001Oh, yes. I will mute. >> Perfect. Now we can hear. Yeah. >> She's driving. >> Well, we're good to go. She can hear us and whenever she needs to um speak, she can um pipe in and we'll acknowledge her. So, chair, we are ready to go. Greetings and welcome to the November monthly committee of the whole meeting. And we're calling this meeting to order at 4:38. I will hand it over to the assistant superintendent. >> We have to >> Oh, never mind. Clerk, may we have roll call, please? Of course, Madam Chair. Uh, member Banks >> here. >> Chair Durer here. Member Laughler >> here. >> Member Lo >> here. >> I am member Mikeall. I'm here. Member Saddowski here and member Williams is excused. Superintendent Maggus >> present. >> Assistant Superintendent Bonds >> present.
002>> And Secretary Brown >> here. >> Roll call is complete. Thank you for that gentle reminder. Now it [snorts] is time I will turn it over to Assistant Superintendent Bonds. >> Thank you. Um but first I would like to acknowledge and say congratulations to our four school board members. So let's give them a round of applause for winning another election. [applause] As for you also Amber um sorry member Saddowski congratulations. Um so thank you everyone and um tonight uh we are really excited about our presentation for a cow. We have in the audience um with us today we have many administrators mostly our principles uh with us today. Um we are excited about that because they will be sharing um some information will be shared um about um their schools and performance and how we're
003strategically uh engaging in efforts that will improve student outcomes and how we do that in a real strategic and systemic way. Um that's going to be a presentation that's going to be provided by individuals who I will allow Director Sparts to come on up and introduce um them and and the presentation. So, uh, Director Spots, if you want to come on up and introduce, um, our guest speakers who would then take the lead. >> First of all, I was thinking maybe principal introduce. >> Absolutely. >> So, good evening. Um, I think the first thing we need to do is have all of our special guests, school leaders, introduce themselves. If you are not familiar with all of them, I thought it'd be a chance to get a face with a name and a school. And
004we'll start right here. Hi, I'm Nathan Anderson, principal at Stow Elementary. >> Hello, I'm Carrie Thompson, principal at Laura MacArthur. Katie Britain, principal at Pedmont Elementary. >> Eve Hesser, principal at LOL Elementary. Lisa Nicholson, principal at Myers Wilkins Elementary. >> Darren Sheldon, principal at Lakewood. Kathy Kush Marshall, principal at Congden Park. >> Nathan Gloley, principal at the Area Learning Center and academic excellence online. Jacob Pinsula, principal at the Karen Treatment Sites, which are Chester Academy, Rockidge Academy, Merrick Creek Academy, Superior Academy, Arrowhead Academy, and Bethany Crisis Shelter. Tom Tusken, principal at Denfel High School. >> Good evening everybody. I'm Kelly Floy, principal at East High School. >> Kristen Kennedy Anderson, principal at Ordin East. >> We are missing three principles. Um Anna Kauut, Lester Park had a prior commitment tonight. Um Tom Kauut um at
005Homecraftoft is out of the country and uh Brian Casmir is with Jen Larva uh presenting at a conference. I forget what town they're in even >> actually. So they're they're presenting at the uh Amaly conference which is the national middle school conference and they're presenting on the model schedule that we have. So it's a really great uh exemplar getting out there and promoting for us and I think it's in Indianapolis. >> Oh yeah. Yeah. And they're doing that tomorrow. So that's kind of exciting. Um I am going to have you three come up and join me. So, tonight we're going to be talking about MTSS. Um, which I know we've talked about this plenty of times before, but MTSS is simply us having in place multi-layered supports for kids beginning in the classroom, how we
006intervene with struggling kids, and then intensive supports such as special education usually lives in that area. And so how do we have these layers in place for ourselves in a very um systematic way? And so uh we've been working on that for a long time, but we do have a focus on it right now. Um, as you know, we we got the grant last spring and then we were able to hire a couple people that just solely they don't solely um they do curriculum instruction, but also 40% of their job is dedicated to the Minnesota MTSS model. And so it's going really well with that. Um, their job is through the lens of continuous improvement and working with the CITs, the school leadership teams. And [snorts] so, um, that's what we're going to be sharing
007with you is the work that the CITs have done in identifying goals aligned to the district. And I'm going to go ahead and let you guys introduce yourselves. Good evening. I'm Duzman. Um, my role has slightly changed now. I am now overseeing MTSS within elementary and then curriculum and instruction within elementary. Hi, I'm Julie Stabber. I am the secondary academic MTSS/curriculum instruction coordinator. >> So, and I'm Todd McGawan. I am the SEB, so social emotional behavioral coordinator. Um, and I have been here before to talking about PBS. So, it's nice to be back. Okay. So, we are here to give you an update um of the action card, an overview of what we're working on for this particular action card. Um we are working uh on the implementation of the MN MTSS model through MDE
008and the the MNM MTS model MTSS model is a little different than reg regular MTSS because it um includes the five different components and the five co components of the M andM MTSS model are the infrastructure for continuous improvement family and community engagement, multi-layered practices and supports, assessment and database decisionmaking. So the goal of all of this is to braid our initiatives under these components. uh here at DUTH the last few years um they have um worked through the semidl and the semidt is uh an evaluation of our own um implementation practices our own um initiatives and uh you can see in 2023 there there's the numbers from the self- evaluation and then 2024 you can see they dipped a little it and that was because people started to know a little bit more about
009it and and they could be a little more critical. And then in 2025, we're hoping things have kind of leveled out and we've learned more and then uh we are specifically working on various things uh to raise all of those components. Uh this year we are specifically focusing on five different things. The first one is our leadership team. Uh we're also looking at tier one instruction, literacy, PBIS, and collaboratively linked teams. So these are the focus areas for our action plan. Um just to clarify, so when we're talking about tier one, you've probably heard the phrase teacher clarity in the past. That's something that we've been working on. Um, so when we're talking about tier one within this action card, we're specifically talking about teacher clarity and that process of making sure that students are
010aware of what is the um the intended learning of the lesson and how will they be successful in that learning. So the first focus area that we wanted to talk about is our MTSS leadership team. This year we added this is a new team for the district to our teaming structure. This team will meet monthly. We've already had two meetings so far. And this is the team that's going to be responsible for overseeing M&MTSS implementation for our district. We'll be monitoring the five focus areas that you just saw that Julie went over. For each of those, we're going to work together as a team to uh collect data, [snorts] set set goals first on those areas, collect data according to those goals, and then analyze that data as a team as a systemwide um perspective.
011So, we'll be thinking about like the first one, literacy. We met um last month. We had a meeting to talk about what what are our goals in literacy? where are we at K12? Which isn't something that while I've been here, we've really taken a step back and thought about what's happening K12. Um, so now this month we'll be some we'll be collecting some data around literacy and then uh at the end of the month we'll get a chance as a team to really dive into uh literacy practices K12. deep into question. >> Just a quick question. Uh and maybe if you're going to go over it, just tell me that. But so who is all a part of these teams? Not not names, but just generally. >> No, that's a great question. Thank you. Um
012we have the superintendent, assistant superintendent. We have all of the directors attending those meetings. Um we have the assistant director of special services all of the principles that come from our identified schools through um ESSA and then Todd is on that team as well. So that we're also covering the um social emotional behavioral side. Uh Julie and I facilitate that meeting. >> Um so for >> Sorry. Thank you. I'm I'm just wondering at what point uh we should be asking questions. So should we um let the presentation >> if we can then ask >> that would be ideal as to wait until the end. >> Okay, I'll wait until the end. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> Um so for PBS we have continually been in a oh we have continually been in this state
013of uh implementation. Um, so in 2023, we started to complete something called the climate survey where we offer a blanket survey to all of our staff, children, and families. Um, so that we're taking a temperature of what that daily experience looks like. Um, this is the second year in a row where we've completed uh what we call bookends. So we're taking a sample in the fall and then again in the spring to monitor and and take a look at what how are we growing. Um there are two, you know, primary tools that we use. One is the climate survey which is once again staff, student and then families and then something called a tiered fidelity inventory uh where we're taking uh samples of what uh and how our teameing structures in each of our buildings
014work uh as far as the staff doing the the groundwork um uh to address behavior uh to make sure that students are growing uh through that social emotional lens. Um and then setting actionable steps to increase the daily uh experience of of our students and families. Um the other piece that we continue to focus on is uh what's called tier 2 implementation. Um which takes a look at how we're responding to uh behavioral concerns in all of our buildings. But at this point, we're we're still monitoring and looking at uh fidelity of universal interventions um so that all of our kids are getting those social emotional scoops. >> Um one of the other areas is the collaboratively linked teams. We're really focusing in on continuous improvement teams which is our uh school leadership teams and
015[snorts] professional learning communities which our grade level teams or department teams at the secondary. Um this year those teams have kind of a big undertaking. Normally at this meeting, we would come to you with school improvement plans complete completed. Um the state of Minnesota is moving to a different process for those school improvement plans. Instead of having them ready at the start of the school year and then following that plan throughout the year, they want us to slow things down and take more time to really analyze the data uh at the school level. So this year, CITs will be conducting a year-long comprehensive needs assessment that's aligned to some state identified questions. Julie and I are supporting those school leadership teams with this process. They'll take the year to make sure they have all the
016data they need, analyze that data, and then at the end of the year, they will [snorts] create their school improvement plan, which will guide their work as a team for multiple years. And they're really going to focus in on one evidence-based practice that they will as a school team um monitor the implementation of. for their whole site. So, that process looks very different than it has in the past, which is why tonight we're not coming to you with um principles that have completed school improvement plans. Um instead, they're going to take their time this year to really dive into that data and be thoughtful about what should that action plan look like. That being said, they will continue to work on their literacy goal. we have to have a literacy goal for the teacher um
017development and evaluation plan. So, um they will in a little bit um be available for questions, but at the end of the presentation here, we've listed all of those goals. They'll continue that great work that they've already been doing while they're doing the con the comprehensive needs assessment. So, it's not like they're stopping everything for a year. I just want to make sure I clarify that they're not stopping all of the great things that they're doing at their sites. They're just taking a little bit more time this year to really think through what are the needs of the site and what does the action plan look like to address those needs. >> And I'm just going to add a little bit. Dale's used to me doing that. Um it's a three-year cycle and it aligns
018with the identification cycle. So I think back in August or September we uh had a presentation for you on the identified schools and the historicals of that. Um this is year one of that cycle. That's why it's a year-long process of the um comprehensive needs assessment which will lead into year two and year three. Um at the end of year three that's when we have an identification again. So, I just want you this is part of the cycle um of that three-year process. So, this graphic um was a brainchild of Brenda's. This came out of in August we had a continuous improvement team retreat. Um, so we brought in all of the school continuous improvement teams and worked with them for the day to start getting them set up for success for this year as
019they get started with their meetings and the um, comprehensive needs assessments. And something we talked a lot about with them is that we have all of these great things as adults that we're doing. What does that translate into as far as student outcomes? So, as we were having that conversation, Brenda created this great graphic that shows all of the things that we've really been focusing on a district, which are all adult behaviors. And our theory of action there is that with all of these great things that we're doing as adults, that's going to translate into positive impact on student outcomes. So, we're we're as a system, we're starting to slowly move away from always setting goals that are student achievement goals and because it's great to have that, but how are we going to get
020there and really starting to think about what are the adult actions that we're going to put in place to be able to reach those student outcomes. Um so on this graphic we've starred the um the adult behaviors that the MTSS uh leadership team will be monitoring. Those are the things that we'll be collecting data on and analyzing and then adjusting our plan as we go along. The ones that are not starred will be monitored by other principal uh teams like the instructional leadership teams or principal plus That being said, um we for the teacher development in the evaluation plan, we do have to have goals that outline student achievement scores. So, I'm not sure if you've seen this before for this year, but this is this year's district goal. Um, and just like we did
021last year, we've tiered out that goal so that all of our teachers can see themselves in that goal. Before we had one goal for kindergarten through 12th grade and that often was we felt difficult for everyone to be able to see the role that they played in achieving that gold goal. So last year, um, director Sparts and director Larva took time to really tear this out so that um, each of those those grade level bands can see themselves in the goals. And I wanted to make sure we talked about this because as you're looking at the individual site goals, uh quite a few of the elementary sites chose to follow this model and they tiered out their goals so that their teachers could really see themselves in that goal and that data. Um and so
022as you look at those goals, you'll see some of them with an asterisk behind it. And that's just letting you know that we we just summarized those tiered goals, but there are there are um individualized goals based on grade level bands. When you're taking a look at the elementary goals, um you'll notice that all of the elementary schools made sure to use um assessments that are evidence-based that the state of Minnesota has approved and made sure are valid and reliable. Those are our fastbridge assessments or the MCA's, the state standardized test. Um, like I said, some of those schools chose to tier their goals just like the district's goal. So, you'll see some of those up there that have an asterisk as after them for that purpose. >> And there is a >> there is
023a link to those tiers as well for the elementary. The secondary goals we have, it's a combination. We have um some of the sites are are focused on some of those standardized student outcome um tests. Uh and then some of them are focused on adult behaviors because we've been talking a lot about adult behaviors. So, some of the secondary sites decided to write their literacy goal based on the adult behaviors that they were looking for. So, we have a combination of some that are using those standardized tests, assessments, and then some that are um just focused on adult behaviors in order to achieve higher student outcomes. the uh just as a the ALC AEO um goal is was updated [clears throat] since we submitted the presentation. So this is the goal that has been updated.
024They they wanted to take a little bit of a deeper dive into their data >> [snorts] >> um so that they could they could write this goal instead. So this is different than what the hard copy is that you have. >> Any questions? >> And we do have our principles in the back in case you have any sight specific questions for them as well. They knew that they needed to come prepared to answer any questions. >> Thank you and uh really appreciate that. And so um want to say thank you to the team for working on this and our principles. And just to you know as you see in the documents that schools are focused on uh identifying goals to improve reading outcomes for kids, math outcome for kids, focused on uh improving the social
025emotional needs of students whether it's improving attendance and all of the above right and and improving graduation rates and so forth. So those things are a part of what we do. And so the framing of things through the Minnesota MTSS process is the approach, the strategic approach that we are using to get there. And I want to thank the team for um laying that out. But I want to make sure the board is aware of how are all of these things connected and how are we pulling um all of the levers um to improve student [clears throat] outcomes because we have not lost sight of that. We know it's important to use data. We know it's important to involve our students. We know at the end of the day it comes down to the staff
026we have inabilities and how they collaborate and work together. Whether it's our principles working with each other, whether it's our teachers working in collaborative teams with each other to, you know, discuss units of study, discuss what they're going to do to improve uh instruction in a classroom for those students, whatever the room may be, um that they have to work together. we as a district have provided time for them to do so in our professional development opportunities um where they can receive ongoing coaching and support and training on a variety of things. So there's a lot of things that we're doing as a district to again improve outcomes and I want to thank the team and the principles are here to uh field questions as um you know as as you request but we'll start
027off with member banks um with your first question. >> Thank you very much. So, as I was reading this, um, I'm going to ask you to please tell me a little bit more about the multi-tiered practices and supports. But before you do that, I'm going to ask, um, what does all of this look like as it relates to our diverse learners in the district? Uh, what does that look like for them? uh what types of culturally relevant or significant educational resources uh are you using to adequately adequately educate our diverse learners. Um I'm very concerned about that, very interested in knowing what you're using uh because um uh everything needs to be culturally relevant and significant. And so I'd like to find out what's being done in our schools. And I'm asking these questions. I'm
028addressing it that way uh as it relates to cultural relevant educational uh opportunities in all of our schools for all of our kids. And I just like to know what kind of tools you're using. Thank you. >> I think I can speak to a couple of them, but anyone else jump in. Um, first within literacy. Um, I really appreciate that the new Minnesota State standards has standards specifically written within them that address um, students reading works from multiple perspectives, culturally diverse perspectives and having then to discuss and um, really dive into those pieces of literature. I know at the secondary level we've incorporated some new resources that are updated and aren't 30 years old that have those texts in them. Um, we just during our uh professional development day on Monday with our elementary teachers,
029we had elementary teachers diving into texts that were from the Ojiway perspective and then having to have conversations about how they would use those in the classroom, how they would talk about those Ojiway perspectives um because that's part of the standards. Another thing that we I'm also excited about when we're looking at that new comprehensive needs assessment, there are questions in that comprehensive needs assessment that sites are really going to have to wrestle with that speak directly to that. One of them specifically is what does the teaching staff look like in your school and does it reflect the demographics of the students at your school? Um, another one is what are the supports in place for all of your student groups so that we're not that that's why I'm excited about them going through the
030whole year-long process because it really is going to force our sites to grapple with some of these tougher conversations and look at what the data really is saying. Just one addition, one addition in um we are also, you know, we uh there are new ELA standards that Dale mentioned um which address culturally relevant um topics for um our teachers and students. the other we had the cultural competency um PD just the other day with uh Ricky White for the secondary site and he's coming back again on in December for everybody in the secondary schools. Um and I know that each each site is working on culturally culturally relevant um initiatives as well. I'm gonna move it closer. Um, but one of the things that we have been focusing on and is a part of the
031climate survey is cultural acceptance. Um, we are slowly moving from quantitative data to qualitative data where we are measuring numerically, right? Like do you feel seen? Do you feel heard? Um, are you, you know, honored in each of our buildings? The biggest lift that we have for that PBIS lens is to now get qualitative data on the richness of why or why not students are are feeling disconnected. Um, and then how does that contribute to that sense of belonging which are indicators of future achievement. >> Thank you for the clarity. I appreciate it. >> Member Laughler. just a couple general questions and thank you for ask uh answering that first question on the team that just allowed me to as you were presenting know who was a part of the whole discussion and and that
032so I appreciate that. Um you had mentioned that uh it's uh with the CIT teams that this is new um by the state and you're talking about MDE state right? Okay. Okay. And then um you also talked about district goals and reading uh and working with the teachers. Um has it been through professional development days you've gotten that buy in? Um what are how have we gotten the buy in across the district across each grade levels? >> Well, as you know, we've been doing a lot of literacy work um because it's important also because of the read act. Um we haven't had a lot of choice. It's been a good push. So, we have um a lot of our elementary specifically educators who are finishing up letters. So something that we've done within elementary this
033year is we've taken a lot of those best practices that we've learned from letters and brought that into our um English language arts curriculum, our reading curriculum, which was something specifically that those teachers asked for because they were starting to have that realization of, oh, I haven't necessarily been doing this the right way. this has been really great learning, but now how do we fit it into what we're doing in the classroom? So, um we have a really great group of teachers who are leading this work um at the elementary level and they're taking a lot of time to look at our reading curriculum and are fitting in those best practices that we learned about within letters. So there's that natural buyin that's starting to happen because the things that they've been asking for to
034to bring into the curriculum is happening because they're doing all of this learning. Does that address? >> Yep. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Amber Lo. >> Okay. >> So thank you. Thanks for all of you being here as well. It would be great, not right right this minute, but maybe a a a principal would come forward and maybe share um something about um member Banks's question like a story like an example like you know what what what has do you know has done that that would be kind of cool. Um my my two or three questions all revolve around this slide about the five action plans. So my first question is out of those five, I know that we've been doing MTSS for quite a few years and especially our elementary staff have
035really they were the first ones trained and using and and working with. Um out of those five, which one is the most new uh most new element that's now in the Minnesota MTSS that wasn't in ours? My guess would be family engagement. >> Yes, I I also think so. Someone can correct me if not, but if you actually take a look at our scores on the semidlt, I think you'll see that that's one that we've consistently ranked lower on, and it's because of that. Um, it's a newer element. The sites have all done a great job of uh focusing on how they're bringing in families and working with the community. But at the district level, that's kind of an area of need for us to be thinking about how are we doing that systematically. um
036as a district. So that's why you'll see that that score is is has generally been lower and that's a reason why we we actually are stepping into a training next week I think from Compass to start thinking about what should family and community engagement look like at the district level and then be able to support our sites. And when you connect that to how we again reach all families, especially um the diversity exists in our community, this is where that focus comes in because that's where you're going to get the stakeholder engagement. How are we really going out in the community seeking input in a variety of ways, going to families, going to different communities, trying to listen to their voices, to their stories on what they are desiring for their sons and daughters and
037and for students. Um, just know that the way MTSS, Minnesota MTSS has broken it out, it's it's really just really pulled it together and I'll say put it into buckets or just really key areas. And this is where you can find or we can find how we're going to then focus on engaging all families in a variety of ways. How we go about improving outcomes and looking again at data. Data is important. We know some of our schools have data sets that says different things. Some of our schools are our students are doing well. Some of our schools students are not. How are schools looking at that data strategically? Looking at the students who are doing well, right? The students who are either students special needs, you know, um you know, uh by gender, by
038social economic status, all of the above, right? taking a hard look at th the data and and making decisions on then who gets based on the data interventions and supports right in that layering of supports and that's where you see the multi-layered uh practices and supports that's where the interventions come in using the data to determine who should receive um supports and those you know those second and third doses of of support. So, this is just a really good system to really pull this uh together for us and and the team has been doing a really good job of walking our uh building principles and staff through this together. >> Chair Derek Eer, >> I'm sorry. >> Just again um like this year you're collecting the data. So my question for my principles would be
039are you then just going to continue with um what we have been doing in our MTSS and our teacher clarity just kind of so that the data that you collect is really based on what has been happening over these last years. I'm seeing a lot of yeses so so that the data you collect you know is kind of authentic to build on because if you're trying to address all of those five areas at the same time. Okay, good deal. And then adult behaviors. That's just a new term and I'm I'm not I'm not clicking on it. I I I don't know what that I mean I can see what you're listing as adult behaviors, but >> I don't get it. >> So here here's the deal. So when we talk about measures, MCA results, right?
040We're talking about the end result of a lot of input. we did a lot of things to get this measurement. So, we're kind of backing that up and saying proactively this is this is the outcome. So, before we get that MCA measurement, what are the things that we the teacher choices, the school choices, the district choices that we're going to make to get the biggest impact with increasing student outcomes. Because when we talk about data, we're talking about kids have or adults have already done a lot of planning, done a lot of execution, done a lot of instruction. Kids are learning and doing all these things. Then we're measuring them. So we're talking about all those things that we're going to be doing before we measure the kids having a bigger impact. So all the
041adult decisions that we put into instruction, those are important [snorts] and so we're we're kind of focusing there. >> Does that kind of resonate still? >> No, I'll know that. >> No, no problem. >> Is it is it a term that's coming out of uh you know out of the the people leading the MTSS uh at Minnesota one and and it's just you know Yeah. Okay. Mhm. Somewhat, >> you know, I I can remember all of the things that we were doing when I was in the classroom, too. All the different theories, all the different programs, and they all had their unique um you know, terms. And so I I'm getting it, but I just I just thought adult behavior. >> I'm sure it's researched somewhere as well. But it's about just um >> you
042guys know, >> it's just the practices, the behaviors, the disposition. Those are the things we're talking about when we talk about adult behaviors. like how are they thinking about kids >> when it's time for instruction? Do you consider all the kids in your classroom? >> Right? See them as human beings and and what they come with before you make that >> that instructional decision on simple thing on what book you're going to do as a readaloud or what book you're going to select in the classroom at a high school level for kids to actually um have a choice to read. You know, have you thought about those things? Those are adult behaviors or adult actions because you have to be real mindful of everything you do as an adult, as the adult in that classroom
043is going to make a difference, right? To either >> So, this is on the teacher and not not students. We're not trying to give students the the the the outcome of reaching out to adult behaviors as best we >> No, no, no. This is this is on the teacher. So, that's what teacher clarity system. I'm not this board member is not getting the clarity, but it's okay. [laughter] I I will trust all of you. I just thought it maybe would be an easier um understanding for me, but I'll >> No, and thank you for asking the question because others might have the same question like what does that mean, adult behaviors? And no, it's it's on um the decisions we make on behalf of kids, planning for them >> and making sure that we're capturing
044all the kids and we have all these um resources that are culturally like we're putting all of this into our system and that's a lot of decisions being made at the school levels, >> at curriculum instruction level. Um, so yeah, teacher level, >> if you don't mind, I can >> Magnus then, uh, Chair Derk Eater, >> can I elaborate on this because it's it's a connection. Um, so so as we were saying, it it's really about what is it that we as staff members, what is it that we as teachers are doing differently to impact kids? thinking about what is within our individual sphere of influence because I think some sometimes historically people have blamed other factors. Oh, if the if the parents were more involved or if our kids weren't so poor or x
045y or z. But we want to see what is it that instructionally we're going to do differently in the classroom. What is it behaviorally we're going to do differently in the classroom? Those are the adult practices or the adult behaviors that if they change, that's what tips that teeter totter. And so, uh, and really it's all of us. And thinking about the work we do, we've we've talked about the the strategic plan being from classroom to boardroom and boardroom to classroom. Our behaviors matter, too. So what h and and what happens through this structure is an individual teacher will change their practice of how they're teaching kids so that they'll have different outcomes. Then they go to a professional learning community where they all work together and talk about what is it that we're doing?
046How are we changing our behaviors and our practices so the outcomes are different for kids? And then those PLC's, professional learning communities are reporting up to the continuous learning teams. They talk about as a school, how are we changing? What do we need for professional learning? Let's talk to the district about what we're doing too and what we need. And then we as as district administration have to shift how our practices are better serving the kids and better serving the schools and better serving the uh the PLC's and continuous improvement teams. Then we need to take it to you as a school board and say this is our strategic plan. this is the new curriculum that we want to adopt or this is what we're doing professional learning or this is how we want to
047align our budget with the needs through the system and then you change policy you you set the budget and you have adult behaviors that then support what the schools what the district is doing and what the schools are doing and what the teacher individual teachers are doing to impact the the students. So, it's that through line up and down the organization. And I am so proud of our leaders and our staff and our students and us as a board that we have a strategic plan in place that does that. And this is this is where the rubber meets the road and practices really start to change. We're seeing outcomes with better graduation rates and better student outcomes. But I really believe that this is this is just the beginning that this is going to uh
048once you have that throughine of supportive supportive accountability uh we can we can change the way that we we work with with kids and the way we work as adults so that we have better outcomes for for all of our kids. Chair Derk Eater. >> Um, I just wanted to compliment I love the change of lens instead of we constantly talk about measuring kids and we never measure I mean I don't never is you know what I mean we we rarely measure ourselves as adults. So I I'm I think this is a great idea and then I think um it is a it's [snorts] as you teach as you know as you grow in your craft as you're a teacher it allows you to measure yourself. How are your practices impacting? How am I changing
049this? And I think it is a great way um for us as a district to take responsibility for the learning that our kids happens. We look at MCAs and we want to say, oh, this number of kids didn't pass or this number. Um I just love that lens change. I love measuring what we're doing in the classroom to see the impact and then having goals that are talking about the adults and what we're doing as opposed to what the kids are doing. So I I think this is just a fantastic way to look at it. So thank you for this work >> and member Loa, thank you for the question because you know with the team they know one of the things I keep always bringing up is how are we going to explain this
050not only to the board but more importantly how we're going to explain this Minnesota MTSS thing to the community and to our families who are saying my kid isn't graduating on time or my kid is still reading um below grade level. What are you actually doing to improve outcomes? And so, um, your question and really helps us continue to clarify, uh, that answer and just get some gain some clarity and how are we going to approach that with our community, right? Because if our board is having great questions, we know families are going to be asking, you know, how are you really doing this? Member Mike and then member Laughler. >> Yeah, thanks everyone for being here. Um I'm pleased to see our district goal has had some word smithing um to state that they're
051going to make we're going to make incremental progress every year. Um because when I look back at our 2024 comprehensive achievement and civic res readiness report and the goals that we had there, it was very much like by next year every kid will be reading on grade level. And I always found that to be almost as heartening because recognizing if we have some schools or some um portions of our school community that are struggling to go from, you know, a very low percentage to a high percentage in one year um and then feeling like you failed because that was an unrealistic goal to have. So, um I appreciate that we're fine-tuning that process and um I'm hopeful to actually hear from our principles who have taken some of their time tonight um to be with
052us so that we're not just staring at you in a fishbowl. Um to hear a little bit more about the process at your sites um and how you're leading the staff, the support you're receiving. um to hear if this is something I imagine that literacy is always the goal and has always been the goal for all of the time that we've had schools. Um so this isn't necessarily like rocket science new um but it's obviously a different lens than has been happened um previously and so just uh would love to hear from someone um a little bit more about your experience at your site. So, we'll give them a couple minutes to think about it while we take uh member >> I will have two other questions. Oh, you do? Okay. But but we can
053do this first. >> Well, that'll give them time even more time to uh think about uh coming on up. So, your questions, member Mike, and then I'll come over to you. >> I'll I'll go ahead and say this so that um someone might be able to keep this within their comments. Um wondering um what other outside factors obviously we're doing a lot of training for our staff. We're doing a lot of support um from the administrative level to our principles trying to roll these things out. Um but things that aren't necessarily involved in curriculum or instructional changes, things like classroom sizes, things like um you know, our kids being coming to school ready, being fed, those kind of things. if you're seeing any other kind of um outside influences that are possibly making it easier
054to do this or making it more difficult to do this. I would love to hear if anyone has that kind of a comment. Um and then before I forget, um executive assistant Brown, if we could upload, um the updated slideshow because the ALCAO um goal is still shows the old one on board. >> Okay, thank you. I'm done. Nathan >> Nathan Ki um principal >> actually the old goal is actually the new goal. We were just kind of ahead of the curve because we wanted to implement adult behaviors now rather than wait till the end of the year. And so we actually got a head start to it, but we had to change it just because we were supposed to kind of wait for, you know, that process to unfold. But we figured why wait
055to help kids if we know what they need right now. And so that's why that goal has changed. It's actually the appropriate goal to be in there. Uh so just for clarification um so what we did um just this past Monday is um been working with Denfeld and with East and we're implementing a PLC with our school within a school at East our school within a school at Denfeld and our school and our seatbased program at the ALC. And the reason why we're doing that is because if we can stop a student from failing at the traditional site, then they're not going to have to come to the ALC to make up credit recovery. And so trying to flip that triangle to make it more manageable so that, you know, we're not having to deal
056with so many kids needing credit recovery. And so that's, you know, an adult behavior that everybody is doing, collaborating with Denfeld, with East um to, you know, intervene early on when kids are failing. And so how this will play out, you'll take a kid who was taking English 10 at East and so they fail. Um what can we do first quarter um as grades are just getting um posted so that they don't have to wait until summer school to take up and make up a class. And so we're partnering with them and in providing content and curriculum so that a student can catch up what they missed in first quarter and then continue in their second quarter and then pass the class. Okay. And so it's very disheartening if a kid has, you know, four
057fails at first quarter. Like what's the point? And that's when kids really disengage. And so early intervention is key. And so that's just one way we're partnering with with the high schools. And like I said, we didn't want to wait until next year to do it. Let's do it now and work out some of the kinks so we can help kids be successful right now. So that's an example. I'm going to call on somebody to come up here. Uh Mr. [clears throat] Anderson, you want to come on up? Mr. Anderson is doing something really cool at his school and it's kind of um ahead of other schools doing this uh where they're um saturating grade levels uh during the day um for intervention practices. But I'll let you talk about that. >> All right. Thank
058you. Um, so just answering of one of the questions I I think it was you that asked about um about how we're digesting the our improvement. We look at that. We love that tiered approach and our CIT team really looks at that and then we look at our data specifically and then we just really chew on that and then we come up with well this seems reasonable for us. So it's really seems manageable and that's really positive for our teachers. um because in the past it has been so unrealistic like all students are going to be performing at grade level. Um so that's been really helpful and then we can look back and uh see progress or growth and that's been really positive. So that's been really appreciated from a uh elementary setting I know.
059Um but what our team is doing right now a big school improvement effort is we're doing an all hands-on approach to help support our readers. We have what we call win time in our schools. Uh what I need, we have a reading win. And traditionally what we've been doing is having our special ed teachers pull special ed students out. We've had our title teachers pulling students out. Um and then the gen ed teachers are doing small groups with the students left behind. But what we're doing is really assessing all the kids at the same grade level. And we have our special ed teachers, title teachers, reading interventionists, and then uh even a parah and general ed teachers. We're looking at the kids what what they truly need, breaking them up, and we aren't categorizing them
060as title students, as special ed students, and then we're dividing them truly by what they need. So, we have six to seven adults going into a grade level and we're really getting some nice small groups and we're seeing some real positive gains with that. Um, and teachers are excited. We started piloting this last year with our fifth grade group. Um, and we saw just with that grade, we saw with that cohort, we saw 16% of our students move to um achieving on the MCAs, which is a big improvement. uh teachers see that and everyone else wanted to start doing that. So now we're going sixth or fifth grade down through kindergarten with all that approach. And I know Dale was at her site yesterday and we're just processing how things are going. And uh I
061have to say I'm really proud and and I know our school is super excited to do our winter monitoring just to see the growth that we've made um kindergarten through fifth grade. >> Great. The one thing I have to say about that meeting, I came away with one quote that really stood out to me. Um, the teachers were talking about how it no longer feels like these are your students or these are your students. It now feels like these are all of our students. Um, and that came out of a teacher and that that was my biggest takeaway truly the just the seeing the team collaboration and all of them coming together and talking about students. I'm really excited as well to see what that data looks like. Um, and and just the growth that's
062gonna happen at Stow because of this model. >> I want to make sure um I will go to member Lim then. >> Thank you. Thank you again. Uh those were great examples and it made me think that when uh principles when we start setting up our intentional visits that we we've started the last couple years and um we we gave you a couple months here to get into the school year before we started doing that. But um it'll be great to have you touch on some examples like this while we're we're out there on any of these areas that you want to celebrate with us or uh share with us. Um I I had uh one question about this whole list and and the first one that had to go with high school grading and
063assessment and I was just curious as part of that is to make sure it's consistent. you teachers and staff are consistently grading across the district similar. Is that a big piece of that? >> So this year uh I I I know that they've done some work on grading and assessment in the past. This year we have developed a a task force and um the task force is really just at the very beginning stages. Uh there was a survey last year. The task force got together and examined that data and tried to find um some some of the themes that were coming out of that. Uh and then through discussion we they started looking at you know what's our next step? what what what could we possibly do next to kind of start bringing some of
064these things together because what it really showed was a lot of inconsistencies. So, um they said number one, we need better data uh and so and more data. So they wanted to we create worked on a a survey and so we shared some of the findings you know just the general ideas that were coming out of the first survey uh and then prepared a survey that we could get some more specific data and then we have another meeting coming up where we're going to start looking at this now that we can kind of decipher it a little bit better uh and start um diving into the research about grading and assessment. what are the best practices and what what is our next step as a task force? What can we recommend so that we can
065have more consistency across the board? Okay, >> great. Thank you. And I know on other things on this list, we've already had a number of cow presentations on uh so uh for principles if you don't know, we we've heard about all of these uh in different cow u meetings over the last few months and that so um that that was just one I I hadn't remembered getting an update on recently. Um the the only other quick question right now I have was also around family and community engagement and you know that's something that's I've done a lot of work on as well and my hats with the PTA and uh statewide and that and so I I'm just I will just be curious in getting more updates on what um what is that going to
066look like that's different uh what is it going to look what what researchbased models are you going to be using uh and Um, what kind of community supports are we going to uh work continue to work with? I know we work with many already, but so that one will be one I'll be very interested in uh getting a lot of updates on and I know it's going to look different at every school. Um, and I have all the confidence and faith in our uh principles and and uh different groups that they're working with in the schools that it will uh look different based on the needs of each school. But I guess I just want to lift that one up for wanting more information on. >> No problem. And that's going to come to you
067in February. So look for a presentation on uh family engagement in February. Sure. >> Super Maggus. >> Of course. Right. No, I I just wanted to uh offer it up to our principles again. There's lots of great great great work being done in our schools and we had a couple of great examples, but uh if there was anybody else that wants wants to share something that they're doing at their sites, uh we're we're more than glad to hear. So, feel free to step on up. Hi, Eve Hesser, principal at LOL. Um we had an experience last spring where we did this day in the life and we followed um maybe four special education students throughout the whole day and kind of grafted and collected data on what their day looked like. There were some kind
068of eyeopening takeaways, but the biggest one was that a lot of our special education students are not kind of [snorts] cognitively participating in the grade level instruction. Like they're there, we've made it a big point for them to be there, but they're not able to access that grade level instruction. So this year um with some of the changes in scheduling, we dropped our win times to just 30 minutes, which is like intervention time, which opened up a bunch of chunks of time for our intervention team. And so now they're really pushing in for, you know, 20 maybe 30 minute chunks of time and they're sitting with, you know, in the whole classroom and they're sitting with special education students and helping them engage in whatever the the classroom teacher is teaching. And we had um
069just the other day um one of the interventionists, she's going to be going through her um evaluation coming up and she mentioned that this student because she's working with her supporting her during writing every day. The student wrote a whole page and when she told me that I I just got goosebumps. And then later on near the end of the day that teacher sent came with the student to me and the student showed me her um her page writing that she did and she was so proud and the teacher was back there in the background and you know it was one of our American Indian students. So, you know, it just trying to engage our special education students in that grade level instruction is just kind of like this huge eyeopening thing that I think
070we're all trying to do and this is just a small way that we're attempting to to do that. I will say that the splits at LOL make it very very difficult. Um and a split means we have second and third graders in one classroom and fourth and fifth graders in one classroom. So trying to get the fourth graders the same amount of instruction and the fifth graders the same amount of instructional time is difficult. We also have the interventionists are are trying to support during that time too. So kids with the teachers with the fourth graders, the interventionists are supporting fifth graders to keep learning grade level things because they're not super independent. Um and then with so this the splits make it difficult. Also we have some class sizes that make it difficult as
071I know um some other places do but the languages also make it difficult because we have three languages going on. But this year, something really cool um are in in our Masabe Kong program, it's really difficult to do phmic awareness cuz they're they've created everything they have in [snorts] the Ojiway language isn't as easy to play around with the phone names. So we have a the interventionist pushing into Msabi Kong and she's doing um about 10 to 15 minutes of English phmic awareness. So the kids are working on um phmic awareness with the words they know and then um and then the um sadic teacher is then doing it in Ojib way. So they're familiar with your routines, with the language they understand, and then they can make those connections with Ojiway. So a lot
072of that feels good and it's also really hard and but the staff is they're willing to try new things which is a big adult behavior change. >> So Abra camp and just to follow up, Evo, you're here. H how many split classes do you have at uh LOL? >> Four. So, four different classrooms. >> Yeah, there's a second and third grade Spanish, a second and third grade English, a second and third grade MSAD Kong, and a fourth and fifth grade English. The the one of the Msave Kongs is because we couldn't find a teacher. >> Okay. So, thank you for that. One of my children was in a split class, so I'm very familiar how it works. And it was great experiences both her years, just to let you know, not at low, but at
073a different school. Um I um let's see. I had one other question uh for you. Um I can't find it right now. So thank you. Thank you. I can't wait to come and visit. See no additional lights on. I want to um I'll give it over to the team to do a closing or >> Yeah. I mean, we just appreciate you all coming um this evening. Um we're usually alone here, so this is awesome. [laughter] Um and um it's just yeah, so when you go um please do ask a lot of questions of our schools. Each one of them is doing very unique programming according to the kids sitting in their classrooms and um it's just it's really impressive to see all the efforts going on in the schools. >> Thank you. Thank you everyone.
074Just just a huge thank you all for being here and and um some of us have had a lot of opportunity to be out talking to a lot of parents um at their homes over the last few months and um lots of great things have been heard about the good start of school this year and about um how things are going in our schools. So just a a huge thank you for being here but also for what we're hearing out at the ways we've been out in the community. [snorts] So thank you [applause] >> chair. I would like to Oh, go ahead. I see people moving. >> Yeah, we can just Can we just take a minute? >> Nope, no problem. >> Okay.