December 2, 2025 at 4:30 PM - Monthly Committee of the Whole Board Meeting

001Good afternoon and welcome to the December committee of the whole board meeting. We'll get started today at 4:34 and I'll turn it over to the clerk for roll call. >> Member Banks >> here. Chair Dator present. Member Laughler, Kemp is Tardy. Uh, member Lald here. I member Mixel. I'm here. Member Sidowski >> here. >> Member Williams. >> Superintendent Maggus >> here. >> Assistant Superintendent Bonds >> present. >> Deputy Clerk Zunich >> present. >> Uh, executive assistant Brown is excused. Secretary Pette. >> Roll call is complete. Thank you. And before we get started today and I turn it over to Assistant Superintendent Bonds, there's a couple board members that will be leaving a little bit earlier today as we have some kid events that we have to attend to. So, just want to make everybody aware

002of that. And I will turn it over to Assistant Superintendent Bonds. >> Thank you. And good evening board and uh guests. Uh welcome. Um so, we'll jump right on into it. So, uh, one of the things that we've been working on, uh, for the committee whole, you know, as always, we're we're always thinking about process improvements. So, as a process improvement for the committee of whole, uh, we are adding what's known as the TLE board summary report as a standing monthly agenda topic. Uh the TLE board summary report is designed um for program leaders and department leaders to provide concise highlevel overviews of their program status uh activities or future planning. Um so it's a just a really uh great way to just keep the board uh informed about uh many things. Uh however, many

003times department leaders and program leaders, you know, there's just isn't enough time to give a full presentation because there's so many things uh that are exciting that's happening in the district. Um and there's just not enough time at the board meetings to do that. So in lie of a presentation, the board summary report will provide again the board with an a status update. um the individual who provides that program uh summary will be present at the meeting. Uh the expectation is and and the goal is uh the board would have seen the summary reports, have read them, generated questions, and I would simply um as part of the agenda standing agenda item, I would just say as you know, one of the board summary reports um up is the first street uh buildout progress. And

004I'll simply say, are there any questions? Board members will have a chance to ask questions. If it's a question that I can answer, I will simply answer. If it's something more specific that the board uh is uh a board member might want to ask related to a certain summary report, I would then call up the program leader or department leader to the um chair and they can ask questions. So again, this is just an opportunity to increase the number of opportunities for individuals to get in front of the board without a full presentation. They're meant to be really concise. Um and and the Q&A is also meant to be, you know, potentially hopefully uh pretty concise in terms of just seeking clarity on something that uh a program leader or department leader is working on.

005So the first one I want to move straight into >> and I was just going to encourage the board as we go through this process. I encourage you to talk about if it fits your needs, if there's a way that you'd like to see improvement and then just think about think about it and then please share that feedback with Anthony and myself because we want to make sure that we're serving the needs of this committee and this and this board to make sure they're getting all the information in the ways that they want. >> Is that fair, Anthony? >> That's fair. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> So, just a follow-up question on on most of these. Did you call it Tilly? T I T I L L E. No. Oh, T TL E. >>

006T L E. See, you're learning. >> Okay. Yep. I got it now. Sounded like Tilly to me. So, I thought that was a new thing. So, would it be um reports like like for instance the DNT the first street buildout that will not come every month? It's not going to be a progress update every month or do you anticipate that that one might be? No, it's not a it would not be a progress update every month. >> It would it would vary. It just depends on um if a program leader shares with me throughout the month that they have something they want to bring and it's not something that we want to say is a agenda item for full presentation. >> Uh for example, Keyzone as you are aware Keyzone is something that we provide

007our families as a service in our schools. they want to come and share information with the board as a you know program status update in lie of a full presentation I've offered them an opportunity to provide a summary report they'll give us a quick summary report give you information that you can read in terms of you know where they're located the number of students and so forth I still would invite them if they um to be here in case you may have a question or wondering but you know again they would not provide a full presentation so so no it's not uh the item would be standing the board some report would be a standing agenda item with topics to be determined. >> So my follow-up question would be tonight especially is I I thought

008we would be getting a presentation because that's been kind of our standard role here is that so I did not realize that we're not going to necessarily call up our facilities or our IC leadership. We can we can if we have questions, but I I my my questions often come after they've shared some of theirs, but there's there's enough for me here. But I'm just saying to my fellow schoolboard members, I I was coming feeling like I was going to hear the presentation first. And so just knowing going forward now that And what will we call these on our So on the agenda? Can we list them out a little bit more? >> Yes, they will be titled uh board summary reports if you see uh >> Yeah, like it is right now. Okay. But

009now now we have a definition for that. Okay. Okay. Enough. Okay. >> And again, this is something that's new. We're trying to introduce again as a process improvement. That's why we actually had um several that we were going to bring, but because of these questions, we said, you know what, let's start off with one to make sure there was an opportunity for the board to become familiar with what they are and to ask those really good questions um so that you can know what to anticipate or what are the expectations moving forward. So, really good questions. Superintendent Maggus. >> Actually, member Mike was first. Oh, sorry. >> Just to further the conversation about this new process, um you had somewhat alluded to it. How many summary reports do you expect to happen at every committee

010of the whole meeting? Just so we can be um just so everyone understands what the new process will look like and the expectations. >> Great question. And it just it depends. But I guess that's through our conversation we can decide. Well, we know we have a summary report and it depends how um robust the the you know the Q&A is will help us determine like you know what we probably should only have two some reports at the most or three. It just depends how um deep the the board gets with regards to questions. So, right now it's it could be for one until, you know, three or four, but we're testing it out and seeing if um how long the conversations go. >> Good. Thank you so much. And then for the public, these board

011reports will be up on board book. So, this will that same like every other presentation, the community will have access to this through board book. >> Yes. As normal. That's correct. >> Superintendent Magus. >> Sure. And I think uh the process improvement concept behind this is is also quite often we we have a lot of conversation at the board table and in other settings. Oh, we should have a present or we should have an update on this at the committee the whole uh and then also we've had conversation about maybe keeping um keeping the meetings to a reasonable amount and not having you know seven really robust presentations in the same evening. And so really thinking about how do we how do we uh distill some of them down into these uh board summary reports,

012you know, uh that that can be delivered more concisely and uh be used as as just sort of a a check-in on certain things. Um that that's that was really the the thinking behind it. And um you know if if the board sees these and decides no actually we like presentations and we want to have more presentations or if we decide that um you know reading these reports is is is um not you know doing these reports ahead of time is not what the board wants then then we can we can deviate. But I I guess uh an analogy I would use is thinking about uh like the nutritional services report that we get in the the HR business uh meeting. I know that's a standing one we get every month, but if you think

013about some of those reports that we we see as a report and we don't necessarily go into it as a presentation, but it's meant as is an update for that committee. This even though it's a committee of the whole, it's still it's still a committee. Uh and so so thinking about it that way is is the way that um just we're think the way that we're thinking about it. But if it doesn't meet the needs of the board, we can do something different. >> Thank you. Member Saddowski, >> more of a comment. Um, I'm just looking forward to seeing how this goes over the next few months and looking forward to kind of getting board feedback over the next few months as well. I know we've had a lot of conversations. Um, Superintendent Magus, you

014kind of touched on it. Um, but we've had a lot of conversations and about our committee as a whole and you know, who do we we want? We want to hear from everybody. you know, it's it's our chance to hear from all of our different amazing programs in the district. Um, what's going on um but we don't have time to touch base with everybody throughout the year. Um, so I I hope that this might be a good chance to get more information like you said at that high level. So just curious to see how it how it goes. >> Thank you. So let's um go into our very first one as our uh first opportunity. So the uh very first one as you see here it's uh a under the teacher learning equity board some

015reports it's the first street buildout um progress. So you have received uh some information related to uh the report. The report was generated as you can see on here um by Brian Brown um he asked guests with him. They have provided some information related to the buildout. So, are there any questions for regards regarding the first street buildout progress report? Mayor Lo. >> So, my first question would be just um I'd love the opportunity to have site visits and I know that we scheduled a few and one got cancelled due to snow. Um, how many of us have visited the site within the within the time that the construction and all the walls we came we we've all visited it a number of times before during the process but now we've so how many have

016had that opportunity? Okay, I know not many of us because it's been just a little bit over a month where we've had a little bit more and I know that members has just requested a a reschedule for the snow the snow day and so that's that's a good thing. So again, um just really looking forward to more opportunities as we progress for opportunities to visit. And I I know that stalls some things out, but you know, as we progress, especially when we get more of those walls up and and things going on that we can really see the space and what it will will serve for. My second question is um are we at a point at all with our architect firm which I believe is the Miller architect with renderings of what it looks

017like just in those beautiful 3D pictures that you give us that has classroom walls and furniture and and all of that and and if that's could be forthcoming in the next few weeks that would be another way for the board to get a an idea of of all of the space and and and that will that will help. >> Thank you. And I'll ask about the 3D because you use the word that uh in my mind says 3D. We have provided uh I have um provided the board via email the most recent >> right. Yep. Layout the >> layout but but you're saying 3D. Yeah. And so um >> uh Chris and Brian, you want to come on up to the table? And as they come up, I um would just like um are we

018on track for the whole building? I thought we were doing like the second floor so we could get our ALC AEO and our um adult basic ed in there and then the second the first floor was going to continue to work or is the whole thing going to be ready except for our basement in the fall of 26? >> Great questions. The whole building will be completely ready by August 1st or before August 1st. We're planning the completion date on uh July 15th. That'll be for the entire building. >> Okay. I have other questions, but I'll let other board members kind of go, but I know that I was expecting a presentation, so I'm just trying to look at my notes again. >> No problem. Uh 3D renderings, not renderings, but 3D um Did you

019answer that question? >> No. >> Um sure. It's an option to do so. It wasn't in the contract initially to do renderings of the spaces. >> Um if it's of interest, we can look into it. >> Thank you, member banks. >> Oh, thank you very much. I have um two questions. One's internal and external. Um so the internal this is 72,000 square feet and according to the documentation 51,000 uh square feet are accounted for and that remaining 21,000 uh that's left in the basement. Can you talk a little bit about that? Um, I know there has been questions about um fairness and equitability with regard to space. And so I initially had the question as it related to uh current uh locations in use downtown and uh this upcoming location. Um can you talk a

020little bit about that as it relates to allocation of square footage for different programs that are coming to that building? And then my external question is related to uh outside lighting and uh safety protocols related to the building and the area that uh where it's situated. Uh can you just talk more about what that's going to look like outside uh from a safety standpoint uh just so we make sure our students and folks visiting are uh coming to the building safely and leaving safely etc. if you have uh anything to share with that. >> We are adding quite a bit of exterior lighting and several cameras on the outside. So, every part of our building will be be able to be monitored. Um, also once you get in the building, uh, we have security points

021that only there's certain staff can get into these areas. Students aren't allowed into them. Again, we have cameras throughout the whole building, so you really can't go anywhere in the building without having some eyes on you. Um, we've we've been working with uh um I know that Nathan from ALC had requested and and we're going over that with the IT because we don't we want to make sure that we're not overkill on the cameras, that we're getting the same vision, just different different angles. So it is going over reviewing that. Um I expect that they'll have something for us within the next couple weeks. But um yeah, we we all our doors, matter of fact, we met today with the premier uh security and making sure that we have the infrastructure there that if we

022need to add any more secure doors or add more cameras that that is there for them. Uh it's not going to be a big deal for us to change that. But it's going to be a very secured building. Everybody is going to have their own areas and um uh each department is going to be basically self-sufficient if they want to be that they they have their own restrooms in their areas, they have their own classrooms, they have teacher spaces, they have calming rooms, they have everything that they normally would have at their other buildings. >> So, can you talk a little bit about the square footage? >> Okay, the square footage, um we have nothing pl nothing planned for the square footage in the basement. I know there's going to be a couple areas that

023are going to be um pretty much wide open. Um we just looked at funding for the programs that we needed at this time and that's what we based our budget on and we when we first started this way back when we sent out questionnaires to every department and asked them what is important to you what that you have to have. There was certain things like, well, we need to be on the bus lane. We need to have our own secured areas. We need to have um a lockdown system for such and such. We need to have um gathering spaces for students. We need to have this. We need to be able to serve this many students in each department. And so we took all that information and we met several times with the departments with

024Anthony the senior leaders and came up with a plan. And that is the plan that um Chris and Miller has uh developed and before we started um working on it, we brought it to the school board and you all had a chance to take a good long look at it and you approved that this is what what the plan was. Now, we are making a few changes here and there for some small department changes. They want a wall taken out. They want a door added here. So, we still are doing that, but the product that we showed you when we when we started this is the product that we're going to deliver to you. It's going to be delivered to the the ISD 709 school board and the and the the citizens of the of

025Duth School District. And it's be clearly up to you guys what if you want to change that programming or change how it's how what's in what that's up to you. We're just delivering what we promised and that's what we will and it'll be by the 1 of August that is will be our building down there. >> I'm not sure who was next but member Laughler. >> Thank you. Um sorry I was uh running late from work there. Um I I had a couple similar questions that uh member Banks had, but also I just want to say Brian have appreciated the tours. I think I've gone on three of them uh since we've started this project at least. Uh and um look forward to the one that you were trying to coordinate this fall. So, uh

026with us. So, >> and and I know it's really hard for all you guys to try and get your schedules, but >> if you just shoot me a time and a day, I can make I'll I'll make it work. >> I can take I can take one of you, two of you, however many. Um, it is changing very fast down there. Um, all the floors have pretty much been leveled off now. Uh, there is a lot of classroom walls going up on the up on the second floor, offices. Um it it's it's going fast and soon we'll be starting down on the first floor. Also, uh the basement's completely tore up. I I'm sure you remember going through the storage areas, but that's that's all cut up because we put all new water and sewer

027lines in the infrastructure that we needed to do for that. We have our new water um um line in from the city. So, we're just once uh we get the plumbing in the building, we can hook up to that. And so, it's it's moving right on schedule. Okay, great. And so one of my questions uh had to do with the square footage again. And just to clarify a little bit more uh and I know some of us posed that question be a after we got the uh the the summary report. Um but how much square footage uh for ALC and AEO do they currently have and how much in this new space? And the same with adult basic ad. I I don't think people ask that question, but I'm curious because I know I I

028um how how little space you have right now as well. So, could you just >> Sure. >> what they currently have? >> Right now, we lease um almost 1,400 square foot down at the Tech Village. Almost 2,000 of that is unusable because it's it's hallways, its entryways. >> You said 1,400,000. I'm sorry. 14,000. Uh 2,000 is is like I said unusable. Their usable space down there is 12,137 square foot. I believe the engineered space that we've designed for them is going to be 12,7 some odd square feet, but that is that has been designed for what their program's needs were, you know, for their offices, their classrooms. currently their desk their desk space um being very comfortable and very spacey where now we can add more desks in there like we have at high schools

029and stuff if need be. But right now currently they can serve 180 students every hour of the day. That's how many desks we have for the classrooms and and that doesn't include the gathering spaces. That's just the classrooms. Do you have can you pull that number also for the adult basic adult education? And if you can't, that's okay. I know I'm putting you on the spot on that one. Uh >> um >> I I don't know what the top number is for the >> for the adult ed. I'd have to I'd have to look it up. >> You can get it to us. I I I know many of us posed a question on the the first space, but I I was thinking about the second space as well. Uh after reading over things a

030little bit more. Um, and then the the last thing is is, you know, I went back to my notes over this past year of how many times we've had presentations either in our HR committee or in um at our uh our regular meeting and I I I counted at least six times I think that we've had presentations on this. So, I I really, you know, really appreciate getting those regular updates and and um uh and even though some of us don't sit on the HR committee, we listen to the meetings and and read the materials as well. And so, um uh kind of back to the front of this meeting where we talked about thinking we were going to have a a presentation. Um I I I just reflected on how many times we have

031had information presented to us just in this past year. So uh that's been really important for me as a board member to get that regular those regular updates and um appreciate what's been done, appreciate what will be done I uh in the next few months as well with updates. >> And like I said at any time if you want to go down and take a look because it's changing every day. They're starting to do the the basement infill for the concrete so they can put the the the infill floors for uh second floor in and um so it it's changing every day down there. It's just really moving forward quickly. >> Member Banks. >> Sure. I I have one last question on this related to parking. Um, is there going to be a relationship with

032Maurice's or uh the city of Duth related to parking uh for folks or are you going to just utilize off- streetet parking etc. >> We have not discussed with the city or I take that back. We have discussed a little bit with the city with Maurice's parking. They the city kind of runs that parking uh garage and they just tell me there's ample spots there for us that I'm sure that we'll get some kind of a deal. Um thanks to our superintendent. Um he was able to talk the city out of charging us for the drop off areas for right now the the contractor's area and that that's that's a big help. So the city is very willing to work with us on these different spots. There are other lots down there that are optional

033for renting, but I I'm clearly there's plenty of spots. We do have 28 spots of our own downstairs under the garage and there's 18 spots um off of First Street and so we will utilize them, you know, use them. But will that be enough for all the staff and students? No. We're going to have to do something like the tech village is doing now where we have to we have to pay for parking. >> Member Michael that was just >> I I had a followup question we already have >> uh thank you for the summary report. I know it was mentioned in possibly a superintendent report in the past, but um how often are you now meeting with stakeholders and um the different departments as building goes on to update them? >> Um we've been

034meeting uh we just started meeting with them I should say we met with them was it last week on the carpet and and wall colors and um we have hardware. they they email me um you know, can we eliminate this cabinetry or move this or whatever. So, I'm always open to emails and uh I'm on the phone with Chris constantly and we're making changes, you know, minor changes, nothing nothing huge. Um but uh yeah, anytime they want to email me and again um it, you know, the the main layout is the main layout. It that to to redesign the whole thing, that ship has sailed a long time ago. So, and I'll add some additional information. um last year, I want to say in the spring maybe it occurred where we started having um virtual

035bi check-in meetings uh set up every Friday at 10:00, not every Friday, every Friday of the bi-weekly uh meeting at 10:00 we have a standing meeting for um first street buildout program leaders. Now because of like everything else because of time and summer and uh when um when there's school is not in session the meeting wouldn't happen but we still have it in our calendars right now to have ongoing dialogue with program leaders. Um and just like uh Brian shared most recently I have it uh the note here we met most recently on November the 14th. So, November 14th, we discussed the build out to look at uh all the program leaders were in the room. U met with Chris, Brian, and others. We just talked about the buildout and the renderings that you all

036received. Um so, the the design and layout that you all received, we discussed those. Um and leaders had opportunities to share a little information. Some of them also provided uh information related to they wanted a cabinet moved or they wanted a door added and so forth. So, they had had an opportunity on the 14th to have more dialogue. um in person around that and then we met last week on November 19th as a follow-up to that to start talking about carpet selection. So then we met um um with each program leader had their own opportunity to meet with myself, Brian, Chris um to just talk about carpets and uh flooring and leaders had an opportunity to um have some input on what carpet they would like in their section or the color of that carpet.

037they heard information related to paint and um their ability to select paint and maybe the accent wall or walls within those rooms. So, they have uh they have those opportunities and that just happened last week. So, we have, you know, we're striving to have really um opportunities for great input and and discussions with our program leaders. >> Um thank you for that. I appreciate that. um we can send you a message anytime and get a a personal tour. Are um our program leaders also able to possibly not like at the drop of a hat but on a scheduled or routine basis be able to see inside and what's happening or how's that working out? >> I leave the decision to the senior leaders. If they want me to take a department down there, I'm most

038happy to do it. I can't have a whole department go at one time. can have maybe a few people, but this is a construction zone and everybody has to be wearing hard hats and vests and closed toe shoes and it, you know, we c we can't have a million people walking around down there. But like I said, it's up to the senior leaders to make that decision. >> And and what we've communicated to our program leaders is if they want to have a a tour that they are to schedule it with Brian. So, we've extended the opportunities, but as long as they arrange it with Brian based off availability and just like Brian said to make sure that uh everyone is safe and that there are not uh pop-up visits to the site. >> Thank

039you. >> Your mic was on. Superintendent Magus on you answered the question. Uh, Chair Derek Eater, >> I know we talked about this probably last year, but can you remind me um about what the food prep is? So, what food access will look like for kids there? I can't I don't think there's a there's not a kitchen or anything. I I don't remember. Brian, could you >> And then I have one question. >> We'll have the food prepared at another building and it'll be just like the ALC now. And I think there might be one other school that we deliver the food to. Um they will come in from the uh parking garage um into our building into the elevator down to the basement. That area is being all refinished down there to meet the

040health code so we can have food down there. There'll be serving carts down there. There'll be coolers down there. So each individual program, they'll order they'll order their food. It'll be delivered to one central location down there. Then as they want to serve their lunches, they can come down that, get their serving cart, get their their cooling cart, take it to their area, and then have lunch in their department. >> And then when they're done, they just bring all the dishes, everything back down there, and then our crew will pick it back up and for the next day. >> So, for clarification, students will have uh warm food, correct? >> Oh, absolutely. >> Okay. Just wanted to make sure that that stone's not >> cold >> and it which is different than what they have

041access to now, right? They don't have warm food now. >> What I was going to ask >> Oh, we did fix that. Okay. All right. >> There was a point. >> There was Okay. I can't. Okay. And then um in the budget that we have for this building, I'm assuming furnishing and all those um other things have been included in the budget. >> Correct. >> Okay. So, furnishings. And then what about hiring of additional staff? Is that something we're going to have to budget for next year in terms of custodial staff, nutrition staff? Like what is the staffing? We already know that we have all the pro these programs in there, but is there going to be additional staffing that we're going to have to take into consideration? >> We're probably going to be needing

042a couple custodians. Um the building will not require an engineer because it's on uh city steam. So, there's really no reason to have a a licensed engineer down there because there's nothing to check. It's all a sealed system. Um, we have not talked about staffing at this point. My my instructions were to get the building up and running and and we're I mean, I'm sure by this summer we'll be looking at those things. Yeah, >> I think that would be something that should be we should probably have an idea about as a board is what is that staffing going to look like? I'm sure it's not going to be huge, but I think it >> um I'd like us to take a little time take a look at that. You know, thinking about the front

043reception desks and things like that. I know we talked about people maybe having cross purpose, but but I know that that um sometimes um there there there is always a little more need with an extra building than there is if there isn't a separate building and and some of the contracted services and things like that that we might have to consider too. But we can with just a little bit of time we can reflect on that. >> I also want to say I was going to say earlier I know there were a couple comments about the board thinking that this might be a presentation. If if in the near future if the board wanted another pre presentation on this we'd be glad to bring it forward as a presentation or or maybe a couple months

044from now after we're a little further down the road too. Whatever whatever is desired by the board. And then quickly last question for me is um you talked about the it the security the cameras and everything are we going to have security there? Yes, the the plan is to have uh continue with perar provider. Now >> the answer is yes and the plan is per but we have to obviously contract. >> Yeah, contract. Okay. All right. Thank you. I appreciate the answers. Thank you. >> Member Lo. So, do we I know we've had this conversation before too and I know that the numbers are probably not easy to g gain because there's a lot of programs in this in the building both first floor and second floor that have you know moving parts. They leave

045for part of the day or they're they're stationed there and then they're out in buildings. I get that. But I I really would love at some point from someone an approximate number of what are we really looking at the number of people in this building on a regular basis first floor second floor and then what the capacity for safety is uh within this square footage and and making sure that we're and I know we are you guys that this is your job and so but I I'm just curious because when we look at the renderings the the maps with all the different colors it looks like a whole lot of activity in that building, but I also know that it's transitional at times, especially first floor, but um just any I know that you've >>

046and that's something that we can >> Sorry. >> No, just I do do we have something or can you share? >> No, we will share something um at the next it depends on when we want to do another status update. Um but I anticipate uh we would have some more firmer numbers around that in February. Again, we're meeting with program leaders. program leaders are charged with um fleshing out their programming and what that looks like. We're having more conversations with program leaders to make sure that we talk about uh um their schedules of the day when students are coming in for um Head Start, when students are coming in for um adult ed, when students are coming in for our seatbased, right? So, we're talking we have a lot of discussions on their schedules and

047the flow and um possibility for shared spaces. More of those things will be uh determined, but we need a little bit more time for that and then we'll be able to come and give you some estimated numbers. So, I I anticipate uh with time somewhere in February for that that that will give us some time to have more conversations. In in actuality, I believe that the second floor has a little bit more stability in the the the amount of staff and students that are there. It's that first floor with all of our variety of programs from steps down to early childhood and testing and all of those that just give me a little concern to make sure that that the flow of that first floor is manageable. Um, again, but we're we're down the road

048on that that door closed. But just now that we're this close, maybe that extra wall or that extra hallway can still be, you know, given or wider if if you need down there. But just just wanting to know how we're we're all looking in there. >> No problem. And and what's what I'm appreciating is the fact that we are in December and talking about this. And again, that's why we're we're meeting more now. Um, making sure that program leaders um thoroughly think about programming that will give us a chance to start partnering and collaborating more to determine some of those things. Um, we're really excited about it. We believe that, you know, working together, we're going to be able to create a a really amazing space for our students uh and all of the different

049programs that are going to be there. So, um, great questions and the good thing is we have time to, uh, continue to flesh these things out. Mayor Lar. >> Yeah, just another follow-up question. I've just been looking at the most recent drawing that we got again and I know we've gone over this before and when we've toured it, it was of great interest to me. But just the entryways again, has anything changed with the entryways uh in terms of the separation with ALC AEO and then the other um entryways? >> Uh the entryways haven't changed since the past. >> Okay. >> Renditions. I know the ALC program still has their own dedicated secure entry point for themselves and as well as the building does as well. So those entry points have remained. Yes. >> Thank

050you. >> All right. Seeing no additional uh questions or green lights. Uh thank you everyone. And again this as we go. Thank you um for that. I know. Well, you might as well stay because you're here for the next presentation, too, right? At least Brian, right? >> Can I just do a shout out to Pat who's in the back there and appreciate your leadership, too. And um and I was really interested in in preparing and stuff that on um in our August HR finance meeting, IC gave us a 268 page uh kind of uh layout of all the construction and the materials and and the the contracts that were awarded and we appreciate that too and appreciate the the strong tradition firms that were given the cont or that earned the bid. So we appreciate

051that too. And before we transition, so again, this is an example of what a summer report um how it would come. And to be honest, it it probably still would be brief more um it shortens the uh think about the length of that presentation. It may have been 20 minutes and then more 20 more minutes of additional uh questions. We just have to think through if it's something really meaty, then obviously that's gives us pause to say maybe it's not a summary report, right? If it's something that we know there's going to be a lot of dialogue and we want a presentation, we just need to know that and we will do that. Uh some things may not require a lengthy conversation. Um I'll go back to uh update related to Keyzone. Maybe just information

052about Keyone programming, how many students are serving. That would be a very quick conversation. Um that may take five minutes um worth of questions. So thank you for the feedback and um as chair uh shared just please send that information to us. give us some feedback and if we need to pivot or if there's something that board desires that we not have these presentations um we will pivot and go back to uh uh what we've always done. >> This again this was an effort to think about a process improvement to to really provide spaces and for program leaders to get in front of the board or to share information with the board. So thank you. Oh, now with two lights. Um, member lmp and then superintendent. >> And I I'll just uh appreciate my fellow

053board members uh for when we have this type of presentation that you keep asking those questions before the meeting so that we get the answers when we're here. I I know many of us did our homework on this one and uh so I found that really helpful. um uh just hearing some of the questions uh and then getting some of the answers ahead of the meeting as well. So uh appreciate folks uh doing your homework especially I think for for this type of uh summary of presentation. So thank you >> and just to share because I think uh sometimes there's questions about why is this a different type of presentation that the public might have. We had a list of multiple uh board summary reports. I think there were four or five four additional ones,

054right? Uh so so I think this was just used as an example because we knew it was timely and we knew that there were the board had questions on it. So this is why we pulled this one to to do first. Um but we also have four more that are forecast for next uh the next board meeting. What we might we might also do is uh include some of these in my uh my weekly report or my maybe they're not always weekly uh my my infrequ my reports to the board. Uh if I can share those as links there too because um I think even if we were to have five summary reports it it could be u challenging for us to to digest all those in one board meeting. And I think as we're

055doing uh the committee the just a suggestion as we do our committee the whole agenda setting maybe we're forecasting out what are the board summary reports we're thinking about for the next month. So it's not so then uh it's not a week out that we're deciding what we're having or not having as as summary reports. It's it's um five or six weeks out that we're we're getting that down. I think that would be helpful for us and then maybe we can even send them um more than a week in advance so that that the board can have a a better idea of those. >> Thank you. Moving on to our next uh item and I do want to say thank you to our our guests um who did come. Um so just want to say

056thank you to our guest for for uh attending as well. again as we do these summary reports I will ask individuals they can you know join us in case you may ask them a question so just let you know that for future but thank you for coming continuing um with the um under our next presentation we have under B strategic plan alignment improving systems uh we have next up uh a presentation by our very own executive director uh Zunich uh the bidding process as a and then strategic growth and capacity planning. Good evening. Um it was requested um by the board that we review our bid process and um after speaking with the superintendent and assistant superintendent, we've asked um Pat Over from ICS to join us tonight. He drove up from Minneapolis for this.

057um he's we've worked with him a lot and um IC has been really helping us a lot with the first street buildout um bids and any of our future LTFM that we have that the board approved. So we couldn't think of a better person to help us uh answer any questions. Um we do have policies that we are following. Um, one thing I have implemented with um, you know, HR business services um, with um, member Saddowski and member Williams and member banks is we are being very transparent about any bids um, that we receive. So we are now putting all the tabulation sheets on the on board book. So yes, our board book has really expanded. Um but we're doing that to maintain a transparency with everybody. Um uh when we do when we start

058paying bills, we are going to have the um payroll documents that we receive from a subcontractor to make sure to maintain the effort to make sure everyone's being paid um prevailing wage. And that is reviewed by IC. it's reviewed by the facilities department and so we will continue to put all of that on board book and even when if we have a $500 change order we are going to put that on board book as well. So I don't want I would feel really bad if a board member came to me and said I didn't even know about this. So you know that's I I drive myself by that. So we will maintain that transparency for you. Um Pat has uh provided their bid process at ICS. So he's going to review that and then we

059of course will be open to any questions. Go ahead, Pat. >> Sounds good. >> Do I have to push? Thanks for having me here tonight. Um, the document that was included in your packet is really kind of our internal process for any projects with the districts we work with for uh working through major projects and helping them comply with public bid law and statute 471 uh which we're extremely familiar with uh related to how public entities whether they're school districts or cities or counties any municipalities uh need to procure things. So this document is really re relevant for any projects over 100 anticipated to be over $175,000 in value which you know for better or worse just about every project these days seems to be uh in that realm. And so just to walk through

060this I'll walk through it real quickly and then uh I'm here to help try to answer any questions. Um again this is happens to be labeled delivery method program management. Um, that's really how your consultants are structured. Uh, whether we're serving in a role as program manager or a construction manager. Uh, either way, with projects over $175,000, you're required to solicit public bids and then to award those to the lowest qualified bidder. Um, and ultimately as a public entity, uh, we help develop and have you execute prime contracts with all of those different trade trade contractors and and vendors and suppliers. And by prime contract, that means that you as a district are actually holding and signatory to those contracts with each individual trade contractor, whether it's an electrician or a mechanical contractor and so

061on. uh we're managing and administering those on your behalf. Um so just to walk through this really quickly uh prior to things going out for bid um I'm sure many of you are familiar with the the giant specification books and then the the plan documents which we call construction documents. uh early in the process, we're preparing those documents and we're developing what are called the front-end specifications and those are really outlining the general requirements and general conditions associated with the contract um that will ultimately be executed. Um much of that language is is pretty canned template through the AIA series of agreements which again you're probably familiar with. Some of the things that we're at task to do are to implement any pieces that might be project specific or client specific, district specific in this

062case. So whether those are um allowable hours for work or or uh details related to the schedule or tax status or how we expect contractors to access the site, who's responsible for uh temporary toilets, who's responsible for temporary, you know, all of those different kind of ground rules, the field establishing the field of play for contractors. Included in that are in your case based on your your existing uh district policies are that's where we would include prevailing wage rate requirements and then post what those wage rates are and then how they need to follow through with certified payroll and and comply with that process. Um once those are developed, our internal process is very typically that those uh hit the streets for bids, if you will. Um, we do that a number of different ways.

063There are still local and regional builder exchange builders exchanges where those um get advertised and and posted for folks to access and ultimately decide whether or not they want to uh put their numbers and bids together. Uh we've got a a web-based platform called Procore uh that we track all of our projects with and so on. Um, we tend to have a big pool and database of contractors that are constantly accessing our site to look for what we have coming up for our clients and and they use that as a venue for getting those documents and putting numbers together. Um, we send out uh invites to our known contractor networks and and uh make phone calls. We have folks that are are literally, you know, doing whatever we possibly can to encourage involvement and interest

064in the projects. We host pre-bid either meetings or or walkthroughs to answer any questions and to again encourage involvement. Really the goal is to maximize the number of qualified bids that you receive on bid day and and therefore to try to you know squeeze whatever value we can out of getting those low bids. Um down partway uh we establish that bid date and on that bid date again many of you are probably familiar with that process. Uh sealed bids are are received at a certain time and date and location. those are opened and and read out loud and tabulated. Um, and then that's followed up typically by a week or two of our our crew um going through their post bid interviews with the apparent low biders and and kind of qualifying those bids, meeting

065with contractors or talking to those contractors, making sure they understood and were were inclusive of everything that was required for for the project. Ultimately, um, we develop a recommendation letter, uh, to submit to the board and that is a summary of kind of the bid tabulations that Simone noted as well as our recommended uh, lowqualified biders for you to consider awarding contracts to. So, that's that's this in a nutshell. Um then ultimately once those bids are approved by the the district uh we go to work and actually develop those contracts on your behalf and and get those executed by the different parties and move forward. That was probably a lot really quick. So if there are questions on that local please let me know. >> So this has been this has been really a a

066great presentation to tell you the truth. uh just to hear from Pat actually because I as I was preparing for this presentation it I visited ICS I mean we've worked with ICS for a long for my eight years here yes you have been our our relationship so but it was really the first time I kind of dug into your website and to the background and and just started to think that >> you know your role and and and especially now our first street project and that led me to the document from August 6th which had all of your contractors and all of the material materials and all that went out and and I'm thinking, "Oh, okay." So, my big aha was that you are shephering our our contracts and our bids and our materials along

067with Brian, but you know, you're we've hired you to your company to do that. So, that was kind of my big aha with >> a lot of stuff behind the scenes. >> Yeah. Which which was was reassuring to me. Um, so that's kind of my first aha. And then I really liked and and could you go back to it? Um you said prevailing wage once in your opening and then you came back to it with you know part of your presentation which I don't my my my print is too small for me to read but you came back to it to talk a little bit about >> what you put on your actual bidding documentation that's on our website that that and you talked about you know what are those rates? So, so on our

068bidding projects prevailing wage of for what DUTH is going to consider in this bidding is is this. So, they know going into bidding that our prevailing wage is. So, can you tell me a little bit about how you determine what a project at the first street building's prevailing wage would be? >> Right. And so a couple of things in that front-end specification, prevailing wage rates are certainly one thing that is included. As a district, you have specific insurance requirements and spec, you know, all of those kind of ground rules are established and clearly outlined in there and and what limits you require for insurance here might be different than here. And so we need to track and and make sure all of those things are considered and included. prevailing wage rates are actually established by

069each county and where the county is where the project is residing. So it's not it's not by the district, it's not by the city, it's actually by the county and it happens to be the wage rate that appears most often within that county. So the counties are actually tracking all of the projects that are happening within its geography and that's how those prevailing wage rates are established. Uh nine times out of 10 probably even more often than that those prevailing wage rates are synonymous with union scale. And that's because, for instance, in your county, a lot of the projects are being completed with union contractors or contra non-UN contractors that pay those wage rates regardless of whether they are required to with a prevailing wage requirement or just to keep in business and and maintain

070a workforce, if that makes sense. So yeah, prevailing wage rates are actually established by the county and they're they're literally >> um I wish I had a specbook with but literally outlined by trades. So it'll say >> for a an apprentice electrician it's this much hourly and this much infringe in benefits. For a journeyman electrician it's this much and this much. for a laborer it's this much and this literally trade by trade by trade it's an hourly rate and and benefits are fully outlined as well as the ratios of uh workforce. So if a crew happens to have eight folks on site it it will dictate what those proportions are. How many are allowed to be journeymen versus apprentice versus >> and do those workers those eight workers sign in? >> Yes. >> To you.

071And so that's a record that you keep and that our district has to make sure that the prevailing >> automated now. And so we'll receive what's called certified payroll and with their with their uh their draw requests and that's reconciled on an ongoing basis. And then I just want my last thing is I really really like what the finance and business committee along with our leadership have done with putting bidding on our website. And um as a board member, I can go in and see projects that you've put up. I think you just put up something something in the last week or so. I can't remember now. I was there this afternoon. Why can't I remember what what what's on the website for a bid right now? I think it's due soon. It's not a

072roof. I'm going to look right now. >> Maybe >> I think it's for new furniture at Homecraft. >> It is. That's what it is at Homecraft. The library. Yeah, >> we just got done with the the lighting bids and we once you awarded them, then we took them down. Okay. >> But we'll we keep putting them up. >> What I think we need to do and I know board I have been as a board member when asked by different companies within our city is go to we have it on our website. There should be no need for you to be surprised that there was an opportunity to put in a bid for your company because it's right out there. Plus, you just mentioned all the places within your scope as ICS that you connect with

073with all of your connections to to get as many bids as >> Absolutely. It's it's literally full-time jobs for folks to get the >> There's no excuses. Okay, good to hear. >> Superintendent Maggus. >> Sure. just thinking about um some sometimes we hear and we we want we want to make sure that we are uh sound stewards of our finance, but we also want to make sure that we're we're treating workers fairly and with the prevailing wage aspect. Sometimes we also hear uh concerns that maybe other contractors don't have the same safety record or that you know safety like maybe they're they're able to charge less because they're not focusing on safety and we might have concerns there or maybe even that they're not really like a real union or things like that. just just

074wondering how do we how do we safeguard against that with this process and how do we make sure that that we're uh keeping safety of of the workers working at our sites as a high priority or and also making sure that that the uh people who are uh purporting to be unions are are actual unions and not um maybe maybe less than or different than a regular union. >> Yep. So, a few questions in there. Um there are a number of different um kind of union organizations and and um classifications. Requiring prevailing wage doesn't is not is not the same as requiring all of those contractors to be signatory union contractors. Um, from a safety standpoint, probably kind of belt and suspenders here. Um, we are pretty arduous with our our post bid reviews and

075and going through and and interviewing and talking to those contractors to to establish, you know, expectations. In addition to that, uh, if we are serving as your program manager or construction manager, we've actually got full-time safety crews, not not full-time on every projects, but we've got a dedicated safety officer, Donnie Hines, who has 30 years with Minnesota OSHA, and uh, we are actually facilitating weekly toolbox talks and safety meetings and mock OSHA reviews. And we've got thorough processes that are implemented on every project on your behalf to to try to safeguard and and to kind of belt and suspenders the safety aspect on projects. >> Thank you. >> Member Lo, >> I was hoping that somebody uh I'm not I don't know if I'm going to be able to find my question, but there it

076was a good question. Um >> I can go someone someone else for now. Uh member Michael. >> Uh yeah, you just touched upon in your post bid interview process. Um is there ever a time during those conversations where you recognize that um it might not be a good fit uh both ways? And what is that process like then to take away the bid or how does that how does that work? >> Yep. So good question. Each bid um that is received is required to have a bid bond and a performance and payment bond. And so those are kind of two different things. A bid bond is is kind of your insurance policy that that contractor has put good faith effort into developing their bid and understands the scope and is providing that for you in

077good faith. performance and payment bond is kind of your insurance policy that they're promising to pay their vendors and suppliers and so on. Um that said, uh often times we we may be reviewing scope with a contractor either on the phone or in person and and identify a gap or an overlap where a contractor has made an honest mistake and said, "Hey, you know what? we were scrambling and and putting our numbers together and erently forgot to include a number for structural steel or whatever it might be. Um, in those cases, we will bring those to the owner's attention and then decide um how to handle it. There's a couple of different ways to handle it. Um, oftentimes contractors may come to us before that meeting if they've made a mistake like that and said,

078"Hey, just so you know, we can't stand by our bid." Um, as an owner, you have the right to either just reject that bid or to reject that bid and actually hold on to their bid bond and and take that bid bond as a penalty for them withdrawing their bid. Um, oftentimes those bid bonds are are 5% or equivalent to the to the the bid price. And so that's kind of again your insurance policy on on them doing due diligence before they submit a bid. So yes, if we find that a a contractor isn't qualified based on an error, based on a gap in scope, we we handle that kind of on a case-byase basis and and may recommend rejecting this bid and and taking the second lowest qualified bid. Or we may take a

079a work scope and decide, you know what, it's better that we reject all of the bids in this work scope and and rebid it. Thank you for that. So, the bonds are similar to like if purchasing a house, the earnest money that you put down um when you're making your offer. Okay. Thank you for that. Um when I look at our the district's policy 726 on the bidding process, >> we as a school board are able to reject a bid um for three different reasons. And the second one is um if the low bidder is determined um as not reliable. So, um, is it my under my understanding then is that during that post bid interview process is when you would flush that out, correct? >> And make that recommendation to us. >> Correct. >>

080Um, if you're in those conversations. Okay. Thank you, >> Amber Sowski. >> I'm going to take it one step further. So, we award the bid and we, you know, they did they gave us the bid bond, which is, you know, they put uh a good bid in in good faith. um like you kind of outlined, but um I found it interesting looking at all the different change orders, which I know are a normal part of construction. I I get that. Um, but is there are there ever I'm assuming you keep an eye on those change orders though when you're looking back at the bid and especially for bigger projects. Like are there times where um I would just assume it's good to take it to keep a look at at those change orders and see

081how many are coming in and what's reasonable. I'm assuming that you're the you're the group that can determine what's reasonable and what's not based on the bid bond. >> Absolutely. And and if you so there's a there tend to be many perceptions when it comes to the you know the term change order and well all change orders are bad. They're not. So >> um we're very proactively tracking change orders and often times they get categorized into three spots. There are there are unforeseen um things that are exposed during a project like the DNT project, right? Where a wall is opened up and nothing was there, right? There are um change orders that are are generated because something was omitted from the plans. Uh and there are change orders that might be driven by a request

082from the owner saying, "You know what? we'd really like to move this door and shift this door and in order to do that, would you go get a price from the contractors to do that? And so, as long as you are maintaining value in any of those cases, change orders aren't necessarily bad, right? If it's enhancing or or benefiting the ultimate project, sometimes change orders are good things. So every change order that comes in, change order request that is coming in. Um our team is actually doing their own cost estimate to that change. Uh if needed, we're going out and checking those either with our internal database or other contractors. In those front-end specifications, we actually outline what allowable markup and profit contractors are allowed on change orders. And so we are we're reviewing those

083a few different ways before you ever see them as a a recommended change order to award. >> Great. Thank you. >> Y member Loel, >> I remembered my questions. I have two of them actually. Just I'm just curious again that I thought putting the bidding thing on the website was so helpful for a board member that doesn't sit on finance necessarily. And but one of the things I I didn't know in the bidding process is that you have these people that that are probably considering putting in a bid and they come and visit the site. I saw it when you did the lighting at both those buildings that you offered an opportunity. Do most have to do that in order to give a fine bid? You'd think that they'd have to visit the site that

084they're going to put a contract in. So is that a normal thing? That's the f And then again the other thing about sealed beds when you open them, do many people come to that opening of the bids. Are they sitting there watching you open them? Just out of curiosity. >> Generally on the uh smaller projects, we have a invitation for them to do a walk through. >> On bigger projects, it's a mandatory walk through. So, okay. >> You can't bid on it until you were there. Like our roofing projects, they're always mandatory. So, if you have if you want to bid on it, you have to be there. >> Okay. >> Um so, that's that's one of our requirements. Um what was the other >> the opening of the bids? Did we open the bids?

085>> Uh when we had the DNT um or the first August one >> uh opening um this room was about half full of contractors. Yes. They all come in to see where they where they've landed and make sure you know that sometimes they come here to see how bad they've blown their bid or you know if they >> they're learning >> way overdid it or whatever. >> So yeah. And then we always have at least two witnesses from the school district. And then with the projects that we have going on, ICS also has two representatives there. So when we're all done with that, we go over all the bid t bid tabs again to make sure we all have the same number and then they get evaluated. And I would add on those pre-bid meetings

086or or walkthroughs. As you can imagine, a project like DNT messy remodel, very important for contractors to be there and to understand existing conditions and so on. If it happens to be a a brand new groundup building, a lot less for them to see, but a couple of things happen at those pre-bid meetings. Yes, we definitely are very deliberate in walking through and and exposing and showing them existing conditions, but we're also taking the first chunk of time at that meeting and being very deliberate to walk through those general conditions and general requirements and kind of the ground rules. So, we're spoon feeding them those front-end specifications at that walkth through to establish expectations. We're letting them know this is these are the allowable working hours. this is how you're expected to access the site.

087This is where your staging is going to be. We're we're kind of connecting the dots for them at that meeting as well. And then the question that many of us on the board have had in the past and it I saw it on one of the contracts I think um in the packet um from that September meeting was um and I don't I don't want to name the companies because I just don't but there was a bid for something and one bid there was just two biders and one was for 189,435 and one was for 457800. And we've often wondered, and this might be going in the weeds, and maybe we don't necessarily need to know this, but we do kind of think, why? Why such a big gap? And like Brian just said, maybe

088they came to that opening or that bidding and went, "Oh, we really blew it on that contract, but why such a large gap?" And we do see it from time to time. >> Yeah. And it's interesting, right? Whether it's two bids or eight, you might have very tight bids or you may have a spread. And when we see those in our role, if there happens to be a widespread, that's telling us to focus on that and figure out why. And is it because different contractors interpreted something >> differently in the documents or made an assumption that others didn't? Or is it a contractor that is completely full of work but out of respect for us asking submitted a bid or or you know it's it's those types of dynamics that come into play. >> May

089maybe I'll get lucky and be the only bidder and I'll get it for $400,000. Right. >> Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. >> Thanks. Member Lafer Kemp. >> Thank you. Uh I I also had turned into our policy um uh 726 as I was kind of preparing for uh this discussion as well. And uh one of the questions I had that has I don't think has been answered yet uh was with the withdrawal of bids and um the conditions under which a bidder may withdraw a bid shall be detailed in the plans and specifications of the project. Can you just I was just curious what might be some of those reasons why they would withdraw a bid and at what point >> those those would typically fall back to a couple of those instances I I mentioned

090earlier um just after bid date if a contractor realized oh we made a mistake and we're requesting a withdrawal or bid um oftentimes in the market a lot of bids are happening on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Maybe a a contractor was submitting bids on three projects on a Tuesday and they happen to get two and they realize they don't have enough manpower to handle the third and so they're respectfully asking to withdraw their bid or you know many different reasons but those would be the instances I can kind of think of. Um I have a question and I would like um Pat or Brian to address. Sometimes we see on bids um they have the base bid and then underneath they have the alternate bid price. So can you speak to that? Because when we

091accept the bids or excuse me when the board does we go by the base bid. Correct. Um we've had questions in the past. What is the alternate price? feel free to add to this. I >> I'm hogging the microphone. Um alternates are established be for you know as the as the documents are being developed for a number of different reasons. Uh it may be because the project's pushing up against budget and so the owner wants to see what specific elements of scope are costing and then they can choose to award them if they can afford them or award them if there's good value. Um, if it is a roofing bid, for instance, you might get a base bid for certain roof sections and an alternate for another one or two or three sections if you

092have money. You may also see an alternate in in that case for a unit price for replace removal and replacement of wet insulation or removal and replacement of cutting and patching concrete floor is is a unit price that we often see as an alternate. And so, um, in that case, as a project moves forward, if there's somebody doing a bunch of roofing and they run into wet insulation, we've predetermined what they're able to charge us to remove and replace that wet insulation. Or in the the case of the basement downtown, um, we may have predetermined how much a square foot they are able to charge us for cutting and patching of flooring. Um depending on if so a contra a concrete a mason may give us a unit price per square foot for cut and

093patch. A plumber will then come in and say hey we need to run a pipe from here to here. And so we've kind of pre-negotiated or pre-established what those are able to charge. Thank you. Seeing no additional lights, I want to say thank you uh again gentlemen for coming tonight. Uh next up board we have um under strategic plan alignment. Number two, supporting every student. Nope, let me go back. Um improving systems. So number one, improving systems part B uh strategic growth and capacity planning. And Superintendent Maggus will lead that presentation. Thank you. Let me just cast a moment. Let's go do this. And thanks team for your presentation for answering all our questions. All right. So, uh, first of all, I' I'd like to share that we have a problem, but it's a good

094problem. That's that, uh, we have a lot of, uh, students and families that are choosing Duth Public Schools as as their first choice of, uh, places to attend. And our enrollment is increasing, which again is a positive. Uh but it is creating some some stressors as we pointed out in some of my superintendent reports and other areas um in that uh the space is getting tight in in a number of places. I was just out at Homecraftoft yesterday for instance meeting uh with their staff and I know we're we're setting up a opportunity to meet there uh for a meet and confer as well uh just to talk about that space because there there's no more space for uh teachers lounge. there's no more there's difficulty in having colllocated services like mental health services from

095the community. There are a number of different things that are getting pinched uh space-wise there. Uh we also know Lester Park for instance is another another location. Then we were in our uh quality leadership team meetings with our labor management for middle school and high school and there was additional conversations about class size uh particularly uh ordine. We were talking about um Ordine being class size being tight and other areas uh just that even if we were wanting to add additional teachers, we don't have the space in the classrooms to do so given our current spaces. We also know DUTH is changing quite a bit. We have a number of new uh housing developments throughout the city. We see things uh from uh the the area at Hawk Ridge to uh the Aerys Apartments right

096here in the center of town to uh the um Spirit Valley developments out there. There there are developments all over town and we really need to get our hands around where is the city growing. Uh so really when we think about strategically what are we doing to think about our growth what are we doing to think about our capacity and one of the first things that we really need to consider is uh defining our current reality and so to define our current reality we're really uh looking at and we're proposing that we do a demographics and site enrollment and capacity study. And the purpose for that would be to responsibly manage our positive enrollment trends and resulting facility demands to ensure future student success. And uh really, as I mentioned, we've we've had those positive

097enrollment pieces, but really we need objective data. The last time that we looked at our demographics study as a district was in uh 2018, I believe, and we uh we we saw some growth in different areas. There there are probably still some things that hold true from what we saw in 2018, but this is um over seven years later and it's important for us to to look at new developments and where we're at. This uh the goal of the study would be to provide critical demographic foundation needed to develop a sustainable and equitable strate strategic capacity plan that meets the needs of our students, families, staff, and community. So really thinking about if our if our demographics are changing, if our enrollment is changing, what does that mean for us and how can we make

098sure that we are adjusting? So really uh what are we going to do to lay the foundation for that strategic growth? Uh I think it's important as a board you've always focused on proactivity and being proactively planned in what we do. So thinking about how are we making sure that we're thinking about that capacity. We also pride ourselves in being a data uh driven deci having datadriven decisions making sure that we're using objective decisions rather than gut feeling or emotion to make our decisions. Uh but then that we're also really being thoughtful about optimizing our resources, thinking about our facilities as one of our most important resources. We have millions and millions of dollars in in our our schools and we are the stewards of those resources. So we need to think about how are

099we going to optimize those resources to the best way possible. You also see uh that we want to make sure that we're uh understanding that increasing uh student population. We in doing a capacity assessment, we want to look at each of our schools. I know sometimes all of our schools feel a little bit tight, but sometimes we expand into areas uh with different different programs, different different uses uh and really thinking about what is the true capacity and thinking about for instance when I was a middle school principal uh sometimes the facilities people would tell me that oh you have you're only at 75% capacity or 80% capacity and I would think well we're using all the rooms but when it comes down to But uh you can also think about what would it look

100like if if uh all rooms were being used during people's prep periods. And so there's some things that are not always optimal as far as how we want to operate. But then there is also ways that we have to think about how like when it comes down to it, what is our maximum capacity and what is our optimal capacity if we're giving people the space they need. We also are fortunate to have a lot of additional services and partnerships in our schools. We think about our partnerships with um tonight we're talking about Keyzone. We've talked about the use of the Boys and Girls Club. We think about our our community schools initiatives that we have at Myers Wilkins and at uh Lincoln Park and at Denfeld. Those are all great services and just examples of

101many many services that we have in the district. Uh but they do take space. And so thinking about how are we making sure that we have space for those for the for the main core programming we have, but then how are we also being uh thoughtful stewards of our space when we're thinking about those partnerships. Uh and really we also have to think about how are we identifying gaps? uh thinking about pinpointing specific attendance areas that are um that that may over time h be over uh use or over capacity and other areas that might be under capacity. This would allow us to think about uh future capacity solutions effectively and really uh this this uh is a precursor precursor to future action. the foundational dem demographic data is essential first step before we can

102deeply engage the community to develop viable options for a comprehensive capacity plan. So that's that's an important piece and I want to stress this uh Anthony um was was pointing out as well that this is when we're we were going through the slides and thinking this is something I want to make sure that is duly noted that in this this is a first step of of additional work that needs to be done. we we need to after after we look at the problem or the problem and it's a a positive problem in many respects but as we further define what that what that problem is and what our capacity is then the next step is really to deeply engage our community and I think that that really thinking about how do we do that thoughtfully

103how do we do that in a way that gets all voices out there how do we do that in a way that is a maybe a reset from previous work that might have been done uh and also how do we we look at some of that previous history too and learn from it. Those are things that we need to do as we cons continue uh looking forward. Um and as an aside, just you you see the the graphics that represent some of the things that we're talking about here. Um it's it's um an exciting thing and now with with uh with artificial intelligence, you can you can click a button that says beautify this slide and it gives you some of these graphics. So, see the little graphic with the data and then you're you're

104engaging the community and looking at space. That's just an example of how in in a couple of seconds you can you can make your slides a lot more attractive and and hopefully engaging. Uh just being honest about the use of of that technology. Um but again, thinking about how are we defining our current and future needs. The uh we need to make sure that we have accurate enrollment projections. I think right now we have a lot of times we look at what are our current cohorts and we we hope we know what's going to happen and we have a an idea of what's going to happen but then we get a surprise. Think about again Homecraftoft. I'm going to use that again as kind of our our poster school today. That used to be one

105of our smallest elementary schools and just in actually just just prior to me coming here. It was one of our smallest elementaryaries and our principal had additional duties because because it was a small elementary and now it's it's uh I believe it's our second largest uh with the transfer out of LOL it might even be it's it's it's up there as one of our our uh top one or two schools as far as size. So, we need to make sure that we have accurate enrollment projections uh and that we're really thinking about where it is that students are living and where where are those uh looking at the previous demographic studies and I I uh shared a copy of it at our our work session just just so you could see what one would look

106like. They have uh basically heat maps within showing where where are the populations more dense and increasing with younger students and where are they uh where are they slowing down. So looking at that distribution, it's it's interesting to see even with one within one school boundary zone, there are areas that are cooler and have fewer students that are that are uh coming through the households. And then there are other areas that are just really heated on the map. And you see you see that there are are lots of students that are that are coming from those areas. And when we think about that, when we think about programming, when we think about boundaries, when we think about that capacity, that's all important. Um and then again as we've talked about the uh impact of short

107and long-term development, we see uh ideas for projects coming forward. You know, think about Incline Village that was going to have um thousands of people that's that's currently on pause, but who knows within a year or two we might have something else uh going going up there. Uh and then we also have other projects that we weren't necessarily anticipating that are that are uh coming forward in different areas uh as we've mentioned and we need to think about what are those impacts. Uh we also want to work with the city and not just city but cities thinking about Rice Lake and and other other uh townships and communities making sure that we are talking with their developer with their uh uh planners so that we have that factored into the capacity work as well. And

108then really thinking about what it what would the next steps look like this for this process. Uh we would look at a RFP process which is request for proposals. Uh we have our bidding on the site so we can have that that posted right there. Uh so we would have a comprehensive thirdparty demographic study. I it's important for us to have a third party do this because in some in somebody who has the expertise because this is not something that it's it's a deep science as opposed to something that we we can take uh educated guesses at. So we want to make sure that we the quality of the definition could really um hinge on whether or not we have the space we need in the future. So we want to make sure that we

109invest in making sure it's done well. Uh we would be working with our facilities department. the facilities department and the capacity review. That's something that we believe we can do a lot of that work internally, but we'd want to interface that work with the group that would be doing the demographic study. And then really thinking about uh defining the uh the district u capacity thinking about what is the total operational and functional capacity of the district's building portfolio because we have we have to to a degree uh I would say we have um that we're a little over capacity on the east side and we're a little under capacity in certain schools on the west side. Not to make a broad sweeping judgment but that's a little bit of what we see. But we need

110to look at what is the total capacity. And there are other buildings that we don't think about as necessarily uh regular school spaces like Rockidge, you know, places like that. There there we have our um also partnerships with residential and those those sites. We want to we want to consider what is the capacity there and what is our use there as well. And then uh we would be bringing there would be board uh review and action. we would be bringing the uh findings to the board upon completion and then uh talking to the board and discussing what what are our next steps as we engage the community in this important work. So with that I will open it up for questions and I'd be glad to explain any more that the board would want to

111discuss. Member Laughler Kemp, >> this is uh just a general statement, but um thank you again for this overview and I know there's been conversation around demographic studies and I certainly was asked that during campaigning and said yes, I would hope we would do a demographic study. So good. >> Glad that's where we're looking. Um but um and and I know since I've been on the board, I I found that really helpful um in the past when we was getting that third party um uh uh uh demographic study and and what I think surprised a lot of people including the public who uh I mean it's really helpful for the public to learn from those studies as well u where our population is and the fact that we have a lot of families in the

112east end of town and that's one of the reasons why our schools are uh um uh at capacity you know something like that uh that you know uh that's the reason and so I look forward to um uh and would definitely support kind of moving forward with this process and also um uh I I I know in the past when we've had those demographic studies that that we as a board have had a full presentation on it and and that's built in here as Uh and um so so I uh I appreciate this uh presentation and certainly from going through this in the past as a board member uh would would love us to continue to move forward as this is laid out. So no really comment more just kind of reaction to your presentation

113>> neighbor lo >> I agree that you know it's nice to to get the presentation I certainly we support going for this as our as our first step towards capacity and programming um my f my overall reaction is that the board review and action the last element on the last page I get nerv I mean I don't want to go into the weeds I and you know we we will get all of this information from experts, but I I'm really hoping that we are involved in each sort of step along the way and and then yes, I know at the end that the board is going to approve what what we're going to go forward with, but we will have opportunity, right, to be engaged in this process in in in the most healthy and

114respectful way. Let the let the experts do it. But it just concerns me that that and I know you don't mean this. I know we will be because we have been on every other major issue within our district, but I don't want the board review and action to be like I mean it has to be the last step, but it makes it look like that's the only time we're going to like like get information. I don't know. Just picky. I >> if I could uh comment I I think you might be thinking about like what are the subsequent steps after and I'm not trying to read your mind uh but but >> so we will be doing the demographic study we'll share that with the board and then we would probably my my guess and

115just to be transparent is that that uh we would we would want to have a deep community engagement process after that or with with the data that we have so that we can uh discuss what are what are we going to do as a community based on this right and that would be something that I want the board very deeply involved in so as we're doing like if we're thinking about programming if we're thinking about you know hypothetical boundary changes if we're thinking about uh what what can what can this you know potential construction uh potential uh levies or things like that definitely there there's this This gets us to a point where we would have um we would I would we would be seeking a significant additional board u input on on where do

116we go from here? This would be kind of coming to um some degree of crossroads and saying this is our current reality. Where do we want to go with it? We maybe the demographic study would show this is just a blip and everything's going to level out and everything's population is going to drop and maybe maybe maybe we don't need to do anything. But my guess is that we are probably going to have to um really think about how do we engage the community and think about where do we go from here? Uh thinking about that homecraftoft conversation, they're they're worried about next year if they have another bubble with another kindergarten. How are we going to make that work for next year? And I think getting those those stories out to the community, too,

117so that the community understands uh where we're at as a school district and where we're at as a community. We've got a good problem, but we need to to think about how do we resolve it. Does that does that help? >> You know, being the board chair for four, five years or so, I I suppose he does kind of he's able to see that uh I think this is really where Jill is asking that question. So, you're right. You're right. Um I just have two others. just a a quick RFP. Um, you know, like yeah, just will the board know when you're going out for those and how you do that and and that's a bidding process. >> It's a sort of >> bidding pro request for proposal process. Um basically people would put in

118submit proposals and um it's more of like a project plan and then based on the project plan meet it would meet certain parameters but we would also look at what is the um what is the reputation of the the entity that's doing it. Uh what are they propo like there there might be vastly different proposals. Somebody might just say hey we can provide you a pamphlet of data based on what we see. others might be able to provide deeper, richer information. So, we'd want to consider all of that when when we look at uh what moves forward. Anything you would add? >> No. Uh once we determine what the bid needs to look like, it will get published u most likely for two weeks. Uh for instance um when we did our transportation we knew

119it was going to be four or five million so we published it once a week for a whole month. So it depends on what we anticipate the cost but it will be published >> and I don't believe the cost of this will be at the threshold of needing board approval. Uh of course we would be sharing information everything would be completely public. Um but I would I would suggest that we move you know unless unless there's strong objection to us uh moving in this direction that that I would suggest that we we uh get ready and put out our RFPs in the in the nearer future rather than wait because I think that it will take it it will take time for us to do the demographic study. It'll take time to engage the community.

120It'll take time for us afterwards to determine what do we need to do. Uh I I anticipate that there may be there may be a need hypothetical need for uh let me let me just say this uh carefully. If if the if the I want us to be able to to have a meaningful conversation with the community and if the community decides that they want to see certain things or do certain things as far as maybe hypothetically maybe they want to maybe maybe there's a decision that we need to have a K8 school built in a certain area or maybe there's a need for a boundary change or things like that. I want us to make sure that we have the time to do it right and to really um I think it's important for

121the community to uh for for us to work with the community in in in this process in a way that uh gives us time to adjust to these needs and the change in needs uh in a transparent and thoughtful way. >> Members Saddowski, >> thank you for the presentation and the information. Um, I definitely would also be supportive of a demographic study. I also just wanted to kind of as I've been listening to this and looking over the materials um before the meeting and during the meeting just have been reflecting on the last four years of serving on the school board, I've really appreciated um just you know we we've been very strategic about um like our programming um in our schools too. So when I think about growth and capacity, I really, and you

122touched on it today too, like in our schools, having other community resources for mental health partners in our schools and how important that is. Um, but also um, you know, even in the last year, we had to make some decisions regarding our our Spanish immersion and the programming and capacity there. Um, so just um I just appreciate the holistic way that we we look at growth and capacity in general. Um, and I know that um we'll continue to do that. Um, a demographic study is one piece of the puzzle, but I know you touched on it a little bit. We have a lot of other pieces of that puzzle that we will look at together. And I also appreciate the focus on engaging our community. Um I think um that's really important. We see trends

123in our community too. Looking at other trends in our community, for example, one that comes to mind for me is a focus in outdoor education. We live in Duth, Minnesota. Those programs are really popular. Um and we see that um for the early childhood. So just looking at those trends too, I think will be really important. Thank you. >> I agree. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing no additional lights, we will go to our next presentation. So, if we could have the uh teacher learn equity team who will present the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness uh report um board, this is um deemed our public meeting for the 2526 annual comprehensive achievement achievement and civic readiness. So, um, Brenda Sparts and team, um, come on up and I'll um, have the team introduce themselves as they

124come up. while they're getting themselves situated, I I just want uh the board and the community to uh just to remind everyone that formerly we used to call this the world's best workforce. So, if you ever heard that term, the world's best workforce, u it has evolved uh to become the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness uh plan. And I'll turn it over to the team um just to uh introduce yourselves, please. Good evening. Uh my name is Brenda Sparts. I'm the director of elementary education here in Duth Public Schools. Um I'll be facilitating this, but this presentation, the data, the information, the plan that was shared with you took a lot of people and a lot of input. So I'm I might be the facilitator, but surely it took a lot of people um to

125put this together. So I just wanted to make sure that you know that. And some of the key people are sitting here with me, so I'm going to let them introduce themselves. >> Good evening. Daleman, I am the elementary academic MTSS and curriculum and instruction coordinator. >> Good evening everyone. Jen Larva, director of secondary education. Do you want to tell them why Julie's not here? Oh, I am going to let you know that um Dale's counterpart um Julie Stabber would have been here tonight, but she has a family emergency, so she is unavailable. I'm Danette Sibo, principal and special assignment, current technical education, college and career readiness, and some other things that are irrelevant right now. >> Good evening everybody. I'm Barbara Ekberg. I'm the director of Head Start and early learning services coordinator. Okay.

126So, the first thing we're going to do is just run through some information that explains what this is and um kind of a process that we took this year and getting the information for what you're going to see. Um the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness plan is directed through legislation as you know and last year it changed from the world's best workforce to the what we affectionately call the khacker. Um but the emphasis changed a little bit. It used to be read well by third grade and some other uh goals. They've really changed it to have an academic achievement focus and preparation for what are kids going to do after graduation? How are we preparing them to be those lifelong learners and to be successful out in the real world? So, that's kind of a

127change of mindset around um the new requirements. Um you but you give us per um the um permission to develop this on your behalf. It's a long-term strategic plan. It has five goals that are dictated by legislation. And so I'll show you what those goals are. Number one, all children ready for school. That's really how do we prepare kids in our district to be ready for kindergarten. All racial economic achievement gaps between student groups close. All students are ready for career and college. all students graduate from high school and then students are prepared to be lifelong learners. That last one is an interesting twist and we've tried to figure that out. I think the state is still trying to figure out what that means. Uh but we will show you our take on that as

128we get there. The comprehensive achievement and civic readiness plan really should and part of legislation says it it it will align with our strategic roadmap. And so if you read the um I don't know 30-ish page full plan, you'll see that the headers in there for the strategies that we use to address the goals are aligned to the road map. We thought that was the most effective way to make sure that alignment happened and so supporting every student, advancing equity, improving systems. You'll see that those strategies are broken down into how we address those things uh in the strategic road map. our process this year. Um, of course, last year we renovated the whole uh the whole um plan going from the world's best workforce to the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness plan took a

129whole revamp. And so this year we took that plan that was new last year. We reviewed it and updated strategies with some new things that we're doing, continuation of work, um the um results from last year. So, you're going to see that it looks similar to last year. Uh but last year was actually the big revamp. Um then we developed that draft that was based on well we took it to a principal meeting. We took it through to the uh TLE team. Um I'm trying to think of what else we did. We took it to lots of places and got various district um committees and groups to weigh in on the strategies and those goals. Um we took all that feedback and incorporated that into a draft. There are some annual meetings that must happen.

130This is one of them, a public meeting and a forum. It's usually a board meeting. And so that this one qualifies for that and also district advisory committee to take a look at it and give impact input. Sorry, we did that on the 24th of November. Uh we took it that draft that was developed to that team. I will say um um member myself came and from the presentation that you saw, I changed some things because of trying to present it to them. I was like, "Yeah, that doesn't really make sense or that was too much or so you'll see that this is a little bit different from um but that's that's the idea is to make sure that as we go along, we're just improving and in and you know continuous improvement mo mode

131of getting it to a better space. Um what you have there is what we deem as our final draft. Of course, you're going to approve this and uh we'll get it posted to our website as the final final draft. Um, but pretty much what you see is probably what it is. Um, then like I said, the last thing is to post it to our website. That's a requirement. And then submission of a summary report. The summary report is a reflection on last year and that goes to MDE. So, the last thing you're not going to see, it's literally a um website where we go and we enter information on last year's results and and you submit it. And so, um actually we did that earlier. So, um that piece is done. So, um the next

132few slides, actually kind of several slides, um are results from last school year. This is where you're going to see a little bit different from the advisory committee because um I broke it down just a little bit more so it's kind of maybe easier to understand. Um the first one aligns with goal one of last year's 2425 um ker plan. And so you'll see that 85% of our four-year-olds participating in DUTH public schools preschools will meet the benchmarks in four out of five of the domains that they measure. Um I added gold stars to things that are positive and increased. You can see that in every single domain we had significant increases. And as a matter of fact, in each one, we went over that 85% or met the 85%. So, I would say Barbara

133and her team last year really um shine and they did meet their goals. Um and that's a really positive thing for you know the rest of their education journey. Um so that's really great. Um the second goal is about reduction of achievement gaps. We had a reading goal in last year's um comprehensive achievement civic readiness plan. We did not have a math goal. However, in here I put both reading and math um achievement data because I thought you would be interested in it. So um this first slide here it's about reading MCAs and how did DUTH perform compared to Minnesota on average across the state. Um DUTH usually outperforms the state in many areas. This is no different. Uh 55.7% of our kids were considered proficient and that was significantly over the state. We did

134not make this goal because we didn't meet 63.8% so our own gains but we did pretty well according to the state. So I just wanted to make sure that that was um you know highlighted. This has to do with ethnic and race groups. How did we do last year with reading compared to the state? Um you can see American Indian, Hispanic, and white students outperform the state on average. Um black students and two or more students, those groups did not in reading. Um so um that's just the outcomes that we had last year and um just wanted to make sure that you have this information. Uh this is comparison groups. So, if we're talking about white students versus non-white students and the gap between those groups, you can see here how Minnesota did and then

135you can see how we did with those groups. And then um special education and not special education. Uh what comparison groups does is it takes all kids who test and then pulls them apart into two comp opposite groups and then compares the gap between them. And that's what um these comparison groups are about. So and then free and reduced lunch price, kids who qualify for free and reduced price and then kids who do not qualify for free and reduced price lunches and the gap between them. You can see that on free and reduced lunch prices. We do better than the state on average in the reading. Um and then um not special education and then both pieces of whites and non-whites. We outperform the state in reading. So um those are all celebrations for us.

136Um this is math. Same same type of information. Um, you can see that we do just about the same as the state. So, we're performing right along with the average of the state in math overarchingly. Again, we didn't have a math goal, but I just thought you guys would be interested in math to see um how we're doing. Um, this has to do with the race and ethnic groups. We don't math is not our um according to our data. It's just we're not as strong in math as we are in reading. I think we all understand that because the last few years we've really pushed reading like significantly. We have such a push in the state for literacy and you're seeing the results of that in our data. Um and then the next this is

137comparison groups. So how do those um opposite groups do and the gaps between them? And here you can see that um there are larger gaps in math than there are in reading. And so um math will be a focus. Um two years from now we'll have to do these standards and do the same thing we're doing with literacy, but it will it'll go to a emphasis on math. Is that two years? two years from now. And so I think we're going to have a big shift in talking a lot about math here in about a year and a half or so. Um, oh, and here here in lies not my expertise. So I'm going to hand it over to John Larva. All right. Thank you. Um, so last year we did have a goal around

138college and career readiness. So you're going to see the next like the next three goals. It's almost like they feel very similar in a lot of different ways. Um, college and career readiness. Um, we are working through um through a cohort right now about um redefining ready. We're going to be coming at you with different things in the future, but we're trying to get to the point of where we know where our kid like a diff like a different way of presenting information about how our kids are ready for college and career. Um, so this was our first um goal that we had. um in this area. Um we had used something called Minnesota Career Information Systems in the past. Um we did do a switch to Duth Ready Navigator, which I know Danette's talked

139a lot about in the in the last couple of well in the last year. That was that grant that we had gotten from the state um the deed grant. So um by the end of the 9th grade year, 90% or more students would use the exploration tools in that program to develop a personal learning plan. And you can see that we met that goal at 91%. Um, and so, um, we did change that goal for the upcoming school year a little bit. So, you'll see that when we get there. It's not like achievement goals where we keep the same goal or, you know, just make adjustments to the goal. We we really wanted to make it look a little different. Um, graduation. Um, so we are ahead of, you can see the star there. So,

140that's good. We're ahead of the state. Um, we did want it to be 90%. >> Um, yes, sorry, this 23 to 24 in there because we won't get the graduating of 25 results until uh March. >> Yeah, >> we're supposed to get it earlier, but I think March is where we ended up getting this last year. So, between 23 and 24. Um, so we we don't have the 2025 reporting year. Um, we're or we're just getting to 24. um 90% with no lower groups lower than 85. And you'll see we did not meet that goal. We are performing higher than the state, but we did not quite meet that goal that we were looking for. Um and then the last one is that interesting. Oh, there's more data on graduation. Sorry. This is by ethnic

141groups. Um you can see that we did outperform the state in our ethnic groups. >> 23. >> Oh, 23 24. Thank you. >> You're welcome. We outperformed ourselves from 23 to 24. See, she shifted it from state and then I get confused. So, there we go. You can see that all those um markers we did perform better than we had the previous year, which is great. Um the next um graduation is the comparison groups just like she had explained before. Um so if you're taking a look at our um our our comparison groups for 24 and our 23 and 24 school years um you can see that we again had had risen but you can see that we are um still we still haven't made that goal that we were looking for of having no

142groups under 85%. So we still have groups that were under 85%. So um the next goal is that interesting one that we are still trying to get some guidance u more guidance I should say from the state. Um we did ask our um our MTSS regional support um Gina Cole um this year again because last year she helped us really like craft what our goal was going to be. Um we did put it in a two-year goal. So this one is a continuing goal that we will have into the next year because we've only had one year of it. Um we are waiting for more guidance from MDE as to what they are going to have as their metrics coming out of this one. Um so as she said stated earlier there's some still some

143uncertainty certainty but this is that goal that they have a little uncertainty around. Um so in this goal by the spring of 2026 so by the end of this year 90% or more of seniors will have a confirmed postgraduation plan. Um so you know we are at 64% right now. Um and we'll be looking to um making sure that we have 90% and um a lot of that gets worked on during our 11th grade course that we have about college and career and life readiness. And so we're anticipating that we'll have um a much higher success rate on that goal in the upcoming school year. Um we're going to shift now from thinking about results from last year to what are our goals for this year and the annual report that you have the long

144report um that I see that most of you printed there. So, you have that. The first goal is about kindergarten readiness. And I'm going to let Barbara go ahead and and share about this one because I know she was involved in writing this one. >> Yes. Thank you. So, we have decided that we'll leave our goal at 85%. >> Oh, yeah. >> I'm so sorry. We have decided that we'll leave our goal at 85% because we are really looking at a developmental trajectory for children. We have four, five, three, four and five year olds and we're really looking at our four-year-old population. They come to us and we really look at their development and if we leave it at 85% we will make gains. That will happen. But we know that children are coming to

145us with uh with more needs. Uh each year it seems to be more and more social emotional needs. And that's where we need to focus before we start working on what we would call academics. And in preschool, we don't call it academics. We're really looking at the whole child. Can we go back for just a second? Thank you. Oops, wrong way. Um, I just want to say, um, we didn't talk about this and I know we will be talking about it. We crafted our goals a little bit differently this year. Um, in the past, our goals are really just written around the student outcomes. We've had lots of discussions with our CITs through our MTSS process that we are engaging in our pathway trainings that we really need to focus on the adult actions that

146are behind those student outcomes. And so you're going to see this is the same goal. It is written differently though. You'll see that it talks about what the staff are going to be doing that the DUTH preschool staff will. So it's kind of um shifting that mindset a little bit into not just like oh we're putting it on the students like oh you you students better do better but you know and yeah we had strategies but now we're actually writing the goals around adult actions. >> Thank you. Welcome. >> I'm glad you shared that, Jen, because now I don't have to go over that. Thanks. Um, so for goal two, um, when we're looking back at closing those achievement gaps for this year, our goal, as Jen was mentioning, is focusing more on the adult

147actions that are taking place in the classroom. So, our goal is that each student will be provided highquality instruction that includes communication of what they're learning and how they will be assessed. You've heard us talk a lot about teacher clarity over the past couple of years. This goal is really putting the emphasis on us um implementing that teacher clarity with fidelity. Um oh, that's okay. The the outcome of that then is that we'll see a reduction in the reading and math achievement gaps across uh race, economic, and comparison groups. Um at the bottom of that one, you'll see that the data that we'll use will look very similar to the data that Brenda just presented. Um taking a look at the comparison groups as well as uh race and ethnic groups. The reason I will

148say really quickly, the reason that we're kind of putting a lot of emphasis into teacher clarity is because there's abundance of research that shows that it's a high impact strategy in the classroom. And it's been shown to help students make over a year of progress in one academic year. And when we're looking at our achievement groups, we want to be thinking about what are the things that we can do that can that can result in more than a year of growth in one school year. And I just want to point out it says reading MCA 4 up there because we have been doing since 2013 reading MCA3s. This year we will have a brand new reading MCA test. So it's the next version. So they call it MCA fours. um there will be no comparisons

149between MCA4s and MCA3s. So this is also like thinking about how do we measure ourselves when there is no baseline yet. We're going to have this is going to be our baseline year for MCA4s. So looking at reduction of achievement gaps might be one thing that we can still look at um as as a measurement for ourselves. So that that's the idea behind this too. It says it at the bottom in the blue. Yeah. >> All right. Our college and career readiness goal rewarded to be focused on adult behavior is that uh by the end of next school year, 100% of our content area teacher leads in grades 6 through 12 will help guide the design and implementation of one or more standards aligned highlevel instructional lesson that require students to develop skills in one

150or more of Minnesota's four domains. uh we will focus on employability skills, mindsets and social awareness, career development, and transitional skills. And we'll measure that. We'll we'll gather that on a curriculum tracking document. This will hopefully be one of those areas. You see some very meaningful metrics of how we're measuring getting our students ready for college and career and life after high school. Uh we want them to have skills to move in and out of all of those things to in and out of the workforce and into additional training and education. And so as we go through the redefining ready cohort through the superintendent association, we'll have some unique metrics to decide how are we sure that we're really getting students ready for that. And so this will be one of the things employability skills

151for example may come back and replace those citizenship or whatever scores we called them on report cards. Was it citizenship conduct scores? um employability skills could be one of the things that we help teach and measure with uh students and in classrooms. So, watch for some unique metrics there, but this one will really be focusing on supporting all of our teachers in uh implementing a lot of these skill areas. >> Thank you. Um okay, so for our students graduating from high school, I'm really excited about this one. Um so with Edge Climber, we have the ability to um create an early warning system um for um graduating students to make sure that they're on track. Um and when I say an early warning system, it's what we've been really using for um check and connect,

152taking a look at attendance and behavior. Um and then they use grades, but we can also use it for credits like credits that are attained. So we can start tracking kids um in a different way. In the past, our lovely counselors, if I asked them how many how many students weren't on track, they had to hand calculate it. And so it was really hard to get at that information. Um but um Jody Gistler, who is our district assessment coordinator, was able to put thresholds in for credits as well. So now we can get flagged when students are um behind in in two or two two of the areas. It kind of it'll let us know like yeah, yep, this is a student that we should probably be paying a little bit more attention to. So

153we've we've created it and um we need to do some work around like ensuring that people are utilizing it but PLC's can use it um child study teams or student student study teams different teams can be using it to see which students that are on track our counselors can use it so we're just dipping our toes into using the early warning system but we are going to be you using it to in make sure that we are increasing the number of students that are on track for four-year graduation. talk about that. >> Yeah. So, one of our challen This is that two-year goal where it showed 64% had reported a a confirmed plan. One of our biggest challenges here is in the data we're gathering. So, this year we pushed out a we've always pushed

154out a senior survey um but we haven't really been intentional around uh doing that earlier and then grabbing those students who weren't responding. So, if you're not answering the senior survey, we want to know that you're ready for whatever that next step is that you're choosing after high school. And if not, then we need to use our our supports and resources to help you do that. So, if military is your plan, how can we help you get connected and and search what branch of the military, maybe what kind of job you're interested in there, have you taken the ASVAB to see how your scores do because that impacts the jobs you can go into in the military. Um, if it's that you want a job after high school, you want to go straight to work

155because you're not sure yet what you want to do, what field are you interested in working in, do you have an offer of employment, can we help you do that? And then if your next step is some kind of post-secary education or training, are you ready for an apprenticeship program? Have you connected with the trade you're interested in? Do you have a a college acceptance letter? And are you ready to go sign up for your classes next summer? So, we want to make sure that handoff is really tight, that students are ready for that next step and that we're tracking it and and are sure that 90% of our seniors have that in hand and are ready to go. Um, we know that some we do have a handful of kids who truly do take

156a gap year and travel or visit relatives and kind of decide what they want to do, but most of our students are going into some kind of post-secary education or training or going into the military or are going into an employment opportunity. And so data collection is a huge one, but also then collecting that data earlier and making sure we've supported them all the way to that handoff uh will be another area that we're going to focus on for this year. So uh you may have panicked when you saw that only 64% of our kids have a confirmed plan. Only 64% of our kids reported on that confirmed plan. Uh and so we need to get better at that data collection. Um this slide simply um we asked the district advisory committee to take a

157look at our documents, our presentation and the draft. They did um get that prior to the meeting and sent uh feedback to us. And so just I just itemized some of the pieces of feedback that we took and we just I just put it right into the plan. So they were right. I didn't put the grade levels on some of the slides, so we added that. Um, and some wording. U, we wanted to make sure that our document when we post it online is readable for the general public and so we asked them about that. Um so we incorporated some language changes um clarifications um and then um we adjusted goal two significantly due to um conversation we had and information that received in the feedback um and then um just some assessment changes to

158the wording. So anyway, just kind of taking that feedback along our journey this fall and incorporating it as we went was important. And so that's that's what you're seeing in front of you. And then of course, this is us. I am so sorry. I'm going to publicly apologize to Barbara. I did not put her on there, but I didn't know if you could come tonight. So there we go. >> Thank you. And and before we um take questions, um do you want to describe uh for me uh for the public as well as the board? Um you have a copy of this plan. Just reiterate again this plan. If if anyone is wondering what are some of those strategies that we're going to employ to achieve those goals, take a look at this document. They

159have all been uh mapped out in here. Under the goal areas, you will also see how we have aligned these things to our strategic plan areas. So under goal one on page six board members on page six of this plan you will see um it has different categories clearly there's one that focuses on supporting every student. So you'll see some strategies that that are uh defined here and this is not all-encompassing right so these are some of the high lever strategies that we are pulling out to say here are some of the big things that we are doing as it relates to supporting every student advancing equity if you're looking at here you'll see some of the key strategies that will be implemented to um consider equity and have equity at the forefront of of

160the work as well as improving systems. So, I just want to make sure that the board is aware of if you want to see uh and get an idea of some of those high lever strategies that are being employed, please take a look at this document as they are spelled out uh for each of areas. >> I do want to comment on that. Um so, we do have those strategies that are that are in that document. We really Brenda and I sat down one day and took a real critical looking eye at that. I think there's always been like, oh, these are all the things that we're doing in schools and so we just put everything into the plan. That's kind of been the approach of the past. We took a critical look at it

161and said if that's not actually addressing that particular goal, um some things had been removed out of there because um we wanted to ensure that it was really focusing in on that goal. Um, and it also needed to be like um like what are we doing new? Some some of the newer strategies that we were doing or that were continuing our focus on on something like that. We just weren't putting like I think immersion like adding immersion to our school. Well, we've done that a long time ago. And how is that actually focusing on this goal? Like if it wasn't fitting, we we might have taken it away. So, I just wanted you to be aware that it's been really cleaned up with a critical eye. >> Member Banks, then uh Superintendent Maggus. first. >>

162Actually, I I think member Saddowski was on first actually. >> It's either way, we'll all get to ask her questions, but um I just wanted to thank you all for being here and um for this information. It's a lot of really good information. I just had a I had a few different comments and questions for the math. Um, do you anticipate like a teaching strategy? I know letters isn't a curriculum. It's a way of teaching. It's a, you know, is there something that's going to be coming down the pike from the state or if not, is there something that we're going to be looking at to implement as a teacher training program for math? That's my first question. >> Yeah. Um, I don't anticipate something like a readact at this point. I haven't heard anything

163about that. But when we start taking a look at the new state math standards, um they're going to be very similar to what we saw with science where there's an increased focus on the practices that go into uh how students are interacting with math. They're called the mathematical practices. So just because of the fact that there's going to be an increased focus on those mathematical practices in the standards, we will have to make sure that we're providing professional development for our teachers in those mathematical practices. Um and so that directly translate translates into what instruction is going to look like in the classroom. So there's going to have to be a decent amount of professional development for our educators to be able to help students master those standards. >> Great. Thank you. Yeah. >> And

164my second question relates to the college and career readiness. I'm wondering um you know how TR if TRIO is in our schools in our high schools. How do our students access that program? >> TRIO is at Denfeld. Okay. >> And having never worked at Denfeld, I can't give you a lot of details about it. The only component of that that was at East was um oh wow the name bank in my head is gone. Upwardbound was uh math and science was at East and that is no longer in place there. So East has no components of TRIO. >> Uh it is at Denfeld. ever. >> Yeah, >> I don't know details or if it will continue, but >> I think that's just a really great program for first generation college students and um just having

165gone through the process myself this last year getting my daughter to college in college enrolled and having she has two parents who are college graduates, but it's, you know, it's a little bit complicated and um for someone who has never been to college, I just think it's a really great resource for for many students. So, I would encourage just looking at that, making sure our students have access to that resource and our parents, too. Um, and then my third thing was just more of a comment about the lifelong learners on page 57. I um, yeah, that's kind of kind of vague, but I think it's really important, too. I think the goal that you picked, as far as I can see, really aligns with that to make sure they have a plan. So, kudos. I

166think that that makes sense at least in my mind. Um it kind of reminded me of my um one of my mentors was my uncle. He had his doctorate in education was a principal and I remember when my kids started to go to preschool, elementary, he said one thing that you should just focus on is that your kids have a love of learning that they're lifelong learners and if you focus on that um everything else will fall into place. So that's what I did and it seems to have worked out at least in my kids' case. So I I was really glad to see this on there. It's um I never that was kind of the focus. So I think that's neat that it's in here. So anyway, thanks for being here. >> Can I

167just add one partial answer there? What I do know about TRIO and Upper Bound is that it's not programs that we run. The colleges provide those. So yes, we want them, but it's not necessarily us making that decision of what we're able to offer. >> Right. It would be uh again if we go back to capacity and growth, you know, how do we fit those into our schools and collaborate with those programs. So, thanks >> member Banks. >> Sure. Thank you. Um I think you all know where I'm going to go with this, so there's no surprise there. Um, I still remain concerned in our district regarding our African heritage and our native heritage kids and the data clearly shows that uh uh we have a lot of work to do. I appreciate all of

168the information that you've shared with us. Very important information. Um, but our kids, our African heritage and native heritage kids are really struggling in this district and I don't know how long that's been going on. So, um, it would be great to find out if there's some uh data that shows how long this disconnect has been going on in in ISD79. Um, I wanted to say there is an organization in the Twin Cities that I've mentioned before. Uh, it's called Black Men Teach Twin Cities. They are elementary teachers. African-American men in the classroom teaching all of our kids regardless if you're black, white, or otherwise. and they are making an impact in the Twin Cities. Uh I would say it might do us well as a district to contact them uh to see if there's

169some opportunity for partnerships or mentorships uh uh because you know we need to do something different right as it relates to our children of color, our Native heritage kids. It's just not working. That's just that's nobody. I'm not blaming anyone, but if we continue to do the same thing year in and year out, we're going to get the same results. So, it's about getting outside of the box. Uh, Black Men Teach has an online study that clearly says what we should be doing for our African heritage black students. So, it's available. How do we as a district go beyond the notion of grow your own? That perspective that I've heard time and time again. If that isn't working, what that does for me is it suggests that we need change. And so, yes, grow your

170own might be a perspective, but there needs to be other perspectives. And where are we with regard to our ethnic studies mandate that starts in 2026? I would like to uh say or ask as you are starting to design that, what kind of involvement um in putting that together or as you put it together, what was the community involvement, if any, in uh figuring out what that's going to look like specifically for ISD79? Um, we really need to to have more attention to our African heritage and our native heritage students in ISD 709 because those children are struggling and suffering the most academically, socially and otherwise. And again, this is not to blame anyone particularly because we all are a part of this. And when I suggest things like this, I just want folks to

171know there are options. There are alternatives other than continuing year in and year out doing the same thing because the results end up being the same way. We have folks in the community of whom might be and are frustrated. We need to figure out why that's happening and why these children native heritage and African heritage are struggling academically. And um I I just clearly don't want to be the Debbie Downer here, but uh we really have to do something different. We really do. We want all of our kids to succeed. But I would really, as a board member, my own opinion, would love to see African-American men in the classroom, Native heritage men in the classroom teaching our children. When you have role models like that in the classroom, that has a tremendous impact and

172will have a tremendous impact. So, I just wanted to put that out there. Thank you for your work and uh thank you for hearing me. I appreciate it. >> Um I very much appreciate your perspective and I want you to keep asking the hard questions cuz that's your job and and you should and you should hold us accountable. Um I did want to point out that last year with in regards to reading, we've had such a focus on reading and especially in the elementary schools, we've changed so much of how we do things. Um, but we did realize an increase with black students in reading. And I specifically wrote down the information here for you because I wanted to make sure that we did 3.2% better with reading outcomes. Now, that's going from 17.6 to

17320.8. Still well below >> the state on average. Better, not great. >> So, we're making many steps. it's not big enough steps in a fast enough way, which I talked to Dale about earlier today. And so, um, because we we know you're gonna ask the hard questions and we we appreciate it. Um, so I don't know about the ethnic studies, but maybe do you have answers for that? >> Well, I created a board summary report. Um, one of the ones that I I created multiples last week. Um so you'll be seeing them at some point in time. Um but we did um we are running ethnic studies. Um it is currently um planned to run second semester at Denfeld. Um so the course has been developed. It was brought to EA. I know that's one

174of the places where it had been reviewed um had gotten input from the community. I know Susan Schmidt um I wish Julie was here because she um would have way more information about it than I currently have. But um I know that Susan Schmidt has been very um engaged with having support with with creating that course. Did you have any information about it from last year? I know you were the curriculum K12 last year. >> Yeah, I worked with Susan on trying to find some community representation. We were able to have um and I can't remember the name of the individual off the top of my head, but she reached out to many individuals to try to get some community input. Um and she was successful but I can't remember the name off the top

175of my head. >> Okay. Um so it is running at Denfeld second semester. Um in my board report that I had Yep, there it is. Um with all the courses I did share that we didn't have um um a lot of kids requesting the course, but we did have 21 students at Denfeld, which is enough to run it there. So yeah. And you'll also see the other classes since we're on the topic uh with the global indigenous sports, how many kids are signed up for it and and so you'll see the other courses that we um have developed and are running. And you'll see the numbers and again this is one of the things that that was going to be presented as one of the TL summary reports. Um, but we're going to, um, this

176one will go into my newsletter at the end of, uh, this week and sent out to the community and and and sent out to the staff as well. Um, but moving forward, these are the kind of reports that we are looking to bring the board for um, just ongoing updates on what are we doing to address the concerns that are important to us, important to the community, and important to the board. So, just want to let you know that u you're spot on. We have a long way to go. The team, as you heard, you know, you know, we have not forgotten and they they hear too. You know, we have to do better with our um native students, our African-American students and uh all of our students, but especially those students who are uh

177continue to um not achieve at the levels we want them to achieve and not graduate at the levels we want them to graduate. So, we you've heard it before from me as well and we keep saying keep asking us, keep um insisting and and keep um you know, keep the your foot on the pedal with that and and we're we're trying. We're >> just follow up real quick >> and and so I just want folks to know I know you all care. I would never say that you don't care, but if I didn't ask these questions, I would be remiss if I didn't. and people in the community are going to be coming up to me and saying why aren't you asking these questions and so it's very important not only from that perspective but

178uh we just have to do something different. >> I do want to add two pieces for you. Um I just want to share um you know we did do the indigenous cohort pilot last year. We have continued that into this school year. I'm hearing that some of the changes that were made are being more successful that things that things are feeling um feeling more positive, you know, in some aspects. Um that is something that I think we had gotten some critical um feedback around from the state level right away. It kind of had gotten reported them that we're doing something, but then um they took it as, oh, you're you're taking students out of their regular classes. And so we had gotten some critical um I don't know some criticism around it. Um but we

179we went and got some support from our our Gina Cole as I had mentioned earlier, our regional um MTSS person last year. She was just our district support. I don't know what her title was. It changed this year. Um and she really helped us to communicate back to the state and they understand and now they're kind of looking at us like, oh, we might be leaders in what we're doing with our indigenous students. Like we're we're doing something different. we're trying to disrupt what has been happening in the past. Um, so I I want to say that that's a positive I think that we're trying to do. Um, and then I think the other thing that I I want you all to be aware of, I I know that, you know, we talk a lot

180about Check and Connect. Um, Check and Connect really does target our students of color. That has been um one of our goals with with Check and Connect. It it's supporting other students as well, like students that are on IEPs. um and and they have to meet qualifications, but we really have um put a high level of emphasis on um helping our students of color. And when students are in check and connect, like last year, we had 100% of our students in check and connect graduate, they're seniors, 100% of them graduated. Um we did have one um student that went to the bridge program because they were on an IP and of course they could qualify for bridge. So, we feel like that's a really big success area in our district in offering that individualized support

181that those students need and keeping them on track at for graduation. Thank you. And I'll just add one last piece to that only because um it goes to that we are making um decisions, you know, that are thoughtful that sometimes are not wellreceived as well because we made u I made a strategic move to add additional or reassign additional check and connect mentors to Denfield to improve those graduation rates to make sure there's uh more support because they have a higher concentration of African African-American students, higher concentration of native students to make sure that those students if they are needing more support, if they need uh more support to graduate, that that move did happen last year in an effort to improve graduation rates. So again, we we're going to continue to keep bringing um

182uh updates to the board on strategies that we're implementing and taking to heart ideas and suggestions and and looking into the viability of the things that are brought to us for our suggestions. And the last thing um before I come to the next individual is um board member is I want to remind uh folks as well when we develop these plans we are also considering all the other plans that are out there such as the achievement integration plan we have our leaders are present at the table as these plans are being developed. So the work that's happening with through our street uh through our achievement integration plan is considered our concurrence non-concurrence is considered our um uh American Indian ed plan is considered so and there are other plans out there those all those plans

183those program leaders are represented in TLE when these discussions are happening to make sure we don't lose sight of what's being asked from our parents and what's happening in other programs as we come up with these goals. So I want to make sure that everyone knows that those uh those are not just something um put to the side or not considered. They are deeply considered as we develop these plans and those leaders are part of the discussions. I believe I want to say member Mikeo then member Lafer. >> Thank you so much. Um I enjoy seeing the second rendition or maybe this is like the rendition. Um to member Bank's point, thank you so much for for continuing to um highlight the work that our district needs to do. Um, I have some hope because

184when I look at um later on in this report where it talk it goes by year. Um, and we see that our black students had the most gain when it came to the achievement gap in in math and had the most gain. And when it comes to the achievement gap in reading, again, the scores are still quite low. Um, but we have to start somewhere. And so I'm very hopeful that the work that's been put in by um our staff is like this is just the first and hopefully a trajectory that continues to go up um for our students and for our community. Um the question I have um is related to goal number two. When I look at goals number one, three, four, and five, it seems as though we're able to measure those

185like throughout the year um in a way to know that we're on the right track. But when I look at goal number two and only using the MCA um as our main denominator, um the right words, you you know them. um you know, we're not necessarily getting that information until yearly a year and a half after the fact when those kids sit down and take those tests. I know that you have plans to assess it during the year and I'm hoping you can give like a one minute summary of what those plans are to know that we're on the right track throughout the year. >> Sure. Um, so we do our three times a year screener in both literacy and math. And that allows us to take a look at reading and math achievements by

186students, but also by class, by school, um, and districtwide. Uh, we monitor that. Um this year something that's new uh which is a blessing and a curse because it's going to take a lot of our resources um but it's going to be a a good mandate from the state is that we now have to um provide an additional assessment for all students who are showing that they're struggling in reading. Um it's called the CAPD read basics. Um and it specifically looks for characteristics of dyslexia. Um, and so we're being told by the state that we're going to get some really great data back from that assessment that they will we will be able to use then to make information or informed decisions about instruction um at the site level and at the district level. Hopefully

187that answers. >> Yeah, thank you so much. >> Yeah, I just want to add that for the most part um FastBridge is the screening tool that we use, but that's K8. Um and so I just wanted to point that out. So we have really good data coming throughout the year on our up to middle school. Um we are running captive read basics at the high school because it is a 4 through 12. Um so on the literacy side of things um we will be doing that. We had done um fastbridge kind of piloting like playing with it at the high school level um in the past couple of years. There was a pilot then we tried it with like ninth and tth graders. Um, but we're just going to move forward, I think, more with

188the capy readad basics. And then we're trying to figure out um what to do with math. There are a couple of other screeners out there. There's one that currently right now is free, but we don't know how long it'll be free called Rome. The reading one is called ROAR. Um so, um there's some online assessments that we are looking at for high school because we recognize that there's a bit of a gap there with that as well. So, just wanted to fill that in. member Laughler Kemp and then Superintendent Maggus. >> Great. Thank you. Um couple points. Uh first of all, great presentation. Um I always had appreciated the world's best workforce presentations in the past as well. Uh, and and so one comment or question, I think you touched on it, Brenda, but I

189I was I don't know if I heard it all, but the the five goals for the new plan, um there's only one goal that's different um than the world's best workforce, right? um uh the the world's best work workforce had all third graders reading at grade level and now this that's taken out but then the all students are prepared for lifelong learners that's kind of the switch but the four other goals were similar were the same in the world's best workforce >> yes the wording on the lifelong learners changed >> yeah um but then yeah so the reduction of the achievement gaps was a major shift from all students read well by the end of third grade. That's kind of a major shift. >> Right. Right. But but otherwise the other goals were >> basically

190>> similar obviously maybe with more of an emphasis but okay I just wanted to make sure I I understood that right. Um, and then I I just I really appreciated the groundwork that you actually laid for this a month or two ago in a presentation where you talked about um uh uh things that we were are are shifting and and doing uh differently with particularly with adult behavior. So appreciated that before this that that really helped. So for next year uh and then um also um uh you know I just know there's a lot of collaboration that went into that uh doing this presentation. I I also appreciated that you put on page three just some of the other plans that we're incorporating in that so that if someone is reading this they can know

191that this is just one piece of many pieces. And so uh and and I I think you do emphasize that these are just some of the plans. So it's not everything. So I I I just wanted to comment. I was glad that that was there and maybe it was required to be there. Um and then my last question was um uh will there be I guess an update about halfway through the year on these goals or I mean I know we will we get updates in lots of different ways but I'm I'm just wondering specifically is that part of what we're required to do to give us updates midway through the year or it is not required and we haven't done that in the past. That doesn't mean we couldn't do something, but it it's

192not a requirement. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. Good. Well, thank you. And and like uh uh member Michael Cell, you know, I'm hopeful. Um uh just uh my time on the board, I've seen a lot of conscientious decisions, intentional decisions we have made both with our budget as well as with programming to make changes. And uh so I continue to be very hopeful of uh we will continue to see that growth and I think with um the focus on reading um uh I think there's research out there that shows when reading scores go up also math scores that helps there as well. So um thank you. I think much has already been said and so I don't want to bel labor but I I want to say um with a huge asterct and that asterct is

193uh reflective of some of the comments that have come that there are areas for growth and we're hugely hugely aware of those. They're glaring. We want to make sure that we we have a sense of urgency around that that we don't we don't uh step away or shy away from that when we think about our work with our our American Indian students when we think of our work with our black students two or more races too is something that I think is something that we are uh focused on but I a and not but and I want to say that that we see um we see growth the growth is not yet enough we're not satisfied because we want to make sure that we're doing everything possible. But I would also say that uh these

194changes and th this progress is not without a lot of work and a lot of architecture and a lot of forethought starting from the strategic plan going through what we're doing with MTSS thinking about the structures that we have in place uh with with different systems of support. the the board has has invested deeply in what we have going on here. Whether it's thinking about having a director and having an MTSS um coordinator to to assist that are by level and then working through the office of the assistant superintendent. The it's not by accident that we're seeing the results. Uh but our work is is not done. We have we're we're just starting. we just have these things in place and um I think it's important for us to to continue to commit and to

195double down with our parent groups and double down with with our tribal consultation and to invest in the community uh to continue to see this growth. But when I think about the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness, I I don't like I don't always use the acronym. uh we are our our district is is is uh continuing to improve and a lot of that is also based on the work of the board. The board determines the budget. The board put worked to put together the strategic plan. The board uh has approved uh organizational changes and and structural changes that are that are beginning to have impact. uh the some of the tough questions are that are asked have resulted in course changes and cohorts and and other things um and again there's more work to be

196done but I just want to say uh thank you to the full team thinking about u the teaching and learning team as a whole everybody that's been involved uh very very impressed and thank you >> yeah good job Okay. >> Oh, >> just want to make sure. Um, member Mikeo, that does conclude our uh agenda. >> Thank you everyone. Have a good night.