And we did find that the

188response rates are were pretty low. And sometimes it seemed like the responses of why were maybe uh not not totally genuine. I think I mean, I think sometimes I hate to say it, but I think sometimes people leave schools or parts of districts sometimes for uh reasons that they don't necessarily want to put on paper. Like they they want to leave because there's too many poor kids there or too many kids that don't look like their kids. And so, I think sometimes there's subtle or not so subtle uh judgments sometimes that come into decision-making, but I think it's important for us to understand that. Um I would say that uh and and I don't mean to miscategorize and say that everybody that leaves the district is leaving because of that feeling. I think that but

189I think we need to uh take a look at that. I think that uh what we find here to a degree as far as a pattern, but also a pattern I've seen elsewhere is uh usually districts it's not like you lose the students all that often during the time they're here. They just never come and try us to begin with. And so I think that that's when you talk about some of the strategies for uh early uh interest peaking like like giving books at the at the nursery and things like that. I think that those are things that we need to uh consider doing more of because quite often like I said, most most most students who don't come to a school district never even get a get a shot. And so I think that

190uh that and also making sure that when we have things like our Head Start programming and our early child program childhood programming, making sure those are as robust as possible so that the the first experiences are really good experience. So that when people give it a try, they say, "Oh wow, this was great. I'm going to give it a try and keep going." Those are things that that we need to to look at. But to your point, I think we need to uh go deeper into that data of of the why. Great. Thank you for expanding on that. That was a really helpful conversation. I appreciate um some of the good suggestions that you've brought forth here. Um and I'm glad you talked about the early childhood piece for a time. I guess I know

191that's come up recently, and I think when we think about that with our study of our buildings and what's going on in our buildings and our space issues, um I know that, you know, early childhood education, preschool, child care is so important to all of our families. Um so I think that'll be a piece, and then I would just to encourage us to kind of um we know we know our community and our constituents, and we can see we we know trends that are in our community, like a lot of the outdoors and and nature schools. And so it'll be um really rewarding to kind of think about that together as a board with our admin team and so thank you. You've been thinking about the I mean just a recent celebration like the the

192school forest at Myers Wilkins. It's hard to quantify how many students will that how many families will that maybe keep or attract, right? But but I'm sure it will. So thinking about to your point not just the environmental perspective but but how are we how are we tapping into those those interest areas of our students and advertising those areas maybe on big billboards between here and Proctor. I didn't just say that, did I? There are number of lights and I forget who was next. I'm going to just going to choose how about member Lovell then member Lovell again. Then you have them. So my question is just real real real simple is that I I did hear that this is the overview and I'm appreciative of of kind of starting the conversation cuz it's new

193to all of us, you as well. But then you say that there's an an 85-page and and I think you said something about you shared it immediately with us. That wouldn't do me any good. So I'm hoping that the board would say, "Yeah, we we want to learn about the 85-page deep dive, but I would like to have us come together and have you share it with us as a whole board rather than just sharing it with us and then you know, we we kind of proves it unless other board members I mean that's a place to start, but I'd rather come together as a as a whole and go over that again. And I it doesn't and maybe it should be a special meeting because waiting another month isn't going to help us answer

194some questions we need to answer. Can I Can I respond to that? So because you're special, um this is the first time that I have done a high-level overview of a report like this. Normally, we have done all 85 pages and we lose everybody in the room because there's just too much data. So, this is actually a a strategy to be able to get you an introduction and then the rest of the report will make a a lot more sense as we go through it. So, there was some intentional intentionality behind this. And Duluth being special, you're first my first district that I've done this work with this way. So, um, you can give me the positive evaluation later. As I will. As I will. You know, cuz you're a math nerd and I know.

195It's clear clear for me to see that. >> [laughter] >> Member Lofstrom Camp and then Member Myxal. Thank you and thank you, Ray. We are special in Duluth. I agree. Uh, um, I I've appreciated this high-level and I am anxious to to see the 85-page report and and and hoping that we then can sit down again, maybe in a a retreat. Um, I also, uh, because I'm already jumping ahead where Member Sadowski is, too, thinking about uh, wanting to share what I think, um, about my our community and and my door knocking from this fall and what I was hearing from families and working with a lot of early childhood families, what we're what I'm hearing, like everybody here could sit around and do. So, I'm anxious to have that that space to to brainstorm

196and share our thoughts and and then share additional ideas, like like you mentioned the three, uh, the real estate, the hospitals, and, um, that third one. And, um, ideas like that, um, and so, how how do you envision, uh, Superintendent, our next steps from today? And actually, I was just about to text Patty and ask, uh, do we have another, uh, a session scheduled? I don't think we do. But I think and actually in the meantime ICS got back and said that they should give us some information in the morning as far as when they'll be able to complete the study. So what I'd like to do is is wait for that information. And sorry, I was just trying to gather the the answer to that. Um but what we could do is we could

197see when they're going to have the capacity study done and then all sit down and and dive into it. But I think a work session would be probably the best way for us to dive into that and we could once we know in the morning when the capacity study is done, I could work with Chair Durkheimer to to explore times for work session. And we did build that into our response multiple presentation opportunities. So um knowing knowing that this isn't going to be a one and done. So happy to come back and walk through all 85 pages one at a time. >> [laughter] >> Um again, this is just so much good information for us to to be considering. Um the thing that stands out to me the most and um what I share want

198to share that I look most forward to in the work that we have ongoing is, you know, the the lever that we have the most control over is our market share um and hopefully increasing that and um the advice given um by our expert consultant that strengthening program offerings, communication, and building community trust are the highest liberal leverage actions available. So I look forward to working with my board colleagues to um start improving on those things. Member Bates? Yes, I'm not objecting to another uh work session or anything like that, but I noticed when we've had our book study uh that can take a long time for just two chapters. So you're talking 85 pages. I would personally like to read the material myself ahead of time. And if I have any questions, then submit

199those questions that way. Because if we're going to do 85 pages in a work session, we're going to be here until 10:00 or 11:00 at night. Just going to put that out on the table. And they're not all words. There's lots of maps and charts. So, I'm being a little facetious, but um yeah. So, there's I mean there's a lot of maps in in there. Full-page maps. But I I agree with you, member Banks. If we think about it like a what they would call a flipped lesson, where we send out the information, give people a chance to really digest it and chew on it, and then then come uh to to have that conversation. We could probably uh depending on what the capacity study looks like, too. We could share that out ahead so

200that people maybe with some guidance, so that people can can uh work on kind of consuming that information and come ready for conversation. And one thing that resonated with me um that you shared is um staff being a focal point. There are a lot of really good things happening in our district, and we have to make sure that our staff, all of them, um are the ones who are championing what's happening in our schools and celebrating all of the things that are going on in our schools, so that that gets out and that becomes what draws others to our district and keep people here. Because everyone wants a safe, nurturing learning environment for their sons and daughters, and we have wonderful programmings to complement that, and we need to focus on again promoting the good

201things that are happening in our district. As we continue to, you know, Yep. Recruit these families back and get families to choose us first. So, thank you. Yep. Anything else? Seeing no additional green lights. Thank you. Thank you. Thank Oh, the fun isn't over. Do we want Do we want to consider a break or do we want to keep going? Chair, would you like to announce that? We will be taking about a 4-minute break. Cuz 4 minutes turns into 8 minutes, turns into 10 minutes, turns into 12 minutes. >> Mhm. >> I'll call us back to the table, please. I'll call us all back. Um When I'm when this one's done I'm going to take off because he can't be whatever. So, after this I'm going to take off. So, I You're in charge. >>

202[laughter] >> Yeah, Jason's out of town. Yeah. All righty, I think I'll call us back to attention. Um And Director Larva, is it just you? I believe it is just me. >> Okay. All right. However, I do have some senior leaders here as well to help support. SO, >> [laughter] >> I WAS LIKE THEY'RE NOT excused from this. So, can we get you sitting with somebody? Um Technology, do we are we getting ready to go back on? Are we on already? Thank you. Great, we're back and so I'll turn it back over to Assistant Superintendent Bonds. Thank you and thank you everyone for being patient with us uh over the the the brief break here. So, next up under improving systems is a report from Director Larva related to our ALC compliance report and next

203steps. So, I'll turn it over to Director Larva. Hi, thank you everyone. Um this is a little bit of a different approach for me. Usually I come with a presentation, but instead I wanted to give you the actual documents um so that we could walk through them and answer any questions. I wanted you to be fully aware of um the situation um and the actions um to address um the sanctions that we have um received. Um so, this letter you can see is dated on April 20th, 2026. We found out about 2 weeks ago about um some deficiencies in our um alternative learning center programming reporting um things that came out from a desk audit. Um so, this is just a letter that is stating that um and I'm just going to let you um

204peruse that at your own leisure. But, I wanted to talk to you Oh, and I I should state um so, this is a desk review that started in August of 2025. Um we were informed by Christie Ergeng, who is the um alternative learning specialist on at MDE. She's also been working with um Eric Billett, the supervisor of um Career and College Success Division. And then Sally Reynolds you'll see on there and she is a director of college and career success division. And so um these three folks have been supporting the district for a period of time um with all of our alternative our alternative programming. Um and this was a desk audit and so it wasn't um them coming in to the school or into our programs but looking at documentation is what a desk

205audit is. So as we go down you're going to see that there's a monitoring report. Um it's right here. Thank you. So um the MDE staff who participated were those three that I individuals that I just talked about. Um they required some documents for monitoring including the list of all students that are enrolled in the independent study program for the fiscal year of 2023 and 2024. They asked for all teacher schedules for our licensures, um file folder numbers, um if they were providing um independent study instruction for the 2023 and 2024 school years. Um all of those things had been requested. Um documents were being provided on a timely basis. There were um additional asks that came about so they would look at some documents and then there might be another additional ask and in

206it looks like uh let's see where was it December? They requested for some clarifica Oh, they asked for CLPs in November and then they asked for some clarification on those documents. Um and there were some emails back and forth between the alternative learning center administrator and MDE. Um but they needed to make sure that they had sent in their continual learning plans and those were submitted in January. Um we did have um our school finance um our our our our business services and people who would reach out to school finance at MDE, um, we're asking for some technical assistance, um, on some of the reporting that that needed to happen uh, regarding the four-day week. And at that point in time is when we found out that we had, um, had some concerns about that

207four-day week flexible schedule, which I know you talked about at a previous meeting. Um, so that's where that kind of came about. So it was like we had this desk audit and then some other things other things came about needed to be submitted and then other other things came up and needed to be submitted. So it just kind of kind of grew a little bit, um, throughout the whole, um, process. There are three critical elements that we have been found to have, um, some areas in which we were either partially in compliance or not in compliance. Um, those are articulated in this document. Our critical element number one is organization and administration. And so you can see, looking at the, um, at the, um, document where we are partial, you'll see those little check boxes.

208You'll also see if we're not in compliance and you're also going to see the state statute or the rule that is governing that aspect that they're looking at. So when we look at the sub elements under organization and administration, um, it states that the ALC must have received approval from MDE to operate as a, um, state approved alternative program. That's what SAP means. So I wanted to be clear I told you what it meant. Um, and then the ALC must be a site on MDE's org. And that has happened. That that is not not anything that was out of compliance that way. Except I think our application was done like way back in the day. And so, we don't really have current documentation on what that originally looked like, that original programming. Cuz it was

209done so long ago. But, I don't know um where the finding is partial compliance is, but I think it's around our school within a school. And so, the site means a separate facility, a program within a facility or a district such as school within a school as a separate ALC site once the school board recognizes that as a site. So, that's something we're digging into just to make sure that we're in compliance with our MARSS reporting on that. Um our next sub element was providing the ALC provides comprehensive educational services to enrolled secondary students throughout the entire year, including a daytime program for both high school and middle level. Their finding there is that we're in partial compliance. Um and then the third sub element was that they must develop and maintain a separate a

210separate records system that permits identification of membership for the students participating in that program. And then there's some more details about that, but it's it's about our record keeping. So, this is where the compliance issues were found. We had some online instruction that was that was being associated with our independent study way back in the day when there was approval, I'm sure. It was like coming in and doing paper packets. Well, over time things have evolved. Um they felt like through going through the documents that how it was being implemented did not align with some of the statutory requirements for a SAP, a state approved alternative program. Um so, there was a lack of clarity around attendance expectations and how those records were being kept related to attendance policies and procedures. Um so, you'll see

211something later on about a Google Form, and so kids were just going into a into a form and entering in their time. Um it wasn't um it was like a digital um like a digital check-in is kind of what it what they were doing, and they were answering some questions. So, they they they found that to be something that they would like to see us clean up. Um they also were were operating on a 4-day instructional week without receiving approval for that flexible learning year that we've already talked about. Um we had a lot of blending that was going on with our enrollment records between seat-based and um our independent study in one record, and so we need to clean up some of our our records around enrollment. Um the the way that it was

212stated was that students would have to complete a certain number of contact hours to pass a class, um and that is really around trying to earn earn the ADM, um and we can't define it as such. Students should be awarded the credit when they pass, um and are marked for attendance and membership per the calculation of the program. Uh then there's a document link there that they want us to follow. And then um independent study was kind of blended within the school schedule. It wasn't really clear when independent study was being offered versus ALC seat-based on the schedules that had been provided. Um and so we've been asked to clean that up um and make sure that our schedule is really defined times as being these are for seat-based times, and these ones here are

213for um independent study um and for our teachers as well. Our course catalog um did not include some courses for which some teachers were assigned to teach, and I'm saying that not our course catalog, but the independent study course catalog. So, they had a separate course catalog that they were running, and it wasn't all being reflected, so our course catalog needs to be updated. Um and so that will be something that's pretty easy for us to do. Um and then student transcripts need to reflect those courses that are that are um not included There's an annual independent study report that the principal submits every year. And so we need to make sure that um the transcripts are reflecting courses um that maybe aren't to be included on there. Our record-keeping system needs to make sure

214that it's identifying enrollment by course and instructional activity. Um it nor and it did not also demonstrate how our average daily membership is generated and connected to the coursework. So um by looking at the teacher schedules, it wasn't really clear how um that's documented to support the instructional delivery and those membership claims. Um so it has an example in some cases, students took 13 or more courses over a year in independent study. And so that seems to be quite a few courses. And so they wanted to make sure that we were having check-ins quite regularly, instruction being provided by students that they're not just working independently, that it's being overseen um by teachers. Um so we need to make sure that our MARS record and our ADM generated are in alignment. And I know Phil's

215here, and so if we have MARS-specific questions, I know that Phil would be able to answer any of that. Do you have any questions on that first section of our Remember in our audit, okay. Uh just a clarification on um like what would be some examples of independent study that students have been doing. I just need to kind of Yeah. So, um in the years that this has um has the desk review audit happening in '23 and '24, um we used a program called Pique, and maybe some of you've heard about Peak in the past. I'm not sure, but Peak was an um online program that they would enroll students in, and they would do the coursework um through an online provider. Um We have since changed that to be run through our our Canvas

216classroom module format that all teachers are using, right? Um, credit recovery was also utilizing Peak in many ways, shapes, or form. Um, and so it was being more of an online program. It's kind of like doing worksheets online um without necessarily stopping and having those check-ins with with a teacher. Thank you. Member Banks. So, page page 43, please, bullet two. Uh the ALC is operating on a four-day instructional week without receiving approval for a flexible learning year. Uh when did that start, and um uh I don't recall uh I don't know if I was on the board at the time it happened, or when did that start? My understanding is that they had gone through a process in 2011 um and working with the union um and reaching an MOU um for us to be

217able to do a four-day week. Um it was considered to be an under the alternative programs realm at that time, and somewhere along the line something had shifted, and flexible learning um calendars um are are applied for through the state, and I think that it just needed there's now an application. It's not like just open-ended, like you can do this for an alternative program and be open-ended for the rest of time. It needs to be resubmitted every six years for an alternative program. Um, and so somewhere along the line, maybe with some transitions with administration, um, lost track of that perhaps and um, so we we've we did do the application for just a one-year extension. Um, there are a lot of things that come about from that and we need to make sure that

218we're planning very carefully in all of this. So the one-year extension gives it would give us a year of grace while we continue planning looking forward and ahead. Okay, thank you for that. Okay. Superintendent Maguson? Sure. And it's also, uh, my understanding that, um, so there was greater flexibility for alternative learning programs, but um, with that having changed, that that's a fairly recent change and so when I talked to MDE, they, uh, they were they're allowing for at least moderate flexibility for the applications this year because it's new for a lot of people, uh, but we are um, behind in it. So that that it's something that we're, uh, we're we were able to submit, uh, and I think that that we will be okay with that, but again, to, uh, Director Larva's point, we

219have to make sure that the four-day week is in the best interest of of the students as we as we rethink this and we also have to make sure that the number of contact minutes is sufficient to meet the the standards uh, for the the programming. All right, if we're ready to move forward a little bit, um, we can go and take a peek at critical element area number two, which was around admissions. Um, one of the things that, um, students who are engaging with alternative programming need is to have a continual learning plan. It needs to be developed at least annually with participation from students and parents and teacher and other staff that might need to be involved, and everybody needs to sign it and date it. Um it needs to specify what learning

220experiences are going to be happening during that entire um fiscal year and are necessary for grade progression or for for secondary students' graduation. So, um that was the big area that we have there, and it tells all the different things that they must include. So, where we have the issues that came about from that is that um Oh. Okay. Yeah. Um so, the compliance issues that were found were that um we were unable to provide valid compliant CLPs for the enrolled students during that time frame of uh 2023 and 2024. Um those CLPs did not necessarily meet the statutory requirements for annual development. They might have been rolled over from one year to the next. Um participant involvement, um those signatures from all um or required core elements. The um the district had submitted the

221forms, but not the completed CLPs with graduation requirements and courses. Um clarification had been sought on the completion of records, but um the district was unable to provide signed copies of the completed CLPs, and in some cases it had appeared that the referral form served as the CLP. And so, that we need to have two separate forms. Like, there's a referral form, and then the continuous learning plan needs to be a separate piece of it. So, any questions about the continual learning plans? Sure. I'm assuming that the CLPs have to these continual learning plans have to have elements of standards for the courses that they will So, let's just use an example of I don't know 10th grade history, I don't know. But so the then the CLP plans would need to have the 10th

222grade history state standards documented in those. Is that kind of what Not necessarily the state standards, but goals of of the student written around what their goals are for the areas that they're getting support in. So if they're trying to attain graduation, they would write it be writing a goal about I'm going to take government classes. We'd have teachers that would be doing some >> it's for student, not for class. Not necessarily for class. So I'm thinking about an elementary cuz this also impacts our elementary in the end you'll see, but targeted services. We have Excel programming and so a kid might be referred and then they might be referred because they are needing some extra support in reading. So a reading goal would be written for that student and then then that needs to

223be monitored and assessed at some point in time. Got it. Okay, thank you for that clarification. All right, then we'll move on to programming, which is critical element number three. The areas where we were not compliant were that the district is providing online instruction in the ALC must meet the requirements of the online and digital instruction act and all SAP statutes and that persons providing instruction are appropriately licensed with a Minnesota teaching license in the field and grade level being taught. Um so these are the issues that have been found with that our student instructional modality, like seat-based, independent study or online instruction, um they were they were um not consistently communicated through the schedule, um the schedule teacher contact time wasn't really clear and documented and then into the CLPs and into the teacher

224schedule. So um just need we need to clean that up. Instruction was being provided in subject areas that without appropriately licensed staff. Specifically, there was no licensed teacher assigned for chemistry instruction and instruction in health by ad and music was being provided by individuals without appropriate licensure. So, we were we we were going without properly licensed staff teaching those content areas. And then teacher contact time was counted when students filled out the Google form, which is what I kind of was talking about before, which does not meet the requirement for attendance for membership in independent study. So, [snorts] there needs to be a dynamic exchange between the instructor and the student and it should not be just a check-in that's on the on the behalf of the student in a Google form. Any questions about

225that programming side? So, when the Google form, so teacher contact time was counted when students filled out the Google form, which of the sub-elements in programming, which is that attached to a state statute or is that is that going back to how we count for MARSS data for student contact hours and all that? Do you know what I'm trying to say? I think it's the MARSS data. Yeah, the MARSS data. Okay. All right. So, this really kind of goes back to Critical Area 1. Critical Area 1. Okay. Perfect. All right. So, our next steps that we heard more about were that our ALC is going to be reclassified as a as an alternative learning program starting on July 1. Targeted services programs would be closed as of July 1 and independent study approval be discontinued

226as of July 1. So, what that means is that how we are currently functioning as an alternative learning center we're able to bring in students from Proctor, from Hermantown, from Two Harbors. We can continue to function as an alternative learning program which we can serve our own students. We're not going to be able to serve any partnering school districts um if we're under that designation for a period of time. Do you have something you want to add? I was just going to ask if Patty could scroll up. Oh, scroll up a little bit. Okay. Oh, the next steps part. Yeah. Yeah, >> [snorts] >> I I saw you waving from the corner so I wasn't sure if you were if you needed something from me. Targeted services really covers our K through 8 programming that

227we have. So, we have after-school Excel programs and we also have summer school programming which falls under targeted services. So, that would be closed as of July 1 and then the independent study which is that modality where kids aren't being seat-based but they're maybe doing credit recovery or independent study things online with support of a teacher. That's being discontinued as well. So, those are kind of the three different parts and buckets maybe it would be an ideal way of saying it to the ALC. ALC is very complicated and it's got like three distinct parts to it. So, those are being discontinued The district must complete the full ALC application process, the independent study application process, and the targeted services application process. So, on top of the flexible 4-day learning application that I've submitted already there

228are three additional applications that are going to need to be submitted before we can get back our our status to where we are currently. Member Williams. Thank you. When you say credit recovery, does that include summer programming? >> Yes. Thank you. Member Banks. Sure. So, can you share with us how is this going to impact uh those students who rely on who utilize ALC, many of whom are uh students of color, Native heritage students, uh other students who uh count on the ALC to support them. How is that going to impact that demographic of students? So, um I would like to talk about that a little bit more detail, but what I will say in this moment right now is that we have to discontinue services on July 1 as they stand under Duluth Public

229Schools operating as an ALC. That would that would impact all students, but I would like to add a little bit more um after I kind of get through this letter, if that's okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um the last thing that they asked us to do is that within 30 days of receipt of the letter, we must submit an action plan addressing the compliance issues listed above. Um and so that plan would include specific steps, who's responsible for completing it, timelines for the implementation, and evidence that the district will provide to MDE to verify completion of tasks. So, we have to have all of that completed, written out, and submitted. So, um if we don't do that, then we're further into non-compliance and would um place the program's approval status at risk for even being

230an alternative learning program for 2027. So, um that's being said, I wanted to talk a little bit about some things. I'm going to I'm going to talk about them right now because I know that this is the burning questions on everybody's mind. Oh my gosh, so what are we going to do with summer school? And that's really where we're landing um with a lot of things. So, when we were um once we got these findings, we um so Superintendent Megas reached out to MDE, um, and scheduled a meeting with the team that had issued this. So, Eric Billett and Kristi Ergang, um, and so we met to discuss all the different findings, and then what does that actually mean? What does that actually look like? Believe me, um, Assistant Superintendent Bonds was almost begging to

231make sure that we could continue with targeted services. However, that's a statutory, um, it's a statutory compliance issue. So, we cannot function our targeted services program because of when you lose that ALC status, you no longer can function your targeted services. Um, so in that conversation that we were having, um, Kristi Ergang did state that it is possible that you could operate summer programming under another ALC's designation. Um, and so, um, Superintendent Megas did reach out to Cloquet, and we do have a conversation scheduled for tomorrow to talk about the possibility of partnering with Cloquet in order for us to be able to continue to offer targeted services support for our summer school programming, um, K-8. Um, we also will talk about, um, what that could look like for our independent study and our credit

232recovery programs as well. In lieu of that, we I've I've also been, um, spending a lot of time down at the ALC lately, and we've been having a lot of conversation about like, is it possible for us to even, um, run even under our own designation till June 30th and be able to offer some credits to kids. Um, it would it would be possible. We could, um, get enough time in, um, to offer, um, up to two credits for students. If we went every single day from June 8th to June 30th, which may or may not be best for kids. You kind of think about kids because kids we want to make sure that we're doing what's best for them all. So I'll know more. Like that's our backup plan. That's the backup plan that

233we have currently that I've been talking to with the ALC staff so that if it's not something that we can do under Colquitt's ALC, we do have a way to offer up to two credits. And that's how much they usually get during the summer time. The kids would have to be really focused on getting their their things accomplished within that shorter time frame. So we are we're working on plans, different plans. Thank you. And typically partnering means that they will serve as the flow through district for us financially. We would still offer our same summer school programming that we want to run. They are also eligible to keep a certain portion of the finances. So up to 10% they are able to keep if they are if they decide to keep it. Superintendent do you

234want me to present the next one? Superintendent Magus then member Williams. That would be for the administrative overhead of running the finances of that. I would say that I I mean I I don't want to forecast too much in a public meeting but they seem receptive to the concept and I should know more tomorrow and I can provide a report to the tomorrow to the board after I we hear from them. Also as you noted the closure of the ALC and the switch to the ALP would mean that we aren't able to serve the area students that we could serve our own students but not area students. And so that would involve us informing the other districts that we partner with which I've done so I've I've talked to the superintendents in Lake Superior Hermantown

235and Proctor to let them know that if if things fall the way that they look like they will fall then we will not be able to serve their students in the fall. And there aren't aren't that many students that we have coming in from That was my follow up is just about how many students have to get the total but Yeah I would have to get that from It's not a huge number. Looks like member Lovold. Actually let me just say it's not a huge number but any number is too too large like when we think about impact on kids that are struggling and I don't want to minimize by saying just because it's a few kids that it doesn't matter. So it confuses me a little bit when it's when we start right from

236the get-go that this is a 2023-2024 desk audit. So then my question would be can we provide the kind of things that we weren't able to to provide for 23-24? What if we're currently following plan? I mean it seems like we are 3 years from where our our >> [clears throat] >> our our violations and our not following protocol happens but could you why why can't we or why wouldn't they ask for follow up for a following year? Those are great questions and I would love to be able to share in the next slide in the next document that we have which is our corrective actions plan. Some of these things have already been addressed by the alternative learning center staff and leadership that was down there. So I'm going to I'm going to go

237ahead and present the next document. I just think it's easier for me to navigate it if that's if that's okay. Oops. And as you're pulling that up I'd just like to state publicly too that we have a lot of teachers at ALC that are working very hard for our students and care deeply about our students and they're they're frustrated and concerned as well. Uh so um I know sometimes with [snorts] this there's a sense of shame and a sense of of frustration and and fear on their part and I just want to say that I know that they are working for students with with good heart and that uh they are caring people who want to see people succeed and they want they they really want to re-envision their program in a positive way and

238I think that they're to some degree are seeing this as an opportunity to have deep reflection and uh deep revisioning of what they want to do and how they're going to do it. And so I think even though this is a time of um deep concern and frustration, it's also a time when we're we're um having some hope as to what this could result in. And so thank you for that because that's kind of what I want to highlight here. Um when we take a look at this corrective action plan, I did create a dashboard so that it would be easier to communicate as we go along. Um I'm assuming that there'll be regular updates to the board and I want to be able to in a quick way show our progress on some of

239the actions that we have, okay? Um and I also want you to understand that this is a draft cuz I will submit to the state and they might have some recommendations of things that I might need to add into our corrective actions plan. So I just want to I just want to preface all of that with that. Um so this document you'll see in this dashboard, if you see in blue, things that are already are are actually green are completed. There's some things that the ALC had already done um that I could mark off as being completed. One real item that's completed. But if you'll see in progress, there's nine items that have already been started and some of them are things that um just needs like to have MDE approval um as we move

240along. So, um I feel like it's it's they've done really good work in addressing things. Um as far as like the independent study, they were starting to see that yep, we need to do some things different. PEAK is not meeting the needs of kids. Let's create these modules. Um the schedule, they worked really hard this year. They had lots of conversations and we're trying to clearly delineate when um the independent study instruction was happening versus when they had the C-based instruction happening. Um so, there's some really good things in here that have already been started, maybe not yet finalized, um and and are probably things that need to have a bigger, broader lens put on them. So, one of my tasks is to engage in different stakeholders as we're moving things forward so that it

241is not just being done in the silo, that we have um representation from East, we have representation from Denver, um that we're partnering with our MDE partners, um and and potentially expanding even to our partnering school districts as well. Getting some getting some feedback once we once we get some planning done. Um so, those three critical element areas you can see along the bottom here. So, when you take a look, um that report had broken it down into those three areas of organization, administration, admissions, and programming. And so, I did also put those um tabs along the bottom, and then I also created one called cross systems improvements that kind of just um go across the whole system. I just want to point out for the public and for the media here that in our

242board book, we don't have access to the tabs. So, this is only in an Excel spreadsheet that we have via email. So, wait for future if there's um questions that might be Um so, I will have Shannon um print it so that it's the whole workbook instead of just the front page then. Okay. Thank you for that. All right, so if you look at the organization administration, you'll see that I've listed out the findings that were identified within that report that we received. I then added a corrective action step that would take care of that finding. Um and then what the evidence of it would be. Um the timeline is just very general right now. And then who is the responsible party. So I also feel like I need to add like status is in

243progress, but then like a notes category. I just haven't done that yet. So you'll see the four-week the four-day week approval. So seeking that one year of extension, the flexible learning application submitted. Um and we needed to determine then a compliant calendar. Um all those things have been submitted. Our application was kind of um there are some missing elements to the application. We were told that um regardless of where we were, we needed to submit the application by a certain date. And I think I had four days. It was It was really a quick turnaround. Um and there's things like public meetings that need to happen around around that flexible day schedule. And so there are going to be some components that still need to be completed um within that. So um it's in progress.

244Yes, it's been submitted to the state, but there are still components of things that need to be worked on. So I want I would just want to kind of like, yep, I already submitted it. But I can't mark it as complete. If that makes sense. So just wanted you to be aware of that. >> [snorts] >> So you'll be able to see as we move along. Um I'm not going to go through each and every one of these line items. Um so I'm going to just kind of give you a second, but you'll see that um trying to define the action step and what we're going to do in order to um correct the um the findings. In the um in the admissions or CLP area, I'm going to click to that one so you

245can see that. Um they've already done some work around the CLPs. Um I have it written as not started right now only in that um I haven't done like a review of what that is and what it needs to look like. Um but there's already been work that's done there. Um so the missing elements um they've been running a lot of their things through something called Jotform. Um so I was working for a bit there with Danielle Dorn um our Infinite Campus specialist to see if we could run it through Infinite Campus instead of through Jotforms. But with our partnering with schools outside of our district, we're going to maintain the Jotform format. Um but we just need to I just need to make sure that those all those things are aligned before I'm willing

246to say that we're in progress or that we're completed. I just haven't had chance to review those pieces yet. Um making sure that we get those signatures. They've been making sure that they've been doing that all along this year. Um having all of those signatures prior to the enrollment and that's part of that change over of how they're using their forms. Um yeah, so those are some things that had been um they had already started working on as far as correcting them. On the programming tab, um they've already eliminated that Google form attendance practice. That had been completed. Um it was eliminated at the start of the school year. I felt very confident saying that that was complete. Um it was replaced with structured engagement and monitoring systems within the Canvas modules. So it might

247be that students complete a certain number of tasks and then it's like you need to now connect with your teacher before you move on. Um so that they're having more of that engagement with a teacher. Um and so um um Yeah, there's just a lot of different checkpoints. I guess that's what I want to say that there's checkpoints that are being embedded within their Canvas modules. Um you can see that we're um implementing more of the engagement systems. Um they use what's called Mirrors. It's a it's a uh um just a state program. I can't even remember what it stands for. It's kind of like BAR at Denfeld. I know we've heard a lot about BAR. It's it's kind of like the state's version of BAR. Um and so like monitoring those kids, checking in

248with kids who are at risk. And so um they're using the teachers get into these groups and they're looking through the data and then like, "Hey, who haven't we heard from in a while? Who do we need to connect with?" And then doing more outreach. And so they're they're trying to embed more outreach within their program. Um we're taking a look at the unlicensed staff. I think that was one of the one of the big concerns I could see on your faces. Um so I've done an audit of the teaching assignments. Um we have um some teachers that are teaching um that need OFPs, which are called out-of-field placements. And so I've been working with HR to correct this and I know that um forms have gone to the teachers to be signed and submitted

249to PAWS-B. So those are all things that are in the works. As far as the course delivery being misaligned to licensure, I I don't know yet what the schedule's going to look like for next year. So we just want to make sure we always have aligned courses to staff that are licensed. So those are some things that haven't been started because of that. Um and then just taking a look at our online instruction compliance. I haven't started that looking at it to see like, "Hey, is what they're currently doing in alignment. So, some of those things I've just marked as not started cuz I haven't even been able to meet with any teachers or anything about that. And then the last piece there, the cross systems improvement. Um these are some things that are just

250in general that I feel are things that we need to make sure that we're including in our plan. Um one of them is staff training. Um we need to make sure that staff are trained on all those compliance issues with the CLP and all of our instructional models, like what the actual expectations are for um for an engagement with a student. Um the monitoring systems, like how are we going to be monitoring this like there's needs to be some sort of compliance review and how are we using our mirrors team team for monitoring our engagement with students. Um realignment of mirrors with their advisory and then some program redesign and alignment. And some of these are ideas that um you know, once presented to MDE might shift and change um to um better reflect what

251they would like to see happening um within the within the program of and within the action plan. Um I think this is the right one. Yes, this is mine. The last thing Oh, was there any questions about the action plan before I move on to the um the response to MDE letter? Superintendent Megas? >> [clears throat] >> Sure. I think uh First and foremost, I want to say that uh as superintendent that you know, we we bear responsibility I anything that happens in the district I bear responsibility for and uh that that we have responsibility for it and and super assistant superintendent Bonds and director Larva have responsibility for oversight as well. I do want to say uh and I can't go too deeply into things because of the uh you know, issues related to

252um you know, things that might be more personnel related, but we have been working really uh with the site try working on on accountability measures and um this is I can provide greater explanation in in another forum for that. Um not not it's not not meant for public conversation just because of the the nature of it. But um the there has been significant work in trying to create partnership with the site and there there were there and I'm not trying to be dismissive of the the teachers. The teachers are are good teachers trying to do do good things, but there was a lot of pushback from from site leadership in general and and that's that was a major part of the problem here as far as uh the accountability piece. And so, I'm not going

253to go any further into that, but I I just want to say that no matter what we own it. I own it. Uh Assistant Superintendent owns it, Director Larva owns it. Um but and and we're all committed to to working together on improvement. Uh but this is not there were there were things within this report that were things that we were concerned about and trying to address as well over the course of the past um many years and I know I've discussed some of those things with uh Chair uh Dirk Dieter, but even over the many years had very very significant conversations with uh Chair Lovoldman Chair she was Chair. So, it's um this is something that we've been trying to to work on for for quite some time and and it's it's uh unfortunate

254that it came to this this um public piece of of of this uh of this these findings, but we are deeply and wholly committed to uh seeking resolution. I know that uh Director Larva and Assistant Superintendent Bonds and and the site. The site is really leaning into this, too. They're saying that they they are recognizing some of the things that they felt a little shaky on that that that they they they wanted to do differently, and they want to do differently now. So, I think that there's a renewed opportunity for all of us to lean in and think about again to that because kids piece, and think about what are we going to do to um move forward. And you And you see from the the uh the dashboard, what we have as far as

255what those steps are going to look like, but then too with this uh response to MDE, it really outlines uh that that we are planning to lean in. And I would also say that that MDE wants to partner. It's not like they're just saying like here's your punishment. Uh go take this punishment. They're They're saying that this They do not like to have to have these consequences for us, and they want to work with us in partnering moving forward. And I've also, you know, reached out with to the uh commissioner and had conversation with him about it. Um but it's it's very complex how we got to this point, and uh we are deeply committed to to resolving it. Thank you. Um so, this last final piece um is a letter that I have drafted,

256um have gone through Oh, did somebody need me first? No, sorry. Oh, okay. Oh, I'm sorry. Um so, um was drafted, um Assistant Superintendent Bonds and I have um we've reviewed this. Um really what we're doing is first of all, we're thanking them for the feedback, um extending our appreciation for meeting with our team when we had some questions about it, and for their support um moving forward, um continuing to um appreciate that partnership um so we can move forward. Um submitting the response um so that we can get into full statutory compliance while preserving our high quality student centered pathways. I think that's the important part there that to highlight out of there. Um, I also have let them know that um they should be working directly with me if they have any questions

257um that I will be leading the charge um as we have some transitions happening there. Um, that I'm centering those corrective actions on those three primary element areas um and how we're going to move that forward and then um respectfully requesting some continual guidance as we as we continue to partner with them um so that we can get that up those applications completed um and making sure that all of the programming that we are doing is under that statutory um and um procedure guidance of of MDE. So, it it I think it's well written. I think that we're ready to send it um but we wanted to make sure that it was brought here in case there are any questions um before we do send off um things to MDE. Any questions or concerns? In

258general? >> Member Sedlacek. Sorry, I didn't see the green there first. Member Sedlacek. >> That's okay. I don't know who was first. Anyway, I I was just going to say um appreciate [snorts] all the information that we were given um even prior to this meeting. Uh I think this is a really well written letter. I um appreciated the opportunity to um share in reading it and and give feedback. Um obviously this has really been disappointing news. Very concerned about our our ELC students. Um but really appreciate the work that you're doing and going to continue to do to kind of write the ship to to definitely right the ship. Um I know a lot of students depend on on the programming at the ALC. So, um whatever we can do to kind of make sure

259that this that the all the programming can continue in some in some fashion would be great. So, thank you. I would second what member Subawski said and I also just um want to be clear that as we're working through this um problem, issue, whatever we want to call this, that we are making sure that we are going to find solutions that better work for kids. And as we know, um we just had our graduation rates pres- presentation done and we know that when it when it comes to our independent studies, we have some significant work to do to improve those graduation rates. And I I want to use this as an opportunity to figure out how we can bring those graduation rates up to where they need to be, which is, you know, 100%, which

260we all dream about, right? And I also want to just be very clear that as we go through this process, that the Duluth Public Schools is going to be very transparent as we walk through this and my expectation is um that you'll be coming back to give us monitoring and maybe and being clear and concise with our community about um the progress that we're making, where we stand with MDE, and when we can expect to have our programming back to where we need it to be. So, I I just want to be clear that we understand that this um we all hold responsibility for this because we know it's going to negatively affect kids and family. Kids and families, we're going to make sure that we're lifting up the kids as we come for solutions,

261that these are kid-centered solutions. And um that we want to be transparent with our community and be honest and open with how we got here and where we're going to go. So, I appreciate the work that you're all doing on this. And just um know that, you know, I I I'm sure I can speak for the board as we expect, you know, monitoring and transparency not just with us, but with our community. Thank you. Member Mike Sudduth and member LaFleche Camp. I have just a few quick questions. Um just curious, is was the audit something that happened just as a routine or was the did they come to us because they had concerns with other things that had been submitted in the past? I'm not exactly sure. >> That might be unanswerable if we don't

262know. I'm not sure. No, I mean that this is something that we can answer. There was um concerns uh brought to us by parents um in the past related to uh attendance and something that we started looking into and apparently there was also communication with MDE related to attendance, which triggered um emails with questions around how we were doing attendance, which led to more emails, which then led to uh the peeling back of the onion. And and I would add to that there um what I said earlier about taking ownership uh for this, we're taking ownership of it because we all collectively want to to do what we need to do to the situation and care for kids. I would also say uh that we that we have done our job of of working to

263hold people accountable and working to like within [clears throat] the system. And I think when you when we you see the results of our uh investigation and timeline and the results there, uh you'll you'll see that there was a lot of work done by uh Assistant Superintendent Bonds and Director Larva for that accountability. So, when I when I said we all bear responsibility, we do. And it was >> [snorts] >> almost always met with extreme push pushback and uh what do you call it? Obfuscation. Just basically trying to make things muddy and and um I I don't want to go too deeply into that because it's there there are other issues involved. Uh but I know that that Director Larvan and Assistant Super Superintendent Bonds, I've seen the emails, I've seen the summaries, and I

264know I know that there was significant significant work looking into this. And there were things that we had in question over the years that we when we were digging into them and pushing and and prodding, we got a lot of pushback. And we're trying we were trying to also work with MDE to make sure that we were in compliance. And I would say that when you say where did some of this come from, part of it came from us asking questions about like, "Hey, is this is this right? Is this it it wasn't that we were trying to cause problems for us in or investigate that manner, but we were trying to do our due diligence of of uh ensuring that that we were in compliance. And out of that came deeper study and and

265knowledge that we were very far out of compliance. So, again, it wasn't wasn't anything done with vindictive nature or or anything whatsoever that sort. It was just wanting to make sure that we were following statute and following the law. And I think that that's where where some of this came from, too, is just uh our our pushing on the system trying to to truth seek. So, it's it's a it's a uncomfortable and and um messy situation that's going to have consequences for kids. And we're going to do our best to to to uh take responsibility and shift that and improve the system. Um but it's based on on uh many years of work like I many many many years of work trying to document and get this right. Um but it's we're at this point

266and we're we're we're owning it 110% and we're going to fix it. You have a mic so your light's still green? Yep. Um is um AEO affected in any of this? No, they weren't under review um at all and so at this point in time there's no sanctions or anything against AEO. It's functioning just as normal. Okay, thank you and I appreciate, you know, some of the explanations and I just also want to, you know, share that I know our teaching staff in the ALC are deeply committed to the students they serve and I'm just grateful that they're, you know, um part of the team that's going to, you know, help correct these issues. So. And yeah, and that's that's where it gets messy in trying to explain because I think our I think the

267teachers there really do have huge heart for our kids too and they are deeply committed and they're they're partnering with us and I don't if it be I I don't want this to become a incident of finger pointing and blaming when really we have to we we the only people that are going to get hurt through that are the kids. We all have to come together as as a team and I trust the teachers that we're going to work with and I trust the the administrators I'm working with and I I want to make sure that we're all leaning into it as as uh hard as we can to to correct it as quickly as we can because uh there are good people involved. There are good staff members. There are great families. There are

268great kids and uh they're the kids that probably need us the most. So this is this is why this is our top I would say this is our top priority as a district this summer is to to fix this. I do would like I would like to uh provide a little clarification on um when you asked about AEO impact. There is some impact with AEO as it relates to um contractual language that we may have. As you know, ALC AEO has their you know, they share sometimes staff um and there's some braiding of FTE, so there will be some impact as relates to staffing at the site. Also, AEO operates well with the four-day calendar, which we also had to include as part of the application. So, there there was some impact to AEO, but

269it wasn't as a result of any kind of not infraction that the word is infraction in my head or >> infractions infractions [clears throat] infractions, yeah. So, just want to provide that clarity. I think I called member Loeffler Kumpf, then member >> Kumpf Thank you. And and a lot's been said that I I support and agree with and and it's a great letter, Jen, very well written and I highlighted all the good things. >> Oh, good. But I uh I I guess the one question I had in terms of that dashboard, which I really appreciated that visual, is how are we going to be updated on that just so we can see continue to see us moving uh forward with that and um uh and I just appreciate all the work that's been done in

270a very short amount of time. So, I just really want to say that to you as well as to the team and and and to our our teachers. Um But I I I guess I just want to make sure we're kind of seeing the progress that's happening and the with that that dashboard you put together and so we get an update next month or I envision myself being like Simone. Every single time you have a COW committee, there's something about the budget related down there. I feel like that's going to probably be a natural thing that's going to happen is that I'll just come back and kind of give you the update if there is one or not. I mean, it might even be that it's like, "Hey, I submitted the the stuff to MDE."

271and that might be the only thing I have. Who knows, you know, but uh whatever it is, I will give you an update every month. Okay. Okay, great. And then, [snorts] I guess I would just say, you know, um uh as it's been said, you know, uh the kids at ALC and that the families really count on us. I know it's my favorite graduation I go to every year. And I I look forward to us all being there to celebrate with the teachers like we do every year. And um uh you know, even more important that we're all there this year. But, um so, please pass that on to the staff that as you're having conversations as well. I will. Thank you. >> appreciation. Yeah, and I would assume too um you know, um member

272Lefler Ken brings up graduation and that's kind of I've got a bundle of questions that say, are there because of this audit in from 23-24, are there impacts that we um haven't heard about tonight about uh the class of 25-26 um or the the the the the soon-to-be graduating seniors or soon-to-be graduating juniors. When I look at like teacher out of licensure, if that's seriously a something that that they they clear they they try they check as not compliant, there's some credit stuff that happens because of that. So, I'm sure your study is still going that way as far as it was the credit given when there wasn't a licensure teacher. And I I hate to bring that depth up. Maybe that's not a question some of us would answer, but I serve on the

273BOSA board of administrations with licensure, so I know Pelsbe. And And And that's one thing that really does bother me is that you know, teachers teaching out of licensure is a pretty it's a pretty easy um mistake. Not it it it's it's something that you wouldn't you'd know it if you know so you you kind of make that mistake knowing that you know it can be caught I would think unless I I do know that there's um variances and maybe a lot of our staff that were teaching um in music or in FYED that didn't have the licensure got a got a variance and maybe they just got to get another one or they would you know sometimes they deny that second variance but I just see that there I'm hoping there's no complications with

274credits or with our students impact right now that the juniors and the seniors that are going to ALC you know that we're going to look at some of this compliance issue so that's one thing um the other thing that that kind of sticks out to me too in in the the list of some things that we weren't compliant with is the the student program program goals the CLPs you know that I see that almost like an IEP for special education and how um impactful that is and how um severe that violation is in the MDE eyes and I'm glad that they're being compassionate and they're they're knowing that we we weren't we weren't doing this on purpose or to hurt anyone it's just how we work with our students we see their needs and we're

275so wanting to um make sure that their needs are filled and their and that their lives are that there's someone building a relationship with our students so those are just my overall any any impacts and I I know that you know you're you're probably checking on that and hopefully there there's not any severe and my last comment too is I really do hope that we can somehow partner with Cloquet um to offer some programming but I do I do um understand if they want to take a step away because right now we we have some some violations that we weren't doing and so how can we assure Cloquet that we as a as a board as a school board know the issues and are willing to say you know we are as a team going

276to make sure that we're dotting our eyes and crossing our t's. But thank you and and again, just like everybody said, this is this is something that is concerning. We are nervous, we are worried, we are understanding. Um and we're going to keep moving forward because that's that's what you do for the kids that we serve. And I appreciate your words, member Lofald, and and the support the the board is giving to us in this moment because we are taking it very seriously and uh to answer some of the questions, at least the the very first one, I hope not in terms of the first thing you asked about uh it impacting um juniors and seniors. I hope not. That's not something we've had any indication that it will impact them, but those are things

277that we are working with MDE now and Jen has uh started setting up meetings with those contacts there to start digging into some of the impact, but that's not one thing that they have surfaced at this point of time that there would be some retraction of credits for kids. So, I'm hoping that that is not the case. That would be uh really devastating. Um we already have some devastating news. That would be truly devastating if there would be some taking away of uh credits from kids um because there was an unlicensed teacher uh teaching the course, but we don't believe that's going to be the case. Um and so Jen, you want to share anything else? Um yeah, you know, um I wanted to present here. I wanted to um submit our response to MDE.

278That's kind of our first step. Um and then begin regularly scheduling time with Christie Ergain, and that is one of the questions that I do have. Um just ensuring that our kids are going to be protected. And again, I keep going back to the fact that this is an audit from 23-24, so I I just don't know what what we've been doing in 25-26. And hopefully, you know, for whatever reason, there's there's not a staff out of compliance right now because, you know, there's just things, you know, that >> on that issue right now. I'm just going to let you know that um I've been working with our new HR director um and Megan Rosillo to um address some of those things that we discovered when we did our audit. Mhm. Member Williams. Um thank

279you. I had um similar, if not the same questions as member Lofald, so thank you for asking that particularly about um graduation this year being affected um and similarly about summer school. I'm super focused on summer school as someone who worked in the summer schools for a couple of years. Um so I understand and I hear you that it affects um this affects us offering um the program to other districts um and we can possibly still offer to um our current um Duluth people, but not from the outside, right? I understand that perfectly. >> As far as summer programming goes, um if we can partner with Cloquet, we should be able to run our programs as we have. Um if we're functioning as an alternatives learning program, um we can't offer targeted services. That's that's

280nothing we can do. We have to be an alternative learning center in order to do that. Um we have an application that we have to submit. You know, it is expiring, so we have to reapply for all of those things. Um so, if we can work under Cloquet, we'll be able to do summer school, and if we're functioning at the start of the school year next year as an alternatives learning program, that's when we're servicing our own internal kids. We're not going to be able to be a center, which then you can pull other kids in from other districts. So, with that, um I know that there are kids who live in Duluth, but maybe open enrolled to other schools, private school, charter schools, whatever. But since those schools don't offer summer school, they do

281come back to the district for summer programming. So, would we still be able to offer summer programming to Duluth residents that might be enrolled elsewhere for the academic year. It's such a That is that is a nuanced question. I guess I don't really know the answer to that at this point in time. Um and maybe that is something that Phil would know from MARSS cuz I I think they're enrolled in the school district usually when we are offering those programs because targeted services that we get an ADM of 1.0 pretty much for the students and this is on top of after school or on top of summer programming. It gives us a 0.2 multiplier, um which is why I'm like maybe Phil can answer this a little bit better. So, I don't know I I

282guess I'm not really sure about how that would function >> Okay. um for that. Thank you. I know it was kind of a weird It is It It It has to do with all this ADM piece, too. So. Thank you. And some of those things we are really truly finding out uh and learning as we go as [cough] well on what's possible with this newness. Thank you. Member Sedalesky and then member LaBelle Camp. I'm glad Director Zunich is back cuz you may I don't know. You can We'll see if you can can answer this or not, but do we have speaking of ADM do we are there any ramifications for um you know, maybe compensation that we got for ADM if if the attendance was less than we reported? Are there any ADM financial ramifications

283for ADM counts? I mean, I >> [clears throat] >> I have not been given that indication yet, but yes, in in answer to you, yes. If they Excuse me. [clears throat] Um you know, we receive 90% of our aid during the school year. And then, in December, we do our final counts, and that's when we get our the last 10% of our aid. So, through the process, when Phil was here tonight, when he enters those numbers for this year, um that's when they do our accounting. It could go up and down, you know, give or take 10%. Now, you're asking if back to '24 and '25, if they could Yes, potentially there could be some adjustment. I don't know what that is, and they have not reached out to me about that yet. Um I

284have a Mars meeting with Phil, my weekly meeting tomorrow morning at 8:30, and we will be discussing that. We have a couple things on our agenda. Thank you. Adele, I look forward to getting updates on that. Number five, okay? Yep. And and I don't mean to keep dragging this off, but I a couple other things that I just I guess want to know how we're we're keeping our community partners, uh or staff who maybe regularly do summer school, um uh abreast of this, uh for their planning purposes. And I know a letter went out to staff today that was really um great um I uh great how detailed that was and transparent that was, but um I'm just how are we keeping potential staff that generally maybe always do summer school appraised, and then different

285community partners that have supported our summer school programming um updated on this, so they can do the planning they need to do as well. So, I'll we'll continue to work in in tandem with with Adele and I think after tomorrow's meeting we'll we'll know quite a bit more. Uh so I think and I think that people are kind of waited on waiting on baited breath to to uh see what will happen. Uh I know I am. Uh and I I think we want to make sure that that comes out as quickly as possible. We also sometimes we when we communicate about something we don't know how people are going to perceive it like today when we sent it out there were a few people that were wondering like does this affect AAO cuz I think

286a lot of people blend AAO or ALC AAO or ALC they think of it as one entity. So we sent a clarifying piece there. Seeing no additional green lights. Thank you um Director Larva. But where you going? >> [laughter] >> We have one more. You may as well stick around for this Listen this is this is >> [laughter] >> This is a celebration of great work. This is how we are going to engage our students in a deeper way. So I'll turn over board to Director Larva again for the um to share any information related to summer report but you have already received the summer report. I guess the question is if you have any questions or concerns of uh Director Larva or us um this is your time to do it but you want

287to just give a summary a very brief summary uh Director Larva of what the summer report uh contains. Yeah. Thank you. Um you know, I was so focused on the previous topic that I didn't have everything pulled up in my um my computer to see what this one was. So, um yeah, so the Intercity Student Council Board Report, um this is um just laying out for you kind of the big picture around what the intentions were with the Intercity Student Council. We've kind of had some false starts um this year, um struggling to find um what makes sense as far as timing for our students. Um Opportunity Days happen once a month and some kids are like, I'd rather not engage in this because I need the Opportunity Day time. Um we want to make

288sure that we have a representation of ninth graders and tenth graders. So, it's it's been um a lot of hiccups um just to even get it started. But, what I am proud to say is that we did have a launch date um of April 29th. And so, um we did have students from East High School um that came over to Denfeld High School and met with their student government group, which so that ended being more Denfeld students. We were trying to get a a bigger group of East students. Um and um it was hard to get kids to want to um do that during an Opportunity Day. So, they [snorts] did join um over at Denfeld and came together. Um they had great conversation thinking about the things that they could do together to be

289stronger together. They talked about some productive competitions that you know, like things that would um be more um service type of activities where they could compete for the good. Um so, like um like if they were raising funds for something or or doing some sort of um work for an organization or community, like who does more hours or you know, that kind of stuff. So, they really talked about that. Um they they had some time where they got to know each other, did some generating of things that they might want to do together, and then figure they wanted to start having that conversation. So, they really decided that this is hard to do during opportunity days. So, they want to take some time this summer and and I believe that the student government at Denfeld

290kind of has always come together in August. So, they're going to spend some time in August um trying to figure out like what is this council going to look like. Um we had put together an application process that we had wanted to run when we had member Dean, she helped me with that. But it really was a struggle to get kids to maybe even engage with that application process. So, they were talking about like okay, if we had an application process, what would that look like? How would we find time when we could do this together? So, just wanted to let you know that they are going to make sure that they have um 10 students from East and Denfeld and then some level of representation from our alternative learning program. And so, they want

291to establish bi-weekly meetings. They want to meet outside of just having opportunity days. They want to be able to do things bi-weekly that fits within somehow within their academic day so that everybody can participate. So, it might end up being that they're Google meeting together between the two groups on one of the meetings or whatever it might be. They're going to come up with the list of ideas. Um I think one of the things to talk about is that we're we're going to put the onus on the students and the sites to make this happen. I think now that they're getting a little excitement about it, it'll it'll it'll thrive more when when it's like this is an idea of the district, it doesn't necessarily get the traction. And so, like you really want it

292to come from within with the students. And so, um forward, I mean, I will be working with Tom and Kelly about like the agendas that are going to be set for that and when their meetings are going to be so that maybe um the district can participate like I could participate or Julie Astabour, our curriculum coordinator, if we had something that they were coming up with could participate. But where you're going to hear about it is through our student representatives representatives on the school board. And so, they should be coming back and talking. So, I know one of the members was at the meeting. I don't think I don't think um our Denfeld member was there, but I think our East member was there. So, they should be coming back and talking about that with

293the boards. The communication loop piece is going to really be at that level is what they decided. Great. >> [laughter] >> So. Great. Member Sedlosky. Thank you for the summary report that we all got to read. Thanks for being here to to talk more about it. I I think that I heard I heard from at least one of the students that went over from East that it went really well. And if it's the meeting that I think it was, thanks to the assistant principals for driving the East kids back. Was that the day? >> [laughter] >> So, they took We have We have a bus that runs for CTE. And so, they hopped on a bus and and went over to Denfeld. And then the bus didn't realize, I guess, that they were picking up

294additional students to come back to East. So, they picked up their CTE students and took off early. And so, then we had kids that were left over. So, the APs had to truck it all the way across town, pick up kids, and bring them back so that they can get home. Yeah, that was really nice of them. >> It was very nice. I heard good things about the meeting. Thanks for getting the ball rolling. Member Banks. Thank you. I have a quick question. Is there um any seed money to get this started off and all this like to pay for some food and beverage and to kind of help kick it off. I'm probably asking a lot, but Well, you're asking the wrong person. But, I will say that the Denfeld did get pizzas, I

295think, for the kids or something. They got something for So, the site had done it at this time, but I do feel like if we're going to continue to do something between the two sites, we probably we want to have some way of giving a little bit of some incentive for them to maybe be part of it. I think So, I think some sometimes and I was just thinking about that and I like the idea. I think we would have to maybe consider use of like student activity fund for it just because there are strict limitations on what we can use uh our own general fund. I'd like I would like to contribute towards it, but I think yeah, I'm just thinking it'd be nice to uh it's maybe use a little bit of student

296activity fund money for it or something. I think maybe like helping to pay for staff to come and meet with them in the summer might be something that we would have to have consideration around and yeah, so we'll consider that. Of course, you did. >> [laughter] >> Appreciate it. Seeing no additional green lights, Dr. or Director Larma. >> [laughter] >> It's It's late. It's getting late. Thank you, Jen. Next up, board we have our very own director executive director Zunich here to provide an update for the fiscal year 27 budget assumptions. So, Thank you. Mine will not be a long presentation, but first of all, I want to praise the superintendent. That was a great answer. We will look at the student activity accounts. I felt the daggers in the back. I was like, "Good

297job." [laughter] Your Your eyes were burning in my my soul. Um so, I've made a I made like three updates. Um as we I'll just remind everyone the legislative updates should be coming. Legislation should close around May 18th. I was at MASBO for 3 days last week. Um I listened to the director of finance, and there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm for any changes. So, pretty much what we're seeing is probably what is going to happen. Okay. You I The alarm? Okay, thank you. Um I updated our fuel uh services by 85,000. I'm not even sure if that's going to be enough. I don't [snorts] know if I should double that. Our title grants, I just put a slide in for you to see where our title money is coming in. Um I believe it's

298the next slide. Yeah, so you can see how our title funds we did have a meeting with the assistant superintendent and the title director today. Um you can see where title one has gone from 23-24 to 2.7 down to 2.3. Title two, three, um five four, and then title is that six? Title 1D? I think that's Oh, no, that's what we think is going to be um any carryover, too. Um cuz we had a long meeting today, and we really did a lot of work to align the budgets to where they're supposed to be spent. Uh the um Mr. Bonds is doing a lot of work to make sure that all of our grants are staying within their budgets. There isn't any more ESSER or a savings account to backfill any of our grants to

299um you know, support them. So, we are aligning our grants to where they're supposed to be. So, if you just go back up please. Thank you. Um special education, for the first time ever, um they released the what if revenue that they actually included the amount with our cross subsidy. So, I gave that to you. I matched the revenue to expenses. Um I Maybe. Before before we go on, just back to that point about title and some of those other areas. Uh so, that those as the state reduces or increases certain areas Mhm. on an annual basis, we have to um readjust for those things. So, if our title goes up, we have less money to or more money to spend in title and we can hire more people or do more things. If if

300title goes down, we have to uh reduce. So, there are going to be some other uh reductions based on title and based on um American Indian Ed uh funds and A&I funds and and other areas, there's going to be some some shifts that we see as those state budgets go up and down. Mhm. >> [clears throat] >> And hopefully, when I come back in June for this, we'll be able to present that. Uh when I do come back in June for the Committee of the Whole, I will give you the full um presentation. I'll have all the documents. It turns into a 28-page document, roughly. I will have um all the information for you then. Um again, I'm going to see what happens in 3 weeks, but I'm not anticipating a big change. Um we

301did um when I listened to the legislative um updates with the director of finance, um the only area that we have seen quite a big um reduction was compensatory aid. Um it went down almost 800,000 from the original um preliminary levy amount that we were supposed to get. It went down to 9.4. It's still more money than we're getting this year by roughly a half a million dollars. We have many districts that are losing a half a million. So we're lucky there. But they had to make a statewide adjustment to compensatory due to a reporting issue I think with a site with a school or not you know around the district around the state. So we're all kind of giving a little bit of our money to help balance um the compensatory aid. Yes. And

302and I'm also again I'll bring up I'm glad we did a flat ADM calculation for forecasting. We've been very conservative only bumping it up 25 or 50 ADMs. The number is coming in at down 8.96 for the meeting of the HR business services. Um so it's still higher by three than we budgeted for but we plan we we certainly believe that we're going to hit at least 8200 and that's what I did increase up our our aid for that. on our revised budget. A little audit update. I'm we're daily communicating daily with our current auditors Wipfli I'm on on the daily we are getting emails that should be done by the end of the day. And um we did not get anything by 4:00 today. But they did finish the compensated absences. They finished reviewing

303the um the fund eight which is where we take a portion of our federal grants and put them into fund eight. So then anyone that gets gets paid out and gets severance as we can code a portion to that. I had reported to the board that they were hoping that maybe a significant amount could be transferred into fund one. It most likely will not be allowed. But on the flip side, they said we're not going to get a finding on it. Well, I knew we wouldn't because we didn't do anything wrong. I shouldn't have that publicly. But um So we will be going forward will be actually be able to charge a little bit more to fund eight and actually pay for some of the severance is right out of fund eight, which will help

304our fund our general fund. So nothing has changed on any of these other slides. I updated the last one and Can you go back just one second? >> Sure. Um back back back back right there. Mhm. So it says basic formula and projected at 2.69% increase or uh 7,682 per pupil. Correct. >> That's to brings it to a total of 6,000 7,000. Correct. Okay, just because the way it's phrased it might sound like Oh, I I can fix that. Sure. Sure. Correct. Um no, that's fine. Um I appreciate that. It you know, with all the um different funding streams, it's roughly $10,000 a student. That's just our basic formula. So Thank you. You're welcome. Uh questions or concerns? I updated this page. It's only uh made a change of $17,034. And um Yeah, that's all

305I have. 17,000 out of a 200 million What's that? Yeah, I had a great MASBO it was very good, very helpful. Attended session by Moody's. I attended a session by Ehlers on referendum planning, legislative updates. Our English learner um updates and we really don't get a lot of money for EL. It's only about $75,000. So they're just making sure we're matching all of that. Um And I appreciate your your diligence there and also uh Simone is never tooting her own horn but she got a lot of recognition from the MASBO crowd and and a a new Yeti cup and she also let people know that we're we're looking for a somebody to fill her her huge shoes and Brett walked around with a with a with a not really but he was talking about walking

306around with a sandwich board saying will you be my boss? So we're trying to do as much recruiting to replace Simone. You're Thank you. Hard to do because you're irreplaceable. >> Oh no, that's no. Member Banks. Thank you but he did approach several business manager introduced him to from the area and he's like, do you want to be my boss? It was kind of funny. We had about a thousand people in the big ballroom at the deck for our keynote speaker and then our luncheon. And I was work doing a work email with Kathy Holman and all of a sudden they're like, Simone your name was called and me and only one other person is retiring this year out of all those people. So I had to go to the front. I got my Yeti.

307And I turned around and I said, "Duluth needs an executive director." So I mean, it was funny. >> [laughter] >> I I seized the moment. Member Banks. [snorts] Yes. On page 58 just a quick question. Sure. Under compensatory aid, how many positions is that? I'm just curious. Compensatory aid? >> Yes. So, what we do, that's a good question. Um every site earns X amount of dollars. Uh right now, this year we received 8.8 million in compensatory. So, I'll just generalize it, say Denfeld got a million dollars and East got 900,000. So, what we do at year end is for the audit purposes, we tie out a million dollars to Denfeld, so nobody else gets those funds. So, what we do is take roughly 10 teachers and code them to compensatory, which then alleviates and offsets

308the general fund because it's a restricted fund that we have to use first. Okay? Mhm. Um I just look forward in June um as you bring final numbers having further discussion or perhaps at our next HR business um committee meeting about page 63, which is the financial outlook and risk assessment for our upcoming fiscal years. Yes. Seeing no additional green lights. Uh Member Mike so, that concludes our Oh, I'm sorry. That concludes our microphone. So, you're telling us that uh we're concluding our