##VIDEO ID:-RmZqd9JxPU## yes no I will bring that up sorry good evening uh board and superintendent gross um tonight I'm giving an update on the Whitten wisdom English curriculum in front of you um I have some samples of books from K8 if you are a book person like I am uh the books are beautiful uh most of them are award-winning um so you can take a look at some of those if you want to see some of them U more in depth just let me know so we'll go ahead and get started like I said the copy of the presentation that you have in your folder has been adjusted slightly a bridged one would say so I'm going to walk you through here and if you have questions stop me at any time and I'll go through that you do have a packet in front of you also and I will be referencing um one of those handouts in just a second so the very first thing I want to talk about is is the connection to the Strategic directions and it's under evidence-based instruction or some of us have been reading the Archer book on evidence-based practices so all of this ties into everything that we've been doing and tying into the the board's strategic directions so how did we get here um you can see and there's a lot of words here and this does violate the how many words you can have on a slide so I apologize uh for that but we had unpreceded precedented uh State requirements in the rap legislation um which is still being updated mandating adherence to those five strand areas on the right so assessment evidence-based curriculum interventions professional learning and literacy coaching so we had to have all of that the district made a commitment to meeting those requirements including the adoption of an evidence-based curriculum in the area of foundational skills so kindergarten through second grade we've been doing great um but we needed to adopt a knowledge-based curriculum which is what w Whitten wisdom is and that's what some of the materials are in front of you prior to Whitten wisdom we were working with the curriculum Journeys you'll remember that if you've been on the board for a bit um that was not proven effective uh in research and based on our data was not meeting our instructional needs in January an English language arts adoption committee met uh formed and explored the two options that the state had approved um and every k teacher had the opportunity to be on that team 15 teachers took part in the entire adoption process and they made the unanimous decision to do two things one adopt a curriculum this year knowing that they had to go through the redak training uh the carry out training and they adopted Whitten wisdom so that group that group is the one that made that commitment to do that to date the state has not approved any other curricular options uh and this is correct me if I'm wrong Cara but reimbursable as long as it's been approved by the state correct okay thank you um so if you want more information on that that's how did we get here so that everybody has that and teachers needed help there was a lot so K5 teachers are not only doing the carry all reading training but they have a new curriculum um and 68 teachers have the new curriculum they needed help and support and the district responded um with me um my role currently is a temporary instructional coach so I am out of the classroom currently and I have a longterm sub and I am uh on a rotation in all buildings um I do classroom observations I do assistance with teachers basically if they say it would really help if then I answer that if what is it that they need and I help them to do that um assisting them I've done model lessons so I have taught mind you I am a seventh through 12th grade English teacher by by license I've taught kindergarden and and the students survive that I've taught fourth grade fifth grade did some seventh and I teach second grade lesson tomorrow um I was telling a couple of you that the second graders tomorrow are writing an informational paragraph with a topic sentence uh with Transitions and with conjunctions and that's second grade in early November so what we're seeing is really awesome uh I'm also the point of contact res resource for all things wit and wisdom I meet with them during prep early out I did um I worked with Cohasset on an early out and walk them through annotating their lessons I do trainings lesson preparation alignment of resources and also ensuring that we have equity and decreased variability between classrooms so Carol can I just interrupt you absolutely y so back to that second grade piece one of the things that doesn't get talked about enough is what that what you said you're going to be doing in second grade tomorrow when I was in school that was not a second grade standard that was not what second graders were expected to do right so I think one of the things that um our communities we don't talk about enough and and it because it's complicated and our communities aren't necessarily understanding is that what used to be expected of second graders is not the same as what is expected of second graders cor or really vice versa the level of rigor for these kids is ratcheted up so when we're talking about I'm stealing time from you and you're going to get panicked here um when we're talking about being on grade level for a second grader it means much much more now than it did when I was a kid correct and I will get to that in a minute I'm going to talk about some shifts in instruction shifts in learning and what we're asking our students to do is a lot higher so when we make those connections to the MCA tests and if we if our what we were doing maybe wasn't rigorous enough that could explain some of the numbers so this is also outstanding uncompromising curricula again if you have more questions and and have a couple hours I I can talk about this all night so um so Natalie Wexler is a guru uh in the way of literature and literacy and so what she says is the best way to boost students reading comprehension is to expand their knowledge and vocabulary by teaching them History Science literature and the Arts using curricula that guides kids through a logical sequence from one year to the next schools usually focus on teaching comprehension skills instead of general knowledge even though education researchers know better and as you look at those books in front of you we aren't just talking literature we aren't we we are talking about real world informational we talk about art um we talk about science so as districts and schools Implement a new high quality curriculum having a shared vision and common language for describing discussing and collaborating around excellent instruction is critical so this is critical and this is what we've all been working on behind the scenes so I want you to take a look at this list uh which of these letters is easier to remember I don't know if all of you can see that but um it makes you kind of feel like you're at the eye doctor so which of these uh lists is easier to remember and who's going to be my volunteer which one is easier to remember a a okay Mindy why do you say why is a easier to remember than b because some of those are words that I and things that I already know so you already know some of those okay anyone else Mr gross why is a easier than b they they're all the same they all have the same number of letters in them okay so there's the same number so there's a predictability there's a pattern what else those are all acronyms right you you they stand for something else that you have some prior knowledge about the other side doesn't really stand doesn't really stand for anything okay there's a purpose to why I'm having you do this so which text would you comprehend best should be better because there's two things there a a challenging text about a topic about which you know a great deal or B an equally challenging text about a topic about which you know little well for a a a okay uh that's the correct answer um Owen wanted to answer he just did and so um when you know a lot about something you would you understand it better there's a study out there it's the baseball study even for students that are struggling um they can understand a text if they understand what they're reading about how about writing a a report about the academic progress of one of your students or B a report a report about the academic progress of a student in another class A A yeah absolutely because you know your student and you don't know other students that's what Whitten wisdom does okay so it it gives you the knowledge it gives you the predictability and it teaches students uh the same way so this is one of my most favorite books uh it's from first grade um and it's in their third module third unit everything in wit and wisdom uh centers around a book it centers around a text so the text that you see on the table um if they are a COR text all of the instruction centers around that so this book uh is brave Irene um William Ste some of you may have read books by William steeg to your children when they were small um and this book is about a dress Maker's daughter who has to deliver a dress in a fierce snowstorm okay so this whole module is about powerful forces so that is the text that everything is centered around so so for reading and this is in one lesson okay this is one lesson they're going to analyze the verb's impact they're going to explain the wind's actions they're going to infer in and by the way this is in first grade they're inferring Irene's feelings from sensory language they're explaining how Irene's feelings change and they're practicing their fluency by the way reading fluency is practiced from kindergarten to grade eight and we have never done fluency in 678 before it has always stopped in the Elementary grades and fluency is the low hanging fruit of achievement if we can work on fluency that is something that will really help our achievement So speaking in listening in pairs they discuss the wind's actions and they read aloud completed paragraph to a partner for vocabulary they use context clues to to Define brave they add feelings words to an anchor chart and they compare shades of meaning among feelings words so I taught this in seventh grade and what that is is called a Nuance so they're already learning that in first grade so writing they're adding sensory language to complete a paragraph about Irene and finally style in conventions they're re reviewing the verb functions and they're acting out verbs from the story that's one lesson so there's a lot of things that are happening there a lot of things that are happening in each lesson each lesson though is not is written for 90 minutes so it does take multiple days to finish so here are some of the core practices and instructional routines under questioning they're using anchor charts question Corners see think wonder wonder Wheels notice and wonders in they're summarizing boxes and bullets graphic organizers literary dominoes quick writes stop and jot one thing you need to know is students are writing every single day whether they're in kindergarten or in eth grade annotating they do Gallery walks chalk talks outside in stop and jot um phae question suggestion and then they're collecting evidence very heavy on text evidence jigsaw mix and mingle graphic organizers and t- charts so here are some of the shifts in instruction and educational philosophy so if you open up I know you can't see this but if you go in your folder and go to that um stapled packet that has kind of a checklist in the front go to the page that says key elements of Whitten wisdom to up two three pages in maybe this is what Mr gross was talking about earlier on some of the shifts and so I won't read all of this to you but I do want to highlight just a couple things the first thing is under knowledge this is a knowledge building curriculum that is one of the things that was mandated by the state we needed to have a knowledge building curriculum and the science of reading would hold that up and so you'll notice that each model module systematically and coherently builds students knowledge about a topic if you look to the right the shift in instruction um the language arts instruction Builds on deep knowledge building focus on topics not themes and we haven't necessarily done that before Carol I think it would be good to for you to talk about the baseball study and why we're talking about a knowledge building curriculum and the importance of it I know I know you did that exercise had a slide on that you probably did I told you to take it out but maybe take a little dive okay I will so the baseball study so knowledge building we we talked about the letters earlier and we talked about the reading and the writing earlier the reason that knowledge building is important is it's like velcro the more you add to it every time I'm teaching a student for example I taught seventh grade and they were learning about the Middle Ages seventh graders don't know a lot about the Middle Ages so every time we would read about Knights or the cler l or a peasant I'm giving them more Velcro so they've got that information to stick so the baseball study um pretty much took students um and it researched what they knew and it was talking about baseball so if you had a student who was a striving reader I don't say struggling reader I say striving reader and so if I have a student that is a striving reader but they knew a lot about baseball and they were given a baseball text they would do similar about the same as a student who was a strong reader that knew nothing about baseball does that make sense so when when we add and we give knowledge to students that may not have it in any other way um we are helping them to build that background to be able to be successful readers strong readers with the knowledge about baseball are still going to do as well as they would have done before but that's going to be adding to that do that help thank you absolutely so if you're looking um at this inquiry um as a teacher of almost 30 years I can say that our critical thinking skills need to be stronger in students and so we do do a lot with inquiry we're working on reading and Analysis of text they're engaging in extended research on a topic and there is some frustration um when we talked about shift and instruction teachers um most people don't like change and so we spend a lot of time on one text now we go back into it we read it we go back in we dig for something else and that's a mind ship that's that's a little bit different than what we've been used to doing complex text as you can see in front of you students read the same sets of grade level complex texts to build their knowledge and understanding groups of students do not read different level texts every kindergarten student um is reading the last stop I think it's on Market Street is what they're doing they're doing this week everybody is working on that together it isn't Vari based on reading level um they're using predictable repeatable process for reading understanding and analyzing complex texts all writing is based on the text uh as I showed you the picture earlier everything that students do goes back to what happens in the text speaking and listening they're building their speaking and listening skills and students take the lead in academic conversations I led seventh graders today in a very small Socratic seminar but trying to teach them how to have those discussions vocabulary vocabulary focus on focuses on academic and content area vocabulary style and conventions instruction is embedded fluency as I mentioned to you is being done in grades kindergarten through eth grade I was in a third grade classroom yesterday and students were practicing fluency I'm in second grade tomorrow and they're practicing fluency and finally assessment as a teacher assessments are difficult because a lot of times they weren't done for you you had to create your own assessment or you had to go somewhere else and you had to go find it now with the invention of teachers paid teachers teachers are going there and finding it this curriculum provides all of the standards-based assessments so that we can be giving the same Assessments in kindergarten whether we are in Bigfork Cohasset or at West so and that's nice and So eventually once we get into the program we can start looking at data and looking at where we're at with some of those assessments and some gaps that we need to fill that shift um the shift to complex text is a is a philosophical shift as well that's a it's a it Contra it is not uh it contradicts the philosophy that students should be only reading books at their own grade level and that that has been a popular philosophy um but and Carol's the expert but essentially if I only read second grade texts I'm never going to become a great third grade reader I have to be stretching myself beyond my grade level struggling productive struggle in order to build some of those skills that so I can attain that higher grade level of reading um but that's a that is a philosophical shift when you're looking at curricula like this and no teacher wants students to struggle and in your packets when you have time because I won't be able to talk about it tonight but it does talk about productive struggle and we want students to be able to struggle and it's the productive struggle we don't not want unproductive struggle and we also don't want to be too easy we we want students to have that complex text and even students that struggle or are striving to be better readers if they are in a room where they're hearing this they're going to pick up on that a lot of artwork is done artwork is put up and I was in kindergarten in Big Fork last week and we were looking at a Diego Rivera painting and we were talking about symmetry I'm not kidding that isn't that's a kind in kindergarten and we were looking at it and they were telling me about the artwork and those are some there students that can't read but they were telling telling me exactly what was happening in and they knew the title of the painting they knew the the artist and that's kindergarten and that's happening with Big Fork at Cohasset um and at West so quickly what this does with the repeatable uh structures is it moves things from um the working memory to long-term memory and students are going to be able to recall this later so it isn't just a oneand done we've read the book we put it away we don't know what it is we continue to come back to um the material this is what we're doing with teachers um this is a multi-year implementation so this is not going to be perfect by the end of this year I wish I could say it would be but it won't be um multi-year so this year we are in the learn stage teachers are learning with wisdom by teaching the lessons as written and so that's what I'm doing is I'm getting out and I'm helping and supporting teachers so then we will move into the deepen stage understanding uh how to implement it focusing on meeting all students needs and then really knowing um knowing the curriculum so cortex I won't spend a lot of time on them but these are some of the other um books you have the books in front of you again I a book person and it just brings my heart joy to look at to look at these books um I think it's first grade that reads about books so there's waiting for the biblio burrow one of the books uh maybe I didn't bring it in here but it is um My Librarian Is A Camel so it talks about countries how they don't have Li and how do they get these books so we're talking about bringing knowledge to our students in Grand Rapids who would never know about that and so anyway the books are awesome um the philosophy of wh wisdom is all children can succeed and I told Mr gross today if this could become our motto of the district it would be great every child is capable of greatness so um what greatness looks like for one student might look different um from another student but here in 318 we believe that every child is capable of greatness and on the screen here um are our varied uh Learners so we have uh English language Learners not a lot but we do um striving readers High Achievers disengaged readers um non-readers enthusiastic readers students with IEPs and curious readers in one classroom of potentially 40 students and so this curriculum meets the needs of all of the meets the needs of all those students and will help those students to be successful and that is our duty that's Our obligation is to educate all kids not the kids that we want to have there it's all the kids that come to us on the first day of school it was developed by teachers um again I mentioned assessments earlier and again touching back on this but every lesson has assessments embedded into it both formative assessments and then it has summative assessments at the end I'm hoping to compile some of the end of module tasks um second grade is going to compile a book about uh changes in weather and they will each contribute a paragraph to that so I'm excited about that they do Socratic seminars where they're speaking they do new read assessments which tie very closely to MCAS when I did this in the classroom we did that and it it does mimic what the MCA questions look like and focusing question tasks are written so the implications are clear uh curriculum matters but how teachers use the curriculum matters even more so I will tell you this you can have the best curriculum uh in the world no perfect curriculum anywhere um but what matters is how teachers are using it you can have the best curriculum but if it's not being used the way it needs to be used uh that matters so I have just a couple things and I'll finish even before 6:30 so um I asked some teachers and to see if I could get parents here and nobody wants to give up their evenings but I did have a couple of parents who wanted to share their thoughts uh one of the parent Community member the other is just a parent so this person said my perspective is that students are definitely learning more challenging content than previous years seems like a lot of books that broaden their worldview and by the way it's only November 12th I love the parent tip sheets we do send parent tip sheets home so I can talk with my kids at home about what they're learning my first grader talks about books they're reading uh that they are comparing and my fourth grader was talking about a non-fiction text they read about the heart and circulatory system they have sometimes said it's harder than last year but not in a bad way seems like we're moving in the right direction to teach students how to critically think and become strong analytical readers very excited about that Whitten wisdom has opened new doors to discussion with both my second grader and kindergartner I have really appreciated the parent handout many times throughout the week I'll ask a question about a piece of art a book or poetry they've studied and they will tell me all all about it it's been really fun to hear their ey notice and I wonder statements as that is filtering into their everyday life now too and this is from Michelle carahan uh in Big Fork she agreed to let me use her name um so Michelle Saidi wanted to let you know the class held its first Socratic seminar and it was amazing the conversations which I had no part directing and the depth of knowledge and connections were at a level I had not seen before these kids can do it just letting you know I'm on the bandwagon stuff like that makes me want to cry and finally um I wanted to share this so this is from Kier buts he was the Baltimore teacher of the year Baltimore City School schols adopted this I think it was in 2019 and completely turned their entire District around so it is worth looking into and again happy to talk to you about that so he says wi wisdom isn't a have to it's a get to we get to implement an equity building curriculum yes it's knowledge building it is content Rich culturally relevant it is that and it's an equity building curriculum because it goes so deep into knowledge building and leveling the playing field and that's what we that's what we want to do so anyway do you have any questions I have six minutes who's got questions M um Carol I don't know if it's Carol or Matt I know we talked when the reak came in and there was some discussion at some point maybe for new teachers that are going to the teaching in college is any of this any further discussion as far as implementing this training at the college level before they become a full- place teacher and I ask that question obviously when we get new staff coming on board or staff from a different School District that comes here we need to on board them to where we're at with our teachers so there's that Level Playing Field of right arrows going I don't know anything about at the college level do you know any answer to that it's something definitely worth looking into um and there are stages so this so this year is all K5 teachers administrators Etc so everybody around the state is doing um at that same level if they're currently teaching so if they come to us but if they're coming out of college I don't know the so one of the things the state has been working on is ways to support so the there's two there's two parallel tracks happening really one of them is this curriculum piece the materials if you will then the other one is the um pedagogy the how kids learn piece and that's that choice districts have three options we chose carry all um and the state is working on building some Regional capacity through the service cooperatives around this piece so that we can be supported in the future um the three methodologies or pedagogies are complimentary they're they have nuances but they're complimentary so for instance our early childhood staff in and kind of around I asked are all uh using letters there that's a parallel approach to carel um some other districts are her using letters someone who's been letters trained could come in our district and work with this curriculum and be just fine but they have to be certified in one of those programs moving forward letters car all the 31 and I believe Pat par me if I'm wrong Mr gross but it will be I think part of Licensing too right that is a mandate from the state is that you have that it'll have to be Carl I I would just want to recognize the tremendous effort and uh amount of work that teachers are putting into implementing this curriculum it's it's it's it's a steep hill it is a lot and they're doing it and this is the the hardest week of the school year because it's conference week too but they're doing it um and and I asked the kindergarten teacher today I said do you ever go home at the end of the day and take a nap I said because it was like hurting cats but but they did it they they were able to identify the character and what they did and um do some work with that so there is a lot of work but they're doing it appreciate your work Carol great job Carol I really like what that last quote about um Equity there and you know the fact this knowledge building component and and you know one of the studies and I maybe since you might have a couple more minutes you can talk about writing um but one of the things that had been learned or research was showing is that this knowledge piece was a big barrier to comprehension that kids maybe um weren't accessing or coming across naturally uh the knowledge base that then would hold them back from being successful readers and a lot of that had to do with their access to materials their access to language all those things and this the knowledge Building C curriculum is intended to help bridge that gap for them so raising kind of leveling the playing field for kids um so there's less dependence on you know who you are where you grew up that kind of thing you have a little bit more ready footing but the the writing thing is another thing that that research had kind of shown like kids aren't writing enough so do you want to talk about that yep I can uh the way that the lessons are are set up is the books are set up in such a way that the way they read them it says the students up for Success it layers the information so by the time they get to the end they have all of this information with it and and so um the writing piece again you can't write about something you don't know about so this is adding to all of that and so what I didn't get to today was these are the core texts there's supplemental text there's artwork there's music um there's informational articles there's websites there's all of that to add to the informational base that students are pulling from and again they're writing every day they have journals every day that they refer back to and they pull from their writing so it is it is a lot but they're but they're doing it out there and as I said in that if you have time to look in the packet there's information in there and if you want to get out into classrooms or you want to talk further and that goes for our new board members as well um just reach out to me I'm happy to do that any other questions the last thing I'll say quickly um you know Carol wasn't part of the selection process for this curriculum um I think she probably stayed out of that on purpose um because she has a a you know obviously a passion and background with this and I think it's wor fortunate to have someone that has this background in a particular curriculum like this but it's worth noting that she wasn't a part of the selection this is where our our staff-driven process led us and um you know we're just we're taking advantage of some expertise we have in house to help support people so just wanted to mention that too okay thank you Carol very much appreciate but this time we're going to adjourn the work session and we'll come back into session for the meeting as soon as we can get set up right back into it ready meting order please stand for the pledge I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America the for it stands Nation indivisible andice next item on the agenda is approval of the agenda do I have a motion so move second move by Pat second by David discussion hearing none all in favor say I I the agenda is approved uh next item on the agenda under evidence-based approaches approve the district operational plan superintendent gross thank you Mr chair uh this is a plan that we began working on last year and um our strategy team which we've talked about uh has and has had a couple reports to you reviewed some changes that we'd like to recommend um we you know one of the things that we've moved away from is this you know strategic plan that you make for five years that you realize in three years that the entire legislative climate and funding climate Everything's changed and all of a sudden you have a plan that you chiseled in stone that isn't really useful so our plan is more living and more breathing and um we uh there's a few things that we'd like to make recommendations as far as upgrades or changes to our operational plan so kind of comparing the two quickly we'll just run through these strategic directions if that's okay the first one um the first objective reflects the work that we realized we needed to do before we could really get into some of this data work which is kind of ensuring we have accurate data so that's that's in there um we pulled an objective out about Equity values not because they weren't important but because we need there's some work that we need again to do before we're ready to take that on and so um that was a change and then the third objective there was added uh kind of that capacity building piece for staff so that we could uh address disparities in the second strategic Direction around trust engagement and belonging um the the first objective there sa the same around student uh student social emotional screening and I I I feel like I need to have a quick aside there to talk about something that's I see coming up a lot and that's really the jargoning or um the hijacking of the the acronym we just talk about acronyms the acronym um it's been turned into jargon and it's been hijacked in an unfortunate way and really portrayed by some people as a trojan horse of sorts that were trying to sneak in some sort of indoctrination of some kind and really if you look into social emotional learning what it is it's about how kids manage themselves how they make decisions how they get along with others how they uh if they're aware of their situation and themselves and kind of how they show up every day that's what social emotional learning is and I I'd love to talk to somebody that didn't think kids having a grounding in that was a good idea um that's all it is and if you look at um uh Castle which is sort of promoting this they have a a functional wheel those are the five spokes on the wheel um and so anyway I just wanted to make sure and make that clear that when we talk about seal here and we talk about Sabers which is how we're measuring how kids are doing um so that we can line up supports for them that's what we mean here and that's what we do here so um that's not a new objective but I just felt like I needed to to clarify that in case someone um either here or otherwise needed to sort of hear more about that um the second objective really puts some of that work there on staff well-being uh in our Wellness committees Wellness teams Court um and then we shortened that that section up quite a bit the third evidence-based practice one as you heard from uh Mrs cop we have a lot going on with that and so 31 and 32 and and 33 all get into how are we implementing our curriculum are we um and then on top of that what instructional strategies are we using at the high school especially High School teachers aside from special ed um they're not involved in this curriculum change this is a cas eight curriculum okay they're not involved in carel that's about learning to read so what are they working on um we have a a a book that we're working through that's on instructional strategies and they're currently working on some protocols from there so and then the Fidelity comes in in objective 3.3 and that's walkthroughs how we're monitoring are these things happening in rooms and so our principles are gathering data about what they're seeing when they're in rooms are they seeing things that um Carol talked about that are supposed to be part of this uh program or part of the instruction are those things happening and to what degree and and what do we need to to add some more capacity in so um 3.4 stayed the same 3.5 is new the old one talked about um some family engagement pieces and we push that to a different uh Direction and also we weren't quite ready for the mde model but we thought it was really really important to clarify just how committed we are to m TSS and Fidelity there and we still you know we still aren't quite where we want to be there uh we're making progress we're the percentage of Assessments that are given during our window are is getting higher and higher we're in the 90s in some cases but we still aren't at a place where that's just automatic um and tuned and so we want to have that automatic and tuned and so we wanted to list that because we you know the board's made a bunch of commitment to that over time and we want to continue to to make sure that that becomes institutional um four not a lot of change there just moving from development to implementation now that's really what's happening in Partnership and collaboration 4.3 stayed the same again highlighting and and recognizing the work we need to continue to do to uh collaborate regionally five similarly moving from the development of the the plan and operational plan to implementation and communication of it so uh really a lot the same there that's where that community outreach um and family engagement item was was moved to and then six really became a little bit more broad previously objective 6.1 talked about a particular year to balance the budget for this particular fiscal year that just needs to be part of what we do um every year and 6.2 got more specific about our how we're measuring we talked about stability before what do we mean when we're talking about stability we're we're executing on the board's fund balance policy and so getting clear about that and defining that the other objectives are pretty much the same keeping that safety process and procedure that's another one that we're going to continue to work on that'll be there forever um and that's the work that that district threat and emergency response team is carrying out so those are the changes we had a copy of that previously but um certainly opened any questions strategy team's been uh working on this had a couple looks at it and um is recommending those changes as well as myself so can I get a motion to approve the updated District operational plan so move David move by David or second by Pat discussion requ appreciate the working at that and staff and your and putting together it's excellent work well it's good to see progress some of the things I didn't highlight you know one of the things that was in the uh stewardship of resources had to do with eliminating excess property that was our objective if you rewind a year and a half ago well look at you know just how many times in the last few months have we been able to talk about at this meeting we got rid of this boat we got rid of this building we sold these properties we have it tonight you know been the last since the last meeting we closed on two properties so like uh some of those things we check the boxes on and could move on and so that's it's good to see progress it's a it's indication that this isn't one of those plans it's just sitting on a shelf Gathering dust this work that's happening in real you know real time any other discussion none all in favor say I I I opposed the updated District operational plan is approved next item on the agenda principal's report from kassid elementary principal zley good evening uh thanks for letting me come and and join the the team here for a few minutes um my name is Ryan sigley I'm the new principal at Cohasset Elementary um and really I should say I'm the proud principal of Cohasset Elementary we have um an incredible School uh i' I've been a principal at East Rapids Elementary and a teacher at the middle school and at West and um you know I I've spoken to our staff a little bit about this every school's got great things about it and every school's got things that that can use some work and um having an opportunity to put my feet into different buildings in particular being in kasset now um just feel really blessed we've got a great district and we have a lot of really really good things going on around here and so um I don't want to forget that um Cohasset been under uh kind of this theme this year of change um we have a brand new office staff new secretary newent principal new student support specialist a lot of change in our office we also about half of our grade level teams our new teams with a a new teacher coming in um from from East we've had teachers coming in from West and so um there has been change we've got a new kitchen staff we have new esps um and I I think sometimes when we start uh the school year and we see all of this change happening it can be really nerv um however as a staff at the very beginning of the year we talked about change really can be really with thing and for us change just meant opportunity um as a staff we we talked a lot at the beginning of the year about our core values and what we wanted to bring to the table for our kids and families and Cohasset so four of those things that I wanted to highlight number one we're going to be champions for kids so um I think if you Ste foot into to Cohasset you would feel that um it's intangible sometimes in terms of what that means but but we're all here to support kids and make sure we're we're offering an awesome education for them um number two our staff wanted to be team players so uh we've got each other's backs and it's it's really proven you can see that um on a daily basis number three we talk about a lot about being uncommon having a culture that is different in our building than what what you would typically think of of a school um and then number four we're carrying the banner not only of our of our school but of our our district and so wherever we go um we want to we want to be uh good role models and positive influences for for being um a Cohasset staff member being a a um Grand Rapid Schools staff member and we're proud of those values and we've talked a lot about what does that look like and how do we how do we live this out on a daily basis and I can say that it's happening um one of our strategic directions is providing equ Equitable education for our kids uh Carol did like an awesome job talking about um what wit and wisdom really is doing in our classrooms this is in my career uh having spent many years here in ground Rapids it's one of the times where I can really say we're moving in the direction of really creating Equitable experiences for our for our students so I'll walk into a fifth grade classroom and uh observe what they have going on during wh and wisdom and and then I'll I'll spend maybe 10 15 minutes in there and I'll jump over to the next classroom fifth grade and the same exact thing is happening the kids are they're reading the same text they have the same essential questions um so no matter what teacher you have your experience is is very similar and I I'm really really um proud of the teachers and the time that they've put in I know you alluded to that a little bit ago and it's it's um it's true they're putting in a lot of time and it's a lot of heavy lifting um but it's it's really paying off you can see that by the way in in the conversations that are happening with kids um the rigor is up but so is the critical thinking um it's a heavy lift for our teachers but there isn't a day that goes by that says they can't do it in fact it's it's almost the opposite of that I had a couple of goal setting meetings with teachers today and they talked about uh you know kind of like I I'm starting to like this I'm starting to figure this out I'm starting to find a rhythm and um having Carol as a as a support system is is only proving to be um more helpful so um that is one way that we're starting to try to reduce variability among our classrooms um I know uh another another topic that we've talked about is Orton Gillingham and um Mr G just alluded to doing walkthroughs our in our kindergarten through second grade uh at every school uh it we're doing walkthroughs in Orton Gillingham and making sure that um our Fidelity of implementation of that is uh is strong and what's happening is we as principles we'll do a walk through um we collect data so it's a lot of it is is quantitative data it's numbers what are we seeing is it happening or is it not and then some of its Quant qualitative data it's our experience in the room and what we're noticing and then uh every principal's got a plan so we share out kind of essentially what we have seen and the data that we've collected we share that with our staff we share it with our leadership teams and then we make adjustments and say okay here's our here's where we need to pinpoint our work and um it's it's been a really um powerful shift and uh it feels good as a principal to to lead instructionally like this and I'm also noticing changes in classrooms based off of the feedback that we're giving so um another area that we've talked about with educ Equitable education is carry all um if I were to if I were to say one thing that's really building the collective efficacy within the Cohasset staff it's been carry on so we have uh a group of teachers actually three groups of teachers that participate in carry all both synchronously and asynchronously so the asynchronous portion teachers are doing this you know during their nights and weekends and essentially it's um college level work that uh that they're doing in learning about the science of read so they they're doing that kind of on their own time and then we have scheduled synchronous times where we meet as teams and we go through a um it's like a zoom link we go through a module together and we're learning together and there's these awesome checkpoints throughout that time where we stop and we talk and we collaborate about certain things so I've had the privilege to sit in with every group of the coass every casset team and uh there is an energy in the air when they start talking about their kids and how we can improve our reading instructions so car all's been again another heavy lift and something that our teachers aren't always having to do every year but it has been um just incredibly beneficial and th the long-term impacts will be will be um incredibly positive uh at kasset we also have PBIS uh running um rampant it's all over the place and we've had two celebrations so far one was just to kind of kick off the school year uh the second was just right at the the end of the quarter um it's it's a it's a lot of fun and you're welcome to join us at our second quarter celebration we got 3155 kids that that walk into the into the gym we will rock you as pumping and we hand out awards for great Behavior so you know I you've heard our our four school rules of being respectful responsible safe and kind um and we really really really Elevate that during our celebrations the classrooms that are they're stepping it up the kids that are stepping it up um we had the opportunity to hand out 12 golden tickets to Golden Ticket Award winners so kind of our our students that are exemplifying kind of our Cohasset way the way we do things around there um which is really it was really fun to be able to highlight them and then also highlight classrooms in terms of Partnerships uh conferences is happening now um in fact uh I stepped away from conferences tonight it was it's just finishing up at haset uh and it has been going great we've had great turnout and um you know that's to me that's a it's a big deal we need our parents to partner with us and it's you know it's it's really a two-way street it takes our work and their work to provide a great education for kids uh we did H have a new event where we welcomed families to the building um we called it our welcome back bash we served a ton of hot dogs and and chips and Kool-Aid and we had a bouncy house and um the kids had a bunch of fun and that that happened in the evening and it was a a great event it was a way for me as a new principal to connect with families but also really our goal here was to to um have families feel like they were welcome into our building and feel like they're part of the part of the team because they are um Mrs Cody had her annual pumpkin run and that was a lot of fun it was something I've never EXP experienced before but the kids ran around the building and they took it seriously the winter got a pumpkin so that was pretty cool um we had a Veterans Day program yesterday uh and really essentially what that was is we took all 315 kids and we honored our veterans we had uh veterans come and and uh we had a speaker that spoke to the kids and the kids kind of did it did a tribute to our veterans and sang them a few songs and Mr elto did an amazing job with that he's uh he was fired up about it so um lastly I just want to talk about our student support so really what you've heard about tonight is Wht and wisdom that's tier one that's what's happening uh ground level in the classrooms and really what what's important is we have really strong tier one that's that's critical um when we have strong tier one then we have also have a tier two support system academically and um for students that have Behavior needs or social needs or emotional needs So currently uh through adsis and our ESP academic interventionist we have 170 students being serviced um academically we have 53 reading groups and 22 math groups and so uh it's a lot going on and a lot of support for kids which I'm really proud proud of every kid that that needs it in our building is getting um and then in terms of behavior and Social Development support um we have teachers uh all over the building that are signed up to check in with kids that's something unique I've never been a part of that I think it's really really um interesting so they kind of take kids under their wings and say I'm gonna I'm going to connect with this one um we've got North Holmes we've got our Nish education and our student support specialist and um Mrs Magner uh gave me some statistics and said that about 39% or 121 students in our School are receiving a support from one of those areas so we've got a lot going on at Cohasset uh I couldn't be more proud of the work that our teachers are doing the the culture that is uh has already been established and that's continuing to go grow strong um and I'm really excited to see where the rest of the school year goes any questions questions comments David Ryan you said that there's a an upcoming PBIS C celebration do you know do you know when I'll send you the dates thank you yeah it's right at it'll be right at the end of the quarter so end of the second quarter so that thank you for your leadership seems like you just fell right into it great job got to say you've got a uh a real challenge uh the uh school has gotten so many recogn such recognition and awards and it sounds like you are definitely as Pat said uh filling that uh fly I will say you know U Mrs Wheelock is an incredible leader um and I know she's do some great things at East I know she is um I also know that you know it takes more than just one person and we've got this like this staff that is um they're hungry to do great things and it's just so evident and if if you have a chance you walk into that building 805 our doors open up and you're you'll see every single staff member lined in the hallway writing GRE kids it's it's pretty cool so thank you what just one question how many kids beat you in pumpkin race every single one of 315 I I will give props to Mr Johnson though he was hard to beat he was running pretty hard that day thank you R next item on the the agenda is to accept the 2023 24 audit report Cara good evening um I'm really excited about this and audit um I don't expect you to be as excited um Jackie nolles is here um from Bergen kdb creative planning um our auditing firm she's been an auditor for 15 years um and has done amazing job with Grand Rapids um they were very efficient in their work um we started less than a month ago with the audit and it's turned around this quickly so she'll give you guys a high level overview of where we ended the year yeah I'm excited thank you thanks for the introduction Cara can everyone hear me okay yes good all right I'm gonna share my screen here um all right does that show up okay we can see it if you just put it in present presentation mode and then we'll see the whole thing all right not sure think that one there yep yeah that's what I clicked on um we can still see it though okay I'll see my best with that um not going forward oh there we go all right well thank you for having me tonight I'm going to be going over a summary of the results of the audit and then also a summary of the operating results for 2024 so the main purpose of our audit is to provide our independent auditor report and in this report we are providing an unmodified or a clean opinion it's the best that we can offer and what that does is it provides assurance that the district's financial statements are presented fairly in all material respects the position as of June 30th 2024 and then also all of the activity that occurred within the year we also provide three additional main Communications that are required by various standards the first one listed here the report related to government auditing standards this is required because of State in federal funding received by the district um so we take a closer look at internal controls compliance with grants contracts other the regulations we had one repeat internal control finding and no compliance findings that internal control find finding I'm sure will sound familiar lack of segregation of accounting duties um the district does have a larger accounting staff especially compared to smaller districts um but Jackie y Jackie the slides are not advancing on your end or we're not seeing an advancing here so I'm not sure if if that's us thing or um we're still St the audit Communications up next well we're still on the title slide oh is it advancing now no maybe close it and try sharing again okay oh there there we go is that okay I know it has this on there but I'm not sure um no that's okay we can see it now all right sounds good I'll just do it this way then um so I had spoke about the government auditing standards report um talking about that repeat internal control finding let's did here lack of segregation of accounting duties so the District staff is well aware the business manager still has full access to the entire accounting system um so taking that away putting that access as kind of a readon reviewer type access en rooll is really the only way that would eliminate this finding so something that's probably not feasible at this point um at least for the time being but something that we want the board to be aware of the second main bullet point here um is in regards to the single audit that we performed in accordance with the uniform guidance so this is specific to Federal funding and this year we were required to test the Child Nutrition program and we didn't have any findings related to that either internal control related or compliance related and then the last main bullet point um is in regards to compliance with State statutes that the office Office of the state auditor asks us to take a look at and we didn't have any um compliance findings in regards to that um so with that I'm going to move on to the Financial results for the year and first up we take a look at the basic formula allowance um and you can see for 2024 there was a 4% increase in the amount per pupil unit that's the largest increase the districts have seen in the last 10 or so years and we'll see how that impacts revenues in a couple of slides here um the other main factor impacting general education Aid of course is going to be the student counts so here we have um resident ADM and comparing that to the adjusted ADM so you can see fairly consistent over the last five years resident ADM was down about 0.3% from 2023 to 2024 while the adjusted ADM was up about 0.9% adjusted ADM being higher due to the open enrollment gains and then on this next slide we take the ADM amounts convert them to pupil unit numbers um the biggest difference between the two being the waiting factors secondary students grade seven through 12 being weighted at 1.2 and this shows a similar picture um fairly consistent over the last five years an increase in total of about 0.7% from 2023 to 2024 and that non-resident number um being the highest of the last five years coming in at 752 um then moving on to how the general fund Revenue came out kind of as a result of all of that and then some additional factors in 2024 so in total from 2023 to 2024 revenues were up about $7.5 million and that was primarily within revenue from the state which was up about $7 million that's the 4% increase in the basic formula allowance and the slight increase in the student counts um that were just presented in additional compensatory Revenue was up and state special education Aid was also up um based on expenditures increasing and a change in the cross subsidy reimbursement rate Federal revenues were up about three4 of a million dollars and that was related to spending of Esther money or the um education stabilization funds and then partially offsetting those increases with local property taxes decreasing about $900,000 and that was related to a decrease in the amount levied and a decrease in County apportionment money when looking at the various sources of revenue you can see 74% coming from the state um being the largest piece of the pie that was 71% in 2023 we'll see that shift again in 2025 as that pandemic uh funding comes down we'll see State sources increase percentage wise and federal come down percentage wise um looking at operating results for the year so I had talked about revenues increasing those were up about 12 and a half% while expenditures increased about four and a half% primarily due to salary and benefit increases so fund balance was up about six almost 6.6 million as a result of 2024 operations up to almost 13.2 million at the end of the year in total um but over half of that is set aside for specific purposes the unassigned piece of fund balance so what's available for spending on any purpose was 6 million 15874 at the end of the year and that amount is what is addressed in the district's fund balance policy um The District's policy states that the districts will maintain a minimum unassigned general fund balance of 10 to 15% of the annual expenditure budget so you can see here you were at 10.1% at the end of the year so just squeaked into compliance with policy on June 30th and that is the first time in the five years presented that the district has been in compliance with its policy another way of looking at fund balance is using the statutory operating debt or sod calculation that mde prepares and so this allows us to compare the district to Statewide averages and so the district's percentage at the end of 2024 increased to 13 6% that does mirror the increase seen on the previous slide in that percentage um the district is below the Statewide average which has hovered between 21 and 23% in recent years looking at budget to actual results um in total revenues were over budget about 7.3% revenues from the state coming in over budget um related to special education and general education Aid including the compensatory money exceeding the budgeted amounts revenue from the federal government was also over budget um and that was the pandemic relating funding related funding exceeding the budgeted amounts um those grants were required to be spent by September 30th of 2024 um so those have come to an end and have officially been closed out looking at expenditures very close in total and then also across all of the programs too um in total about a 0.3 variance between the actual results and the final budget looking at the bottom line the final budget called for an increase in fund balance of 1.62 million um actual fund balance increased almost 6.6 million as a result of 2024 activity um then we do have some comparative information we can look at The District's revenues and then on the next slide expenditures per student served the district's Revenue per ADM served has historically been below the Statewide average and the average for similar size districts in property taxes due to the district not having an operating referendum and then for expenditures per student served um we do see in the general fund following suit um that the expenditures for ADM sered have been below the Statewide average and the average for similar sides districts as well looking at the general fund spending allocation here um this was very consistent with where it was for 2023 when I looked back the spending on the three instruction categories of regular vocational and special ed totaled up to 68% that was the same percentage last year um I did look at the Statewide average for spending on the instruction categories for 2023 the most recently available information in that came in at 59% for spending on the three instruction categories Statewide average and then moving on to the Food Service fund revenues were up quite a bit this year um with a change in legisl and the state of Minnesota now reimbursing for any meal that or student meal that was not federally reimbursable that qu caused quite a significant increase in the number of meals served um so Revenue up about $627,000 expenditures up about $352,000 with Rising food costs and then also that increase in the number of meals served so fund balance up to about 1.13 million at the end of the year um healthy fund balance about 42% of expenditures at the end of the year in that fund balance and then the community service fund this year did see a decrease in both revenues and expenditures revenues down about 220,000 while expenditures down about 150,000 primarily due to the end of the 21st Century Federal program and so those federal funds not coming in and not being passed through to the Boys and Girls Club when you look at the components of the community service fund balance um a small deficit in ECFE uh but overall um positive balances um and healthy operations in the community service fund and last we'll just take a quick peek at the health insurance internal service fund uh from 2022 to 2021 that we have presented here operating expenses did exceed operating revenues um so for those years the net position was trending down but that was reversed in 2022 and operating revenues exceeded expenditures and now net position is on on the upward climb in this fund and that was uh all that I had prepared I'm happy to take any questions questions or comments from the board Mr chair I don't know if this is a question but uh you highlighted Jackie in regards to uh where we're at in our revenues per student and our expenditures per student in relation to districts of our size and Statewide average we're considerably and when I was reading the report this morning I actually Co Caren asked the question if I was reading it right or not um you know we hear much from the community about how we're not appropriately expending our dollars but I think if you sit on and look at what we're doing here in relation to school districts of our size elsewhere in the state and the state average I think we're doing pretty damn good here in uh in relation to it anywhere from uh um 1,00 to 1300 or less uh per student um so I just wanted to point that out for the public uh perspective U that we are doing pretty good on our expenditures even though the negative comments that we hear from the community I uh hope reach out hope people from the Community Reach Out par up Matt and get an opportunity to review this uh audit and actually see what it is and how we're doing here with it so uh that was alarming to me just to piggyback on that I think that is a a a really poignant part of this I think we get less money from the state we get less money from our local taxpayers we spend less money than average and we have above average reading and math we have above average ACT we have above average graduation rates uh we're doing all that with less and less and less so I I I second what you have to say I don't think that's a narrative that we probably preach a lot that's not our you know it's not our style but it's certainly one that's misunderstood and misrepresented out there with that being said Matt I think we need to start talking about this piece of it um to push back a little bit um from some of the community members that think differently on how we're actually expending our dollars and the results that we're getting um yeah they can sit on and take a look at the MCA in that one day but overall I think we got a lot to talk about in a positive way and a lot of great things happen for the amount of money that we're spending per student as well as the amount of Revenue coming in per student again in comparison to school districts of our size 3 to 4 th000 adms and uh Statewide aage car Kudos M kudos to as our staff can I can I get a motion to accept the audit report for 202 second uh motion by Pat second by Ben is there any other discussion Mr chair I would like to just highlight a couple things first of all second Cara her work I mean if you look at the trend where we were five years ago uh where we are now with our spending our revenue and our fund balance I don't think it's a accident and you know to see when Cara joined and in the work she's done here she deserves a lot of credit for helping us get where we are so hats off to her um as I've been saying and we've been talking about publicly a lot lately uh the we're in uh the year that we just audited represents the second year of a balanced budget we're in our third right now uh again that's not a message that we've talked about a lot a lot of these are part of the community meetings that I'm holding and messages that I'm getting out there I think we used our Co funds as well as anybody did to Stave off cuts and put us in a better position financially uh I think that it shows that the cuts that we made and the hard decisions that you made as a board uh paid off or our paying paying paying off and not that it's over or we're done but it you know when you make hard decisions you want to know that they're worth it and that it's mattering and the the decisions that you've made have mattered so I think those are some other real important parts that the stories that this this audit tells that uh we need to make sure that our community understands and that be you know uh put out there to piggy back on that uh uh we spend less per student and our property taxes are considerably less than uh our neighbors um not by a little bit by a lot and that's a message that I don't think is getting out as well as it needs to be either in the Statewide do Statewide too yeah so we have a motion in a second um any further discussion all in favor say I I I opposed the audits accepted uh thank you very much Karen and Jackie good job Ken thank you thank you Jackie thanks next item on the agenda is to approve the minutes of the 10212 24 regular school board meeting do I have a motion so move David move by David second by P discussion hearing none all in favor say I oppos school oh okay um sorry that that I got scratched from the agenda oh um officer Scott could not attend tonight will that be rescheduled yes I should have mentioned that um next item on the agenda is to approve the October 2024 claims in the amount of 10,875 62 so move move by Ben second second by Mindy discussion hearing none all in favor say I I post the 2024 October claims have been approved next item on the agenda is the consent agenda reminder that there is no discussion on the consent agenda and the consent agenda consists of staff related and routine items that do not uh require discussion there have a motion to approve the agenda approved motion by Ben second second by David all in favor say I I I opposed consent agenda is approved next item on the agenda is to approve a resolution certifying the results of the November 5th 2024 general election please note that the election canvasing board which included uh board member David Marty and myself met prior to this meeting to Canvas the results um as we can as we canvas those results candidates gusterson Goodman and Cowen having received the highest number votes are elected to a four-year term beginning January 6 25 do I have a motion to approve the resolution so move move by pth second second by Mindy discussion all in favor say I I I was just going to congratulate two of them there in the audience welcome to the new new board members uh next item on the agenda is approve a resolution authorizing issuance of certificates of election and directing school district clerk to perform other election related duties move by Ben second second by P discussion all in favor say I I I I opposed resolution is approved next item on the agenda approve resolution to establish a TIF district 1-17 superintendent it grows thank you Mr chair in your packet you'll find the resolution that's been uh prepared and fored by the city the city's uh working to be proactive with housing the recent County study I believe uh indicated the need for 885 housing units within the county uh and with the potential for expansion for a number of Industries in our community that number could grow even substantially beyond that um the Tiff here is not a housing Tiff District uh which would require these to be affordable or subsidized uh units uh this is an economic development Tiff so that requires them to be market rate units uh the facility would be 132 units uh mixture of one and two and three-bedroom four store unit right by West rap Elementary so um that kind of gives some context cities received some outside funding and financing to uh to help make this project come to pass uh they are expecting to begin construction this spring um and you know from an impact in the short term obviously this keeps property tax the same as it is right now uh through the through the term of the Tiff um but with the potential for even a few new students moving in there uh that you know that'll work out net well for us uh in short term and then I think even better in the long term so I think it's a good move from a partnership standpoint from a strategic standpoint um and I'd recommend approval motion to approve the resolution so move by Ben second second by Mindy any other discussion all in favor say I I I oppos resolution is approved next item on the agenda is informational only the truth and Taxation public meeting is scheduled for December 9th 2024 at 6 PM in the district Educational Services Center Orland next item on the agenda is to accept the first reading and approve the following policies in one reading with follow uh in accordance with policy 208 superintendent gross thank you as we've discussed and you've done in the past the board has ability to in certain circumstances to make policy changes in one reading these represent policies that fall under that category uh and have been updated by msba 509 enrollment of non-resident students uh the significant changes there were legislatively to enrollment procedures for parents preschool students disabilities uh policy 512 uh the the changes in there are consistent with Minnesota statute 121 a80 uh predominantly around student freedom of speech and updating the language from print to include media uh 515 there's some grammatical changes in there some reference changes in there and a specific authorization uh of the release of student contact information for post secondary planning and deed under certain circumstances for certain students and then 535 has some clarification in it on rights of individuals with disabilities as it relates to service animals so again these are either small or legislatively driven uh and the board has the ability to approve these with one reading under policy 208 I'd recommend doing so so moved moved by David second second by pth discussion all in favor say I opposed uh those those are all approved uh next item on the agenda accept the first reading of policy 522 Title 9 uh superintendent gr thank you in 2024 the US Department of Ed office of civil rights released the latest version of the final rule amend amending Title 9 regulations most districts including ours had an existing title 9 sex non-discrimination policy it's not a new policy for us um and what is being presented to you is an updated version of that based on a couple options one being a a really long policy that msba put together close to 30 pages that contain significant procedural items and proed uh uh forms and things like that and another one that was focused on the specific requirements of the federal law and that's the one that's being presented to you the one that aligns specifically with uh the requirements of federal law so it's much more um streamlined was R was reviewed by myself director of HR special services director and principles and the uh policy Review Committee will be looking at it on Thursday of this week uh prior to the second reading and um we'll be back to you on December 16th for approval so reminder this is uh uh first reading only no actions required tonight um next item on the agenda is to accept the second reading and approve policy 610 field trips superintendent gr yeah thanks uh we presented this policy to the board on October 21st and upon request checked with msba on it uh as a result we removed um quite we removed the procedure and guidelines part out placed them in a separate document so we can modify those a little bit more um as we need to at the uh recommendation of msba the substance of the policy really hasn't changed just the organization of it um and as indicated in the board uh report previously a lot of people were involved in the development of this and review of this it's been I think the one of the longer policies we've been working on but I think important and again reflects something that we do in our school district it's uncommon um and definitely above average uh giving kids opportunities looking for a motion P second second by Mindy uh discussion a lot of work a lot of work and this uh directly impacts opportunity and safety of our students yes all in favor say I I opposed U policy 610 is approved next item on the agenda is to approve nomination of Melissa bar to the range Association of municipalities and schools Rams uh board of directors so Mo move by fat second second by Mindy discussion all in favor say I I opposed nomination Melissa bar to the range Association Rams is approved next item on the agenda uh board report one do you want to start oh yeah I can um I only got a few things jayen couldn't be here today but I think she said she'll be at the next one but um winter sports started I think last week for girls hockey they're playing right now actually then I know a few more of girl Sports started out this week um student council have their first meeting today playing snowball which is December 14th which is really early compared to past few years um Key Club is hosting their annual blood drive which is November 27th and they still have I was talking the thumb showell today they have a lot of spots still open to public if people are interested in donating and then we're trying to get like a little partnership with Big Fork to get some information so kind of more to come on that hopefully we're going to me and Jaden were're talking what kind of game a little more information updates on them so we'll try to have that for the next few meetings that come that's all thanks P thank you Mr chair um we had a FR benefit committee meeting and uh trend is running about six to 8% for premium increase which is pretty good even though it's an increase but Far Cry from double digits that we've had in the past and the fund balances uh getting to it needs to be it's grown so uh the plan is the progam of switching our plan is paying off the long run so I know it was a long two years to get where we're at with it but it was well worth it and again thanks to staff and Matt Cara everybody else involved there to to make it happen um Rams uh we met last week uh we're finalized in our budget we have another meeting this Thursday and we started our negotiations with our executive director uh for a new employment contract coming up for the first of the year so um moving forward with that and just kudos to Dan and his staff at middle school for the Veterans State p and Hing the veterans just another ball out of the park it's a great uh re program so hats off to the staff there in that so that's all I have Mr chair thank you that's couple things uh boys and girls club met on October 15th board uh still uh we have shut down the uh uh temporarily at least the uh Greenway site and uh are operating out of the Grand Rapids site uh the biggest challenge the Boys and Girls Club has is finding uh employees finding people that can work endowment committee approved 58,000 Plus in Grants it's world's best Workforce uh met of the 22nd uh Mark and I uh signed on closing for the former administration building on the 25th on the 28th uh city council uh met and discussed franchise fees that are going to affect um the school um they approved the franchise fees but they haven't approved the structure yet and uh we will be following up with them on that November first we had uh student of the month uh at uh um Grand Rapids High School uh glorious event it's really wonderful to uh uh recognize these students there students that generally don't get recognized very often so this is a great opportunity um ESP uh Labor Management committee met on the 7th uh reviewed uh a lot of work about uh reporting uh requirements and so forth Veterans Day program was astonishing uh and I do want to also uh credit the students that spoke at that uh credit the uh um middle the middle school band and the Middle School choir uh that uh added to the Celebration was really very powerful and very crowded event uh and the fajita fundraiser to support the Spanish program uh was was a lot of fun and a special note of appreciation to elpto for the work that they did uh and helping to realize that thank you Ben I guess I would first of all like to congratulate our three new board candidates Thomas Guston Ashley Goodman and David C congrats and welcome aboard uh start reading that financial report um I also attended the Veterans Day ceremony at the middle school they do just a fantastic job and you know in addition to the parts that David and Pat mentioned U Andie carlile's group that went to Washington DC did a real nice presentation on uh some of the things they learned about veterans U while they were out there and uh uh also David mentioned we signed off on the administration building kind of continuing our uh reducing our footprint in the district which uh as superintendent gross mentioned has been one of our goals um next item on the agenda superintendent report thank you also the the other two properties too those were closed on the 31st so uh a lot of that really that kind of wrapped up the properties that we have available uh and that are priorities to sell except for except for one that's kind of in the middle of a it's a landlocked uh Checker boarded in piece but um we'll uh we'll see if we can come up with some other ideas for that one um uh I'd like to congratulate our new board members too uh we're looking forward to working with you and uh um and all that if you have questions make sure and reach out in between uh we tried to put together a good onboarding plan and and hopefully that plays itself out we haven't had to do a lot of that there's been a lot lot of consistency over time and so we want to support support you as much as we can um I think tracking outside of school board too looking at our own State Legislature uh you know the with the house being tied up that will be interesting and I think that could create some opportunities for us um but that'll remain to be seen so we'll see how that plays out uh I think other other election important items uh Statewide 28 districts were out looking for operating reference 30 questions and only 11 passed and of those uh seven were rural that passed so I think uh it put puts an exclamation point on the disparities that exist between rural school districts and and Metro school districts I think another piece of inform information that was interesting that M the rural Ed Association put together the average request uh on Election Day was 1,67 a little bit more than we asked for actually um and uh the inflation adjusted formula allowance in other words if the legislature would have left the formula alone 20 years ago would be $1,300 more than it is now so districts are trying to make up for inflation that's what this is about that's what our ask was about um it's not about you know bells and whistles and things beyond what we really want to do and the best we can for kids it's about making up for uh increasing cost so and uh just a a real indicator that state funding hasn't kept up with even just inflation meaning we have less money to spend in real dollars every year so our needs aren't going away the needs of these other districts aren't going away that failed referendums and and uh there were some big districts in the Metro that failed Lakefield failed Farmington failed Prior Lake failed uh anandale failed so some of these in and around the metro and that I think will get people's attention as well that that uh changing continue to need to be made um thank you for me mentioning Veterans Day uh I think we do a really really good job around here with that uh whether it's Cohasset or uh the Middle School to honor those that have served I think we do a good job around here of of maintaining our commitment to patriotism and our country and um kids still say the Pledge with all the same words that I did when I was a kid um here even though uh you know rumors get out there that they don't um Pat mentioned The Fringe benefit committee the work that's been done there again hard decisions that mattered and that's paying off and so our in some cases I think it's important that our staff um they deserve to know that the changes that they've made the work that they're doing changing Health Care picking up extra work you know taking on extra duties all those things that they've had to do to make our budget work like we heard from tonight uh all those changes are mattering and they deserve to hear that uh last thing you know we msba asked uh districts across the state to fill out a survey um about some change legisl the impact some legislative changes then it was a lot of work for our office staff uh but it was interesting some of the things that that they asked about and that we shared um for instance how many hourly employers employees filed for summer break unemployment in 23 159 and in 24 163 employees filing for summer break unemployment that those are new costs um whether it's to the state or us those are new costs it's a new Dynamic that the legislature created how many summer jobs uh openings weren't filled in 2003 15 were not filled in 2419 were not filled because there was an option to get unemployment um fortunately we haven't had to cancel programming it's just been that much more complicated to run how many employees resigned just prior to the start of the school year N9 in 23 and in 24 uh this year 14 so in August we get late retirements or resignations because uh employees would like to draw out employment all summer again the impact of this legislation that legislators did not acknowledge foresee or care about really I I don't know which one it is um but it's impacting school districts like ours in real costs and with really not dollars to to back that up so just some data that I wanted to share that we shared with msba they're going to use that data to you know develop talking points or legislative platforms as well and we'll see what happens but I think this session will be interesting we need to continue to Advocate um and uh create some more Equity between especially between rural and Metro districts that's all Mr chair thank you reminder upcoming Schoolboard committee meetings and meeting dates are posted on each agenda school board meeting agendas can be found on the district website and at the designated posting site of the isd318 Educational Services Center is there any other business to come before the board Julius anyone signed up for public input no I not meeting Jour thank you