ISD 709 Special School Board Meeting November 28, 2017

001I'd like to call this special board meeting to order I'm a member hardly will you call the roll please yes I am here remember Johnston I'm chair Kirby your remember looks like him remember Oswald remember sanstead remember wilty superintendent granteth deputy clerk Hasler secretary do--let's student representatives are excused we have a quorum thank you I'd like to welcome everybody here to this special school board meeting as your you are aware it was called by three board members under Minnesota statute specifically to discuss resolution b6 17 34 61 which stated it was passed on June 20th I believe resolved that the district district will commit to a multi-year alignment of compensatory education funds to stay at the school's sites where they're generated now just a few words before because this is a special meeting public comment

002is limited to issues on the agenda for this meeting this is based on our policies and board discussion likewise must fall within the posted purposes of this meeting certain policies apply to all of our meetings and these are available to use speakers are expected to be concise although that's not defined and more specifically not to enter into debate or deliberations of the school board the board may question people the delegates for the purposes of clarification or information but they are not expected to enter into debate with anybody this is an open meeting board meetings are for elected officials to conduct their business not necessarily for the public to engage in the deliberations of the board generally we've allowed three minutes for presentations but given the interest enthusiasm passion I guess of this issue this can

003be lengthened a little bit I suggest up to ten minutes although people certainly don't have to take that long if they don't want after there has been public comment the administration can give some updates on the issue under consideration district commitment to the multi-year alignment and the school board can then discuss this as well before we start I'd like member Oswalt to read our civility statement the community vision and priorities for Duluth public schools we build upon our shared beliefs own values of unity high achievement and responsible use of resources to create Duluth public schools and classrooms that are safe supportive and inclusive we will work to inspire every student to achieve their potential and prepare students to lead productive fulfilling lives as citizens of Duluth and the wider world the 11 tools of civility

004the school board recognizes 11 tools of civility with an asterisk that will provide increased opportunities for civil discourse in order to find positive resolutions to the issues that face our community these tools include 1 pay attention to listen 3 be inclusive for don't gossip 5 show respect 6 be agreeable 7 apologize 8 give constructive criticism 9 take responsibility 10 be honest and care for others and 11 show your reasoning share or show your evidence share your reasoning thank you the next item on our agenda then is public comment remember wealthy yes thank you chair Kirby in in response to the directives you gave the audience and the board about how this meeting is to be conducted you suggested a certain amount of flexibility which I very much appreciate I would like to point out that

005for several months we have had a significant number of us on the school board who have been very interested in having the equity group from the western schools come and talk to us have not yet managed to have a regular committee meeting in which that was possible so I would hope that we could at some point have the people who have represented the equity group come and talk to us in a more informal setting taking the places that our administrators frequently take and I hope you would not object if we were to proceeded that way at some point if it seemed to be in order to do so I'm unclear are you speaking tonight yes yes our policy 8080 indicates that delegates are not expected to enter into debate or actual deliberations with the school

006board so take a change in policy to do that which would require a unanimous vote of the school board to do so I think that we will give the people who want to speak ample time to do that you can ask them questions for clarification or information we'll follow policy that way if the policy says not expected to that it's not a prohibition my interpretation is they will not there are three people that are signed up are there any more that wish to speak um I was just I wanted to speak to the piece about ensuring that people are able to to speak their my 101 question is will we ensure that folks are able to to have that to give their presentation following the following the public comment period and then at that point

007in time once they're done presenting we can ask follow-up questions as needed within that discussion I'm just looking for a little bit more concise so we can make sure folks record all right I'm not sure whether it's more useful to ask them after their presentation I mean while they're at the conclusion of their individual presentations at the very end I'm open to you know chikubi yes if I might add something to this as I've indicated three of us on the board have for a long time waited for an opportunity to have a dialogue even though that's not necessarily prohibited or encouraged from our from our policies I'll also make this point to the school board will undergo a change and we have had these these families and representatives of Western Duluth for many months being

008talked talking to us through communicating through the documents they've put together about the issues of equity and two of us who have managed to get this meeting set aside today will be gone and there is no guarantee that a new school board will be any more open to hearing the concerns of the parents from from Western Duluth once we step off the board and I think this is an opportunity to to have an open dialogue that Western Duluth would very much like us to have and I'm a little worried that future boards might might not be as receptive as this current board is so with that appeal in mind I will hope that member Harless question and an openness to having a log with them after the the opening comments would would have a strong

009registration with you and that we would proceed that way once that that comment period is over I'm not sure whether remember her lament ask questions or have a dialogue my understanding of by statute is that the dialogue doesn't need to happen with the board but I think if there's sometimes the conversation it questions can provide more clarity and so it can I think we could spend a lot of time dicing words back and forth but ensuring that we are able to get the information that we need is aboard and that they're able to share I think is really important so we could spend time dicing things or we could begin moving forward and ensure that our community is heard in the process and that we're not in a we don't need to fight along the

010way thank you I would like to proceed with the public comment then our first person is Henry Hagen welcome is that that's odd I am Henry helghan I'm a parent of an East graduate and a current East student I just wanted to use a little acronym for a term here to refer to schools where there's more than 50% of students on the free and reduced lunch program I just like to call that n FRL school and the other ones would be non FRL so we all agree that reducing disparities is important and but we also all agree that improving all students is important there has to be a balance I don't think there should be one exclusively at the expense of the other exclusively there must be some kind of balance in judgment by the

011administration another thing is we cannot compare a single funding source while ignoring the others there's a whole broad range of funding sources that are used to improve student achievement one of the things that the fil schools they have more funding and they have lower class sizes we all agree that improving class size is important as well I feel that a lot of the discussion about disparities has been unfairly blamed on the administration there are many causes of disparities that are outside of school district funding housing safe neighborhoods parents that have to work two jobs that they don't get health insurance or sick time health care transportation these cannot be fixed by school funding alone but one thing so we must work with the city and the county and the state on those kinds of issues

012take a holistic broader approach to solving poverty in our schools and communities one thing that school funds can fix is class size this could be the difference between somebody that mainly graduates and somebody that's inspired through their life all students should get what they need to improve the goal is not to grade every student as a C but to bring every student up a grade I want to say that I agree with using technology to allow students to take classes at other schools I think that's a reasonable approach if it's if it's fiscally achievable but I disagree with a suggestion that was made to have a 7th period only at Denfeld both schools all schools need this extra level including the zero hour or the replacement would be a seventh period and CITS courses shared

013amongst both so I think a better approach to boosting enrollment is to do what we can to keep the most mobile people the ones with the most resources they're most likely to leave to keep them in our schools so we do this by speaking positive facts and news while simultaneously addressing the needs and the needed improvements constant criticism of the schools could become a self-fulfilling prophecy parents will believe this and they'll begin to leave and the ones that would leave are the ones that are the most mobile that have the most resources so in an approach that passes on all these FRL schools could cause the most mobile to leave so I mentioned that zero-hour is important and CITS is important I've spoken with this in the past we can encourage additional courses and degrees

014by the teachers I think that's all I have to say so thank you please consider this when you discuss tonight thank you next is Tammy Siebert good evening I currently serve as the pts a Parent Teacher Student Association president at East High School I have been trying to watch this issue a little bit for the last few months in trying to understand what exactly has been going on a couple of months ago I was made aware that there was not even a PCA at Denfeld High School and I called some friends of mine and I kind of got on them and I said hey you have kids there why don't you have a PTA what's going on and and so as I've been watching a lot of this I also had friends who had kids

015who went to Myers Wilkins and I remember one day her saying to me it's amazing they have so much money they don't even know what to do with it all so we're gonna go to a big feed tonight and there's gonna do all of this stuff and like phobics and weeks this was a few years ago and I kind of was thinking oh that's really interesting because another friend of mine is a PTA president or a Condon and they are working really hard to raise money for trying to do anything that their school is doing so as let's see what is your title school board as well whatever it is as you you said in in what you read you said it is up to you as our school board to use resources responsibly and

016so as I looked and see there are hundreds of students living in poverty in the non the free and reduced lunch schools throughout our whole district just because we have students at East who have a lower percentage of meeting free and reduced lunches doesn't mean that those students don't still need help so I know that East has about 230 for our Deen East has over 200 Condon has 125 and Laurel school has 166 but that's not money and that's not really that many more and because of that they get $1,100 more per student in state money than Condon Elementary does the students who are not living in poverty that are attending law benefit from that extra allotment and the students who are living in poverty at Condon do not so I asked how do we

017kind of make sure that as you're looking at this plan how do you look at it to help all of the students within the district everywhere it's not about individual schools I don't think I think I also agree the previous speaker that I think technology is an amazing thing and we are raising digital natives and there is no good reason that some some of this funding could not go in to be using kids who are at a school that would like to take a class and could do so digitally taking that at another school in in working that way I think that's a great and creative solution but I also think that it's important to look at the younger levels and figure out what are they meeting so it is they're coming to high school

018if they are wanting to strive and feeling confident that they can try new things and being willing to try things that may seem harder for them so I would hope that um but you would be wise with the resources that are coming and that you would be an advocate for all schools and also that you would look at why are some of the schools why are people leaving and transferring to other school districts versus staying in the boundaries that they ought to be attending I think that a lot of moral [Music] support could be used and changing our attitudes I'm I'm not originally born here and I think that it's always been an interesting thing as people have said oh you're a cake eater and I didn't even know what that meant for a long

019time so I know there's a big past history of kind of this bashing of each other and I think that that needs to end and that it is up to to all of us to help that and I leave these thoughts with you thank you thank you next is Stacey to Roche Thank You school board members and for Intendant granteth my name is Stacy Deroche and I'm the current president of the Duluth citywide PTSA Parent Teacher Student Association Council the PTA motto is every child one voice I'd like to speak tonight about every child we've heard a lot about inequity affecting specific schools we've labeled our schools as free lunch schools and non free lunch schools low income schools non low-income schools but schools aren't living in poverty students are what I'd like to hear

020is a discussion about students there are hundreds of low-income students in our non low-income schools substantially less is spent on these students because of where they live geography dictates that their classes are bigger and they have less supports and after-school programs available to them are we comfortable with increasing class size and removing programs at their schools if we change how funds are allocated how do we ensure low-income students at all schools are supported no matter where they live I'm also concerned that there hasn't been enough discussion of possible impacts on students negative or positive moving money on principle instead of thoughtfulness is problematic how much will class size increase and how will our teachers be affected will schools lose counselors what programs will low-income students gain what are the expected outcomes would moving money around

021lead to duplication of services or would it add value to my understanding we have hundreds of community community partnerships and new initiatives already happening across the district additional monies from the general fund grabs and initiatives like the full service community school program have been funded specifically to support low-income students before making changes can we have a conversation and a comprehensive presentation on what we are already doing shouldn't we do our due diligence to make sure any addition programs changes to class sizes or other initiatives would have a real and positive impact this leads to a specific concern I have with how the real allocated money is going to be spent there seems to be an emphasis on inequities at Denfeld the discussion has been focused on providing supports to a specific to a specific group

022of students those on the college track my understanding is that Denfeld students choose their classes and they are not choosing advanced classes in enough numbers to justify additional class periods is using money to add advanced classes next year the answer or should we ask how can we better prepare incoming middle school students to feel ready and confident enough to eventually take AP courses wouldn't it make more sense to work towards AP class rooms full of students thirty more middle schools students who are prepared for a future AP class makes that class happen or maybe we should ask why Denfeld students are not signing up in enough numbers have we been respectful of the career tracks done fold students are choosing by opting in or out of certain classes are we asking how offering certain classes

023will affect the graduation or drop o rate former East principal Knapp was a big supporter of some specialty classes at East she said that every that she said that students had told her that one particular class was the reason they came to school every day it was the reason they were going to graduate have we asked our most vulnerable kids what will get them to school and what will keep them there is the reality reallocation of funds going to support those kids are we thinking about every child are we thinking about every child soon enough so before the board decides to make changes can we make sure the right questions have been asked and answered that we've heard from those that will be impacted that the money is spent in the right places and most

024importantly that the benefits outweigh the costs for every child thank you thank you next Kevin screw around well Cody beam so I really appreciate that we're having this conversation today and I appreciate the board members who help make this happen and appreciate the community that that's arrived to talk about the various sort of dynamics in which this affects our community these are important decisions so I'm gonna provide first sort of a five-part context that I think sort of gives the foundation for understanding the decisions that you're being asked to make and then a very brief sort of framework that we believe and again my name is Kevin square Brown and with the communities the community based school equity initiative that's where I'm representing tonight and so then a really short sort of framework that while

025I know that's gonna be hard to follow would really provide sort of a clarity to the discussion question that you've really been asked in this resolution so let me begin so the first point is that comp ad compensatory education I'll be calling a comp ad comp ad is met is meant to meet the needs of students who are underprepared and failing to make adequate progress so let's all recognize and just to acknowledge and accept that it's clearly written in the Minnesota statute itself the board vote on the 18th as well as the superintendent's comments on the fifth June 5th have all affirmed that comp ad funding is intended to meet the needs of students who are underprepared or failing to make adequate progress let's also be clear that I believe we would all agree that

026has stated in the annual report by the school school district the existing achievement gap is unacceptable and despite very concerted efforts to address it our progress in closing that gap has been insufficient we have an obligation to the entire community to do more now I hope that no one will choose to argue either of those points and so with that established we can examine the current approach to allocating compensatory education dollars so comp add achievement gap funding is currently being used instead to meet a general education school need a significant portion of combat is used to reduce class size and to reduce it uniformly across the district general class size maintenance and reduction is a general education need it is something the community values we heard that already again tonight it is something we need

027to pay attention to and we need to address however using achievement gap funding to meet this general education need at the expense of reducing the achievement gap is morally wrong this is a justice issue it's a fairness issue we don't take from those with greater needs money that is targeted and meant to meet those needs and give it to others with far less significant needs that is simply wrong the board affirmed that in its June 18th vote which brings us here today third the current use of comp ad is stuck in equality thinking there are two frameworks we can think about as we distribute resources one is equality thinking and one is equity thinking inequality models assume some things and then does some things it assumes that everyone is on a level playing field and

028it distributes everyone the same portion that's equality thinking it suggests that all of the students in a particular grade level have the same needs and therefore they should all have the same size classes for instance equity thinking recognizes that people come with different needs and it applies resources to match the needs that's what equity means and we are asking for a significant shift a philosophical shift in how the district thinks about its resources to shift into an equity model instead this cut this the current sort of equality thinking assumes that all kids are the same level of need to individualized attention in comprehending course content that all kids regardless of their above grade level at grade level below grade level can have their needs met in a classroom of us of the same size it

029also assumes that whether one student or 20 have IEP or 504 plans or a reading below grade level in a particular classroom that it has no impact on the teacher's ability to provide the individualized support to each student while also providing the general instruction to the class as a whole that's what equality thinking fundamentally says and I would ask does anyone really believe this what our trained and experienced teaching staff attest to this do our standardized test scores our student grades our graduation rates support that this is working the question that we need that you need to answer is is reducing the class the class size for classrooms with no students or even one student who qualifies for combat support a best practice for addressing the achievement gap it's a wonderful thing to do for

030general education but is it a best practice for addressing the achievement gap remember comp II D is specific funding that's to address the achievement gap if if you we can't answer that as yes then we need to bring those bring that diversion of those funds to an end and and make them available for their intended purpose so number four I'd like to respond to the concerns about unintended consequences we have heard that change in the way comp ad is allocated will have unintended consequences we heard it again tonight well it's important for us to recognize that the current distribution has consequences many of which are indeed unintended namely the persistence of the achievement gap I am certain that is not an intended consequence and I absolutely believe it is a consequence of the current distribution

031of combat money our decisions reflect our values and our priorities on June 5th the superintendent told us that after class size needs were met then we could use additional comp IDI money to address equity needs we are here today because enough board members were clear enough that the status quo of diverting comp add to meet general ed needs was wrong to force a vote the vote was unanimous hopefully because everyone recognizes that this diversion is wrong and not simply because voting against equity makes for bad headlines so what number 5 so what would an equity approach to the use of comp ad look like it would be targeted comp ad would be reserved for students who qualify as underprepared or failing to make adequate progress for instance cits and AP courses should not and would

032not benefit should not I think they currently do benefit from combat funding under the assumption that students in such courses do not represent students who are underprepared or filling to make adequate progress and yet the current model reduces class size in our advanced classes using compound dollars as part of that equation in all of our schools at least our high schools both at East and at Enfield because the way the money gets distributed second competes under under this piece is that an equity approach to comp ad would have schools who get combat allocations what they would get combat allocations proportional to the number of students who qualify as underprepared or failing to make adequate progress and all schools have as we just heard from other speakers all schools have students that qualify they said as

033you know we sort of speak of it as free as qualifying for free and or reduced lunch prices but in reality I think all schools also qualify was for as having students who are underprepared or feel like make out of the progress it's important that we recognize that all schools have a need for compromise and under realignment it is our expectation that schools would continue to get comp ad dollars this isn't about moving all of the comp a dollars in any one particular direction all schools generate compared dollars and all schools should be getting compound dollars so unless the district was to identify an alternative to using the rates of free and/or reduced lunch price then that number would drive allocations we would like the district it takes serious consideration as to whether or not

034we collectively don't have that that we very well may and probably do have better ways than free and reduced lunch count to determine which students should be eligible for comp the statute as I read it gives us the capacity to move beyond this class based model to something that really is about targeting the students who really have that need the the the free and the free and reduced lunch is is is a poor and even worse than poor model it suggests that to be low income is to be underperforming and family to make adequate progress we can do better we can be a model for the state in doing better so then there's so that's the framework that we're gonna offer to court board members say instead from June 5th the question is how much

035and how soon and as we pondered this it became clear that that's a difficult question for someone to answer when you're not experiencing the lack of resources so what would the families of students who generate the comp ad dollars tell us as to how soon we should begin this and to what extent these funds should be applied to closing the achievement gap instead of general ed needs of uniform class size reduction if we were to ask the families impacted that families who generate these funds whose students are failing to make the adequate progress to move towards graduation what would they tell us about how soon is too soon and how much is too much so we've offered and you'll see it in those notes some some work some steps in terms of how does how

036might this conversation go now it may not go this way but how this is how the conversation could go you could discuss three how much numbers what percentage or how much of the comp ed dollars should stay in the buildings that generate them what percentage or how much is diverted to district-wide uses such as the curriculum department and how much or what percentage is diverted to other schools that have less need and less combat many generated when you have those percentages then you can discuss the how soon question how soon do we need to get to that that target how soon do we need to get that target and then finally what are the incremental steps that we use to get there what are the incremental steps that we used to get there realigning comp

037ad will reveal it won't cause it will reveal general education funding needs that we have in this district and we need to be ready to respond to those we have streams to address general education funds and we need to do this hand-in-hand so that we are addressing the needs that the community has in front of us and so we offer that as a framework as a model for moving forward this evening and that's the end of our question our comments I'll stay in here and see if there's anyone that has any clarifications or information questions Andrew Johnston I think you cherry don't have a question for Kevin right now would like to go back to the comment from member wealthy earlier I would like to again ask this board here to invite the Denfeld equity

038group their spokespeople to continue with us during this discussion because I'd like to see more of this and then reminding the board in the meeting here that I was one of the three people that called this meeting the reason we called this meeting was to address the concerns that have been raised by the dental equity group that is why we have this meeting so again I will ask here to allow Kevin and and the other spokesman for their group to stay sitting at the table and I'm asking for the chair to all that and so we can have discussions as with them as they come up like we do on any other normally when we do with any other discussions that we often have at our board meetings when people are sitting up here this

039is a meeting for information of the public can be an hour it's a public meeting where they can observe what we do and how we vote they do not deliberate in the in the meet in the business of the board so I would say no you can ask questions and get clarification I can tell them I will appeal the decision of the chair since I'm appealing the decision of the chair that is a motion before the boards that has to be addressed enough she remember Johnson can I ask my question of mr. square Brown well visual contemplation sorry mr. square Brown um for me a lot of this comes down to the next step and I don't know that your group has gone there yet but I think I brought this up back in June

040what do we do with the money in order to close the achievement gap in order to enhance the outcomes for these students how do we once we have the money where we think we should have it how do we spend it in order to help kids do better in school have you looked at that do you have thoughts on that so what I'd recognize first is that what we're asking is that we align the money with the need we have a district full of professionals whose full-time job is to address that question I also think we have schools full of professionals who work with children with students who have some of the needs that we're talking about I don't believe that we are putting ourselves forward as the experts in how to spend that money

041though there may be members within our group who have expertise and and asking people who are at the front lines feels always like a good idea looking at best practice as always feels like a good idea I hear that articulated frequently particularly from the assistant superintendent night she often speaks of best practices and so I am confident that we have resources if we're willing to access them when people get behind this notion that I believe that those resources will be well spent to address the needs and that's a second conversation and and whether our group has thoughts on that will come out when we get to that part of the conversation so I don't think that should stop us from this part of the conversation but I recognize that it isn't just about moving dollars

042but we're already making decisions every day about how to best spend the money we have and we would continue to make those kinds of decisions oh sorry these microphones are a little limiting in the circumstance mm-hm I absolutely agree with you I also think that that we welcome the ideas from especially from folks within your group who are experts because we do have the statistics that we do these days and they're not good enough so my concern is making sure that we have students who are getting the resources they need in the right way to to be able to perform better mm-hmm so a little bit results-oriented but but in a way of getting kids diplomas getting kids to be able to read at appropriate levels so maybe it's skipping ahead but I think that

043that's an important point to keep in mind throughout this discussion if I may respond that in engaging the community broadly so I'm aware that the n-double-a-cp Education Committee is is very interested in developing mentoring resources and tutoring resources within the community to address the needs of their their community I'm very aware that the American that the indigenous Commission has identified as one of their two priorities increasing graduation rates for indigenous students in our school district and so how the school district and the school board engage with the community around identifying what's missing and how do we address that what's missing is really really important our people to do community groups feel welcomed do they feel welcomed into the conversation or are they held at an arm's length right it's it can be fairly intimidating to

044stand up here in front of folks in with a microphone you know I have a fair bit of privilege I have a fair bit of sort of privileged experience that puts me at a much greater ease in this conversation right in this position then some of our community members do right and so it's easier for some of us to do this to engage to push right so I I know that while I believe and I hope and I believe that the district wants to bring in a great number of voices and I think we can do that and I think this can be a shift in terms of let's start looking again at how we address this let's look at this again people havin doing it for pilla been pushing it for years the inside

045and outside the district and maybe it's and we dive back in chair Kirby is there do we have anybody else sign up I have yes okay good now not to cut you short I just wanted to make sure there are a lot of people here and I I'm concerned that we're not gonna hear from people I want everybody to speak up and give us your opinion don't presume that other folks have been speaking for you so please share thank you going back to remember Johnson we do have a he was correct we do have a motion to did you put him forward to appeal the decision of the chair yes yes sir Dillon is the decision of the chair I don't hear a second yeah and I've spent second sews debatable it takes a majority

046vote to pass is there more debate on this or should we just vote on it yes I feel like we're spending a lot of time trying to figure out the process and one my question is I guess to folks is who are the other people that were appointed to have the discussion or they signed up as as speakers and are we are we able to or would we ask you to identify someone else who might better answer a question I guess that's a that that's my question having to do with this I'm trying to are you asking me a question I yes I think that so it's a really tense room right now and it's because everyone in this room really cares about kids and everyone's gonna come at it in a really different ways

047and so I just like we gotta breathe and we have to have these conversations while we're breathing so we don't breathe we don't think yeah and so I guess before you say something actually cuz I know there's point of coverage with with having been elected to so as a part of the body we do have the opportunity like it's our job to debate it and to ask those questions back and forth unfortunately this is better place within a committee discussion where there are that but the board members that called it call it as a special meeting so we are in within some of those constraints can we move forward and have this discussion ensuring that we that we have feedback from folks in the community that we're getting the right answers yes I don't necessarily

048think everyone in this room represents all the views that we have across our community so I just I think it's important that people have an opportunity to speak tonight that we have it that they're able to hear it but also that we just keep breathing and as we look with regard to the appealing the motion the decision of the chair my question is for Kevin and if that's all right with you in the process of this chair Kirby who else was identified to sit with you within this discussion and did they sign up as speakers and are we able to have that discussion back and forth so my understanding of the value of having one of us or more of us available would be as your discussion proceeds the ability much like you do with

049staff you say now we've come to a place where we have a question we'd like to ask so-and-so like that's the value that's the value you know I can go back and we can go back and take notes and then in a month or actually your next meeting we can come back in in three minutes respond to the things that people were said this month right and we can put it in the paper if we want and we can you know in an editorial and we can put it on a Facebook page and we could do that or we could respond to it in the moment I guess chairman just follow-up I'm trying to understand who those folks are that re who identified okay so it depends on what the question would be there it

050depends what the question would be okay and we wouldn't know that until you ask the question all right any discussion on this I'm before it I would like to vote on the motion I just would like some clarification if if I have a direct question of someone such as mr. square Brown and he was sitting down it and I and I asked if I could ask him that question would he be allowed to come to microphone sure that's what I never left their camp my I guess my interest right now is is to hear from anybody who has signed up to speak before we are asking questions of each speaker I just think just to kind of hear from the breath of the people who want to speak and then that may raise different questions

051I may ask but I I would like as members and instead to make sure anybody here who's either signed up now or maybe is inspired to speak based on another speaker they we're hearing from people and it seems like from the agenda that was put out this is the time for those people who are wanting to sign up to speak Before we jump into other questions so I guess that that's how I prefer to proceed but I didn't didn't jump in to make this a parliamentary debate and I think the answer you gave to a member azam if we can have the people come up and and have whatever dialogue or questions answered that we have I'm satisfied with how things are progressing and hopefully they'll continue to do so so we can have that

052community discussion you know Oh Grady Johnston yeah the things I made this motion was to not to stop anybody from speaking but when the speaking is done we will be having some discussion here I don't have all the data in front of me that the the equity group has presented to the public they just gotten back in town here half an hour ago from Washington DC you don't have all my data together and I would occasionally like to ask them for clarifications that that they they're not to be part of the discussion but to clarify when we want I guess I would again suggest to the chair that after I get done speaking them that maybe I would suggest that maybe Kevin as just as kind of the spokesperson here would could be the one

053that could answer those questions and be happy with that rather than appointing some other group I think it is important that we have some ability to to clarify some questions which people may have particularly on what has happened recently on the budgeting in which I think this coop is more aware of them than we are so that's why I'm asking them the body here to allow that after the speakers to along say Kevin to be able of asked question answer questions when asked I think that policy allows for asking questions for clarification and and information and Bartlett Jason I'm just trying to understand the motion at hand because it has morphed a little bit with questions having discussions so you you did appeal the decision of the chair my question back to you member Johnson

054now that we've had and all the heard discussion are you an agreement is this still a motion on the table and I think that we can move forward I'm sorry sorry about that I think with the discussion of us food from chair Kirby I'm all okay with that and I think he's saying that we can all have some questions soul so while I think he's addressed I don't basically said yeah we'll do it so I'm okay with him I don't think we need to have a boat's of seasoned he's agreed to far as I can see he's agreed to say hey yeah that's good so okay good thank you okay all right let's thank you let's go to our next speakers there's several others here Mary Owen yeah good evening I'd like to thank the

055school board members who propose that we have this meeting I think it's extremely important and again thank you I also like to thank the previous speaker it was very eloquent and I won't dumb try to get any justification that's my argument I simply want to talk about this being a justice issue I am a member of the Duluth Indigenous Commission and I ask that we form a Subcommittee on education because as you all know these statistics in this community are ridiculous and they have not changed in at least 20 if not 40 years so how can we call this anything but justice a justice issue and it's hard for me to remain composed and talk about this I'm a Native American physician but I grew up on those other side of the tracks that you're

056talking about again field not here but in my own community and I know about inequity when I see it we're not talking about other funds put that away for another discussion we're talking about these funds and how they are inequity be in equitably balanced or imbalanced I should say as a native physician my job is to recruit Native American students to become physicians or work in health care services when I look around this state 50% we don't even have a 50 percent graduation rate and that's not and this community is not exempt so tell me that using these funds to make schools small my kid went to my kids from the east side so I know what those schools are like even though there are poor kids over there they also get some funding for

057those kids so I'm not worried about them so much as I'm worried about these kids in den field who have been shown over and over and over again to not do as well so you tell me this is anything but a justice issue and as far as suggesting for a second that we should lower the standards and expectations and ask our kids in den field or any other school what classes they would really like what they really like these lower classes other than these high achieving classes that's bunk and insulting so thank you for your time thank you for calling this meeting thank you thank you next is John crumb sorry is that correct practice cursive sorry well so I'm not going to be long because I don't think this is too complex so at

058least not on one level although Kevin was speaking and and he he showed I think some of the some of the subtleties and nuances that we are going to have to face when we implement a plan like this you know but on one level I think it's pretty simple and I appreciate the difficulty you guys face the upper-middle class and I'm upper middle class we are louder we are more powerful more organized and you see that here tonight to a certain extent but as elected officials your job is to do what is right not just what people who have more money try and convince you to do so I'm a cake eater live on the east side who thinks it's time to invite the west side to the party and from what I can see

059on these graphs I've looked at the west side is paying for part of our cake so I think it'd be fair really I think it comes down to focusing on the outcome of the kids who are struggling the most graduation rates percentages us who go to colleges or other post-secondary education reading proficiency science proficiency math proficiency happiness how happy are these kids if you do this I think we're gonna have a good Duluth and better community and I hope that you can get this program implemented thank you thank you Tom Tuscan [Applause] superintendent board members I did not plan on coming to speak tonight and part of this conversation about what members of the community-based equity initiative could speak it's very difficult sometimes to have a conversation when you don't know what the expectations are

060gonna be coming into the meeting finding out sometime this afternoon that essentially it was gonna be a three minute comment period that could be extended and we're not gonna really have a dialogue that's what I found out this afternoon I'd more than happily sit down at a table and start talking about solutions but that's not kind of what was conveyed to us and I get it we have to play within the rules of policy so I understand that but let me get to the point of speaking first of all I'm a civics teacher so I'd love to see the Civic discourse that's going on tonight thank you all for coming that warms my heart does a civics teacher second of all I taught economics for a long time scarcity makes for competition we have a

061scarcity model in the school district because of our limited resources and what it does is it pits one group against another and what happens is we start having conversations about no you're not going to take this from my kid right and I get that so let me give you a little bit of context about the reality that I'm dealing with because this is my lens I grew up in Morgan Park I went to dent Feld and graduated from there went to UMD and I've been at Denfeld for twenty-two of my 23 years I spent one very good year at East High School what did I come away from that experience knowing is I thought those kids were very similar to Denfeld kids there were different amounts of different kinds of kids but there were still

062kids great experience glad I was there for a year I've been back at Denfeld since 2011 so I graduated from the School District I've worked in the School District for 23 years I have a house in West aloof a half a block from Denfeld I have kids in our Western schools I have a graduate that's not at st. Scholastica that wants to be teacher thank God I have a 10th grader at Denfeld and I have a 5th grader at Stoll so that's my lens and I have to I think bias is an important thing to bring up here that's my bias when I feel like I'm gonna walking uphill my entire career where I've been walking uphill holding my kids hand you get this kind of a reaction all right this is a passionate deal

063I'm tired of walking uphill is this money gonna solve it no you know what I'd love to see I'd love to see the city Duluth go big on a levy next year and solve this for us ongoing levy year after year let's talk about the Minnesota miracle from back in the 70s when we funded public education the way it should be that's the ultimate solution is now we don't have to pit people against each other these aren't the only issues on the table right we're looking at possibly how do we change this this the secondary schedule we're looking at technology needs we're looking at all kinds of needs this is one issue what we really need to do is come out as a whole city east to west and go big on a levy and

064I know there's been some conversation already amongst you guys about how to do that so what's the reality the reality is I work at Denfeld high school and I work with great kids and I'm not gonna say that loosely they're great kids there are really challenging circumstances in the Western schools and those circumstances exist in the Eastern schools as well but in less intensity less numbers right this started with cits stuff my own kid was a senior at Denver last year and didn't give up just one class gave up multiple classes to try to make her sixth period day scheduled work so that's where it started for me it's gotten much bigger than that it isn't really about dental kids not wanting to take these classes for me it's chicken-or-egg if you can't get enough

065sections of something it's pretty hard for kids to get what they need it's not about a bunch of kids sitting at dento going I don't want to take advanced classes is there some of that absolutely we need to push harder but part of it is having that the options available for them to take - so we can invite them in the door is right now if you've got one section and you've got enough Singleton's as we call me you can't schedule it in a sixth period day without a lot of compromises having to be made East High School does not have that same burden to the same degree because they have many more kids they have many more sections it's not that every kid at East High School gets everything they want either we're not

066talking about making one compromise we're talking about multiple compromises sometimes for a kid my daughter took Spanish for online does that sound like an optimal this is rhetorical does it sound like an optimal idea it's a foreign language that she took on like she couldn't get in her schedule but I digress transportations a barrier that was mentioned earlier by a different speaker that is something that can be addressed with money and it needs to be because when a kid has a full plate at home guess what might be the difference walking through the rain or snow two miles to get to school another challenge we have to think about with equity is the competitiveness of the Western Schools Proctor Hermantown wrench all right the eastern side of town does not face the same level of

067competition we do it's not just people with means that get to pick up and leave a family across the street from my house half a block from Denfeld sends their kids to proctor it's competitive out west and it's not always about the quality of our schools or their perception and reality of our schools sometimes it's simply about an available alternative if you have a one gas station town you get your gas at that one station if you have a lot of gas stations you can get it wherever you want and that's what we're faced with out west so some of it's reality some it's perception but that is a competitive environment they're not just large class sizes oh deist i keep hearing this over and over repeated there are large class size that Denfeld my

068third our class has 37 kids in it 37 kids which one in for our special ed 60 to 70% of them are free and reduced lunch I'm not talking about 37 kids that are necessarily quote unquote easy 37 kids and that's at Denfeld remember there's a not a correlation between the size of your school enrollment and the how big your class sizes are that's not how it works the general public doesn't understand that they see East High School at 1600 they go there class sizes have to be bigger that's not how it works but we have to do a better job informing the public about that as well I've used this term before the school board before there are desperate attempts going on in the Western schools right now to succeed desperate I do it

069every day desperate attempts parents kids teachers and I'm going to tell you where that's getting us the desperation is leading to exhaustion and burnout you've got master educators that are burning out because it's so desperate so why are we here why have we been talking about equity for a year because we're desperate that's why we need the city to come together on this because it's that it's that much of a crisis right now and I know that because my kids are there and I'm there every single day with them I only have a couple more points we don't have enough decision-makers in city government and in school governance that have kids in the Western schools we simply don't if more people had kids in our schools they'd be less likely to tolerate what goes on

070I can guarantee that because I'm not going to tolerate it anymore I've been touring in it for a year my kids go to school there too if our current system works then we need to have people transfer their students into our schools to show us how much it's working they need to put their money where their mouth is because I've been putting my money where my mouth is my whole career and I got a big mouth right but my kids have gone to the Western schools because I want to make supposed to diversity because I want him to see what humanity looks like my kids have been very successful but I I've always been somebody to put my money where my mouth is it's time for other people in this community to start doing that

071if our schools on the west are so good then put your kids in our schools because after you've had that experience you might go yeah I like this I maybe don't like that and you certainly step up to the plate to work on getting some things fixed more resource more resources don't ensure success but they do create possibility you can only wave so many wants without resources sometimes it ultimately does come down to that I do not know what the solution is but I do believe our current practice cannot continue and it will take both sides of town to address it thank you thank you very much we'll give people the chance to talk see if there's anybody else there nope all right I think if people have questions of the speakers they should do

072that now what ever Johnson followed ah you have a questions here just gonna start our discussion here do you have any any more questions for the for the speakers not yet no all right well what do you say go ahead well thank you chair be one of the people that called this meeting that wanted tell the board and anybody else why it was very well spoken why we why we need this our speakers from Denfeld and have indicated that they are desperate I've been hearing that for many years and Western Duluth and the thing that spurred me on as well will was one we seen the budget figures that were that were distributed by the dental equity people not by the district but by their equity people and they got to thank you incidentally for

073giving this information to me and it was clear to me that the administration was not living up to the spirit of what we passed back in June which said that we asked the district to commit to a multi-year realignment of compensatory education funds we as a board left that intentionally somewhat loose because we knew that we had to take some adjustments we don't want to be penalizing anybody but we thought that there was going to be some effort to move forward and start addressing that as we the board ducked at the administration after seeing the budget that was released by the DEP alacrity people it is clear to me it was was clear to me that this was not being addressed by the district and consequently we three of us asked I have a call

074special board meeting one because the death Denfeld equity people asked for that and two I didn't think that the administration was dealing with it and we thought it had - it was so important because Western Duluth is desperate that we called a special meeting we didn't just ask for for an agenda item which we were afraid we won't get first of all more important as that we thought it was critical that had to be addressed and that's why we are here so with that I will leave that discussion and to go on absolutely other comments as we go here superintendent if you want to respond it's a good point time this seems like a good place for for me to give you an update done on where things are I do want to address though

075that this resolution was in June and the first part of this resolution accepted the FY 18 budget so the budget for this year was accepted at the same time as a resolution to make changes for the future so the work that we have been doing well actually our work started before the resolution was in place just my notes last spring we started looking at the allocation process as this discussion was going on and came up with a new allocation process that was more consistent over time and that was based on a per-student formula prior to that it was based on how many kindergarten sections school had which could fluctuate by a section or even two depending on the number of kindergartners so we wanted something that would be more predictable in place as we made

076plans more long-range plans were developed so in the past two years compound revenue overall has gone down over one point four million dollars that's based on a couple of reasons one the overall enrollment for the district has come down the other piece is that the percentage of students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch services has also decreased and I gave you a a chart thereof of all of our schools over the past two years and their enrollment numbers and the percentages of free Android a free and reduced-price service students who are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch services it's kind of a mouthful keep in mind that comput funds are exponential so the higher the percentage of students in the school who receive those services the more money we get per student so

077as those percentages come down the funding comes down at a faster rate so that's that's how it gets to 1.4 million less in compound over the last two years 4fy set from 16 to 17 there was a 934 thousand four hundred seventy seven dollar decrease and from seventeen to eighteen 480 to fifty-five less and so that that is part of it overall too as we look at this combat finding issue we we did make reductions in in different areas the curricular supports and I do have correction on here I 250 thousand was what we reduced the entire curriculum department by 96 thousand of that was in combat funding and then the amount that goes to classes reduction as statute allows was also reduced 285,000 and then we also made reductions to the discretionary amounts that

078go out to buildings so those are the things that we did coming into this school year before the resolution was was passed since then we have had more conversations about what this needs to look like a piece that we're working on right now is a community-based discussion of Education equity that's spurred on by definition that was accepted by the state's recently developed with partners voices for racial justice William house is taking on the facilitation of that he is here tonight and would be able to tell you more about that if you'd like him to we're we're gathering some community advisors to start with and then we're going to be working with focus groups specific populations and then delving into more community-wide conversations about exactly what educational equity means to us I feel like you're trying

079to get my attention no forget okay and so William house will be believing that and as part of that we hope to develop a set of questions that we'll be able to use as a tool as a district when we're talking about procedures or policies or budgets to make sure that we have an equity focus also in the coming weeks and months will be getting be beginning our budget process we've actually already started that at our level by starting to make projections and looking at percentages of free and reduced price lunch so that we can have our projected revenues and expenditures and the board will start that discussion in February and in March have a draft budget to to be considered with a final budget to be accepted in June and in our annual report

080we we go over the budget process it's on page ten so if people want more information on that they can look in there but there will be committee the hall meetings and regular committee meetings and uh-huh it's good to have kids around isn't it they're they're having fun back there and so be watching for those dates to come out soon I there were also references to a levee referendum and we have been well aware that the referendum sunsets after FY 18 and beginning of last year we started conversations about renewing that referendum and having opportunities to increase that referendum we've gone to training with board leadership and district leadership to start that process and in the in the coming weeks we will be talking more about that we'll have community conversations about the priorities as

081mr. tuscan referred to there are several considerations for the referendum and we need to have some some public conversation perhaps some polling to find out exactly what priorities there are and what financial investments our community has tolerance for and so we will be diving into that later this spring there'll be a full vision and informational campaign starting building up until the fall for a vote in November of 18 thank you remember Oswald I have many many thoughts generated by the discussion so far not many of them are very cohesive at this point as is the nature of sitting up here trying to write and listen at the same time um in regards to what was just described to us by a superintendent grant Seth about our fiscal year 18 budget what he was describing or

082cuts to cover a deficit it's not about equity it's not about equitable funding it's about what can we cut because we don't get enough money to do what we need to do or want to do so that's I just want to make sure that point is clear because the history shows that we have many many years of cutting and deficits and we're not able to do what we want to do all the time so we have to do that scarcity complex as mr. tuscan referring to but we don't have to approach it that way even if we experienced it that way i'm i to i live in west duluth and at 7:30 in the morning every weekday morning the proctor bus stops two houses up from my house and picks up a kid and then

083goes two houses down to the corner and picks up six more every day the stories of why those seven or so kids go somewhere else besides Duluth namely Proctor in this instance is beyond me I haven't met all those families or talked to all those kids a couple of them I known did attend Edison and went to Proctor because they didn't want to experience Duluth I don't know why I haven't had that conversation others it's anybody's guess those with the most resources don't always leave it's those whose needs are not being met for whatever reason if your child is not getting what they need in the educational environment that they're in there are options out there believe it or not such as that Proctor bus that's free and I'll pick you up just the same

084practically at your door and at your door in one case so why not why not try something different well I'd like to kind of take that approach to this funding this funding has created our status quo our status quo has gotten us an achievement gap that I'm not proud of it's gotten us graduation rates that are problematic and not anywhere near the expectation our community should have for its children and so I want to do something different when compensatory education came to light compensatory education funding came to light to know that it was based on free and reduced lunch population students knowing that just the way our dynamics and our economics in our city is set up everyone kind of guesses that you know there's more poverty in the central towards the west side of

085the city and much less eastward so one of our speakers or one of our our commenters commented that some schools that have less free and reduced lunch populations get less free and reduced lunch money that's very true and I can imagine that it's hurtful to think that you're getting extra money and now it's going to be taken away should we choose to do something in that direction but yet turn around and be one of those higher free and reduced lunch schools and know that our kids in that school generate this money and they literally have to just watch it walk away that's the uphill climb I believe that mr. Tuscans referring to in the desperation of many of our western neighborhood schools experience that don't necessarily happen on the other side of town this isn't

086about East versus West to me this is about providing the needs for our kids we have to look at all of them as a whole while learning about each individual one and that is tough it's tough stuff because we already know there isn't enough to go around when we start talking about singly in a single funding column of compensatory education funding it is achievement gap money I believe Kevin is right that we shouldn't be focusing on free and reduced lunch students that generate it necessarily because it's generated there to help underperforming students we have to define what underperforming students are is that a graduation rate is it an achievement gap is it those that are bordering on the line of succeeding or not I think that's a more accurate representation but again it comes down

087to all of those categories are skewed westward in our Western neighborhoods and our Western schools so it's not going to change the dynamic of where that money should flow I certainly do not believe that every ounce of money should be taken from every school and thrown in gigantic lump sums to any one school it has to be an equitable process I don't necessarily believe that taking every ounce of money away from the schools that get a little bit extra is a good thing because there is no way to accommodate that just yet on how to operate without that money it's like having a car one day and waking up and not having a car the next and what do you do you just used to always getting in that car to go someplace so tapering

088it down or not doing something towards complete elimination is more of what I'd be inclined to do I'm much more about a compromise I think that it was its very equitable to think that no school should should receive less than a certain percentage of their compensatory education funds I also think is very equitable that no school should get more than a certain percentage according to the data that was given to us by the community group there's a single school that receives over 1,100 percent more compensatory education dollars than they generate how is that acceptable to us as a community they get over $330,000 warm three hundred and thirty thousand dollars more than they generate and that's coming at the price of the other schools that are hurting more than that school there's got to be

089a compromise among here and it's only to direct our administration to do something better and I hope we can come to a compromise through our discussion never hardly haven't spoken to us because Thank You chair sir pretend I appreciated the update on where we're at and you offer the opportunity for a William house to come and speak and I was just wondering if William would be willing to talk about that about that process it expound on that sorry to call you out William house yes if that's if I could request the chair I know that you're providing a lot of leadership in this process and think it's important that we invite all of our leaders from the school district to speak to this and I have a follow-up question this is done can I sit

090here so I can use mine sure don't get this I'll turn it off I've got it off you can think read mr. house Oh Joe I said Boudreaux noms gonna lose it you know JOA culture we greet each other back when I agreed I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share that unique cultural perspective so I'll try to give a brief overview of of what I've been asked to be a part of and help lead conversations are on equity conversations around a definition of equity or a framework of equity in school districts across our state isn't anything new it's nothing it isn't something that's new to me in discussions here and in multiple areas since returning back here about four years or so ago and there are many districts around our state that have formal

091agreed-upon definitions for equity and then tools to help them apply that definition to the decisions that they make in their district and so in the last you know number of months that's been a topic of discussion maybe more more commonly and in definitely last couple months in conversations at cabinet meetings and different things and even dating back to this past summer there was a specific conversation around it with a group of administrators about the need for an equity framework or an agreed-upon definition at least to begin with I have repeatedly stated in multiple conversations with different individuals when talking about our district doing this is that I had no desire to work a number of hours to develop a definition that we put on our website and then it sits there but I did say

092that I would be interested in doing work to develop an equity framework that both works and that we work upon which is why I choose the the idea of an equity framework for our district because it should work for us and it should be something that we commit to working with and and working on consistently and throughout time because equity does not go away within a short period of time because we have not arrived at inequities in a short period of time and so I had a meeting a month or so ago with superintendent grant Seth we discussed where we were at with issues of equity and and the idea of our district moving towards a more formal adoption of a framework and an ax definition and and that all in alignment with what superintendent

093has already indicated around essa and all of that and the state and their work in the area of equity and so I did agree to serve as a facilitator of moving us forward in that regard and that has has begun slowly some of the I have a number of ideas that I have put together and in a document that I would propose for us to get input upon and be able to make decisions upon so again that it is a framework that works for us and for all of our students and some guiding questions to help us us develop that I will be meeting with what I call the informants group yeah informants just to provide information and insight initially and gather some input on on the definition and and a tool what I would

094call a tool for equity accountability accountability in the area and application of equity is vitally important to me again like I said I have no desire to work on a definition and agreed-upon definition if we're not actually going to use that definition in a way to create equitable opportunities for all students and so along with a a definition for our district on inequity I would also recommend that we have a tool for staff school board members and administrators to utilize and to help our district be accountable to to equity and to considering equity in their decision-making processes the plan is to begin with an informants group and to move from that group to some focus groups and then from there hopefully by during the months of January and February begin to have some community-wide input

095sessions and informational sessions and then hopefully by springtime to present the input from those variety of different groups and sessions to the school board for hopefully an approval their resolution of commitment by the school board from there of course that's I won't say the easy part but that's part of the work and from there once it would become adopted by our our district then we would begin the process of implementation and we would need to develop a quality implementation plan for the use of the equity framework so I don't know if there's specific questions beyond that I don't know if that summarizes enough of what you had hoped I could share that is the the general plan and you know gathering I don't take gathering input lightly from stakeholders and I think it's vitally important

096to have as many different perspectives around an issue as broad and sometimes as unfortunately confusing as as equity can be for us with the full recognition that our society in America is not based upon any a kind of ideas of equity it is fully based on the idea and an ideal of equality one which has not been realized for for many groups throughout the history of this this country and so that that makes it a difficult topic to to work in and to make a part of practice but vitally important as equity as a pathway towards equality and so in that process getting representation from from stakeholders from a variety of groups from every possible perspective is not I would not I would say is not possible but I am committed to always gathering input

097from stakeholders from from that they do have diverse perspectives no one person can speak for an entire group of people I understand that sometimes people are elected I understand that sometimes people gain positions on in various organizations and such but no one person can speak for our racial group you know one person can speak for an it for an entire gender no one person can speak for an entire religious organization or a religious group but the idea that multiple perspectives are included in any conversation I think is vitally important and that's something that I will strive to do in the work thank you house there maybe we could ask mr. house questions since he's here go ahead I just want to make sure that you do you have two questions do you have what you

098need to accomplish this process as an administration administrative buy-in and other staff support currently it's time yeah I believe so and I think that was something that was really important to me is that administration this is something the administration wanted and not something that the equity guy came in and said hey you should do this and I've also talked with DFT president Bernie Burnham Brennaman shared what we intend to do and the work that were proposing to do and she's been supportive of that and and has agreed to participate in that process my second question I met as I thank you first of all for coming up and kind of speaking I'm also are there people within the Western lens group that are represented and some of your in your community groups because I know

099that this is some of the discussions I've been having just wondering if if there's if they're part of a part of one of the folk a potential focus group or or connection for that and just thank you for your work and maybe I didn't maybe I didn't clarify it or maybe I think from maybe a different perspective I hadn't thought about the geography of of representation fully initially at this point as a driving force for me and my acceptance to sort of help guide this work is something for the entire district and so an equity definition that we would agree upon an equity tool that we would agree upon would be something that would be applied for administrators and for board members and for staff across our entire district so I guess I hadn't thought

100about in the development of the tool that we would be looking at one side of the city versus another I guess I was thinking about a district-wide tool that would be applicable to all sites and all applications remember Johnston I don't have any question for mr. Hall are there comments Itzel if you don't mind let's let him answer questions specifically then we can come back to you all right remember Oswald mr. house how are people solicited to become part of your informants group or is it gonna be selected by you is there an application process how is it being you know solicited throughout the community can you address those kinds of needs because you had on an audience here that can spread that word I have eight individuals so far for the initial of informants

101group that have all agreed to participate with an idea of representing again a diverse set of perspectives recognizing that it's not possible to to address all perspectives within our district but with the the intended goal to have multiple perspectives represented there and those individuals were individuals that I selected and is there going to be a different process once you create a larger group or forum or feedback and how is that do you have you planned that a far ahead yet and how would that work initially planned that some had you know with some identified community groups identified stakeholders both within the district and and and in our communities from after meeting with the informants group getting some feedback from there and I should state the informants group is not so much just feedback on the

102tool or on the definition but is also to help guide the process for gathering further input the idea that I myself could have all the answers for how to engage every single community or as many communities as possible just isn't a perspective that I share so the importance of having individuals to help influence and inform how we go about gathering more information is really important to me but the plan is to move from that initial meeting with a group of about eight individuals to a much larger group of maybe 30 or 40 as a folk as an initial focus group that would then have representatives from various stakeholder groups throughout our district and you know that could be anyone from you know any number of faith-based organizations to LGBTQ to various parent advisory committees to

103you know staff groups and union groups and and any number of stakeholders that students you know I think the the importance of having student input into to this is vitally important so the reason that we're all here and so any number of community and and other organizations as well as groups I would like to have representation from during the focus group sessions so that's kind of the initial plan from there and then from there moving from focus groups to completely open community input sessions question are you talking that your eighth member and forming group is is that solely based on diversity based on race or is it ability or is it anything in particular is there anything that guided you in um what guided me in my decision for trying to identify various individuals from

104you know diverse perspectives is is one of the proposed questions that I would propose for our district and in various groups to consider which is a question that says what groups are impacted by the decision and what is the nature of the impact being one of the one of the primary questions that a decision-maker would ask themselves and the follow-up to that is groups may include students of color American Indian students ethnic background lesbian gay bisexual and transgender students students with disabilities students and poverty English this learners and gender and and I don't know that that is necessarily even a complete list and I don't know if we could get a complete list but I I would I would venture that the informants groups and our focus groups might indicate a few other classifications or

105groups to add to that that list and so that would that would be the guiding list that I utilized in working towards getting representation as part of the informants group and also guiding that list then guides community groups that we would hope to have for a representation from as part of the focus group my point of order chair is that I think that we have went away from our agenda our agenda is to look at the resolution about realignment of our funds while I appreciate the discussion that is implementing how we're going to do that I think that's a buff and beyond what we call as an agenda and as a consequence I'm asking that we go back to our agenda I think that gaming Square Brown brought up the issue of equity is in

106the context of comp and so I see what you're saying but I let's finish with the people that want to speak to this and then we'll let mr. house go he's down the yeoman's job thank you yes of course equity is already part of mr. houses portfolio and taking this on as an issue by itself will be a big task and I would recommend to you that the informants group that you have eight or so people be an initial gathering it seems to me that for this big topic you will want to have a more formalized the board will want to have a more formalized group of people working on this issue and I guess I would also add that the issue of equity will continue to be an issue along after the cop education

107spending is settled but for the time being where equity is concerned in our district comp ed spending is where the rubber meets the road and it's something that we need to have some some buy-in for the whole community east and west because I do think that we want to keep this an issue of justice as dr. Owen and arm Tom Tuscon pointed out I was very grateful for the the words they added earlier on this is an issue of fairness and scarcity and there will be a great temptation that I hope we as a community can avoid to to avoid trying to protect our own children's interest in thinking of the greater good I agree with mr. tusk in that that burnout is a huge factor I aware this is a traditional difficulty that school

108districts that have jobs that just stretch beyond their abilities to to be taken care of suffer from and I have to say to that getting the limited education funds comp ed funds directed more where the money is generated from will not solve the burnout problem but it will it will help address that problem and it also will go a long way to make the community realize that we're doing our best to operate under the spirit of the law this is sort of my last four as a school board member I've been on for the board for four years most recently and it's really kind of a shame that we've just gotten to this subject which I've long wanted to tackle with just about seven weeks left of my tenure and the job and I I

109know that the new school board that will take office in January has a huge huge task and this is this is part of it we've been told that having a more more forward thinking positive bit of discussions will help the district and I don't disagree with that at all I would also like to commend member elect quorum he's been to an awful lot of our meetings recently and I wish you well and I hope this issue does not go away we pay close attention to it because I think Duluth will expect us to deal with this I think you remember okay thank you William thank you again for taking this task on to help create further discussion across the community I certainly know my four years on the board that the conversations around equity this

110isn't a start they've happened in lots of different ways as you referred to in your comments so I appreciate the next steps of the conversation I had a question around the community meeting piece of it and I know you're still formulating this I'm not expecting specific answers but having been involved with many community discussions on lots of topics over my 23 years here I know kind of reaching out and making sure we're we're doing that piece of this process well is important so will you be are you thinking that you'll be involving some of our city commissions some of our county commissions and in helping with making sure as the community meeting piece is happening that we're we're we're working as much with other current processes that are I know are happening within our city

111as well is at the county level around equity yes I would hope to have representation from various City Commission's I'm not sure which ones are county commissions that you specifically referencing but again if people have ideas and in places that that any one individual myself included should reach out to gain representation from I think that's important to share that and and be able to take that and include them but I would hope to have representation from various commissions citywide and countywide that would be concerned with our efforts in our district to develop an equity framework as a part of the focus groups even to help guide how the more broader community input sessions should be done they those sessions should be engaging they should be informative and and and real legitimate opportunities for for input

112but also for gaining understanding and and so that's that's important to me if we're gonna have open community input sessions we need to design them in a way that are engaging and informative that lead to more understanding for the broader community fashions me then okay III look forward to I'm having an update on kind of the timeline in the process at one of our upcoming committee meetings so thank you again yeah yeah I just wanted to add on that in addition to this process that is being facilitated by William our full service Community Schools so Meyers Wilkins Lincoln and Denfeld right now that structure also is is about collecting public voice it's about issues of social justice and when Kevin was talking about that people are there to address the needs and that people need

113a voice in how to address those needs then that is a great time for us to be engaging everyone in those schools to talk about what those needs are I also just wanted to go back to the budget process and say that during the budget process this year as as member wealthy indicated there are new members coming on the board and so I think that it would be a really good idea for there to be training on all the funding sources and how they're generated and how they're allocated specifically with comp ed there are some schools that have big differences and there are schools that would have have small differences I and I and I know it's not the solution to all of the needs of the school you know specifically with Denfeld you know

114the difference between the allocated and the generated is about a hundred and fifty eight thousand dollars and we've this year made that equity investment in in the budget of 150 and so that the difference is about $8,000 I'm not saying that to say that this is a small issue but I'm also saying that we need to as Kevin indicated look at different indicators then how its generated but look at the needs of students and the needs of schools and how to allocate that money because perhaps the free and reduced price lunch isn't the measurement we shouldn't be using thank you unless there are other questions for mr. house I would thank him for coming and speaking thank you very much and I'd like to take a five-minute break if it's okay with everybody and then

115come back so if there's no objection it's just started seven o'clock okay what we can have [Music] I did and also your battery ran out yeah but it's low do it yeah I got a HDMI is right Oh yeah doesn't matter PBS [Music] your life will never be the same training Oh huh how does it feel you're even you're on the record right now I think it could be done yes yeah and Donna me and Donna were talking you should come and sit nope thank you so I guess with your cosmetology expertise what do you think about in there I think it is beautiful I think she's just beautiful and particular odd together about less your haircut - thank you mine was purple briefly comes back my unit my ear gets highlighted in the summer

116and then it turns like black a brownish in the winter you are too it's seven o'clock and we have people sit down and come back or come back and sit down the Glasgow our Tennessee pertinency member left sir Kemp all right we'll reconvene this meeting I'd like to actually start with that second item on the agenda perhaps member Johnson you were first you want to speak to that since I lost my agenda the line item in the budget referencing 150,000 dollars investment sorry I thank you chair Kirby yes I do have some comments I first would like to make some some corrections superintendent indicated that this was not what we passed in June was not intended for this year's budget that is completely wrong it was passed as an amendment to the budget the intent

117was by I believe the board and certainly by the public that that was supposed to be starting to be implemented and it's very clear but looking at the budget it was not implemented we actually went backwards so we want to make it very clear that that is mr. superintendent concept is incorrect by saying this was not applicable to this year that most clearly was applicable to this or because amendment to the budget that was passed in June so we'll want to make that very clear I'd also like to make some points that there was a petition put out by I believe it was parents on the east that's supported the dental equity that was very strong I don't know how many people were on it but I know that there was a petition so people

118in East Duluth understand that when one school of suffering all the schools are suffering so that's I think that's very clear that these parents do support the Denfeld equity issue well I appreciate the discussion about about how to implement this the school board has already indicated that our intent is a realignment we don't have to go about and have a bureaucratic process taking another two years to do that bureaucratic alignment like to read the lawn which the Minnesota statute 126 3.15 comp had funds must be raised and used to meet the educational needs a few pupils who enroll underprepared to learn and whose progress toward meeting state or local content or performance is below the level that is appropriate for learners of their age that is in the law we do not have to redefine

119the law the law has a very clear we know what the law says the Seidman gap Minnesota the Commissioner of Education has been acknowledges that Minnesota has one of the worst achievement gaps in the country we know that we know that Duluth has one of the worst achievement gaps in the state of Minnesota and we know that dem fell has one of the worst achievement gaps in Duluth those are all those are all the issues that don't have you don't have to debate those we know what those are that is why the people and enfield are here that is why the people from Denfeld are desperate we want us to do something about it's not good enough to say that oh gee we're not the only place that has a problem other people do know

120we have an issue we have a we have a community group that is very concerned about addressing that issue and we as a board has already directed the administration to realign that process and and we know now looking at the data that the administration has not taken even the first step to realign that process as a result of making a motion the motion is be it resolved the district will commit to realigning the compensatory education fund to stay at the school where it was generated by the 2019 2020 fiscal year be it resolved that the district will commit to aligning the compensatory education fund to stay at the school where it was generated by the 2019-20 fiscal year in other words in two years be it resolved that the district will commit to a while

121in the compensatory education fund to stay at the school where I was generated by the 2019-20 fiscal year what 1920 remember wasn't you second did that yes never wealthy second it all right is there any discussion on this take care never sense it I'm gonna address this I'm also gonna be a little bit broader because my time is limited here and I apologize for having to leave soon but the statute that provides for compensatory education specifically talks about students who enroll underprepared and it specifically talks about early childhood and kindergarten for four-year-olds and to say we need the compensatory education funds to stay at the schools that generate them would limit us from what I think is something we should consider which is putting all of these dollars into early childhood education to open up

122our district for universal pre-k make it available across the district it would mean that the funding that would come based on or is generated in the secondary schools would end up at Elementary's or even early childhood centers we have an issue with space that we would have to address in doing this but this is a long-term need and the research shows us that early childhood and having students who are prepared for school is one of the better ways to ensure success in the long term and it's a long-term investment but I I believe that we need to look at that option as perhaps the best way to invest these dollars to ensure that we are going to get the best outcomes for our students they're going to be able to graduate and be prepared for

123the careers in which they want to pursue in the long run so I wouldn't support I'm not going to support this motion it's not that I don't support realignment of the dollars in the short term but I do think that we should consider in the long term investing compensatory education funding entirely in early childhood education thank you burrows well thank you I just would like to respond to member sands Ted's point that early childhood is addressed in the statute I'm looking at the statute right now and it's one it's option number 10 out of 12 options so it's not an all-or-nothing thing I could support putting some dollars towards it but there's 11 other really good options here I cannot in good faith imagine a Denfeld with 557 thousand less dollars let alone they generate

124seven hundred and thirty five thousand dollars or in East with their hundred and twenty one thousand that they generate or all of these Elementary's that have many of those same numbers attached between one hundred and five hundred thousand dollars so I think that's that's something that we can address in the future I don't think it's relevant right now because we're talking about realignment and realigning it where it's generated I'll support that motion even though I do have some my own reservations about taking away I'm glad it has it there's two years attached to that so we can actually taper it a bit nervous about the timeline we might want it a little longer but I'll support it yes superintendent I just wanted to point out that this year with the financing bill at the legislature

125it was a new requirement that all increases in combat funding be applied to extended day programs and so any future increases including the increase that we received for this year or for the coming year rather need to be invested in extended day programs and so I just want to be careful that we don't have language that doesn't allow us to follow that never left the campus thank you I was when I put my light on it was actually to move it was before I remember Johnston's comments in motion so I'm gonna put my light on later but my comment I guess for this motion would be I will not be supporting this motion and the reason I won't be supporting this motion is I think there's been a lot of good questions and comments that

126have came from the public tonight and I feel like I need more information on also I want some I want more background based on some of these questions I've been taking a lot of notes and I know getting emails from some folks who weren't able to be here tonight with different questions about what was even going to happen tonight so I'm not going to be supporting your motion I believe we have will continue to have discussions on this process on in our committee meetings and I look forward to further discussion as we move through a process but I will not be supporting this motion I remember Harlan I've been thinking as I'm looking at the signs being held back here about what you're asking and the kind of the root of this and one of

127the things that kind of continues to come back to me um were the comments of mr. spera brown and of miss Owen about how we identify the students in the hell where what what the definition of someone being prepared and I don't feel that this addresses what the root of what they're talking about and I I guess I would ask mr. Squier Brown to expound if this possible chair on what he on what you meant by by how we change that definition I just if that would be possible because I want I think that how much how soon how much longer is important but also how are you actually deciding the student I guess I heard a couple of things in in your argument and so I'm trying to understand a little bit more of

128what you meant by that sure if he wants to respond so what I was referring to is that using free and or reduced lunch participation eligibility I guess the right word eligibility and is a poor measure of performance preparedness and I think it is another issue I don't you know I mean one of the options is we could try to get everything perfect before we start addressing the equity and distribution part of it I think there are two parts there's there's at least two parts that we need to address or could address and I think that we should address I heard in your question perhaps a desire to sort of get it all exactly right before we sew so thank you for shaking your head no actually you've answered the question and so if I

129could look at comment shape that think you step back yeah um what I'm hearing you saying is that that's not actually the best way by having it go directly to that school and what I don't agree with this motion because I don't think this actually dresses what needs to happen so I and in what I'm hearing from mr. Squier Brown don't feel comfortable in supporting this motion remember well T yes I've been taken by the two questions that have been referred they originally came from a member sandd stead that dr. Jones and mr. screw are brown are holding up how much how soon or how soon how much and judging by the discussion here the house soon will not begin it's not doesn't seem very likely to begin with this meeting and it won't be

130this budgetary year unless we can cobble together four votes for the resolution that's been offered to us but the resolution offered to us would certainly answer the question if it was passed because the house soon would be 2019 I would like to address some of the semi objections that have been raised to it as to the superintendent's comment that future fund increases in compensatory very education have to be used for extended days I see no particular reason for this we have to abide by state statute and obviously if we have the money follow the children the extended days would would be added to where there are children that you know raise those funds probably wouldn't be super easy to figure that all out and figure out what kind of extended days would be offered but

131that would be the kind of a challenge for our our staff to to wrestle with and and they'll be forced to wrestle with it at some point if the law goes into effect whether we get any major increases or not and I would like to hark back to a question that member Harlow asked of mr. scorer Brown early on well you know where we spend this extra money and the answer was very simple one we have staff that is expert in handling budgets and education and they could figure out what would make the most sense as to how to spend the compensatory education dollars on the children who raised them who are you know come to school with with with difficulties and I I have complete faith in our administration could figure out and year

132by year work to make this money as effectively used as possible for those those children's benefit never say instead is not able to stay with us but I have a couple of comments about her her objection that we should spend all this money on preschool and early early children's work theoretically I think that makes a great deal of sense if every child could be born into a family and a community in which most of their their their needs were addressed in the first seven eight nine ten years of their life we wouldn't have a problem but the fact that matter is we're not going to have that kind of a community no city in the city in the United States is going to have that kind the community anytime soon especially with the current makeup

133of our national government but we do have a small pot of money compensatory education that we can spend and it makes sense to spend it across the board from the preschool years all the way through the high schools and I frankly have a very hard time regarding her comments as anything other but a way of postponing the decision that would tell us how much and how soon and the how soon well that's going to depend on this school district the school board tonight or the fits of budgetary planning to figure out whether they are committed to the 2019 2020 school years as as a goal for proper or for fair and equitable spending of these these funds I will be disappointed if this resolution fails probably won't be surprised if it does but I will

134be one community member who will be watching the future school board and hoping that the future school board does address this soon I may be constant sir a comment and then a question for Kevin another comment first of all I must disagree with number sanstead unfortunate she's not here sorry but as member Oswald already said there is 12 areas that can be addressed by this money I'm going to read them direct instructional services remedial instructions in reading our mathematics to improve the achievement level additional teachers and teacher aides low instructor to learner rachel's longer school day or week a comprehensive ongoing staff development instructional materials digital learning programs to reduce truancy encourage completion of high school bilingual programs all-day kindergarten there's a 1 that that apply to one out of the twelve early education programs

135parent training program school readiness programs extended school day and extended school year programs substantial parental involvement and develop an implementing remedial education and my motion is very simple it says that we will address the how much and how soon how much means that the money will be staying in those schools when in two years it doesn't say how we are going to do it we can go and through continued lots of bureaucratic work with the community and we can define that till ad nauseam and that can be still done and that would be good the point is is that any of these 12 things and the mention of the superintendent mentioned that may have to go to a certain function that was included our II read that that's already included it's already an option that

136the superintendent can do the point is that the superintendent has not implemented any of these things for this fiscal year which is contrary to the direction of the school board does not tell the the it does not any of the objections that were raised are not valid this is just telling the superintendent yes we will be doing it and how much and when that's that simple and I think and I do have I'm going to if I could ask a question to Kevin I'm sure if it kind of seems like some of the discussion is saying that that that you don't like the free and reduced lunch a question to you would be for your opinion of your group that you're representing with the verbage that we have here would that be a start to

137implement an improvement that's looked at by the dental equity group the question so the question is with the resolution to realign which it sounds like it means realign fully by the fiscal year or the school year 2019 remember sort of understanding that right would that answer the question of how much and how soon well those it isn't a would it be a would it be a step forward it would certainly be a realignment and it would be a realignment in the very near future or in the in in the in the relative near future so I want to recognize that we are pushing the school board and the district to thoughtfully consider this but also to take action to take action and and and I don't know that I'm in a position to speak for

138all of the committee because we haven't been able to meet and respond to that particular resolution and so I'm going to hold on that and I also think that this is something for you for for this you are elected members and you have hired a superintendent and and we are we are asking you to do this we are asking you to to address what many of us at least really see as an inequity the details of how soon and how how much I'm not prepared to define that if I had been I would have we would have offered that in our in our comments so I thank you my point is that the objections that I've heard from some of the members here nobody has any alternative to what my motion is there is no

139alternative being put for by anybody else sitting at the Dyess and my I've made an attempt to try to push the administration who clearly has done nothing in fact they've went backwards and my attempt as this board is to clarify what we have done what we have asked this end to we are still giving a superintendent much leeway which is in the law we have 12 and of these 12 options there's many sub options and those as well all I'm doing is asking that we start doing something I'd like to make a comment that there's been some comments about free and reduced lunch is that the best way to do it I don't not in the position to answer that neither are any of us because that has been determined how that money will be

140allocated by the Minnesota Department of Education that is a rule we have no choice in that matter free and reduced lunch is the method that is currently used for Minnesota Department of Education has nothing to do with us at all we cannot say oh we're not going to do it we do have to we must use free and reduced lunch and I'd like to put a footnote in the law that yes there is a notwithstanding Clause seems like all laws always have a notwithstanding the above Clause there is a notwithstanding thing that money can be allocated up to can all the self that I read it can be changed up to 50 percent that is an option and I you know again we I think the people and west of luth have said very clear

141that in this case it's time that the money stay in West aloof because of all the things that they've mentioned that we've mentioned the lack of equity the lack of graduation the lack of achievement gap and I think this is a very simple thing and it's not tying my hands of the superintendent just telling him how much and how soon that's all it's doing and as well other than that we'll make no chain on how we're implementing I want to change what mr. Hall was doing with the community and we'll be defining how it's implemented but it will say that we are gonna do something finally I just want to refer you to the the things that staff and I have been working on on this that I already went over so I won't go

142over it again but I did want to point out subdivision to sub point a that clearly indicates that a school district with special permission can allocate compensate compensatory revenue according to student performance measures if you have a system developed by the school board and it's approved by the state so it doesn't have to be by a free and reduced-price lunch Imbros well I have a question about ALC money right now it shows that ALC doesn't retain most of its money because ALC students are also spread out into different buildings and so my question is when we realign if let me take a step back how much of the ALC money is in addition to the money the company's compensatory education money that Denfeld and East both get we don't have that number it's like that

143it's like the difference in the compensatory education money from ALC disappears it shows that they that they don't get you don't get the money they generate it as nearly any of what they get of what they generate but yet there's no add column for ALC students in any other school do you have any explanation for that it's not an easy answer the same is true of our residential programs they also generate compensatory education funds and don't receive what at the levels that they generate part of the complexity of that is that those students are dual enrolled and so they are students at Denfeld and East and Lincoln and Arden East but there are also students at through ALC so while their course is at Denfeld or Easter or the other schools the funding source comes

144through ALC so while they're physically at the high school the funding source comes through ALC to the high school I know dr. Kerry is very involved with setting up these courses and and could probably speak to how that funding works a bit more if you would like him to well my concern is how much more money does that generate for Denfeld and East I mean and I don't know that you necessarily have the amounts or if there are necessarily amongst that can be assigned for that I think we what I'm asking for maybe is maybe more detailed data on based on students because I know I know personally both my kids have been in courses that are ALC assigned you know sorry private data released Oh anyway yes my data to share I guess um

145so you know I I understand how what you're trying to describe but I also want a value that those kids that are receiving those special services from ALC still reside within the Denfeld population and I'd like to know how much more money they contribute to their to their compensatory education dollars on top of what it is because with your rationalization with the budget that we made it an additional 150 thousand dollar investment so they're they're near what they need for compensatory education that doesn't include the student need from the students that are so far behind they need help from ALC services oh we would need some time to work through that because another layer of that complexity is that while students because they're dual enrolled when they're in ALC ALC has a much higher percentage

146of students who receive free and reduced-price lunch services than our traditional high schools do so while they're in that section they are generating a higher amount than they are the rest of their day and so we that would just take some math to figure all of that out sure I think it's a vital part of the conversations is right now it just looks like that money disappears and I with that I just wanted to reiterate that I did speak with principals Conyers during the break an aster about that hundred and fifty thousand dollar investment that we did make and the concern is is is how is that one hundred fifty thousand dollars going to be replaced in continual budgets because the things that they are buying with that one hundred and fifty thousand dollars include

147the Denfeld full service Community School Coordinator and the bar coordinator so they're concerned about longevity funding and does that one hundred and fifty thousand dollars continue in next proposed budgets or not and and if not where is that money going to come from is that gonna be extra money pulled from comp ed money is is that you're gonna leave that up to the super or up to the the principal did it aside if how to fund it and where to fund it those are those are larger questions and I think we can answer tonight but those definitely are questions in this puzzle because those things are vital sources of support for our kids that would not exist without funding and so do we give Denfeld their entire comp II D allocation and that just goes

148to fund what have we already invested then it's a net gain there's no no net loss or gain I guess I should say so how did how do you propose that work in future budgets I guess it's my question yeah okay well I've come too well you're familiar with the budget process and how we would go about that in right now that 150,000 is an investment that we make from general fund it wouldn't be my intent to to remove that I think that the investments in bar and in full service community schools are are very important ways that we're addressing needs of students at those schools if if we went to a model of allocating as generated allcomp ad and we did that before we didn't identify another source to replace that we would be

149working very hard to find monies to invest in class size across the district and so that 150 in general ed funding would probably be considered for to go to support class size across the district as as I mentioned before we are planning for a referendum that referendum would be the first year that referendum would be in place is 1920 and so the referendum would need to take that into consideration in that planning but without having a revenue source to replace that we would we would be hard-pressed to make investments outside of class size until we were able to find those revenues remember left lecithin yeah I just wanted to just comment there were comments kind of assuming why people were supporting or not supporting this motion and again I just want to make it clear

150I'm not supporting this resolution it does not mean I do not support action of some kind but when I was reelected what I heard a lot from the public was that they appreciated that I took time to make thoughtful decisions that I took time to make sure questions were answered I took time to reach out to the broader community on issues that had at a had a district-wide impact and so I guess I just wanted to state that that the community and and speakers brought up a lot of good information a lot of good questions and I look forward to furthering this discussion as we move forward with administration on realigning and I guess I would like to also move on with this agenda that we have there's a couple other there's another item and

151so I call the question on this motion do we just have a second I can't remember right well the question has been called we should have a show of hands I think so we know now all in the question is would you read it again for us please it's very clear arts motion seconded by member well tea was being resolved that the district will commit to aligning the compensatory IDI education funding to stay at the school where generated by the nineteen twenty twenty twenty to another nineteen no I'm reading the question that work that's being called question oh you have to vote on calling the question we do my little thing all right all in favor of calling the question say I know does not have a majority so right you never Johnston I'd like

152to thank the superintendent for bringing up subdivision 2 subparagraph a and that he makes a good point yeah and that says a district may allocate is convinced to her revenue to schools where the children have generated the revenue are served love it above unless of this the school has received permission under loft 12200 5 to allocate compensatory revenue according to student performance measure developed by the school board and then I appreciate you bringing that up the problem is is that that has ever been brought up to the school board we've never never even brought it up to us I again I don't read a every law I was certainly what am I not would have been a good thing to do would still be a good thing to do not my motion would not impact

153that in the least again its revenue according to student performance if we use student performance as a metric and how to allocate the compensatory education money I don't think we're gonna have much difference in fact it may even be more going to the western schools for example reading Denfeld 58 percent proficiency east 77% science done felled 46% east 70% math 29% and Enfield East 53% graduation rates 76% and Enfield East 94% so thank you for bringing that up I think that would be a nice thing to do but there is no reason whatsoever to vote against this motion or for the administration to oppose it because we passed this the verbage is we will align the compensatory education fund to say the schools were generated if the board decides to generate the money is generated

154by the needs of the schools we're going to be in the same position we are now would be no change whatsoever I'd like to again remind why I think one of the reasons was why the community group is concerned about the alignment did not happen this year what you should have as that Denfeld the comp n money was reduced by a hundred thirty thousand but yet in East was only reduced by forty thousand so again we have before us this deliberative body a reason a solution to make this more equitable and all I'm asking the board is that we move forward with that and not take any more time that the people that say that they are not opposed that this while they are opposed to it the people that are going to be voting

155against this are opposing moving forward to getting the Kompany equitably distributed the way in I believe the law says and more important the way the school board has directed the administration to do which they up to now have failed to do so I'm again asking this board to vote affirmative on this motion thank you I am going to be voting against it I think that at the time we passed the original resolution there was no strict time put on it precisely because we couldn't agree then and there were too many unknowns and I think there are as many or more unknowns that have been elicited by people tonight the budget is the elephant in the room it's a big elephant and it's an unknown as we've found out just recently when we were getting bond

156ratings I think that we are committed and to say that at least personally that I'm not because I will vote against this but voting against I've voted for the other one is not the case we need wider community involvement the Denfeld equity group is a community group but the community in Duluth is a lot larger than that and I think we need further and more input from other people so I will be voting against this you can have one last sure would like to emphasize too that even though I'm the West with Representative this also a large impact on Myers Wilkins as well which is not a West school it's an east school so people letter and he's Duluth I would hope would also support this and of course we know too that there has

157been school board members lobbying condon people to come here and imposing this and I don't think that's appropriate any other discussion seeing none the motion has been made and seconded that we just once more force please Carol resolve that the district will commit to aligning the compensatory education funding to stay at the school where generated by the 1920s for oppai 2019 all right all in favor of this motion say Aye remember well T Oswald and Johnson voting aye those nay say nay nay so remember Lafleur Camp Kirby and harloff vote nay and it fails it does not have a majority all right I think that I'm sorry thank you there's one thing that I've been meaning to address in the reference data chart that was sent to all board members regarding the allocated and generated

158expenses as a percent it indicates that two of our schools actually fall below the 50% percent threshold and I would appreciate that those numbers are double checked and remedy if they are and those two schools would be lower MacArthur and Myers Wilkins accordingly both you get about 47% instead of the state allocated 50% know what that noted um I pretty sure I fella which said the 50% is regarding the amount at each level not any particular school so the 50% is of district compensatory funding and we left again just a process question are we now moving on to five now or where we are at on the agenda here I know we kind of discipline action I'd say we're member Johnston sure just to follow up to member Oswalt getting reading the notwithstanding paragraph that

159all was a Minnesota seem to have but and I'll read that to your district may allocate up to fifty percent of the amount of the compensatory revenue that the school district receives the school sites according to a plan adopted by the school board the 50 percent is in there that's where that number came from all you interpreted I'm not sure but having reading this it says according to a plan adopted by the school board the school board has not adopted a plan to allocate 50 percent or any other money for that amount of that so we are violating the law by not having a plan adopted by the school board and sorry that they did not read this closer but having this school board having turned this down we are violating the law because we

160do not have a plan to adopt it by the school board that would shift up to 50 percent elsewhere so we are violating the law again it's a pretty clarification yeah go the compensatory budget is part of the budget when you accepted the budget you had that information in front of you that per per student expenditures at eat school which included the general ed comp at vocational title one integration and so that was accepted by the board as as your budget every Johnson jiva that's a bunch of bunk let me be civil to see that is incorrect yeah when we put out that we were not told that this was we were not told that the law says that we must approve a plan of up to 50% we were given a blank thing we

161made a motion to change it that motion passed unanimously what we should have done is we should according to this it may have allocated up to 50% to other purposes only according to a plan adopted by the school board and we did not adopt that by passing a budget we did not adopt that we were remiss at the time and not putting a timeline in the mount on that and this was a chance to remedy that and again I would ask one of the three people that voted for this only way we can comply with the law is to reconsider what we just passed and and to reconsider at this current meeting you must have somebody voting for that if we refuse to do this if this board refuses to do that we are violating

162the law I don't recall having the budget sheet that was superintendent grants s referenced with us when we adopted the budget we were given the individual school budget one-pager sheet in January and then again we've received it by email this month so we did not have it at budget time so we didn't have the exact list of how much compensatory education funds are going to each building or anything else that he just referenced I don't want to be in violation of the law so I guess I'm asking for guidance from anyone that how we can be in compliance do we need another motion do we need to reconsider take your pick I'm not sure that we are not in compliant I'm not a obviously not a lawyer but I think we would need some people

163smarter than us to tell us that all right seeing no other lights play the motion to adjourn move to a second consecutive to adjourn and for their discussion seem done all in favor say aye hi the post passes for with two extensions