##VIDEO ID:igNFFVRXPOM## standing first item on the agenda approval uh next item on the agenda is the 20232 24 comprehensive achievement and Civic Readiness summary formally called the word world's best Workforce an achievement and integration progress report Ryan Deb yeah thanks for having me um if you remember last week we brought to you a pretty comprehensive report actually a very comprehensive report on our data and um it was exciting to have it there and I appreciate your engagement on that because there's a lot of amazing things going on in our district today it's not going to be so heavy data but if there's things that you would like things that you didn't get to see please ask I'm happy to share them um um this is the comprehensive achievement Civic Readiness report combined with the achievement integration as well um formerly the world's best Workforce so um again you've seen a lot of this over the course of this some time but we've have our our main goals and you can see them there and we take them very serious all children ready for school all racial and economic achievement gaps between schools are closed all students are ready for career in college and all students graduate from high school for you can remember there was another goal up there that all children um third grade are ready are at or above grade level and they've taken that off they've included now in the comprehensive plan they said all kids prek through 12 are ready I can get into that a little bit later again you can see here um it's changed in the 2024 legislative uh session I think some of the highlights again Pre K through 12 experience as well as the career in college but they also included on the bottom of their preparing students to be lifelong Learners so the requirements is to communicate a plan for upcoming school year based on the review of the goals and it should be held at the same time as the world's best Workforce and the C cacr annual public report and that's happening today these will be posted on our website um and uh we'll also put this out in our newsletter to parents as well as um any other avenues that we can if people want a hard cop will have them that available as well a little bit about our advisory committee um David Marty thanks for sitting on that it's myself Mrs Berg Kim gisinger Darren hoffstead Ruth tatter Jill welock Doug lermont and Kyle Bartholomew we are in need of more supporters we are in need of more people to if they'd like to be a part of this committee it's exciting you get to hear what's going on in the school you get to hear about our goals you get to help set goals and also you can bring recommendations and concerns to us in the school board um we meet once a month and we talk about uh many different things this year we spent time on looking at our strategic directions we spend time on looking at our new curriculum as well uh we bring programs in to talk about their program and how they're preparing kids for Beyond um Beyond high school so part of our requirements by the world's best Workforce or cacr is to make sure we have qualified staff in front of our most neediest kids and you can see here we have a very highly qualified staff at the bottom it says 52% of our teachers have advanced degrees but we have a very highly qualified staff in our district and we're happy to have that and happy to have them in front of our kids our little bit of about our demographics you can see here 15.7% of our students are students of color and there's there's the breakdown as well so a little bit about our strategies to prepare teachers for growth we have our early outs you've heard a lot about them over the course of time we have early outs set up we have them planned in advance uh teachers come in they're already aware of it they're based on our strategic directions we also have our principal trainings that are ongoing to prepare our teachers for what's to come we have our advisor program that's been kicked off and you've heard a lot about the react and and what we need to do prepare teachers to teach kids how to read in addition we have a literacy coach on staff as well that's helping to implement our our reading curriculum I'm throwing this up there it's a slide you saw uh last week but I'm putting it up there again because really our our world's best Workforce team uh looked into these we've went over them at a higher level this year and they said these we need to focus on these These are the important things that we need to to to roll out as a team um and and to do and so you can see how these are being implemented it's the Strategic directions operational plan which goes the strategy team which goes into action it's where the action that things happen that's in our early outs our Wednesday early out time is when the action's taking place when teachers are learning and growing and so our team really uh looked into them and said these are this is it and so here are the goals that were set forth within that plan and there's a lot of them Matt touched on them last week but all of these are smart have smart goals attached by 2025 x amount of % of our teachers will be here and there's some thought because our world's best Workforce Team sets goals every year and it and they really thought hey why not look at what we can do to help supporting our staff to reach these goals what training can we provide what things can we do to increase the the goals uh to student outcomes and so we we wanted to focus on staff and you can see there we have evidence-based practices we have Equitable education we have communication belonging those things directly fit into what we're trying to achieve with our world's best Workforce report again F they go on further here so next up would be our achievement and integration Report with achievement integration uh with your approval tonight fwn Samson will be up here next year hopefully um sharing out our achievement integration progress so our our goal with the achievement integration is pursue racial and economic integration increase student achievement so our 2023 2024 school year was the year one of the rotation and all goals are written in a three-year period so there's two achievement goals one integration goal and one teacher Equity goal so our first goal here is the percentage of American Indian students in 318 and post-secondary education will increase from 25% in Spring of 2021 class of 2019 to 50 50% in Spring of 2025 this goal is still in progress per MD's report rep um they the last report we have is 2022 we be we have 45 American Indian students enrolled in po postsecondary education within 16 months of graduation our goal there what are we doing targeted counseling lessons that's happening at the high school one of the things I'd like to touch on we're doing a lot at the high school with career seminars a lot of this is happening within our freshman classes of making sure we're teaching kids how to fill out a resume interviewing of that nature to prepare them for uh life after graduation and so these are happening in our freshman seminar classes and they're led by our our building counselors our goal two in collaboration with Ana shabi education Grand Rapid School District would enrich cultural awareness through an increase of opportunities you can see we've met that goal we had what are we doing we had students participate in cultural activities we increased opportunities of cultural learning in the classrooms the third goal the percentage of students entering kindergarten will show growth towards kindergarten preparedness goal still in progress 2023 uh we wanted to increase fast Bridge assessment 70% proficient in the spring of 2023 and 80% in 2025 and we had 78% of our kindergarten students proficient based on our fast Bridge assessment it's at the end of end of kindergarten spring it's a great number we're pushing for 80 what do we have going on Kindergarten Roundup and Kinder camp and our goal four 318 will increase the number of students enrolled in in uh teaching courses and this is again based on MD data with 10 in 2022 um school year sorry this isn't based on MD but this is based on oura we had 10 in 2022 school year in 15 and 2025 is our goal um it's still in progress currently we have three last year we had three students enrolled into our teaching courses we're striving to get more we're pushing for that we have a lot of things going on we have the OJ ad taught in the cultural ad sites for younger students zel implementation is still happening um we have intentional scheduling for students and we're providing crossover teaching opportunities with our an shabi education students and so um speaking of Tannis at the high school there's still a lot of things great things going on to get our students into the teaching programs with that I'll take any questions Melissa Ryan when you talk about the teaching courses is this um part of that with uh men North their program with moving more people into education yes that's part of the Class Act yes a lot of these things are going to be ongoing but uh we are implementing a lot a lot of those most of those things that you put saw up there we are currently implementing based on what we're seeing in our in our data it is realistic we're seeing if you look at evidence-based practice and rolling out the Archer uh stuff at the middle and high school we're on track with goals and so a lot of what we're doing we're seeing great progress towards what we're trying to achieve excellent thank you uh great report thanks for being on the team David anything else anyone else no thank you Ryan thanks Julie has anyone signed up for public input on the world's best Workforce um next item on the agenda would be to approve the 20232 24 comprehensive achievement and Civic Readiness summary and achievement and integration progress report do I have a motion move by Mindy second David second by David discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I opposed uh the comprehensive achievement and Civic gritness summary and achievement integrated process report is approved at this time we're going to adjourn uh the meeting we'll come back into regular session of the school board at 6:30 [Music] see 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 e e e e for school please stand flag States for a motion agenda second D looking for a motion to approve the agenda Some Mo by pass second David second by David discussion all in favor say I I I post agenda is approved next item on the agenda is a principal report West Rapids Elementary Sean Martinson well J Julie's pulling that up my name is sha Martins I'm the principal at West draid Elementary School as always thank you for having me back uh let's see it's going to be a long and Oney Road I always make the joke I don't really do linear but just a few things to keep in mind if it if it gets lost sight in there I do want to say thank you to the board for your continued work especially those that will be U moving along at the end of the month here also there will be some things that I will share kind of about myself and my experience in Grand Rapids H please don't hear me say that I'm the only one that has had these experiences if it's a if it's a good thing I'm not the only one having good things if it's a pity party I'm not the only one having a pity party but I do believe at the same time that after a handful of years in the district I've been able to see kind of the EB and flow and how things have changed over time um either way with or without a microphone so this is what we have um when you come into our school you typically see the welcome let's have fun to learn together together at West we shine that is hands down me um I hear a lot of discussion and talk about things that kids maybe won't do in their life like the Vikings that's really that's great Packers that's great um but in in reality kids are much more likely to become an astrophysicist a biologist an astronaut so for me there are a handful years ago that I ditched Everything Green Bay Packers Packers and really it was because it got to the point where that was all people wanted to talk about was Packers and Vikings and although that's fun what we lose sight of sometimes is what kids could be doing so as much fun as that is keep in mind that there is quite a bit that our children can do and where they get their starts in our building so West Rapids Elementary School it was new five years ago it's absolutely hard to believe how that school came together how it rolled out how it was built through it if you don't know the history and I'll get to there in a little bit with the enrollment and how things have changed this is this is kind of the snapshot in five years of what our school look like in about a minute Pat's gonna say did you print me any handouts and I didn't we'll have you I have your captured to your attention here when we first started it was in 2020 2021 this was right when the it was after the March of the pandemic starting so this is when you started to see all sorts of different um things that nobody wants to think about anymore all sorts all sorts of compliance and masking and so you notice right away our numbers were they took a jump after the first year but they were down so that first year Not only was it during covid-19 we brought fifth grade back to the elementaries um and even myself standing here right now having lived through it I've either forgotten or selectively forgotten a lot of what we went through during this time period but this school started at the beginning of the pandemic we merged sites we merged kids we merged families and we moved forward the second year we were also a K through five facility and for the next three years we were a kindergarten through fifth grade facility as you can see our numbers kind of ebed and flowed 610 to 605 to 636 and then this past year we transitioned to whatever you'd like to call it we a primary building or kindergarten through second grade building so again we went through merging staff merging families merging kids and you can't underestimate how hard this has been and I don't want this to be any type of pity part that's why I started with I want you to know that I'm thankful I love my job I still love love the work that I do but at the same time I can say I love it and it's hard and live in the middle and again when I said not a pity party because I'm not the only one this is very difficult work that we do yourself included as a board we also added a preschool some things that we may have forgotten because we talk about budget cuts reductions addition before the start of the school year we reduced one section of kindergarten if we had been in our previous structure we wouldn't have been able to do that or we wouldn't have been able to do that without moving families around where they shouldn't go and and I'd even been talking in meeting earlier today with a district down by the metro that's considering some of the same grade level shifts and one thing we talked about was and she agreed with all of it she's like that's what we live in the previous sighting when we when we saw a small group come in it was very difficult to make that adjustment because they were split amongst multiple buildings so at the start of this year we reduced a kindergarten section but then we ended up adding three preschool rooms now in theory those preschool rooms are not a part of our building or our district but they are they also leverage um building pickup parent pickup parent drop off launch Services custodial services so let's call this bis Spade like they they're are preschool and I hope that they feel that way in the sense we try to include not only the staff but the families and everything that we communicate and that we do I'm sure there are sometimes where I forget because truly it's you preschool you're not mine but you are mine but we do try to include them so as you can see the red line um is the trend line at West over time so there is a drop from last year to this year and that was an interesting conversation with that District that I won't name because they're just in the talks but one thing she had asked is you know what did you learn when you when you did this transition one of the things that I'm learning the further we go on is keeping in mind that it's I think it's gone but we really started with that East West mentality of they're the same because for many years the first four years they were the K5 and a K5 um for some it's hard to make that transition now they're not the same anymore it's a kindergarten first and second grade building so just like I could look across the East and say your numbers are less or more I I can't do that anymore it's not the same structure there third fourth and fifth I'm kindergarten first and second the things that I see they don't see the things they see I don't see so amongst this transition of kids families sections grade levels new structure we've also implemented some pretty significant models for our instruction one of those that hopefully is not new to you but maybe to perspective board members is our work with University of Minnesota with K all which is some pretty significant it's a pretty significant investment just in time even prior to co it's been very difficult to do anything with staff development during the contractual day the substitutes aren't there the time's not there it just doesn't happen anymore at West last week we had a grade level meeting for first and second grade that each had a half a day it's the first time since prior to the covid outbreak that we had the entire grade level together at the same time there's an aster there that uh that coassin and Big Fork Bigfork weren't a part of it but at the same time like that's pretty big that we had a training during the day and work time for staff all of the same level grade level at the same time so not only do we have carel going on in the background both live and asynchronous and synchronous which is a really fancy way of saying sometimes we meet in person to learn and sometimes we meet on our own to learn we also have implemented a new Ela curriculum called wit and wisdom hopefully the families are starting to hear more and more about this I know West we send out family flyers and information about the topics that are coming the kind of questions that kids are going to be researching and exploring this is a significant investment again for um staff development for training I know this has come up before but I wanted to make sure that I hit some of the highlights of the things going on for our elementary kids I know it's skate R but they can come talk later for their own levels so the next few slides I'm going to show I have some different numbers I want you to keep this in mind I only did the schools that I worked at so when I look at this for example is my career with kindergarten from 2009 to present the red being the trend line so although there have been ups and downs um you can see that the numbers have been pretty stable you see the one big dip about 19.6 that's around the co outbreak something to keep in mind when you look at this though whenever you see a number you really have to dig deeper and dig deeper might be Sean what does that mean you're saying that the numbers are a little bit higher now than they were back in 2009 they were so in 15 years not only have the numbers gone up a little bit but we've also reduced the kindergarden pair professionals so back in 2009 this was a teacher and an assistant a pair professional with that many kids now it's different I T kindergarten a long time ago in a previous district and I can tell you that it would be unfair to say that it's the same it'd be unfair to say that what I taught in kindergarten was like preschool now they are not the same the rigor is extremely you couldn't compare the two so for me to say I used to teach kindergarten I did that's what we called it at the time that's not what it looks like anymore so over the course of 15 years not only have we increased a little bit but we've also increased the expectations and reduced some of the supports um the other thing I wanted to keep in mind was if somebody looked at this they might say oh so our kindergarten numbers over 15 years have been steady no because we we reduced sections in there so back in 2009 we probably had 11 or 12 at a minimum sections where now we have nine so the numbers of the averages look similar but keep in mind the section sizes have changed same thing for first grade you see the trend line goes down a little bit there's dips throughout those 15 years the same thing there this is a class size average so the sections may have changed over time and in most cases they have 15 years ago we had Cohasset Forest Lake Southwest Murphy Bigfork same thing for second grade second grade we've seen it the the trend line really stays the same but you see the ups and downs over the years the thing to keep in mind is prior to switching to the like where we are now prior to switching to East and West and having multiple grade levels in a building it was really hard to adjust so 15 years ago if I came to Pat and the board and said this is where we're at how could we reduce it was much more difficult because they were spread across multiple sites now if we see an increase we can be more responsive to those numbers or a decrease third grade in the red line that's on there is because those students to the right of the red line are now East Elementary but at East again you see and it's interesting with most of those drops toward the right that's at the start of the pandemic and moving forward where we saw the drops and numbers fourth grade the same thing the trend line stays pretty much similar and again this is class size averages not the total class size fifth grade this one's kind of wonky to look at because I didn't I hadn't had fifth grade prior to coming to West so that's why the numbers kind of shoot straight up when you look at class size averages K through five and I know this isn't my building but fifth grade is the high section those are 30 30 to 32 kids I think in general and keep in mind those classrooms were built for 30 so my son for example who's in a fifth grade classroom and the teachers do the best that they can and they kind of paint it just look at how great this is it's not lost to me that I walk in and go so where'd you put the other two like where's their locker and they do the best that they can but again you can definitely feel the pinch on the class sizes this one I just had to work in here because um I don't know if it's come across any of your Radars about parent pickup and parent drop off at the elementary I wish and I had shared this with the family I've been doing for a while I know what I'm doing and I have a really good staff it started very hectic it also started very hectic when we opened West the first year we opened West with parent pickup the line was out to what was it at the time it wasn't it was Ground Round I think it was out to Highway 2 so if you're not sure or 169 P Pokey whatever we call it the point being even at that time I said just give us time like we know what we're doing with the help of wegworth and the the city when we first open we started to identify new lines these buildings were built for one pickup line we didn't last a day we needed two the same thing still holds true that we have two but our our parent pickup at the end of the day is actually faster than it's ever been today we were done at about three o'clock it that's there's an aster there Mondays and Tuesdays is after school learning academy so it should have been about 305 but the reality is we've now come to the point where we were super slow to super fast at West we do a pickup number system and there's a couple reasons why we do a number system three-digit numbers are a lot quicker to call out than names and grades and levels it also provides a visual there's a whole system behind it but for me there's a pretty big safety component so when you come through West at the end of the day when it's very busy and you'll see the numbers in a minute what it looks like on a daily average we're not tying up our radios if we're on the radio it's because we need to find a kid or something's changed so this would be the daily average throughout the year that spike in the middle I have no idea it was a Wednesday I looked it up there wasn't anything fancy that day I think we had double entry it's the only thing that makes sense when you go by average and Clayton and I were looking at this and it really didn't make sense until we look deeper so our daily average is it's about 200 kids are getting picked up every day so we have two different lines whether it's 50 you know 55 45 or 60 40 we typically see I'll just use 6040 as my split in the morning we typically see 60% of our parents drop their kids off at the end of the day we see 40% pick up so there's a considerable amount of drop off in the morning and if I get to the point later where I get kind of whiny about how tough things have gotten that's a pinch Point uh a pinch point to the point where I've looked for volunteers for a parent pickup nobody takes us up on it because they have to deal with adults and unfortunately that is one thing I've seen in my career really twist is how most people are really good most people are really kind most people are great to work with with but that small percentage that has always been there has gotten even more toxic to the point where we have no volunteers that want to work in there I make the joke in the morning with families of at West Elementary School if things are going difficult we smile and we wave with five fingers and most figure out what the other version is but the reality is we have some parents that they don't want to help because of the behavior of adults and I'll get there a little bit later with Staffing and how tight we are there but the part that struck us kind of odd was why is Friday so low and I told Clayton oh I know why that is the numbers on here are only the kids that are picked up in a car it doesn't count buses and it doesn't count early pickups early pickups as you can imagine toward a Friday pick on hockey I always do like hockey tournaments on a Thursday Friday even in local we see most of the kids picked up even earlier so they're not in those numbers so the reality is Friday early pickups are pretty big where that hits us is really trying to be an efficient school because we get it families have places to go they have things to do I had shared a message with families probably last week and said if you ever call the school and you have to leave a message and you find yourself saying I always have to leave a message the reason why you always have to leave a message is that particular day we had 50 to 60 end of day changes before noon and what we'll often get is again that you know the majority people just leave a message they trust us it goes really well but there's a small group that calls again and again and again and again and they leave a message leave a message leave a message leave a message so that ties up our staff so even though it looks like well you've got two people in front one does attendant it takes everybody my extension goes directly to my cell phone so typically it's left a message all that you know that story and then they go to my extension and then I come down and say I'm so sorry ladies I didn't realize it was a pickup change I know it's 2:45 or whatever time it is and they're not supposed to make the change but they got me on the cell and we figure it out so the point being it's a pretty big pinch Point there's a lot of changes Buton didn't believe me but I have I couldn't find one but these are the name badges since I started in Grand Rapids um it's interesting over the the time periods of I can remember what was going on during the weight gain I can remember what was going on during the weight lost but the reason I put this here was and I HTE this at the beginning I I want to leave I hope the community and you feel like I am extremely grateful I was raised uh the job I have is amazing don't get me wrong some things that I've seen change over the course of my career when I started in Grand Rapids we had media esps we had two in the library one did computer one did books full circle we don't have anyone in there and please like look me dead in the eye we have a library at West kids check out books we have 12,000 plus titles in our catalog so when we talk about the majority of you believe me thank you the small group that thinks that's not happening that does a disservice to the volunteers and the teachers that are making this happen we have teachers that are making sure that kids are checking out books we have volunteers we have one of our grandparents amazing people helping us make that work so yes we've cut the staff it's still happening over my career I've seen k and esps be cut I've seen art be added I've seen art be cut bus changes in routing if you remember back in the day I think the year before I started we used to drop kids off door Todo and the year I started we went to the island at the middle school somewhere in there to the point now where we've even cut back on how many changes you can have we've cut teachers we've cut departments we've cut admin we um we're we're we're short daily I mean that's that's nothing new I really have to think transportation we have one of our units is extremely short often and the only way we're C the only way we're covering lunch this year is because we have four transportation drivers that come over at the middle of every day they've been a lifesaver because would we still run lunch absolutely but those four individuals would have been staff coming from our highest need students who are already short so we can't thank people enough that chip in as a principle I don't know if you know this or not I kind of like learning everything doing everything over the course of my career I've done I think how would I phrase this I think I've done every unit job that I could legally do changed the diaper this year helped with it it's it doesn't end and that's not meant to be pity party to me but I have multiple people like me at West that are making this happen every day because they step up and they do the work and they do the work and they do the work last one um how would I explain this one so this is my career at uh at let's see kasset is the first chunk to the left where the district thought you know what let's hire him and put him in charge of 250 kids three years down the road jail Silo called and said Sean have I got a deal for you went to Murphy close to 400 kids all that time period there then there's that little chunk where I stepped out to be superintendent because I thought well let's let's let them try that now and after that I went to West and I'm still at West so I hope it's not lost on you that year after year you give me more and more and more to be in charge of so either you're not paying attention to the numbers or you trust the work that we're doing and notice I said weird because I'm not when I do this you could look at this later I tried to think of a bunch you can't even see it it's so small like what's changed in the 15 years that I've been here and I could kind of paraphrase some of this we went from social emotional learning to be like oh this is kind of new to we have PBIS in all of our schools we went from maybe a mental health worker back in 2009 if we were lucky to multiple with their own space in our facilities we've gone from instructional practices that are scientifically researched through the UFM it's so when you looked at those numbers it's not just the numbers that go up and down it's what's happened every year in those numbers so like I started this I know I'm not alone but you asked me to come to talk about West just like the staff I work with they've gone through half of the staff have been there the full five years they've gone through a pandemic they've gone through um tra staff transitions they've gone through grade level Transitions and they continue to Marshall forward if we're paying attention to what our children are learning what you're not seeing is how hard it is what you're hopefully seeing is how good it is my one of my my boys have had the same teacher at the same grade level and to see great teacher both times great work to see what my youngest is now seen as he comes through is even more exciting nobody said it was going to be easy I know that we're not the only school going through this and working through this I hope it didn't seem too whiny there's been a lot in 15 years and I know that the cuts have the cuts have been deep we feel them if you don't feel them as a community you you just don't know because you're not living it but as a parent a principal everything else all the hats that I wear very proud of our district and I want to thank you for the work that you've done and if I led a lot of this about me me me there's a we we we there's a lot of people helping with this so thank you I'll answer any questions if you want I tried to keep it short and this is this is short for me coms questions Sean I just I I appreciate your perspective from when you started to where it's at now and challenges that then an hour and how well we're actually doing it you know it's either half full or half half full there's a lot of great things happening to the staff you staff that you have in your school so thank you for doing what you do Mr chairman David Sean I want a h a special shout out to the staff that you have at West uh they are doing magic I know it's difficult I know classrooms are bigger than people are comfortable with uh I know there are all kinds of stresses I know there's a shortage of uh Paras uh but the results that you were seeing uh at the board table uh from students uh at West is really incredible uh it's known and acknowledged and I hope you'll share uh my appreciation with your staff thanks for coming tonight Sean great presentation as usual just the right amount of humor in there next next item on the agenda is to approve the minutes of the November 12th 2024 regular school board meeting do I have a motion so moveed by Melissa second David any discussion no hearing none all in favor say I I opposed minutes are approved next item on the agenda is to approve the November 2024 claims in the amount of 5,750 46350 I have a motion so moved moved by Ben second second by Mindy discussion hearing none all in favor say I I the November 2024 claims are approved next item on the agenda is to approve the resolution to accept donations and gifts for July August September 2024 clerk Marty will read the resolution this is the resolution to accept donations whereas Minnesota statutes 123b .02 subdivision 6 provides that quote the board may receive for the benefit of the district requests donations or gifts for any proper purpose and apply the same to the purpose designated in that behalf the board may act as Trustee of any trust created for the benefit of the district or for the benefit of pupils thereof including trusts created to provide pupils of the district with Advanced education after completion of high High School in the advancement of Education end quote and whereas Minnesota statutes 46.035 such acceptance are used for religious or sectarian purposes every such acceptance shall be by resolution of the governing body adopted by two-thirds majority of its members expressing such terms in full end quote therefore be it resolved that the school board of Independent School District number 318 gratefully accepts the following donations as shown in the attachments provided to the board July 2024 $252,700 in August $ 33,44 se122 and in September $2,368 44 do I have motion to approve the resolution to accept donations and Gifts moved by Pat second second by David discussion Mr chair again as I've we've done in the past just want to thank our community our partners as well as the businesses that donate to the school as well we can do some of the things that we do here that benefit our kids without that partnership out there so just a big thank you to them it's uh over $325,000 if you have any doubt on what the impact is Cara when she did budget it was it was a significant amount of the budget that came from the gifts from businesses and community members and those aik so thank you for that all in favor say I I opposed resolution is passed next item on the agenda is to approve the consent agenna do I have a motion so move moved by Ben second David second by David reminder there's no discussion on the consent agenda all in favor say I I post consent agenda is passed next item on the agenda is to approve the final 2024 payable 2025 Levy superintendent gross thank you Mr chair this is the final part of the levy cycle for our school district the cycle start starts with the approval of a preliminary Levy in the fall uh last week the board and Community were given the truth and Taxation information from Cara and that represented in that presentation total level Levy of 14 m795 39 which is a 4.55% decrease from last year's Levy I recommend approval of the 2024 payable 25 Levy in the amount uh indicated in the report motion to approve move by Mindy second support Second by Ben discussion all in favor say I I opposed final 2024 payable 2025 Levy is approved next item on the agenda is for information only there's no change to the resolution establishing combined polling places for Special School District elections not held on the date of a Statewide election superintendent gross thank you Mr chair this is a a document reflecting previous law when the it required action every year for Combined polling places uh as indicated in the report the resolution included in here was from last year it indicates the polling places as were designated previously uh obviously in a school district our size uh it's it's necessary to have combined polling places to some degree we talked to the county about how things went last year on the November 7th 2023 election and they confirmed that no changes were necessary uh they were the ones if you remember that we contracted to run the election for us so uh this is information only and uh the recommendation is to continue with these polling places thank you uh next item on the agenda grip a piece of my mind program Jim Kel the rapid Rising Coalition and the ri Coalition Grand Rapid prevention Coalition is is bringing in uh the end of January of 2025 um we have a short video we're going to show but we're not going to quite start it yet i' like to do a little intro first if that's okay um we are planning on bringing in a program called the Peace of my mind and I handed out brochures or Flyers to you uh prior to the meeting tonight and it's just a brief little handout about some background information about the program and what it's about um John nner is a photographer out of the Twin Cities area and he has spent uh well according to the video you're going to watch about 15 years of his life working on um on peace through the use of his photography and through uh storytelling so we can start with the video and then I'll go into what we're doing with it if you're okay with that so e e e e e so um you might be wondering why we're bringing in such a such a program and to be honest I have I have seen John do his do his program several times now two or three times I should say um and he is an amazing man and he is building upon what he started with his a piece of my mind program and and uh exhibit that he takes out um and though he's talking about highend scales with peace across the country and and and Building Bridges and that um we see that uh if we look at the gentleman he had talked about in the quote that he had from him he talked about everybody has a voice and one of the things that we don't see often are the voices of kids young people as an example our high school kids uh we don't often see the voices of the community and how they relate to each other oftentimes we see that the young people our our youth um have this divide between our youth and our adults in the community and you know even within family sometimes and the nice thing about this program is it it's really a springboard off of his a piece of my mind program peace of my mind introduces us to the whole idea that we are so much more similar than we are different and that we can kind of span that divide and bring us closer together as communities and when I heard him speak I thought this is somebody that we need to bring in because it is such an awesome awesome program that he does and um he uh he will come into a community and he will sit down with with members of the community and it's really about building bridges to communication so that we can strengthen Community as a whole this flyer that I gave you um has a few little points in it that I kind of use more as talking points and anything else but I've already kind of moved away from that um one of the reasons if we look at at a little bit of the flyer um I put in this our hope is that through the stories that are shared through this presentation we will find common ground to continue to build opportunities for young and old alike to work together to build a healthier Community this is not intended to be just the culmination of stories but rather the beginning of a journey together for a healthier future for our school and Community um I really don't know where to go with this to talk to you guys about it but I can tell you what our plan is um this is a program that is funded by our grant we have uh set money aside to bring him in and he's going to come in for a week the end of January January 26 through February 2nd and what he does is he's going to have an opening uh presentation the night of the 26th which is a Sunday but he also brings in a 52 to 58 um Banner exhibit that he's going to set up in the r uh in the in the front uh part of the rif uh out in the out in the lobby area and it's going to be set up for the entire week so people can come in and see the exhibit and the exhibit is his a piece of my mind program that he spent three years uh piece yeah piece of my mind that he spent three years out there on the road and it was during the pandemic that he did that um talking to people about what peace means to them and it's really used as kind of a springboard to move into Community stuff then and talk to the community about what uh whatever kind of question we want to ask the community and the way he does it is after the after the session um he will meet for a couple of days the way we have it planned out right now he'll be meeting with students for a couple of days and he will take them through his exhibit part of it and he'll talk about the importance of it and and how it brings people together and then he'll sit down with the students and he will describe what our plan is as far as asking them a question that we're going to ask them to write a 25-word story on basically what they think of the question um he's going to do that for a couple of days with the high school school kids he will take photos this will all be of course we'll have all everything signed that we need to have signed he'll take photos of those that want to participate and he'll get stories from those that want to participate based on the question that we ask and then during the week he's also going to do a day at the YMCA we have it set up with the Y that he will come in and do this for the community as well so with Community Voices as well as high school voices staff voices student voices that type of thing um and he will spend three a day at the Y two days at the high school and then he will put together this slideshow of our community and the stories that we share about our community depending on the question that we ask um on that Friday night then he will present that to the community again with a presentation at the ri Center and hopefully on Saturday this is this is an iffy part we're trying to get it worked out uh that we find a place in the city on an outside wall the end of January and we actually project this finished product out into the community on a wall where people can come and see it and we we're trying to get it set up so we can have uh some fire pits and we'll have hot chocolate and coffee and and cookies or or Donuts or whatever to have people come and just sit and watch and have some discussion about what it means to be community and how strong our community is already because we already know we have a lot of good that goes on but we don't always get to see it because there's so much of there's so much stuff that goes on going back to what Sean had said you know we have we have parents who won't who who won't help out because they're scared of the other parents that right Sean I mean in and that's a really good point it's to that point where sometimes that's what we see in the community and we don't understand how similar we are because we're always looking at the differences um so he's going to come in for that week and he's going to set up and we have it all planned out and everything so um we uh we met today with the grip Coalition and we we got a few more details uh nailed out or nailed down with it um this is a program that I think is really appr propo to bring in right now because of the Divide within sometimes within the students as Jaden knows as well you know um there's a lot of factions going on at the high school there's a lot of there's a lot of a lot of groups that going on the high school that if they saw how similar a lot of them are we can strengthen that and if the community saw that we can strengthen that too and if the kid [Music] e e e e e like based on that question thank you you're welcome B yes um well they will be they will be involved in the piece yes thank you uh because that was something that we have been talking about a little bit if it's possible to do I think we should in fact we were just talking as as before the meeting started that you know even with the opening session we could maybe find a way to uh to send it up to Big Fork and maybe they can meet at at the edge Center and watch it live you know via technology uh and then see if we can invite kids down to come and be a part of this too yeah I think it's definitely worth looking into I don't know logistically how it would work but if it's possible by all means we should we also talked about uh ALC kids because every young person has a voice everybody in the community has a voice and if we can share those voices and see what the community is really like and I think it just it can just build hope so um I believe it has but I I don't have a a yes complete answer for that he has worked with colleges he has worked with coalitions he has worked with other agencies um yeah he is so so good to work with uh and He will draw things out just in how he asks the question so he's uh he's very gifted and um yeah it's we're just happy we get to have them so any further comments or questions thanks for coming tonight Jim that was a great presentation you are very welcome thanks for having me next item on the agenda is board reports uh Jaden do we want to start with you this past Saturday we had snowball at the coasa community center and that was open for all kids grades 10 through 12 at the high school and ALC and they were allowed to bring a guest if they wanted on Friday the student council members helped to set up and decorate everything for snowball so that was very appreciated this week we have holiday fun week so every day we have a different dress up day and throughout this week we also have door decorating contests going on during our fourth hour along with candy can grams that are being sold during fourth hour or lunches that will be delivered on Friday on Thursday we're doing a hot chocolate bar in the concession so students are able to come buy hot chocolate and on Friday Rapids Rising is hosting a game night at the YMCA it's our last full week before Christmas break and we will come back January 3rd and the following week will be winter homecoming we're also trying to make Christmas cards for the elderly this week and Key Club has just finished up their toy drive Pat I'm not gonna be around here much longer I don't have to worry about that right um David and I attended the msba Minnesota Schoolboard Association delegate assembly uh December 6 and 7th can I give you a little perspective there was 28 resolutions that uh delegate assembly voted on 2 three passed four failed and then there was one that was a lack of a motion so it didn't move forward at all ranged anywhere from school Finance taxation Schoolboard employee employee relations governance and um education programs uh two out of the three resolutions that we submitted uh made to cut when they say made to cut uh State School Board Association will make that part of their legislative um initiative and uh Lobby for those at the legislature the one that didn't make the cut and it failed by actually two votes it was 53 54 had to do with the school mascot issue that we've been talking about lately um and a resolution that was put together by Matt and another uh superintendent had to do with an Essence repealing the law because of how it was rolled out in inconsistency and inequities in relation to it and there was uh a lot of discussion about the Minnesota native American group didn't have any input on the front end and they thought they should have input should have had input on the front end when the law was first enacted and that was for the reason why it failed so uh not saying that it can't be carried forward in another setting even through us here as a school board um but our seasonal re one made to cut and then actual funding for the mascot piece made to cut as well and as you know the the state budget forecast is not that great I think it was 616 million and just kind of give you little respective um school districts were hoping for 3% on the formula that's I think 638 million so you can see the struggle that the state's going to have uh we need to be paying attention as a school board and watching that legislation going forward all legislation going forward so that we don't end up with another 60 plus some mandates without any funding uh going forward so um other than that uh that's all I have thanks matat Mindy David yeah thank you uh Pat gave a very good uh uh summarization of the uh uh delegate assembly it was uh uh extremely informative part of the message that we got uh as Pat indicated is that uh there's not a lot of uh funding um last last year there was a lot of funding available and schools uh were successful in claiming at least some of that funding uh this coming year uh it's likely it's very unlikely that there's going to be uh loose funding about so we need to prepare accordingly uh we uh uh Mark you and I attended the uh uh msba phase one training for new school board members along with our three new school board members and uh uh Matt Gross uh it was very informative and it really helps us to uh understand and responsibilities um as a school board and what we need to do and it was great to have everybody there it was a great time to build some cohesion uh in addition the Boys and Girls Club is going to meet tomorrow and the endowment committee will meet next week Ben I guess I would I would just add uh uh in addition to the phase one training I did with David and a couple of the new board members um I participated in some school school tours uh this week with some of the new board members and we're going to complete those in Big Fork tomorrow if I'm not mistaken I'd like to take a minute to thank Pat and Mindy and Ben for all for all you've given you know for all the expertise we're going to miss you um but uh thank you very much uh as a part of that uh after this board meeting's over uh we'd like to invite everyone to stay for a piece of K and uh chance to say thank you to the individuals uh as they transition into their new Endeavors whatever they may be uh next item on the agenda is superintendent's report superintendent gross thank you Mr chair I had the opportunity over the last few weeks to be out talking to community groups just to uh fill them in on what's happening with the school district uh arbo Township uh Big Fork City Council and Harris Township in the last week or week and a half again talking about what's been what's happening in the district probably as interesting to those groups is what's not happening in the district um addressing some of the rumors and things that uh kind of get floated out there that uh are out there and and we're kind of being accused or uh uh blamed for um also sharing some financial information uh some factual information about our budget uh about our this being our third consecutive year with the balanced budget coming through cuts and wise use of Co fund and careful spending uh one of the things that's been good to share is the data around our spending as opposed to funding we spend less than the average District we get less than the average District about $1,300 less um but despite that our our we're producing above average results in MCAS and acts and international borate and graduation rates so uh we spend less we get less um but our outcomes are above average and not what were we want them to be ultimately we want to keep progressing and improving but um I think there's some there's a story there uh so that's been good uh the last few weeks been working on budget planning and Tech planning as well um a number of meetings with new board members and getting them up to speed so that's been fun and exciting I had the chance last week to attend a budget reduction Workshop up in the Northwest where of the state and just really shocking to see that story continue through our state the number of districts that are making budget reductions right now uh is significant and big I just read an article today about um an Noah hennipin largest District in the state and uh you know the the size of the cuts the scale of the cuts that they're making is just astounding something that's been interesting uh just last week Sean mentioned talking to a school district about the building reconfiguration I had three districts reach out to me just last week about our experience with that they're going through some of the same things leading to look at some of the same uh realignments and so uh we're supporting that and helping them as much as we can things we learn things we would do better um things like that so um yeah I think that's it Mr chair I just also i' like to Echo thanks to uh to Pat and Mindy and Ben for their service on the board this is a tough job um I don't know that there's been a tougher a tougher stretch in school districts especially ours here and so I know that's that's wearing and uh really this is a a volunteer and a community service type position really when you look at it at the end of the day so thank you for your service to our community and kids thank you superintendent gross uh reminder upcoming Schoolboard committee and meeting dates are posted on each agenda Schoolboard meeting agendas can be found on the district website and on the designated posting site to the ISD 318 Educational Service Center is there any other business to come before the board Julie has anyone signed up for public input uh Glenn before you start I'm going to read a real brief statement uh the ISD 318 School Board shall provide a specific period of time where persons May address the school board on any topic subject to the limitations of policy 206 all individual comments should be less than five minutes any group of five or more persons must appoint one person to present the group's views to the board uh depending on the number of persons present School Board chair reserves the right to set further time limits board shall not allow negative comments in public session about individual employees or students specific factual information or recitation of existing policy may be furnished in response to inquiries but the board shall not deliberate or decide regarding any issue that's not included on the agenda posted with the notice of the meeting if there are more requests and time available prior to be given to persons that reside within the grand rid big Fort School District uh Glen Pearson thank you first of all Sean I got apologize this weather's hard on cattle and if I have a bit of B Vine odor coming your way and know and I'll uh correct you on one thing there's nothing fun about talking about the Vikings when you're a Bears fan it's going to be ugly thank you uh just a couple issues here items on uh item 7f as far as the no change in that uh resolution uh establishing combined polling places for that I think that's a big mistake um for a couple reasons you aren't going to get as many people to vote in an off election or an odd time of year and then combining polling places I have six elderly nebor neighbors I live in uh bana Township they got to come all the way to the library to vote so I think if if we're going to be open and transparent we should we should really try to make as many people aware that we're doing our best to get these elections at a time where they're going to vote for state or federal okay um the other thing would be I'm curious if if there's already plans in the work for the change in hiring policy that Governor Waltz released it's going to go into effect July 1st are you guys all aware of that how new hires uh new certification licensing and relicensing have a whole new set of things that they have to attest to to teach in Minnesota and how's that going to affect hiring for our district I think there's going to be an impact and the last thing is i' I've uh corresponded back and forth um and from what I can tell our district is in a state of non-compliance with the title 9 revision that went into effect August 1st um I've spoken with the coordinator title line coordinator via email and what was supposed to be a second reading tonight I know was pushed off till January but the change is actually a 20page policy going to be replaced by a two-page policy and she confirmed that when I can't figure out what's going on there but I would say that um something to uh consider would be is okay we got a new Administration coming in maybe the whole thing is going to be moted and we can just go back to the old Title 9 before the the revision if not maybe we should have something in place um that is actually compliant for as long as it needs to be compliant because there's some significant changes that affect not only the kids but also the adults that might come into the school uh and I think I think we're kind of wide open for a litigation if if somebody chooses to do that because August 1st was the day this law was supposed to go into effect and then if that's the case if you do come up with a more broad 522 then we're going to need two readings of that I would assume January and February thank you thank you uh at this point we're adjourned thank you Mark [Music]