##VIDEO ID:8xYwhBLIANg## e okay good evening good evening and zo today is October 24th 2024 and the time is now 6:30 p.m. I will now call the regular meeting of the ISD 191 Board of Education to order welcome to those in the audience here this evening and anybody watching at home director Connor will you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for worship stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all thank you is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda moved by director WB seconded by director Connor is there any discussion on this matter seeing none are those all those in favor please indicate by saying I I I any opposed would say nay the motion carries unanimously the first item on our agenda will be to receive the world best Workforce 2023 24 achievement and integration progress report from Rina aadal director of a curriculum instruction and assessment and isaan director of educational Equity welcome thank you director Miller uh Dr Belmont members of the board uh thank you for giving uh director Buchanan and myself the opportunity to share the annual report of the 20 2324 world's best Workforce and achievement and integration plans this evening I will provide an overview of the purpose and intent of both Minnesota State's world best Workforce and achievement and integration programs and then discuss the results of each goal for this for this past year and then uh director Buchanan will uh be able to take some time to share the strategies and activities supported by the district achievement and integration plan this report combines the progress of two programs the world's best Workforce and state achievement and integration first is the world's best Workforce this uh State guidance is for all school districts and was updated in the 2223 uh the 2023 legislative session to address the redundancy in goals that uh came forward with the uh adoption of the read act legislation so the reading goal has been shifted out of the world's best Workforce and moved into the read act and local literacy report which you will receive at a later date however uh it has been uh uh replaced with the more future Readiness uh goal of lifelong Learners uh the new state guide is rebranded as the comprehensive achievement and career Readiness and uh will be reported for the 20242 school year and um I'll just speak a little bit on achievement and integration um so chair Miller Dr Belmont this superintendent and members of the board um the achievement and integration um program promotes racial and economic integration across um our district to enhance student achievement and address disparities across um our diverse student populations so District 191 qualifies for this program due to its designation as a racially isolated District and our adjacency to the Lakeville District 194 that we partner with as we reflect on the goals and the results of the past year one area that serves as an indicator for early Student Success is the kindergarten Readiness for literacy and reading incoming kindergarteners are assessed individually each fall to determine the level of Readiness for kindergarten in many areas the development of language and early literacy skills however is a key one for us it was our goal that 50% of our incoming kindergarteners demonstrate those skills upon ENT entry to kindergarten we did see a flat result from the prior year 42% uh in 2023 um and that's what we saw this fall again in 20124 um those are the uh percentage of students that are meeting the kindergarten Benchmark um as they walk into the door first time because kindergarteners come to us from many different experiences we are interested in knowing the impact on Young Learners who participate in our own District's prechool 47% of students who participated in the 191 preschool met the Benchmark um the fall Benchmark uh over the 36% of their peers who came from other experiences we look to continue to strengthen that PK Tok alignment especially around literacy with our further programming and professional development the achievement integration goals have us looking at specific groups of students who have historically been underserved and we see what impact the district programming has had on their achievement while the results of bipo students overall did not meet our goal of 41 1% of meeting The Benchmark the students who participated in the 191 preschool programming far exceeded that percentage and that of their overall group with 62% of bipo students meaning the kindergarten Readiness goal in literacy after engaging and participating in our VPK program similar results uh positively were seen for our Latino students with only 177% of students overall meeting that Benchmark walking in the door but 60% of our Latino and Hispanic students who participated in our 191 uh preschool met that fall Benchmark the goals for Native children was not met with only two children in the district VPK program 11 uh Native students overall I think this really speaks to to the power of our district program and how it is truly trying to uh address the needs of students and offer them that amazing learning experience to give them the tools that they need so that when they walk in the door on that first day of kindergarten we are seeing them as being literacy ready the second goal for the world's best Workforce is to to close performance gaps the state of Minnesota this year using the uh indicator of the reading MCA for students in grades 3 through 11 did not see any significant shift in their uh disparity of reading achievement as measured by the state reading tests districtwide however uh across the grades 3 through 11 there was a continued growth in our reading achievement Gap looking at grades 3 through 11 reading on the Minnesota comprehensive assessments by uh student groups showed us in this disaggregation uh the 191 comparison with their peers across the state by race and ethnicity as well as special populations group we continue to perform be below the state um however we are seeing continued growth in many of those areas one of the other indicators is College and Career Readiness one indicator that we use for that is our average ACT composite score for all of our grade 11 students at the time of this report we did not we do not have the 2024 uh results those usually come out in late October um so they don't come out in time always for this particular report uh but we do know that the trend over the last couple of years has uh kind of kept us in the same spot and so we haven't seen significant growth um and then comparatively we have not seen that same we have not seen any growth uh across the state as well another one of our indicators and this is the one that uh goal that is supported by our achievement integration program is to really reduce the disproportionate enrollment in rigorous coursework between our white students and our students of color our goal was to reduce from 133% last year to 8% um um two years ago to 8% for last year we did not see a change or shift and remained at 133% um being the disproportionality between those groups in rigorous courses um and for our purposes the definition of rigorous coursework are courses that carry college credit the final goal is looking at four-year graduation rate while the state four-year gradu uation rate remained flat at 84% there was some slight decreases in the four-year graduation rates for the district overall and at BHS specifically Burnsville Alternative High School however saw the greatest increase with a 9% increase in their four-year graduation rate when examining the four-year graduation rates for some of our bipo Learners at BHS um uh we can see that we saw the decrease for students overall um however uh for our goal for our Latino students was 70% we didn't meet that goal with uh 61% but we did see some growth and Recovery um in the graduation rates for our Latino students um our native students uh we did not meet our goal of 72% but remained flat with our goal of 50% um using the data from the world's best Workforce and achievement integration and multiply multiple other data sources we develop our programming for curriculum instruction and professional development and those those plans are currently in progress we plan to utilize each of the scheduled student performance and achievement or Spa reports scheduled this year to provide the board with a more comprehensive view of programming and strategies and imple and the implementation and their impacts in each of these more specific areas each Spa report will focus on specific measures from the board's strategic dashboard in January you'll see a literacy update focused on the prek through 8 curriculum instruction and professional development in March we'll look at addressing disparities and some of those underperforming and disp and disparate performances um sharing uh in academic performance and activities we're using to address those in April will be the College and Career Readiness uh presentation looking more closely at the most current uh graduation uh uh fouryear graduation rates um and the activities that we are doing currently at our high school and at BOS to support those activities and that programming and looking at our rigorous course enrollment updates um and including our most recent uh updates for our ACT results and then in June we'll do our final report on the react and our local literacy plan for the year with a wrap up of our literacy work that's being done and the student result for the end of the year those are some things for you to look forward to as this is simply an overview um and uh progress update for last year but I think it's really important for us to take a really closer look and um I'm excited for the opportunity for you to have another look at the achievement and integration specific strategies yes and so um you can see on the slide that we have four strategies and so the first two um we will talk about here and so strategy number one is our advanced ment via individual determination or Avid um as you may have heard it before but it really focuses on that College and Career Readiness and there are a lot of tools to help us Implement and ensure we are offering rigorous schoolwide instruction and promoting equity and access to learning opportunities some examples of our efforts from this past year include ongoing professional development for Avid teachers and staff the expansion of our Avid elective section at secondary sites to support broader student participation um Eagle Ridge Middle School is also currently still working to um achieve the Avid demonstration School status and so they've had visits from people from the Avid organization and then we also continued our collaboration with Lakeville um ISC 194 um with our Avid summer program um we do have plans to sort of relook at and redesign some of that work with the summer bridge program because our partner district is no longer using Avid and so this year we'll be working with them to come up with some other creative things that we can do to increase you know our student engagement with some summer um programming um the other I guess the other piece that I will add to to this piece about Avid is that we really are trying to embed our professional development so that we're layering our culturally proficient school system system work with our English learner um instructional practices along with Avid so that we're just applying all of those things together at um all at once and so I know at our middle schools last year in our um high school we really were intentional about I believe it's the big three at a at the high school for they have some Avid strategies they focus on and at the middle schools I believe it's the Avid 6 now um and so really layering in some of those things like having visuals and using sentence stems as part of that um for strategy 2 the family and Community Partnerships um we have um our social workers and culturally Liaisons are funded out of our um achievement and integration um dollars and so they really work closely with families to connect them with State resources and supporting student well-being and academic success um some of those areas included strengthening our family and school Partnerships and Improv in the social emotional skills and supports that we provide at our school sites um as well as supporting parents and caregivers and preparing for that preschool age as you heard before and just um ensuring that we're partnering with our families to um just help build Bridges if they're needed to help help students know that they're ready for that for academic Readiness and then also just in getting them enrolled in our programming before kindergarten so that it's a easier sort of on onramp because they're already familiar with our systems um and then finally um ensuring that our families understand the requirements for the high school graduation and encouraging participation in rigorous coursework at the secondary level um and so last year we did have some family nights where we were able to support families who wanted to come in and learn more about what did their students need to meet those benchmarks um and then also having interpreters translators available to make sure that we're you know um able to connect with our family groups who really you know want the information as well um the next slide focuses on um strategy three which is indigenous student and family engagement um and as you know this past year we've been Guided by um guided with some recommendations for our American Indian parent advisory committee um and just continuing to prioritize staff development and curriculum enhancements to ensure that we're accurately representing indigenous peoples and some of those initiatives included continuing with our monthly meetings with our APAC um also participating in the South Metro um Indian education committee programs so we still continue to partner with them with the south of the river powwow and monthly drum and dance and craft activities um and then also last year we applied for the dream catcher program um to enhance the way we're looking at cultural and social emotional supports for indigenous students um and really targeting improving attendance and um learning more about students and the different things that they may need to reduce the number of American Indian students who are you know get into that special education um referral process and then strategy for um is culturally proficient school systems um and I'm kind of excited today to share that our work continues um I'm taking the 10day certification for cpss myself right now and so one of the things that um that we're realizing is that I think I think it was 2014 when the district created their very first four-year plan and So within 10 years participating in this training with different people from across the United States um they seem in awe of the work we're doing even though at times I think we're harder on ourselves about what we still need to do and so um some of that work included integrating the Avid strategies with English learner supports and culturally responsive practices um to ensure High academic standards aligned with the benchmarks and some of that work we've continued into this year as well um and then continuing to have training for our staff and having culture natur Al responsive instruction as well as developing Equitable School climates through targeted professional development at staff in all levels and so last year I did work with nutrition services and media Specialists to you know have some touch points with our cpss work and then also work that we did together you know with you as the board um and then alignment and instructional feedback and multi-tiered systems of support to meet the diverse needs of students and I think you've heard about some of these indicators but again we're trying to layer all of these approaches so they don't seem like separate things but they are all things that build a thicker thread of our support for um students in our district thank you sir okay thank you do board members have any comments or questions time excuse me so I know you um you no longer have AVID for sixth graders does it start at seventh now or eth we do we do have AVID for sixth graders you do now oh okay I thought you had discontinued the sixth graders okay okay um and then the other question on slide 11 for the Virtual Academy um the percentages I was just wondering do you have an idea why there was such a drop in the Virtual Academy for students I was just a little surprised at that yeah um it was a significant drop there were a couple of factors that uh were included in there one is uh really taking a look at the number of students who are completing their credits uh as they are um initially moving into the Virtual Academy at the high school it's a shift in the model that it moves to a full asynchronous so there is no there is no live session for the students and uh many times as a freshman they find that to be um almost to freeing um and uh there tends to be an adjustment and so we see a really significant shift even more than we do uh for the students who are meeting face Toof face in the high level of failure rates at um as freshman um I do know that in conversations with uh principal Ron uh she really has targeted that as one of the areas of improvement and um I'm sure that when she shares her uh report um just really bringing some of those wraparound services that uh she has for her um face-to-face students at BOS to her Virtual Academy staff as well and so they've been implementing a few different strategies including um some weekly check-ins and some other types of things that they've uh tried to embed within there to build more connection with students um to to uh be more proactive to avoid those particular failures more structure okay good sounds good other questions other questions or comments thank you chair Miller thank you for this report always appreciate um seeing you both um to dovetail on director Connor's uh question and staying on the same slide um and I guess I want to preface this because of course there's more to learning and education than test results right we need to think about the whole student and their Wellness um and I appreciated Amina your comment about the different experiences um that students bring starting in you know prek in kindergarten at the same time by the time they reach the high school right for the mo many students have been with us for a while there are some that come and go um and at the end of the day our job is to make sure that as many of our students graduate as possible but we're not seeing an increase we're seeing a decrease and we have roughly conservatively $160,000 invested in Credit Recovery um why the disconnect I think we're seeing um some of the payoff for the credit recovery in our B students M um and so I I I believe that that's one of the indicators where we we're seeing more and more of the students who are stepping into BOS to graduate are meeting that 4-year expectation whereas before we didn't see that and I think Credit Recovery plays a huge component into that in providing that support for those students um so I think that's where you might see some of the results I think uh we're also uh really taking a close look and I think um as uh the high school begins to report and share some of the other things some of the really key things that um we've been focusing on that we may not have seen come to light in that in last year's because remember this is a lagging indicator these are not students who graduated last year these are kids who graduated the year before so so that that might be something too is that we're not seeing the results of work that we did last year and the results of works that we're doing this year with um the ongoing nth grade academy and the continued supports that we're providing for students at that weak point of nth grade um which we see as a high failure space and so really providing that extra structure and support for those students um for seeing the really powerful work that um that uh Middle School and High school have done collaboratively for that transition from 8th grade to 9th grade as well and uh seeing what some of those results will look like and also looking at some of the system pieces that we've been putting into place with our new um data and assessment tool which is Edge climber which is developing early warning systems and dashboards for both 8th grade and for n 9th and 10th grade and so really looking at the results of some of those because we knew this we knew these results last spring and so what we're doing now and what we've done over the course of the summer is in response to to this particular data saying wait a minute we're not seeing the we're not seeing the growth and we're seeing some some lagging indicators that show that we have some tremendous needs and so I would I would posit that because it is a lagging indicator we don't always see those results and so I would hope that we would we would see some of those things I think the transition piece is going to be a big piece and I know that Dr Belmont has really LED some of that work as well um but really engaging our families and students and staff in that e8th grade to nth grade transition and making that um a little bit more seamless for for students and I and I remain hopeful I I I I I love hearing everything that you that that we are working on um to try to catch you know catch them as they move through our system um it's just it can be hard to see the the results and I know that I'm sure you both feel the same the same way um so thank you and and just you know putting a pin in the grad report that you're going to bring forward high expectations for information in that report too yes um another question um the dream catcher project can you speak to that a little bit more and so the the Dreamcatcher project is um it's a program it doesn't we don't receive funding for it but it basically is has been put in place through the Minnesota Department of Education to help us look at the types of supports um and maybe interventions we have for our indigenous students and so it brings in a culture piece it brings in knowing more about trauma and so right now we have a team of staff from our district um and then we are also partnering with some of our sites to be pilot sites where we'll develop tools or not develop but find tools that are already out there that we can use so that when um a site has some concerns about the academic or behavior performance of indigenous students that they'll have additional resources and staff that they can invite to those conversations um because and you probably heard this in the past we've had an overidentification of our indigenous students just because sometimes we're not aware of some of the culture and Trauma pieces that we should be aware of and so we're working to just add in those pieces and so we applied for um the program last year and we got in and so this fall our team team has already met I think three times two or three times to just start to build our program and some of what we're doing is just identifying sites that we want to Target along with the attendance um work that we're doing so that we're really trying to be reasonable and practical because we only have the two indigenous staff and then there is one other indigenous staff person there and so we're trying to use those people as um assets to bring to teams who are having those discussions um and it's going to be ongoing work all this year and into future years but it also connects us to a network of people who are intentionally focusing on this area and so that we're regularly able to access like information and additional support um as we're just looking at the things we could do to support student needs and and building that building that strength into what staff is doing whether their classroom or not is it's important because we can't simply rely on our multilingual staff our liaison translators you know we all have to understand and even though we're targeting some schools for more of the in-person help that doesn't mean we do have plans like when our team was meeting we were talking about the tiers of support like what are things we could give to all Sites so they know if you have indigenous students what are things you can be proactively doing to make you know their connection to school stronger um and then the same thing for tier 2 and tier three because we want to make sure that we're looking at the range of needs and not waiting for tier 2 and tier three to start to respond but that we're proactively um sharing the information that we find with all Sites but again targeting the people support that we have to really go deeper with some of that practice and then sharing that out with school leaders because we have like they're aware of this at our instructional leadership meetings you know that this is work that we're doing and so um we'll just continue to like learn more and I just read a quote that knowledge is power but knowledge that's shared is even more powerful so and one final comment um you know it was really with mixed emotions that I saw the The Benchmark data again right that we're seeing growth um among um among certain groups of students um and not seeing growth in other groups and and yet you know bipac was at 62% but overall we were at 37% and that 37% is is really tough so I just have to think about the fact that to your point Isis cpss has been here for such a long time and it's from the board all the way down and we're just trusting in in the work that you guys are doing so thank you okay additional questions um back to the one chart that had the graduation by four years um just curious um we had a goal of 88% and the result was 82 is that only reflective of Burnsville High School or are is the 88% goal like the entire District realizing Virtual Academy has students that will will graduate in four years and then another question would be the Alternative High School results are those students are the ones that graduated in four years out of the total pool of students we serve in the OS so two questions so the first question is our world's best Workforce school is for Burnsville High School only so it's four-year graduation rate at Burnsville High School our goal was 88% our results was 82% so that that's our world's best Workforce goal um and I like to show the district number as well as the individual schools too um your second question about B all of the students at B um this is the number that reflects out of all the students at B those that graduated at on time with their four-year goal with four-year goal yeah yeah because I was going to ask about best because they graduate too right but they don't graduate with their four-year goal they always graduate with five or six year goals and that can be something um I haven't traditionally reported the best um graduation rates but I certainly can include that in the um graduation rate data because I think the five and six year um graduation uh data is really important because one of the other indicators that I also uh share at that report is the number of students who graduate versus the number of students who continue so these are students who don't meet their forye goal but they are still committed to completing their graduation and um and whether they do that through best or whether they do that through b or other means they they still have made that commitment to enroll and continue on right and I appreciate that and then also realizing that they will you know many end with a diploma they absolutely four years it might and they still have a diploma y yep thanks additional questions or comments I had um one on the um strategy slides strategy number one um this is just my memory and anecdotal but it feels like I've seen Eagle Ridge working towards and Avid demonstration status a couple different times here um can we get a little bit more concrete perspective on when that expect that to happen and so there are different levels to the the CCI or the tools that you use to get to this stce and so I believe they go through the different Cycles with the Avid um the Avid site coordinator you know and work through the the visits with the school and so last year there were visits with Avid staff coming to eag um however I do think it's a cycle approach where they come and look for things and then they come back and look for things and so I'd have to check in with the school to give you more specifics or yeah so um it would have been two uh last year at the beginning of last year that the school would have declared their intention to move toward demonstration status and so as uh director Buchanan has said that put them on that cycle for that more intensive evaluation so they would have had to declare that process and then Avid would have brought in additional evaluators and um and technical assistance to help them to get to that the idea is is that when they complete their CCI evaluation in this spring that they will have met all of the criteria if they haven't then they could they can continue on but the idea is it's a kind of a two-year cycle where you declare and then at the end of the second year you should be able to meet that status okay I know we have had a number of schools go through different Avid processes so I might be crossing my my Waters a little bit well and not to be confused with the fact that um nicholet middle school nicholet middle school last year renewed their demonstration status so sometimes the that they had they already had the status and then they did a one-year renewal to okay thank you very much thank you next up we'll receive a report from Gideon Pond Elementary School and nicholet Middle School Dr Chris Belmont assistant superintendent principales Dr Salma husin and Dr Carolyn Al Tron Alston will start things off and we'll introduce their guests helping to share information about each School welcome everyone thank you chair Miller um and members of the board this is year three of um our school reports um this year you'll find slightly or some things the same and some things new um for example there once again principal facilitated um we're um having pairs or Triads of schools present at the same time um some of the things that are different are there's we're going to do slightly different configurations than in the past um like for example tonight you'll see multiple ages represented at the same time and then we also um are having configurations paired for various reasons some geography some other um also you'll notice on the on the slideshow on the screen that um the Essential Elements of cultural proficiency are highlighted through our presentations this year we'll have five different presentations and each one featuring one of our essential elements of cpss so tonight um for example um our principles and their teams will be highlighting examples in their school communities around um assessing culture and what that looks like um in action the uh so um in the board I believe knows that October is National principal month so um you have two of the very best in front of you tonight um Dr Salma Hussein and Dr Carolyn Alon chinan and they are they have brought members of their community so handing the mic to you too thank you good evening chair Miller Dr Belmont and members of the board I am honored to share our Gideon pon story tonight at Gideon Pond every student staff and parent is valued and welcome we take pride in our culture of love and Community which I will be able to share more about in a few minutes and good evening chair Miller and Dr Belmont and the rest of the board um I'm also very excited to be here I'm really excited about the work that we've been doing at nickolet for the past couple years um and I'm excited to Showcase it as well I think you will also see us highlighting a lot of the inclusivity um work that we're doing as well as highlighting the care and Community aspect of the work um and the academic work that we're doing to ensure that all of our students are getting their needs met um so I have a few students here with me I have a few staff members and we're really excited to present on everything that we're doing to um support our students while they're kind of um preparing I'd also mentioned to the board that um and I know you know this but just naming it the um Gideon Pond is an exclusive student provider to nicholet middle school so they have that connection thank you I would like to welcome Molly Lynch and Megan go gloss to join me up to present our Gideon Pond story and as they are joining us I want to highlight that the two members that are joining me are two of our most dedicated staff members at Gideon Pond and all of our staff are quite dedicated Molly Lynch has taught at Gideon Pond for 28 years the secret to our culture of Excellence are really the staff and Megan has join us uh in the last two years as our student systems leadership specialist she is phenomenal at looking at our systems of student support providing feedback and supporting our staff to do right for our students with integrity and love you will get to see a video of our students singing which will show you that our students are committed to diversity and about learning about different cultures tonight's presentation is about assessing culture and I hope that you can see that through the joy and love that our students will show in the video on our first slide you can feel free to advance yet request access [Applause] [Music] piz Pizza so the title of the slide is celebrating culture through music um music pathway video I want you all to know that everything we do at Gideon Pon Elementary is connected to Pathways for our students our music teacher Miss Becca Buck which I should mention was a finalist for teacher of the year last year um had the opportunity to go to Ghana and she was able to meet one of our students in Ghana and she learned this song and brought it back to our community and our students have embraced it just this morning I'm not making this up this morning at parent drop off a mom showed me a video of her first grader she said she just woke up Miss s just started singing this Jo song with so much joy so at Gideon Pon Elementary I want you all to know that community means everyone we work really really hard to honor and value everyone and What Makes Us extra special are our dedicated staff our teachers our support staff our parents and our community members who truly believe in the work that we do and play an important role in contributing to that success we are going to share a story of a phenomenal teacher at Gideon Pon Elementary who was a student at Gideon Pond and is now a teacher and Miss Lynch will share that story with us um these are the words from Andrea tro who is the uh teacher pictured at um as a current third grade teacher and as a third grader um at Gideon Pond um my name is Andrea tro and I am happy to share my story with you tonight I began my educational journey in kindergarten at Gideon pond in the fall of 199 3 walking into my first day of school I instantly felt loved and welcomed and like I belonged by third grade I love school so much that I decided I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up since that day I never wavered in my desire to teach and I took every opportunity to get myself myself one step closer to that goal in middle school and high school I continued to stay connected to Gideon Pond by volunteering there throughout the year my parents were very inv with the PTO since my younger siblings still attended school there which led me to help at many school functions including having to dress up as Clifford multiple years for the school book fair and I have to say I do remember that um in high school I also joined the task leadership group which was aimed at getting high school kids that were interested in teaching into the elementary schools through this program I volunteered my time to help teachers and and tutor students at Gideon Pond weekly After High School I went to gustavis Adolphus College and worked hard in my studies to get my degree in elementary education my first practicum experience was completed over a J Term and was spent shadowing and teaching with third in third grade with Laura mcen at Gideon Pond the summer after I graduated with honors I was hired to teach sixth grade at vistaview due to budget cuts I was let go and a month later was hired back at my home base Gideon pond where I taught ever since as I'm hoping you can see Gideon Pond has been an integral part of my life since I was 6 years old the staff and Community have been like family to me and have made Gideon Pond truly feel like home each year I start the year by getting to know my students and teaching them about myself I always tell them that I literally sat where they sit and walk the journey many of them will walk throughout their K12 education it is amazing watching their eyes light up as they Envision themselves one day leading their own class in their school my goal each and every day is to ensure that my students experience that same sense of belonging and connectedness that I have SE felt since day one at Gideon pond at Gideon Pond we've had a saying for years once a pond kid always a pond kid meaning that as soon as you come to Gideon Pond you are loved and cared for as part of our School community and that doesn't end when you leave our school I am living proof that this statement is true and it's a little tough to read this without tearing up just a bit thank you so much Molly our next slide um talks about how as a school Community we work really intentionally to affirm culture and Foster communication and through that collaboration we are able to create a path to success for all of our students at Gideon Pon Elementary we have a mission our mission is really we believe in relationships and relationships as being the foundation of our school we strive every day to create a positive predictable learning community that supports all of our students academically socially and emotionally we achieve this by affirming all culture fostering communication and partnership and ensuring safety for everyone each student Future Ready community strong at Gideon Pond we truly embody the core values of our district which you all know caring Community cultural proficiency future Readiness inclusive partnership student agency these values guide our actions and decisions as we work together for the benefit of all just today we had um hinda Abdi who graduated from Gideon Pon Elementary uh 22 years ago I believe and she came and was able to connect with with a teacher who inspired her Dan King who is still teaching at ginean Pon Elementary so our community ties are really strong or students who graduate from Gideon Pond continue to make a difference in our community we also want to continue and share with you all all of the ways in which we are intentional about building partnership and making sure that every student at Gideon Pond is successful we really are a community school who strive to lead with love in everything that we do we are committed to being caring and supportive we do regular communication with our families we communicate communicate communicate because we know that through communication we can meet those high expectations that we set for our students through the supportive relationships that we have fostered with family we really believe that conferences are important we just had conferences this um last week and we had 95 % of our families attended conferences and again all of our families have daily Communications weekly Communications through the newsletter seesaw and we are always calling with positive phone calls as well as phone calls that allow us to partner on better supporting our students parent involvement is incredible at Gideon Pon Elementary we have many families uh parents who are also staff including myself I truly believe in the work that we are doing at gide Elementary and I get to see it through my own two children who go to Gideon Pon and sometimes Call Me Mommy Mommy principal as my one uh first grader says we believe in cultural projects all of our classrooms affirm all cultures students are learning about themselves they're learning about their classmates and we're teaching about respect we have a phenomenal Multicultural night each year which you are all invited to and it is ran by our parent teacher organization volunteers who celebrate cultures this past year we had a whole family who were teaching the community about how to make Lea I think it's called and it was just so beautiful it was a grand it was a grandma Granddad a mom a dad and their grandbabies who are students at Pond and it was so adorable to see little Somali kids trying it for the first time and saying oh this is delicious um we do a Weekly Newsletter we love to communicate and our parents are reading the newsletters just this Friday we sent out a communication about a new student Club that's starting at paana Computer Club and by Monday we had 27 students registered so we are a school that's committed to communicating and providing opportunities for our students so they can be Future Ready monthly PTO meetings are amazing opportunities where all parents are encouraged to come and we also know that all parents do not always have access to come to a live meeting so we also provide language specific Google meet which offers me the opportunity to be home with my children and be a mom and be a principal and see other moms um be in their homes and we talk about school and we talk about um any concerns that they have in a way that works for them and we're so fortunate to have our cultural liaison Marian and Cynthia who partner with us to make sure that our families who speak Spanish and Somali have the information to support their students and being successful as well all right um at Gideon Pond we are learning to be Future Ready our students have the expected um course class offerings in literacy math science and social studies our work is centered around culturally proficient practices and we are also implementing the Second Step um social emotional learning curriculum in all classrooms in in integrating the culturally affirming practices throughout the school day uh we are also using research-based interventions and reading to support our uh students in their literacy needs um we have what I need time um groups are organized to match the level of student need students at or above grade level may meet in a small group a couple of times a week while students students who are Bel below grade level may meet with an adult two to three times per day to help meet their needs and increase their reading level um in 2024 in the spring of this uh past school year 60% of our students met exceeded expectations on the MCA reading test that would be grades 3 through five so really something to celebrate um at our school um we also have really seen great things from the past Pathways programs or Pathways program um elementary students last spring were able to experience um a couple of field trips one of them being the fifth grade track meet um which brought together the students from all the elementaries together for a track meet at Burnsville High School so much fun to watch them meet students from other buildings or maybe catch um students that they went to school with at another building um they also students also were able to go to Orchestra Hall is were our fourth graders and then um fifth graders had a variety of ways to learn about um band instruments including a trip to Burnsville High School to see a concert and then have um a music specialist come and introduce them to band instruments we also have um a variety now this fall with our Pathways and advanced learning specialist we also have more things that are coming to our building including a robot coding program and several other um activities are just getting started but look like they will be really fantastic for all of our students we this is a slide of a photos we mentioned how at Gideon Pon Elementary um everyone like community means everyone so we work really hard to affirm all culture to let everyone know that they matter and we know that representation matters so through our throughout our school we have positive um um pictures and messages letting students know that who they are matters and we see them we celebrate Black History Month we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month we celebrate all of our students and we work to do better as we learn more about our diverse community and I think those photos are a really beautiful representation of how not only the building esses for culture but how we are ensuring that students and staff are accessing opportunities to invest in other cultures and so one example of that is um our honoring of indigenous history and culture and people every day not just one day um out of the month but we have taken it upon ourselves to ensure that our land acknowledgement is a part of every presentation that we have at Gideon Pond and something really unique and Powerful about Pond is that during their PBIS or whether it be um a different event in our gym that brings the school Community together the intention to invite families into those spaces with us um is pretty amazing and families come they feel welcomed they want to be a part of it they want to take pictures with their student when they get the student of the month award and so um we have we have an audience too right to share the importance of where this land um who this land belongs to and be able to do that when we participate in schoolwide Gatherings um we also have had lessons provided by teachers and incorporating age appropriate ways in which we can truly educate um regarding the indigenous experience in a factual um developmentally appropriate way um you know we as you can see in the picture um there's been opportunity to as a staff really collaborate and affirm and get creative and that orange shirt day um was educational for I think a lot of Staff as well as an opportunity to educate our students and our families right like what's with the orange shirt right um as we learned about the significance of that day of previous educational um that education that was not accessible to our indigenous populations and the harm that was done and that we are going to do better I think when we think too about um that continual reflection on how are we doing right we we are learning who our students are we are trying to configure opportunities that really um affirm validate um are excited about and really celebrate who our community is um we need to take time to reflect on who we are as people and what we might need to think about differently in order to be who each one of our student needs us to be and so during Workshop week during our professional development we had the opportunity to have Ana an educator an author um a powerful creative a parent herself um a walk in my shoes is what she presented empathy and parenting and education and we spent time very powerfully very emotionally kind of digging into what were the most significant relationships we may have had or that we were missing in our own educational experiences and how that may be the reality for some of our students and our responsibility to take that information to grow from that and to decide to do different and to be intentional about how we are connecting with our students um we have a wonderful community of Staff who have have taken it upon themselves from a Grassroots initiative to create their own in-house Equity team right it's a partnership of very passionate teachers and staff individuals who are continuously having um courageous conversations with each other but I think then really planning on um making progress within our school Community figuring out hey you know there was there was some curriculum and I know we're going to presume positive intent that that teacher wasn't aware that this might have been inaccurate information right you go on Teachers Pay Teachers we're accessing a lot of creative things out there and so we have the ability to really hold ourselves accountable and in a caring Community really challenge ourselves to take responsibility and change things as we need to for the benefit of our families and our students and so um that's been pretty pretty unique at Gideon Pond as well and then when we think about really effectively partnering with love with our families and with our students and Dr Hussein um really shared a lot about how we do that through communication and Partnerships with families another opportunity that we have and to kind of Dove tail off of what you shared about we make as many celebratory calls and always have positive things to say about students right and then there are students who may need additional support to access their education and so with our multi-tiered systems of support through our student success team and our student teacher assistance team we're really able to as a school team consider how to support students but really bring it back to the family we all have the same goal all of our families love and care deeply for their children and they want them to be successful where we might need to get creative is how we envision that success and then how we can marry those ideas in our educational system to make that happen and to achieve those goals and so what you see on this slide is our working agreements on our visual agenda that we use in our SST and Stat meetings really grounding Us in the importance of confidentiality in teamwork and going to each other if concerns arise as well as planning with a cpss trauma sensitive and student centered mindset right and that involves partnership with families learning about who they are what's important to them what are what do they pursue their student strengths are where do they think the challenges might be happening um and really being able to to build interventions based on those Partnerships and finding a lot of success when we were better together so yeah last but not least I want to close our presentation by reminding you all that at Gideon Pon Elementary we truly strive to lead with love and everything that we do and we really embody and embrace Dr Maya Angelo's wisdom in diversity there is Beauty and there is strength um we would love to gift you all little hearts that say Gideon paon because again at our school we are a school rooted in love and uh rooted in community and we thank you for this opportunity to share our story I will now turn it over to our Nicolet team to share their story as well thank you um we actually going to just take a a brief break between uh the two schools here we'll just give you just a few minutes and we'll thank you thank you chair e e e uh my name is Dr Carolyn Alon Chen and I am the proud principal of Nicolet Middle School along with me I have um sixth grade interventionist Nicole padner sorry excuse me Michelle pner um I also have with me Michelle Henderson one of Nicolet Middle School's Deans and I have two students with me as well a seventh grade student and an eighth grade student of avid we have um James and then we also have frasure excuse me and so to open this up um before we get into um the priorities that we have developed to really dive into um ensuring our students are making progress and meeting the needs of all of our students as individuals um I want to highlight the fact that last year when I started at nickolet I had the opportunity to speak to every single um staff member at the time I really wanted to learn from the community um about the community and so in doing that the couple things that that were highlighted were the fact that the school felt like a family everyone felt very connected to the school Community the teachers felt very connected to one another um they were able to lean on each other for support so that was something that was very positive that was highlighted and then there was something else that was highlighted in terms of um a barrier to students really being able to engage in the learning that needed to happen and that was feelings of safety so today our presentation will touch upon both of those pieces but I did want to open this up with a brief student video that kind of highlights um and emphasizes the fact that we are still a very caring community [Music] my name is k and what makes me feel like a part of n Community is that um the teacher cares about me and my education and they also have high expect [Music] people and the loving [Music] teachers if you part community to see my friends in the hallway or class makes learning easier learning is also easier when I get to when I have teachers to carear [Music] about and so that video is just to speak to you know when I entered the teachers told me about how caring the community is but clearly the students also are feeling that um that experience as well which which creates the space for us to dive deeply into the academic pieces and the priorities that I am about to name so for this school year um we have prioritized three priorities these are in alignment to our school Improvement plan um the first priority that we have identified is to improve overall student achievement through targeted supports intentional instructional practices and training for staff so more specifically really zering in on tier one instruction to meet um that 80% of our student needs but also being creative around making sure that we are meeting the needs of that additional um tier 2 in tier three by creating um intentional practices as far as intervention supports and building structures to make sure that teachers are supported in being able to meet those needs in the classroom environment the next priority that we have identified is increasing the feeling of safety for students families and staff um from progressing to Vision on the annual District climate survey so we are taking some steps to gather additional feedback and to make sure that we do have dipsticks throughout the course of the year so that we're able to more readily address the needs that are arising and lastly um adjusting communication our communication approach between teachers um our staff and parents to ensure all communication is ongoing two-way consistent and proactive so that we're able to use that as a way to build relationships with our families as well so that everyone feels welcomed everyone knows that they have a voice and so that we can also address and partner with our families to meet our student needs and so first I'm going to speak to our first our first priority being improving overall um achievement and so these are the three main things that we have been focusing in on being the collaboration analysis of data and teacher training and coaching and so as far as collaboration this year we made a shift as far as how teachers are utilizing their team time um in the past years what happened was teachers met as a grade level team daily and it was not broken up by content specifically and so a shift that has happened this year is three days out of the five days per week teachers meet with their content level team and so that gives the space for teachers to share practices that are working talk through practices that may not be working analyze student data um identify tasks that may not be rigorous enough and ramp them up and kind of just do collaboration in regards to that so that we can support all of our Learners with being Future Ready um another change is that with those content specific teams we have an administrator that is present in all of those um meetings one time per week with the idea that we're able to um support our teachers in that space by being present one time per week in those core content data meetings as well as kind of guide the work and provide them with various protocols and templates um exemplars to know exactly where students should be um to help analyze standard work and to really meet the needs of the teacher so ask them what it is that they need support with and figure out ways to support them in that sense so that they know that they're not alone in this work um and in those meetings as well we do an analysis of data uh so that we do know what's going on and what is working in the classro that also allows for our teachers to plan and be um responsive to what that data is telling us and Michelle will speak a bit more to that when she speaks about the interventionist side of things but I also just want to touch upon the teacher training and Co coaching and so we're trying to be intentional about building structures around that piece as well because we do have a very diverse population of Learners so with that being said we have a very high multilingual um learner population and so next week actually at our at our next staff meeting we have bi-weekly staff meetings our ml team will be presenting on a practice that um our other teachers can integrate into the classroom to support our ml Learners and so that's going to happen monthly um with the idea that we are all respons responsible for the learning of all of our students and so it just gives our teachers the knowledge base and the opportunity to try different practices to meet the needs of the diverse Learners that we serve so I'm going to pass it to you Michelle to speak to the intervention side of things okay hi I'm Michelle pooder I'm new to Burnsville this year but I'm not a new teacher um I've loved my time at nicholet middle school so I just wanted to start off with that and in Burnsville District it's been a pleasure working here so far um I come from a different state and you know the way that we used data in that state and developing intervention programs um had a a Conformity to it so that way those processes that we developed would be transferred to the next year and the next year so that way we can really identify students that need extra support um with Equity you know and and Implement those interventions with Fidelity um so what we've been doing or continue to do this is a continuation at nicholet middle school is look at different various data points um as the kids are coming into middle school or going to the next grade level because each individual assessment can give us something specific about that student whether they need more work with phonics influency or they need more work with comprehension and grade level standards so something that is unique this year though is that we are creating um an Ela intervention support so this is where you know we take kids that have the foundational skills of reading and literacy and we just try to up the rigger and the scaffold and the support to make sure that they have access to that tier one instruction and so we are in these meetings with the the teams coming up with these um standards that align with our instruction and these common assessments and through that we're able to see the scope and sequence of like the tier one assessment and and how we're enriching that it's already really good but we're enriching it and so what's cool is then we can align our instruction with that greater goal and that greater vision of the instruction and the standards that we want these students to meet and so essentially it's creating a differentiated approach for intervention because there are students that need that intensive research-based explicit phonic instruction to help with phonics influency at the middle school level but then there are students that have the phonics influency that need extra support with academic vocabulary um way way questions on state tests are are how to you know test taking strategies uh we don't decrease the rigor we just increase the support great thank you so at nicholet this year also we really put a priority on student staff and Family Safety and part of our emphasis this year um you may be aware is that we restructured our um Core Teacher classrooms so we moved our eighth graders to our main floor we have the seventh graders on our bottom floor and we put the sixth graders upstairs and this has really um allowed us and the sixth graders to have a better transition from elementary to Middle School the the teachers and you'll hear that in the video in a bit are just so pleased with this new the new system it's it's really um meeting the student needs uh the to align with that we have the lockers placed out side of the classroom so like on the seventh grade and the sixth grade the lockers are outside of their advisory classroom so they don't have very far to go and then as far as the eighth grade go they're on the main floor and as you're aware of our building the lockers are for eighth graders are then throughout the building and that prepares them for their transition into High School making them a little more independent which is really nice so um that has been really helpful we also this year which is really exciting for the sixth graders um we have the house model and so that has been wonderful as well which means we have three teams up on the sixth grade level and um we're because we're piloting it and so each team has about a 100 students and then those 100 students each have the same three or four core teachers and this has allowed allowed for great um planning for the teachers to be able to plan um work together then they can also plan their interventions they can do their and the sixth grade also has a different scheduled in our seventh and eighth graders and so it allows them to um have win time this year is what I need and so that also allows for great greater interventions being placed in on the sixth grade so that's been a great addition to our our school as well this year the last thing is our consistent feedback we um are very purposeful in the feedback like Dr Austin said um we after every PD session there's PD that or feedback that comes back from the staff after every staff meeting she has um feedback surveys that come back from the staff we um we look over those results she gets she's very intentional about talking at the next staff meeting about what those results said she's intentional about making sure that is it 85% that we reach for 85% um at receive a four or five um that everybody understands what the message was that was or the purpose behind what we're learning in the PD or the staff meeting so that's um very good and then we also um part of our our sip goal this year is that communication with families we want them our families to make sure their students feel safe and communicated with and so we have really amped up through that parent square and um our Communications going out more frequently and in their own languages which is really nice and then we also um H did a survey um have we're the not only the district survey but we give up our survey we gave it out at conferences to see just kind of a placeholder to kind of see like how are we doing how our family's feeling about what's going on at nicholet and we've received a lot of great feedback about the changes that we put into place all right thank you Michelle so I am going to play this video about um how staff are feeling about these changes that Michelle just spoke to [Music] I would say from a teacher perspective it's definitely cut down on paries because kids are closer to their classes so they're able to move more efficiently and quickly from class to class which is awesome because them are able to get class started right away and get going on all of the learning I would say that the school climate um this year has been drastically different compared to the other years uh previously that have been here nich I just feel like the transition is a lot smaller for six graders um having them all on one floor is just like a smoother um transition from that you know kind of elementary school to now going into the middle school so that's just super nice to kind of like get to know all the faces at one time and just create like a more Community for sure it has changed some um quite positive actually me for smoother transition um our kids are able to um manage um to navigate the around building it allows them to get to class earlier and on time because of the because it's a nice house model and kids are not so worried about having the whole student body transitioning at the same time and having them house on the very top floor has made it um less intimidating I say if I was a sixth grader coming into a new building um being able to have your own um space away from the 7th and 83s and made it um ease the anxiety of uh I see that students now they're getting a class on time showing up and really no more behaviors so last year I see a lot of silly behaviors and kids just run around and whatnot but it's been pretty calm this year with the grade level changes on the floor so everybody gets to see their PE and they don't get influenced by other I see that the floor change has been made um the sixth grade floor so calm we only have a few students for grades up here so the floor itself is just really calm expectations are very clear because six team meets together and discusses those um so it's really just made this a more just a Better Learning environment for all students the house model makes it so much easier for us to be all on the same page about students when we're trying to meet together we can meet as a house and specifically talk and plan interventions and meting our students needs whereas when we were a big team and students would have me and random other teachers it was really hard for us to get all those people together to meet and um all be on the same page it's so much easier to do that and really meet our kids where they're at and support them and um learn who they are when we just have working with one close team that really works well too real quick I'll just address you heard um on the interruption where it said all in the hall and that simply is we are very big on active supervision Vision we take it very seriously we want um as many people in the hallway during transitions so the all in the hall call is for when lunch to Misha is done um Jay is the admin in the lunchroom at that time or sorry Mr leper and he radio calls and then we he makes sure all the adults that are available to go out in the hall and make sure that we help ease those sixth graders back upstairs so it's just for active supervision purposes thank you Michelle and so the next priority that I want to speak to is um our goal of improving communication our communication approach schoolwide so Michelle spoke a bit about um the surveys that we have been giving out and so what we have done is we've pretty much mirrored um a section of the climate survey that the district gives out around the springtime and um we've taken some of those same questions and we've um our cultural leaon has translated them into the languages that we serve so that we're able to provide them to families in their their home language and so that allows us to you know learn what everyone's experience is and not just um the experience of a small population of our community I will say at this time like we have a good amount of filmies that have um completed it but not enough and so now it's a conversation of kind of figuring out like what is another approach for us to make sure that we are getting all the voices that are representative of representative of the population that we serve um another thing is as far as our student identity we uplift lift and highlight all of our students and the various identities that they um bring to the community because those are assets all of our students are assets so if you were to walk through the building um any of the halls in Nicolet you will see our students cultures on display throughout the building you will also see evidence of the work that is happening in the classroom students students are the ones who um bring life to the building so it's so important that they see themselves when they do walk throughout the building so these are just a couple pictures of some of work that's on display but every single teacher at nicholet posts relevant student work um outside of their classroom so that every single student as they are walking the building they can see themselves represented and they can be proud of the work that they are doing each day and as stated earlier um Nicola is an avid demonstration school and so we're very proud tonight to have two of our Avid students here that are going to be able just to share a little bit about their experience with with Avid my name is uh Frasier hayo and I'm in e8th grade and this is my first year in Avid the reason uh for joining Avid is so I could get ready for college and I heard it from a friend that it would help me through my college and get a future career someday I enjoy Aid because of the collaboration with classmates and I am more comfortable speaking up because of it I'm more comfortable asking for help my favorite thing about Aid is the different Str strategies we use to learn it helps uh manage my time I have time to study and to have fun uh helps my organization with the binder checks we do it also uh also helps organization in other classes and I used to give up when the problem gets too hard with some other classes but when I join evid they helped me more so I get the problem done like it's more helpful for me to get the job done thank [Music] you my name is James par him and I I'm in seventh grade I've been in aid for two years Aid has taught me everything isn't going to be easy and I can over overcome hard things tutors help us and cl classmates can also help us Avid helped me solve problems on my own because of Aid I want to be a web leader and I want to join honors classes I built confidence through Avid and learn strategies to help on problems a helped me get recognition in NE Middle School I've been recognized as student of the month and I've been on aonor which also helps with public speaking I I helped on the fifth grade panel will me two the fifth graders around the school to get them excited for sixth grade great thank you [Applause] boys these are some pictures taken from around our school community that showcase the efforts that we are making in Pathways recognizing Student Success in town hall and other various student work that's posted around the building to highlight Student Success and collaboration among students and teachers and so I just want to close with this quote by Ken Williams what matters most is creating a school with an unrelenting focus on learning for all and that is something that I believe we are really prioritizing at Nicolet and I think that if you spoke to students families staff they would feel the same way I think that staff has been very receptive to the work that we are doing as well as um how we've been spending our team time focusing in on content and just the extra collaboration that they have as far as the different spaces and and structures that we have buil this year thank you thank you and uh maybe we'll thanks thanks to everyone we'll have uh Dr Hussein come up just for questions so um let our guests head back to back to you chair y thank you very much are there any questions or comments from board members yes the word um as always um I appreciate having our um representation from our um different uh locations come and share with us all the wonderful things they have going on um I just love the inspirational story of Mrs Trey toau um just hearing how she came back thank you thank you thank you um I think I you know if that's not inspirational I don't know what is I I think that's just um so beautiful to hear about a student like grew up in the district and then came back to teach here just it's very heartwarming so thank you for sharing that with us um and then um nicholet Middle School um I very much love hearing about all those new things that are going on with having a student that just exited nicholet and then now having one that just entered um I can see now the differences and um all those changes that you guys made and I just want to say thank you I didn't get the survey I don't know I maybe saw it and I didn't fill it out but I'll give you my results right now thank you um I I appreciate those changes that you made I think they really truly did make a difference um my daughter was very nervous about you know being new at nicholet and just having every like I was like very um impressed that her locker was like right by her her uh classrooms and I was like oh well that's intentional and I I think that's um important for transitioning to from elementary to middle school and having you guys being very thoughtful about that and with the houses um I love that idea and we love U Mr katum by the way um I think these ideas and just all the things we've talked about recently about the transitions between Elementary to middle school and then Middle School to high school and these types of approaches um and I think these are the types of things that get students to stay in our district and I I appreciate your intentionality with that and so um yeah I think these are all great things thank you Dr Tren tinon you um so that's that's all I had to say other board members pleas I'll just Echo what director worb said my daughter's new a sixth grader at um nicholet as well and she was extremely nervous about transitioning to a bigger School school with more kids and um was really excited to see how I didn't you know not having experienced it before but just to have like oh the sixth graders are on this floor and the seventh graders are on this that's a great idea and it really helped her be able to feel like she could find everything that she needed to and not feel like she'd get lost and nervous and um we also really um appreciated the lead into the school year too to have like a day for or an afternoon where the sixth graders could go in and and practice um she struggled so much with opening her locker and so she was so determined that we could not leave until she did it and now she's a whis um and so yeah no just great changes um she feels really welcome and is excited to go to school every day so thank you thank you yes it was lovely to see this presentation especially like updates on our schools and it was really lovely to hear from students themselves I know as a pastor Pond and nicholet Kid myself it was really lovely to see how the community and joy and culture came together in our schools and I especially love seeing the community Circle and the singing from Gideon pond so thank you thank you doctors Hussein and trenen um good to see you both good to meet you um wonderful report and it's really reassuring based on the information that we received before you connections with the students and the families carrying through from elementary to middle school that's not just what what's going to keep the students in our district but it's going to keep the students in the school in the classroom and that's ultimately what I'm reading between the lines for you guys um that that's you know of course relationships matter of course having a Lov and caring Community matter and it helps um so thank you for that um two questions maybe three oh one statement I'm sorry they left you Sav The Best For Last Love when the students come absolutely love hearing I mean the persistence and public speaking it's not easy to do public speech in Middle School some adults don't even like doing it so please exactly yes so please share with them our gratitude they did an awesome job they really did um questions uh Dr trentina do you have your conference attendance statistics by chance um I do not have that at hand and that's okay if you want to send it after afterward it would just be nice to know yeah that' be awesome um and then I have a feeling this might be a question for um Dr Belmont hearing about the house model you're now nicholet is is piloting that is that correct yes that's correct and the goal ultimately is with the pilot is that Su when successful roll to roll over to Eagle Ridge oh I'm sorry eidge is also piloting it at the sixth grade level but the hope is that with it like as it's being successful and continues to be successful we'll be able to roll it up to seventh grade and then up to eth grade as well got it okay thank you for that clarification um because I remember when we moved to the Middle School model we were unable to do a house model because of the cost and I'm wondering um how we are possible how it's possible to do it now is it I imagine in part it's due to declining enrollment we have fewer students in the schools and so the breakdown of the teams might be a little more manageable but that's just kind of a wondering that I have yeah absolutely that's a great question I will say um we were able to get additional swas funding as a result of how we um have been utilizing our intervention to do a lot of the support work and to support with some of the wind time so that has really allowed for us to have additional staff um to support with with our house model at the sixth grade level so yeah that's my understanding as well not knowing all of the ins and outs with the the finance realities or the historical context that school within a school um Community Education ALC funding has um provided New Opportunities and they are recent and and they're obviously success uccessful if we're if we're considering rolling it up to the different grade levels so interesting thank you very much absolutely yes Dr Conor wonderful presentations um we really I know I speak for all of us we really love hearing from the schools and especially the students but you guys too and we really appreciate you taking the time to prepare the wonderful presentation and letting us know what's going on in your schools I love the idea of the um the different grades on the different um floors that was awesome um I have a uh special place in my heart for teachers because I worked with them so many years and also for Avid because I was an avid tutor before I was on the school board so I just love hearing you know I just loved hearing from them it's too bad they left before we really got to thank them but you let them know and but um just so you know too I really feel when you were talking about community and the relationships between your parents that really warmed my heart too because that is so important and to know that this District really drives and strives on that I just didn't see that where I came from before so I'm so proud of that and I do think that relationships um like that are what build lasting memories and experience that lead to life excuse me life achiev achievements and accomplishments like what happened with the teacher that you told us about that went to Gideon Pond and then is now working there so I feel that's really important and just thank you so much again for coming thank you goe I have to say something 20 years ago my my oldest son was in kindergarten a Gideon Pond as you know um and this year my youngest son is a senior at the high school so it's been a couple of years since I've had kids at either school but I knew my wife and I knew 20 years ago that Gideon Pond was a special place and I love hearing about how it continues to be and is probably even more of a special place now and you're continuing to build on the legacy of the staff and the students that were there be previously and I would say the same about Nicolet my all three of my boys had very positive experiences at nicholet and there are always challenges at every school I appreciate and respect that you and your staff are listening to here you're trying to respond to some of the challenges that you've seen and working to make a difference and based on what you said tonight it seems like you are so thank you to you both and to to your staff for coming tonight yes yes thank you okay well yes thank you on behalf of the board I like thank you a lot of work went into those reports obviously and a lot of pride in your your building so I appreciate that and please let the two gentlemen know that that their presentation was excellent I have uh had the I've seen adults at the that Podium struggle more than they did so really thank you thank you thank you okay um lastly in our uh information section are there any reports from board members regarding board committees appointments and school assignments I'll just run through our standing uh committees first with legislative nothing to report nothing to report very good uh policy review uh director mercel is not able to join us tonight either Conor or Al do want to just say something we had a policy meeting and we went through the policies that were assigned to us at night and then I guess some of them we will be reviewing later on in this meeting perfect thank you negotiations Tri nothing to report good and that leades us the remaining board committee meeting uh standing committee assignments um any others that bring up 917 I was down with illness so I wasn't able to attend that meeting wores any others I have yes go ahead and um on two weeks ago October Friday 11th um I attended the monthly Burnsville Chamber of Commerce policy committee meeting um at that meeting we had um Aaron tinklenberg and Dr battle presented to the members of the chamber about the upcoming Tech lovey vote the presentation went quite well and the chamber members seem to respond quite positively to the presentation so that was that was good um and then earlier today I um did read participated in read for the record at Neil Elementary in Miss lenell's class preschool class which was delightful um yes and I'm blanking on the name of the book but she just sent me the picture a few minutes ago Piper Chen sings which I had not read before but it was quite good so those are my two reports for today thanks District my amsd report we had a meeting on October 4th our speaker was Dr Rose Chu she spoke on elevating teaching um which is um teacher teaching a teacher teaching outreach program uh it's to recruit uh people of color to become teachers by creating a movement this Initiative Program was funded by support and grants and um they ask parents what are your struggles or what are your yeah what are your struggles that you see in your students in education what is their biggest concern and they answered which I was impressed by this they said that the respect and the relationship between parents teachers and students um so they don't want to continue to disparage teachers or the teacher profession but they feel like um there this is what parents are saying that there's no respect from Congress for parents and their students this campaign is a is um is um I don't know what this well anyway it's to help Rebrand the teaching profession and attract uh bipac people to this profession the tools to do this is um they want to prepare people they want to inspire people they want want to Target high school and college students and they um need help from the community and businesses plus parents to do this uh the speaker mentioned that she heard um that some Stu some parents of the students of color kind of discourage their kids from getting into the teaching profession and they don't but they still want their children to have a rich and fulfilling education but you can't have both you you know you have to have your students that want to also be a part of that educational experience that you want your children to achieve um and we're talking about children of color okay so she just wanted to um put that out there for parents because we need this as a tool for this um outreach program to work uh they also said that one of the other things to for this program is they're going to do the one of the tools they're going to use or some of the tools will be Community Building opportunity um elevating careers uh creative creative teaching Legacy Legacy building and teamwork so they just she just wanted teachers to just keep inspiring youth because your current examples do help Inspire and their this worthwhile career that really makes a difference for our child's life and the future of our country leaders I so agree with that and um I also um read today this morning um for read for the record at Ron ele Elementary for kindergarten class Miss Rhonda's class and we read the piper shins things and it went very well the students really lik the book I enjoyed the book so that's my report excellent any other reports for tonight okay thank you well that concludes the information portion of our meeting tonight so now we move to the business portion uh starting with our consent agenda although board action is required it is generally unnecessary to hold discussion on these items in the event a board member wishes to discuss an item that item will then be removed for separate consideration do any board members wish to remove any items from the consent agenda tonight all right seeing no indication of that is there a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved moved by director Al second seconded by director Hume all those in favor say I I opposed the motion carries unanimously okay with our first item under business tonight we are being asked to approve a revision to the metf Middle School purchase agreement presenting tonight's recommendation will be Stacy sine executive director administrative Services welcome director s evening chair Miller Dr Belmont members of the board um this pertains to our metcafe Middle School um purchase agreement uh through the process the entitlement process with the city of Egan the developer was informed of an additional round of approvals and a required sewer study in addition they have to complete a phase two environmental study to address cleanup of the school fuel tank and potentially issues with the neighboring gas station and as such this may delay their timing for obtaining all approvals from the city en closing thus what the recommendation coming to you tonight is is an extension so that they can close by July 1st of 2025 versus uh May of 2025 that in summary is what we're requesting tonight so it is my recommendation that the Board of Education adopt the resolution ratifying authorization of conveyance of property by Independent School District number 191 to synda LLP and execution of First Amendment to amended and restated purchase agreement in connection therewi is there a motion to adopt the resolution estated by director soine so moved moved by director Chester OH he was there okay director Connor and we'll have a second in by director Hume any discussion on the matter okay having been moved in seconded this resolution will require a roll call vote so in just a second I will ask Sarah to call the role and when she calls your name please respond with either I if you're in favor of the resolution or nay if you are opposed Sarah will you please make the roll call director Hume I director Chester hi director Connor hi director RB I chair Miller hi and director El I all right very good this resolution was declared duly passed and adopted next we are being asked to adopt a resolution to approve a purchase proposal for the Su Trail Elementary School property one once again Stacy soine executive director Administration Services is presenting the recommendation thank you chair Miller uh before I proceed with this I do want to acknowledge uh Zach Mayan uh he is uh representing uh m& homes of Minneapolis St Paul LLC is with us tonight um just ask him to come in if any questions throughout this process if you folks may have he'll be far more uh able to answer those as we move forward um on September 12 12 2024 the board considered an offer to purchase the above reference facility Sut trell Elementary after consideration the board did direct staff and attorneys to finalize a purchase agreement for this transaction uh we came to an agreement of $3.5 million for the property uh outstanding bonds are just under $1.25 million um so it will be about $2 and A4 million dollar then after our obligations are paid for net uh proceeds on this um the the property well actually you want to just give a brief description of what your the property would look like yeah absolutely so I'm Zach man I'm uh the land manager at Mii homes in Minneapolis um right it's a 13 acre parcel plus or minus um an acre so roughly uh Our intention with the property is to build um it's kind of a small single family home and then potential for some town homes on the property as well kind of a mixture with the goal of blending in the property to the existing neighborhood so that people don't feel like it's just a a large town home Community with these towering homes overlooking their you know single level or or two Lev homes in that Community um so we'll put the single family around the edges and then um work with the city to determine what that best mixture is um towards the interior of the parcel um with that description and uh satisfying the direction of the board uh uh developing a purchase agreement it is my recommendation that the Board of Education adopt the proposed resolution to approve the purchase agreement between Independent School District 191 and M and I homes of Minneapolis St Paul LLC okay is there a motion to adopt the resolution as put forward by director sine so moved move by director worb second seconded by director Hume uh at this point is there any discussion on the matter so um thank you for coming I'm glad to glad to meet you um Zach clarification um is it simply town homes that are being built or single family and town homes DET Town Homes the intention is to have a mixture right so we want to put um kind of a small lot single family so detached homes um but just on a smaller lot so not these large homes by any means um try to match the market and what the market wants in the area um and that is going to be kind of around the edge of the the site really to blend in with the actual neighborhood of single family residential that we have right now and then to um mix that in with Town Homes towards the the actual Parkway the road um I believe it's County Road 13 um so we'll we'll put the town homes on that side and then single family towards the actual residential um so thank you given that I would ask that we update the recommendation to reflect the fact that it's not simply Town Homes it's this isn't simply a transactional process we're we have a community that we serve and being mindful of bringing them along with us so that they can understand if they go to our our um board packet here I'm sure this will probably be you know covered in by the the local press um making sure that we've done our due diligence and reflecting in the board materials what was just shared because currently what's presented is 70 detached Town Homes I'm waiting for here I'm sorry what's the question uh so I I'm a I'm taking director Al's um position that we're at phasing not not denying it just uh our document States clearly that it's Town Homes only is no the purchase agreement does not identify the type of residents that is going in there the the purchase agreement is solely for um the $3.5 million between the transaction for the purchase of the property how the property is used going forward forward will be between the developer and the city and the different Commissions in which they have to work through as we have gone through this now a couple of times with other properties that we sold what is initially stated on the front end is not usually what ends up once it goes through the final processes with the city and the county and we are at the beginning of this process and we're hearing that we have both single family homes and town homes and in the recommendation no the only this part of the recommendation by just for Trans transparency sake was requested by a director to be placed in here this wasn't a part of the original cover sheet so I I I take a little bit of concern as far as the memo and the information that's on the front end um again the reason why it wasn't included on the front end is because these things change over time and our past our standard practice if we refer back to mataf documentation at the opening presentation as well as Diamond Head at the opening presentation we had essentially an an acknowledgement of this is the plan right now we understand of course that there are conversations that have to happen with the city and I think given that we know that there are single family homes intended there are Standalone Town Homes intended I think it's only fair that we include that as documentation you know for that breadcrumb trail of of um transparency for our community again as this will not change the overall recommendation and the purchase agreement that has been negotiated by both sides attorneys we can always go back and we can modify the description that's in this afterwards but there is nothing here in which should delay the the motion or the action of the board no I'm not suggesting we delay it I'm just saying we change the recommendation to reflect what we just heard from Zach if I if I made just uh because I I see where you're I found I located where you're describing director I read it a little little little different just because of um like director sine said just some real vague and general descriptions um language like preliminary plans include looking at around 70 detached town homes so it just seems is it is it not accurate to include Standalone single family homes since that's what Zach presented so you think like this is it's in are you looking at the heading around preliminary Concepts preliminary concept and given that we are at the preliminary concept phase I believe we should be accurate based on what the conversation was tonight again when you're at this level or at this part of the presentation um stating that it should be accurate when this is going to change over the next few months as to what actually occurs in this property I I I take I I don't it's what we're talking about tonight I think it's accurate based on what we know today I think we know that it yeah it'll probably change I've we know that of course okay know that it will change right yeah that's my point but I think her point if I may please is what we know today is what should be in the recommendation today while acknowledging that yes of course it will change probably 26 times between now and when they actually start digging holes I have I have no problem we can get exact wordage verbiage from you as to what that might look like if we can and we'll include that on on this part we'll adjust that and that language is not in the actual purchase agreement yes which is an important detail also yes all right so the motion in front of us is to approve a resolution nothing else nothing nothing um and I'm looking through the resolution here I don't I'm going to need help understanding where it says Town Homes not the resolution the recommendation it's the recommendation that is also in the board package no I put forward a motion to adopt the resolution that's what we're what's the motion on the table right now right and my request is to update the recommendation the verbiage in the recommendation not the resolution so that it lives on in perpetuity on the website so that we know this is where we were tonight talking about two different housing types not talking about changing the resolution I think my in in my opinion um it's our duty to be to make sure that the board materials accurately reflect the knowledge at at this time to and thank you for restating my point director Hume that perfectly summed it up may I just make a not notice um in the diagram that was provided at the end of the recommendation in red and in blue it does call out town which would be town homes and SF which would mean single family and I can't see it in my in the the DI in the diagram yeah okay so um I understand what you're requesting I'm not sold that that's a necessity for a alteration of the of the statement tonight because the recommend the the the requested um motion is to adopt the resolution the recommendation is simply supporting documentation around what the resol leading to the uh the resolution um I don't know that the recommend this is a point of uh um order I guess I don't know I mean I don't really I don't know that we have to do anything other than just say sure scratch it and do it because exactly yeah okay that's fine so just add um I would suggest then Stacy that uh down at the bottom where we added preliminary concept below is the concept drawing that the developer provided to the city of Burnell last week preliminary plans including looking at looking at about 70 detached town homes around the $400,000 price point to Simply put something to the the nature of a um I would even open it up to more ambiguous and that leaves you plenty of room just development to town homes and single family homes single preliminary it already says preliminary plan so that's sufficient to just scratch that and and repost it as a you know a mixture potential mixture of town homes and single family homes all right okay um any other questions or comments I'm sorry Zach is that right yep so Zach I appreciate you being here and in the interest to I mean kind of addition to what director Al was referring to um have you guys done something like this developed a land that was previously owned by a school district or Community or AB yeah absolutely so we we'll redevelop multiple different sites I mean the most recent one I can think of is a a church um property that would be somewhat similar in terms of Demolition and and Redevelopment schools as you may you were here earlier so you listened to the presentation about Gan Pond and schools hold a lot of Pride with the local especially very locally around them and um right or wrong especially when they're vacated um and that the local community sees that as a park of that that very handy for them to use um I don't think anybody denies that progress needs to occur but um it would be our request and outside the terms of the contract and the resolution just that your uh your organization understands that uh situation with the community and and tries do its best to uh to honor that with the locals the local members of our community around there so as you devel the property I'm sure you will I'm just making that a public request thank you any other okay all right having moved in second to this resolution will require a roll call vote so in just a second I will ask Sarah to call the role and when she calls your name please respond with either I if you're in favor or resolution or nay if you're opposed sir I'll start on this side this time director Al I director WB I chair Miller I director Connor I director Chester hi and director Hume hi this resolution there is uh therefore is declared duly passed and adopted thank you thank you thank you again Zach for spending your evening with us I appr absolutely look forward to uh partnership with you very excited to work with you guys I think it's going to be great thanks thank you guys thank you all right um the final item on our agenda is to uh to move to a work session for a board discussion about uses of excess funds from the sale the Diamond Head outl property the future sales of metcs middle school and suit Trail Elementary um I'm going to skip right into that if you guys are okay because I don't anticipate this being a very lengthy conversation so instead of breaking um I'd like to start this evening's discussion by asking our team to pull up the presentation that has some data that I asked Administration to pull together for this evening's work sessions and um you know this this is a work session so I'm just going to open it up uh a little on the formality but I do want to preface this by just indicating the intention tonight is probably a bit overdue since we've gone through a couple of uh processes of of sale here is to get a temperature from this St about these funds so I ask for information on the funds because we can't really discuss it much if we don't understand it and that's there also for the community's understanding of what's what's coming in um I I I I would prer this is not a conversation of revisiting the the exact Properties or why we sold them or any you know what you know anything specific about them but more about the fact that we have these monies coming in and long term what would we like to try to see done and I really anticipate more of a large percentage outcome not like this dollar goes there or that you know project or something like that so um having said that uh we have the presentation um I um we'll just walk through it real quick the first slide is a breakdown we can return that uh back to that but then we did provide a slide around the type of fund balances that are available out there um just to remind ourselves and share with the community that might be reviewing this um and with that I will open it up for conversation and I don't know do we I mean do we need to like take time to agree on what the possible answers here are or just talk about expectations or aspirations I I would I would think based on all the the work that we've done thus far we would want to commit the funds to board control um and with that needing to specify generally not in detail but generally for what purpose so when you say commit to um are you mean putting them into a committed an actual committed fund balance in which the money that go that is committed um would only be spent with board permission it's not that it would land in the general fund and could just be spent however um staff might wish once it's committed then you know there's a formal conversation around this is here's one ask for how to use that those committed funds whether it's you know shortterm or longterm I at a distance from now can can whoever is running this run back to the I just I one thing I think we should probably for the benefit of anybody reviewing this just to be very clear um we you know you sell a piece of property um if you saw a developer here tonight we've had mult different developers we working with um just as if you're selling your home you're handed a check for the amount of the value that we agreed upon um we are required by law to uh sell uh to pay off any outstanding bonds I.E mortgage on that property um which that is included in this calculation and the net proceeds um just and and again a not of thanks to our local um representation um who went to bat for us at the legislature we needed a special exemption to have this conversation tonight because by law in the state of Minnesota those Pro the rest of those proceeds need to go pay off other bonds and mortgages around the district um but we were able to free those up to be utilized um for purposes of the district so just to level set again fa all right back to the comment well thank you I was going to do that too yeah so thank you our legislators and then and then also agreeing that because of that legislative exemption this makes sense what director Al was recommending yeah I would tend to agree I think um this is a one-time influx of money and while I know it would be put to good use if it was in the unassigned fund balance it's also an opportunity for for us to make long-term investments in the district and that's what I think we should be considering when when deciding how we're going to spend this 8 million over the course of however many years any other thought I mean that's step one of the conversation so there any other thoughts on that so you're saying that we can put it aside in a special bucket right it's another it's another fund okay that we control got it I'm I'm gaining a agreement from you yes yes I agree Conor I mean that's fine but I I I guess the way it's always been is if it went into the unassigned funds if there's a proposal to use it it always goes by the board anyway right no if it went into the unassigned it could be or a portion of it did it could in theory by by this Administration or future administrations be used to say fund um you know programming teacher roles Etc that then would have a cliff on them because they're not being funded by our normal funding mechanisms you know to the state and tax and the local community tax roles um this is let's in one way of looking at it this is no different than Co dollars for instance which we didn't we didn't lock those up but U you know they had very specif spefic they had very specific requirements on them to begin with right but we wouldn't want um these to be used to overinflate our economic position in the distance that's what's being discussed as saying that we wouldn't want to do that um so that down the road we could reach a point where we can no longer afford to have those programs we have to cut them because they're not part of our normal funding balance so that' be like a temporary bucket that's not to say that these couldn't be used used for something of that nature if we decide that we want to you know expand something over a period of time or something but that would be a board discussion and decision right that's all that's being said and to director hum's point the long-term vision of the use of this nest egg is um you know that we're that with a lot of uh pain and sweat and tears right we it's our duty to make sure that that this money is set aside and and used intentionally and deliberately once we get it once we get it yes yes yeah I mean it could be a theory that in 10 years from now you know this money is sitting there for development purposes in a uh future political environment funding to schools has been drastically reduced and our um our um balance has become d and then you know a one time influx might come out of there from the a future board that's all possible but it would be the board's decision to make that move is is what we're saying right are there uh board's decision but based on recommendations from yeah of course of course it's not suggesting we're going to always know exactly the best way to spend his money all right so I think that's Step One is we've we've uh we have a a and I'm in agreement with that we have an agreement that this should be moved to committed funds as upon receipt um with the and we can structure the um the mechanism of that later on but it would at minimum need a board agreement for for for usage now can we talk a little bit about um any sort of wishes around what that might mean um or maybe that's not even necessary at this time I'd be happy to kick us off I um have given this a lot of thought um and I think that given that we have um remaining proceeds from two schools that are brick and mortar in my opinion um I would prefer to keep that brick and mortar money dedicated to facilities um Diamond Head on the the outlots on the other hand I could be persuaded perhaps not um because we do also have programming needs and that was part of the exemption so if we simply designated the funds from the deck outlots for Pathways programming because that is who we are um I don't know that we could necessarily specify not Staffing but equipment um curriculum you know the stuff of the pathways um that might be a good alternate use if the board chose not to dedicate all of the funds to facilities um and I I'm a little um concerned about making just a a DeMark between brick and mortar or whatever and um um programming because I I think so interest a definition I think we should walk through that a little a little bit um you know uh you know whatever it might be um very clear up you know that would be an expansion to the high school or something like that you know but what about um what about uh you know a new round of 3D printers you know throughout the district or something is that you know is that brick and mortar I mean what is that programming you know um that's not brick and mortar I mean your opinion in my right in my opinion brick actual Bri I would say actual you know changing to the site whether it's um an expansion it could be Safety and Security it could be anything any kind of construction to the site or enhancement within the site anything that's not locked down I wouldn't tend to consider facilities I would consider that and and I will defer on how to define it but you know the the stuff in the schools that fuels learning would be programmatic in my opinion I would say I largely agree with you um my hesitancy is I don't know that I want to lock us into X doll for this and Y dollar for that um I I'd feel more comfortable if we said our Focus or our priority is on programming and on brick and mortar however we want to it um CU if there is a recommendation that comes forward that is more than $900,000 for programming I wouldn't want us to say well we're not going to do it because we decided in Fall of 2024 we were only going to use that much money for programming so I'd rather give give us give future us flexibility um for whatever recommendations may come our way and I think this is a healthy convers just to be very clear the only thing we're giving on a direction here today is that these dollars are going into a committed fund um beyond that it's sort of a getting a flavor for this current board's idea what spending out of that would mean now anything could be brought forward later on and the board could discuss that and and uh debate it at that time you definitely have brick and mortar needs um so I would definitely be interested in hearing some of that well I would I would caveat that this would be to offset funding that isn't available elsewhere correct y you know so like if there grants out there if other funding sources that's what you what you get for it but if there's like oh because of inflation it's now x amount a little bit more that's where I think but this could come into play and if there was something brick and mortar we wanted to do where we could use this investment or have to do a bond referendum of some sort I think we'd want to start with this for sure you have couple of points of clarification um one what I'm hearing is is that you would like to commit funds for security and facility upgrades is pretty much um what you're you're looking for is that you're trying to commit a certain amount of money I'm I'm also kind of hearing weed within this conversation other type of Pathways or Programming type of stuff when I brought the proposal to you previously it wasn't dependent upon this money you have you have unassigned funds that will cover any recommendation that I brought forward so you don't necessarily need to worry about carving anything out here if you would like to say all of your open facilities and grounds in which you have sold or in the process of selling if you'd like to commit all of those to security and facility upgrades we'll just take whatever those net proceeds are and set it aside whenever we have a project or a need that comes forward that fits that parameter then we will come to you ask that you uncommit those funds for a certain dollar amount to address the project that we're bringing forward so you don't have to worry about tying it all up right now as far as this that and or yeah to be clear I I don't I did not feel like we said that it was committed for something or anything well the first thing we're just saying for certain is we want the funds to not move into the general fund we want them to move into a committed fund that requires board approval to exit from going beyond that we're just talking a little bit about what would be our preferred use of those sponges um we could possibly be swayed to something else given the circumstances again whenever they occur but um that that was just it it was temperature of what we would use as spunds potentially for you do have to State a purpose on to what they're being committed for you can't just commit them to to for it needs to have a purpose yeah that that's what I'm that's why I'm saying and it's a pretty generic it it's your security or facility Well how generic can it be pretty that I think that's pretty generic I even that's got restri programming but like like Pathways like would we call out Pathways specifically you know because we'd want to not just lock ourselves into it would be it would be too separate my understanding is that if it's if it's program pramming we would want to spell it out separately because programming is different than than brick and mortar facilities um so is that two committed funds well it's just two committed purposes it's I mean yeah yeah that's I mean like in order being saying what's the general purpose right we want to make sure we're calling out right and msba had suggested that there be you know if if it's not all going to be one purpose likely best to have things spelled out separately so too committed could be too too committed yeah yeah if if if we didn't want to do all Safety and Security if we wanted to do programming we should cut that out separately but that would cut out a specific dollar amount to make a specific bucket and at the same time it's board action so if future us to your point Scott says I don't know what they were thinking with you know committing this done can also be undone exactly yeah yeah well and and there also is another level okay you have the ability to commit which could be to your Safety and Security M and we also have the other policy that allows me to take money from unassigned and put it into a sign and that can be delegated to my position so if you're wanting moving forward to say you know if we have pathway needs that need to be addressed you know notify the board that you are moving which I would have to do notify you that we are moving a certain amount from unassigned to assigned to address that need I would be of the favor to put it in committed funds but at such at a highest generic level that we leg we can get to do basically um for security purposes well that seems still even binding to me the only money we have right now is the 900,000 y right well again this is this is all about assumpt this is all under the assumption we're going to receive receive the go back to the definitions thing of the different buckets can I ask a quick question um because I'm new to this conversation but what is the advantage of choosing the committed funds versus the unassigned and then um overseeing the budget process annually it's a formal it's a formal approval process separate from budget okay um so I don't know if we need to clarify you know we have a list of choices that we could title as the committed for I mean I didn't anticipate this to be a oneandone conversation for I just wanted to start the conversation um so maybe at a future Workshop we can revisit this and have a little bit more clarification Stacy about what our choices for committed funds would be um yes I can bring something back you're not necessarily looking for security you're hoping for something even as as high level as Student Success well that's that is very vague it's very vague it fits brick and More in order for the students to be successful we need to add on this part of the building so we we might say something along the line of capital expenses for Student Success you could say I I mean it it's because it isn't operations you're not classic Finance it's capex versus operating expenses we want put it towards this but I don't know how you classify that in in your in your world so if we could have some choices we would Tyler and I will explore some some options as far as terminology and which might be able to use and I think the other thing to think about which hasn't been discussed for probably a couple of years but you know not knowing what our current or possible future needs are let's say suddenly enrollment Grows Right and we have to expand one of our middle schools that could be another possible use sure right Student Success okay I think um we probably have trolled this ground enough for tonight night um that was my intention was to start this conversation so okay you all right so the time now is 8:47 p.m. and having no further agenda items I'm now going to call to adjourn this meeting of the Board of Education