##VIDEO ID:TywvclR7OQo## pres thank you and now let's all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God with liberty and justice for all great that too I don't know what I like the Justice party I was like oh I screwed it up first meeting I was like so long move on to the approval agenda please I'll make a motion second we have a motion from director spear with a second from director Hyman any discussion hearing none those in favor signified by saying I please I post same sign motion carries thank you very much this meeting of the Brainard School Board is being conducted in accordance with Minnesota statute 13 do2 this meeting is being recorded access to the recording is available on the school district's YouTube channel and now we'll bring up Marc who's already up here for uh the uh public hearing for truth and Taxation for the 2024 payable 2025 tax levy good evening everyone I know this is always your favorite topic so I'll jump right in um tonight's agenda does cover our requirements for a public meeting during the time frame we will go over the current year budget and the proposed tax levy and then we will go through um you guys will approve in after the public hearing so the hearing agenda will go a little background on the information on school funding though we'll talk about the district's budget and then we'll talk about the proposed tax levy and then we'll have some time for public comments and just to note there are two public comments so this first part is just strictly on the tax hearing and then there will be the um public comment after that for other comments Dr hman question yeah Marcia we'll be able to ask questions as you're going through the presentation the board yep and not have to wait till the end you can ask whenever you need thank you no problem uh so the Minnesota Legislature sets the funding for Minnesota Public Schools they set the formulas and the tax policy for this uh the district can Levy less but we cannot Levy more than those limits unless there's an operating or Capital referendum approved by the voters so this chart shows you what the formula looks like compared to inflation and you can see that we have not kept up with inflation this is not a new chart we've gone over this every year um the state continues to try to make adjustments but it still is lacking so if we were to see an increase that matched inflation the formula would have to go up by that $1,364 so just an FYI uh 2526 obviously is going to be is a to be determined because the legislature will start meeting in the upcoming months to determine what that formula amount will be so you've also heard several times that there's underfunding and special ed the cross subsidy for 2020 2223 for Brainard School District was about 6.8 million that's cross subsidy means the same thing as underfunding and special ed it's they coincide they're the same terms um so for but however there was a change where we were getting cross subsidy a of 06 and that did increase to 044 we still are underfunded though I I that was a big change from the prior year to the current year however we still are underfunded by about almost $3 million 3.8 excuse me that's for 24 that was for 2223 so this graph just uh is depicting other comparable districts that are comparable in um we talked about this at the finance committee comparable in demographics um more so than necessarily adms or our size some of them are comparable in size but not all and this is any District that has a operating or Capital referendum the blue is capital and the Orange is red so you can see there are a couple districts on there that so those are more like region centers just like we are like Regional centers correct rather than comparing the smaller districts around us and yes you know others that are Metro our size or whatever this is more of a true picture correct correct and you can see on there that we do not currently have an operating referendum in place um and the smallest District on there is Detroit Lakes and the largest District on there is Morehead just an FYI if you are curious uh the budget information so this is a list of the current funds we have at our district there's restrictions for each of the funds but the levy really only impacts the general fund the community service fund and The Debt Service fund and then this slide is a summary of our uh 2425 budget by fund balance you can see and I'll talk about it later in the presentation as well but we're different than other municipalities in that we are presenting tonight on the 2425 budget but the levy that you will be approving is actually for the 2526 budget and with counties and cities they will be presenting on the levy and it will impact the budget that they are also presenting presenting Marcy yeah food service we get free food right I me that's was part of though okay I see revenue is in and expenditure is out how come are 326,000 in debt so how does that happen under a free food program so we get reimbursed per meal and our costs can exceed that per meal amount whether it's staff or food expenses the state sets how much we reimbursed for those meals so we're serving meals that are more expensive than what we're getting reimbursed for and um if the food service director were here she would tell you that that's a planned um food service is not supposed to have a profit in fact they have a a surplus in their fund balance I shouldn't say a surplus they have um a a healthy fund balance so eating away at that is okay because if we continue to have a surplus um there the MD comes back and actually makes us correct that so make us spend it in other words yes and just to clarify you can't spend that anywhere else correct thank you then on the very bottom total all funds we 6 million debt so um the opep trust we're going to continue to draw down so that one you will see eventually go away and that's almost 1.4 million of it what is that that's where we we issued debt to create this trust and then we pay our other post-retirement employment benefits so as people retire we're spending that down eventually when that is gone we'll have to talk about a levy uh there is a levy for those benefits as well but for right now we're just uh using up that trust so we're really so you're saying is is we're really not 6 million in the ditch because we're taking 3 million of it as a PB thing correct and same with the construction fund I mean it's not Millions but it's 700,000 we're eating away and spending those funds down too okay thank you MH is community service is that Community head yes same thing they were 350 in the take on that any other questions on that one good questions can we keep them Mone from The Debt Service we can only use it for debt payments that's it so then did you just take the extra and just knock down the the principal part of this Levy is when we get to having over I believe 10% they will automatically do an adjustment and take it away from us the state will take it back can we pay on principal with it uh good question I don't I have not heard of that before oh you know me yeah feel are creative here out of the the box right I think we should try why not I can ask that question so this graph is a revenue of all funds the levy makes up 23.6% you can see it's broken out by fund um the 7.1% increase that's being presented tonight represents 1.6% of all the revenues budgeted and again it won't represent that of the budget that it actually will go into but that's what we're presenting tonight the general fund Revenue um the biggest difference from current year to last year or what's being presented is the the federal went down 3.4% you guys know that that is mainly because of the cares funds and then state was up 2.9% so that's the biggest fluctuations compared to last year for revenues the general fund by expend expenditures by objects so that object means what are we spending our money on 80.4% of that is salary and benefits uh you've heard multiple times we're in the people business right and that's that's our people is the salary and benefits there's no significant changes from prior year on this graph we're winding down on construction and all those things so we're starting to see not so many swings what's the other Mar um the other good question um dues fees licenses trying to think what else is in that category thank you yeah and then this is uh expenditures by program so what are we spending our our funds on 81.1% of that is on instructional support services so when you add up all the ones that say instruction or support and then you can see the other categories are sites and buildings other Administration and um District support services do you have an approximate number under the regular instruction approximate student count versus uh student count for special eduction um you want to know how much that is per pupil no just curious Rao just a how many how many kids how many kids are uh uh under the regular instruction uh expenditure versus special ad I'd have to pull the numbers but I believe last year we were around 20% sped so if we have you know 6,000 in enrollment 1,200 don't quote me on that what is pupil Support Services I think get pretty close wor uh the big chunk of that is Food Service oh so changes in the levy uh do not determine change in budget if the state changes a formula where maybe there's more state aid versus Levy or flip flop that that doesn't mean that the district is going to generate more more Revenue it just means that their the state will pay less or the taxpayers will pay more well the taxpayers are they paying the state too so taxpayers are paying more no matter what that's only where the money comes from the tax payers State doesn't have any money but if you look at it as a dollar figure if we get $100 and the state changes on a formula that they'll pay 20% instead of 10 we're still going to get $100 it's not going to give us more money all right so the difference and cycle levels uh Levy Cycles excuse me I touched on that already ours is this is going to affect the 2526 budget which we will be working on in the upcoming months and I think that's all I had on that one and then this is a sample tax statement so it'll show you what your proposed taxes are compared to last year and then the meeting time dates and locations for the public hearing I'm sure you've all seen these statements [Applause] and I touched on this already but the mde calculates what the limits are that's all handled by them it's not anything that I pull a report but they do all the calculations the property tax process uh step one the county sends valuation notices in the spring and then all these other steps we really have no control over the legislature or the county the only thing we have control over is when we set that levy on step five this is a timeline of September 8th was the first draft of the levy and to where we are tonight so the proposed tax levy is an increase of about 1.9 million or 7.1% and the proposed Levy in September was 6.84% so it is slightly higher based just based on adjustments that happen after the September meeting when it was approved and then this is a a breakdown by fund so you can see that the general fund's going up almost 45% and The Debt Service fund is going down 14% And I'll talk more about those changes in the upcoming slides so in the general fund the operating capital is going up about 175,000 and that is kind of what I had talked about before where it's a change in the levy and Aid calculation so more because of the change in market value is going to be on the levy versus state aid the next big chunk of uh increase is the long-term facilities maintenance we've talked about this several times we now qualify for the 1A funding so we that went up about 3.5 million in the general fund and then there is also a change in The Debt Service which offsets that increase so that was the increase that was triggered by the increase in square footage you got it and then the general fund with prior year adjustments was about 425,000 so a lot of the calculations on the levy are based on estimates and then when the actuals come in the state does adjustments to correct what was Prior levied and that's a reflection of the 425,000 so factors that impact the individual schools taxes a lot of times people will question why are my taxes going up and it can be because their market value is going up it could be that the total value in the district is going up if we have new construction new builds being added to the market value in the county um there's also the the changes in the state formulas that can impact that if there were voter approved referendums added that's another factor that will change your taxes and this is just an example of how um property valuations can have an impact on taxes but not necessarily the district's budget so this is two properties they're valued at the same they both would pay $250 in taxes the orange value goes up by 10% Blue House goes down by 25% so the total Levy still $500 but the orange house will pay less and the blue house will pay more based on the change in market value there were some legislative changes that would affect taxes as well this year there was a change in the homestead inclusion and the Egg Homestead as well so when we look at uh fouryear school levy in the upcoming slides there's going to be slides that have show no ch change in value and then a 45.9% increase which is what actually happened and then the final amounts could change as well after our presentation not by a lot but just an FYI so this is a slide showing what the property values or excuse me what the taxes would be if there were no change in property values so a $375,000 home would have saw a $17 increase in in their taxes if there were no change in property values then this is another graph that shows those same districts uh what the taxes payable are on a market value of 3 $75,000 for a residential home you can see we are on the lower end of that the highest being Northfield is with that capital and operating referendum they're paying almost $2,000 in taxes on that value of a home Mar c can you share um why we're using $375,000 as a as the estimated market value yeah so when Ellers provides a lot of this data data and when I complete the questionnaire you can say give me the average priced home so 375,000 was the average that they used versus when we did the blueprint what was it then it was almost 100 it was I shouldn't say almost it was only 152,000 thank you yeah why is there a difference and this this might be a really a dumb question but I hate making dumb mistakes why is there a difference in taxes paid between these school districts lots of factors so for example but it has nothing to do with how many homes in Northfield are valued at 375,000 it it has to do with property value it has to do with whether or not they have a referendum it has to do with um What other state AIDS they qualify for so there's there's a lot of factors in those numbers well let's tap piji I don't think they have a referendum I know Detroit Lakes doesn't right so you're $952 and we're at 1,026 so what would make us get the extra $76 a kid we may qualify for other categories that they do not for example there's par city transportation a there's just there's a lot of different categories and certain districts qualify for certain things we don't all qualify for the same thing so this is what an individual in our school district is going to pay on a $375,000 house that much is going to the school got it and the rest is the county and gotta one of the other things that plays into this as Marcy alluded to our district is 514 square miles so sparity travel and everything else is different than other smaller sized districts sure I mean that this is so complicated in the math side of things we're lucky to have her because this is you know this is kind of like you know you throw a bunch of dice up in the air and you hope they all land on six and none of them are going to so it's and I I made that um comment a month or two ago about it's the same thing you know gallon of gas a week ago was 17 cents cheaper than here in Crosby right you can't there's no rationale to it other than they make a decision we make a decision and there might be a you know a tax in one city that doesn't have a tax in another city so that it's it gets really complicated so it's even though we' like to think we're all equal none of us are equal there's no such thing as equal pardon there's really no such thing as equal yeah right so this next slide is same thing uh comparable districts only it's on the a homestead acre for a value of 6,000 so we're the second lowest on that as well part of that too Mar is that the amount of egg property within those Regional cities too you got it yep so this next slide Compares taxes from 2022 to 25 if there were no changes in property value and you can see that the the taxes actually go down and this is for residential and Commercial and then and same for egg and seasonal wreck and then this is based on the cumulative changes that actually happened so you can see taxes are going up based on that $375,000 residential home and then a $250,000 commercial so after after this the board would accept public comments on the proposed Levy and then certify that amount are there any questions no we would just open it up there weren't any public comment cards for this section of the meeting or this Levy discussion so at this time if anybody does have public comment you can come forward and make public comment about the tax levy piece that Marcy just presented on okay I don't see anybody coming up thank you very much Marcy Mr chair I would note that um in today's brainer dispatch in 2004 20 years ago it was noted in the dispatch that there was a u $3 million shortfall and they were looking at significant Cuts in within the budget at that as well so my point is as Mary indicated we go back a long ways to get Equitable funding for Education public Ed ucation and you know 20 years ago they were doing the same thing that we're you know that we're looking at so it just hasn't kept up with inflation period any other board comments or discussion if not then I'll read the resolution approval of the final certified tax levy for 2024 taxes payable in 2025 whereas pursuant to Minnesota statutes the school board of Independent School District number 181 reard Minnesota is authorized to make the following proposed tax levies for general purposes General 13 million in change as you can see there community service 637000 in change General Debt Service 14, 305,000 and change for an overall total proposed tax levy of 28 m326 39497 now therefore be it resolved by the school board of Independent School District number 181 brard Minnesota that the amount to be levied in 2024 and collected in 2025 is set at 28 m326 39497 this is an increase of 7.05% and we will do a roll call vote please Kelly Michelle Breen yes DJ Dinger yes Randy Hyman yes Sarah spear yes John Ward yes Bo yes do you need a motion for that no it's a resolution we don't need a motion or do we need a motion for that maybe we did I guess we do need a motion to so let's go back and do the motion I'm sorry I was so worried about the roll call that I didn't motion resolution motion I'll second all right so we have the motion from director Ward thanks for catching that Kelly and the second from director Breen and we've already done the roll call vote following up that thanks for catching that Sarah all right we'll move along with recognitions maybe I'll start this off with the first one and I'll pass it over to director Spear and perhaps to superintendent Grant then in collaboration with the Nissa Lions Molly rasy is proud to announce the inaugural Lions Pride award this prestigious honor celebrates a student who exemplifies outstanding character and embodies the Lions we serve Spirit we are proud to announce the 2425 Lions PRI award recipient Talia badowski congratulations Talia awesome congratulations to niswa Elementary's November character Award winners the following students exemplify the importance of being respectful C Carter Ziggler Breen roach Ella Wright Calvin clayo Breen ubel Rory Nelson Aiden Washington reev grams bod Larson Brinn John's Paige hes Jack barsnes Superior Bachman Easton cutter Abigail lenway Jackson wagm Ava Grahams Finn Peterson Claire Nicholson Landon Walton Sam Vernon and Ellie Marsh congratulations thank you director spe Peter you want to sure the next one congratulations to the warrior girl swimming and Diving team for the following accolades section 8aa Team Champions Dan Anderson section 8aa coach of the year msh hls mshsl class double a Seventh Place team finish 503e Maya talk state champion second ever in program history All-American time Isabelle plof 16th Place 100 free Maya TOS tdes third place Isabelle plof 13th Place 200 free relay Avery dur Ern Marcelo Isabelle plof Maya tdes second place All-American time 100 breaststroke a eighth place 400 free relay ABY der ER aryn Marcelo Isabelle plof Maya taches sixth place thank you all right we'll move along to public input a member of the public can address the board during this time comments will be limited to three minutes complaints or allegations against students or employees may not be discussed due to data privacy complaints or allegations must be submitted in writing to superintendent Grant the Board of Education and superintendent will not converse with guests to address the topics discussed at this time and we'll start this evening with Ann Schwarz please all right um last time I was here I asked what next and so I'm here for part two at the encouragement of a handful of parents students and teachers who heard that I was here and what I had to say um so I have a little bit more so Reflection from last meeting major concerns about bullying at Forest View Middle School um and what I see there is different than many of the schools that I have worked at in the state the number of occurrences the frequency the severity of actions the pervasiveness the absence of a program with clear and consistent practices the inconsistency and ineffectiveness of consequences the absence of restoration practices the absence of data Gathering and Analysis to identify patterns and take action including home how many students have left because of being bullied um or grades dropping things like that inconsistency and or lack of communication to teachers parents and Guardians especially of the victim and including what teachers should do to be proactive to ensure all students are safe and learning so I'm certain you're aware of the top 20 program I'm sure Mr Anderson talked about that last time um it's a wonderful program I love it and we uh some of the schools in y Zetta used it and it is a great program but it's not an anti-bullying program and when I asked the the administration there what their bullying program and practices were they said top 20 it will certainly help to improve the climate and environment at the school um but it cannot stand alone in the practices of dealing with what's going on today for sure so first of all it is being implemented from the inside um by counselors and teachers who are already overworked not that they're not qualified the time so the slow pace at which it's being implemented is not effective for it to take hold um as soon as it should furthermore the creators of the program will tell you that it takes three to five years of dedicated implementation for the school or District to see an impact so given the way it's being implemented at Force view I am concerned it's going to be at least five years second what about the next 3 to 5 years you cannot afford to sit on your hands and hope things will take care of themselves cuz they're not it's getting worse okay I recall a girl from Forest View two years ago who took her own life and four girls who attempted to do so in the bathrooms right at school that was very recent so I asked what are we waiting for something needs to change if the answer is resources I just heard the concern about resources but there's still a lot of low hanging fruit that wouldn't cost um any more money actually um so I would ask you to consider the fact that if we have one parent who goes to the state and the investigation's open you will spend 10 times the resources it would take to be proactive and do something now thank you wow perfect time my granddaughter had me a practice thank you uh next up we have Andrew Mendes please hey everyone uh happy Monday e or Tuesday evening um I'm here not to actually speak tonight about any issue or policy relating to the district um I'm here to extend a big thank you uh to the chair Kevin boils for his time and his Service as it finally comes to an end in this Schoolboard meeting um I can remember all the way back to the summer of 2020 uh when I was looking at all of the Schoolboard candidates who had filed to run for Schoolboard um and reading through each of their websites now for some reason when I read through Kevin's website I got this gut feeling that not only would he win the seat but I would go on to know him later so when I saw his phone number on the website I knew I had to call him and tell him about some of the issues that I had seen in the district and issues that I cared very deeply and very passionately about and I did this to make sure that some things would be done before I went off to college and embarked on a new chapter and by the end of that week I went off the college and embarked on a new chapter and I got to watch from afar as Kevin jumped head first into the absolute chaos what that was 2021 um you know and despite Kevin being completely new to our governance and our district he handled the situation with Grace and professionalism even after facing threats from the public and having people follow him to his car after Schoolboard meetings Kevin worked tirelessly trying to make connections with people who disagreed with his beliefs and he tried his best to set politics aside and make human connections so that there could be civil and friendly discourse instead of threats hate and rage during this past election Kevin was the only candidate who regularly checked in with me not to just discuss the election but to Simply see how I was doing Kevin is one of those very few public servants who doesn't care about the power that he has but only cares about the the community and the people that he represents so from the bottom of my heart on behalf of everyone else thank you for all of your work thank you for the thousands of hours of work not just on the exciting issues like covid-19 and book band but on the completely boring things that almost no one notices will ever notice or care about it has been an absolute pleasure to witness witness and to also be involved with and work on you on different issues that I care deeply about so I wish you the best of luck on your next chapter thank you uh next Dr Heidi Han [Laughter] please I'm wearing the shirt for Dr heidy hon tonight yeah so we just had to start out with some music just uh to bring it there but I I do I really appreciate the shirt this evening director Bo but director Bo superintendent Grant and members of the board I for one and thankful that the election season is over it's a time that brings out the best and the worst and people and that is why I'm here to speak this evening I want to thank you for your decision to run for the school board and for your service on the school board no one will ever truly understand what it means to be a Schoolboard member until they actually become one being a Schoolboard member is more than meeting a meeting once a month or the occasional committee meetings being a Schoolboard member reaches far beyond the boardroom being a Schoolboard member is taking every school handbook reading them highlighting them tabbing pages and then subbing in every building to see what's actually happening day in and day out with our students and staff it's volunteering to read in classrooms talk to our kids to eat lunch with them and remind them that they can do anything they dream of doing it's about modeling what it means to be good to one another it's about being present in the classroom where students are showing their entrepreneurial skills in Shark Tank are listening to Capstone presentations where they demonstrate the culmination of four months of research it's about showing up at events cheering on teams and admiring the talents of our musicians and our theater performances it's about caring for and checking in on the hundreds of Staff dedicating their lives to the care and the success of the children in our community as this is chair Bo's last board meeting I would specifically like to share my gratitude for his work and his service director boils thank you for being so proud and so public about the work that takes place each and every day in B in Brainard Public Schools you have repeatedly shared that you and your wife she's awesome by the way she's here moved back to Brainard knowing the education that your children would receive in particular you knew the exceptional support and education that would be provided in the area of special education you brag about what happens in brainer Public Schools every chance you get people notice that staff noticed that thank you for always being present no matter who was asking to meet with you or what the situation involved and by being present I mean you always listened fully and intently in every interaction you always agreed to meet with people in person and you always responded to people you could agree and you could disagree with people but you always did it with deep respect with genuiness and with a willingness to learn thank you for finding joy in the service as a board member you were always seeking ways to engage with staff students and with community members and when there were things to celebrate you wholeheartedly did so thank you for your willingness to challenge and support your fellow board members and the education system as a whole you always stayed focused on what matters students and I personally and professionally want to thank you for the time you supported me in both my roles as assistant superintendent and superintendent the job is a very demanding one and one that requires that you take care of everyone around you first I appreciated that when the dust settled you always took the time to check in and ask hey how are you doing it repeatedly demonstrated that you again not only cared about the students but about the people dedicating their lives to them Kevin boils you provided incredible service to Briner Public Schools thank you for always being a champion for our students and staff once a warrior always a warrior uh and our last uh public comment for tonight uh Dave borish I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly oh [Laughter] no my name is Dave borish a graduate of Brainard high school and an employee of ISD 181 for over 30 years I'm just jazzed about being on the show man I'm not even supposed to be here I'm just a glorified extra in this episode prove how serious the situation is I do have one job on the ship though stupid but I'm going to do it Commander Kevin boils as your most recent Voyage on the Brainard School Board comes to a close we wanted to take a moment to thank you for your tireless work and Leadership you've truly exemplified what it means to serve with dedication heart and humor you've truly exemplified what it means throughout your time on the board you faced challenges with the calm resolve of a season leader navigating the complex worlds of budgets policies most importantly the needs of our students and families and you've done it with Integrity no matter how difficult the task in my experience there's no such thing as luck your work on the budget was no small feat whether it was balancing Financial constraints or ensuring that every dollar worked toward the best interest of our students you handled it with with the Precision and care of a commander guiding our ship through troubled space your commitment to our school's financial Health was evident in every decision you made while you can't stop change any more than you can stop the Suns from setting your thoughtful approach ensured that the district could maintain its mission to serve all students of course your involvement in the school renovation project was another Testament to your leadership you help guide us through the complexities of planning funding and executing such an important initiative you understood as you said it's not about the game it's about the fate of the universe the renovation was not just about improving buildings it was about shaping the future of our students and their learning environment something you took very seriously even when the process seemed overwhelming you've proven time and time again that even when it feels like it's a trap your focus determines your reality then there was the covid-19 mass controversy as tensions mounted you faced a volatile issue with Grace and Poise even when emotions ran high you always reminded us of the importance of balance in the force and the bigger picture after all you're not all real astronauts you're just actors what were you going to do yet you made sure to navigate this difficult time with compassion ensuring our schools could safely operate while listening to the community as you often said it's just a show but we take it seriously you led us through that controversy by taking every argument into account thinking about what was best for our students and families and standing by your principles through all of it your humor and Leadership never wavered you embody the words I have been and always shall be your friend and that sentiment was clear in everything you did for our school district whether it was standing firm on difficult issues or lightening the mood with a perfect pop culture reference you made sure that the ship kept sailing smoothly never tell me the odds might have been your motto when facing obstacles but you always knew how to guide us through them thank you for your service your commitment and your friendship you've shown us all the importance of leadership and that no matter what the challenge let the wook win we're very grateful for everything you've done for our schools in our community and always do or do not there is no try you've always done by grab thar's Hammer by the sons of horin you shall be remembered I don't see how we could possibly do another public comment today all right let's move on to the approval of the minutes from uh last meeting so we have two to do tonight we have the canvasing and regular Schoolboard meeting back from on November 12th please motion second so we have a motion from director dondelinger with a second from director spear any discussion hearing none those in favor signify by saying I please I I post same sign motion carries and then we had special school board meeting uh from December 3D so second so we have a motion from director Hyman with a second from director Ward any further discussion hearing none those in favor signify by saying I please I hi oppose same sign motion carries move on to the consent calendar uh just quick note on here there is a a fairly lengthy list of policies and I'll ask director heidman to chime in and and superintendent Grant um and most of these that are on here are on the consent agenda because there are just minor tweaks based on the msba boilerplate language so a minor variances and some sentences and stuff um one exception that's on here would be under the 507 the corporal punishment and restraint there is a section five in that policy where there was a new paragraph put back in talking about use of force which was not in the previous U which is part of that whole issue around when some of the school districts yanked their resource officers and all of that stuff so that they kind of clean that up at msba level so that's in there so if you had a chance to that in your packet so other than that um director Hyman any other ones that you can think of no I think only other one that jumps to mind for me is the last one which is 904 and all we did there was um allly you can correct me if I'm wrong on this one but I think we added just a little bit of language to make it consistent with the 500 series and the 400 series policies that are essentially all saying the same thing correct so that's it on the policy piece do we have any other discussion director Ward Mr chair I just want to um also make the board and Community aware that uh under the consent Cal is the approval of the student representative on committee's applications so we've been working hard on that and um it's moving forward so I just wanted to highlight that as well what what is it approval of the student representative on committee student reps on committees oh yeah I don't think that's on this that's stting the new in new business John oh it is yep yep it% I don't see it excuse me I'm sorry that's all right okay yep y got it I have a couple things um this attendance policy seems fine um but I guess that I'm really concerned about you know I was talking to Michelle about it when we started before we started is it seems to me that our chronic absenteeism level like it for VI is in the mid-20s and I don't know the proper way is to fix that but I'd like to see the policy committee like next year or whenever they get back and going again is to see if there's something that we can do to help um solve that problem you I was thinking about it it's there's a chronic absenteeism is 10% is what makes it chronic as I asked at one of our meetings and um so there's 163 days in the school year so you missed 16 in 10 years you've missed a whole year and so maybe our reading scores would get better our math scores would get better if we could figure out a way to get these kids coming to school um and the second one I've got that uh I'd like to see us look into as well is the graduation requirements we've talked about it before there really aren't any requirements if you take the class you graduate and I don't think that we're doing anybody any favors in their future um for Prosperity reasons or ease of finding a good job if we don't hold their feet to the fire a little bit and make them at least pass the class and I think it I think we're we're doing a disservice to our kids and you know it may seem like a nice thing to do but then they have to get out in the real world and and I think it would help them drastically if we could get them through and I think that it's been the same thing going on in education for 190 years and I think that it can be done and I think we should really dig into it figure out how to help get that accomplished I mean I'm happy to vote for this today but I'd like to see us get back after this next year Dr W Mr chair as far as student attendance couldn't agree more DJ um I do know that there is some pilot programs in the state going this year through the legislation that are showing great Improvement in attendance in some of the schools in the state um and I know that I know there's a legislative committee set up uh specifically for this um for attendance it's a it's a crisis situation Nationwide not only just in Brer but in Minnesota and um there there some of the things are doing in some of the other schools sh some um some improvement significant Improvement so I'm hoping that the legislature sees that and um doesn't make it a unfunded mandate but maybe even provide some funds for that so how we know that work what are they um is there anything that you can like an example of what they're doing it's get helping um I just remember reading about what they're uh what one district is doing I think it was Northfield I don't know if anybody else read that or I think it was Northfield I can't remember that um they're providing um significant um tutoring one-on-one tutoring and small group tutoring they're they're following through with calls to home they're they're addressing transportation problems um you know they're addressing the issues that have been told to them about chronic uh absenteeism so um and they and they have uh change attendance on the ones that are participating in that pilot program good yeah good point so any other discussion related to the consent agenda okay he none um entertain a motion motion second so we have a motion from director doninger and a second from director spear to approve the consent calendar as presented any further discussion hearing none those in favor signify by saying I please oppose same sign motion carries all right we'll move on to presentations we'll bring up uh Jack Freeman uh to talk about the scoreboard partnership with the Brainard Sports boosters hi Jack good evening I love the shirt Mr Bo thank you I want to thank you for the opportunity to present uh to you tonight uh a project that I'm very excited about and I think is a great opportunity for our school district I want to take a quick minute uh to recognize two people in the audience uh who are here on behalf of Brainard Sports boosters we have our current uh Brainard Sports booster president Laura growman and our outgoing past president uh Joel CLA uh with us tonight I get to see the work that they do for our kids community and School District on a daily basis and whether it be the financial support they provide the platform they provide us to celebrate our kids at weekly luncheons uh or the state send offs that they you know always go and and Beyond and making the inner clastic experience that much more special for our kids we're lucky to have uh this group of people and the the great work that they do in our community I'm going to be highlighting uh a potential partnership with uh them uh on a project and I I want to start uh my presentation and end my presentation by saying the cost of the district uh for this project will be zero and we can update our Stadium scoreboard and create an additional Revenue stream uh for our athletic department so to just give you some background I I just wanted to provide you with some pictures on the current state uh if you look in the top left you will see our current uh scoreboard in our Stadium we've gotten a lot of great use out of it over the years it has definitely served its purpose well uh but we are in need of updating our our existing scoreboard I included uh many pictures uh from uh communities in our conference and in our section and I just I wanted to do that to highlight when our our teams go on the road this is what they see in opposing schools stadiums uh and then they come back and I I hear you know when are we're going to do this in Brainard uh so that's feedback that I've definitely heard from our community um and we would definitely be the outlier I mean the the the the video boards that you see in front of you would be the norm and stadiums all those schools have smaller enrollments than us um but we would definitely be the outlier with our current setup uh so for the past two years hearing that feedback from our I've been doing my research um in reviewing what other schools have in place within their stadiums and that's reviewing the products that are in place and also the revenue that those boards are generating and in line with the game day experience uh that these boards can add to um what I'm even more concerned about is the revenue that we're missing out on with our current setup um I really zoned in on Alexandria as having the best model out there in terms of the product that they have and the amount of Revenue that it generates for their athletic department and when I looked at their model um I I quickly realized that we have everything in place here in Brainard uh to take what they've done really well and had a lot of success with and implement it here um they used the Cardinal athletic Foundation to partner with uh that group took out Al loone on their current video board um went out and sold the advertisement for it um and that Cardinal athletic Foundation would be their version of Brainard sport boosters so we have everything in place here in our community to take that model and implement it so in August I brought that idea uh to superintendent Grant to see if there was an appetite to further explore this possibility I also brought it to the Brainard Sports booster board and both sides says yet said yes let's let's see if this is a possibility in the fall of 2024 we formed a committee with myself Joel CLA Nate Olson Kevin theing we went out and received three quotes from three different vendors um we invited those vendors to come on site uh see our grounds uh provide us with renderings and quotes uh and we included our uh Tech Team and ground crew to ensure that they were part of this process as well uh at the November 15th meeting uh the booster board um we also spent a lot of time creating contracts uh drafting up contract proposals um fund management proposals and just covering the overall scope of the project and at the November 15th meeting the Brandon Sports booster board approve the contracts as they're currently written I I told them that the next step obviously is me bringing it back to the district uh for final approval so on the 19th I presented this proposal to our business director buildings and grounds Department tech department and BHS principal on December 2nd I presented it to superintendent Grant and then on December 3rd I presented it to the finance committee and now I'm here tonight uh presenting it to you any questions regarding the timeline our committee is making the recommendation that we go with doctronics as uh the provider uh for this board we uh have a lot of doctronics boards in place across our district currently in all of our spaces except our main gym Court where we have a score vision board uh included the price of the board uh the concept of it and the quote for your review um it is the feedback from our committee that we go out and we try to sell 12 total sponsorship panels and we go with lit panels I can show you an example between the difference if you look top right here at Detroit Lakes that's not lit if you look at Alexandria's it's lit it's a little bit more professional looking and we thought given the dollar amount that we're going to go out to businesses and a ask for we wanted it to be as professional as possible uh we didn't think that 12 was overwhelming in terms of taking away from uh the actual um Stadium uh we thought it it fit perfectly it's a model similar to what St Michael Albertville has in place currently um and we thought it looked very sharp we would try to sell six of the big panels and we uh would call those founding partner panels and six of the smaller panels on the bottom those would be Community partner panels if we're able to sell all uh 12 of those panels at the dollar amounts that we have outlined in the contract uh we would be able to create a revenue stream of $162,000 per year for the district it's our recommendation to include um visibility in our main gym and Aquatic Center to make this a comprehensive project currently we have a video two video boards in the main gym one video board in the Aquatic Center uh we've had the boards in the main gym since 2016 and they've so far brought in zero dollars in Revenue so we're trying to tie it all together so we're not going out for multiple asks um we also thought it would help with negotiations V visibility and increasing the value of the ask we also are making the recommendation to include a new audio system for our stadium and I know our tech department was happy about that uh because the the current system in our Stadium it has its Echoes and it's also uh at its life expectancy so if that goes down uh we need to have a plan to replace that so we thought it was best to include that in this project and this box right here with the warrior logo the helmet that would be the audio system this would be the branding uh that we would the trusses and uh that we would have in the the main gym uh we would have the founding partner the bigger panels along the bigger video board in the main gym along the South Wall there and then the smaller Community panels around the smaller video board uh on the north wall this is be uh the rendering for The Aquatic Center again similar branding uh in graphics up top we'd have the founding partner panels uh on the sides of the the scoreboard there we didn't think it made sense uh just given the size of it and the infrastructure currently in there to put the six smaller panels below um the recommendation was to put it on the opposite wall above the diving well and just have it be separate ad panels the contract language um we took directly from Alexandria we're not Reinventing the wheel here they're two and a half years into this and they're having great success it's been a great uh Community Partnership for them and we're just adopting what they already have in place we did make Minor Adjustments to uh you know we use our local some of our local terms um but the founding partner uh contract would be a five-year contract at 15 thou $15,000 per contract uh the community partner contract would be a 5-year contract at $112,000 per year in terms of fund management we did add one uh existing document for uh how the funds would be managed in contract language Alexandria didn't have this in place we put this in place just as an EXT EXT ra uh protection to ensure um that all funds and interest generated from these funds would stay uh within the district and only be spent on projects and improvements within the districts meaning if an outside person came in and said I'm going to build a Fieldhouse went to Brainard Sports boosters and ask for a grant donation this money couldn't be used for that this money can only be used for istd 181 capital projects this will be a separate dedicated account that boosters will host it won't be mixed with their uh money that they already have from their other fundraisers such as tapped and corked uh the golf tournaments Etc this would be a completely separate account where all money going in and out would be easily viewed and accessible These funds are exclusively again for capital projects that support the long range Athletic Facility planning of brainer Public Schools uh these would be your dream big projects um I want you to think about video board in the stadium lights at the softball field Turf practice field with a bub with a bubble those type of items it wouldn't be for your smaller items like bats balls pucks uh those annual requests that we see uh would be the bigger ticket items we uh can be very creative in how we pair this with ltfm money uh to address some of the needs of the existing infrastructure that we have at the lower site uh and within Brainard High School uh in our athletic facilities and I'll use softball as an example for that um we've made improvements to access ability at softball and we've added a scoreboard at softball we still know we need to address dugouts there um we need to address lighting uh ltfm dollars can cover existing infrastructure such as updating the dugouts uh but we can't use ltfm dollars to put in new lights because there's nothing existing in terms of Lights currently this pot of money could update the new stuff that ltfm can address and if we're creative again with our strategic plan we can address a lot of the needs across the district also included in this language um we don't know who will be in my seat uh in 10 years we don't know who will be in our superintendent's chair who will be in this board's chair Baron sports booster's chair in the event that this agreement were to sour um all funds would be returned to the district I wanted to make sure that that protection was in place as well this is important um and I I think it's I just want to really emphasize this you know why should these funds be hosted by Brainard Sports Boosters number one they're great at fundraising they have a proven track record that shows it they do it really well they do it really well in our community they have a great reputation when it comes to it and as great as they are at fundraising they're even better at giving the money back to the school district and they have a a decades long track record that shows that uh giving well over $1 million back to the district over their time um number three it provides us with some separation from the ask again I mean we can share with with our community loud and clear zero tax dollars are going towards this project um zero dollars from the school budget is going towards this project and we're addressing some of the needs that we have within our Stadium number four uh they have great connections within our business Community they're all business members and uh members of the chamber uh you name it and we can utilize those connections and the relationships that they've built and that's going to carry a lot of weight when we go out and sit with local businesses to have them at the table uh leading this effort number five we don't have to allocate our limited staff and resources to manage the project I think if we had the capacity to take it on like I said we've had boards since 2016 we already would have done so uh and number six last it provides Clarity to The Advertiser and the sponsor on the purpose of the project and the intended use of the funds it makes it very clear when we're asking for this money what the money is going towards it's very specific next steps would be approval from uh the district if there's any changes we'd have to bring that back for approval from uh the booster board uh we have the goal of uh starting to secure sponsorships by January 1st of 25 finalizing contracts hopefully uh by early April and completing construction uh by early July uh so we're up and running for fall Sports uh in the upcoming season uh it's an aggressive timeline but uh we think we can do it again final thoughts here uh just we have the opportunity to address uh our Stadium scoreboard and update that uh bring in a new audio system which we know uh needs to be replaced value of $434,551 do um after three years three and a half years uh this board would be paid off and we would have the potential Revenue stream of $162,000 per year that will support our long-range Athletic Facility plans I uh as I said earlier I'm excited about the project and I look forward to any questions you might have you said Jack the sports boosters they've spent about a million dollars since their existence Laura would have uh that dollar amount better prepared than I would but yeah we have a sign somewhere that says I looked I looked today and I I know for sure we're at 1 Point 1.3 and it's probably higher than that going back to some older yeah well I'm all for this I just wish we had a math Boosters club a science Boosters club a reading Boosters club but we don't we could start one maybe we could maybe we could but this is absolutely fantastic what will you do with the existing scoreboard we uh I was actually talking with Coach freed about that a little earlier we would definitely have a need at Forest View currently uh with the Rusted infrastructure over there uh that is no longer in operation uh so we would uh repurpose it and either move it to the practice field at BHS or over to Forest View uh based off what our grounds crew uh would recommend so do we have the film and stuff to have this cool video going like do we have to go buy a whole bunch of stuff so we can make these like film these games they already doing that for the coaches and everything and it's already out there that's a great question um what I've learned with our video boards is we need people to manage the content a lot of the content management is done like on the front end um and just creating that having that ready to go dialed up so when DJ Dinger goes and makes a big tackle uh there's like a gift of him celebrating that got run over a few times if if you're go to the girls basketball game tonight you'll see Nick here just up in the bleachers with an iPad uh filming content and he'll capture it and then at a timeout he'll put it on as an instant replay back huh yeah so again it's but it's finding the people that are able to uh take on these so we're not running around cords and all this fancy stit just iPads and stuff like that it's good enough quality yeah it's it's pretty if you've watched our live streams um the the technology and the the AI the advance that we've seen there has been pretty amazing very cool so even from the get-go the district has no Financial involvement in this whatsoever so we're on the back end if there's Surplus Revenue that comes in as a result of the residuals on these panel sales correct so being The Devil's Advocate you've got is it is it 36 different panels that you're selling or are you selling 12 and people are buying chunks of three in each of the locations right because you've got we'd be selling 12 total you would have ibility Stadium right so you buy a package and you're you're in all three of those so the prices that you showed for like the founders package the 15 grand gives you one panel in each of the locations correct okay for five years correct you got so you're really only selling 12 you're not trying to sell 30 no no and we we we talked about that and we thought from a management setup and just you're you know starting that off in the first five years you know we thought that this was the best route to go and having it be all encompassing sure and Pres you've had some preliminary discussions with people and there's some interest out there already that you you can gauge or I think there's going to be a lot of excitement around this you only have 11 to sell because doning or Chevy's taking one oh God down stay in your lane there [Laughter] [Music] disco no we'd be excited about the opportunity to go present this to local businesses and I I think it's a a project I mean we live in a very generous Community we're really lucky that way and we know it's a big ask uh but I I think it would be an exciting Community Partnership the banners that are down at the stadium now in all fairness to the people that are going to be buying these panels I would assume we're going to be removing those B some of those banners because I mean I mean I'm just looking at it from a standpoint I mean I guess it if if if if someone's willing to write a check for 15 grand for 5 years and they don't care about existing banners that are there does that raise any money do the banners raise any money now so the banners uh on the fencing is team for the teams so it's like the brand Warrior football uh Association the um Softball Association the baseball association so that's individual team sales along the fences uh Alexandria has maintained that so like the teams can still go out and sell those uh it's obviously not the same visibility as uh right at the scoreboard um but one of the things that we discussed is we're well aware of fundraising fatigue and burnout and when we would go to these businesses we would say you know if you're going to do this we understand that this is a huge commitment and you would have the potential opportunity to opt out of any future being contacted for future fundraising efforts and then we would say to all those groups don't go to these businesses for those types of projects trying to be cognizant of fundraiser burnout it's dialogue we've had Alexandria's navigated it they've kept the signage along the fence it's paired well it hasn't been an issue cool Mr chair I I am all for this project as well um and I want to bring forward some of the things that that were talked about at the finance committee that DJ and myself participated in um and the question was asked um and Marcy um brought it up and raised some question about um you know can we do this um and do it within the district to um maybe use money for other District needs and so that question is still out there I mean I think that even in our um summary that we got we received it was it was in there um for myself personally what I see is um Sports boosters have a great reputation number one um for supporting our community uh number two this allows athletic needs significant athletic needs that have been long overdue um to be done um and taken care of um so in my from my perspective you know it's taking athletic needs um and not having to compete with academic needs so that you know we don't have a competitive kind of deal like we currently exist um and I think that's bless you I think that's just a u a win-win also um um so I wanted to make that point I just wanted to make that point that this separates athletic needs from academic need I mean we we still have tons of academic needs obviously that we've been talking about and talking about and trying to you know get a handle on um this is a way with Zer doar Z do Z do Comm from the district right Z do commitment from the district right to address significant needs that have been in the athletic department for years years so I'm all in favor matter of fact i' can can I make a motion I can't control you John never have been here's one thing um just to be fully transparent um My Favorite Things uh there is like we do have to run some cables to the bleachers that cost about 10,000 bucks but that's our only obligation right that was the unforeseen cost at Alexander uh learned about we've tried to we're going to try to be proactive on the front end to make sure that we're aware of all those costs up front mean I don't think that's B nobody getting CAU since we keep saying zero zero if we would said it so many times um there's a little something we had to run some wires yeah that's pretty minimal compared to what this is going to do so make the motion I'll move that uh that we go ahead with the uh project uh with the sports boosters uh on the uh new board panels I'll second it all right so we have a uh motion from director Ward with a second from director Don linger to approve the presentation from Jack and team and brard sports boosters to move forward with your next phase of your process um any further discussion I totally support this but I've got one quick question um on the document that was created with the intent of ensuring all funds so on and so forth y i to my knowledge and maybe only been here a few years we have we ever done something like this before is this something we'd want to send through our general Council or is this something that we've seen before or other schools have seen before just to make sure we're mitigating our risk in this I think that's fair okay I'm good thank you I'd like to just say one thing this is under presentation not under action item oh oh pardon isn't an action well technically no um I don't have a dog in this hunt so to speak um I respect what Marcy's concerns are about should we run into academic needs that we aren't meeting there is going there's a potential that this type of dollars that are not under our umbrella are not going to be available to us and I respect that part I also have a great respect for what Jack is trying to accomplish with the booster CL a club and deciding on how to do the agenda for tonight I purposely asked that it not be an action item so you had just time to think now if you want to change that that's your that's your role but it was purposely not put under action just so that if there's anything else you need to think about and ask about you have time to con contemplate what those questions might be it doesn't mean you're against it or for it it's just that um do you need more time to understand the total concept and what you're committing yourself to that the dollars that will be generated will be strictly for athletic um needs and that the district has no opportunity to tap into those for anything that might be of an importance that we run into that's the only thing I'm bringing up in defense of Marcy superintendent aren't isn't there a wall between these dollars anyway I mean athletic dollars versus uh uh academic dollars already no everything's under the general budget okay so athletic the athletic budget is part of the the general fund y okay okay yep that's my only point that I told Marcy that I would address because I know she wasn't going to be here but that's your call not mine well based upon that I'll I'm going to make a motion to can we amend the agenda at this point to do of the meeting to put this under new business for Action we don't have to John's Motion makes it an action item right okay all right it's just a question of whether it passes or not at this point okay or whether director Ward withdraws it based on superintendent Grant's comments those would be the two options available I'm G move forward and I think that's a valid concern and I it's spoton it's a real concern uh as money gets super tight and I think those are also dollars that don't exist today and wouldn't exist without the sports boosters taking on this project so it's it's if if we said no to this those dollars would be available for nothing because they wouldn't be there I you that's what I said to Mars yeah the other thing is how how would this look uh with the the dollars that we have in the district how would that look spend almost a half mill on a scoreboard School District out of their own funds and do we have professional salespeople that are going to go out and sell these ads why we're not involved in any of that I know but but what I'm saying is that there's there's a discussion about right these dollars cannot be used for other purposes except athletic well are we I mean I'm not willing to take a risk on on almost a half million and then having someone go out and sell ads heck no that that makes we're not in the we're not in the business model of selling right you're absolutely right yeah and and and I understand there's the concern about the dollars but uh maybe this will alleviate the need for taking money out of the pers the concern isn't the dollar that concerns the Optics yeah so if you get into the spring next right you're going to get into the spring and there's going to be whatever budgetary adjustments are happening at the district level and I think if the narrative can be controlled correctly and communicated correctly on how this is working you know repeated forceful communication this this is sports booster money you know that we're not reducing class sizes for third graders and buying a half million dollar School our scoreboard right that's that's what you want to avoid is you want to avoid you know because the two events are going to coincide it what could argue to be not great timing Mr chair I'll be the devil's advocate here because I see it as a as I was saying before I see it as a um a possible um Plus for academic resources cuz we because we don't have to take those dollars and spend them within the athletic department so this is a possible Plus for academic purchases um rather than athletic purposes so M that's the way I see it it's going to make a great Facebook video John I hope not I just want to thank Jack for the research that you did and the hard work that you put into putting this all together and for our partnership with the sports boosters because this will really benefit our district yeah thanks oh we have a motion we have a second and we've had discussion is there any further discussion before I call a vote hearing none those in favor of the motion to accept the proposal as presented by director Freeman signify by saying I I I oppose same sign motion carries thank you all right next we'll do the CIP goals um last last batch of these I think isn't it chrisa it is the last batch The Best For Last yes thank you this is our last installment of the CIP plan so just one more time uh the sites met in August and reviewed their uh qualitative and quantitative data depending on the goals that they had um they looked that did they meet their goal yes no is it in progress if it is a multi-year goal and then they uh move move forward with writing goals for the current school year uh one was a literacy goal uh one is a continuation or revision of a previous goal and then they could decide if they wanted to add a third goal and then from there they developed the action plans uh to work towards those schals this year so again this is just a a summary of their review and their goals for the upcoming school year so our first presenter is Lynn Borman who is the principal of LOL Elementary School good evening everyone thanks for this opportunity to share about some initiatives at l um taking a look at how the 2324 school year ended with relative to our MCA goals L focused on reading for MCA for both the subgroup special ed as well as the overall proficiency So reading was the focus Although our goal was 70 we wanted to increase three percentage points from 75.5 to 78.5 and although we did not meet our goal we are in progress with that goal um and as well for goal number two with the subgroup for special education students again wanting to increase three percentage points I sometimes find that when we fall short of goals or perhaps things are moving opposite the direction than we attended we've got richer and more fulfilling conversation we had lots of great um conversation around um exploring not just attendance data math data taking a look obviously at our reading data but having some projection about making sure that with Fidelity and consistency we have our practices in place and so with some challenges that LOL faced during the past school year we found that those were contributing factors to perhaps falling short of where we wanted students to be but it gives us extra motivation um L staff has just been such a blessing and an honor to be working with the staff and students and community at L this year um very highly trained talented teachers who are very very dedicated to students so we are doubling down on our efforts in that regard and um I'll share with you the goals for this upcoming year shortly the third goal was our overarching goal of our mtss which is a district-wide initiative we wanted to close achievement gaps but as I'll explain a little bit later in my presentation um mtss doesn't just Encompass academics it's the a the B and theal it's the academic the behavior and the social emotional learning fastbridge is a new assessment that we're implementing districtwide as well and to that end we're looking at tracking IND individual progress for students as well as um our districtwide Focus this year is really tier one so that's what we want 80% or more of our kids to really be achieving um and we can take a look at how we might even intervene with the group level rather than just even small group or individual we took where we landed at the end of this current school year with those results and we we use that for our Baseline data for the next um school year so our goals for this year you'll see I'll I'll go to the top and the bottom and I'll finish with the continued one in the middle for the literacy goal we're starting with where we ended 70.7% a typical Improvement would be 3% um however because we want to get back to where we did achieve at 75.5% we did achieve that the year prior we are looking at a 4.8% Improvement so we're increasing the growth that we would like to see in the area of literacy um for our data dig goal we're continuing to focus again on reading with our special education subgroup so we want to see um our starting point being where we last ended with our last assessments and wanting to improve three percen point three percentile points for that again looking in the middle at the mtss we are looking at fastbridge as as well as our Sabers which is our social emotional data um and we're looking at focusing on tier one of instruction but also schoolwide wanting to really take a take a look at students who would most qualify for um the Sabers data will are what generated our social our small group for social skills with our collaborative worker so taking a look at mtss process some specific things we did at lol this year after we reviewed our process as a whole is we explored more explicit details and timelines so with input from the mtss team as well as our sip team we U redefine the details and timelines relative to that process to make it more clear for teachers and we also developed a list of tier one resources um we have a helpful Links Page for LOL and our tier one resources are an added link that's new for this year so taking a look at different websites such as PBIS and giving some teachers to explore how and when they might use that resource um during staff meetings and professional development our collaborative workers knew this year we are incorporating social skills groups and that again is based on that Sabers data so we had multiple meetings with my collaborative worker myself and our school psychologist to take a look at the fall Universal assessments and the results of those to create small groups um I created Google Docs that I shared with each grade level so we remain confidential at the grade level meeting or grade level and asked for Teacher input as well so we made some modifications to those small groups and then we will continue to review those small groups the current configuration after we do the winter um testing so we do this fall winter and spring for our assessment data so we'll see any adjustments that we need to make after our January round of Assessments um we recently completed an mtss survey with our teachers and we had a little bit of a different approach um the two eyes as I call it I wanted input from teachers about identifying and being able to implement um effective tier one strategies so when we're taking a look at um math and reading as well as the the behavior interventions um gauging teachers Comfort level with can I identify can I locate and can I successfully Implement interventions for students in my classroom Behavior interventions in particular um teacher feedback was their one additional strategies on how can I be more proactive or continue to develop Strate strategies on the proactive end as well as wanting support on the other end for students maybe who um might take additional problem solving or putting heads together to to do some programming for them so that's going to help Drive future programming I'm taking a look at Catalyst um thinking specifically about Behavior interventions um through sourcewell what we might want to do um either at a back to school or maybe even yet as we close out this school year um in addition to that we want to equip our EAS who primarily their first priority is working with students from a behavior standpoint so we want to be equipping EAS with professional development and strategies as well as our teaching staff so focusing on picking up where we left off and wanting to have a greater increase than we typically do for literacy focusing on our special LED subgroup and then really focusing on tier one mtss but then also expanding that to the tier two and three um for math reading behavior and social emotional learning questions about initiatives at l i I don't know if it's a question but the concerning thing to me is nothing against you it's the same with all the brainer schools it seems like that I've been through these is that we spent of your presentation you spent about 30 seconds on reading and 30 seconds on this and the rest of it's all about mtss I'm just wondering if and I don't think it's coming from you personally if our school we focus we focusing so much onal so much on these these new educational things that we losing our way in the reading and the math and the things that really help you in the future because it seems like remember with um forest's presentation was the same thing um it's like I don't know I I just want to make sure that you know the saber and the fast bridge and all these new things that we have that are so so helpful aren't distracting us from the real core subjects that these kids really need to be able to get out in society and and and be a benefit to our area to the themselves to their families to D you know I mean it's really it's really a huge deal if you look at um numbers you know Kevin told me this is that you know you learn to read from K to three and you read to learn the rest of your life and so if we can't get them going they're kind of behind and it's really hard to catch up so anyways otherwise nice job you got some great numbers some of them so thank you and being new I didn't know that um songs and costumes were part of the board but it was very nice touch I loved it no so you might want to think ahead to your next presentation no taken I appreciate your time thank you so much thank you so our second presenter is Jill bii and she is the principal of R good evening as always it's fun to share right all the amazing things that are happening in our schools I have to say that um at the heart of rever Side Elementary is our continuous Improvement plan we acknowledge our data we understand where our students are coming from and we're working very hard uh three years ago it was August three years ago we sat down in a room together and our continuous Improvement team made a pretty intense dedication to our plan they set actionable items that we are genuinely plowing through because it's not easy work um but the their dedication is just unwavering and amazing we over the course of the last three years have had training and restorative practices um working towards a co- teing model working towards um more inclusivity and Leadership positions to help ensure that Riverside feels like a place to belong I know it probably seems soft right like why are we doing this um but if children if humans in general I mean we're social beings if we don't feel like we belong there's not really any chance that we're going to learn if we don't feel like we're safe there's not going to be that chance there and so um at Riverside when we kept kind of digging looking at all of this data and kind of digging why why why well first kids have to feel safe and they have to feel like they belong they have to learn how to deal um with their trauma and how to cope when the academics are getting harder but really what's on their mind is whether or not they're going to be able to eat um or have a safe place to sleep and so for us as you can see our six goals um they're around all the things that you talk about as board members and the policies that you create um we've been working really hard um on attendance again the more we can make school feel like a safe place the more children feel like they belong the more likely they will attend um and then the more success we will have academically and again I know I'm preaching to the choir all of you already know this so um we feel fortunate we met our goal um we went from 67.5 five% in 2022 to 70.5% in 2023 um so we're excited about that but we still haven't arrived um so working uh more towards that the proficiency Gap um between our special ed students and our non-sp specialed students we wanted to decrease that from 39.5 to 36.5 we met that we took it a little a little bit farther which is great um super exciting that being said we're not there yet um we're still um working towards that those proficiency rates as you can see within the free and reduced and um with just our general proficiency rates we have a ways to go uh our code teaching model is very successful when we look at our fast bridge data our kids are growing exponentially uh so we it's really important for us to use multiple data points because one data point isn't always going to tell us the full picture or the full story it looks like we don't have many goals this year compared to the last two years but really what we did was um as a team like I said we dedicated to making our goals three to five year goals um with everything that we are taking on we know it takes time and with The Gap closure that we have to do it's going again to take that time so in literacy we're going going to continue uh learning more about co- teing and how the collaboration that we can do can truly impact our students that is probably um one of has been one of our biggest um one of the biggest benefits of teaching is students are in General Ed classrooms more every day um they're not spending as much time walking down the hall and going to those specialized classrooms they're getting that instruction in the classroom um with from their special ed teacher and their classroom teacher the other areas that we're focusing on we started leadership positions this year so those children who are exhibiting uh leadership qualities they get to apply for positions within the building and if they have a moment like we all have moments where we make a mistake um their leadership position gets put on a pause until they can continue to show those leadership behaviors um our behaviors have decreased drastically already this fall uh so we're super excited about that uh we have seen a little increase um in the last few weeks with the holiday season um and all the feels that go along with that uh but overwhelmingly we are making great growth uh and I honestly couldn't do it our our staff at Riverside like I know all the other principles would say um you walk into our buildings when you sub or when you come in to read you see the genuine dedication um there's a lot of mind and heart work that goes into our everyday um structure it's just um beyond amazing and our students uh if you've had an opportunity to uh visit Riverside um Mr Oli uh visited and our ambassadors took him for a walkabout around our building and so he could learn about Riverside and uh the ways that we make it safe and a and feel like a place to belong and if you if you get that opportunity uh to stop in the schools it's really important because this continuous improvement work happens every second of the day we have leaders who show up to school at 7:30 in the morning to teach yoga um to other students uh we have students who are begging their parents to drop them off at 7:30 in the morning to do these activities so all of those bits and pieces within our continuous Improvement plan um you may think gosh how does that truly imp P academics if they come ready mind and body our academics will definitely increase so um we're three years in to our fiveyear goals thank you thank you you thank you any questions I've got one on your goals for 2425 um that's quite a jump from 48.6 to 60.8% in proficiency for reading uh grade four and the the only thing that concerns me about that is if it's not met because it's to me it's very aggressive if it's not met the effect that it has on staff I kind of equate it to a uh football team going all the way down and on fourth down instead of taking three points they get greedy and they want seven and they don't get nothing and that is very deflating so I'm I'm just curious is that realistic is this something that can be met because you know it's got to be achievable otherwise it's not a goal it's a pipe dream and I'm not I'm just questioning that's all and if you feel hey I know you well enough I've been in the building numerous times if you feel good about it I feel good about it I just want to make sure that something that's realistic yeah I don't create this on my own um there is no way um that I would have been able to do any of this work over the course of the last three years by myself uh like I said our our parents have bought into to the work we're doing our students have bought in to the work we're doing our staff has bought in uh and this decision was made by our by our whole team okay and so uh if we don't make it there that yeah it will offer even more of a pause um even more reflection to think okay why not um but based on the work that we are doing with our mtss and really kind of thinking through those three tiers in Reading in writing in math in social studies in science in um if students aren't successful in core why not what do we need to do next we are working it really hard um do I believe our students can achieve this absolutely cool good for you yeah no that's it's commendable but I just it was a question in the back of my mind it too aggressive God speak I'm you know you did it one year jumped reading CL we did unbelievable that one year and I think that's the thing we also have to think about too this is one data point that we're talking about right we're talking about the MCAS and this is a cohort of children that are going through um and it doesn't mean that we don't learn right I mean that's always the hope with continuous Improvement is taking what are the golden nuggets we can take from It Forward cool thank thank you thank you thank you our next presenter is Amy Jordan and she is the principal of LC good evening thank you for having me here tonight I'm excited to be able to share with you about Lincoln um we had four goals last year and the first goal was uh Lincoln's proficiency rate on the MCA accountability test would gr from 14.3 to 17.3 and as you can see we did not meet that goal um we had only 4.2 of our percent of our students pass that or meet the expectations on the MCA test in Reading um goal two and goal four are really quite similar um goal two and goal four were were um the mtss and the fast Bridge so we used Fast Bridge as our mtss screener much like all of the other buildings did and so our goal with that was to really first of all to use the data that we are getting from the fastbridge assessments and the inter and use that to drive our interventions based on very specific needs for each of our students instead of just using maybe their IEP goals um so that was a goal that we had and and we learned a lot from that that was we always are using data collecting a lot of data um with special education students and so this was just a different way for our teachers to look at data and Implement some interventions with students and so then I'll jump to goal three from last year was to implement uku and our crisis team response and uh increase our deescalation training with our staff so essentially what what we did really there was we were working on a lot of different things and kind of how we respond to different behaviors that are going on or different events that are happening within the building um because if we can control our response to students then sometimes that can help the student improve their response to a situation and then get back into the classroom and be ready to learn so those are that was our goals from last year uh this one okay and so our goals for next year um literacy goal instead of looking at just that the MCA score in Reading we would really like to look at the Benchmark testing which is done three times a year and have our student show growth so even though we only had 4.2% of our students meet the expectations on the MCA and reading last year we did have 61% of our students show growth over the course of the entire year um on their reading scores so we would like to go from 61% to 80% of our students uh showing growth on the benchmark assessments and they would need to be there for at least two of The Benchmark sessions next goal is that we are going to continue working on um our Sabers or the social emotional learning goals with the students increasing from 44% to 60% um and so again we're going to look at all kinds of data for that we're going to look at attendance um behaviors we're going to look at how do they feel when they come to school are they ready to learn are they ready for school ready for work ready for life because that's the goal that we have for all of our students is that they're ready for life being community members any questions Amy are all the um LEC students on IPS um yes they are all on IEPs with the exception I guess of we we have care and treatment programming in our building so those are students who are placed um and reside at Port group homes and so not all of the students there need to be receiving Services right now we have only two students in the building that are not on IEPs so if they're on IEPs the IEPs Drive the goals the IEPs drive that students individual goal based on their current skill levels and so we want them to show growth on their individual IEP goal whether that be reading math Behavior functional skills work skills all kinds of different things um that is not necessarily aligned exactly for each student with an MCA expectation yeah okay sometimes those are quite far apart Amy what is uku what does that stand for it's actually not an acronym oh it's okay um so yuku is it is a a deescalation strategy that we are using um and it is it's uh it's the premise of it is Comfort versus control so we want the student to feel comfortable with their environment their setting and how we are interacting with them and with the choices that they're making instead of that adults are controlling all of their decisions um it does use and implement verbal deescalation but also if a student is being unsafe we have pads that we could use to prevent a student or a staff member from being harmed so it's not an acronym for cool thank you less of a question more of a comment that I think you know we have 1,200 roughly 1200 staff in this District that bust their butts every day and do great work but you spend 10 minutes in your facility and watch what you and your team do and it's life-changing to watch from the outside absolutely critical and amazing work that you guys do and there's only a handful of people that can even do the stuff you guys do it's just amazing thank you we I know our scores don't always show it when when we look at it but we have amazing amazing students we have amazing parents and Guardians that we work with but I am so so fortunate to work with a staff sorry my throat is very dry um the staff that I have in the building are absolutely phenomenal um and every student that walks into the building I feel fairly confident saying that they know that someone in that building cares about them and wants them to be there today and wants them to be their tomorrow and wants them to be successful not just this year but successful in in life I mean that that is our goal is we want them to be independent but we also want them to go apply for a job at dond delinger and and have the skills to complete that job application and sit through an interview and all of those things show up at show up at work um be on time problem solve work through those things because that's also what learning is all about and that's what we're working towards sometimes in regular education we talk about attendance rate we talk about absenteeism programs like the uh Lincoln education center their alternative education center whatever um we see remarkable remarkable um patterns of attendance changing um in most of those kids significantly um and I as Kevin said I I it truly is and as you indicated Amy they feel comfortable they feel accepted they feel belonged just like a Riverside and um these are these are kids that have significant um absentee and other areas of concern that they're trying to address so we need to learn from I think we could do a lot of learning from the students as well we we do a lot of learning from our students every day yep I love that the goals are focusing on growth because just that's so much more reinforcing than the ultimate score that you're just going to celebrate the growth that those students well it certainly is more I know that the MCA scores are very important and I understand that reading and and math is obviously very important and that those are things that we are doing every single day but it's also helpful for the students to see that the hard work that they're doing is paying off and that they are you know over half of them made growth over the course of the year and we're hoping that the more the more that they can see their own growth that the more students will also show growth so anything else thanks thank you our final presenter in the CIP installment is Andrea Ras principal of high school hello everyone I'm going to briefly share with you our four goals from uh the 23 24 school year first goal was uh one that we are required to have in the state of Minnesota either a literacy goal or math goal and that was the mca's uh our goal last year was 61 in 23 to 64.2 and 24 and uh we did not meet that this past year but we were really close one of the challenges we face when kids get into High School school is that we cannot require them to take the assessment but I'm very proud of our staff because they take it very seriously preparing the student for the assessments both in reading math and then also we have an MCA in science and so that is always on our radar and watching students and getting them to take the test uh seriously and give it their best effort we talk about it's a indicator especially for those students that want to go on After High School and how well they'll do goal two focusing on mtss tier one now uh director Don linger talked about mtss before but tier one is core instruction and that's what we are looking at um to ensure all students are learning at grade level to close those achievement gaps our third goal is using fast Bridge which is a tool as we know uh to to measure student growth to ensure all students are learning at grade level closing those achievement gaps also at the high school which is sometimes very challenging to do the older they get the less apt they are to show uh tremendous growth from one year to the next and then goal four is increasing student attendance through improved Communications our staff sees that when students are failing um most often it is not academic ability it's attendance and we have we have struggled with that over the last couple years especially um but we as a staff collectively know that that is critical for Student Success so um we are looking at some additional supports to put into place wish there was a magic program that we could purchase or be gifted um but it's going to take a a really a collaborative effort um we can provide great programming outstanding staff but we've got to have the students come through our doors and be engaged if you look uh to our goals for this year we have a literacy goal which uh is our ninth and 10th grade uh students that are identified as high risk uh on the fastbridge tool um in the fall Administration will improve their Benchmark level to some risk or low risk at the conclusion of the spring assessment and for those of you that are familiar with grade nine and 10 um English courses uh they're not targeting reading so that makes it an additional challenge to high school English teachers who have been trained in uh writing and in literature uh composition but our English teachers have taken on that challenge this year and are working weekly to take a look at uh kids who are not um they've been identified and they're they haven't shown um that they're proficient in reading and so they're meeting weekly to collaborate and to provide some interventions for them so that they'll be prepared for the 10th grade MCA test a continued goal this year is uh student attendance uh our our um goal is to increase communication and to also put some systems into place uh that will uh hold students and even parents and Guardians a little more accountable to having their students in school our data dig here as you can see is will identify Define and communicate tier one core instruction for every course I've heard the word transparency used here and we used it just last week when we got gathered as a staff all of our teachers at the high school during our continuous Improvement plan day is they went back together in their teams and worked on their course outlines and course outlines are in place but they reviewed them together made sure that they were up to date and ready to be um published on our district curriculum page uh and that is a a commitment that we make to our community so that if they want to know what's being taught in world history or they want to know what's being taught in intermediate delra or in English 12 uh we will have a course outline and that's where it starts it's a it's a clear guide to what the students will be learning and just as a response uh director Don linger maybe I misheard you but I think you made a reference before into handing out grades and I would say that I'd want to know about it if anyone's getting handed a grade or a credit um I'm really proud of the fact that we set high standards for our students academically and uh all of our our uh course guideline our course outlines are transparent so any one of you can can see it talk with us about what kids are expected to know and do and we also are um we have a grading policy that came before the board a number of years ago I think it was back in 2016 um we came here to the school board to ensure that we had a grading policy that reflected that the students would have to demonstrate knowledge targets and performance targets and and uh we um we ensure that our staff communicate that to parents and students so they know that they're progressing and uh we have minimum targets for them you know to meet in order to earn credit for all of our courses at Brer High School can you drive down a little bit Andrea on your increasing student attendance communication and systems great that's a good uh yes of course and uh student attendance is recorded hourly and uh if a student does not show up at school we have a what I call a rooc call but we communicate twice a day with families to make sure that they know their student is not in school and actually just recently I had a parent call me she actually came in and talked about that when she got that call she went tracking down her daughter who was truant gone from school and so um I think that opens up the community communication when they get that call not as an alarm to them but just as an awareness piece that they're not in first hour they weren't in second hour I think the communication that we send out monthly to parents in a newsletter we talk about our attendance procedures and that it is the obligation responsibility of a parent or Guardian to call in and or use our Skyward system to excuse absences and our staff have been trained to um and through the work of Christina lungren and others at the district level we as a District have discussed what are we excusing what are we allowing as a an excuse I I think there might be a perception from some parents is I'm the parent I can excuse them and indeed they can provide an excuse we decide if it's an excused absence and I think that Clarity helps out with um you know not thinking that I'm going to take my kid shopping you know and and again um it's kind of a it's a tough one uh because uh kids have to be in school to be successful they really do they have to be engaged in front of teachers and um and so we also have some other supports in place not just the communication and the expectation that they're in school but if they're having a hardship of getting to school we're asking the questions of what's preventing you from getting to school uh we're fortunate to have 1.5 FTE of collaborative worker one and a half collaborative workers that serve our high school students and what they do is they take a different approach we may as an administrator take the the approach of administrative here's our school policy you need to have your your student in school a collaborative worker can come in and and develop a relationship with a student and with a parent and find out what are the barriers for that student getting to school and what we oftentimes see is that there's been a pattern of treny or poor attendance for a number of years it's not often that they start in high school thank you Andrea yeah I've read a lot of stuff about this tenant deal and so I'm just asking your opinion I'm not expecting you to know but hasn't this like absenteeism just go through the roof after covid but why would that I mean what do you think is causing that why was why does it change I mean what happened when people just got used to everybody staying home all day long and parent and people weren't going to work or I think so I think that for a period of time this is Andrea's opinion so just that's what I was asking for um but I've read a little bit on the attendance and it's you're right it's not brard high school and it's not Minnesota it's across and I think that even employment patterns change too with people wanting to work at home and not go into work and they're like I like to be at home and and I'm I'm not criticizing or judging that I'm just thinking that our world kind of shifted there and I think our students um they had some formative years where uh that structure of going to school and that system that was just predictable was not predictable and I I threw them all off it did and and we're trying to bring them back and get them into a pattern you notice that this I this not in the high school but Christina do you notice that the new kids that are coming in the new kindergarteners first graders and second graders didn't experience that are they having lower absenteeism numbers like are we starting to get that's a great question on it that's a great question I think that one thing that's changed is that the reasons for absenteeism you know I've done this a long time so I I the reasons is many times mental health so when we talk about families are calling in and saying my students I just had an email half hour ago from a dad saying can we meet because I can't get my kid to come to school and it's a sophomore at brard high school and very capable but again they're asking for help so I I think it's us working together we've got to get parents and Guardians at the table um we've worked closely with the county croing county over the years their resource have diminished when I first started here we had an actual County worker in the high school in the high school working and and you know now we are we are really struggling to to kind of have those resources but we've we're we're still trying to be creative we've got the collaborative workers uh we've got a program through CLC a grant funded program called Trio which is encouraging first generation students who uh to go to college so we're trying to engage with those students to stay in school take rigorous courses see themselves as College potential if if that's the pathway they want to go down that trio program has a heck of a director indeed um and so um I and so um yeah that's my my two cents on that well it's interesting I mean I know it's I don't know why I would find it interesting but it kind of interests me there's got to be a there's got to be something going I mean it's like something that we can get through the data is out there that's ending though well it it's ending because the employer has the ability to force it to end well it's it's ending because there is no productivity what I'm saying is an employer can require you can fire somebody we can't fire students for not showing up no I understand and I would say this one of the things I think is important and we've worked really hard on this too is the enrollment at brard high school is we know we're not the only showing town and and we know that 20 years ago um when I just started here we were the pretty much the only show in town so we we've worked hard to maybe provide comprehensive programming uh to meet the needs of all the students whatever pathway they want to go down college or go right to the workforce or now we're working on internships and apprenticeships at the high school but I I think that's it is that people think if you really have a stringent strict policy and attendance I'll go somewhere else we we've talked about that with the cell phone policy Mr Grant and I about kids in their feedback about cell phones so um I think that's something too we have to be cognizant about competition man thank you thank you thanks Andrea thank you Christina Christina thank chrisa all right let's slide on over into new business um up first would be the approval for retire policy 808 covid-19 face covering director Hyman second never mind we're good I was going to say just for the benefit of the public that's watching it's obviously an obsolete policy so we're taking it off the books we have a motion from director Doner and a rapid second from director spear any discussion hearing those in fig signify by saying I please I motion carries along a similar theme the approval to retires policy 540 just a tiny little bit of backstory here there was just a chunk of language in there that's in use in the current student handbook for the district that's not or wasn't present in the policy 5 25 24 um 24 and so um that's being rectified so we can retire this one and it's good to go I'll make a motion go ahead all right so we have a motion from director Breen with a second from director dondelinger to retire policy 540 any discussion hearing none those in favor signify by saying I please I I I oppose same sign motion carries approval of policy 524 I guess I should have read ahead internet acceptable use and safety policy so there we put the language from 540 that needed to be in there and otherwise this is the one that we've been looking at um this is a broader policy that covers and director Hyman jump in and help me te if I if I Stray um it's not just cell phone there's a cell phone section in there so instead of 540 which was separate and distinct to cell phones it's now folded in to 524 as we've been talking about the last couple times we talked about this scre correct and if you guys would have uh read your packet uh 524 uh the title of the policy has changed it is techn internet technology and cell phone so cell phone wasn't buried away you know we still have policy regarding cell phones and my only concern and I raised it at the policy meeting and I still see the language in here and personally I I don't like it but uh when we look at the respect for educational environment we talk about cell phones uh in the classroom shall be silenced I still don't know what the hell that means silenced and I asked the question I I think it should be changed I would like it to be changed to powered off or whatever to make sure people understand what we're talking about here because my understanding I'm not very good with tech and I think we were talking that you know a person can have their cell phone powered in a bag away from everybody but they can still do some things that they maybe shouldn't be doing because they're using their cell phone what has the ability for certain types of watches like certain Apple watches are Tethered to the phone so if it's still on then they they certain watches have their own self connections and cell connections and certain watches are connected and Tethered to the phone so I think um Carrie and Ali you were in that meaning too I mean I think we talked about using the word off instead of can I drag you up here it just you thought you were G to get the night offat okay it just it just bothers me it won't stop some of it but again what we're trying to do is mitigate where we can and and you know again we're there's always going to be every mouse trap we build they're going to figure out a way around them hopefully so they got a little gumption yeah chair Bo's member of the School Board uh superintendent Grant I remember the conversation I don't remember that there was a decision made um to say off um but we are certainly welcome or you're certainly welcome to um have us take this policy back and make revisions and bring it to you again if it's not to your liking do you think it's realistic off and out of sight well out of sight's obviously pretty easy yeah the preferred langu from the um direction that the legislature is providing us and what the professional organizations are providing us is off and out of sight well they are recommending you go off yep what the heck do we have to lose is there a reason why we chose silenced instead I I think that's just a carryover from where it was yeah yeah it was it was it was it was it was there and and I just it was not a strategic Choice the chair drop the ball or staff let's do it let's let let's or the director of schools maybe I don't we did talk about it and I personally to be honest with you I I trust staff you'll make the change I I don't think we need to hold up the approval no but you could get a motion to approve the policy with that revision and you could just sail through it that way if that's what you want to do yeah that's what I would like to see I mean I mean I'd like to see you know does anyone have language they would like to see instead of silenced powered offer what I'd like to see it consistent with what director Ross is saying that is coming out from organizations off and out of s off and out of sight powered off it just the the language we've been given is off and out of sight you can editorialize that's your Authority I mean you could argue airplane mode equals off and out of sight well airplane mode would be just fine right but that's what I'm saying it's not it's not powered all the way down but it's not producing any anything it would be connected to I I mean they would get reminders like calendar reminders or something like that but they couldn't get texts or right that's the deal I don't want to make a big deal it's just let's just it's just hard to concentrate if you've got stuff going try watching cut to the chase yeah off and out of sight off and out of sight I asked them to make the motion I'll make the motion I approve I'd like to make a motion that we approve policy 524 with a couple language changes say off and out of sight instead of Silence second how's that Kevin absolutely perfect you're getting a shirt I uh we have a motion with the amended language to approve the policy P 524 as presented from director doninger seconded by director spey further discussion hearing none those in favor signify by saying I please I I oppose same sign motion carries thanks director Ross Yes uh next up we have the uh third and final reading of policy through fourth 35 access to employee mailboxes and School District internal systems no substantive changes from the second reading on this one that I can recall make a motion to approve I'll second we have a motion from director spear with a second from director Breen to approve the policy and its third and final reading has presented any further discussion more of a question Mr chair uh is this uh language or this this whole policy um does it U have the blessings of the uh teachers union I want to make a comment about that Randy it's not their input it's it's administrative no I no I understand that superintendent I was just CU I mean I mean they were involved with some of the language weren't they right but they don't we don't need their approval okay this is to stop from the mess that we got into oh understand okay okay cool M Mr chair I'll just uh for director heyman's question uh yes there fine cool I did we make a motion we got a motion okay we have a second we're discussing yep discussion so um with hearing no further discussion those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign motion carries motion um next up is the approval for the policy 906 notific notification of predatory offenders nothing super fancy here it's just a little it's a little bizarre the policy you know is sort of like window dressing because in reality the functional way that this process works is we're notified by law enforcement and the policy almost reads the opposite way so but it's a policy we really need to have and didn't have before and it'll go through two more readings y you need a motion I'll make the motion second so we have a motion from director doninger with second from director Ward to approve the first reading of msba policy 906 Community notification of predatory offenders any discussion hearing none those in favor signify by saying I please iOS same sign motion carries approval of student representative on committee's application so moved a second the two that made the committee made the deal up for the benefit of those watching this is um ongoing thing where we're allowing now through high school students to apply to be on Schoolboard committees or sitting on Schoolboard committee meetings am I saying that correctly I think so yep okay so I've got a couple things if it's okay yeah um one is I think we should just I don't think we need two I think it's a lot to ask from these kids anyways I don't know why we want two it's just going to slow down um the work that's getting done on those committees and there's principles and administrators and all that are at these things and I don't think we need to make them last too much longer and number two is I don't like the application um where it keeps asking what your leadership positions are so I'm 15 years old I'm interested in school Finance I'm interested in whatever it is and you keep asking me about my leadership do I have to be the captain of the basketball team uh the president of the student council are we just going to pick from a few people that have all this leadership experience or are we trying to teach them how to be future leaders we have six committees so if we had six kids in the fall and six kids in the spring I don't know how many are going to be interested in this um I just don't understand why it's like I mean if you look at the application like I did today it's like the first questions about you tell us about your leadership roles now tell next question number two tell us about your leadership in that in that deal I just don't I don't understand why we're if I was a 15-year-old kid 16-year- old kid and I saw that I might just be like oh I haven't had anything leadership deal they're never going to pick me I'm not going to fill a thing out and for all we know it could be the one that could benefit the most from it and I don't think we should be alienating these kids so I'd like to see us switch the little application up a little bit and then I think we should just have one kid we might have trouble getting two kids that want to miss school and you know but other than that I'm all for it is like a great idea a lot of the work was um Mr chair a lot of the work was done by um Reese and and um we also used templates from other places to pull together the information and the forms and everything else or whatever um so we can make those changes I'm really fine with the question being what is your interest in this committee I think so as opposed to what are because I agree that that could definitely alienate some people who may notame questions in a row the first one is suiz your involvement in BHS extracurricular activities be sure to include any leadership roles held and then the next question is summarize your involvement in community- based activities be sure to include any leadership roles held that's what you're talking about so that's the only two places where that's reference Reese she's the leader of everything so it's going to look pretty I mean you know I get it but you know I just don't think we should I don't understand what importance that has with us anyway to your point to just take that out and it's it doesn't disqualify him because they something Downes but it might scare him well then they probably shouldn't be applying if it's going to scare him oh that's true we were trying to grow let alone let alone bring in um because I mean if I was 15 and I was going to do this that's pretty gutsy move for a 15y old and if they're willing to do that more power to them well I would have been able to put down that I was the uh captain of the of the safety patrol and I was the president of the student council at n school for a while so it' be my leadership rules I would have been able to qualify but I just don't know that every kid has that opportunity you know so has there been any more discussion I thought we talked about moving committee meetings over to over to the large conference room so we don't pull them out of the building so we don't pull the kids out of the yeah that makes sense and that's still it's kind of like we want to grow our own don't we yeah yeah yeah I think it's a anyway the action on my item as I understand it is we're actually approving the application itself so this is a germine and relevant conversation we just have to have a motion that either wants to edit that be sure to include leadership's roles held removed or intact do we actually have to even vote on this do we what do we actually even have to vote on it isn't it couldn't it just be more of an administrative deal for Peter and his team I mean we we deliberately put it as an action item so we could vote on it I'd like to ask uh Andrea are you do you have any input on this do you have any suggestions no I like we can remove that I think being something there for them to fill out is good I think bringing it to the high school is also good okay thank you I kind of like the idea of two students I just think they'd be maybe more confident if they weren't the sole person sitting on that team so the idea has been my experience with the equity task force when there's a couple kids there they really kind of pull stuff out of each other I think it's a great idea because I know we had discussion about sitting somebody at the board table and this is what came out of this is that yeah u based on uh that's right I'm not going to take Kudos but I was the one who brought up the idea of committees well then there we go and why don't you make the motion I think it's a great idea it's already been motioned no it do oh yes it has sorry we have director Ward and a second from director bre any further discussion would you pay attention I'm too busy looking at Kevin's shirt do we need to amend the language to amend the yeah so we need to amend the motion to amend the motion to amend the language to remove the the reference to the leadership roles to those in those two questions I would say in my opinion I I think we should move forward with what it is and then you figure it out and whoever you guys deal with it okay time's me figure it out it's it's an administra thing I mean I'm not going to get in that lane I don't want to be in that lane hearing no further relevant discussion all those in favor by saying I please hi post same sign motion carries you having fun can we take a two-minute break there chairman 5 minute recess yep 5 minute recess [Applause] thanks e e e e e e [Applause] we're back and we have uh just two more AC three more action items so we have approval to sell property ID 4136 1077 to Buffalo Hills acreage and to use close Converse as the listing agent so Jeff if you want to come on up and Marcy don't think there will be a ton of questions but I've got great answers if there are hello great any questions I'll make a motion second second yeah there's nothing to talk about here no that mean the short answer is we're finally going to list the 20 acres that's over there in Buffalo Hills and start the process of trying to liquidate that and get some Revenue back off well and this came up at the finance meeting and DJ made the point that uh Converse uh you know sells um commercial property and so there was two two agents that were interested but but Converse as a you know as the commercial conver uh agency did we hear anything from the uh city of uh City BR they have property right next to it correct uh yeah I believe so Tim Trimble from uh that's trying to start a um low-income housing project he's interested in once it once it gets listed to see what they can do cool but other than that I haven't heard anybody else that's interested yeah I mean the city will have to be involved at whatever point because there's a little thing that has to happen to be able to create proper access for housing that be would be built back there there's been talks about that with the city yeah me I what I would say is I don't want to speak for the city but they seem poised to do whatever needs to happen they would really like to see that develop yep cool any other questions for Jeff any further discussion um we have a motion from director doninger and a second from director Ward with no further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I please I sign motion carries all right thanks Jeff thank you excellent job next action I is the approval of the 2025 26 and 2026 27 school year calendars as presented in draft format they are presented in draft form um Mr chair members of the board superintendent Grant I have for you the next two school year calendars uh for approval tonight uh the 2526 school year calendar and the 2627 school year calendar couple of things I'd like to point out is um this year we had nine in service days to accommodate learning for Ola and some of those activities next year we're proposing to go back to a lower number of uh inservice days we've increased the student contact days from 165 this year to 169 for next year and still within the 184 teacher contract days you'll also notice a change um to kindergarten um previously we've had kindergarten testing in the summer with Kinder Camp um it's a big burden and a big ask for our kindergarten teachers to give up um almost eight additional days of their summer vacation to do the assessment and the Kinder Camp so we'll be moving that to um the first two days of school for kindergarten testing and then kindergarten classes will start that Thursday of that first week um we can do this in part because we have fast Bridge assessments now which are much more efficient and give us a wide variety of data uh that we can use to do that and give our kindergarten teachers uh more summer vacation we've uh attempted to balance the um semesters um and accommodate um all of the needs to have a couple of built-in snow days is with the premise that uh if we plan for it we won't need them so that's our hope any questions about these two calendars that you have before you so the 165 student contact days going to 169 correct means the kids will be in school four more days correct that's got to help a little bit doesn't it yeah we think so we like kids to come to school yeah year before I I don't have that for you director Breen it's been 169 it's for high school it's clock hours it's different for different grade groups but they lost a few days this year because of the um the added in service days added in service days for science of reading training so we'll have 169 next year and 168 the following year I just want to make sure I understand we're going to be voting on a draft or are we voting for final it's a draft until you approve it okay that's my question because I don't understand why we we why we would even consider 26 27 it's two years from now it is coming L of thing I mean obviously it it could change sure it is common practice to do two years at a time it's convenient for families it's convenient for staff um if we can do two years of uh planning at a time which is why we're offering to to you this evening subject obviously to change because we revised this year's we did that could because there was some legislative requirements that we weren't aware of okay um we try to avoid making changes at if at all possible but that certainly could be something that we'd have to consider so is this just kind of policy that you kind of do two at a year or is it a state requirement it's not a state requirement it's just common practice to be courteous to the community so it's neither it's not a policy or a requirement I would say Randy considering the amount of work put into this you don't want to do it every year it's yeah kind of a pain well no I understand I mean just look back to last year though too I mean I I I get it I understand I I was just looking at this saying oh two years there lot stuff could change okay now I this is not the first one it's not going to start till I know this time next year okay you sold me director Ward Mr chair um I also want to uh thank Carrie and super Grant and Kelly um and olly um I'm always I ask the same question a lot that Randy asked tonight you know the the certified staff okay with that or whatever or any of our um staff um and I did reach out to um to the certified staff and and uh they're good with this these two-year calendar great thank you yep we also reached out to our uh educational assistance leadership thank you as well curious director Ross so when you mentioned um moving the kindergarten testing to the first few days of school does that mean the elimination then of Kinder Camp Al together correct are they replacing it with anything we're not placing it we are just um um you working with our kindergarten teachers to revise some of our kindergarten programming for the first couple of weeks of school um we think that it's a good move um and um we want to we want to be more proactive with getting kids into school and getting timely assessments rather than continuing past practice for the sake of continuing past practice that makes sense I just I like that I know from experience with my own kids what a wonderful thing Kinder Camp was to not have any other kids at the school yeah kindergarteners get in there and get acclimated and yeah there is an opportunity um as uh principal bori talked about earlier with uh leadership positions in some of our elementary schools to have big kids you know kind of be a buddy and a Shepherd for little kids as they go through their first couple of days so we're exploring all of those options I would think there'd be a fairly significant cost savings to not significant cost saving it's much more efficient lots of school districts do it this way okay and the other question I have for you just because I got this question and I didn't have a very good answer was the the day after Thanksgiving break that we come back to an inservice why that not the Wednesday previous and it's the the Monday instead so we went back and forth with that in committee um and that was actually a recommendation that superintendent Grant brought to us to consider Wednesday instead of Monday um part of that is because um the collaboration that we have with our early childhood staff it's easier to do um in service days on Mondays with their schedule um and either way it's a 5-day weekend for families um so we thought it's hard to always learn new things when you're thinking about did I forget to take out the turkey or you know what's the weather going to be like if I have to travel to Grandma's house but staff will be refreshed from their long weekend and be able to engage in the learning that we provide that makes sense thanks okay I'll make a motion to uh approve I'll second we have a motion from Dr Hyman with a second from director spear to approve the 2025 26 and 26 27 calendars as presented any further discussion hearing none those in faor signify by saying I please I post same sign motion carries thank you thank you uh last action item is approval to adopt the BHS leadership elective course as presented and oh we have two more action items I'm sorry uh Jason fre and Christina lren coming up and then we have so I'm just going to do a quick introduction to the last two items uh so the leadership course and the English 10 novel were uh pres presented at our district advisory committee um on October 28th and that committee is made up of parents community members uh staff members and school board members um so that group had an opportunity to to hear the presentation um ask questions and then at our follow-up meeting on November 18th uh that committee continued the conversation and and had some really good discussion about these these two items and following the presentation and the follow-up discussion uh that committee did vote to recommend to move uh both of these items to the school board for approval so what you're seeing tonight is a a summary version of the presentation that was provided at at daak so our first presenter uh Jason freed uh presenting on Le you can uh thanks for having me I'm just here to present on a potential leadership course at brard high school and I'll kind of I just got five simple slides here but I guess the first thing I'll start with is the quote that's up there and it's that leaders don't create followers they create more leaders and I think we've heard that tonight is the important of leadership and building leaders in our community and as someone who's been in education for 22 years as a teacher and a coach and advisor uh and having opportunities we oftentimes are as teachers kind of bound always having to teach our standards in our curriculum and sometimes we don't get those opportunities to maybe teach leadership as much as we' maybe like and so um that's a lot where this idea came from and is to be able to have an opportunity has to why a leadership course uh to create obviously engagement interaction with students at BHS uh but also grow and give these kids a chance to grow some skill sets um that are going to help them when they leave Brainard whether it's you know going out to college whether it's going into the career Workforce whether it's going to the military and eventually obviously being working people and our society so you know things such as communication skills uh building confidence um public speaking problem solving mentorship servant leadership uh self-awareness uh I mean really it's I guess what I would say is it's not a it's it's not a boxed thing leadership is not a boxed curriculum it is everybody has their own path in leadership and how they become leaders and I think we have an opportunity to impact 14 15 16 17 18y old and and hopefully you know obviously you guys mentioned tonight the opportunity to partake with Schoolboard and do different things and so I think there's just an opportunity for future growth and potential uh once they leave brard High School uh goals uh for the course uh would be to grow student involvement and have students see it as something that they know will be that will be impactful for them uh obviously within their day but once they leave uh obviously it's open to all and any students that school not just you know pige and hold to certain people um is something I think we could even partner with our career Pathways program at the high school uh potential of you know recognizing leaderships uh whether it's community service servant projects uh and even tie into graduation uh I think it has the opportunity to be something that it could be a real bucket filler for some students every single day and to get a chance to get in there and and have great discussions and and build their leadership skills um obviously the goal it could be a semester course could be a year long course I think a year long course has the chance to be a very impactful thing um you know you get them for 18 weeks you hope it sticks uh you get them for 36 weeks you build really you know great habits 21 days to make great habit I can only imagine what 36 weeks could do um I think it it's obviously kids engaged socially as somebody who is in uh you know in the field uh I think the social aspect of things is coming back with students uh I think the effects of Co there were pretty pretty impactful right away when it comes to just that social interactions but I see it coming back more and more and I think this um course has the opportunity to really have an opportunity to have just that social interaction and real discussion and and real just quality discussion with students um I think there's that the effect you know the goal to make it a trickle down effect obviously these these leaders affect these kids and these kids affect these kids and it really grows and and um kind of has that trickle down effect from the top and then also I think the big thing is just Community engagement getting out in our community um bringing in guest speakers bringing in administrators bringing in people from our community um people from other places um obviously with the day and age of education and and Technology um we have the opportunity for virtual meetings and presentations we could bring in various people throughout um it's kind of like I said it's really much an open slate when it comes to that I think the I mentioned servant leadership uh as well as you know getting the students out um talking to people talking to different leaders in our community and and really kind of seeing what uh what leadership can entail beyond the the uh the walls of bar High School uh learning targets I kind of kind of broken down into potential two different um semesters um from a curriculum standpoint uh there's a lot of stuff out there uh Justin's provides a really good kind of foundational curriculum uh but I see the curriculum really being something that is a combination of a variety of different resources uh as you can see up there there's just a variety of topics I don't necessarily need to go through I think all of them but that would kind of be what a pacing might look like for a one semester course as well as then enhancing a two semester course uh you know incorporating things such as servant leaders ship um getting into public speaking larger projects um you know just a variety of topics that would come in into play as growing as a leader uh in terms of course assessments I think it's a unique class in the sense that you know it's it's not a multiple choice kind of test right it's it's a chance to um possibly read some different you know leadership style books um look at different collaborative individual projects servant leadership community service U Mentor you know Finding potential mentors in our community for them to work with and and and and work through their various types of things uh and so I see it being a lot of reflection a lot of project type things based course rather than a traditional type of you know multiple choice type type of test it'd be I think a lot of writing uh and then just a lot of reflection uh and then terms like I said I resource the curriculum I kind of mentioned this a little bit already um J's another one a really good one is called lead for change uh and that actually ties into U even potential Grant dollars uh to put towards servant projects within our community and so I guess the only real potential purchase of curriculum would be looking at some different leadership books uh so for the opportunity to have like book studies uh and such um within the within the course throughout the uh the semester so potentially you know one or two books within a semester otherwise all other uh costs and things like that would really would be things that we just we bring in from other places questions what you thinking Lou Holtz and Nick Sabin there's a lot of people out there a lot of people they give you your Zoom call yeah so is this an elective yes it would be an elective so does it fill any boxes for like you need a social studies or or any of that stuff just a general yep just a general General y coach I think this is absolutely again fantastic thank you uh some people say leaders are born but leaders can also be learned I agree with that I think even more so in today's where we're at even more I you I think the old saying you know used to Natural Born leaders I think you you find those people here and there but I really think it's something you can teach people to do and you you don't have you know you don't have to be a leader in everything in some cases you might be a leader in other cases you're a follower correct and I think teaching kids I mean this is about life public I mean I like some of the stuff in there public speaking I mean my gosh I remember you know you know speaking in my first time about 8,000 years ago it's tough but after a while it's just second nature I think this is fantastic U I'm all I'm all for it Mr um Jason I just like director hman said I'm all for it too it's uh this was a pastor of mine when I was an educator um I did a class called service learning that I put kids out in the community and I the one thing that I really really would like uh to emphasize is is Community Connection um and and group projects whether you bring the kids to a confidence Learning Center as um I didn't see a you know a do you have a number that a number that of kids that you you would take at at a at a class ah that would be I guess a question for the register and Miss Rusk okay in terms of what that would yeah what it would take to a certain number 20 30 that's what that's what I'm saying so a lot a lot of those kind of projects of group kind of projects um pay off big dividends too when these kids are learning uh this kind of information so I would really really emphasize uh connecting to the community with group projects and that kind of stuff too you'd be teaching this class yep love it I'll make a motion I'll second it we have a motion from director dling or a second from director Breen do we have any further questions or discussion when n po go ahead when when would this this would start the next school next fall yeah because I think registration is in February March yep any further discussion hearing none those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign motion carries thank you thank you very much good luck thank you next up we have English 10 novel selection this is the last action item you guys have been waiting thanks what am I doing I see thank you paper copy if anyone wants to see it it's what paper copy with book if anyone wants to pass it around kind of red part of it thank you for having us tonight um my name is Carla Shepard Johnson I'm Alan huitt English teacher at high school and both Alan and I teach English 10 so we are hoping to implement this into our courses and I have taught a BHS for 13 years I also o direct the plays after school I'm a PLC leader and a mentor to new English teachers and I guess I need to read the part that I've been here 32 years we got you head of the English Department I just want director Ward to do I'm ready for about a 45 minute lecture so you need to stay awake okay and we would like to rep um implement the book The hate list and two teachers have previously taught this book at Brainard high school with administrative approval and the book had um great success in the classroom and students were really engaged during the unit when it had been previously taught at BHS our learning goals are to provide a new engaging text that sophomores in 2024 can relate to and see themselves in this piece of literature and then also to of course encourage critical thinking personal connection to the test text and also have um powerful discussions while fostering uh critical analysis as well um Miss so Department Ed is realigning the English curriculum implementing new standards for 2025 and what you see up there you start to see the new ones that we've selected for this non novel they're not all that different the ones that we're taking a look at that but you can see there's Reading Writing and language and then speaking and listening and research all those areas would be covered within the context of teaching isable as far as the text complexity um you can see it's a more lengthier text uh 416 pages Leti level is 760 um it's recommended for grade 10 in ages 15 years and up some of the themes that we think that uh students are going to be able to identify as the idea the characters are high school students in this in this book which is always nice when we can get the readers connected with the individuals in the books power words we're talking about bullying earlier the consequences of bullying and the complexities of mental health we were talking about that as well earlier so it's a book that covers a lot of really modern kind of issues that our students and our families are going through the overall theme of this book is the PO forgiveness and the ending um is really about healing and not only how students can heal um after uh something like like a school shooting but also the staff members and also community members and it also really encourages the power of empathy and thinking like Allan said about what we say and how that impacts others and how we can use our words to create a positive world and to help others as opposed to negativity um you can see that the identities with the characters within the novel are are student body that's what they they are that's athletes Scholars lower class students upper class students engaged students disengaged students it's most public high schools in the country a big topic that's addressed is um people of lower socioeconomic status and we put the statistic there because um many of our students can relate to that and the rate in 2023 2024 school year was ISD 181 free reduced lunch rate was 46.2% of our students um relate to that and I think that's really important because in my opinion um a lot of times that is left out in literature and I think that would be important for our students to see themselves in the text that we're reading and like like um Alan said bullying and depression and then Us Versus Them especially in the context of um the media and how the media was embellishing some things that happened and the students were saying well that's not actually how it happened and then also family Dynamics um just with um parents and social media and that effect any questions is this something we vote on like why do we have to approve this book I'm not I'm not picking on you I'm just curious is this thing like outside of our normal boundaries or something or do you just want to make us aware of this a while so just what do you normally do what's the normal process for this class like you go through three different books or something or two two whole class novels throughout the school year in English 10 is this just be one for the whole year this would be a replacement of one that we previously had taught so I'm still confused why we're looking at I think it's fine book I looked it up today and kind of read about it a little bit seems pretty anticipating some push back or something push back or nope it just you're just informing us of this novel that you're choosing we the understanding this is the administrative process now to get a book approved like this it's part of their curriculum probably month of of instruction around a whole class to so just as part of that process for curriculum approval we bring it to the community members that District advisory committee they have an opportunity as questions or representation different perspectives from the community and they they bring it as a recommendation is this a mandatory class that everybody has to take or is this so every kid will have to read this book supposedly yeah English I mean technically if you had a parent that a problem with the book you have an alternate book yes yes we do for all of our whole class novels yes we have alternate selections definitely it's a little scary with the whole scho school shooting dealo well that wouldn't bother me but Jon might being a little afraid to go to school maybe yeah all I can do is speak to what we talked about in the Dak committee meeting and there were some people that were a little hesitant including me but Christina gave me a copy of the book and I went home and read the I think it'd be good for first 100 Pages or so because that's where the if there was any real controversy it it appeared that that's where would show up and the title itself hate list I mean you know you can't judge a book by its cover because this is it's a great setting and it's it might help with this bullying it is a it's a really good book I read through it too and I thought the themes are so relatable and so relevant and just the the struggle between right and wrong and the media bu it there's so many just really good topics I also think it reflects how we've changed in schools over the years and if we go back to your football analogy 35 years ago somebody got hurt on the football field had to rub some dirt on and push them back out there yeah okay 30 30 35 years ago we didn't deal with mental health the way we do we've really done a great deal of work with that getting staff trained and and administration trained and everything and dealing with it instead of instead of hiding it dealing with the issues and we think this this is going to be a good resource for us are those other um those other books that are uh you referenced in your current class do they cover these topics bullying um all of the topics that you talked about Bor born a crime does born a crime by Trevor Noah it's a memoir about his life um he he had lived through a part tide but you you feel this book really directs many many more social issues that our kids are facing now well we also teach MC Beth in this class I think this is a little closer to where the kids are I love MC Beth mcth ends MC Beth ends in a very different way than they do I I appreciate the fact that you're bringing forward um curriculum that that impacts our kids right now and talks about it and discusses it and gives them an opportunity to talk about and discuss it dep we excited thank you I'd like to make a motion that we approve the English 10 novel selection second so we have a motion from director Breon and a second from director Hyman any further discussion hearing none those in favor signify by saying I please I I post same sign thank you thank you thank you sure all right we'll move along to informational update on uh Brer Public Schools Foundation from director spear uh we did not meet this month but we had an event last night and it was awesome it was sold out and I'm we're all on the edge of our seats to see where it ends up but just a phenomenal turnout from staff and community and just a reiteration of the great support that we have for the district out there so so it was awesome and nice job last night school Foundation at the bingo yeah than you even if I didn't win even if you didn't win all right uh director Breen with the equity task force so we're continuing to focus on small messages that we can get to principes to share in their buildings um this month we were focusing on checking in to see how the interruptor poster campaign is going and what additional support that staff might need to keep this going with the idea that we're working towards safe and welcoming spaces in our classrooms and our buildings cool great thank you um Marcy with the Business Services report so the enrollment report is in your packet and I just wanted to address last month there was a concern about the drop in high school and speaking with principal Rusk we she did review the data and shared that there were eight that had moved out of the district that was the highest one um and then the other were homeschool and on Minnesota Connections Academy so just brief update on last month's and then looking at this month's we're down 42 from the beginning of the school year the six-year average since we started this was we we were down 35 so we're right on track kind of and then in the financial report I have nothing to note unless there's any questions the enrollment report do we know why the eight families left they they've moved out like they moved out okay they're gone they gone from the district yep they they did not go to any of the surrounding uh districts thanks Mar any other questions for Marcy thanks Marcy superintendent report I really don't have much other than since it's your party tonight um Kevin I want to thank you first of all I wouldn't be here for wasn't for you that's not necessarily good maybe no um I'm very very thankful for um the short time I've gotten to knowing you and it's interesting because it began with like a three minute phone call um and uh I become quite fond of you and it's been a real good time working with you and um uh now that you are going off the board that means you can set up out in the gallery and keep an eye on us if you choose to but thank you for your leadership then a lot of people said some very nice words about you um I've worked with a lot of board chairs and you're right up there it was really it was been fun working with you and I appreciate all the um support You' given me and um the conversations that we had that got longer and longer I figured pretty soon we going to sit down and meet because we never knew each other but we only did by phone but um thank you very much for what you've done for the district and um it's been a true honor to um work with you and I appreciate it very much thank you um I guess with that in mind um I did have a little something I was going to say I was going to keep it brief believe it or not you want some action on it h what you want to over under what do you think Ward no I have a couple things to say and then I have something I'd like to read because the reality is it's just you know there you know like everybody that runs for these things four years ago I think my head was full of all these things I was going to do and I think the first thing that you learn as a new school board member is that no one of us does much of anything that this is as much of a team as you'll ever be of anything and um this this team performs it it's best when you know there's a little bit of tension and when there's a little bit of difference in ideas as long as that's got a backbone of respect and dignity behind it and I've been fortunate enough in the last four years to serve with 10 different board members and three superintendents um and and a lot of Administrators and um I'll say it again one more time this is an amazing School District um and this this board is an amazing board and you know what's going to happen next is all the rest of you are going to come back in a month and director ederman will come in with a a headful of ideas and a Heart full of passion for her version of what she thinks public education should be about and I think you're all going to do a really great job um I think we've laid a lot over especially over the last two years a lot of tracks because we got all that background noise of the construction all that background noise from Co and all that stuff out of the way um so the that you can do in conjunction with Mr Grant and his team which are outstanding I love every one of you guys you've been fantastic um but the district itself is only one side of a coin right there you can't have a coin that only has one side coins have two sides the other side of that coin is the parents and the community and um what I've noticed especially over the last year or so is that the community not as much the parents we'll talk about them in a second um haven't probably held up their bargain as much as the board and the district has um the community needs to do I think um can do a better job not everybody just globally needs to do a better job of understanding the challenges that are facing this district and will continue to face this district and to get behind and push and get behind and support as much as you can there's nothing wrong with challenging stuff don't get me wrong and on the parental side you know it's just sort of something that's happened I mean I've seen it and I'm not running for re-election obviously again so I can say it we have a certain percentage of our parents parents that treat their kids like laundry they drop them off at the schools kind of dirty and disheveled and want to pick them up folded and clean and it doesn't really work like that we need for reading to improve the parents have to work with the kids at home for behavior on buses to improve the parents have to reinforce what the school is asking for all of those things to happen the parents have to be involved so I'm I'm hopeful that because all that background noise is behind us that this board because it's diverse and it's connected well to the community and you're all really smart really passionate people that you're going to do a great job of continuing to engage so we can Inc increase attendance reduce bullying um understand that social emotional learning while it can maybe sometimes be taken too far is integral kids can't learn if they're upset and being picked on and don't understand how to interact with each other so the reading really doesn't matter if you don't have the kids Behavior under control so it's all part of that ecosystem so I leave with the idea that I'm I was of something I think I played an important role at an important time um when you know there was a lot of turmoil in this this board and a lot of turmoil and so I I take a little heart in that but in the end I was just one of you right and I think steal some words from Ted lasso was never about me it's about all of you and about all of you and about our 1,200 staff that do an amazing job every day day and and day out and so to have been part of the bridge that gets us from that Old World where there were less challenges through the covid mess and through all of these things to kind of position us to be more um thoughtful and and modern in the way we think as a board to to take on those challenges I think I'll always be proud of that and so that's kind of what I take away from this whole thing so what I wanted to do to kind of close out my career was I don't know how appropriate it is but um I have a couple of these Educators that were here tonight couple are in the room now about six years ago well let me go back a step and then I'll keep this as brief as I can when I started this little journey four years ago there were a lot of reasons that I did it and they weren't all the right reasons at first um but what I learned was you know there are right things to do on a school board and when I walked in here the first night I was like okay there are three people that I really want to make proud of me and the first one is my wife who Irish exited about a half an hour ago um so Kelly if you're watching at home thanks for all the love and support all joking aside she's the only one that had front row seats to what I did for the last four years she's the only one that saw me up at 3:00 in the morning rereading superintendent resumés and staring out the window trying to decide what to do she's the only one that saw me upset when my integrity was challenged it's the only time I've ever been upset since I've been on this board I don't mind people disagreeing with my decisions and disliking me for what I say and what I do but when they called my Integrity into question that was a bridge too far and I'm never going to forgive those people for that that's just how that goes second person my mother she died 12 years ago but she was my idol she was my load Stone she was my compass and so I've tried to do everything that I've done on this board to make her proud and the third is a man if you were there on the opening day of school this year the the staff welcome back is an educator that profoundly impacted my life at pill er a guy named Charlie Johnson he was my band director but he was also more of a father to me than my own father was so when people start to talk about this this teachers need to stay in their Lane and they need to do all this we're asking them to do all this stuff they never used to have to do before and one of those things is they serve these critical roles for these kids and I was one of those kids I would have been a very different person without him in my life and he's in Arizona he's retired but he's probably watching right now Charlie I love you you knocked on doors with me four years ago and you're the idiot that got me to do this in the first place so there you go but six years ago we lost another educator that I was very very fond of and um I was out of town on business and unable to make his funeral so I wrote basically a um eulogy that went on a tribute wall that they made for this guy and some of you might know him his name was Dave vits um Dave was an English teacher and Pillager uh for a large number of years and he he died very suddenly on vacation um six years ago so I wrote this about Dave and I want to to read it just because it I want it to be emblematic of how I feel about our 1200 people because we have 1,200 people that are just like this guy so with your Indulgence I'd like to spend just a few more minutes and read this and then I'll let you go home that okay absolutely okay so this is six years old well before I was on the school board I've struggled to find my voice as I attempt to contribute to a Cascade of heartfelt and amazing tributes for Dave Vats Maybe it's because I'm concerned that he's hovering around somewhere in grading this piece I sure hope I get at least a c on it what strikes me the most about the tributes written thus far is how unique and individual they are very much like the man himself what I mean by that is that his true gift was that each of us had our own version of him his relationships with us were like snowflakes with no two being alike and each of them uniquely beautiful in its own way I could easily picture Dave as the town doctor had he come along a century earlier than he did I could see him walking from house to house with his black leather bag dispensing healing wit and wisdom to every household in Pillager he knew something about everybody in town had seen pretty much everyone reading this at our best and at our worst met us all Uncommon Ground he wo himself into the community in a way that had never been seen and will probably never be seen again it didn't matter if you still lived in the general Pillager area or if you'd gone out into the world and done it all Dave knew us all and gave us all equal respect whether whether it was deserved or not he was especially unique in how Adept and capable he was at meeting all of us on equal footing he was never above anyone nor did he ever act that way he sure as hell never was below anyone and it was obvious that the material trappings family status and all of the other defining strata and Community standing meant pretty much nothing to him it didn't matter what click you were part of or not where you came from how big or small your house was m Mr Vats treated us all with respect and derision in precise amounts this is what made him sort of what I would call the knucklehead Whisperer he didn't seem to have the issues with those Troublesome kids that gave most of the other teachers fits his ability to be self-deprecating and yet deal out sarcastic rejoinders was something that I only just now see for the masterful Artistry that it was no doubt my Mr vit is very different than everyone else's I graduated in 1986 and hadn't had him as a teacher since 9th grade I vividly remember a he the horrible comic strip that he had taped up by the wall in his desk for years basically it was two disheveled Viking types looking at a guy holding a protest sign and wondering what all the fuss was about because they couldn't read the sign the sign said Stamp Out illiteracy learn to read I laugh out loud now as I write this because in a nutshell that was Dave a master of irony wit and subtle sarcasm paired with a Gruff love for his profession and his students my Mr veds could talk about about things like Broadway Theater classic poetry Pros art history and other lofty intellectual subject matter he clearly knew what was out in the world outside of Pillager but he could also talk about sports auto mechanics the latest Dukes of Hazard episode deer hunting and any other the items of local interest in Pillager in the early 1980s I get the sense that he could have Wen himself into any society on any location or any level but he was definitely where he wanted to be at first blush it would be easy to say that he could have gone to a much bigger town or city and been so much more I submit that it's possible for any human being to I submit that it's impossible for any human being to become more than what he was in a way most of us who were his students are like messages that he rode over the years and placed in bottles and threw them into the sea only now at his passing have those bottles washed up on shore a veritable tsunami of accolades for a man who made one of the most difficult jobs in the world seemed effortless as he impacted hundreds and hundreds hundreds of lives the best tribute that I can think of is for each of us to pick up the flag that fell when Dave fell and carry it forward as best we can I will try harder to cast my own messages into the sea though my efforts will be quite inferior to those of the master I should think that he expects no less than that from each of us my deepest condolences to his family and close friends when a light this bright is extinguished we have to hope that it is in fact not extinguished but it's been somewhere been sent somewhere else to light the path for others that are in dire need thank you for sharing him for all of those years and please let all these tributes fill a small section of the empty space inside of you now he was a great man a great teacher and perhaps the best citizen that the town of Pillager has ever seen thank you for being you Mr Vats godspeed on your next Journey thank you for your Indulgence I read that again because scattered throughout ISD 181 there are hundreds and hundreds of people having that same impact on our students and our community and they deserve our respect and our support and I know this board will continue to do that and I've enjoyed serving with every single one of you thank you very much thank you thanks Kevin thank you I really wanted you to be able to have the last word but you jumped in too quickly this is this an action item apologies but truly Kevin and I have to look at you when I say this you came into this organization and you wanted to push vly for communication and you have been a shining example of what that looks like done well so thank you and I think I can't look at your own you have taught us how to collaborate you come into a room with curiosity and wonder and you want us to do well and you're open-minded about it and you find find the common ground so thank you not only that sorry but you're such a cheerleader for this District you have taught us how to offer support and challenge gracefully while bringing out the best in the school and our community thank you and I'm going to stop [Applause] all right so you waited a long time for one of these oh my goodness this is what folks get when they've left their impact on our district the way you have once a warrior I always a warrior there's more in here that's the important to thank you thank you oh goodness I make a [Laughter] motion what was that word you used in there derol or something like that I mean like can we just I think he's pretty proud of you for writing that one Kevin you did a pretty good job on that baby I think he would have got an A on that little the you read there thank you A+ yeah that was pretty good he gave pluses I I don't know how you do it but that's impressive abolutely I just want to say too thank you for mentoring me you taught me a lot of things and you will be missed yes you will had three rookies to deal with four well sah had a few months under her belt she was a pro by the time we got here I mean really all right so do we need to do committee meeting updates no motion to ajour Second motion to amend agenda we have a motion from director Don linger and a second from director Ward to adjourn this meeting is there any further discussion hearing none those in favor signify by saying I please I oppose same sign we are adjourned thank you dog