001Good evening and welcome to the May regular school board meeting for the Duth Public Schools. I'm calling this meeting to order. Welcome everybody and I'd like to turn it over to clerk Mikeel for our roll call. Member Banks here. Chair Durk Eer here. Member Laughler Kemp here. Member Lald here. I am here. Member Saddowski is excused. Member Williams here. Superintendent Maggus here. Assistant Assistant Superintendent Bonds present. Burgley. Deputy clerk Zunich present. Executive director of HR and operations severance present. Board secretary Patty Pquette here. Student reps Taylor is excused. Student rep. Garner is excused. And student rep Dean present. Thank you very much, Clerk Masel. Now, if you will, we have the flag in our back corner here, and we will um do the pledge of allegiance. Now I'll ask for approval of the agenda as
002it stands. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. Thank you. It's been moved by member Laughafler Kemp. Do we have a second? Second. It's been seconded by member Micasel. Now I'm opening it up for discussion. And do we have any discussion? Chair Eater, I'd like to offer an amendment to tonight's agenda. And um I'm going to um make a motion and then I'm going to look for a second to that motion. And my amendment is to remove on our consent agenda 1B 2D, which is really the contracts, change orders, and leases. and it's about the mindot London Road property sale. That's on page 30 of the financial HR business um agenda from last week. So I want to make a motion to remove that from our consent. And then the second
003part of this amendment would be to add that um contract change order lease the contract for Mindot to add to our agenda our regular school agenda this 1B2D. So, it's removal from consent and place it on tonight's agenda. That's my motion. I'm looking for a second. Do we have a second? Do we have a second? Second. Thank you, member Mel. So, and I will open it up for discussion on the amending the agenda. Do we have any discussion? Any discussion? Seeing no further discussion, we will vote on the amended the amendment to the agenda. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Opposed? Nay. We have passed the amendment to the agenda. Now we need to vote on the amended agenda. Do we have a motion to approve the amended agenda? So moved. It
004has been moved by member Loal. Do we have a second? Second. Oh. Um, sorry. Okay. Um, member Williams seconded it. Right. Okay. Do we have any discussion? Any discussion? Seeing no discussion, we will vote on the amended agenda. All those in favor, please say I. I opposed. Nay. Motion carries. We have an amended agenda. Okay. All right. Um after that rather lengthy exchange. Now let's move on to a great part of the meeting, the school and the community recognition. And I'll look to Superintendent Maggus for that piece. Thank you. And um I can't fill the shoes of Assistant Superintendent Bonds, but dear school board members, tonight it is my honor to recognize three truly exceptional educators who exemplify the dedication and passion that is present within our district. Rachel Lo, who couldn't be here tonight,
005Emily Blancquist, and Corey Henle. We are incredibly proud to celebrate them as nominees for this prestigious 2025 Minnesota Teacher of the Year Award. Please come forward. Well, this award ultimately went to another dur deserving educator. Their nomination in and of itself is a testament to their profound impact and unwavering commitment to our students. Rachel Loel, the talented choir teachers at Denfeld High School. Emily Blungquist, a nurturing preschool teacher at Myers Wilkins, and Corey Henle, an energetic physical education teacher, also at Myers Wilkins, who you met earlier this year for recognition and and helping out with an emergency at Myers Wilkins, all share common threads that make them stand out. Their profound dedication to equity and ensuring that every single student feels seen, heard, and included in their respective classrooms and beyond. Rachel, Emily, and Corey
006consistently go above and beyond to create environments where every student feels a sense of belonging and has the opportunity to thrive. They truly understand that education is beyond academics. It's about fostering an inclusive space where diverse voices are celebrated and every child's unique needs are met. Their nominations for Minnesota Teacher of the Year underscore the remarkable way they do their thing. It highlights their innovative approach, their tireless efforts, and their profound belief in the potential of every child. We are immensely grateful for their contributions to our school community, and the inspiring example they set for all of us. Please join me in extending our deepest gratitude and heartfelt congratulations to Rachel Loeld, Emily Blumquist, and Corey Henle for their outstanding achievements and their unwavering dedication to our students. Thank you for embodying the very best
007of our district. And would you like to say anything? Um, as I hand you the microphone. Yeah. uh just grateful to be a part of such a wonderful school and uh school district and uh there's many educators who deserve this nomination and uh we're just I'm sure I'll speak for Emily too but uh uh just grateful for this opportunity and uh although we didn't get a chance to make it to the top 25 it was a amazing experience and the lady who ended up winning the whole entire thing had been teaching for 49 years and they they mentioned multiple times about her amazing energetic enthusiasm. So, I'm hoping that we can still be that way in, you know, another 40 [Laughter] years and I totally um echo all of the sentiments Corey shared. Um, I
008don't know that I'll be able to teach preschool for 49 years as uh getting up and down off the ground might be difficult. Um, but I am so grateful to be a teacher at Duth Public Schools. I am grateful to be a representative for Head Start on in in our world that that is happening right now. Um, and I appreciate this opportunity. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys. Can we take a picture if you don't mind? Yeah, absolutely. That's a great way um to move into the next conversation which is the report of the superintendent. So I will turn it over to Superintendent Maggus for the next bit. Thank you. And I'm just casting Well, thank you. And tonight's uh superintendent report uh we always start off with our mission, vision, and values. Our
009mission is that every student every day will be empowered with learning opportunities for growth, creativity, curiosity, and preparation for the future in a global community. And I think we heard that well exemplified by our teachers that were recognized tonight. Our vision is that Duth Public Schools provides an academically engaging, safe, and inclusive environment with high expectations and responsible use of resources. And our core values are learning, excellence, equity, collaboration, and belonging. Tonight, our topics, uh, we have our student reports, and we, um, tonight we have one student report, uh, by Kate Dean from East and our other students are excused with some of the end ofear activities and things that we have going on. But, uh, Representative Dean, would you mind sharing? All right. Oh, goodness. Okay. Well, a lot of what we discussed at
010our last student forum meeting had to do with, you know, some thoughts about events at East which I shared with student government and then a lot of ideas for what students would like to see in relation to the intra city student council and I was able to share a lot of the feedback that I got with Mr. Magus a few weeks ago and I think that some of the details of what we came up with will be shared later at this meeting. Just some updates of what's been going on at East. Yesterday, student government hosted a tailgate prior to the girls lacrosse game. It was held in the parking lot and tons of students showed up with both cars and friends. Um, we many more came from track practice and from lacrosse warm-ups. The event
011featured grilling, club info tables, live music from a student performer, yard games, and excellent turnout. We did run out of food. Um, we are excited to start a tradition of real tailgates before football games in the fall, and we're going to hope for warmer weather next time. Uh, tomorrow is our last pause day of the school year, and it is going to be jam-packed. A yearbook club will be starting to set up for distribution at 7:00 a.m. And throughout the day, there will be yearbook distribution, cap and gown distribution, our spring sports assembly, and a new event in the afternoon, which will be a yearbook signing and social put on by student government. Students are definitely finding it difficult to make up any missed tests at the end of the year while still having time
012to be involved with clubs. That was kind of the intention of having our pause days, but as you know, they get very, very busy. Um, we are hoping that some amendments to our schedule next year will help to accommodate some of those concerns. I think we're looking at some alternatives to pause days. I know that schedules and class requirements are something that I bring up a lot, but I do so because that's what I hear the most comments and concerns from students on. I want to go a little bit more in depth about how we've been impacted because at the end of the year, thoughts about what next year is going to look like is it's really at the front of students minds. So last spring, each grade was called to the auditorium uh to
013hear about our new district required class requirements. So for fresh there was freshman futures for 9th graders, computer science for 10th graders, and college career life readiness for 11th graders. While each of these classes definitely do seem like they would have benefits to students, the way that the new requirements were implemented caused a lot of issues. So, at these class meetings, which happened roughly two weeks before the year ended, we were given a slip of paper and told us that we had the next 20 minutes to decide which of our classes for the next year we were going to drop in order to accommodate those new requirements. And the way that that happened was just so frustrating for students. We went back to our classes after those meetings and we had like students were just
014having venting sessions to to our teachers because it was just very frustrating how rushed it was at the end of the year. Um just something about some of those classes that were added and this is coming from student forum reports. This is the feedback that I've heard from the students who come to me. So the freshman feel that freshman futures isn't a great use of their time because we already have high school orientation programs. So, at East, we call it Hound Pack, but it's essentially a link crew. Um, and I believe that there's a similar program at Denfeld. And I think freshmen would be better served with time for another elective or a study hall. It's actually kind of unclear to me what's taught in that class. So, I'd love to become more informed on
015it, but anytime I've asked a student about what they've done in there, they get stuck on telling me how frustrated they are with it before I hear about what they're actually learning. As for 10th grade computer science, the feedback I've heard the most is that the curriculum taught doesn't necessarily align with what they're being tested on, which most students suspect came from just how rushed the requirement was. As it stands, most of the students in the class don't really want to be taking it, which makes the environment in there a little bit worse for the students that really would be interested to take it as an elective. And it's not an option to the upper classmen who would want to take computer science. It's only for those 10th graders is my understanding of it. And
016then from from my personal experience, I took college career life ready 11 or we call it CCLR. And it does offer a select few useful lessons, but most students, including myself, found themselves in a class that felt like a study hall with some busy work. The continuity across all these requirements is that they really did feel like an afterthought. the stu students lost opportunities and the rush nature of the decision to implement schedule changes created a lot of student resentment. I feel like a lot of the discussions I hear among students are feeling really frustrated with how that was decided. Um I think that kids of all the of all the types of decisions that students will engage with decisions about our schedules and our class requirements are going to be what you're going to
017get the most engagement on. I don't think there really was much student engagement last spring because we didn't know that any of this was being considered until we were asked which class we were dropping. But on a more on a much more positive note, I do think that the switch to 7 hours um at the high school level has been really beneficial. That's what I've heard in student forum. That's what I've experienced personally. I wouldn't be able to take all the classes I do without seven hours. And I think that it opens up a lot of opportunities, whether that's for another elective or for a study hall or an early release for some lucky upper classmen. Um, we still miss win and aren't really sure what to do about it, but I'm hopeful that there
018can be some conversations in the future about thinking of alternatives that can better serve students. We are currently in our last full week of the school year and the anticipation is very obvious. Um, I've seen a lot of engagement from students this year just across a ton of different activities, events, and I'm just really excited to see what's to come. And that's all I have for you tonight. Thank you, Representative Dean. Uh, really appreciate it. and you mentioned um and we we've actually had conversation at the um at the high school uh quality leadership team with the our our um labor management group and uh I think that they they were wondering if there's just if this is just the sentiment of of a few people or a few outspoken people, but I think you've
019exemplified that there are quite a few people that have addressed uh concerns and I think it might be beneficial for us to relisten to your comments tonight. um as as a group and con consider that just kind of some of the feedback that that you're hearing. Um and we've t also talked about how can we further empower and and give more voice to our students and two weeks ago uh director Larva and myself met with you and we talked about we there was a um just a rough draft plan and some things that that uh we talked about about what it could look like as far as putting together a intracity student council for next year and really excited about that. So looking at having uh several representatives from each of the schools and uh
020having them either elected or or selected depend we wanted to make sure I think all of us were trying to make sure that we had plurality of perspective and it wasn't just you know kind of one type of student that emerged you know the popular student or the popular with teachers students but trying to figure out how can we make sure that there are multiple voices in the room uh that we would use this spring and early fall for some of the um planning and implementation, but then then next year that would be really uh rolling ahead more more uh solidly. But two weeks two weeks ago is when we met and we want to make sure that we have I'd like to have uh if possible another meeting before the end of the school
021year so that we could uh make sure that we're ready for the fall. So that's something that we're working on, but we also have graduations and things. Uh but I think it's really important not to lose sight of this and I want to say thanks to director Larva for uh putting together some initial plans but also um sometimes we we talk about things as being a straw dummy to kick around like basically somebody puts together a draft of ideas but we don't want it to be seen as this is the only way we can do this. This is something that if it's going to be about student voice we want to have student voice in the creation of it as well as the implementation too. So, um I think it's important for us to to
022listen because you are in many ways the customer and consumer of what we put together and um making sure that we have that opportunity is important for us uh so that we could better our system and improve and make sure that we're serving every student every day. As a district in our strategic roadmap, we also talk about what are the desired daily experiences of our families and of our staff. But really what it comes down to being very important is what are the desired daily experience of you our students and making sure that you have voice in that is uh integral to us making decisions and for us being uh good servants to the board and community. So I'm looking forward to to next year and the remainder of this year putting putting that together.
023And I also appreciate the um the diligence with which you work to try and make sure that you're lifting voices of of multiple perspective. So with that said, the um when we think about voices and think about improvement, we have some great news related to our graduation rates and the graduation rates for our class of 2024. Uh those were the graduates from from last year. And if you if you remember and for for our public too uh that was the group that started in the fall uh that we were just just coming into um the the first fall in COVID and so many of our students started remotely and spent much of their year in remote or a little bit of hybrid and then we came back in person and so when I think about
024the resilience that those students showed you you as well you're a year behind that group but you you also had uh many things to consider. consider as you were finishing your eighth grade year as well. But when we look at our graduation rates, uh again, we've got some really really positive news and we've been u celebrating this uh in the community and I've listed them here uh in order of of u just the number of graduates u in in uh from um the greatest number to the uh least number of improvement uh over time. So, the Duth Area Learning Center had a a significant significant uh growth of 34.3 percentage points. And you could really think about that as a 100% increase too if you looked at it as uh you know going from 34%
025to nearly 70%. That's a doubling of their uh graduates which is uh really outstanding. the uh academic excellence online they went from uh 79.5 to 88.9 which is nearly 10% uh improvement. Um our ALC independent study uh they're they're making progress at 4%. Uh we have Denfeld going up 2.5% and we have East going up 1.1%. So those are our students and this is based on graduates within a four-year period. We know a lot of people I've had number of family members and others sometimes it takes a little more time to to graduate and we want to make sure that we're thinking about our our seven-year graduates and our five-year graduates but this is based on the four-year graduation rate and it wasn't just our uh traditionally successful students when we look at the historically
026underserved students that we have uh there was significant significant growth in those groups. So if we look at 4.2% 2% for all students. When we look at two or more races, that was a growth uh of uh 12.4%. And Hispanic students went up 10.2. Our black students went up 9.1, our American Indian students went up 7.8, and our white students went up 3.6. So, sometimes people close gaps by having, you know, the white students drop and and and meet. But we've had a uh a better serving of our historically underserved students and raised our rates with many many groups at nearly 10% each, which is uh I'm really really proud of our our students. I'm really proud of our staff and our families for supporting those students. Then when we look at uh you look
027at free and reduced lunch versus non-f free and reduced lunch again you see with our free and reduced lunch rate that went up by over 10%. Yet our our non-f free and reduced lunch students went up uh nearly 2%. But there and you have to think sometimes when you look at um and I'm going to go back back a couple of slides. You might say oh well how come east only went up 1%. Well, they went they went from 94.3% to uh to 95.4%. It's it's hard to make 10% growth if you don't have 10% left to to finish. So, that still represents uh significant growth there. And same with our um when we look at our economic status here with the free and reduced lunch versus non-free and reduced lunch. when you have 92.7%
028uh going from 91 to 92.7, that's a pretty significant closing of the gap there. But it's also great to see over 10% with our our free and reduced lunch students. And you see again, uh when you look at our white students, uh free and reduced versus non. When you look at our black students at at over 20% growth, uh these scores, Hispanic at 31.2%. uh these these growth areas are really really significant. We do see a drop here in our Hispanic non-free and reduced lunch. Uh that's a smaller uh cell size and I'm not sure the the exact cell size uh actually 26. Uh so that that could represent a small handful of students but it's still important for us to keep an eye on that as well. Then when we look at special education
029versus non-special education again we see growth in all the areas and again uh look at our our black students at 13.6 those are black special education students went up 13.6 uh we look at two or more races of of our nonsp special ed going up 177 and our um Hispanic students going up nearly 11%. but growth in every single area. Uh I'm really really impressed with the work that that our students are doing and the success that they're seeing. And this is not based on um just continuing to do what we've always done. I think that when people asked me during different interviews, what what do you think the difference is? I think there were a number of things. I think that when we went through the the pandemic, we learned how important it was
030to focus on engagement and making sure that what we're teaching was relevant and interesting and students were engaged and it was we recognized that it wasn't just about seat time, but I think even more importantly, we learned the importance of relationship and the importance of being in each other's presence. I think those things were things that we learned and um really changed our pra practices based partly on that. Then we look at um again this this is a similar comparison here with our free and reduced lunch versus non-free and reduced lunch just alone without the special ed portion. So these slides are break broken down into separate slides basically of what I just showed you. But when we look at um the four-year graduation rate again uh when we look at who's graduating we have
031nearly 80%. Uh the remaining students there are nearly 10% that are continuing. I'm always concerned no matter no matter how many students are in the drop dropout range that if there's one student in the dropout range that that is too many students from my perspective and also making sure the the unknown category uh I think it's important for us to always follow up with our families and find out what what is happening and I know our our social workers and counselors and administrators are are working to do so and working to reconnect. I think it's important as well when we think about things like adult education to remember that adult education serves uh students who maybe have not been historically um as successful in graduation. We want to make sure that we're we're still focusing
032on uh allowing students to have another opportunity for graduating and that we're valuing those students the same as we would value other students. So those uh graduates again the definitions are here. Uh graduate is somebody graduating within four years entering as a ninth grader. Uh you know how we we counted in Mars. Continuing means that you don't graduate in four years but you're continued to be enrolled and you're you're working towards a five, six or sevenyear graduation. Uh dropout is somebody who is no longer part of that cohort. and unknown is that there's no enrollment, but we're not sure in Mars and they haven't entered into another system. So, those are those are students that we really need to make sure that we're tracking. Uh, but again, to have 4.25 graduation rate increase of all
033of our students and many of our historically underserved students at uh nearly 10% in every single category, almost every single category, we had pretty significant growth. So, I'm very proud of our team, very proud of our students, very proud of our staff and our families and of the board because I think that we have focused on a strategic roadmap and making sure that we're upgrading our curriculum. You'll hear in our committee the whole report about what we're doing with our our um English language arts programming. All of those little incremental changes add up over time and continue to lift uh for the success of our students. So, our leadership teams, our students, staff, and can't forget about the board and what you've done as well. But it all comes down to our students and their
034resilience and strength. So, that was the good news. The interesting news, I won't say bad news, are our legislative updates. Um, we have a there is a special legislative session that's required uh to finish our two-year budget. Uh, as you know, yesterday was the close of the regular legislative session, and so they're working to to finalize things if if possible, and it looks like they'll have a special legislative session. There were several key budget bills that were not yet passed, including education. There's an omnibus education bill that also needs approval at this point. And so basically right now there's kind of a hashing out between the House and the Senate as far as what are the Senate ideas, what are the House ideas, and how are they going to come together uh to resolve the
035differences in the remaining bill. And they have an agreement or a deadline uh that they need to finish by 5:00 tomorrow, otherwise they will go into a special session. So we'll see see what occurs with that. Um but we're watching very closely. The Senate passed the omnibus pension bill. We remember we talked last time about the pension reform. So there was a passing of the omnibus pension bill 55 to12 and the house passed it with a 133 to1 vote. Um the bill enhances uh benefits for teacher retirement fund and the key key provisions uh basically include lowering the age for enhanced early retirement from 62 to 60 and reducing the uh percentage reduction from 6% to 5%. And also lowering the age for early retirement reduction from 62 to 60 increasing uh employer contributions to
036TRA with the state covering a portion of the cost. So, we're still waiting to see how that shakes out exactly. Uh, but I think it's important for us because what we're seeing is um we had a large number of teachers who were highest up on the pay scale and most experienced, which is a positive aspect in one one regard. Uh, but if they were staying longer than they wanted to because they couldn't retire because of the financials, um, that that also could be very costly for school districts. So you're you might be paying a teacher at 75 or $80,000 a year as opposed to having a new teacher start at a at a lower wage. Uh so there's there's a pretty significant u impact of millions of dollars for each individual district and billions for
037the state. So pension reform is the right thing to do for our hardworking teachers. You know, we heard about the preschool teacher that had worked 49 years and you think about all the service that they provided. It's important for us to think about how can we make sure that all of our teachers are well cared for as they retire as well. So, that was nice to see in the uh update there. And that concludes my superintendent report. Any questions? Where are we looking? Who's calling? Are you calling? Member Lul. Okay. um just um some celebrations for all of the things that you report on and are interested in. So, um, a couple of things like what strikes me about the increase in our graduation rates and also from, um, reading, um, the Minnesota Minneapolis Star
038Tribune a little bit that that these increases in graduation rates are are are seen in in districts across our state, which just gives me um, like great great news. But it's like so the money that was flowed into schools during CO that allowed us I mean we did have some a lot of learning loss but you know in in the whole context of things we've we've struggled with many students even before COVID with learning loss and and reading gaps and achievement gaps and graduation gaps and so we were given th this money the school districts across the state but certainly our district applied those funds appropriately and meaningfully and and there was some really intentional interventions and curriculum and and service. So, um, we see those things. And so, you know, it just kind of
039reminds me that I can remember talking with a legislator, you know, maybe shortly after the the 2022 session where there was this historic funding to um, education. And my comment back to Senator Zazinski was that there was certainly he thought there was historic monies given to districts, but I also said there was historic needs. And so um because they were kind of wondering why we were back asking for more money and it's like because we should have had this money to begin with. So it's so thank thanks for the presentation on graduation rates and then linked to legislation. And the thing I want to say about legislation is just a reminder that you can tune in to Friday morning. MSBA does a a pretty wonderful kind of legislation update. So, the things that are going
040to happen, you know, tonight and tomorrow are going to be reported and and given some background and and de depth and and maybe they'll know a little bit of what's going on even next week if there's anything. And that's 9:00 a.m. and they always send us out an email and that would be great. And then I just want to kind of go back um if I can to the dropout and the unknown as we look at our graduation rates. And just ask a couple of questions like um so it does say that when when somebody officially drops out, they are counted at whichever high school attended that they attended the most. And I just, you know, want our public to realize that that that's an interesting part of the data. And is there any way
041you pull that out? superintendent where you can make some some some insights into how that affects our graduation rates in DUTH when you look at our dropout rates. Do we figure that in? Do we know that? That's one question. And if you don't I I'm not asking this thinking that it's the answer. It's just kind of like what are we doing there? And then the the unknown makes me think like how do we know they're unknown really? Like if they're unknown, are they are they still on our role? Oh, Jen Larva is coming back. Are they still on like our class lists because we don't know that they've dropped? They're just not attending. And then how does that figure in as well to to how we collect data on graduation rates? Thanks. Are you okay
042with me taking this? Please do. All right. Um, so I did sit in with the um MDE when they explaining um all of these different categories. Um, I do think there needs to be some clarification for some of these so that you're aware of some of them. Um, the continuing one, just to let you know, we we do have students that we know are going to be continuing. We have some that go on into our bridge program. Um, a lot of special education students are in that program. Um, so they're not counting for the four-year, but they do count for like by the time we get to the seven-year, we're looking at that. So, that's kind of where that one lies. Dropouts are usually those 15-day drops. That's usually when we're finding out that um
043they they they end up being called dropouts. So, if we end up doing a 15-day drop on a student and they don't end up enrolling somewhere else, um then they're still they're still tied to us. Um that could be that they went to another state and went to school. It could be any number of reasons. Um they could have really truly dropped out. Um, so it is important for us to take a look at which students are in there. And to your question, we do get a spreadsheet with all the student names, with all of their all of their Mars end codes. Um, and I've been doing some dipping into that with with some of our um principles just to kind of say like do some sampling like um where did this kid go and
044and and why is this classified that way? And and some of it is that they left the state or you know like they they kind of know some of those things about those kids. Unknown is a very interesting category. Um, a lot of times they have left Minnesota and we have a lot of them when it comes to our students that are enrolling in some of our care and treatment programs. So, if you think about we have this wonderful program that is housed in our district. Well, it's not housed in our district, but we we we provide the instruction and that's at Amberwing. So if a student from Wisconsin, any of the towns in Wisconsin come in, they end up enrolling in Minnesota for those 15 to 20 days that they're at Amberwing and then
045they go back to their home school, but they become unknown to us because they are no longer in the state of Minnesota and in in Wisconsin. They go back to their home school. They never show up again in Minnesota as far as an enrollment goes. So that was really interesting to kind of dig into some of that data. So it's pretty impossible to get to 100% a graduation rate when you think about it because there's so many different factors that happen. Um but yeah, I just kind of wanted to clean some of that up for you so you can understand where like why would it be unknown? Um and a lot of them are they're coming to us for like a short period of time and they're leaving. That that also happens with our Arrowhead
046Academy. Um so a lot of our care and treatment ones we end up with unknowns. Thank you. And I also want to say um how proud we are of those students that are continuing all of our students but the students that are continuing. Sometimes there as you as you've mentioned sometimes there are significant other factors that are that are weighing in people's lives and sometimes it does take five or six years depending on what the scenario is and for students to remain in a continuing status and continue to work hard and and want to graduate and work hard to graduate. Uh we want to celebrate and lift those students as well. Member Banks. Sure. Thank you very much. And I think this is uh for Superintendent Magus. I'm very excited about the graduation rates across
047the board. Um my only question is how do we celebrate this uh as a board? Um because we need to keep this momentum going and I think some kind of celebration uh to recognize this at the board level and beyond uh I think is important. Is there a possibility for something like that to happen? I think um we so we have um promoted it pretty heavily within our own uh social media. We've promoted it on in uh various media interviews. I was really it was a I have to say it's one of my proudest weeks that I had when we were uh sharing and doing you know multiple interviews and and uh lots of opportunity to celebrate the work of our our staff. But I also felt like it was kind of um showered on
048me, so to speak. And it it's not about me. It's about our staff. It's about our students. It's about our leaders. And how can we make sure we have that celebration? Um I was and you never know when people are going to going to talk about it. I was I was there was a chamber lunchon that I went to the other day and I was thinking like, "Oh, I don't know if I can take the time to go to this chamber lunchon, but Matt Bombgardner, the the uh head of the chamber, went on for five or six minutes about Duth Public Schools and the work we're doing here and the great great changes that we've had. Uh so I think it's there there are people celebrating in the community, but I think it would be
049up to the board to to think about what that celebration could be. I'm glad to uh think about what that could be. But also, I know um Adele Wellins, our communication officer, did quite a bit with uh putting things on uh social media. Um but we'd be be very open to considering what what such a celebration could look like. But I do think it's important to remember. I also think that we want to celebrate the graduation rates going up. Um and we want to keep that momentum going. Sometimes there are there are dips that happen and so we can't guarantee that there won't be uh a slip or a dip with a different group here or there especially groups with small cell size but we are deeply deeply committed to that every student every day.
050It's way more than a slogan and and we have to make sure it's a a way of being uh in supporting our students. I also think sometimes it comes down to sticking to the hard decisions that we have to make sometimes uh that that really thinking about our strategic roadmap and how are we staying committed to those those elements and how are we making sure that we're doing things like uh focusing on our action cards and and having the board hold us accountable during progress monitoring at the committee the whole like make us do the the hard work that needs to be done. want to, but uh sometimes accountability is important too. It's it's uh very important. But I would leave that to the board if you have uh thoughts about how you would like
051to celebrate. Um we would be very open to to what that could look like. Member Masel. Um, I want to echo some of the things that member Loal mentioned like, oh, if we had that funding long-term baseline all the time, like how much progress we would be able to make in some of our numbers, but then not only to that funding to a lot of the um different initiatives that our administrators have brought into our district. Um, we know education, there's long-term results that we takes time to actually see in these kind of percentages. Um, and hopefully this is the beginning of seeing those numbers rise. So, just expressing gratitude to those new fresh ideas and then the staff who's embracing them. Um, and really doing the heavy lifting of working through that with our
052students, but then also just our kids. Um, some of that's like personal to me because I had a graduate um, in this class last year and just so proud of their resiliency as you mentioned and um, all the all everything that they overcame um, within the pandemic. But um, recognizing that this is a this is their work and this is their time to shine as well. Um and then lastly, yes, so proud of all of these increases, but still so much room to go um especially for some of our uh different segments of students and so always keeping an eye on the prize of trying to get those um up as well. So thanks to everyone. Thank you. If I could comment on that, too. I yes, it's very important to note some of our
053some of our student populations um you know it's it's the the rate is not the same and we even though we're closing gap uh we still need to feel a sense of shock and urgency when we look at some of the numbers too. I mean when we look at uh our free and reduced American Indian graduation rate at being uh 45.3% for example, you have a better chance of flipping a coin and calling it right than you do graduating if you are a poor American Indian student here in the district. So we have to think about how are we going to hold ourselves accountable? How are we going to make sure that we're serving every student? Um, and I think that that sometimes we see unfortunately patterns that are that play out in so many
054districts. If you're poor, you have a lesser chance of graduating. If you're a person of color, you have a lesser chance of graduating. If you're uh special education, you have a lesser chance of graduating. And that's that's on us systemically to figure out how are we going to change? And I think that's that's why I always try and use the the term historically underserved as opposed to at risk because at risk kind of gives ownership of that to the student rather than the system uh which has the deep responsibility of delivering for every student. Member Williams. I just have one more question for director Larva. um that unknown number, do we as a district, do we still have um exchange students sometimes? Would that fall into that number as well? Like students, foreign students. Do
055we get those in the district anymore? So, usually our foreign exchange students have already graduated from their program in their country for the most part, I think. At least that's been my experience when I was and I'm looking at Rosie because she might have more information about that than I do. Um, so I don't think it's an I don't know that they get an actual graduation diploma. I'm not really sure right now. I I don't think they actually get a diploma from us. So they would not count in that aspect, right? Yeah, that's my understanding, too. And um uh they uh it's more ceremonial when they're walking through. Uh Um I just want to take a minute because to be an education and to be an educator is to be an optimist, right? So this
056is very um it it just it feels good. And then I love also to also be an educator and to be an education is to be an optimist and to strive. So we are celebrating these incredible numbers and we are striving to make sure that every student gets that peace, gets that graduation. So that optimism while we continue to strive because we can't strive to make this um district a better place for every student unless we hold on to our optimism. So, I just I want to celebrate and I want to remember the students that we didn't do our best for. And I um to our to our students all the time, what you hear is all the things that you aren't. Well, you these kids can't read a book anymore and they're coming into
057college and they can't do remedial math and they can't do this and they can't do that and they can't do this. that is more a reflection upon us as an adult as it is as you as kids. Right? So I just want to celebrate and think about the journey that you all have came through to get to this and I want to lift up all the things you are which is resilient which is high emotional intelligence which are in different skills than than the adults around you have. So I want to lift that up and celebrate that in this moment and then remind the adults that we have to shift our view that sometimes it's not a problem with what our kids are not but what we're not. So this is just incredibly wonderful data
058to celebrate and I want to lift our staff up because to continue and hold on to that optimism through what we all have navigated through and what we are going to have to navigate through in the next little bit. um can be challenging. So, hold on to that optimism. That's what I'd like to say. So, thank you. Thank you. And um just thinking about that and and thinking that just a few minutes ago um our teachers that spent an extra three hours here investing their time and effort in early literacy skills. Uh they they just finished after a long long day. They came for three more hours to to work on honing those skills knowing that investment in early literacy is one of the biggest payoffs we we have. We have another celebration tomorrow. So
059the momentum we have we are building on our future of trying to deliver for each and every student. So we we will make sure that that remains central to what we do and we appreciate the u the guidance of the board through this process as well. I don't see any other comments. Correct. Okay. Um, moving on from the superintendence reports, we have our schedule of meetings and events and you can find that listed in board book. And just as a reminder to our school board and to our community, next week, if I'm correct, next on March, yes, on May 27th, we'll have another committee of the whole meeting that starts at 4:30 and that's really interesting to talk about the juxtaposition to our graduation rates to now talk to talk about some of the um
060challenges that we're facing with our budget. So, next week on Tuesday, we'll have that committee of the whole meeting where um executive director Zunich will probably be the star of the show as we will talk about our budget. So, that's what's coming up. And then starting in June, we start June 3rd with our um excuse. Yeah, we start the the whole um graduation ceremonies, all the wonderful time for celebration. So, moving on from schedule of events, now we have our report from our standing committee. And I'm assuming um Assistant Superintendent Bonds, you're still going to be doing reporting on the monthly committee of the whole meeting. Am I correct? Actually, he asked me to Oh, okay. Never mind, Anthony. We got we got um some sometimes I apologize. Sometimes the awkwardness of hybrid kind of
061uh sketchy. Um but and actually as as I I was going to uh mention assistant superintendent Bonds because oftentimes um as superintendent I get the interview and I'm on TV talking about our graduation rates but really uh assistant superintendent Bonds and our our directors and our principles they are the ones that have really uh lifted the work. Um and I just wanted to say thank you to to uh everybody involved that has been part of that process. But the committee the whole report um we had several different topics. The first one was the Denfeld indigenous cohort and we talk about responsiveness. We recognize that the uh graduation rate for our indigenous students particularly at Denfeld is a historically underserved area. And so we created we we're trying to address things in new and creative ways.
062And so we uh had a presentation on the indigenous cohort, which is a group of uh indigenous students, Native American students at um Denfeld High School that take many of their classes together and receive additional support and the ratio student toteer ratio is is much better. They are taking a uh career foundations class. They're taking uh their ninth and tth grade English. They're taking ninth grade 10th grade social studies. They're getting science credit and math credit. those students are working together and we heard a lot about the positive aspects of of u what's occurring there. It's also important for us to be reflective as we try something new. Uh I think we need to learn from our mistakes and fail forward and make improvements and there were some suggestions as far as what that can
063look like. But we were I thought that presentation was uh really uh well delivered. We did we did hold on our uh youth vaping piece. We're going to bring that forward in the future. Uh partly because of some of the there were some policy questions and we wanted to make sure that we were clear on the difference between the vaping policy and what we're doing with um with the um policy committee. And the next report was on secondary English language arts. And as a former high school English teacher and somebody who's worked on uh language arts adoption committees, there's a lot of work that goes into adoption. And I'm very pleased to say that our 30 plus year old uh curriculum that we've had in English language arts is going to be replaced. And we
064went through the process of looking at the uh the several years that were used for needs assessment and prioritization of curriculum piloting of resources and uh then looking at what um what adoptions we were going to going to go forward with. And at the middle school, we're looking at my perspectives, which the adoption for that will be about $320,000. And the study sync high school curriculum will be about $375,000 roughly. And so really, it it takes money to invest in new curricula. And I think it's important to to uh I think curriculum is something that sometimes gets it's a can that gets kicked down the road as far as investment. And I think that we've seen um that unfortunately the district here has had to uh you know delay investment in curriculum whether it's been
065social studies or science and math and I think some of the the investments that we're making now are going to pay off into the future for our students. Then we had a presentation uh from uh Brenda Sparts and Jen uh Larva on our Minnesota multi-tered systems of support grant. The overview for that grant uh looks like the grant will be up to 200,000 a year and went through the purpose of what that grant looks like. Really thinking about how are we creating safety nets for students. Basically, MTSS, multi-tered systems support, is about making sure our universal is the best it can be. And then if students aren't successful in the universal, what is it that we're going to do to improve in those areas? And really uh some of that involved training. It involved u
066some some money for for some uh positions that that hopefully the board will consider approving uh related to MTSS. And then there was also um the information that we we're going to be at a uh conference at the end of June and actually we're uh we'll we'll be involved in several of the presentations there. So we've gone from just dipping our toes into MTSS where now we're we're presenting at the state level on MTSS. We also talked about professional learning communities PLC's and uh how strong of an engine that needs to be for the district is because really we trust our teachers. our teachers know the best and how do we harness their collective creativity and intelligence and and work around what we're doing. The professional learning community is really the best way of doing
067that. And so we're in our second year of work there with our continuous improvement teams and um the work they're doing with PLC's and just really proud of of those efforts. Then we went into a budget review and Simone shared our prelim preliminary uh fiscal year 2026 uh budget review and uh went through the basic formula announce amounts and such. We're hoping to get uh we're we we have our our next budget meeting. It's a special uh committee the whole a week from today and we're hopeful that we'll also have the results of the legislative session by then so that some of those numbers can be plugged in as well. Um, but we're we're hopeful that uh some of the corrections we're making in our course corrections we're making now, even though they're really really
068hard, they're putting us on u a more stable financial uh path than we've been on. So that was our committee. The whole excuse me, do we have any questions related? Um, member Loalt, I was busy trying to look through my notes and and the maybe consent agenda and cuz I I thought that I read in preparation for tonight's meeting and and director Larva and director Sparts can probably answer this question, but we did get your presentation at the committee the whole and I think I heard you maybe at the HR business last week that we we did secure the grant and you're going forward with the two positions and they've been maybe even posted for hire and is that on our agenda somewhere? I was trying to look to see. Okay, I must be just
069not looking at it or Yes, it's on the consent and I'm looking at it under finance. Is it C2? No, that's commissioning. But where on the consent? Just looking. Not that I need to know, but Oh, the other action items, job description, MTSS. Oh, okay. It's B2. Okay. So basically they are not they are new types of position but what we're taking is we're taking a teacher on special assignment position and creating a DWIA position which is districtwide instructional administrator. Um so basically it turns a it turns a uh teacher on special assignment level position to more of like a coordinator level position. So that makes it a they're they're still relatively inexpensive positions, but it's a year- round position. And sometimes we also hear from our teaching staff within the the um uh teachers
070union that even if it's even if somebody's giving advice and and guiding somebody and maybe giving peer feedback around improvement, uh sometimes that's not taken the right way and so they want to hear something from somebody in a different unit. And so that that's part of uh the the rationale for it as well is that it makes it so that it's not a teacher kind of quote unquote telling another teacher what to do uh is even if it's just meant as guidance. Um but really we were focusing these two positions on one on elementary and one on secondary. We currently have two people in the the teacher on special assignment positions uh that are kind of a combined role, not necessarily split elementary and secondary, but these would be split elementary and secondary. This would
071be going through a full hiring process. However, you know, the people that are in those roles would of course be encouraged to apply, but it's um something that needs to be a full and open process as well. Thank you for that explanation. That probably helps. member Williams. Maybe we don't have to go into I do remember hearing it um explained by the directors at our HR business when I was listening to it, but it's just clarity and knowing knowing that the grant is secured. And did we get the 200,000? Like I think in both times I've heard it defined, it's kind of like we've asked for it. We might be getting all of it. Did we get all of it? We have to remember though that grant funding sometimes can be tenuous and so we're
072not basing the decision solely on this being a grant-f funded position even though 40% of the positions will be funded for the next year out of this and there's an ongoing opportunity to fund this. Um so we believe it's a systemic improvement piece that that is uh when we look at the changes within the teaching learning and equity department uh we have the combining of two positions in teched to create one director level position which has been posted and then we have two TOSSA and one DUIA position that are turning into two DIA and one TOSSA position. So, the collective net uh savings for the district is around $40,000. So, it's a realignment. And yes, there are different positions and they're slightly different level. Uh but it's it's um it's better than cost neutral. It
073saves the district $40,000. And we believe that that was important for us to look at holistically uh during the time when we're asking for reductions in other areas. Member Loalt. Member Laughler Camp. Sorry. That's okay. It does start with an L. You're right. Member Lo. Uh, yeah. I just wanted to say I really um and and I hope you're hearing me, Mr. Bonds. um uh appreciated the presentations that we had at the committee of the whole um all three of them were really excellent and uh I just appreciated being able to bring uh as many people to the table particularly with the Denfeld uh uh cohort and and then um just hearing kind of the history of the adoption um process because that's a significant amount of money and uh uh just understanding for the
074public to understand the work that goes into doing these adoptions um was so key. Uh so just wanted to just uh thank you for bringing those presentations together. And then the last thing um I just wanted to say I guess is that I'm looking forward to our committee of the whole meeting next week uh and the wonderful charts I know you'll be providing um Simone, but I also uh hope that we can have continued discussion on uh what we have been hearing from our staff and from the public on some of the proposed cuts and I hope that uh those voices are heard. So, I look forward to that next week. Thank you. Seeing no further questions, I'll go ahead and move on or we will go ahead and move on to human resources and
075business services committee and member Williams will be giving us this report. I will. Um, and I know that um, Chair Saddowski is going to watch this later, so hopefully I do an okay job. Um, to quote member Saddowski, we had a a robust meeting last week or whenever it was that we met on the 12th. Um we uh April was busy with the posting of summer school parah positions and um for the start of the posting process for next year to date we've posted 40 PAR um PAR positions, three food service and 102 certified positions. In April, HR staff along with the finance team have been meeting with principles to review current staffing UART coding and having discussions about next year's staffing review processes. Uh the HR team attended several career fairs focusing on all
076district positions. Major fairs um attended included Minnesota Educators Career Expo in Eden Prairie, St. Cloud University Career and Education Job Fair, Hermantown Chamber of Commerce Career Fair, and Jet Career Fairs in both Virginia and Carlton. In addition, HR has worked closely with transportation leaders to create a bus driver training hiring process starting July 1st. We are excited to partner with them to bring this information to the general public in order to generate um interest in our bus driver positions. Um, next. Sorry, she flows at this much better than I do. Um, the district facilities um, building operations team is composed of many valuable employees and we want to recognize the efforts especially of the East High School building operations staff. Um, notably they have only been fully staffed for a week during the 2425 year.
077Um, and so nevertheless, they consistently demonstrate their commitment by ensuring the building is clean and wellmaintained to support all activities. So, we just want to um acknowledge them and give them a special shout out and thank you. Um and then I know we are going to talk about these in our resolutions later but just to mention some of uh the donations which there were many many many um oh gosh there's so many I will mention them or they will be mentioned when we do our resolutions later but um it was just cool to see all of the uh donations and then um one of the job descriptions um was for the employee benefits and engagement coordinator that we will be hiring for and [Music] sorry to correct. So yes, please correct me. Uh I apologize
078but that is a just a change in the job description for for somebody who's already I'm sorry I wrote that in the system but it's just a slight change their their their uh job des is that correct? Thank you. Thank you for correcting me. I do have that noted here. It's Yeah, just a change to the description. I heard heard from behind. So, I just Yeah, sorry about that, Director Severance. I'm not trying to give anybody a heart attack here. That was noted here. Um, Chair Saddowski, when you're listening later, you wrote it down correctly. I just misread. Forgive me. Um, and then, um, active enrollment. So, I made my own note. um just the significant enrollment is up from this time last year and I mean it's up from last year and signific significantly
079up from uh 2223. I marked the page and now I can't find it. Um so yeah, those are the highlights that I would say. Thank you so much, Member Williams, and you did a great job. That's not it's not an easy thing to figure out how to do that. So, thank you. This book is too big. I know. Oh, I know. Do we have any questions for member Williams? Uh, member Laughafler Kemp. Not for me. Member William member Williams, but you did an excellent job. Um, I just I say this a lot, I know, but I just really always appreciate because I'm not on that committee, all of the written reports that we get from the many different departments from nutrition to technology uh to facilities and um that they're they're very uh complete and
080and give us a lot of information. Uh, so I just wanted to do a thank you to our staff for um getting all those reports that are very helpful when you're not sitting on that committee. So in writing. So just a thank you. Good job. Okay, seeing no further questions, I think we'll move on to the policy committee update and member Laughler. Okay, can you hear me? Well, we had a very robust committee too. Uh it was a robust month of May I guess. Um just always like to to say that the policy committee again uh reviewing policies is a key role of uh schoolboard members. So I just have appreciated um uh my committee and the the questions and and uh research that you do but also other board members uh reaching out to
081us with questions as well. Uh so I I wanted to start by thanking you for that. Uh the um first item though is policies for first reading and our first policy was policy 807 which is health and safety policy. Uh this is will be referenced in the student handbook and this policy replaces 4165 eye and face protection for staff and 5145 eye and face protection for students. And um I'll just read the purpose of the policy as we always do and also want to thank Lexi Nef, our health and safety environmental coordinator for her work on this policy. The purpose uh of this policy is to assist the school district in promoting health and safety, reducing injuries, and complying with federal, state, and local health and safety laws and regulations. And uh we actually had
082recently reviewed it in 2022. There were some name changes and committee changes um some procedure pieces uh that were updated uh to reflect what we're doing and uh again uh just a lot of good work was put into uh revising it. This again is the first reading. So it will come back for the the second reading uh and Oh no, this is the second reading. It's the first reading. Yes. So it'll be coming back. Uh so uh again uh policy 807. The next policy was policy um uh 903 visitors to school district buildings and sites. This is replacing 1080 visits in schools and 6025 volunteer in schools. And uh the purpose of this policy is to inform the school community and the general public of the position of the school board on visitors to school
083buildings and other school property. And again, it goes into um uh a number of different categories as our policies always do. There's a a big section on volunteers and again this is the first reading and so it'll be coming back uh next month and again just appreciate all the work that was uh done to update this policy. The next uh section of our meeting was um policies for second reading. Uh so we will be um voting on this in our consent agenda and this is uh policy 413 harassment and violence deleting 413 and 413R and adopting this NSBA policy. And again want to uh thank uh Teresa Seance and our HR department for the work that was done on this policy. And the purpose of this policy is to maintain a learning and working environment
084free from harassment and violence on the basis of race, creed, religion, national origin, origin, sex, age, marital status, familiar status, status with regard to public assistance, sexual orientation or disability protected class. And uh again uh we've uh spent a lot of time on this policy being very thoughtful. Uh so again review it if you have any other questions. Uh but this is the second reading that we um uh bring forward for our vote tonight in the consent agenda. And then the last policy for second reading is uh the bidding process policy 726. And I'm going to read the purpose of this policy. Bids, requests for proposals, and quotes are obtained to ensure fair competition and transparency in the procurement process. Suppliers and/or contractors are invited to submit bids or proposals meeting predetermined specifications. This allows
085for evaluation of pricing and criteria to select the most suitable vendor. And we added this piece based on feedback from uh the board um the the next piece and uh of the purpose Duth Public Schools ISD79 is committed to providing an environment of mutual respect with a goal to ensure a diverse workplace is considered. Therefore, the winning vendor of this contract understands and agrees that their company shall comply with all applicable laws relating to discrimination and employment and be welcoming of applicants of all genders, sexual orientation, age, and race for employment with their company. And again, goes into more detail. There is not an NSBA policy on this. uh and just really appreciate the work that Simone and her staff did uh with this updated bidding process policy and that uh is is is a
086reumbering from 7070. Then we had a couple policies for review and the um when there are policies for review again it's because there's um minor changes in in them uh uh or some addition different additions or maybe there's legislative changes but the purpose of the website accessibility policy uh and we we really changed the purpose title um theuth public schools recognized es its responsibility to ensure that all individuals regardless of disability can access the information and services provided on our websites. This policy establishes a framework for achieving and maintaining website accessibility in accordance with section 504 of the rehabilitation act of 1973 and title two of the Americans with Disability Act of 1990. By adhering to the web content accessibility guidelines set forth by the web worldwide web consortium, we strive to create an accessible
087and userfriendly online experience for all students, caregivers, and members of the community. And then again goes through um uh different um sections as many of our policies do as well as the cross references or legal references. And I want to thank Adele Wellings, our communications officer, for all the work she did in updating this. Uh, also, we just got notice uh that this policy will be required federally um uh uh by April of 20 2016. uh is uh some new news that may change as we know but uh so we will be bringing this back uh at some point because of that and we will get keep a breasted uh of of any changes by uh Adele. And then the last uh policy for review uh was employee right to know um program policy 407.
088And the purpose of this policy is to pro provide school district employees a place of employment and conditions of employment free from recognized hathers that are likely to cause death or serious injury or harm. And we're not doing any changes to the policy. We brought it forth because there's a regulation change. And so we like to have the policy reviewed at the same time. All of what I just shared with you will be on our consent agenda. the rest of our meeting. Uh we did have uh some policies that were informational uh shared with us. Uh and uh so I I'll just quickly highlight those. They won't be on your consent agenda though. And that's 604 to our new elective courses in secondary schools. Uh and again uh we recently passed 604. I want to
089thank Dale Lewis for all the work um he brought uh into this policy or regulation and policy. And then uh the next uh regulationformational was 407R which is again the employee right to know program uh that we um uh that we that we talked about just a few minutes ago. And there were uh committee name changes were some of the things on here as well as making sure there are clear expectations uh throughout the district. So that was forformational and then we had a number of forms at the end that were againformational that we had provided input on um and changes were made. So, one, the first one was updating our 413F, which was our harassment violence complaint form, and we made a few changes uh to that. Um, our second one was updating 515F,
090which is the student record update form, which included a change with the new enrollment center. And then uh C416 attachment H that has to do with um our uh drug and alcohol policy uh with our drivers. And then the last one is the general complaint form and harassment form. And so there were some some updates there and all of these forms are electronically on our website. So that was our uh very uh robust uh meeting. We will be um meeting again on June 10th and we will not be having a a July meeting um but we will be doing a longer meeting either the end of June or the 1st of August to um focus on um more policies at this point. And I just also just want to remind board members if you have
091questions before our June 10th policy meeting when you get the information it's really helpful to get those questions Monday morning so that staff have time to respond before our Tuesday meeting. So thank you. Do we have any questions over the policy meeting? Superintendent Magus. Not a question but just very thankful for the policy committee. I think that we've been able to accomplish quite a bit and we've also talked about taking a larger chunk of time at some point to maybe work on retiring some of the thousand series uh policies because it's um with all the legislative changes and things like that over the past few years. It's taken a lot for us to be able to stay a breast and catch up in those areas and really appreciate the uh the the work of that
092group and also appreciate the um uh pause in having a policy meeting in July. Uh it's also been uh historically historical practice that we don't have a committee the whole in July as well, but we're certainly open to having one if the board uh deems it something that they would like. But generally we've had a HR business meeting because there are some things with uh LTFM and and budget and things that need to be worked on. But otherwise, we've generally had a regular uh board meeting. So if that's the practice that the board would like us to follow, we'd be glad to follow that or we'd be glad to meet whatever other needs the board has. Member Laughler camp. I just wanted to wrap up by also just thanking uh Patty Pquette for all the
093work that she does to uh prepare for the policy meetings to make the changes um that we're recommendations are being made and uh keep kind of the master of the the policies. Also the senior our senior leadership team um brings a lot of these policies forward and works with different teams and committees throughout the district and uh that um doesn't go unnoticed the work you put in to bringing these policies to us. So thank you. Seeing no further questions or comments, we can move on to general board committee updates. And this is a time I like we open it up for our fellow board members to talk about any committee committees that they serve on as part of their um role on the school board. Member Banks. Sure. Thank you very much. I serve on
094the transportation services advisory committee and I just wanted to um hand out a a document here. Thank you for helping with that. Uh, as you see here, it says special procedures areas where the eightway light is not used. Uh, this document has not been updated for a while and so we are now in the process of updating this document. Uh, and hopefully we'll bring it for approval. I I believe it has to come to the board, but we will certainly go through the proper protocols before we get to the board, but I wanted you all to at least take a look at this. And if you have any questions, either email those questions to me and I can forward them on. And then we are also hoping for at some point uh a policy that's
095needed for bus turnaround. And uh what we've noticed is that there are some of our drivers that are turning around in private areas and driveways and that's a no no and we believe we need a policy a stated policy or some kind of resolution or whatever that might take uh so that it is official. There's nothing uh official regarding that right now. So that's where we are. And then the transportation department will have a end of the year celebration and cookout that is on June 6th. We met today at 10:30. Thank you. Member Banks, may I may I ask you a question? Yes. What is an eight-way light? Does anybody What is an eight-way light? So that's the lights that are on the bus. Yeah. And so they come on, they flash. That's what they
096call them. Okay. The eight-way light. Great. Thank you so much. I I learned that today myself. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Eight of them. That's cool. Oh, yeah. Uh member Laughler Kemp. Yeah. I would just uh give a quick update on the quality steering committee um leadership team that uh you have two members of the board that serve on these three-hour or more uh meetings. And so Joe Lo was able to join us by phone. when I was there in person and you heard a little bit tonight of some of the topics that were addressed um and and discussed uh at this meeting but I just wanted to highlight it's another space where um discussion with our staff and administration and board are are there to listen uh and so conversations around the seven period day around
097electives and required classes happened around our restorative practices and trainings uh were were some of the areas that were discussed and as board members you have access to the minutes of uh those meetings. Um so make sure you review them, but I just wanted to highlight your two board members were present. We were um hearing and listening and uh uh as were many of our administrative staff. So thank you. Member Williams. I thought you were going to ask for questions first. I didn't want you to think I had a question. Ask for qu any questions. Great. Member Williams. Um, so April and the beginning of May have been very busy. So I have not been able to attend all of my regular um committee meetings, but I did attend the Head Start Policy Council um
098in member Saddowskistead as she had a conflict. um and major topics of conversation where um they had their um they were planning for and talking about the end of year celebration which would have happened last Tuesday. Now um it sounded like it was going to be a great event. I obviously did not go. I do not have a kiddo in Head Start, but um they provided um a meal and entry to the zoo and it just sounded like good family fun time. And then there was a lot of discussion around director Sher Williams retirement. So that was bittersweet. And um I know they have a dinner coming up for um the whole council I think next week. I will not be going. Even though it sounded yummy and fancy, but it feels not right to
099just show up for that one when that's not my committee. So, um that's what I intended. Thank you, Member Williams. Member Loal. So, just um a reflection to this is not a committee I sit on, but we were um the community was invited and and I think there was a email that might have included schoolboard members to the um American Indian um parent and community um opportunity um for title six funding and just generally um community was invited, staff was invited, families were invited to hear and just um discuss us and give input as to what um American Indian families and community would like to see in our district. So, it was just nice to be present. I think they appreciate when um there's there's a school board member in attendance. So, that was nice
100to see. I know that some of us I did not, but some of you went to the Goldfind teacher award and and that was a celebration. I was at another celebration at Denfeld because the choir concert was there. So, lots of opportunity to get out in our districts and we've been really um present as well um representing all of us on the board. But um we have just kind of I think concluded our our kind of March, April, May visits to uh 11 of our buildings. So, we were present for school site visits at 11 um of our of our buildings. Out of there's 13 uh buildings that um we house with elementary, middle school, and high school. We also have residentials and I'm um sorry that we didn't get it to as many residentials
101this spring, but we were there in the fall. But I really appreciate um board members that are able to attend. I feel like the site visits are appreciated by our principles and teachers really love seeing us come into their their buildings and I hope we can continue kind of that intentional getting out in in the school sites. But again, I I understand that some of us work a lot and have a really a 40-hour work week that you can't always take time off. So, we represent all of you and share um all of the good things that are going on. Thank you, Member Loeld. Member Laughler camp. Yeah, I thank you for sharing that, Member Loel. was just going to lift up really the goldfind award uh night as well uh as a wonderful opportunity
102to uh hear our principles um lift up uh the teachers that were nominated for that award and and just share all the passion and creativity. Um it's a it's such a wonderful event and thank you again Adele for uh how you um your great work on social media um sharing that ceremony to everybody. It it's just such a great event and so thank you to the Goldfine family but also to the Duth Superior Community Foundation for uh their support. Uh, and then with the school visits, uh, yes, they are great to get out to, and there actually is one more that I haven't put on the Google doc just because I was finalizing the times of it, but Friday, um, I had set up a meeting at Lakewood Elementary and it happens to be their
103environmental day. So, they have a lot of different activities that you can come, uh, to. So, if you're interested in and available on Friday, let me know and I can get you more of the the details of the day. Thank you. Uh, Superintendent Magus. Yes. Uh, just wanted to share some feedback from our principles. They they uh shared at their recent uh DPA meeting that they really appreciate the visits from from uh schoolboard members. Really appreciate the opportunity to showcase what they're doing and and just wanted to thank you for that. Um they they also appreciate when we can uh coordinate the the visits when we can just because sometimes they might have like multiple visits from different board members and so kind of uh appreciating those efforts of trying staying coordinated but they they
104just wanted to reiterate that you're always welcome. Uh they always want you to come and uh really appreciate the support that you show them as as uh leaders of their building. And um on April 30th from 1 to 3:30 um the district including most of our district administrators and member banks and myself were invited to out to Fondelac where we had our tribal consultation. I just want to thank um the tribe for their hospitality and allowing us to come in and have some um frank and productive conversations. I would say um it is a time where the district spends listening um and responding. So I think that's important to talk about is the role of of of what that looks like. It was um a time where our American Indian departmental staff really um did
105did a phenomenal job considering that a large number of them haven't been doing this work in the district for very long. Um it was we were welcomed. Um we had really good conversations um and and thought about clarity as we move forward in these tribal consultations, how we collectively work together to make sure that we are using them um and optimizing that time together to really spend it thinking about how um our indigenous students metriculate through our schools. So I think it was a great opportunity for us um to have those conversations um and that's what I would say looking forward to the next tribal convers con conversation consultation um and having member Williams as she sits on the APEC parent committee. So it it was a it was a good time and on the
106drive back I think we had a lot of reflection. So, yes, I want to just publicly thank the tribe for their hospitality and the um good and productive conversation that we had. Member Banks, do you have anything to add? Do you think we Great. Okay. Thank you. Um do we have any other committee updates or should we move on to the consent agenda? Just one other comment. Yes, members. Um Superintendent Magus. So, this this Friday is our uh Association of Metropolitan School Districts uh board of directors meeting. I won't be able to to attend that, but just wanted to open it up to you as board chair or other board members if you want to attend. I can make sure that the link is sent. Uh there's always a really good presentation and I wouldn't
107be surprised if there was a uh very informative uh update on legislative changes. Quite often they have um chairs of committees and other other groups there. So if you're interested in attending, just just let me know and I'll make sure I send on the invite. Thank you. Can you um Superintendent Magus let us know what time that is on Friday? Do you have that? Yes. Uh 7:30 to 9 a.m. They it's a it's a hybrid meeting. They they have u in person at the at the cure center down in in uh I forget the actual name of the particular BB, but it's uh New Canada or Canada that area. Okay. All right. So now um seeing no further updates and thank you for everything. Oh. Oh yeah. Okay. Um let's move on to our consent
108agenda. We need a motion to accept the consent agenda. So move. Member Loalt um has the motion. Do we have a second? Second. Member Laughler um has a second. Do we have any discussion on the consent agenda? The discussion I have is it's 8:10 and look at us move today. That's my discussion for the consent agenda. Seeing no further discussion, um all those in favor of passing the consent agenda, please say I. Opposed, motion carries. We have approved our consent agenda. Next, we'll move on from our resolution from our committee reports. And we have the first resolution, acceptance of donations to the Duth Public Schools. And I would like to call on member Micahel. Yes. I move resolution B-5-25-4096. Uh the resolution is acceptance of donations to deal with public schools whereas Minnesota statute 4650.03
10903 requires a school district to accept donations by resolution expressed in the terms prescribed by the donor in full and whereas acceptance of the donations in accordance with the donor's terms is in the best interest of the Duth public schools. Now therefore be it resolved that duth public schools does accept the below described donations from said organizations in accordance with the terms set forth herein. Be it further resolved that the duth public schools schools wishes to extend its grateful appreciation to these various individuals and organizations and various individuals and organizations have really stepped up um in this report here today. We have four or five full pages of donations from individual donors, from um companies and businesses across our city, um going towards teacher appreciation week, going towards musicals at our high schools, going towards
110um our HOSA um student association of healthcare future healthcare workers. Um the amount of generosity that we have in our community is just astounding and is so so appreciated. Um we also have individual donors for transportation for our Head Starts. Um eighth grade donations uh for individual classes at Lincoln Park. Inind donations of school supplies for art use. Um, Lincoln Park received a number of um, individual donations for sixth grade and educational enrichments. The list goes on and on and I encourage um, everyone to check out the list uh, in our board book and then also consider becoming one of these wonderful businesses or individuals in our next donation report. Thank you. Member MCEL. So, member Micel moved. Do we have a second? Member Williams. Second. Do we have any discussion? Seeing no discussion. Oh,
111Superintendent Magus, do you have discussion? No, I have the inability to turn my light up. I can understand that. Um, seeing no further discussion, all those in favor of um resolution 8, what am I at? B-5-254096, please say I. Opposed? Motion passes. Yay. Um, next we have a resolution for acceptance of grants and awards to the DUTH public schools. And I'd like to call on member banks. Thank you very much. I'd like to move resolution B-5-25-497, acceptance of grant awards to Duth Public Schools. Whereas Minnesota statute 40465.03 03 requires a school district to accept grants by resolution expressed in the terms prescribed by the donor in full and whereas acceptance of the grant is in accordance with the donor's terms is in the best interest of the duth public schools. Now therefore be it resolved
112that the duth public schools does accept the following excuse me does accept the below described grant from said organization in accordance with the terms set forth herein. Be it further resolved that the duth public schools wishes to extend its grateful appreciation to this organization. There are two organizations. One Project Joy for Duth Preschool in the amount of $1,000 for supplemental food for family events and library collaboration. And then another from CC OD. I'm not sure what that is. Uh but that's for Ordin East special education teacher in the amount of $1,531.75. This is a field trip for special education students to attend a Duth Huskys baseball game. Member Banks has moved resolution B-5-25497. Do we have a second? Second. Member Masel has seconded. Do we have any discussion? Seeing no further discussion, all those in
113favor, please say I. I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. Moving on to our special resolution and actioned items. Um, member Williams, do you have HR? Yes. Okay, great. Um, so I have resolution HR5-25-498 um, DUTH districtwide instructional administration association or that's DWIA, correct? Okay. Um, resolved by the school board of independent school district 709 St. Louis County, Minnesota, that the collective bargaining agreement between ISD79 and DUI, a summary of which is in the hands of all schoolboard members, be approved and adopted for the period August 1st, 2023 to July 31st, 2025, inclusive, and that the chairperson and clerk of the school board be hereby authorized to execute said agreement on behalf of the school district. Thank you. Member Williams has moved resolution HR5-254098. Do we have a second? Second. Member Laughler Kemp has seconded. Do we
114have any discussion? Member Laughler. I I just uh wanted to uh thank uh Teresa Seance uh and the HR department for um uh wrapping up uh this contract and also settling the contract and then also just providing additional information uh that you did for the board to uh kind of better understand the the changes that were made with this contract. So thank you. I would also like to echo what member Laughler Kemp had to say um and lift up our HR department as well as the um as well as the DWIA unit for their willingness to come forward and go through the negotiation process and all of that um all that thing. So, do we have any other discussion? Seeing no other discussion, um all those in favor, please say I. I opposed. Motion carried.
115I always like to celebrate when we have a union contract that passes. So, that's amazing. Great job. Uh, next we have um a resolution member Laughler Kemp. Thank you. This is a resolution we've brought forth the last few years uh in uh May. Uh, I move resolution SP5254099 declaring the first Friday in June to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day. This resolution declares the first Friday in June to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day in the Duth Public School District to honor and remember all victims and survivors of gun violence and to declare that we as a country must do more to end this public health crisis. Whereas every day 125 people in the United States are killed by gun violence and more than 260 are shot and wounded with an average of more than
11619,000 gun homicides every year. And whereas people in the United States are 26 times more likely to die by gun homicide than people in other highincome countries. And whereas in Minnesota, 527 gun deaths occur every year and 1,174 people are wounded by guns every year, a crisis that costs the state 6.6 billion each year, of which 105.5 million is paid by taxpayers. And whereas protecting public safety in the communities they serve is a high priority of the school district. And whereas support for the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens goes handinhand with keeping guns away from those who are a danger to themselves or others. And whereas gun violence prevention is more important than ever as we see high levels of gun violence continue to plague our communities. Whereas in January 2013, Hadia Pendleton was
117tragically shot and killed at age 15. And on June 6, 2025 to recognize the 28th birthday of Hyia Pendleton, people across the United States will recognize gun violence awareness day and wear orange in tribute to Hyia Pendleton and other victims of gun violence and the loved ones of those victims. Whereas the idea was inspired by a group of Hadia's friends who asked their classmates to commemor commemorate her life by wearing orange. They chose this color because hunters wear orange to announce themselves to other hunters when out in the woods. And orange is a color that symbolizes the value of human life. And whereas anyone can join this campaign by pledging to wear orange on June 6th, the first Friday in June in 2025 to help raise awareness about gun violence. Whereas um wearing orange on
118June 6, 2025, people across the United States will raise awareness about gun violence and honor the lives of gun violence victims and survivors. And whereas we renew our commitment to reduce gun violence and pledge to do all we can to keep firearms out of the hands of people who should not have access to them and encourage responsible gun ownership to help keep families and communities safe. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Duth school board declares the first Friday in June, June 6, 2025 to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day. We encourage all schools to support their local community efforts to prevent the tragic effects of gun violence and to honor and value human lives. So I move SP5254099 and I thank the school board or the school district for getting information out about safe
119gun storage as well. I second member Laughler campus move um member Lald has seconded. Is there any discussion? Seeing no discussion, all those in favor, please say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries. Um, next we have B-5254100. Member Williams. Okay. I move resolution B-5-254,100 um to remove a former employee from um our bank. Uh be it resolved that the school board of independent school district number 709 St. Louis County, Minnesota, that it hereby authorizes the following. The addition of authorized signer, um, which would be Anthony Bonds and the removal of the previous authorized signer at Harbor Point Credit Union. Thank you, Member Williams. You've moved um B-5-254100. Do I have a second? Member Banks has seconded it. Do we have any discussion? Seeing no discussion, all those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed.
120Motion carries. Uh, member Micah. I move to authorize district administration to procure the services of necessary project consultants including ICS, RW Baird and others and to work with the project team to develop and submit all required project related documentation to the Minnesota Department of Education for its formal review and comment for the 424 West First Street project. Member Masel has moved. Do we have a second? Second. Member Loel to second it. Do we have any discussion? Seeing no discussion, all those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Get that one in there. Okay. Lastly, uh, member Loal, I move B5-25-4101, the resolution to allow the Minnesota Department of Transportation, known as MINDOT, to acquire a temporary easement from Independent School District number 709. So, be it resolved by the board of ISD79, which
121in consideration of $6,200 to be paid by the state of Minnesota, Department of Transportation, that ISD79 allows the acquisition of a temporary easement by district purchase to the state of Minnesota, described as follows. All of the following. It's a temporary easement for highway purposes in that part of the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 7, township 50 north, range 13 west shown as parcel 5 on Minnesota Department of Transportation right-of-way plot numbered 69-205 as the same is on file and of record in the office of the registar of titles in and for St. Louis County, Minnesota by the temporary easement symbol. The title thereto being registered as evidence by certificate of title number 132302-0 said easement shall cease on December 1st, 2030 or on such earlier date upon which the commissioner of transportation
122determines by formal order that it is no longer needed for highway purposes. So I move B-5-25-4101. Member Loeld has made the motion. Do we have a second? Member Williams has seconded. Do we have any discussion? Uh, Superintendent Magus. Yes. Um, there were several questions that came up from various board members and um, Executive Director Seance emailed you the responses to those. So those were in your email. if you should have any question or if if any of them wanted to be reiterated, we could answer them here at the table. Thank you, member uh Laughler Kemp. Uh thank you and I appreciate um Teresa, your responses to uh the questions that some of us board members had. I guess I just ask that we um get updated on this progress and any impact at East High
123School where this is located uh through the process of this uh and that we are making sure our students and families are informed on um when when there will be uh work being done in this area. So, thank you again for answering our questions before this came to a vote. Thank you. Do we have any other discussion? Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. All right. Do we have any questions slash other? I see no questions slash other. Oh, yes. Sorry. I don't think we seconded the resolution. Yes, we did. Member Williams. Member Williams seconded the Lynon Road, right? Okay, good. Uh, member Banks. Sure. This is under other Thank you. Yes. And so I had this handed out, building great places, activating public spaces for the
124common good. Uh, you can take a look at that. It's on May 28th from 12:00 to 2:00 at Zeitgeist. Uh it's their annual building great places event. Uh so people like uh Duth Mayor and Superior Mayor, Mayor Payne are going to be there, community organizers, city planners, developers, local leaders, etc., and engaged citizens. uh keynote speaker conversation with RT Ryback of the Minneapolis Foundation and Evelyn Bernett from Third Space Action Lab and they're going to have panel discussions and I'm grateful that I will be on one of the panels and it's open to the public. It's going to be at Zeitgeist on the 28th which is a Wednesday. Thank you. Thank you, Member Banks. Do we have any questions or other? I do. Yes, member Micasel. Um I just want to um point out to
125the public that there will be um the second and last public information meeting for the LOL traffic um study on Rice Lake Road. Um uh that's coming up in next week, two weeks, two weeks. Um and unfortunately it falls on the same night as the East graduation. So, I know the majority of us will probably be up on the stage there congratulating um our graduates on their significant achievement, but I encourage anyone who doesn't have um a student or a loved one that they want to go support to please attend that so they can um weigh in and hear a little bit more about that process. Thank you, member Mikeel. Seeing no other questions or other, we move on to adjournment. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? Member Williams made the motion. Do I
126have a second? Second. Member Loel is second. Do we have any discussion about adjourning at 8:30? Let's just sit with that for a minute. Okay. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carried. We are a jerk.