##VIDEO ID:9oDuYWkhRm8## what we'd like to do is move some of the principal reports into the workshop anybody want to volunteer okay Dan made mo didn't see me make the move um good evening guys we uh we had a great first day um as many of you know our first day of school is freshman orientation we also have new students um attended as well um but we had about 280 uh freshmen incoming freshmen um in our building and maybe about 20 20 to 30 um news students are transfers um so it was a great day uh to see all the Freshman come in um get them into the gym for an assembly um break them up into their groups before they kind of venture off in the high school um it's a good feeling we get a chance to address them uh both Andy myself and uh activities Director D Dale Christie it's a chance to kind of talk about the initiation into the into the high school and uh all the great things that we have to offer um also get him out on the football field and uh teaching the school song which was always fun led by Dale Gunnerson and uh so we put it up on the big board and I tell you they only had uh they only needed two cracks out this year so I think this freshman's class is uh is pretty sharp so we're we're excited about game day um with their vocal abilities um but we get them through the the high school we do some iPads some health screening um get them a school tour and then introduce them to uh some of our support staff you know the complexity of our building you know eight eight different floors they don't get to see all of them but they uh we have eight floors in our in our building makes it pretty intimidating coming from a single level middle school but at the same time the choice the um the ability to uh have that feeling of Independence um and really have to rely on on some of your own navigation when it comes down to it um is is is pretty inspiring with their bright eyes and uh their great attitudes teachers overwhelmingly were really excited about this year um but having kids in the building um and going through that mock schedule um really felt really felt positive felt good so we're looking forward to tomorrow when we get the rest of our upper classman in um but yeah it was a it was a great day so any questions from the board thanks Daren thank you Dan Adams Darren hoffstead High School um I guess I'd like to back up just a maybe a week last Thursday we had our open house and it just felt the best it's felt in a bunch of years the energy was back the parents were back and since Co and I hate to say that word because it is still out there and we're not naive to that but it felt really good last Thursday and it felt really good today we had board member Mr Marty along with Mr maduri at the building today and I guess I'd just like to cite a couple of examples I thought were Priceless and I think you got to see the whole Spectrum the kid that got out of the car and could not have run any faster for the front of the school like I am here and I am ready so energized that felt really good and then the couple that the car door opens and its mom Reaching Across the lap to open the door you got to go now so the whole spectrum is there but it felt really good the energy was very positive um staff very positive and just those first couple weeks of getting those positive Impressions this is this these are the procedures the PBIS respectful responsible safe and kind and then tomorrow we'll start with orientations for each of those grades and just to model the behavior um away for the day you approve this policy and that also came up last week it was the away for the day time for me to talk to the sixth grade and there was this uncomfortable silence and I'm just like okay who's gonna speak up and one dad boldly goes thank you so much for doing this and I was like thank you for your support and it just it it just brought the temperature down in the room because I think people are maybe have a little angst it's like I can't reach Junior 247 but it's okay because we had land lines and we had desk phones and office phones for years so um that felt really good one little interaction with the kid today about away for the day and I was just say Mr Adams I've used the phone for the last two years at lunchtime now I can't as an eighth grader it's say that's exactly it okay so it went really really well two thumbs up very encouraged and appreciate the support the a for the day is a it's a really good start any questions thank you than forbo good evening thanks for having us do a double report here picky back up Mr H the high school energy was awesome staff energy was awesome our new staff members quickly engaged and just made the de really welcoming um to give a perspective okay maybe our nth graders I'll share a little personal story from today as I jumped into one of the small group of support staffs at the end in the I theater just to check on the other doing um like five minutes like well you want to come in saying anymore I can Ramel five man no problem and uh so talk a little bit just reemphasized some of our morning messages to the group and last minute I just said you guys have any questions for me and I just waited use proper wait time and I saw the group in the back kind of talking go they drawn straws see it's a short straw or something and Al young lady puts her hand up I said yes what's your question she goes where did you get your glasses like wow that's where they're going already they're they're comfortable group and uh was pretty fun um but ALC wise um that record today I did not get over here today but all but two are showed up today which is unheard of for day one so that's encouraging exciting um and we'll hopefully see the same to up the rest of the week um getting going right away so questions for me no no I kind of want to ask where you got your glasses but thank you thank you guys hi everyone I am Ryan sley I'm the new principal at Cohasset Elementary and I'm representing kasset east and west and so just happy to be here um honestly I I would like Dan I'd back up to to Really the week before school started and the um just the incredible work that our teachers have been putting in at the elementary level um and a lot of them uh a lot of them put in a lot of thought and attention to detail and getting ready for the kids um obviously there's been a transition for a vast majority of our Elementary staff this year and um they took it that transition and they ran with it and did an incredible job getting things ready uh my son and I walked through the hallways of kasset the night before uh today before the first first day of school and we actually went into classrooms and delivered some things and the comment that that we kept talking about is how incredible the the classrooms looked and how much time teachers put in to getting things ready so kids could come and have a great experience um I know that with transitions of buildings there's Kinks to work out our our building routines aren't perfect and they're not going to be it's going to take time um and that's okay we're all right with that uh there's conversations obviously at every building of how do we get better and um I know I was a part of that today at the end of the day I know that happened at East and West as well um what was really cool is having a son that goes to east he talked about uh you know he was at West last year and now he's at East and I I said did it feel like different are you did it feel like you were now an East kid and he's kind of like Dad no I just felt like I was going to school and that's what we want we're not Cohasset we're not East we're not West we're Grand Rapids we're Big Fork we go to school here ISD 32 we're proud of that um so I'm I'm very proud of the hard work that the teachers put in and that resulted in the The Amazing Smiles and um and experiences that kids had today uh at all three schools so any questions Ryan I just want to uh you've got some big shoes to step into kasset kasset uh has been recognized as one of six Schools of Excellence in the state of elementary schools for state of excellence in Minnesota and uh we expect you to carry that flag forward yeah I'm really really proud I'm really proud of the work that has been done um you know and I I think think it's not a a one person deal it's it's families it's kids it's teachers it's esps it's custodians there's a there's a cool feel at kassa I'm really proud to be a part of that and help Le the way so thank you great thank you thanks hi everyone I'm kend C principal in big now I know why the rest of you were jumping up wanted to follow Dr sigley but I I'll s the same things that um my colleagues had said we did a really good start today and and again backing up to open house last week um my staff is commenting on how heavily attended it was sometimes weather makes a difference there and we had a beautiful night and we still had a packed house it's always fun in a K12 setting you know the elementary families are coming in but they've got older siblings and often times those older siblings will make sure to wander down and see their old elementary teachers but then they also kind of hit that that high school hallway just check things out you know maybe calm their nerves a little bit too and it's just it's just fun to see that energy um our day went really well today it was super smooth um and I was thinking about why did it feel so smooth this year it's not like it didn't feel smooth before but wasn't this smooth well a year ago we were trying to button up a construction project we trying to get our instructional spaces ready to go and and kind of coming in with a wire on some of those and I thought well that's why um but again a lot and and Dr suie spoke about it well we had a lot of movement in in Grand Rapids but um things going on in Big Fork too and just they don't these things don't happen by chance these smooth starts that everybody talked about in all of our buildings um there's going to be glitches there's going to be things you work them all quickly but a lot of that is it's it's gers playing it's our ad group coming together planning is professional development happening over um over the summer as well and I know our leadership teams and all our buildings have been meeting um throughout August um our our PBIS Behavior teams have been meeting throughout um these months trying to get things ready to go so we can roll those things out to staff um out at the same time that happens in all of our buildings not just Big Fork but there's a lot of planning that goes in teachers are in as Ryan talked about um weeks ahead of time trying to get things ready make sure they they get their rooms off to Good Start make sure that it looks like um all of our students were ready for that they belong there they're part of what we got we had new students in the school today it was really fun to see um I had some new staff both teachers and and esps and and that was fun too um most notable um to the board and and the support of um making sure that our our music program in Big Fork didn't go away um we had a new music teacher start today I checked in with her at the end of the day to see how her day went and looked like things went really well that room was looking like music room again and that's that's a lot of fun there's a lot of positive energy around that um we had two new custodians in our building over um over the summer um budd's not totally new to the building but first time he's been a leite custodian there as well as Jan and I so many compliments from staff about how they came back and found their room so just you know it was it was a great start it was smooth it's the kind of positive energy that we want to be able to kick things off with and ride that momentum as much as possible any questions for me thanks Ken app clay are you uh doctor sumed up for all elementary a summed up okay thank you Mr chair I just like to say uh thanks and congratulations to all the principles and all the buildings uh you've uh had a tough summer a lot of buildings have uh classrooms have moved around uh staff has moved around uh and you've really stepped up staff has stepped up incredibly and we've seen that uh as a board uh and it's much appreciated that uh everyone's kind of pulling together for the good of our students much appreciated thank you and congratulations on your role anybody else this time we're going to adjourn the workshop and we'll come back into session at 6:30 for the board [Music] meeting e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e know like it writes really nice iear David you ready yes you ready sorry about that board meeting order please stand for the pledge pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all probably noticed that our agenda is under a new format now that's aligned with our six strategic IC goals um first item on the agenda tonight um would be to approve the minutes of the 81924 regular school board meeting do I have a motion so moveed by Melissa second by Mindy discussion all in favor say I I I opposed minutes are approved next item on the agenda is to approve the following retirements Casey good evening board we have le n with 11 years of service Stan retirement recomending approval move by amend second second David discussion Mr chair I've had the and Julie we've had the benefit of working with Leif in our building and he's done an awesome job keeping our offices the old admin building the boardroom everything uh tip shape and so really grateful for his work all in favor say I iOS retirements approved next item on the agenda is the consent agenda um on our consent agenda we have Staffing and routine agenda items there's no discussion of Staff items um non- Staffing items must be pulled from the consent agenda prior to discussion if you desire to do so um we're not going to read down the list um but they are on the agenda do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so mov moved by Melissa second second by Mindy all in favor say I I I post consent agenda is approved next item on the agenda is to approve an ESP request for General leave of absence for both casle we have a request before you for a general leave of absence this would be good for one year there is no pay or benefit implications um but it would retain both senority should he choose to return following working on his degree and recommending approval of the general Le for both C Castle ESP second second by Melissa discussion uh Casey is this uh in compliance and in keeping with our P practices yes it is okay thank you further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I post uh the ESP request for General leave is approved next item on the agenda approve ESP request the general leave absence Brittney follow casc the next lead request is for Britney funnel Britney's still in the district working in um the admin professionals unit is requesting a leave for a year um just in case if there were any budget reductions that she would retain her seniority and again it is consistent with others I'm recommending approval of the general leave for Britney funnel ESP so move David move by David second second bya discussion hearing none all in favor say I I opposed request for General leave is approved next item on the agenda is to accept the first reading and approve following policies in one reading in accordance with policy 28 development adoption and implementation of policies superintendent gross thank you Mr chair as we've done in the past and as provided for in policy 208 is indicated the board may consider approve policies in one reading when the changes are not substantive or are in accordance with state law or statutes which supersede our policies the policies presented here all fall within one or both of those conditions and if you've uh had the chance to look through all those you can see that they range from simple uh simple language changes to uh language changes like I said that line statute I'd recommend approval so moved moved by Melissa second D second by David discussion hearing none all in favor say I I oppos first reading uh the following policies is approved next item on the agenda is board reports Jaden do you want to go first sure thank you today was the first day um for grades nine and under at fids and tomorrow will be for the rest of the high school students will join tomorrow today was an orientation so we showed them all the different clubs that are available at theis high school um sports are really getting in GE almost all sports have had like a scrimmage or a game already so we're in full force there um starting next week all clubs will already be having their meetings so we can start planning future events as in Homecoming coming up in a few weeks thank you I have nothing nothing David uh stopped in at the open house at the Middle School uh last week tremendous amount of excitement and energy uh and followed up today welcoming students back to the first day of school again uh both staff and students energy and excitement it was great to be there um I was at East Elementary this morning for the third fourth and fifth graders coming in and there was a lot of excitement and I'm just trying to say without because it kind of tears me up every re time I don't know if it's my age or what but um standing in the hallway just as people were coming in lots of kids coming in and there's a little boy who's standing to the side he's just standing there he's just waiting you know you can see him looking out the window he's waiting for something and I'm not sure if he's waiting for his mom to get through you know to take him to class or whatever and about the time I was like hey do you need some help he's standing there I see another little boy coming through the door and those two little boys they grabbed each other and they gave each other the biggest hugs and they were like woohoo like you know hey I haven't seen you how is your summer and I thought that's it that's why this day is fun I mean it's fun for the teachers too but it was fun and so that kind of was the best part of my whole day was just watching those two those two young men just kind of find each other again after all summer so otherwise it was really smooth uh Mr Linder and I looked at each other at like 823 and it was quiet as a mouse I mean everybody was in and yeah it went it went well everybody had nothing but a good thing to say I'm sure there were hiccups and stuff along the way but for the most part um happy safe kids so I attended the Big Fork advisory last week um boy they sure are excited about their new music teacher and their music program that really just is you know carrying a lot of energy up there and that's that's really good that uh we got that program in place um I was at West Elementary this morning and of course the funnest part is watching the new kindergarteners come in here just just you know little kids with huge backpacks and they're so excited you know and uh that's all I have great superintendent's report superintendent gross thank you uh we as you heard tonight from the principles we had great attendance at open houses last week at all the buildings that's fun to see that sort of bounce back and I don't know if it's just a matter of time or the year or what it was but great attendance and great chance for our community to get in and see what we do uh great first day of school and one of the things that I was struck by as I was uh in the buildings an hour into that day kids were falling into routines um because our teachers had done such a good job of communicating and laying out expectations and ensuring they knew what to do uh you wouldn't have known it was the first day of school it was just striking to me how uh well kids adjusted and got back into it and you know really for a lot of the students it's fair to say a lot it was their first first day in a new building um and so they they did a really really good job of that I'd say you know what what happened between the bells went really well I think the coming to school and uh whether that was on our buses or drop off we have a lot of Kinks to work out still there uh we had a lot more volume today of drop off than we'll have in the future and so that will change a lot of school pictures and fun stuff in the morning um I know the pickup today took a lot longer than normally it does uh usually longer this first week um and I know there were some frustrations among our community about how long things take and the changes that are there that will get better over time and so uh you know we just have to ask for patience on the part of our community there as as everybody adjusts to new um I was talking earlier that if you look at how many kids we're talking about 600 at East and 600 at West we're talking about 1,200 children in those buildings uh that's a lot of cars it's a lot of buses there a lot of traffic and so um a lot of new our transportation system went through a lot of changes this summer uh it uh we're using an entirely different uh process to get kids to school where all the kids are coming to the Middle School island in the morning for a transfer that's different it's the same as it is after school and has been in after school but it's different for our morning morning routine so that took a little bit longer this morning um they had to do all kinds of rerouting uh including the elimination of at least one maybe two routes I can't remember part of that has to do with saving money and some of it has to do with just our ability to find drivers so big changes there uh I downloaded our app the the my ride K12 app it's incredible I could I was sitting there at my house today watching my the kids in my House's bus come uh I could track it in real time uh as it was coming so we knew if it was on time or not that was really neat and that same app lists what time the bus is supposed to get there what time it's supposed to drop off and that'll be a great communication Tool uh as well um we had we had because we had all those changes uh our transportation department needed new bus requests and we had less than half of the requests that we needed by the due date and so our Transportation people have been routing and routing and routing and adding and adding and adding like crazy the last few weeks um I think there were 2300 requests 1,400 of those came after the deadline and so um that really put them under the gun and we bet we started communication about that early this spring um and so I get that sometimes our what we have to say gets lost in the wash and gets lost in emails and things but it's been a lot for them to get done and get through and so uh just need a lot of patience but we had a safe day uh it maybe took longer than anybody wanted and maybe things didn't go smooth that way but kids were safe um and uh that's our number one priority when it comes to getting kids to and from school um the other thing that I think has to be mentioned is some of what we're dealing with is new routines um and more people in different places and some of that will move itself out work itself out what's unavoidable and PE are Community can't stop understanding is that some of the changes leading to these times and waiting longer have to do with the reductions we've made there are 70 plus people less to help with supervision to help watch to help make sure things happen to get back to people with answers and there's really just there's no way to just dismiss that and just assume that we can have 70 less people helping and have it not affect how it feels and how we operate and that's an adjustment that we all have to to deal with and and um you know just recognize uh the feedback about grade level building so far has been good and so I think that'll be great to see both on the teacher side of things and you know you could walk in the hallway today at West for instance and there was an entire Kindergarten wing and they were dealing with all kindergarten things in that wing and I think that will prove itself to be really really useful over time um but just like we have high numbers in some classes and have people doing two or more jobs uh we're going to have longer lines and it's going to take longer to hear back and that's just about running leaner and there's no way around that um but overall a really positive day and um and I'm looking forward to the year uh like one of our principles mentioned our staff did an incredible job putting time this summer whether that was unpacking boxes or getting trained or um building relationships that needed to get built I got more communication from uh teachers this summer than I ever did kind of leading up to the last to to today and so appreciate that um have to take the time and just like reiterate what Mr Marty said about kasset and the School of Excellence that's a very unique honor um and Cohasset certainly deserves that staff there are incredible and I'm uh really appreciative of Jill wheelock's work there as a leader and I'm very confident in uh Dr seagle's ability to continue to move that building along and he's he's more than up for the challenge of confident of that and uh then finally the Minnesota Schoolboard Association moved Schoolboard appreciation month to September and I think it's fitting with school starting it makes sense um and so I just want to pass along my thanks to you uh this is not an easy job I don't think it's ever been harder than it has been in the last five or six years I don't think it's ever been harder and so thank you for your service to the community uh they're fortunate to have people that are dedicated to kids willing to put in time willing to learn uh keep kids best interest at heart so thank you for that that's all I have Mr chair thank you uh reminder upcoming Schoolboard committee meeting d are posted on each agenda um Schoolboard meeting agendas can be found on the district website and at the designated posting site at the ISD 318 Educational Services Center is there any other business to come before the board have nothing Julie is anybody put in for public input no meting is adjourned thank you let [Music]