##VIDEO ID:W4t7JywS4II## e e e e e e e e e e thank you for coming if it weren't for you we'd have no audience except for our beloved well you guys are like you have to be here yeah nice 30C opening took two minutes Jamie took all my good answers thought it was 2 minutes I didn't know it was 30 seconds think Gavin's ready for us yeah not for the intro the intro is 30 seconds ladies and gentlemen it is 6:30 on the 21st of October 2024 welcome to the regular meeting of the monacella school board please join us and stand if you're able for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Al to the FL of the United States of America to the stands liberty and justice for all ladies and gentlemen before before we get into our agenda for this evening um superintendent Olen would like to make some remarks about a very sad event that has affected our school Community computer just shut down so give me a second that' be great I want to make sure that I read it correctly actually sorry everything's spinning is there something with internet connectivity here I both my computers not do you want to use apologize to the audience for having some technical difficulties with internet connection do you want mine all right uh well I do not have exactly the words that I want to say but um I will speak from my heart here tonight um Amber sinot an 11th grade um student um passed away over the weekend and uh monol High School administration and myself um got to work with uh the family um over the weekend in in preparation for me to be able to say something here today um we're all so proud of of Amber um as we watched her grow especially in this last year she was so proud of herself um for the academic gains and the friends that she um had uh teachers were recognizing her for um all the um achievements that she was accomplishing especially the in in the areas of of improving teachers were noticing her with postcards and and um uh strong statements of of her being committed to both work inside the school and commitment to her family outside and so um it is with um great uh like pause here today for us to come together and um recognize our 11th grade student um Amber sonat um who um has tragically passed from a medical emergency over the weekend um we have uh counselors um available for our students um but please take a moment of silence here with us tonight um to honor um the life of a beautiful young lady thank you m Olson um sadly we've had too many of these this year and it really weighs heavy on our hearts um to lose members of our school community so we extend our deep um compassion to the family as they deal with these really difficult times and for the students and teachers that are working with her um her friends so as we move on um with our agenda this evening we need to approve the tentative agenda as our agenda for the evening do I have a motion to approve the tentative agenda all moved second moved by Melissa Curtis seconded by Casey root all those in favor of approving the agenda please say I I any opposed please say no and the motion passes 60 um we do have no citizens comments this evening moving on to item number five fiscal stability we have consent agenda items that consist of our approval of our minutes from October the 7th Personnel matters and our bill summary bills pecard Amazon card and wires board members receed these documents while in advance of the meeting had the opportunity to ask questions which I know there were some this week that um that were successfully um answered and so is there any further discussion of the consent agenda items by the board hearing no discussion I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second moved by Melissa Curtis seconded by Casey root all those in favor of approving the consent agenda please say I I any opposed please say no and the motion passes 60 moving on to collaborative connections um the school board um has set a tentative meeting schedule for the remainder of 2024 and 2025 for our meeting dates um Gavin could you pull those up so that the members in the room and online can see those dates generally we meet this the first and third Mondays of the month the first Monday of the month we meet at 5:00 p.m the second Monday of the month third Monday of the month we meet at 600 p.m um there's a few exceptions to those one of those is the December 2nd Schoolboard meeting um which is the first meeting of the month will start at 6: pm on that night and that's because of the truth and Taxation hearing um that we'll be having so those are the for 2024 and then can we see the dates for 2025 and you'll have to scroll down or scroll up I guess to see the ones from January oh January February March there we go and we have them all the way through September of this year is there any discussion on the board for the um tenative meeting dates for 2024 2025 okay I'll entertain a motion to approve these so moved second I'll moved by Melissa Curtis seconded by Casey root all those in favor of approving the dates for the regular meeting and special meeting of the school board for 2024 and 2025 please say I I any opposed please say no and the motion passes 60 um we are now moving to our resolution for the acceptance of gifts um every meeting I'm astonished at how generous our community is and this meeting is no exception we have um $25,000 worth of donations um to our district and I'm going to have superintendent Olen discuss those all right um first up we have um $5,000 from an anonymous donor uh for students in need at the mon solo Middle School we have $10,000 from Park View Care Center to provide funding for the monol high school CNA um instructor where those students will then be part of our youth internship program interning with cassia Parkview in Lake Ridge um our monolo allance club has come forth um with $5,000 uh for the purchase of research and Leisure reading books at the mon solo high school and um the VFW has also brought forth um $500 for the PCH purchase of research and Leisure reading books at the monol high school um those last two um just so you make sure that um I I can kind of clarify those ones um there is a group of um mostly retired teachers um who are out there um kind of as a um I would call it a a piece of um our rally to read and they are um you know asking organizations if they can um you know help bolster the um library and they wanted to start with one thing spe specific these aren't just to purchase books these are to allow our um District media uh specialist to be able to um go through the process of selecting the books that are appropriate for our school district following the guidelines that we have set forth where so it's uh to add books but it's to follow a process and superintendent Olsson I think there was a very large article in the monel times um last week about that program for anybody that's interested in reading more aome so we have a resolution therefore be resolved by the monell school board number 82 to gratefully accept the following ations Anonymous $5,000 for students in need at MMS Park View Care Center $110,000 to provide funding for the CNA instructor monel Alliance Club $5,000 for purchase of research and Leisure reading books at MHS and the VFW $500 for the purchase of research and Leisure reading books at MHS second a resolution read by Jeff hegley seconded by Melissa Curtis all those in favor of accepting the donations as presented please say I I any oppos please say no and the resolution for donations passes 60 uh moving on to teaching and learning we have with us the E this evening um Cindy fashing director of teaching and learning and superintendent Olsen which are going to uh the two of them are going to give us a very in-depth perform uh presentation on District goals and results I'm Cindy and thank you for coming in thank you good evening chair zebar board member superintendent Olson and audience members thanks for having me I appreciate it um this evening I'm going to be going through our annual report on our the progress that we've made towards our 2023 2024 District goals I'm going to be talking with you about four different sets of goals that we have uh I'll briefly talk with you about the 2023 2026 districtwide observable impact goals that's our three-year plan um and then I will talk with you about the results the summary results of our world's best Workforce and achievement and integration goals um those are tied together so when I go through those you're going to see how I tie those together and then lastly I will go through our new goals our achievement goals for this coming school year first off um you'll see this is a live link I'm not going to have Gavin open this you can do this on your own um superintendent Olsson and I will come back on November 11th and really go into detail about our districtwide observable impact goals but I wanted you to know that this is our three-year overarching plan for uh student achievement and growth in many areas across the district that plan addresses um achievement in literacy attendance Improvement graduation rate improvements and then implementing our vision of a learner so we'll be going through that with you in more detail on November 4th so we wait in high anticipation for that but I I do want to highlight some of the key areas and I know this is kind of small but I'll run through some of the most important areas these are some of the things that we pulled from our districtwide observable impact plan to really talk about what have we been working on the last year and a half so year and six weeks or so I should say so all of 23 24 and then so far this year um remember the change takes about 3 to 5 Years and we're in year 1.1 of our change so um what we have done though is we've provided structures for consistent professional development across the district um building on Collective efficacy which is a strong um component that we go through every admin meeting so science of reading has been embedded across uh all of our buildings really so we have 151 teachers right now who are engaged in either letters training for um K through five or letters training for early ad Early Childhood we have administrators involved or we have teachers involved in what's called Ola training and so um we're really working hard on reading Mastery and reading instruction also we are we have designed redesigned or built highly effective reading intervention programs and we're working hard on that throughout the school year and all of last year we've done that by partnering with the University of Minnesota uh Carrie so Carrie stands for the Center for Applied research and educational Improvement and so we've been partnering with them for several years now really helping us build reading instruction uh and highly effective practices um we've also been partnering with compass cohorts through the Minnesota Department of Education for the last three years really learning a lot about high quality instruction and reading so remember we're really only in year 1.1 of our teachers getting reading instruction and so they're they're about half way through that so we've got a long way to go yet uh in order to improve our reading instruction but we're well on our way I think we're using data to drive it planning and decisionmaking according to our mtss model being led by uh our new mtss coordinator Stephany Nord stug and really embedding those systems of uh tier one two and three core instruction intervention programming throughout our buildings working with our data study teams really making an uh making it part of what we do every day is looking at data um we've designed systems of support for teachers as they implement the new reading curriculum giving them time um and space in order to collaborate on those things they work in their plc's teams and cohorts they work with um instructional coaches reading coaches and their principles have been highly trained so um they're well on their way with Kristen Hall helping lead that effort as well she's our district literacy lead um that's okay yeah um we're also working this year starting to Design Systems of fidelity checking on our curriculum to make sure that we are really teaching the curriculum as it's designed and it's um all students have equal access to high quality curriculum and instruction across both buildings no matter what grade level um our schedules have changed where we've reallocated instructional minutes for reading so we went from maybe 60 Minutes to 90 minutes up to 120 Minutes in many grade levels so we're hoping that we'll see that gain um through student growth over the next year um we're also this year going to be focusing on reading uh redesigning lessons across content areas and all grade levels where they will Implement more Reading Writing listening and speaking across all grades and then finally um all of our buildings have built their own family engagement model where they will improve their efforts and in engaging families and becoming partners with our families and also implementing an in attendance intervention plan across all buildings to improve that attendance rate and then I'd like to jump in and just when you look at these bullets these bullets are definitely what we would call um the science um of um the profession and the thing that's awesome about our district is our district is amazing at the relationships um and so when you hear um teacher um uh preparation programs talk about uh the art of teaching what they're really talking about is the relationship building whether it be coaching or in the classroom and um what we're trying to build here are the scientific pieces that uh um I would say that our district um had in spotty places but not as a unified system of support and so that's what we've been working on um obviously uh we we are in year two of the implementation but some of the things that we just built including attendance and engagement the last ones that you just mentioned um those didn't get built until you know the summer so we're just getting started on um on on the overall uh plans so I just like to make a mention that these bullets are really really important and think of them as the science um of our district thank you moving forward um you're going to see the summary results of last year's world's best Workforce and achievement integration goals and again you're going to see that I'm tying them together because they are perp purposely um related to each other and I'm going to go back those are both live links as well if you want on your own time um be able to look at those and dig deeper into those you sure can our first world's best Workforce goal area is all CH all children are ready for school so in that area we set two different goals one for prek and one for K so our percentage of four-year-olds who attain sufficient progress we were looking for more than 90% of our students being ready for kindergarten at the end of prek and we were we met that goal at 93.7% so we feel really good about that and that was at the end of last year um also at the end of last year our goal was for our kindergarten students to gain 3% from 47% to 50% on their fast Bridge early reading assessment uh they met that goal by gaining 7% instead of 3% so our kindergarteners uh gained as well coming into first grade so that was very exciting to see as well the second area for world's best Workforce is that all third graders can read at grade level keep in mind that this will be the last year that you'll see that world's best Workforce gooal moving forward the changes in the read act say that all students will read at grade level every year so a first grader will read at first grade a second grade at second grade at least so this is the last year you'll see specifically third grade um our two goals were related to fast brid reading screening and then MCA testing the difference between those just to remind you fastbridge me measures risk at not reading at grade level and it's really aligned to the Common Core State Standards for reading at grade level whereas the MCA is measuring uh Minnesota State Standards master so the one is risk level and one is Mastery one is measuring Common Core and one is measuring Minnesota State Standards which are a little bit different than Common Core um you'll notice in both areas our goal was not met we wanted to U Move Fast Bridge from 66% to 70% you see it went instead of up 4% we went down 10% uh if you look at the colors um the really light purple are the highest achieving and then the lavender is um at low risk so it's at um no risk is light purple low risk is the darker purple some risk is the light pink and then high risk is the darker pink when you're looking at have a question so this one here that missed it by 10% which is really 16% of your total that you were trying to get to mhm what was the two biggest drivers in that and what is the district doing to correct those two drivers good question and that is on my very next slide so I'll I'll address it as soon as I get there Casey and then we'll talk more um and then same with MCAS we went down about 5 uh S I got to do 5.6% or so uh instead of going up if you look at the achievement integration goal this is our first achievement and integration goal but it does align directly to the world's best Workforce goal but remember the goals of achievement integration are to reduce the inequities that we see in student populations that could be at risk or under served populations marginalized populations so the an goal was um students who qualify for free and reduced rate lunches or students of color would increase up to 70% and remember AI plan is a three-year plan it's 2023 to 2026 so we're looking at progress towards that 2026 goal of 70% so our free and reduce did go up a nice amount of 9 or 11.5% so that was a nice gain to see um students of color went down a little bit probably not significant a .5% decrease that's right yeah um so we're on we're on track in some areas and have a little bit of work to do in the other areas but let's address that question about grade three so there's a lot of research out there about students who last year were third graders and all of the things and the root causes that uh we see in all of the data and you see this across the state of Minnesota as well this last year's third graders so the data that is reflective here those kids were in kindergarten uh the first year of covid those kids were learning with a Mas gun and if you know a lot about reading instruction there watching the teacher's mouth they are listening for articulation sounds um teachers have pictures of what your mouth should look like when you're making those Sals kids use mirrors to be able to do that none of that could really work when kids were wearing masks so there was some struggle there we see an increase in students who need speech um again it's an effect of some of that um they're catching up but it just that is one of the things also some of those earliest Learners were virtual Learners again really hard to learn learn to read when you're a kindergartener learning how to do school and trying to read virtually we also had a lot fewer students in 2021 and 2022 who enrolled in prek andk programs parents were working from home they were keeping their kids home for safety reasons so we had a lot fewer kids engaged in in education as a young child but what I do want you to look at are the great gains that that cohort of kids has made so when they were kindergarteners only 36% of our kindergarteners were at Benchmark were making progress or reading at grade level by the very next year they gained uh 12% as first graders then another 10% as second graders held pretty steady as third graders but already in the fall of this year those same kids are at 63% proficient so they've made a lot of progress and we've talked about that right learning loss takes about 3 years for it to catch up we're seeing that and you see a lot of that same trend when you look across most of our grade levels so they're not maybe making the goals that I wanted them to make or the goals that we set for them but they are making great strides so I think that's that's really a great Improvement on our part some of the other things that we're doing to intervene is we're giving kids not only a first scoop of learning to read but a highly qual a high quality second scoop during their wi time and some of them are even getting a third scoop with our one-on-one with our reading professionals so we're working hard at it and um with the new curriculum and the new reading coaches that we have in place and everything I'm hoping by the end of the year we see great results I trust we will questions about that I just think that's such a great question and it should be a part of um the landscape of our school board and and so moving forward uh Cindy and I are going to be bringing um cohort data um more often so that you can see how so you're really comparing Apples to Apples often times we set goals and and then um we we compare basically last year's group of students um to this year's group of students when you're looking at um third grade to third grade but it's taking a group of students and looking um is what we're doing um uh working and so we'll um start bringing that more often um and we can talk about that during my goals presentation too coming up uh um or when we present on November 4th how often would you like to see data um we can start at you know um every other month and and bring forth um some um every time we do um some fastbridge testing we can bring forth some um break it down into cohorts just like this because I really think this paints a good picture of what we're doing with the Apples to Apples or with our student the the like students yeah and when you show this to teachers who felt like they were a failure you know they wanted to make a greater greater stride this really helps them realize that they are they are impactful I appreciate the coher uh I guess another one of my questions is how do we as a district match up to others throughout the state and United States with this specific grade level a really good question Mr Olson can you write that down let's bring that back a good question I know we're above the state average at at almost every grade level so we're probably above the state average but I'd like to look at it overall good question um our yes sorry information you have on the slides so one of those the top paragraph or the bottom looking at compar to the top do you want me to repeat the question yes okay sorry I didn't have my mic on okay world's best work course goal number two has two paragraphs and talks about where we ended up as compared to this graph that you show right is is one of those paragraphs reflective of what's what we're looking at on the graph or is that different data so this is the 56% at the end uh if you look at the very first one which is fast bridge data 56% so third graders were at 56% last year and then you see that's underneath spring 2023 2024 that's the third graders we at 56% so that's where those match up and we're saying that now 6 months or so later they're at 63% and in the fall compared to Spring of last year right yeah yep so they came in without typical summer learning loss even so something really stuck with them uh we had maybe a very strong summer school program this year we really were intentional about all of our reading professionals were teaching summer school this past year and we had um a high number of students were at risk so maybe that's part of why they came in um in fourth grade that would be another good thing to look at and I guess if we go back to that slide that shows yeah so over on the right you show The Benchmark and and it looks like the area that increased the most is the um part risk yep some risk y some risk stud said some risk that that has to be the group that then that must have pinched to push some of them over the bench mark to get us to the 63% right yes yes so some of those kids fell from the darker purple into the which was low risk into the Su risk that's why that pink grew in the darker purple down Cindy is the 66% here the bar graph on the left was that though the previous year students that were comparing so they're two completely different groups of students yes that was the previous years graders and yes so the 56% is this year's third graders and the one before that is the previous year third graders who were at 66% y again different cohort of kids different group of kids who've had a different learning experience they went two three have you seen that before where we've seen such a large jump from Spring to Fall when we're talking just a few weeks of school no I have not seen very much of that Spring to Fall however our spring data to be honest tends to be lower than our winter data because I think kids coming off of the MCAS have some testing fatigue a little bit of that so sometimes we'll see fall data and then um winter goes up a little bit and then spring comes down which then is why fall might go back up again because kids aren't tired of testing it's their first test of the year so sometimes you see that fluctuation in screening data because of that I appreciate the the cohort data and I'm thinking as we move ahead with that um that could be really useful information as kids transition from middle uh Elementary School to middle school middle school to high school if we can Trend those longitudinally with the cohorts we might be able to identify earlier when kids move up to a different level of Education and intervene even earlier I do have that data that I can share with you and I can bring it back on the fourth so I did that with MCAS and I did that with fastbridge um over a 10e span so I do have that I just didn't put it in here but I can bring that thank you yeah does tell a good story you'll see yeah all right moving on um our the third area is to close all racial and economic achievement gaps this is required by world's best Workforce so our goal area was students who called for free and reduced lunch and students of color would increase by 2% each year on our MCAS and so you'll see that students on free and reduced lunch did increase that two oh no sorry they increased 1% so not quite they're on their way but they didn't quite make that goal and we had a little bit of a dip about a0 6 dip with students some color significant um and the world or the achievement integration goal was exactly the same as the workforce goal in this case um the moving away from MCA data I just wanted to share this again I bring this back every year participation rates for our district compared to other districts in the state um we tend to be amongst the lowest um of participation rates the state averages are higher than we are we did really well in science this year actually compared to um maybe previous years I think we're at 80% last year so we did really well this year with science um 90% is good but we'd sure rather have 95 5% participation rates we really want people to understand that we're not using MCAS to judge students we're using MCAS to evaluate our own progress towards meeting state standards and our own progress towards goals and it gives us information on what we need to improve on and if we don't have this piece of data and it's not as accurate as we can get it does hurt us in the long run so we need it to be as accurate as we can get it so any help we can get with participation we won't be wonderful we problem solve every year on this am I correct Cindy um one of the the things that we've had um discussion at the delegate assembly about is um when they report districts who have a cohort of students that don't participate they actually count them as failures rather than to eliminate them from the total number that's um that's being scored and so there I know there are some um proposals that are out there for the legislature to change that so that um you are only being judged on or evaluated or measured on the students who actually take the test and that the cohort of students that don't take the test will not adversely affect the number so they are starting to offer us two different pieces of data so we can look at all students who should have tested or did test either way just every one and if you didn't test then you didn't meet the standards cuz you haven't tested so they can't say that you met the standards so there's that and then they also have a piece of data that's only measured on kids who took the test so we do see that um piece of data as well so we'll start to look at the difference between those as well but what we're finding when we take a when I pull the data on the kids who didn't test and I look at their fast Bridge because they all take that it's 50% or low and 50% are high it's right smack in the middle it was right at like 49.8% so it's not like one group is bringing us down one group is bringing us up so much but yeah if I understood you right I thought that was in the I I thought that wasn't yet a thing where you could do the two pieces of information they're starting to provide that in the reports that they give us well this is owning the students that did not this is everyone right now everyone but you do not have the data right now right yeah yep it's not consistent enough it's they just started giving us that data so it's not next year we'll be able to see what that is then and we'll look at just the students who tested but we still want to pay attention to this yeah you still want to know for the deviation in there right and I think it's important too that as um you know Administration across the district teachers across the district um I know been here for 20 years that um MCAS and any testing usually we make pretty fun and it's not an environment where it's as stressed as I think people are making it out to be and it might be one of those things that as a parent um we might want to ask a few more questions like as is your child um are they playing you a little bit or um because like being a principal at Pinewood um all the years that I was Middle School assistant principal like we make the days fun and um I do not understand um the bad rap um for decades we've done IA Basics tests we've done things as as our own selves and testing is a part of life um it's a part of everyday um academics and it's a part of um everyday job interviewing and so being able to rise to the occasion and um endure a little bit of stress U um alls it does is show the preparation that is put into all the days before so um I I know that people get anxious um some people some people get anxious but one way to overcome that is to um work on the front end of what we do to help somebody overcome it rather than just giving them that free pass to not take it that that's what I'd like to see in life more is us working together to help people overcome challenges and students talk right so I just look at my daughter last year sixth grade and three times she asked me if she could fail a class because of taking the MCAS and three times I assured her absolutely not so there's conflicting information and so even giving some of those students information on that cuz I can't imagine you know if I didn't know my student was coming home and then I see on Facebook that we could opt out of it you know then why wouldn't I do that if it's creating the stress or she thinks she's going to fail a class over it and instead again like we made it fun as a family like you get to pick your special little sugar-free snacks that you get to suck on while you're taking the test and then she gets excited about it but I just think that's even my student who's educated on the that it doesn't impact they can't but they they talk to each other you know so all right moving forward um our fourth world fourth world's best Workforce School area was students ready for career in college and so um our goal was to have a more Diversified uh experience for students who were looking for enrichment opportunities so we wanted to increase uh students who are eligible for free and reduced lunch and students of color by 2% each year in some of these enriched um courses and our goal was to increase from 13.9 to 15.9 we increased to 177% with students onree and reduced lunch that was an awesome gain good for them um there's a just a tiny bit of 0 2% drop instead of increase um with our students of color but we see this fluctuate back and forth each year uh so we just keep watching the data and uh the goal for Ani is exactly the same again we try to align those so we don't have so many goals I know you can't see that chart and that's for you to look at on your own but it does really break down all of the different student population groups and the enrollments in each one anding at students with disabilities American Indian um all the way across the board our last world's best Workforce goal was all students who graduate from high school our goal was that we would get to 95% by the end of this school year we don't get that data until January or February I don't know why take so long but it just does so January February is when we'll get last year's graduation data but overall um last year we had a 91 91.5% increase uh or up to 91.5 from 91.4 so we're hoping to see that closer to 95% our students um on free and reduced lunch or students of color we want to get that up to uh 90% And so we made an increase with our free and reduced lunch to 81% and then just a little bit of a drop again their students of color and then the last goal area for uh achievement integration was to increase the racial diversity of our certified staff to get it closer to our student demographic um increasing at 1% each year so last year we were at 1.8% diversity and this year we are at 4.1 so that's an incredible gain and it's part of uh the work that we're doing to try to diversify our staff and this is all staffy I have a question um when you're giving stats on students of color and the decrease and then you mentioned a couple times that it's not a significant change is that just because of numbers like is it a student that can impact the number that's a really good question yes it is because remember we have um only 20% of our population are students of diversity and so and then if you look even closer um Hispanic population is about 10% and then if you look at the other populations they're even smaller so the that's a small count and so even a few students can make a bigger difference than when you're looking at our 80% population um of white students a couple of students aren't going to make a big difference so that is part of why you see that drop um in the students of color because it does affect easily Cindy I have two questions um one is a a very quick and simple one am I correct that the world's best Workforce this will be the last year we call it that it has a new name in the legislature think it'll all fall under the read act yeah that's got this big long it's like a sentence I can't tell you what it is yeah it's but that has changed so it we'll see this data but it'll be under a different name next yeah and then my second question um or comment has to do with the free and reduced price lunch process um we know now that the legislature is giving free breakfast and lunches to all students and in the state and that has become uh at least colloquially somewhat of a disincentive for families to fill out that paperwork even though we do explain to them it's not just for lunches it's for um eligibility for other programs um how was how was that working out any comments about how that's working out in our district because certainly if if those numbers go down that impacts how many extra teachers and and special intensive programs we could have because we're artificially showing up lower so I think there's been some significant changes in you know do you want to speak to any of that as far as what Laura is doing and putting out there he comes and I believe um Miss fashing is inviting Tina Burkholder our director of Business Services up to the podium to answer this question more so with compensatory funding it's changing for next year where normally they look at the students that have free or reduced benefits as of October 1st of this year it it decided for the funding for next year so for next year it's not just people that are it's not people that do the paper forms it's based on those that are directly certified and those um preliminary reports won't come out until probably later December January they don't because they the state mde feels that um the legislator might change how the formula is working next next session they they're cautious to put anything out there because they don't want any inexperienced business managers to rely on that data if it's going to change but the experienced business managers want that as a starting point to know if we do need to advocate for a different formula so we're kind of in limbo right now we don't know what next year's funding will be like but it's not based on paper forms it's based on Direct certified but the can you explain what that is for people that might not understand direct certified yes so it comes straight from the county of those that are eligible uh for Medicaid benefits that we get their status and automatically upload upload those into our student system but the paper forms uh that helps us with our title funding and our e- funding thank you any other discussion about the free and reduce price so just for clarity so it will be we will still be requesting that to be filled out in the future years correct yep I think we need to do probably a better education campaign for families because I think it is an area of confusion for them why am I doing a free and reduced price lunch documentation the lunches are already free free so I just think we probably need to be better at explaining why it's important to do that AR way yeah it's a it's a poverty marker indirect marker our title funding on how many people out y yep it's been that way for years it makes no sense seems like there has to be a better way to do that well it's the government so I mean it's that it's not likely to change anytime soon because while Minnesota has free lunches other states do not and this is a federal program we won't solve that tonight I do want to just make um a note of serious praise to that conversation of um some topics that um maybe just a few years ago weren't as comfortable as a for you as a school board to talk about and um basically what I hear tonight is you like telling every parent that every cell size and every student matters that's what that conversation does I mean and that's how important every cell size is even though one or two students a difference flip it one or two students can make a difference if you help them you know so it's a it's a huge um like comfortability uh conversation that I just saw of of uh with all of you so that's pretty cool very proud tonight like always all right and we'll make this one short because I think I'm way over my time limit so um there is a link here again to the document with our this year's District achievement goals and again they directly align to world's best Workforce uh the first one we're looking for 70% of our students and this year we're testing our prek students with our fast Bridge with our early re early reading and we had 89% of our students in the fall show that they are ready to read and we were only looking for 70 so that's awesome and then we're at 61% in the fall so we're well on our way to getting to 70% with our kindergarteners too so that's great uh as I said it's going to say all students can read at grade level not just third graders and so again we're looking for 70% of all of our students to be able to um be at grade level with our a reading and we're looking for 70% with our MCAS as well uh with a goal of 80% and by 2027 so we're at 64% in the fall so we're well on our way to 70% there as well again uh all racial and economic achievement gaps will be closed so again this time we're looking for 50% because the Baseline is at 43.1 so we're looking for 50% by the end of the school year hoping that we get there um with free and reduced and students of color and then all students career in college ready again looking for educational enrichment opportunities increasing by 2 2% each year up to 19% and 13.5% for free and reduced or students of color and then lastly we want to hit that 95% graduation Mark by 2025 and We Want to Hold Steady at 95 or more forever so Cindy I missed part of what you were referring to I think on the previous slide you were talking about a 50% number somewhere so yeah cuz it's written so it's the first two words in the paragraph 5 I have to read I know me I was taught that you don't start ascends with a number so I yeah anyway 50% of students and so we're at 43.1 right now so we're hoping by the end of the year we get to 50 any questions comments or more information needed or we can just plan to bring that back on November 4th when we come be excited to bring you more data we're very excited yeah thank you all right really thank you good thank you s Awesome Moving ahead to item number eight safe and healthy culture um we're going to welcome Mr Gary reving our activities director to the podium board members I just want to bring to your attention there's a small typo on the agenda the student council trip request which is item number is an action item so we do need to vote on afterwards that was just an um just a typo so welcome Gary all right good evening thank you for having me I have four agenda items in a row here for you all these items you have seen previously as a board member the first one is our fall leadership Forum uh Craig's Resorts our student council so I'm happy to represent them here tonight um this was sent to you um last week but basically they're going to be going up to the Brer Lakes area to craigin so um the Forum the reason they want to go is to the third bullet point there is is a big one gain networking opportunities with other schools bring meaningful ideas back to our schools participate in leadership activities to build student leadership capacity and skills so it's a great opportunity for them to go to a conference and work with students from other schools around Minnesota uh student council advisers will be driving two Vans with students to Brainard um it's at CRA Resort on go Lake our chaperon are our advisers who do an amazing job Courtney roach and Becca cono and they'll be in charge of the students during their stay they'll be staying in one cabin it has three floors the male students will be on the lower level advisors on the main level and the female students on the top there'll be 10 students going two advisors and again Transportation will be provided by Vans one hogland van and one District van the um itinerary is attached there if you'd like to look at that and Conference registration all expenses for this is covered by student council and there's no cost to our students and no cost to our district to attend if you're C curious where does student council get some of their money well they sell homecoming t-shirts they do the homecoming dance um and they have multiple fundraisers throughout the year that um the money that they raise goes back to uh supporting students activities at Monella high school so I'm looking for approval tonight for our annual student council trip to craigin in Brainard Minnesota is there any discussion from the board um I just want to um put out a comment about the advisers driving the Vans I I just want to reassure any uh parents or uh community members that might be watching that um when a staff member drives students do you want to address that they they are um they have more than just a driver's license they have special credentials in order to drive a van with students in it yeah I can address that they have annual certification that they have to do and Bill Miller uh does that for the monell school district so they have to meet with him to be certified on an annual basis in order to drive students in a van thank you Gary any further discussion from the board so I'll entertain a motion some moved by Jamie sein seconded by Jeff hegley to approve the student council trip request as presented all those in favor please respond by saying I I any opposed please say no and the motion passes 60 congratulations and have fun thank you uh the next two items go together uh they're from the Minnesota State High School league foundation so the state of Minnesota uh gives the sales tax that uh is generated at state tournaments back to the high school league foundation and then they are required to give that money back to all the schools across Minnesota so each year I apply for both grants and I need school board approval uh to receive the funds from the foundation the first one Grant uh the first one is the a grant a form a and that is to help offset the cost for free and reduce students that are participating in activities at monell high school U this year I can tell you we had 90 or last school year we had 99 students that took advantage of our free and reduced program to uh participate in sports which is the highest in my career here so we will get a percentage back every school that applies in the state they figure out how many students have applied they take the pot of money and divide it out last year it was $60 some dollars per um athlete at each school um I'm not sure what the number will be this year but I'm looking for approval for us to receive um Grant a funds from the high school league that's the first one excuse me the second one uh each year they have a Form B and they highlight what you can apply for and there's certain things and again this year it's on safety last year we um applied I applied for this Grant and we received an AED that we placed out at the softball complex this year again I'm applying for an AED I'd like to place that out at the Middle School tennis courts because I talk to the middle school they do not have an AED on this side of the building or on that side of the building so hoping that we can get that through the grant no guarantee but we'll apply and see if we can get it also putting in their money for training with Novacare and our uh trainer Courtney Zamora have her come out and work with our a or our coaches on first aid training CPR training and um AED training so I'm asking the high school league for approximately $2,800 uh which is the most you can ask for in uh Form B G do you need this whole thing read or just like the last paragraph just the last paragraph please so do you want to do form a first yes please therefore it be resolved that the governing body of Mel school to support the School's application to the m State High School league Foundation for a form a grant offset Student Activity fees second resolution for form a read by member Jeff hegley seconded by Mark Branson all those in favor of approving form a please respond by saying I I any opposed please say no motion passes 60 and therefore be resolved that the governing body of monota high school support the School's application to the Minnesota State High School league foundation for a Form B Grant second resolution read by member Jeff hegley seconded by member Mark Branson all those in favor of approving the resolution for Form B please respond by saying I I I any oppos please say no motion passes 60 thank you and if I could before you uh move on Gary I just have one comment to make a connection here um um it'll make a connection to a previous conversation I think it's important for the board um but speaking of family engagement um I have seen the activities Department work with uh Cindy vashin director of teaching and learning on two family engagement nights that have happened already during the first six weeks of school and um at those family engagement nights uh there are resources there including people from um uh several departments we've highlighted the activities Department Community Ed Department um and tech department and as always at every uh family engagement we also highlight the um Food Service to make make sure that uh there are support people there to help fill out and complete forms and so like making um that form a um accessible for families who need um participation fees covered or waved um everything is sole connected um that free to free introduce form but it's also connected to the work that we do to make sure that we make things available and accessible and communicated and we'll keep working on it it's something that we need to keep improving but we are making those strides to uh pull departments together and offer support at Family nights we we never want to have a student athlete not be able to participate because of finances we find a way um to make that happen so that they can be out for their sport thank you and finally uh d uh monell High School 2425 coaches advisor handbook it's an action item um I present that to the school board annually there are no changes from last year um that was sent to you as well if you'd like to look at it the only updates were U making a few name changes in there um from last year to this year of a new activity secretary so we just updated the handbook and are looking for our annual approval at this time is there any questions or discussion from the board on the coaches and advisor handbook I want to just say that I think it's really well done I appreciate it all the section on academic eligibility and all of the ways that you have outlined that you go through that so I think that's always a perennial issue for us so um I'll entertain a motion so move second moved by Jeff hegley second seconded by Casey root to approve the 2024 25 coaches and advisor handbook as presented all those in favor please say I I hi oppos please say no and the handbook passes 60 thank you Gary thank [Music] you we now welcome to the podium Mr Rob Daner Director of Human Resources um he's going to go over the education Support Services Master agreement and second reading of policies welcome Mr Daner chair zebarth members of the board thank you for having me tonight for two agenda items the first as you mentioned is a summary of our uh tenative agreement that we have with our education support specialist local 284 um this was uh ten of agreement reached uh in mediation on Thursday September 12th 2024 um and was ratified by the ESS group on Tuesday October 8th um and the District administration recommend recommends that the Board of Education approve this agreement uh tonight um the essential changes to the agreement include the following so I've broken them up by year one year two in terms of Financial and then also separately the language piece pieces um after we talk about financial so year one thank you Gavin uh year one uh which has already concluded 23 uh July 1 23 to June 30th 2024 uh salary uh schedule increase is 4% on most cells with a 7% increase on the child care cells um and so uh those are the lowest um paid members of this group um and also interestingly uh part of the attentive agreement was no retroactive pay for July 1 23 through August 31st 23 and that was um as we move the dollars and cents around um in negotiations um to get to a mutually agreeable file number that's um that was a proposal from the ESS group uh health insurance 0% increase in District contribution to both family and single coverage in year one and then uh on longevity uh we moved to step two of longevity from 20 years to 15 years and move step three of longevity from 30 years to 20 years um and also increased uh 5 cents per hour at each increment um regarding step three um the reality was very few of our members got to 30 years of experience within our district as an ESS member um so that was very hard to attain and uh not frequently attained either in year two uh July 1 24 uh through June 30th 25 so the fiscal year that we're now uh again 4% increase on most cells um in this case we saw an 8% increase on step one cells um so we tried to um create an incentive for people to uh join the district and and uh join this unit um and then a 2% increase on child care celles so they saw a big jump in year one smaller jump in year two in terms of health insurance 16% increase in District contribution of family coverage uh in year two and then uh we separate out family from single so a $975 per month uh increase in excuse me $975 per month in District contribution to single coverage um on longevity for year two uh we added a five-year increment then increase each of the cells at 5 cents per hour therein and then finally in terms of financials in year two uh the retiree health benefit uh so we closed enrollment in the current retiree health benefit effect of June 30th 24 and we established a new retire heal H health benefit effect of July 1 24 and as the board's aware that's something that we were able to successfully do within all of our recent uh non-certified groups is move away from excuse me um that grandfathered so to speak uh retirement health benefit um in terms of language items uh we did add one holiday for yearround ES employees the majority of our es employe ESS employees are not year round um but for instance Magic adventures and uh those working during the summer uh they now have juneth as a holiday hours of service um we added a line that states that um pursuant to State Statute if e- learning day uh pay is required for this group that we would do that um but it basically U does not commit to anything um in in in writing it refers back to the law itself um amended we amended the use of sick leave on school closure days from two days to one day and so what that is is that there's a there's a trigger mechanism within the contract that if an ESS member uh wanted to use leave time on a school closure day they could trade two days two sick days in to do that we um reduce that to one and actually in state law right now um it's not necessary in general but so we just amended that language um job posting excuse me uh we clarified that new and vacant positions will be post on the district website and Via District email so just updated that language to 21st century language removed a lot of the mail um postmark things like that um we deleted summer position job posting language this is mutually agreeable language um for the district it eliminated a separate process for hiring in the summer that was different from hiring the rest of the year for the unit uh it eliminated a possible hurdle for potential unemployment claims which became um legal or uh I shouldn't say legal but became available to them uh two summers ago and then finally we added language allowing a second voluntary transfer during one school year when a newly created job is posted within the unit within the contract language um a voluntary move is allowed once per school year for this unit we had a a situation last school year where a new a brand new position was created and one of the leading candidates for that position had already made a voluntary move and um the union raised concern about that and addressed it at the table so we agreed on language that would um allow that to happen if it's a brand new position um language cleanup we adjusted years from 21 to 23 uh to 23 to through 25 throughout of course we also cleaned up any gender references throughout the contract as well um in terms of probation dismissal and layoffs we uh there was a line within the dismissal language which contradicted board policy so we eliminated that um and then we also updated language regarding um dues deduction uh to align with statutory updates um that took place over the last um two years at the legislature um retroactive pay similar to our food service and uh custodial maintenance uh agreements we clarified that retroactive pay following settlement of the master agreement is dispersed only to current employees and those who retired in good standing prior to a successor agreement being ratified so a person who resigned uh to pursue other employment elsewhere uh would no longer uh and others would no longer have access to retray and then finally sick leave uh we increase annual sick leave allocation from 9 days to 10 days for this unit uh the total package value over two years was 10.01 um and that was generally in line with what our board parameters uh set out to do is there any questions or discussion from the board for Mr Daner yeah uh just a comment uh Mr Daner I want to say thank you for all your hard work across all the employee groups I got to work with you somewhat on on a few of them and and I enjoyed it very much and was very impressed with how you handled things especially on the the comments around the retiree benefit uh changes that we made that was a an important goal that we had in mind and and I applaud you for helping to make sure that got done thank you appreciate that any other comments or questions from the board finding none this is an action item um and I'll entertain a motion all moved second motion to approve the uh educational Support Services Master agreement as presented um please respond by saying I I all those opposed please say no and the master agreement passes 60 thank you Mr Daner and congratulations thank you now we're going to move on to Second reading of policies we have quite a list of them I think 13 of them um board members you did see these uh two weeks ago in our meeting and had the opportunity to um ask additional questions or delve into them any further so um I'll turn it over to Mr Daner at this point Thank You chair zebarth um you mentioned we have 13 uh policy updates uh for uh action tonight um and again just a preface that the the policy committee uh does do deep Dives uh every month on these policies and so these are thoroughly reviewed by um the three uh board members along with the rest of the policy committee and so we bring these to you tonight uh having reviewed them in depth and done doing our due diligence uh before bringing them forward um several of these policies coming forward tonight are due to um amended State Statute language Andor msba updates but usually the msba updates are uh caused by update to state statute so the first one 506 uh student discipline is just one of those um this was one that we actually started as a policy committee reviewing uh last school year and then paused because there were some things at the legislature specifically around the school resource officers that were not settled and so we came back to it this fall the purpose of this policy is to ensure that students are aware of and comply with the school district's expectations for student conduct such compliance will enhance the school district's ability to maintain discipline and ensure that there's no interference with the educational process the school district will take appropriate action uh disciplinary action excuse me when students fail to adhere to the code of student conduct established by this policy um within this policy there is one specific section uh that um we locally had to uh make some decisions on and and um provide detailed language and that uh that is on page starts on page nine continues onto page 10 and 11 under removal of students from class and so that was part of the legislative update that took place which again caused us to review this policy any questions regarding 506 okay moving on uh the next policy update this is again due to uh statute update uh this is number 102 uh equal education opportunity the purpose of this policy is to ensure that equal Educational Opportunity is provided for all students of the school district I don't I don't have any other details to share on this one so any questions we might have no moving on uh next one is 104 uh this is again cause uh up for review due to legislative update uh School District mission statement the purpose of this policy is to establish a clear statement of the purpose for which the school district exists um fairly perfunctory in nature um nothing Monumental there but any questions anybody has moving moving right on the next one uh is 204 again uh brought forward by uh msba update along with statutory update um this is Schoolboard meeting minutes the purpose of this policy is to establish procedures relating to the maintenance of records of School Board of the school board excuse me and the publication of its official proceedings any questions regarding 204 seeing none moving on 205 uh this one uh we forward as part of our tri-annual review so this is just up for a threee review locally no uh legislative changes informed this one this is open meetings and closed meetings um the school board Embraces accountability and transparency in the conduct of its business in the belief that openness produces better programs more efficient administration of programs and an organization more responsive to public interest and less susceptible to private interest the school board shall conduct its business under presumption of openness at the same time the school board recognizes and respects the Privacy rights of individuals as provided by law the school board also recognized that there are certain exceptions to Minnesota open meeting law as recognized in statute where it has been determined that in limited circumstances the public interest is best served by closing by the closing of a school board meeting um and so that is uh the general nature of policy 205 any questions on that one no moving on uh the next one is 207 now this is a new policy for us we do not currently have a policy 207 um msba recommends that we do adopt a 207 so that is the purpose of bringing this forward tonight this uh is titled public hearings and the purpose of this policy uh the school board recognizes the importance of obtaining public input on matters properly before the school board during a public hearing the purpose of this policy is to establish procedures to efficiently receive public input um specifically uh the law requires a public hearing are required by law concerning certain issues including but not limited to school closings educational District establishment and agreements for secondary education and so more frequently than not in our district uh those agreements for secondary education would be the ones um that would come before the board so that is policy 207 any questions on that one okay hearing none uh moving to 208 um this is the development adoption and Implement implementation of policies again this is just our three-year review cycle uh policy for us uh the purpose of this policy is to emphasize the importance of the policymaking role of the school board and provide the means for it to be an ongoing effort um of note um in within this policy I think uh I missed the last policy committee meeting because of illness but um I'll catch up at the next policy committee meeting but in policy 208 it does allow for single meeting adoption of policies that are simple reviews um on a regular basis bis without any uh significant changes to them and that might be something I think uh that we look at in acting moving forward when we have some of these reviews so that's policy 208 any questions on that one yeah when you when you say the single or I don't remember exactly how you said it but do does that mean that it would be a first read adoption at a board meeting it would mean that we don't do the first read second read procedure we would just do a single read and then adopt it at one meeting if we if we chose to we don't have to board meeting or at a policy meeting at a board meeting yeah we can't do do business at a policy committee meeting yeah thank you we chose Mark to keep it the way we do it yeah we chose to keep it the way we it this the law does allow us to do that and it would be a very um perfunctory change like a ruming of something or one-word change or a typo or um something like that but just for for consistency stake um we decided at the policy meeting that we'll just press on and do everything with the two reads the way we do now to give ample opportunity to the board members who are not on the policy committee the chance to weigh in and uh see what's going on but the law does allow us to do that so if we had a rare circumstance where we had to at a time crunch or something we could uh do it without two meetings question thank you for the answer any other questions on this one okay moving on to 209 uh this is just another um trian review uh policy so this is Code of Ethics uh the purpose of this policy is to assist the individual School Board member and understanding his or her role as part of the school board and in recognizing the contribution that each member must make to develop an effective and responsible School Board any questions on 209 okay couple left hang with me here uh the next one is 210 conflict of interest school board members another uh three-year uh review cycle policy the purpose of this policy is to observe State statutes regarding conflicts of interest and to engage in school district business activities in a fashion designed to avoid any conflict of interest or the appearance of impropriety so again um guidelines for board members any questions on 210 seeing none moving 21 uh this one is Again part of our review cycle uh criminal or civil action against school district school board members employee or students the purpose of this policy is to provide guidance about the school district's position rights and responsibilities when a civil or criminal action is pending against the school district or School Board member School District employee or student and I should just note that of course this provides kind of a template or guidance at the same time uh the district does employ legal councel as well and this would uh any of these circumstances would would be one in which we would also uh pick up the phone and call our legal support um to get additional information so that's 211 any questions on that one all right we're getting close 212 um again this one comes forward as part of our review cycle Schoolboard member development um in recognition of the need for continuing inservice training and development for its members the purpose of this policy is to encourage the members of the school board to participate in professional development activities designed for them so that they may uh perform their responsibilities and I will just note the middle so School Board Association does a wonderful job of creating opportunities and uh um through development and Leadership skills training for board members all across the state and I know that our board has been heavily engaged in those activities as well any questions on 212 I'll just make a comment about 212 um we in policy committee we did have a um a discussion about the time frame where there are two uh sets of trainings that a new board member uh coming onto the board would need to complete according the state statutes and in order to make sure that we are in compliance we have set some time periods for new board members to complete that training so that it doesn't get pushed off and pushed off and pushed off and so we decided to be proactive in our district and have a local uh local policy among the board to make sure that new members are um achieving the the basic level of uh training that's recommended by the statute all right we have two left the next one is 214 uh this one uh again is a product of our review cycle also we um part of the purpose for reviewing this one is to amend the number itself so currently this is number 25 but msba has it in their policy handbook as 214 so that's what we're proposing as well the ruming we also locally we do have a current 214 and we'll be um in the future at our next meeting reviewing that for possible amendment to 15 to swapping places on those um and it is important that we have alignment with our msba um policy handbook simply for for instance uh one example would be when we do consult with our legal councel it really helps facilitate ease of conversation and um um and review that way as well so 214 is out of state travel uh by Schoolboard members the purpose of this policy is to control outof State travel by Schoolboard members as required by law and so just control there just simply means to um effectively police that practice to make sure it is above board and um for Salient purposes any questions on 214 all right we've arrived at our last one uh this is uh policy 413 harassment and violence this was part of a statutory uh update it is a very significant policy within our our scope of policies as a school district um and so harassment and violence is something that for compliance purposes we have to free frequently across different compliance vehicles um um acknowledge that we have uh reviewed this um frequently um many cases annually and so harassment and violence the purpose of this policy is to maintain a learning and working environment free from harassment and violence on the basis of race color creed religion national origin sex age marital status familial status status with regard to public assistance sexual orientation or disability um as a protected class um any questions on 413 harassment and violence at all finding none board members we can approve these 13 policies as a group and so I'll entertain a motion it's all moved moved by Jamie sein seconded by Jeff hegley um all those in favor of approving policies 506 102 10 4 204 205 207 208 209 210 211 212 214 and 413 please say I I I any opposed please say no and the policy's pass 60 thank you Mr Daner the policy committee will be very excited to get you back next meeting your replacement uh I don't know definitely not as good we're glad to see you in in hail and Hardy Health Mr Daner um finding that we have completed our agenda I will allow the opportunity for any comments questions before we adjourn from the board finding none we are adjourned at 7:50 thank you very much and there is a e e