October 7, 2025 at 4:30 PM - Monthly Committee of the Whole Board Meeting

001Welcome to the October monthly committee of the whole board meeting and please excuse us for being a few minutes late today. We appreciate your p your patience and we will now call this meeting to order and I'll turn it over to the clerk for roll call. Member Banks. Chair Durker >> here. >> Member Laughler Kim >> here. >> Member Loel >> here. >> I am member Mike Selen here. Member Sidowski >> here. >> Member Williams. >> Superintendent Maggus >> present. >> Assistant Superintendent Bonds >> here. >> Uh executive assistant Brown. >> Roll call is complete. Great. And we'll now turn it over to Assistant Superintendent Bonds for the remainder of the meeting. Thank you, chair. I would also like to uh pull a quick audible by introducing someone new to the district and our team.

002Is that okay? Um I would like to bring to the table um and when you come, sir, please turn on the mic, Mr. Nathan Chapman. He is our director of community education and he joined us uh probably a little bit over almost a month at this point in time. So, just want to uh welcome to the district. he can introduce himself and tell us a little bit about yourself. Um so welcome. >> Thank you. Um so I'm actually in week five. It's been five weeks already. Um no come come to the district with 20 plus years of community ed experience um overseeing tons of different programs specifically really a lot of youth programming which I think is kind of the direction we really want to go is increasing our youth programming. So, um, my wife

003and I have five kiddos at home do foster care. So, our youngest two are still in in foster care, but moving towards permanency. So, I've got an 11-year-old, a nine-year-old, a six-year-old, a 14-month-old, and a 10week old. So, the oldest four are girls, and the little one's a boy. So, that's kind of the quick version of me. Welcome. >> Yay. We welcome you to our district and we're so excited to see all the service that you do to our community members and to our district. So, thank you so much for being here today. >> Thank you. Next up, I would like to bring up to the table uh our director of elementary schools, Brenda Sparts. She has several teachers uh with her and other leaders. So, I'll um let Brenda do the introductions. uh director

004Sparts >> and I'm bringing the principles up with me. So, principal Lisa Nicholson and then Eve Hler, the principal of LOL. They're going to be sitting up here with me. Um there's a mic over there for you and yes, so we have several guests here and I am going to let them introduce themselves. >> Good afternoon. My name is Brianna Kamargo and I am a second and third grade teacher in the Spanish immersion program. >> Hello. I'm Charlie Alvarez. I'm a fourth grade teacher at um Myers Wilkins Spanish immersion. >> Uh Gabriela Ty, coordinator for the program and interventionist for both schools. >> I'm Megan Bennett. I teach second grade at Myers Wilkins, also in the NVSI program. >> Hi, I am Glenda Lour. I do third grade also at Myers Wilkin in Mertion. >>

005Hi, I'm Alisandre B. I teach fifth grade at Myers Wilkins in the NVSI program. >> Okay, thank you so much and I thank them for coming. Um, this just shows their level of dedication to the programming. And on a side note, all of them uh when we did the adjustment to moving some of the sections from LOL to Myers Wilkins, they volunteered to go to Myers Wilkins. And so they are on this journey with us and I just have appreciated their advocacy um and everything that goes with the move. So anyway, and getting to know them better. So I appreciate you guys being here. Um all right, so we'll start um the presentation. It is an update of like our current reality of where we are with the Myers Wilkins um Spanish immersion program. I

006did include a little bit about LOL because it impacts LOL. Uh but really this is specifically about Meyers Wilkins. Um I'm we'll go through all of the information and then I'm just maybe we can ask questions at the end. There are there's a lot of information in here. So I might answer it as we go. If I don't then please feel free to like ask me. And then we have lots of experts in here. I don't have all the answers. They do. and these two. Um, okay. So, last year we presented in a few different ways, numerous ways, goals for relocating six Spanish immersion classrooms from LOL to Meyers. Uh, we cited more opportunities to expand direct access to Spanish immersion program for diverse students within the Myers Wilkins attendance area. ease overcrowding for LOL.

007We we since I got here, we've been talking about the overcrowding at LOL and we had to do something and so um this was uh the solution that we ended up on and then strengthening school integration. We know that we were identified Myers Wilkins was as racially identifiable school by the state of Minnesota. Um with that came, as you're super familiar with the ANI plan, there are goals specific for Meyers. One of them is making progress towards integration. And so this was a step where we could make some progress towards that goal. So with those three things in mind, increased access, more Myers Wilkins students are now attending the program in their neighborhood school. When I did an analysis of all the enrollment last year, 28.2% of IND district transfers were from Myers Wilkins. So

008Meyers Wilkins students were leaving that attendance area. They were going up to LOL and attending the Spanish immersion. Um, which is the highest percentage by the way of any school of any transfer. Um, this year, just as a comparison, 44% of our incoming kinders at Meyers are from the Meyers community. So, it's a higher percentage in that kindergarten class than we usually have from the Meyers attendance area. Now, is it because of the relocation? I do not know. I haven't surveyed them, but that's just quite a difference. So, I thought that might be um something for you guys to know. Um, relieved overcrowding. So, LOL, we decreased their enrollment by 149 students and I pulled this October 2nd is when I got the numbers um from um Educ and then of course Meyers gained 149

009students. Um so, and then LOL right now has 485 students which is more on par with Congden and Homecraftoft. I think they're all within 20 students now of each other. Um and then Meyers is around the same with 462. I like to say we balanced enrollment with this move, which we did. Um, now many of our our schools are 450 to 475ish in there somewhere. Um, so and then Eve could speak to um the less crowding and the less chaos in the hallways of LOL. Um I think she's the staff over there have has felt a lot of relief of that overcrowding and maybe a little later she might share a few as some questions on that improved integration. So the changes resulted in significant progress toward those integration goals. Free and reduced status uh

010from 86.5% last year to 56.9. That's a significant rebalance of that student population. And then percentage of non-white students decreasing from 65.8 to 43.4. That's a significant rebalance. Um so we were hoping to do that and with that integration of 150 kids, we were able to change the demographics of the of the whole school. Um the next slide shows some of more of those changes. um special education reduction 41.8% down to 29.4. Um American Indian uh black students two or more. Um so across the board we see a very different makeup of student population now in Myers Wilkins. Um Hispanic actually increased but that makes sense because of the Spanish immersion. I believe we have what? >> Oh, that's not why she says. Well, we maybe Lisa can tell you why. Um, but anyway, there's

011a little increase there. Um, so with the overcrowding, um, we went through an extensive analysis last year through the planning process to look at where did all those kids transfer from inter in between our schools. um where were they, where did they come from, who who was catching the bus hubs, like we we went really down into the details, and then we projected um changes in enrollment based off all that analysis. Now, is everything going to go as perfectly as you project it? Well, I sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it does. In this case, when I look at the information um for Meyers on the left hand side, we projected last January 25 2122 2522 based off who was sitting in the seats last year, which schools they were coming from, and also attrition rates because

012usually we lose students as they age through Spanish immersion. That's just a thing. um families opt out of it at a certain point. Um so there's always a percentage of attrition which I figured that in. And you'll see that the actual numbers we did get 25 kinders, 26 first grades, 23 28 2817. So our actual really closely aligns with what we projected. So that's good. Um, we had some families make decisions for themselves. Like we did not see the attrition. I we didn't know that. We I would I made assumptions based off historicals, but like we didn't lose as many families as we thought. Um and then um some families moved. They moved from um would have gone to LOL. Now they went to Myers Wilkins Spanish. So we had some of that too. So

013it changed the numbers a little bit, but they're pretty close. Same with LOL. Um you'll see the projected versus actual and um and it's a it's lower but um not too much. So I was pretty happy to see that that was pretty closely aligned. I added this slide so you don't have this piece. Um I got a really good question and I was like I don't know. So, I'm going to check that out. So, I did check it out and I end I put this information in here and we'll get it to you so you'll have it. Um, last year LOL Spanish immersion, you can see their class sizes, which sections they had, and then the total amount of kids in each of those grade levels. If you look over on the right, I kind

014I disagregated that by Meyers and LOL. But then you can see the total kinders we have this year are 59. Last year we had 60. Total first grade we have 65 this year. Last year we had 53. Um total second grade this year 49. Last year we had 59. Um 56 61 45 50 and 40. So it's we didn't really lose a lot by splitting that program. They're pretty much it's it's the same numbers. they're just reconfigured because um of course they're not the same kids. Kindergarten moves to first, first moves to second. So there's that movement. Um but anyway, I I when I got the question and then I um really looked at this data, I was like, "Oh, that's worth looking at." So I added it in here. Last year we had 329

015students in the program. This year we have 327. They're just configured differently. Um we had 15 se sections last year. we still have 15 sections this year. So anyway, a lot of sameness there. >> And and I would like to add I I believe that's just a strength to the program itself. Uh the strength to our teachers who deliver the instructions um that there were families who said, you know what, because teacher X Y or Z was um going to be at Myers Wilkins, they elected to go to Myers Wilkins. And like Brenda said, we thought uh director Spart says, we thought that some families would um either stay at low, but we had families who elected to move from low to Spanish. Um the Spanish program spoken. So I I really believe uh as

016Brenda as director Spar is indicating that the targets were hit. Um it's been a a successful um um strategy for reintegrating the schools and um relieving the overcrowding that existed at LOL. Um who I have received feedback that they feel the difference. Um and Myers Wilkins also feels different as well in terms of the student composition and just the overall environment. And so I I want to say kudos to the principles, the teachers especially and director Sparts for um the execution of this movement. >> Okay. Uh now we're just getting into some things that this is more the update piece where uh we gave you a bunch of information last spring, but like how did this play out? Um so and then some of this probably um uh principal Nicholson might have more information or

017maybe uh Miss Hesler, I don't know. So, we'll see as we go through. So, all six uh Spanish immersion class, they relocated um into classrooms. I know there was a lot of there just quite frankly, and we all know this, there was some controversy on the placement of the classrooms. Um, every classroom that we placed from LOL to Myers Wilkins was a fully functioning classroom that had kids in it for years already. Um, we did have to go back and um do some reconfigurations, add some walls, some offices, but none of those spaces were um the Spanish immersion classroom spaces um except maybe the fifth grade, I think. No. Anyway, no. So, um, we had programming in those six classrooms that needed a space. So, then we had to add a couple walls. And, um,

018you'll see that the second bullet, the music room downstairs on the first floor. We turned that into a kindergarten classroom. It had the best space, the square footage for a kindergarten classroom. Brian Brown from facilities did an excellent job helping out and he was very flexibly minded for us. Um he added a bathroom to that music room in the closet because a kindergarten classroom usually has a bathroom and so we did that and it actually turned out great. It's actually a beautiful kindergarten classroom. So she's very happy. Um two intervent intervention rooms classrooms were on the second floor. They each took a full classroom that had a sink and everything. Um, we know sinks are great in primary grades. So, we took those and turned it into first grade Spanish, second grade Spanish, and they're

019in close proximity to those grade levels. We had to move the um intervention rooms to they had a really oversized classroom where somewhere down the line, what >> was an old computer lab? >> Oh, it was an old computer lab. So, we added a wall in there and now we have a math lab intervention lab and we have a reading intervention lab. So, that turned out great. Um, and then if you go in the library now, we had to add a couple spaces in the library, but they have a really big library, so we took up some square footage there, but it it actually turned out okay. Um, and then, oh, up on the third floor there was a very large classroom. I think it was two classrooms at one point and they must have

020taken a wall out at some point. It >> just had two doors. >> Yeah, it had two doors. So, we added a a wall in there and that worked out too. So, um we got everyone in and got them a sufficient space um this school year. Next school year we have um actually third grade on the second floor. All the third grade is up on the third floor. So, we're hoping to um change to get third grade near their peers. That was a goal we had and we did not reach that with the third grade. So, next year we're going to work on that. Um and we've already started looking at um changing some classrooms around. So, that'll be good. Um next, um I don't you want to talk about this? Um it's unique at

021Myers Wilkins that we have the Duth Community Schools Collaborative there. Um that's the only elementary where we have this um additional supplemental programming um through a grant. Um one of the strategies under that grant is student and family engagement. So Caitlyn who is lovely and she is the um collaborative um staff member on site at Meyers. She runs a monthly site leadership meeting. Uh all parents are invited and so um I know that some of the Spanish immersion families have come to that meeting and all of them are um can come. That's open to all Myers Wilkins families. Um, and really it's a collaborative leadership and that continuous improvement model of what and how we um engage families in the community in the Myers Wilkins um area. So, it's actually a very positive space. And

022then the PTO, you might have an update on that, but um they didn't have a PTO at Meyers Wilkins and now they are starting one. So, um, in the end, maybe, um, Lisa can share where they are in that process. And I know that's kind of a partnership between the, um, community schools collaborative and, um, the PTO getting started. So, um, that's kind of exciting. Um, the next slide is um, the teachers. Uh, the teachers had asked from the very beginning to make sure that there was a connection between the two sites. This is one Spanish immersion program located in two different sites. And so they wanted to make sure there was continuity and collaboration. Um so we do have joint meetings set up. We have PLC's. I think you're all familiar with those um

023professional learning communities. We set up a schedule where there are certain PLC's that are dedicated to the Spanish immersion teachers getting together and then there are some PLC's where they will be with their peers at their schools all third grade English and Spanish immersion. So we set up a schedule for that. Um and then on SP uh professional development days, we have several of those. Ensuring that the um Spanish immersion grade level teachers get time where they can work with the their partner from the other school um for continuity in the programming. And then um this year we're doing something different with developing the curricular resource documents. Uh Dale's doing a excellent job on that. and we are bringing together the grade level Spanish immersion teachers um to come in for a day and work

024on that with their grade level peers. So, Spanish immersion third grade at LOL will come and work with Spanish immersion third grade from Myers Wilkins for a full day at the district office or wherever they want to. Uh but I think they're mostly meeting here. So that's all I think making sure that there's that continuity and there's consistency across the programming has been important to the teachers. So we wanted to make sure they had that built in. We also had a lot of concern about the kids having connection and I will say when I say that I mean the Spanish immersion and English programs and their peers connecting and then also Spanish immersion to Spanish immersion programming connecting. So there's a few different ways there. Um, with Myers Wilkins specifically, they worked very hard on

025during our specialist time, music, art, PE, media, they took all four sections of the grade levels. So, all four kinder, all four first. >> Oh, well, anyway, she's correcting me as I'm going. Not kinder, but first through fifth. And um mixing them all up. So all the kids are mixed up for their specialist. So Spanish immersion and English. They're all side by side and they do them by red, blue, green, and yellow groups um instead of each class. So I think that's been favorably received uh by most, maybe not all, but by most. And so um and recess and lunch, the same thing. Grade level peers go to recess and lunch together. So they not only see each other in specialist, they see each other at lunch and they see each other at recess. So

026that's 45 40 that's 90 minutes a day where they're all together. Um we had a meeting with the Spanish immersion teachers um I don't know two weeks ago. One of their requests was to make sure that there's a connection between the two schools. Um so assistant superintendent Bonds said that he would fund one field trip per grade level that um they could combine like third grade Spanish immersion and go on a field trip together. Um so that they'll plan that and um I think that's a really positive thing. So next slide there. >> Oh is that it? That is it. >> Oh, wow. Look at that. >> And I know there are lots of questions and so on. Board, I would like to ask if we want to give the principles an opportunity to quickly

027share and then take questions. >> All right. >> If you like if you like to >> anything you like to share. Okay. Just wanted to make sure. Um I know the first slide that I saw earlier was member Laughler Kemp. So then I'll go with member Laughler. >> Uh thank you so much. This is excellent information and um again appreciate all of the staff that are here uh you joining us and us giving getting an opportunity to meet you as well. So thank you. Um a couple quick questions. Uh the music room that turned into a classroom, where is the music program now? So the music room moved next door and it's in the room that the community schools office used to be in. Um, and the community schools moved up into one of the

028new rooms up in the library. >> Okay, great. Uh, and then, uh, this is more a comment, I guess, with the Myers Wilkins, uh, community school collaborative. really glad to hear how closely uh you're working with them and um I know I I just recently talked with the director Kim and uh uh she actually expressed the same comments about uh how well um the collaboration is happening particularly with uh the the new families. So uh excellent there. Um my other question and I only have two more. Um was um how um this is excellent information and I'm just curious how has this been um sent out communicated to the families? Um because this answers many questions that I know I've received. >> That letter. >> So I think the letter went uh though from what

029I understand did it go to all families or did it just I think it went just to the one grade level. So I think this information it would be good for us to send on to uh the rest and so I think that would be uh >> I think that would be >> helpful and thoughtful because this is >> we can send this to them. >> There's a lot of success right and I so maybe sending maybe maybe sending this andor the letter but I think that uh sharing with all families would would uh create a equal understanding of the good things going on as well as I I also want to say thank you to the staff as well. You're you're doing amazing amazing work and the leaders of the school. Uh I have

030a lot of pride for what you're doing. >> Thank you. And just my last question, when you talked about the specialist time being combined, is that being done in Spanish uh or English or a combination? >> No, the teaching is all because there are right are specialist teachers um that are there. So no, that's being done um all that is being done in English. But I want to make sure you have an opportunity to say the why we did that. You can share why did we decide to have the combined. >> Yeah. I mean it really had to do with that connection piece to make sure that you know everybody was seeing that we were all one school together. Um so that's why we did that. So I had done this in a past district

031um in a school that had a like a center program in it. Um and it worked really well. Um, so I'm like, let's try it. So I stopped her on the Kinder because doesn't really work well in kinder. They're just trying to figure out how to do school. Um, so we kind of missed that in the beginning and we went back. We're like, nope, let's just go as classes to kinder. Um, and that has gone much better now. Um, but yeah, so they each are have their color group. Um, they speak about their color group. They know what their color groups are and they do the same rotation through. they just are going with a different group of kiddos when they go to those spaces. >> I love that you're doing that. I think it's

032a great idea. >> Want to emphasize that because that was a strategy. It was really strategic to make sure that there was connection and we learned you know Eve I know has been striving for um you know to to make sure that the school feels like one school and not separate programs within the school. And we have been really strategic. we knew there was a way to do it um at um Mars Wilkins and so I'm really proud of the fact that we were able to find clever ways to make that happen because it's not it can't be done everywhere and so just want to make sure we emphasize that the why >> you >> member thanks >> thank you very much so this is probably it's I didn't see in the documentation a demographic

033question as to um how many kids of color specifically ally are enrolled in the Spanish language emerging program at Myers spokens. I'm just curious as to that and if you have that same information for low that would be helpful too. >> One more >> that's it right there. >> So this is actually the numbers >> the school though asking in the in Spanish immersion classes. >> Oh in Spanish immersion. Yes. Oh yeah. I >> um I have to think about how to get that data. Okay. It will be interesting to see, but we can we can get that data. >> So, we will follow back up. >> If it's not identifiable, >> yeah, and there's no rush on it. I'm just curious. >> LOL is different because at some point they separated the schools. And

034I think you're aware of this. LOL Elementary is Msabakong and English and then we have a separate budget code so a separate school for Spanish immersion. Um Meyers Wilkins we purposefully we worked with MDE we had meetings with them to come up with the best scenario. Were we going to do that down there or not? We decided not. We really wanted one Myers Wilkins. Um, and so when I look up the information, it pulls up as a school. So it would have to be by class, which would be different. So >> So would it be difficult to ascertain that or is it possible to get that? >> I could get it. >> Okay. >> Chair Derek Eer. So, I'm just curious back at LOL um principal, how does it feel to have a little bit

035of breathing room and a little bit of space and what does drop offs in the morning look like and pickups and recess and lunchroom like? How does it feel? Everything is positive and unicorns at LOL Elementary this year. Um, first of all, I just want to say I miss these people dearly. Mhm. >> Um but you walk around LOL and it it just feels calm sometimes. Um I have a new dean and we have a really great SEB and we'll just kind of stand at and look at each other. We're just kind of waiting for something to happen and then it doesn't. Um, just fewer bodies, fewer chaos or less chaos, less problems, less emails to me. Um, less our behavior incidents are down. Um, the the lunchroom is quieter. Everyone is a little bit

036more spread out. when you walk. It used to be when there would be kids coming in from recess, kids going to class, from lunch, and specialists coming all in this little half of a hallway. It would be like 400 kids trying to um intersect and transition at one time. And it was really, really hard. We always worried about losing like kindergarteners. That fear is gone. We also did a huge classroom switch. We have a space where special education groups can meet that are close to kindergarten classrooms. Now, um we have like our our social worker has a beautiful space. We have like pushins going in and or interventionists going in and pushing in and and if it's a little too loud one day in a classroom, they have spaces they can move to. really. It

037feels really positive and it it it feels really good at LOL. It feels like we're the size we're supposed to be. >> That's great. I'm I'm thrilled for you. This I'm just thrilled the way um Meyers is really, you know, have a chance to shine. We all know what a great school it is and now it has this opportunity for our community. And I'm glad that LOL, you just have some room cuz that was a lot of bodies in that school. Just a lot of lot of kids. So, thank you both very much and thank you to our teachers for showing the plasticity to be able to move and and change. So, thank you all. >> Member Mike and then Superintendent Maggus. >> Um, thank you everyone for being here. Thank you especially our teachers.

038I know um and our principles. It's a very long day and then to come and share with us is um we appreciate it so much and also all your flexibility over the course of this year as all these changes have happened and the important part you've played in all that. Um, I'm curious, um, do we currently have, um, a waiting list for our program? Are we able to accommodate everyone who wants it? What does that look like? [Music] Well, actually, Shannon's the one that keeps track of that. But, um, no, we don't have a weight list and we really work right >> for Myers Wilkins. >> Which grade levels? she keeps track of that. Um, but we really worked um if families left, she was really great at keeping track of who applied for the

039program when and we really went to the we tried to get them in before school started. Um, and so that worked out I thought the way she did that. So you would have she would have to tell us. >> I don't have it up right now. >> She needs a mic. >> There's one for kindergarten and I think I think one or two for first grade and then I know there's two for fourth grade. So, but that list before school started was very long. Like the weight list got pretty long for Meyers, especially for kindergarten. and um they just as families moved or they dropped out or you know other circumstances kids just moved up and they got everybody who was on the wait list during the summer is in now. So the wait list

040now has been within the month. So that's great to hear that we've been able to accommodate so many students and families who wanted to be there. Is there any um thought to expanding the program further? Obviously there's a room issue and I assume a staffing issue but in the future like what are our plans looking like for that or are we just going to stay steady right now and make sure that we're have a good stable foundation >> the latter um you know just um really assess things evaluate how the programming goes um continue to assess the interest um it's again the numbers are solid in terms of the number of students across the district who want Spanish and hearing that there's a list and so we just have to continue to monitor and see

041if there's interest um in it. And I always say it would be a good um problem to solve if more students wanted to enter into Spanish at kindergarten and we had to find another space at Myers Wilkins to add another kindergarten in the future. In the future, you're right. So, it'd be a great problem to have in the future. >> Thank you, >> Superintendent Maggus. Actually, uh, member Lofal, if you want to go first. I want to kind of say enclosure. >> Good plan. Good plan. Um, so can you go back to the slide that shows the section size of classes because my my question would just be, you know, um, along the lines of member Mike Cel too. And actually, um, Chair Eer um, stole my first question too about um, um, the the

042feel at LOL and the transportation hub thing. But so if we look at the numbers in um Myyers Wilkins, well the fifth grade will Where are we? Where are we? Okay, we're in there. So I I I I guess I think for third and fourth grade at 27 and then knowing that you know the way that immersion works unless they drop out of the immersion because of class size that our third graders are going to stay in a class size all of this year, all of fourth grade and all of fifth grade. And I just thought that the district's um kind of policy was to try to keep our elementarymentaries um at least under 25 or so. I I just worry about those numbers and if there's a plan almost like what member Mikeell said,

043is there a plan to allow another section and where would we put that? And um I just the other numbers don't strike me to be so terrible. Um, in fact, the breakout was really nice because I was thinking there cannot be 39 in a first grade classroom at LOL. That just probably isn't happening. That's what that's the PowerPoint we got first. That's why I sent the the questions about class sizes, but I still >> um feel that it's that 27 is high. >> Director Sparks will be able to um add to this, but just keep in mind uh students don't enter into Spanish in third in second, third, fourth, or fifth. So the numbers more than likely will stay stable in the grades three, four and five as they uh metriculate um up. Um so

044those will stay solid. So the only entry point right now for myer students is Spanish is at kindergarten and first grade. So >> I think 27, >> right? >> Um 27 in third, fourth, and fifth grade is uh if I had other spreadsheets I could show you, they're fine. I mean across our district we have that's super common as kids in K1 and two you want the smaller class sizes when they get into three four and five we have more kids so higher class sizes and that's very common across our whole district. Um, so that is like I would say right in with what we usually have or at least on our east side, not our west side. Um, so I think yeah, I'm that's that's okay. Yeah, like I said, we always have there's

045always a formula of attrition for Spanish immersion. We didn't really experience that with the transition, which was awesome and it was a little surprising, but I'm just guessing there will be some from third to fourth and fourth to fifth. There always is um for people move and there can't be new families that come in because we just don't accept new families at those grade levels. So when they leave, they leave. Um, so, >> so I'm assuming that the fourth grade that that um, Executive Secretary Brown shared probably is on a wait list, but was in the program and >> I think you said something about a fourth grader was on a wait list. >> We have two fourth graders on the wait list. I think they were actually their LOL families. >> They families and

046they want to they wanted to be on a wait list for fourth grade. They they're they're at LOL and their their home their plan school is LOL, but they wanted to move to Meyers. So, they wanted to be put on a wait list. They were informed that at this time we're not doing that. Whatever zone you're in is where you're going to go, but they chose to be on the wait list. >> So, they're still in the program. They're just at low. Superintendent, you said you wanted to close out. If so, then member Banks has a question. Go ahead. >> I have a special request. I'm wondering if we can hear from the teachers, one or two, maybe Dr. Gabriella and someone else. Just um you're in you're the ones doing the job and I

047just like to hear from you and uh tell us how you think it's going. And if you could come on up to the mic >> if you don't mind. press the button for us. Thank you so much. >> Hi everybody. Uh my name is Glenda of Lour and I am the 27 kids at third grade and Alvarez um he's the fourth grade with the 27 kids. And all that I have to say is that I I have to do uh excellent planning, keep them occupied all the time, but I also have a really good team. Uh the other third grade teachers in English, they are really facilitating a lot um in terms of curriculum and and getting to know this the system and the school and literally um trying to figure it out the specialist

048piece. They were like talking to me like I was a kindergarten and that was fantastic. Excellent teaching uh technique. Um so we just have to I feel like I I have a lot of support from the staff and from Lisa. So so far it's a lot of kiddos but >> certain behaviors that are happening um so that they also feel heard and that they feel like it's a safe place to be. Um, and so yeah, I I I guess I just request more like professional development on how to handle certain things cuz you know, it's our first year at Myers Wilkins and uh LOL, we didn't really have a lot of those challenging behaviors and so um I would just like more of that um just support for that. But again, I'm I'm really glad

049that I'm at Myyers. Um, it's an updated school, which is great. We have an elevator. I've been on it. Um, and Lisa's just an amazing leader, too, just like Eve was. Um, and so I I miss my LOL, you know, friends. I want to start tearing up, but um, yeah. So, that's pretty much it. Just really quick, thank you for all the support I think um that we have gotten from you guys, but also teachers. We have working so hard every single day with the transition, with the family, with everything they just um I cannot express my gratitude for them. And also it's been kind of challenging sometimes with all these equipment and materials, curriculum and stuff, a lot of work, but hard workers. So, but also I want to I don't know if this

050is the place for this, but I want to advocate a little bit to think about the future of the program. Uh we're doing good and we have done a lot with the with this program including I know I've been uh advocating for um in for diversity inclusion and all this for many years you know that teachers of color you know so that not only for the for kids but teachers of color working for the district many years we have working and you know that because we're working together for I mean in different projects Uh we have that for the future of the program. I want to see this program in high school. Okay. And I have a lot of parents requesting that. Um and remember this program is in three schools. The middle school and

051I'm Myers and AL. But we have to think about that because a lot of parents has been requesting me and want information about it. And so she has some uh she talked to me this morning about it too. And I know I have other teachers talking to me. What are we going to do for the for high school? Um so I will bring up something in the future. Yeah. I propose or something. You want to talk a little bit about it. >> I mean what she had this morning that's what I've been thinking and what what you been doing. >> I think just that continuity piece for the program. Um, and I think last spring one of the comments um, as we grew to Meyers was really that growth and expansion and I heard it

052mentioned here a couple of times. Um, but I think that's really an important piece um of of moving forward and the continuity of the program and um and Gabby's done a phenomenal job of managing something at three sites um given an old management system of one site. And so, um kudos to trying to make that all work. She used one of my rolling carts to haul things in the back of her vehicle. You know, we we just I think all of us have um we we want so um we want to see the success of the students um at at all three sites. Um and we're doing everything in our power to do that. So, >> thank you. >> Thanks for sharing. >> Superintendent Magnus. >> Sure. No, I I just want to um say

053thank you to our teachers and uh also on the last comments, we want to make sure that our students are supported throughout their their school careers here in Duth. I I think it's it's important that we we continue to support our our bilingual students as they go into secondary. Uh something that I was uh part of in previous work in other districts and it's it's important. They've invested a lot of time, a lot of effort. you've invested a lot of time and effort and we want to make sure that we keep those uh bilingual skills going. And also thanks to the leadership, the principles, uh Director Sparts, and also I I'd like to say thanks to Assistant Superintendent Bonds because um when we first were proposing this, I know a lot of people were like,

054and I think sometimes one of one of your fores, Mr. bonds is to to look at something and and find the difficult like the hard sometimes it's a hard choice and a hard hard um process to go through but it was the right choice and thinking about you know we didn't want to break up the band because you were the low team >> uh but but knowing that we wanted to expand and knowing that we wanted to do this and having the support of director sparts in doing so I think we showed that we can take a tough situation and make it better not just for one school but for multiple schools. And I also would say that as we look at these numbers, as we look at this situation, I think we have to

055reflect as a community and as a school district about programming and capacity in our different buildings and realize that we're um approaching a point at which we have to more seriously consider the capacity and programming and and um the those different aspects for the whole district because it's important for us to think about um all of our students. think about some of the overcrowding we have, thinking about uh making sure that we're we're spreading capacity and programming to different schools. And so I I thank the whole team for uh being so forward thinking and so uh positively minded in all the work he did. >> Thank you. Looks like there's one more question. Member Laughler Camp, >> I'm sorry. I just had to add Sorry. Sorry. Um I I I I shared this with the

056staff when I I greeted them uh just how um it's been so great to see the growth of this program. It was one of the first votes I got to take on and be a part of as a a new school board member. And so I appreciate you also sharing kind of your vision uh as we then as a board can continue to to vision this. Um uh it it totally uh uh has turned out to be uh something that I just you know back when I voted on it did not think it would be as I wasn't sure where the success was going to be and it was because of the hard work and the the vision. Uh and so just thank you again for sharing some your insights. Yeah. >> Thank you. Next,

057we have a presentation by our director of secondary schools. Uh, director Larva will come up. Um, it's an update related to our SRO program and she also has several guests that she will uh take the time to introduce. And so, I will turn over to Director Lra. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. as we transition into an SRO presentation, which I know that um she's working hard on getting up for me, right, Shannon? Um we I just want to acknowledge that we have um our four sites represented here and it is conference night tonight. So they're missing conferences right now um in order to be here. So we have Tom Tuskcin, Brian Kesmir, John Flaw, and Jod Stacken, and they are available for us to have some conversation, and I may be pulling them

058up if there's any questions that you're asking because they know the boots on the ground pieces of it. Um I'd also like to introduce you to Mike Jamber. If you didn't know, Officer Jamber, he's here today um to help me with this presentation um regarding the SRO update, program update. Um I would ask that um you take a look at your um information that was in board book. The evaluation tool was one of the links. It looks like this. You have a presentation for me which kind of gives the overview of the evaluation tool, kind of just the highlights of it. But I do have this in your um board packet as well for you to look at if you want more of the specific details. Um and then we can take questions and stuff

059at the end if you just don't um mind us being able to run through the presentation and then moving on from there with questions. Okay. All right. So go ahead. Um, first of all, I I know this is a public venue, so I wanted everybody in the public to know how you get access to our resources um, regarding the SRO program. Adele Wellings, our communications um, man or officer, communications officer, that's her title. Um, and so she has done a really nice job of making sure that everything is updated on there. So, if you go to our website and you go to the about us section, you can click on school resource officers. Um, and then there's actually a spot where you can actually meet and see the faces and read about all of our

060different officers. Um, officer Jamber is on there, but he doesn't have his face on there or any details like that, but he he is mentioned on that site as well. But you can see we have four um officers right now that are assigned to specific sites, but they also help and support some of our other sites as needed. So, Officer Dardis is at um East and I think he's one of our newer he's our newest one, right? He's our newest officer. Um we have Officer Hannah who is at Ordin East. We have Officer Cheney at Lincoln Park and we have Officer Simons at Denfeld. So, those are our four officers that we currently have. Um I wanted today to give you just a little bit of an update about our advisory committee. So last year

061we met twice. We met in February and in May. Um and really I was kind of late coming into it. This was my first year in running the SRO program. We actually have um member banks as part of our committee. So he is um sits on that committee um as well as some of our principles and assistant principles that are sitting here today. Um there's a few community members. The list that we invite is much more expansive than who shows up to our meetings. Um so it's really kind of a smaller group that comes. Um but we do invite many different entities in our community. Um I've done some reaching out too to try to get people to want to really engage in our SRO advisory committee. Um it's just I think it's hard to

062commit to things like that sometimes. So, um, it's always open and I'm I'm putting this invitation out there to the public right now if they're listening to this that they can reach out to me if they want to become part of our advisory committee and I will get them an invite when we do set up our schedule for that. Um, so we did meet twice and um really what we did was we established a program assessment checklist. I think that the assessment piece had been something that had the committee had been wrestling with for quite some time and um it was in a rubric format which is sometimes kind of challenging and so we took a look at this from what are our expectations and let's run through like are they meeting expectations or not

063kind of that proficiency realm like if you take a look at a rubric and there's four different columns we really were just saying are we proficient and that and that's where we where we landed on that. So we did create the tool which is also in board book um and you have access to that. Um so we took a look at that and we established that we were going to try the checklist this year and when we did try it it seemed to be pretty successful. I didn't get any push back on it. It seemed like um the committee liked being able to use the tool um in order to establish um an evaluation for this this last past school year. Um other things that we did is we discussed the survey administration and results.

064So Adele Wellings um has some survey questions that we ask every year annually um related to the SRO and um we just discussed when to hand out the survey and I'll give a little bit of update on that when we get a little bit further in about what seems appropriate for that. Um so the survey we tied this past year to when the um climate survey goes out to families and to students. Um so in the spring it went out and um we'll talk about the results a little bit there. We also spent time at both of the meetings um reviewing citation and restorative actions data and I'll have that there for you too that we'll look at later but that's things that we did together in our committee. And then um we reviewed program

065assessment data in that May one. So I collected some data and presented it to the committee um the principles and I had sat down and and looked at the checklist and then we had taken some notes and we had put things in and then we shared out those results with the committee and had some further discussion about that. So that's really what our committee did last year in those two meetings. >> Member Saddowski. >> Um a couple of us are having a hard time finding the assessment tool. I mean I went through the packet beforehand too. I'm just not seeing it on here. Can you tell me which page it's linked on? >> It is a separate thing. It's its own. >> I don't All I see is cover page on the board book. >>

066But that's just saying I don't I could we can look at it later. >> We'll look for it in and send it >> because you were referencing it. I kept trying to look for it. >> Yeah. And and that would be something that Shannon would put in there so I would know how it worked. It should be in there. All three links, the cover sheet, the assessment, and the >> Okay. >> Well, >> we will look for it in no problem and send it. >> We were having a hard time. Thank you. >> Okay. Okay. >> Yeah. Well, I wanted you to all know where it was, so yeah. Sorry about that. >> It's okay. So, we're going to actually move into the assessment piece now. So, um the stuff that's on here is that

067overview. Um the details are just even more on onto this sheet here. So, we had a couple different focus areas that we're looking at and one of them was about building relationships. That was our first area that we were assessing our program. Um and the really cool thing about this, we had four areas there and we met expectations across all of our sites um in all of the different areas. So, um, when we talk about our successfully building student relationships, they're introducing themselves to students, um, at least five to six times over the course of the school year. That was that was what one of the things were. Um, they were invited to like 260 different staff meetings and met with 91 of 92 student groups that requested um, their presence, which was, I think,

068a big uptick from previous years. I think you have that data but that was a that was a significant uptick if I remember correctly. Um they also attended 165 after school activities. So, lots of engagement um even after school time. And then when we took a look at the survey, there was um a question in the survey about increased visibility in before and after schools and during lunchtime. And um students all felt like it was positive. Um 83.8% of those surveyed felt like that was a positive piece of it. So, that was that was a really um successful area on the rubric that we felt like we needed to highlight. Um, and I'm going to let officer um, Jamber talk about the next slide, which is the positive interaction slide. Shannon, if you could go

069to that slide. Um, thank you for the hospitality invite tonight, by the way. Um, so this slide I'll go through briefly. I'm I'm guessing we'll have questions at the end. we'll see when we look at positive student interactions uh year-over-year the increase and the drastic increase last year. Um, as a school board, as you all know, our our group of SRO's has changed over the the four years that I've uh been a part of this program. And I think really the the direction the program has gone with the focus on building relationships with students and staff as well as getting uh different SRO's in with different approaches has really led to that drastic increase that we see, especially last year, um, with the positive student interactions. Um, for those of you that may wonder what

070a positive student interaction is, um, it's more than a high in the hallway as you pass. it's uh maybe a short conversation or or something more than than a greeting as you meet in the hallway. Um the same thing goes for positive student or uh teacher interactions. We'll see an increase in that as well. And and I would just really attribute the same reasons for the increase in that category. Um this program, the SRO's working with the staff of the buildings have um it's really a team effort. Um it's not the SRO doing it on their own. They're getting a lot of support from from the staff uh and the admin at their respective buildings and the elementarymentaries to come out and engage with students and staff and and make these positive interactions happen. Um

071student group visit requests. We'll see we go from 28 to 98. Um I think again it's that really getting on the same page with building admin and reaching out to the student groups and letting them know like the SRO are willing to come and and visit with you. That's no problem. Um so we'll see an uptick that um in both the requests and the visits. Um elementary school visits uh they did drop uh when we look at the 22 to 2023. Um that I don't have a real good explanation why it's so high in that first year and then we kind of plateau out to where we've been for the past two. Um I know we're very involved in the elementarymentaries um both with dealing with issues on on uh what could be a daily

072basis at times and then doing some of our um outreach activities whether we go with the fund bus and hand out ices for whatever events going on at the school. Um counseling and mentoring sessions. Uh those are opportunities for the SRO's to really be that that that coach, that mentor, that that open ear for for students that are dealing with issues that aren't really a school problem. they're not really a law enforcement problem. It's kind of just being that open ear for the kids, maybe provide them a little guidance and issues they're dealing with in their personal life. And and fortunately, we see that um you know, they they trust the SRO to go to them and have those interactions and and ask them for the help along the way. And and that number goes

073up every year. So, I'm I'm I'm proud of the the culture that's being built in these schools, both again by the SRO's and their and their admin teams. Uh we're seeing a lot of good things and a lot of good interactions with these students. So, um, after school activities attended, again, um, with a focus on being there and being present, a lot of these SRO's see the students at their school as quote their kids. They're they're invested in in the students. They're invested in seeing them succeed and go from grade to grade, and they want to be there for them and support them at their sporting events or whatever may be going on uh, in the evenings as well. And it's also a good time for for the SRO to have interactions with parents and

074and other family members and community members at the same time. So, uh, deescalation opportunities. Again, these are just opportunities for the officers to, you know, use a lot of their training and experience to to deescalate situations to a point to where we hope that, um, you know, our law enforcement, uh, interaction and involvement is really minimized. Um, uh, you know, situations we'll see kind of really stay roughly the same. They don't change a lot. I think that's just a result of behaviors and opportunities that the SRO's um have and then their use by um building admin to to come in and help out with different situations. Um the restorative action one on the very bottom we just started tracking as you can see it's blank in 2223. So I wanted to try and capture some

075data on when were situations and how many situations did we have where the SRO's maybe could have issued a citation but opted not to. Um, so we're going to see actually very high numbers um that were were surprising to me when I saw it come in. These are opportunities where the SRO's dealt with a situation with their building admin. Um, the decision was to uh go the restorative route instead of issue a citation. Um, so when we look at the citation numbers and that report comes out monthly and we see the numbers that we see, um, these are how many times they could have but they didn't. they they took into account that student's individual situation, the totality of the circumstances, the pri prior interactions with students. Um all of those things that go into

076the decision-m to what's the best solution and end outcome for that particular student. Um goes into situations like this where we see a lot of restorative action and a lot of um opportunities where citations couldn't have could have been written but were not just because they were not what was best for the student at that time. Thank you. And I I did see a discrepancy. Um I just want to make it clear that um his data was updated at the end of the year for 2425 and I know that when I was saying like there was 165 after school events. I just noticed it when I was here. Um we did this in May. So at the time there was 165 but it looks like we are we had a few more after that even

077after school events. So his data would be in totality of the school year where we were looking specifically in May and I wanted to make sure I was clear on that for you all. >> Member Laughler Kemp and board. I would like uh you to know I I did email you the um assessment rubric um that uh was requested. So sorry about that not being uploaded but if you check your email it is there. >> So can we do questions at the end or Okay. Thank you. Um so when we take a look at the next slide um some more pieces about the program findings. So if we looked specifically at assessing the SRO program itself itself. So um are our SRO's participating in data review at each site um and going through those citations

078that are being issued. um our principles providing input into the evaluation of the SRO's um our student survey like our su or our student surveys um responses similar different those kinds of things. So our our survey data is remaining consistent but if you look at the assessment rubric we had a significantly less um response rate. Um, we were really trying hard to tag our survey onto like the climate survey because we want like a same window of opportunity. We have a lot of testing, a lot of surveying, a lot of things that are happening in the spring. And so we were trying to make it more convenient for students and families. Um, but we only had 142 responses where in 2024 we had 1,080 responses from students. And so we have to rethink maybe a

079little bit. That could also be an impact of not having win anymore. We used to have a wins period where that was easily distributed and we could just devote it to that time frame. Um and so we just found out that we didn't have as much of a response. Um so we're rethinking that like when it when to do it and how to do it so that we get um more responses from our students. Um but it was really positive in that 80% that of those who had an interaction with an SRO who took it of the 142 thought that it was a positive interaction and then 91% of those 142 students also felt comfortable um speaking to the SRO which I thought was really important um information. So, um, we did make a recommendation

080to evaluate officers more in the spring, maybe tie it in with like a site visit because we find that, um, principles are available um, for part of the year, but they're not always here when you're doing your year-end evaluation. And so, we we need to find a different cadence in order for us to have principles really be able to provide input into those SRO evaluations. It's like they've been doing them like in August. And so it it doesn't really fall into the school year, but we had some really good conversation around that as well. Um the next area on our assessment tool is professional development. And um I want to assure you that all of our SRO's are receiving professional development, but not necessarily within participating in the school district um PD. It's not always

081um applicable um to their job role either. So, I'm going to let you go ahead and talk a little bit about some of the opportunities that you all do with your with your SRO's. >> Um, so a lot of the they go to two main conferences this last year. They went to the Minnesota Juvenile Officers Association conference which we host in Duth. Um, good conference for them. We were also fortunate that the Minnesota School Safety Center came to Duth last year um put on a conference as well that was attended by um everyone in our school resource officer unit. So th those conferences were attended above and beyond what would be the um the basic SRO school that the SRO's are going to. Uh we're working with the Minnesota School Safety Center because as we

082know with the new legislation and and post requirements that they have to go through an SRO refresher on a more regular basis. Previously that requirement didn't exist. Uh we're working on actually hosting those trainings here in Duth so we can uh make sure that we're getting that done and also be kind of a center hub for for the arrowhead region of the state. Um that is all in addition to the required postmandated training that we go through um on on a three-year uh certification basis which in in one of the newsletters I put out I probably went way too far into details all the training that they go through. um happy to list it out or resend you that um newsletter if you're interested in knowing um each and every training that they go through.

083I have somewhat of a list here. Um crisis intervention and mental illness crisis, conflict management, mediation, uh recognizing and valuing community diversity, implicit bias, including crimes motivated by bias. Um autism training, duty to intercede, wellness training. Um all those are just a few uh to name the many required training classes that we need to go through as police officers and then even more so as SRO's. >> Thank you. You can go to the next slide. Um and then our last area that gets evaluated on our assessment tool is around um communication and transparency. Um, and we will talk a little bit about the citation data in just a second, but um, I just wanted to to share how to get to some of it. So, um, I put a little picture of it on there.

084So, if you're on that SRO page, and this is really more for the public, um, because I want them to know how to access it, right? How to access our data. There's this little spot that's kind of down in the right like down in the right where it says um citation data, the student and family survey data and then this activity data. We now have added that um that positive activity data. We we put that on there for the year. Um so that's where you can find it updated and it is updated monthly. Somebody from um your office just sends it over and Adele is always making sure that it gets uploaded to the district website so it's always there. So that was a yes all it's there for all sites. Um and then the

085other piece is like when we have new officers we are getting updated. Sometimes we update a new picture. If we have a really cool picture of the four of you doing something cool or something we might update the picture. Um so we do update as as we get that information. And so that was um that was really positive as well. I would like you um to click on the citation if you don't mind so that we can have a little bit of a conversation about the citation data as well. if you click on that link. So this is what our citation data looks like. Um yep, thank you very much. Um you will see that it is for each year. So we had um I think it goes back several years. I don't know how

086many years right off the top of my head, but it goes back several years. So you can go ahead and take a comparative look at the years prior um the couple years prior and and if you remember our coming back from COVID um we had we had a significant higher number than we currently are having right now. So last year you'll see that we this is our citations and again remember we had 254 restorative opportunities as well which did not end up in a citation. Um, but you can see here that we ended up with a total number of citations that were issued across all of our secondary sites of being 22. Um, we do note um, as far as the type of citations, like what kind of citations they are. We do note the

087race of our suspects and the the race of any assault victims that we may or may not have. Um, and then it is listed out by site, the type as well. If you look at those citation charges, what they were charged with. Um, so you can see like Denfeld had 10 um, citations issued last year. East had three. Lincoln had it looks like eight, I think. Um, and then Ordin East had four. And so um, says total charges are 25, but total citations by I don't know how it gets to 22. That kind of confusing me all of a sudden when I look at that, but um, yeah. So, I don't know if there's anything to add with that. >> Um, I I'll just explain it again. So, when it comes to citations issued, you'll

088see citations issued is a number that's lower than charges. That all that is is more than one charge can be on one citation. So, um, what I will add is looking over the previous three school years, um, our citations issued, uh, have gone down every year. We went from 34 in the 2020 22 23 school year to 23 issued and 23 24 and then 22 last year. I will also just say that um again I I don't I would hesitate to use citation data as a as a determining point in whether or not this this program is successful or not. Um but with that being said again bringing back the team effort approach to this is these citations when we issue citations it's not anything that we take lightly or the SRO's take lightly it

089uh it is definitely a conversation between the SRO the staff many times family members and parents and guardians um trying to find the best p best path forward for these um young men and women as they navigate uh their school careers. Um, and many times there are times where we land on the decision that the citation is the best path forward for them. >> The last slide is just about um my contact and Sergeant Jambbor's contact. So, if you had any um any need to reach us, those would be how you could email us about any of the information that you find in our presentation. We will open it up to any questions that you may have at this time. >> Thank you, Member Lafer Kemp was first and then I'll come to member Saddowski.

090>> Thank you so much. Uh I always appreciate uh the overview of the program especially uh how you highlight and and really highlighted in lots of different ways the relationship building and the professional development. Um so thank you on that. I was going to ask a question about examples of citations, but I think I have it answered by that one slide. I was curious though um because I think we we've heard about it in different ways and maybe people have a different perspectives on what is restorative act uh steps that you take and maybe just explain that so we all have the same language and understanding of in the cases like you've mentioned how you've uh proceeded uh with restorative practices. >> Uh yeah no and that that's a good question. So when it comes

091to uh dealing with situations in the schools and and dealing with the admin teams at the individual sites, uh it's essentially a conversation of like I said kind of what's the best path forward. If as a group everyone decides that citation is not the the best direction and the best um solution for the situation, then the SRO would hand that off to the school administrative staff to take whatever measures they see fit, whatever programs they have running at their school. So, if they wanted to come up and talk about what those options are, um I would invite them to do so because I'm really not up to par on what each individual site has to offer um for their students and what opportunities are probably taken more than others. >> I don't know Tom, Brian,

092Jody, or John. Anyone want to come up and kind of say a couple things about what what we do for restorative? [Laughter] Good evening everyone. Um so restorative practices at Lincoln and Denfel I would say are fairly similar because a lot of ours grow out of Lincoln's. Um we each have an alternative to suspension program called PAUSE. Um we have a DEN program at Denfeld which is pre-referral meaning it's kind of before kids get to a point where they might end up in PAUSE. Um, and I think a lot of the conversations that our SRO's have that are restorative in nature are about trying to talk our way through things so kids have a sense of what the impact of what they did was um, and take some accountability for it. Sometimes it doesn't even

093end up in a program for some of our kids. They simply are able to navigate that between the SRO and our admin team and the kid and figure out what that could look like because sometimes it's simply getting the kid connected to a resource. Um, but that's what we have going on at Denfield. >> Our our PAS program is um been around for well seven years, seven or eight years now at Lincoln. Um, we we had a version of the DEN, but our DAN now at Lincoln is um done at the grade level with the dean of students. That's our pre-referral intervention trying to I mean they're they're helping mitigate conflict in doing those things on the floor level. Um and that that allows it because we see a pretty high significant volume of um

094behaviors that we can get in front of um with the emotions of middle schoolers. So, >> uh, John Fly East High School. So, I I'll speak to it a little bit. Um, I I think that one of the things that, uh, has hap I mean, we we've had I've had a SRO on our building since I've been a principal. It's I think I'm in my 12th year. Um, and so we had Bill Stabber before, now we've got uh, Mr. Dardis. Um, one of the things that I think that was really understood first of all is developing a relationship, which is the the key if you're dealing with as a teacher or as an adult or anything that you're doing. You're building relationship with staff and kids and and we've managed to build really great relationships

095with our SRO. Um, I'm a little angry sometimes because they're a lot more popular than we are. Uh, that Officer Darters, we just had class meetings and you got up there and everyone's cheering like Mr. Rock and I get up there and like, oh, those old guys again. So, I mean, they they really enjoy them quite a bit. Um, I would say one of the biggest things we we get a lot of, unfortunately, um, vaping, uh, whether it be nicotine or THC, it's probably our most common offense. Um and uh in a case like that, you know, we we talk to the kid, we give them an option typically of and it's kind of a fictitious option. Um but we'll give them an option of hey, you can uh either get a ticket from the

096SRO or you can write a one-page paper on the harmful effects of vaping, which is typically one of the first things that we do in a first offense. Um, and then Officer Dardis will come over and say, "Hey, you know, this is what would happen if you got a ticket in in the community." Um, you'd have to go to the judge. Um, you know, it would cost you money. Um, your parents would be, you know, dragged along in the deal. Um, and so he he explains the the infraction um, and also talks about, you know, if there's a same or similar that comes down the line, then we might have a different conversation. But it almost never gets to that point. um kids really start to understand that gravity. And that's also true if it's

097a if it's a situation where it could be disorderly, um it could be whatever. Um we we discuss that possibility and what that would have meant and and that really helps us quite a bit. Um and then we'll we'll back that we'll backfill that with our MTSS person that also helps with uh restorative conversations. And typically that will involve something like um you know being aware of our conversation that we had with the SRO and the administration with the student. Um and then they'll have them do something like um you know either watch a video that's pertinent, read something. Uh and then that gives the the MTSS person a way to expand upon that as well. um having a conversation now because the kid has some background in reading or looking at something and then

098they can they can fortify that with a conversation specific to what they did. So the um restorative piece runs through the SRO, the administrator involved and our MTSS as a team and that really seems to be effective. >> Member Saddowski Um, good evening. Thank you for all all of you for being here. Um, especially um, Sergeant Jamour, thank you for sharing tonight. Um, first just wanted to make a quick comment. I have a a question, but um, on page 18 with the restorative action. I just really appreciate you all sharing about that, especially just the fact that you're taking into account the big picture of each student. Um, that's kind of what I wrote down. And I think you use different words, but I'm sure you know taking into account things like um you know

099what might be going on at home or with peers, socioeotional things, housing status, trauma, things like that. So, I really appreciate that taking into account the context of what might be happening in that student's life. Um, and uh, one question I had, I was looking at page, gosh, I'm not sure what page this is, but um, the data about um, building um, student relationships. I was just curious how SRO's are ensuring that they are intentionally building relationships um, with a variety of students and student groups. So, if you could maybe share a little bit about that or you could email me as a followup. And then um I was curious if we could maybe get a list of what student groups um you know they visited with. Not not right now but maybe later on

100that >> would take me some time to mine that information out but it's doable. >> Yeah. If it's too cumbersome no worries but >> no I I I think that we can make that happen. That's no problem at all. Uh as far as uh your previous question that was ensuring that they're kind of meeting with all the students in the school throughout the year. >> Yeah. So, I was thinking of like, you know, um maybe during lunchtime they're, you know, going through talking to different students groups, just making sure they're being mindful to >> Yeah. >> how they're doing that. >> So, we saw the big jump in positive student contacts, especially last year. I'll attribute a fair amount of that to officer Dartis at East. Um I can stop out there almost any any

101uh any lunch period, and he will specifically and intentionally go to every table in that lunchroom and visit with those kids every day. So, he's not missing one. Um, if they're at a lunch table eating lunch, he's going to go visit with them. Um, some tables may have shorter conversations than others, but he's being intentional to make sure that he can reach as many students as he can in one particular day. And I know many similar things happen across the other three schools where they are as well. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Member Banks. Thank you. So, I just have page 18 looking for clarification. Um, so you mentioned here elementary school visits. Uh, is that in the SRO contract or is that extra or add-on work that you're doing that the city

102is paying for? Who who's paying for those visits or is that in the contract? >> Uh, the answer is both. So, it is in the contract a requirement that the school district carves out time and allows time for the SRO's to have interactions and go to those elementary schools. Um, as far as the cost, that's just um I don't even know how we would begin to figure out when that is. Um, I I would just say it's part of the contracted services that the school district is getting from the SRO's and that requirement is carved out in that contract that they spend time in the elementaryaries. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Uh, so let's see. Second question. Uh I'm always concerned about the school to prison pipeline. Uh that's a big issue.

103It remains a concern of mine and folks who look like me. Uh in um communities all over America, including Duth, uh kids of color are more so than anyone else um the victims or targets of schoolto prison pipeline. Um, and you mentioned in your uh report here that uh you do the implicit bias training. It says cultural responsive and implicit bias training accomplished. So is that training every year or is it um two or three years? Uh how does that work? So the training requirement for that for us is we go through a post-licensing cycle which is a three-year cycle. Uh the requirement is that we attend that training one time within that three-year cycle. Um however without knowing specifics because we do online training as well. So that's covered in a course that we

104go to, but it's also covered in online trainings that we do through a separate entity. So some may get it more than others. Um but the one time per three-year post cycle for sure. >> Okay. I have two more questions. on one for page 18. Um, counseling and mentoring sessions. Um I I get uh very concerned when there's the use of counseling in the school setting um by and I don't know this for sure but wondering if the police officers are licensed counselors in accordance with the Minnesota Department of Education or whatever that requirement would be in the state of Minnesota. um if they're not uh licensed counselors as required by the state of uh Minnesota Department of Education and the state of Minnesota. Uh I struggle with the use of that word if the

105um folks are not licensed counselors. I'm just going to say that. Are your officers licensed by the Minnesota Department of Education or other licensing agencies in Minnesota? >> They are not in this regard. >> They they are not. We've the conversations that we had previously on this too. Um the the terminology used with counseling and mentoring is is essentially just being an adviser. Uh they're not they're not claiming counseling as a title or anything of that sort. And after the conversation we had previously, I actually had removed that um just so you were more comfortable with it. Yeah. >> Um I did not unfortunately make this for you tonight. Um but I removed it from the ones that I made previously. >> And I'm just you know when uh when I see that and other

106board members see it and other folks see it. Uh I know in the state of Minnesota Department of Education, you have to be licensed and have credentials in a variety of different areas and counseling is one of those things. So thank you for that. and and you had brought that up at our committee meeting and we had talked about maybe using the terms assistance and guidance or something like like that instead and so I know that that was something that we had we' said that we would start using more terminology that was all different. So >> I would appreciate it. Thank you. And then the last question SR officers of color um have you ever had officers of color work in the schools? I know you've had uh women officers in the school system as

107it relates to our SRO's. Has there ever been officers of color uh working in that capacity? Just curious. >> To the best of my knowledge in the time I've been involved with the program, no. Um prior to my time in this agency, I can't comment on that. I just don't know. >> Thank you. You're welcome. >> Member Loed. >> Thank you. And just um just such an appreciation of where we've come in our SRO's um communication with our community. you know, and and I really appreciate that and it's really gone to, you know, such an incredible tool to um allow our public to know that our district supports SRO's and and um requires and and gets feedback from them so that we as board members can can really know that our our roles and our

108um services that we provide our students are really um top-notch. So much so that um I do a lot of communication with boards across the state and DUTH is really seen as someone who's handled the SRO education communication um reporting back to to school board and community better than than most communities in our state. And that's coming from the MSBA's um early morning coffee and conversation. and it just came up this morning because we talk about it across our our state and we have navigated um some really great um opportunities and we didn't have to sacrifice um the respect of our SRO's or the respect of our community as we deal with it and and just your willingness to come and and give us the newsletter Sergeant and and give us data that um can

109really show and and and uh establish lish the the strong SRO program in Duth. So we appreciate that and I know our our principles and our deans and our assistant principles are also really glad to have the support, the knowledge, the experience that um your team brings to our buildings. >> Member Michael, thank you very much. >> Thank you for being here for our annual evaluation of our SRO program. Um I just am astounded at our positive student interactions. If we assume that there's 165 school days um in our school year, that would equal out to be about 700 positive interactions per day for all four of our SRO's and 174 positive interactions per school per day. And so just curious like are they do they have a clicker? Like how are they counting all

110of those those um >> they do not have a clicker? No, those numbers they're doing their best. um they can kind of especially for the lunches, you can kind of figure out how many kids are sitting at a table, how many tables you hit. Um best um best use of figuring out how many kids are coming and going. You kind of know how many kids are coming and going to the buses each day and and that. Um so do they have a clicker? No. It's not super exact. Um if we had a way to do that, that would be great. But um it's kind of a kind of a best approximation as to how many they're interacting with each day. >> Awesome. Yeah. >> Um good to hear. Um, so a couple other questions. Um,

111I in our job description that we have in our contract talks about SRO personnel evaluations and I think I asked this last year as well. Just want to confirm that our um, building administrators are part of that process and that's happening every year. >> They are and that's kind of what we had mentioned before is trying to find that that good time of year. Um, the beginning of the year is obviously very busy. The end of the year is obviously very busy. So trying to find the time to get those surveys out to building admin to get them back um has been our struggle. The surveys are ready. I was kind of going to wait till we get closer into October to let things kind of simmer down at the beginning of the year and

112then push them out then and try and get them. And that's just going to be for last year. >> And so those are performance evaluations that the um principles and assistant principles are able to weigh in on the um on the job of the the SRO specifically. So they participate via a survey. Is that what you're saying then? >> Yep. It' be the survey which would be outside of conversations that I have with admin. >> Got it. >> On a constant basis. >> Thank you. Um, one thing I noticed, um, how often do you send over the citation data then? >> The report is run every month. So, it should actually be coming out this week. >> Okay. Yeah, I just noticed we don't have September yet. So, that'll be good to see um how

113things are starting in the year. And then also just um last thing, professional development. We talk about that a lot in our contract um and the the district's obligation to be providing professional development to our SRO's. And so I have a I'm not sure if I should be concerned or not, but I recognized in our evaluation that we were emailed from the assistant superintendent that um we currently are not meeting the expectation of professional development with SRO's within our schools professional development. I understand that um some of the professional development days that we have might not necessarily be relevant um to the work and the scope of um practice that our SRO's do, but I know that it's our district's obligation to be providing some information. So, I don't know if um one of our

114administrators can speak to this, but how are we upholding our part portion of the contract um with our public service officers who are um here helping um our schools and our city? Um I just wanted to talk a little bit more about if we have that in our contract, how are we meeting those obligations? I think I can ask answer this with a question but because because it's been a few years but we have not had a lot of turnover in SRO's um and they went through our restorative practice training that the district put on and that's like that's not a yearly training that's a you get it and you have it for a long time and I so I know that our SRO's were part of that um initiative through our aware through the

115aware grant And I think um like our PD days maybe are not quite there but I know that we always are doing some sort of professional development with our staff meetings and our SRO's do engage with us in staff in our staff meetings. So if there's something that's coming up they would be there with the staff learning about things as well. Member Williams. >> Um, I have a few questions as well. Uh, first, uh, I did have the same question as member Banks about the counseling. So, thank you for asking that and for answering that. Um, I you asked a question. Oh, yeah. I was also curious about how those interactions were tracked. So, I I'm glad that you asked that question because that was a strikingly large number to me as well. Um, I

116am curious and this might not necessarily be a question for the SRO's um or maybe specific SRO's in specific buildings, but for sure for building principles. I'm just wondering um the general overall feeling of safety our students are feeling right now, especially in light of u Minneapolis and annunciation and just um it it was a really intense start to the school year. So I I guess I'm asking a temperature gauge kind of question how how kiddos are feeling within the schools. So that's one question I have. >> Principles Uh definitely the anxiety is up. Um the lockdown at Denfeld was one of the more traumatic things I've seen happen in that school. By traumatic I mean um how it impacted kids. Um I've had about five conversations with individual kids that came out of the

117class that the student was was removed from and some parent conversations as well. But I mean, we had staff that were impacted by that cuz they were either directly or indirectly involved. Um, that one scared us like nothing has scared us to this point in my experience. So, I would say the anxiety level for kids is up. Um, they were using words after like confused, scared. Um, yeah, anxiety is up for sure. And then you compound that with everything that happened on a state level >> uh with enunciation and um some of the other political violence and everything else which is partially why the district um provided some extra support for Denfeld at the end of that week because it all came to a head at the same time. And so yeah, definitely feels different

118than it has in the past. For sure. I um assume that that that our um SRO's are also approaching our kiddos with more empathy and understanding of anxiety and and emotions being high as well. So I am making that assumption and I appreciate that. Um, another thing member Saddowski pointed out, or maybe it was somebody else, but um, the >> people that are immediately involved and are on my safety team. Um, it's like September 6th or something. We had a fire drill in which a a dump truck on 40th did not want to stop for kids crossing and and parents or teachers helping the kids get across and uh kind of nudged his way through students. Um and so in in our discussion with officer Dardis, we now literally park his car on 40th with

119his lights on. Um and so that's just an example on the micro level of how we make adjustments regularly. Um and he's always a part of that that operation and that thought process. >> Member Banks. Yeah. Just I have a special request. Is it we talked earlier about relationship building. Is it possible for us as board members to meet the SRO's because I don't know them personally. So it would be great to build that relationship even at this level. Is that a possibility that would be not too cumbersome and all of that? >> I the best way to meet him is come out. I mean >> I kind of figured dude we're going to see >> come on out. Um you can see them in their natural environment. You can do a walk through with

120them but I would say by all means come out in your buildings. You can meet with the SRO's and check in with us and teachers and kids and everything else. So >> because it is about relationship building >> doors are always open >> even at this level. >> So thank you. see how many we can get. >> Member Laughler Kemp. >> Yeah, I I would just add uh member Banks that that's how I've met all of them is just being out in the buildings, taking the time to uh find them and uh and they're usually very easily accessible and just uh you know using that as an opportunity. >> Superintendent Maggus. Now, I just want to say uh thank you uh to our school resources resource officers as well as uh Sergeant Jamber for all

121the work that you do and you've been uh very very uh helpful and comprehensive as in thinking about the administration, our our principles, our director of secondary and our assistant superintendent who have worked for years to um think about our relationship with with the school resource officers and the school resource officers relationship. ship with our students and families from a continuous improvement perspective. You can see from the data uh that there have been really really significant changes over the years and um I think it's it's more than just the numbers. It's the the qualitative uh feeling that you get as as uh as Mr. Flaw pointed out uh that there's there's a very different um different feel these days. And I think it's it's important to note that that that's based on a lot of

122hard work. And I also appreciate the board's perspective that we're trying we we want to make sure that we are holding ourselves accountable because we we've had um you know throughout throughout the nation different different uh history of of difference in outcomes for kids. And so when we're asking hard questions and we're when we're looking at this deeply, it's because we want to make sure that we um go the extra mile to do things not just good but great. And I appreciate the the work being done by everyone. Thank you. And I would be remiss not to also add on to uh the thanks. Um you know, thank you for your continued partnership because John hit on all of the key points. Um because it makes a difference um for our students and our staff.

123Um all along when you know, this became uh something that was a focus priority for the district through the board. Um, you know, we've been slowly but surely making a lot of progress and there's evidence that show that we're making a difference in the number of citations students are given. More importantly, the relationships that are being built and just making sure that everyone feels safe and feels um, you know, in good stance with all of our officers and and how we uh, work with our students and support them. So, thank you for everything. And I really like hearing um member Lo like you said that if there's some recognition you know throughout the state on how we approach um partnering with our police department I mean that's that's really encouraging as well. So so thank

124you. Thank you everyone. >> One last quick question. >> Um neighbor Williams. >> Sorry. Um, is there an officer that, uh, at least visits ALC? >> Yeah. So, um, we have a contract with an outside agency, a security firm, and so, um, that's been established for the ALC. >> Thank you. >> Been with them for like two years now. So, yeah. >> Thank you. And that person also focuses a lot on building uh meaningful deep relationships with uh students to the point that um I know he he's um I've you know interacted with him many times and he shared that you know he has he had had offers to go to other assignments and to take other even promotions and he says he won't do it because he really enjoys being a part of the

125AOC um AO family. So >> congratulations. >> So thank you everyone. Appreciate it. >> Thank you Director Larber. >> Next up we have our very own uh Superintendent uh Maggus. He will provide information related to our vision card >> and I'll turn it over to Superintendent Magnus. We're taking a quick two-minute break. Everyone. I think we're ready to come back. Thank >> Thank you, President, Chairwoman, Dr. Eer. >> Ready? Great. Um, so before I begin, I I uh I just want to contextualize things a little bit. when we had put this on the calendar, um we we are working on our vision card. We've had an extremely busy uh start to the school year and so there are some things that that basically this is just a uh sort of a opportunity to con contextualize

126some work that we're we're finishing. We're the vision card is not ready for uh full sharing. So I want to lower expectations just a little bit. But I want to explain what a vision card is and why we're putting one together and how it fits within our strategic roadmap in just a few short slides. So I know this is always part of our our um presentation when I do my my superintendent update, but part of our strategic roadmap work was to work with the board and work with the community to put together our mission, our vision, and our values. So that is really what we ground ourselves in and on related to our work. And then our strategic roadmap as you know has three focus areas which is supporting every student, advancing equity and improving

127systems. So where does the vision card fit in with the work we do? And this is u really really important graphic that that teamworks shares. We have our three-year operational plan which I'll share u some views of that momentarily. But really that's the core of everything we do. And then surrounding that we have our strategic roadmap which is what we just showed with the strategic directions the core the mission vision and core values our desired daily experience of our student staff and families. And then uh we we also as part of that did a strengths and needs assessment and environmental scan. Uh and we also worked with the legislature. But really that vision card is really about the mi the measures and metrics that we're going to use to show whether or not we're making

128the making progress on the plan. So really thinking about how are we identifying our key performance indicators as a district and what does that look like externally and what does that look like internally and then really thinking about uh how does that fit in with work we're doing. We have our board plan, the three-year governance plan as well as uh how we are supporting people through professional learning. And really all that is is uh also part of our theory of action that if we if we have a strong strategic roadmap and if we focus on these things that we'll have uh better outcomes for our students. So uh as we go into that I want we also have our our action cards. Our action cards are kind of like the bigger rocks of work that

129we do and focus on as a district. The action cards provide a highlevel overview of the key district efforts as we work towards all three focus areas. And I'll share more on the uh action cards next month. But again, the action cards don't represent all the work. It's just kind of what are the biggest uh pieces of work that we're focused on. Like for instance, one of our action cards is focused on uh the implementation of our uh multi-tered systems of support framework. That is a huge piece of work that we have as a district. It focuses on what we do universally for all students. It focuses on what we do when students struggle. And so that needs to be con conceptualized as a as a larger piece of work there. And then I'm going

130to quickly show you uh you've seen this before, but I think it's important to uh share periodically the um the video we have on our strategic plan which lays out the that that road map for us. So, let me just pull that up because it's been a been a while and since we worked really hard on putting the video together, it's worth seeing a couple times. located on the far western shore of Superior. >> Except it's not casting. One second. I think that was me, not anybody else. Here we go. Fingers crossed. Located on the far western shore of Lake Superior, the Duth Public Schools serves over 8,000 students in 18 schools and employs more than 1500 staff members ranging from teachers to support personnel. Here, we're committed to providing highquality education to all students.

131Over the last year, we worked with school staff, families, students, and community members to create an updated three-year strategic roadmap. The schoolboard approved plan lays out our goals as a district and how we plan to get there with your help. It all starts with the district supporting every student. We want to improve instructional practices to best meet the needs of all of our learners. We'll tap into the multi-ter system to find strategies to create positive learning environments. Students will get extra support to grow and improve through intervention and enrichment. >> We want DUTH public schools to be a place where everyone feels a sense of belonging and accomplishment. It starts with strengthening relationships and building trust with all communities. To get there, we're creating an equity implementation and accountability plan to increase our ability to

132think, behave, work, and lead with an equity mindset. As part of the plan, all staff will receive ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion training. We're also improving our systems and processes. resource allocation and support services. Our school district is focused on finding and hiring highly effective and dedicated staff to educate, support, and inspire our students to reach their full potential. We'll also create a district budget that keeps our students as the top priority. And we will utilize a financial forecasting model to assist the district to plan and forecast the district's financial future. Finally, we're committed to providing clean, safe environments for children and creating physical settings that are right for learning. We invite you to learn more about our strategic roadmap and the role you can play in helping us get there. Visit our website to

133learn more. [Music] So, I just wanted to share that again because we have uh we we worked really hard on that as a district and and it's it's part of still is part of what we are focused on. Our three core areas are uh integral to what we do and like many other organizations we um when we think uh sorry, I'm just going to recast the the next slide. Here we go. So uh so anyway, the the three areas of supporting every student, advancing equity, and improving systems are really at the core of the work that you've been focused on as a district, uh as our board uh through the governance plan, through the budgets you've provided, through the resources you've allocated. And uh I just wanted to reshare that as part of what we're

134we're focused on. But really, um, the the three-year operational plan that we've been working on is, uh, it you you can find that linked in in your, u piece there. You can click into it, but I can cast it for just a second. Sorry for the back and forth with casting. Sometimes it's a bit of a pain. Sorry. And we've got that image there, but you can see see here the um the different areas that we have laid out that we focused on as a district. We have many many different items under uh supporting every student there. It's not just one thing. We're focused on family and community engagement. We're focused on MTSS as I mentioned. Uh talking about uh infrastructure for supporting improvement. What are we doing for assessment? what are we doing for

135uh database decision-m then what are we also focused on under advancing equity uh Mr. Assistant Superintendent Bond's um shared uh or introduced um Mr. Smith, our director of continuing or of um community education. We also have somebody coming on board as our new director of advancing equity. So, we're deeply committed to allocating our resources to advancing equity. And then what are we doing to improve systems? And I think uh we we talked about um we oftentimes talk about the work that that executive director Zunich is doing and improving systems with their budgeting and forecasting of uh information there and also uh thinking about director Severance who is uh departing our district for other things. She's done so much to improve systems for our school district. So it's important that we're considering those those bigger bodies

136of work and you see what that looks like on an ongoing basis. So, there's a lot of uh improvement that you're seeing there over time, but let me just Sorry. Sometimes navigating between screens takes a sec. >> And while he's doing that, um, superintendent meant to say Nate Chapman >> is the director of >> Did I say Nate Smith? >> Is the director of communication >> former >> We had a Nate Smith recently. Sorry. I certainly meant to say Nate Chapman. >> Of course. All right. >> That's okay. >> Yes, >> it has been. All right. So, that is our our uh continuing three-year operational plan. Mo many different districts uh especially districts that have worked with teamworks, even though they have a three-year operational plan, they don't go back and redo the strategic roadmap.

137The road map is kind of the core. We've decided that's the core of what we're focused on. We're it's not like we've achieved everything that we hope to as as far as what we want for desired daily experience for all of our students, family, and staff. Uh so really some some of the things that we've been focused on, we'll focus on probably for most of the rest of our careers. Whether it's uh how can we better improve literacy practices, how can we better improve graduation rates, those are things that um are perennial and need to be focused on again and again over time. But the vision card, this is a draft of what we're putting together, uh focuses on four different areas. How are we measuring the overall achievement of our students? And that's going

138to focus on kindergarten readiness, MCAs in reading and math, as well as our ontrack to graduate scores and our fastbridge uh growth scores. We'll also be focusing on our graduation rates uh which are important. Graduation rates are something that the public looks at very very clearly. Uh but in many ways, our graduation rates are um they they are more of a lagging indicator. meaning that that once our graduation rates have happened or not happened, it's kind of too late that the students have either gone through the system and graduated on time or they didn't. And so even though it's an important score, uh we we are not weighing that quite as heavily as some of the other scores because the that is a uh lagging indicator. And then how are we also measuring our desired

139daily experiences and we have some some survey work that we're doing related on that. uh we're focusing on the uh the uh desired daily experience statements and what we do in our annual district climate survey. So we're linking that data there. And then we uh also are focused on our operational measures. So looking at uh the different things that we have related to financial health, operational efficiency, what we're doing with human resources, how our enrollment is going, and also focusing on on making sure that we're in compliance with uh different risk management and other things. So basically we're setting up rubrics that measure all of this and then we are giving a weighted score for each of those areas as you see on the second to the left column. Uh the weighted score uh for

140achievement is 30%. Uh graduation rate will be 10%. Desired daily experiences is another heavy point and we want to make sure that that is uh measured with 30%. And then also the operational measures because school districts are not just about the student outcomes but what are we also doing to make sure that we're improving the systems so that we can better care for our students. Uh when we think about transportation systems for instance and making sure our students are routed that is all part of the the vision card. Now I'm not showing you all the this is kind of the hood of what this will look like. This this shows or the dashboard so to speak I I was probably a better term. This is a dashboard of our key performance indicators that we're working

141to finish. I wish it were were finished today. It's it's nearly done. Uh but but um unfortunately because of some of the the busy things we've had with with a lot going on, we've uh our last extended cabinet meeting we had, we were uh we needed to postpone that because we're over supporting um Laura MacArthur uh when when things were going on there. So that was that was something that we we postponed. But I look forward to bringing this back to the board. But I wanted you to know that we are working on the uh the uh dashboard and that it fits with our strategic plan. It's linked to our our desired daily outcomes as well as our student outcomes for uh our our staff. And so that that is just basically uh where we

142are in that work and I just wanted to share that as an update. Again, I mentioned that we are going to be having um a high level overview of our action cards in the near future as well as uh reports I believe next month from our our principles on their school improvement plans and what they're doing to link the um link the work being done by the continuous improvement teams to the strategic plan next month. Is that correct? >> That's correct. So just kind of kind of a a high level fly over of where we are as a district with our strategic planning as well as where the vision card fits in. >> Member Saddowski, >> I hadn't quite pressed my light, but you saw my finger on the on the button there. Um I

143liked I liked your analogy of, you know, this is the dashboard. Um, you know, I it's it's interesting to get this presentation here at the committee the whole when we get to see under the hood at this meeting every if that's the right expression if we can continue with the car. um we get to, you know, hear and see and hear from our our staff about the um a lot of the different initiatives and programs and data-driven ways that we're trying to support students very specifically, whether it's, you know, within just the not just but the Spanish immersion program specifically today. Um just so it's it's interesting, you know, getting this update here at the committee the whole when we get all those updates. Um, and I've been thinking a lot lately just about our

144um, increase in graduation rates across all student groups and really we get a lot of questions about that, you know, in the in the community like what why is that? And I always say there's not I can't really personally put one a finger on one one thing that would have done that. But the fact that we're being so thoughtful about tying our vision card into our strategic plan into all the things that trickle down here at the committee of the whole um I think um you know that's that's what's really driving that. So appreciate the update. Thank you. >> Thanks. And I would also say um you know gra graduation rates we they are very very important to us and at the same time we can't always guarantee that our graduation rates will always go

145up. I I certainly certainly hope so. Uh and we make it our our life's work day in and day out to to make sure that we're doing everything possible to keep those things moving in the right direction. But there are so many different factors that affect it. That's why we want to make sure that we're looking at a variety of measures and not just graduation rate and uh really appreciate that. >> Yeah, good point. Thank you. >> Seeing no additional lights, that concludes our cow presentations uh for today. >> Thank you.