##VIDEO ID:6jTSneMCFpo## e e e e e e e e e I would like to call to order the December 10th regular board meeting of the mountains view school board good evening and welcome the first item of business is 1.2 adoption of the agenda I would entertain a motion so moved second the motion has or the agenda has been moved and seconded any discussion hearing none all in favor I I any opposed motion carries we'll move on to section 2.1 student representative reports and I believe we have representatives from both mountains viiew and Irondale so come on up you both can come up at the same time if you want and then could you just introduce yourself and then say what school you're with yes my name is kenu and I go to MSU High School oh I'm Sydney and I go to irow high school and I'm Kenna I also go to iron Deale high school and I will G be giving my presentation first um this is a brief overview of what's been going on with all the clubs and sports and activities um this past month and also also um what plans we have for January and the rest of December so for a brief over uh review of November um our student council hosted um a volunteering event in Rapids at Feed My Starving Children um I believe we were able to send 15 volunteers um and this was on the 30th so um students actually opted to volunteer over Thanksgiving break which is very nice um and we also had our Deca week of giving which um was the week following up to Thanksgiving break um so students were able to give cash checks um box and canned food items and I believe they received um 6,000 in total including um money and caned goods and the winning fourth hour class is to receive a catered lunch and I believe um they did choose a winner and that class is Miss colie's class um next up we have our Sports and activities um we actually had three members from mock trial um at msew that were invited to the federal Court's Justice and democracy Center Minnesota so they were able to have a meet and greet in socialize with um supre Supreme Court Justice Sonia sutoer um and they were able to meet other delegates from other high schools in mock trial um and we also had our MSU debate team um which was this was on the 20th they had an interview on the day Ryan Show um which is hosted on the KW or KDWB radio station and we have a picture right up there um we also had our bowling team that headed to All State uh we had our varsity and JV teams um at the All State Conference tournament in Bloomington I think it was second week of November uh we had our girl swimming dive finished third at the section meet um and they Advanced two relay teams and three individuals estate meets um we also had a couple of participants in um a national competition called the voice of democracy um where students are able to give um like a audio type of essay where they express what democracy means to them so um first place regionals we had Junior Amy woo so she'll be advancing to the fourth district and competing with other students on the national level for scholarships and I believe the first prize scholarship is $35,000 um and we uh also had freshman nandana namb in second place so very impressive um and deca also hosted a fundraiser on um the sixth which was this past Friday at uh noodles and company so um uh 20% of the proceeds went to Deca we also um had some music involvement this past month um or actually this past weekend sorry uh at the ardan hills Come Foods we had I think Manu chipa and hiu orchestras they performed holiday music ranging from like solo um performances to quartet ensembles and even some singing and they were able to help people bring groceries to their cars um and this is all to help um the M Orchestra booster program um with helping with senior gifts and all that at the end of the year um for upcoming events we have our student council candy cane grams fundraiser which is basically just a fundraiser for senior class events and shirts and all that and um we had a lot of members decorate um few couple hundred of candy canes to pass out to students the week before winter break um and this year student council is having a mandatory thing for members where we're having all 55 members um they're required to work at least one game at varsity and JV games at iron Dale and mvw so um yeah that's another volunteering opportunity that we have um we're also planning on sending students to the state leadership convention in April for student council which is hosted by Capital division which is student council on the state level it'll be at Hibbing high school and students will be able to register and gain leadership positions if they're interested in being on the exec board next year um and we're also working with NHS subcommittees um music for m which you don't if you don't know is an annual benefit concert which fundraises for the Angel Foundation American Cancer Society and the Merit Swenson Shining Light Foundation which um I believe they fundraise for brain tumor research um and we also have a couple NHS events coming up this month um we actually have a very large NH chapter NHS chapter which is kind of unusual so um we have a lot of events so we have a kids shopping spree um at the sheview parks and wreck this upcoming weekend and and we also have another kind of kids shopping spree event um at the Badness Heights Commons um coming up here and we also have um a music for MSU big sale um next Monday um that's going to be running um between the choir and Orchestra um winter concerts and they actually chose um new Charities each year the exec port at um music for M you chooses new charity to donate right aale um so we also just have a few um things that have been going on at irono and then a few upcoming events that we wanted to talk about so so some updates um the debate team had a couple tournament tournaments and then they also had the state competition last Saturday so at the Still Water tournament we had Irondale seam Khalif who's a junior and rayan Osman who's a freshman plays with a 40 record and then we also had iron Del's buana and Emerson who are Juniors and seniors placed with a 3-1 record and then at the same Tour Tournament we had placing with a 3-1 record and speaker Awards we had Cardin W who's a senior and Alex Wolf who's a freshman and then we also had my partner um speech and debate tournament in Illinois this is the most competitive Invitational Tournament in the country and she received 13th which is the highest out of all Minnesota students um from this event so congratulations to all the incredible performers repping Irondale and just some more updates NH has holded a held a bingo night with the elementary schools uh many of the elementary school families attended and reported a great time it was a great Community bonding event and it was a great fundraising event as well and then in terms of nhs's blood drive update um the memorial blood center collected a total of 51 units of blood and our Drive helped save and sustain about 153 lives in the new bran Community which is amazing um and then in terms of the IR Andale bowling team um iron's bowling team recently qualified for State awesome and then student Co student council also has some updates last uh yesterday we had payt and sip so Irondale student council partnered with the art Club to host a Paint and Sip where students gathered after school on Monday to paint with their friends um and HW cocoa and tea were provided so was just a good school bonding event and then in terms of trick-or cring which we presented last month we donated 781 pounds of food to the Ralph Reader Food Shelf which is also amazing than see and then we also have some up events so our in terms of our like music programs there's the senior to seniors concert um which I believe is this Thursday where um the orchestra choir and band are all going to be performing for the senior citizens of New Brighton and Ms view um which is always like a great opportunity for um our community blond and then also our Wind Ensemble was um invited to the mmaa midwinter convention so we're cheering them on for that and then um we are actually having our um annual Deca week of giving so basically just um deca's putting together um like a donation project so each like day of the week um third hour classes like donate food and monetary donations to um receive one of these like meals from one of the companies that are participating and then um our night's Asian student union is also presenting um Asian New Year which is actually our fourth annual Asian student or agent New Year um put on by kasu so that'll be December 19th from 6:00 to 8 p.m. in the iron Auditorium um and very excited for that and then student council is having Coco with Council December 20th that morning just to celebrate the holidays and we're showing home alone so that'll be exciting and I think that's all we have thank you thank you thank you so much for coming yes and congratulations on all the achievements at both schools so thank you for being here all right we'll move on to announcements um shaa could you please uh read the gifts yep there were nine gifts for schools and programs received this period for a total of $2,190 and there were 10 gifts received for the Ral raer Food Shelf this period for a total of $1,198 51 it is recommended that the board accept these gifts and extend our thanks to the donors great thanks sha upcoming meetings our next work session is on Thursday January 9th and that would be 2025 which is hard to believe at 5:00 p.m foundations represent diverse and various opinions and beliefs from across across the district so I find this issue really very um important to me professionally and personally I kind of wish we would say like let's just get rid of cell phones in general but I understand that we can't um so it was it was worthwhile but having been in the classroom and seeing what we can do and hearing what the recommendations are I feel very confident that they are strong recommendations that will be beneficial to our students their engagement in the classroom and their learning so thank you yes yes thank you both Katie and Salah that was um very well done we appreciate all the efforts it was honestly very enjoyable working alongside you the colleagues you had on this committee everyone did take this very seriously um I think they were eager to dive in and really learn about what we're currently doing and look at the data and gather input and insights from our community and that's exactly what we were able to do it was so nice to have you both our events you put a ton of time into this and we felt good coming out of this last meeting that we had um and I'm grateful to be able to be here tonight to present those recommendations to you before I do that I want to thank superintendent Lennox um he had a really strong vision for this very early on I think it came from you all in part because you wanted to gather input from our community so my gratitude is extended to you as well it was a really great experience to get out in our community to interact with folks and see the passion that they bring to this issue cell phones in our schools are having an impact it's mostly A disruption and I think it's really important that we had a chance to hear how both kids and families are experiencing that in our schools and so after carefully considering the feedback our committee um in looking at all these survey results and um some of the themes that came out of these community events made the following recommendations at the elementary level first elementary students should not access or use cell phones during school hours for the purposes of this policy school hours are defined as the publish start and end times for each of our schools or programs that determine the formal school day then a recommendation at the secondary level that's middle and high school secondary students should not access or use cell phones during scheduled academic class time or during activities assemblies when instruction or information is being delivered they do recommend secondary students May access and use cell phones during nonacademic or unscheduled time during school hours these recommendations aim to provide a clear and consistent framework for cell phone use across each level of schooling the goal is to minimize distraction during instructional time while allowing appropriate opportunities for students to manage their own technology use during non-academic periods so how we implement this is really the next step and Darren's going to wrap up here by talking about regulations than uh in addition to the Minnesota legislator's mandate for school districts to adopt a cell phone policy by March 15 2025 our district cell phone committee also advises the school board to charge District administration to establish regulations to accompany the cell phone policy for for clarification the cell phone policy describes the what will be done whereas the cell phone regulation describes how it will be done these regulations should outline the rules and procedures to be implemented at each school or program and address the daily practices and enforcement related to student access and use of cell phones we further recommend that these rules and procedures be included in student Andor parent handbooks or similar documents at all district schools and programs I'd like to finish by once again as Rob had said just really thanking our cell phone committee for their work um three three meetings uh three long meetings um but they were very much engaged and very very much participatory in doing the work and having these conversations so once again very thankful for the work of that cell phone committee so in closing I would like to thank you as well for your time uh in consideration of these recommendations thank you I might chime in and just I I thank Rob for thanking me but this really was a board Vision in the sense I I want to recognize the board I mean for those of you that might be watching on T TV or listening this started at a state legislature level I mean they said school districts must have a policy that came to you you said well before we make a policy we should probably find out what people think and so allowing me to work with our administrative team to go out and and then to find so many engaged people like I had a chance to interact with the committee thank you Salah thank you Katie for being here tonight but so many people 24 of them including students hugely engaged in in this process had a chance to be at the public meetings um the engagement that we had there was incredible um so I just want to want to thank them and and recognize you for allowing that group to go get this feedback to bring bring it back I mean now now it's to you to wrestle with it and create an actual policy that we go forward but I think the recommendations that came forward were pretty clear and and definitely represent the the surveying the community meetings and and the committee work that was done to date so thank you all very very much appreciated and I think a great example of community engagement so thank you board members thank you you thank thank you thank you again appreciate the collaboration all right uh we'll move on to item 5. one um certified final property tax levies so we'd like to welcome up Bernice hnik um Executive Director of Business Services hi Bernice thank you for having me this evening we're here this evening to certify the final property tax levy annual annually school districts must follow a process to certify the School portion OFW local property taxes to be collected the next step in the levy limitation and certification process is for the school board to certify the final 2025 property tax levy the final certification is then forwarded to Ramsey County for processing of the final property tax statements the tax statements will be mailed out in March the property tax revenue is collected in 2025 and will be available for the district for the 2025 26 school year final taxes for pay 2025 total 64 m286 5786 which is an increase of 597 972 42 or approximately .94 more than the pay 2024 final taxes the overview you in details by category general fund had is set at 48.5 million an increase of 378,000 or a 79% increase the community service fund is at 1.1 million a 1.9% increase an overall dollar value change of 21, 33936 and The Debt Service um is at 14.6 million with with an increase of 98,5 1810 or a 1.38% increase at this time um I would like to um propose that we accept this certification great any questions for Bernice no but I do have some comments um um we really um um it's terrific that we have less than a 1% increase in property taxes this year um um if you look at our neighboring communities they're well over that amount and you know just thank our whole from our superintendent to our finance and budget office to our teachers and principals we run a real solid Financial shop and we have not had the bumps and the clay offs and the cuts other school districts have faced last year nor will we have to face it this year and it doesn't happen by accident it sound fiscal policies by the district the board we follow um really really tight guide guidelines and I believe we are really good stewards of our taxpayer money and we're very well aware of people's valuations have gone up but we also try to be um very fair and um when we have to raise taxes to do it um to a real minimal amount so um you know I just want to assure folks is that we're on a real solid Financial base not everyone is doesn't happen by accident and uh thank you superintendent lenx and the board for making just such solid decisions that put us on a really good course here at M schools thank you thank you Jim for calling that out um okay so Administration recommends that final taxes levied in 2024 and collected in 2025 at 64,8 578 and 62 cents per the adoption of the attached resolution I would entertain a motion so moved the okay it's energy I love that energy I love it um the attached resolution has been moved and seconded any discussion hearing none all in favor I any opposed motion carries thank you Bernice thank you all right um next up is item 6.1 um the district operational plan goal update Middle School programming recommendations and we have quite a few um and I think I will just let you all introduce yourself when um it is time so welcome and the Cruise setup and the creu setup yeah oh we G have more chairs made hi hi hi thanks for the opportunity to speak with you tonight um Angie pesel executive director of curriculum instruction um and we are here tonight to share with you our progress on the district operating goal for the comprehensive Middle School review um so we are in year two of this goal last year we began the work to start investigating the current programming at our Middle School level as a continu improvement district it's important that we intentionally stop and reflect on things that are going well and celebrate those and look for areas of improvement so that is why we undertook this goal last year so we are in year two of this goal and as we think a little bit more about the rationale and purpose for this Middle School is an exciting and interesting time for students in our system and one thing that makes it very interesting and exciting is that there are two transitions right so the students they come in from fifth grade to sixth grade and then they transition out from 8th grade to nth grade so those it's important that we really support those during those trans support students during those Transitions and we make those experiences very meaningful for students during the time that they're with us um so as we uh step into the work that we are doing this year around the goal we wanted to review with you what we had done last year because it really did set the stage for the work moving forward good evening everyone Jen line executive director of student support and engagement and um my part this evening of the presentation is to briefly review what we completed last year in year one um and as you might recall really the work that we did last year was reviewing what kind of our our current state was or what our current programming was in the middle schools and then to really learn and understand what best practices were and how those were going to come together and so um we attended the um Association of middle middle level Educators um all of us up here had an opportunity to do that and part of that was to not only do some networking but also find out more about those best practices um throughout the year and into this year we have spent some time in strategic meetings which has really been about what we've been learning what our planning is and then also staying aligned with the goal which um is what we're kind of going over this evening and then principles um through their own professional development professional development in the building and um with staff have um they did some book studies they also did some of that um professional development on days that we have set aside in the system around this work so we've continued to keep that in front of folks as we've done that learning um as of last year we also had a um a pretty significant kickoff meeting with educational elements who were the Consultants that we worked with um to help us with this work um so we did that last year and then I would say a good um part of the work that we were engaged with that we provided updates to you all last year around was that data collection as you'll recall um the surveys and um the groups that we worked with to find out what their experiences were like and what we wanted to do next then we analyzed that and brought it together and reviewed those recommendations and so that's what we're working on for this year so that is the very brief highlight from year one from a lot of work yeah so two slides um so I'm gonna now pass it over to TW good evening everybody it's Rich TWY principal at Edward Middle School um I think we're in the fun part of this whole Middle School review we did last year was a lot of learning a lot of surveys um working with educational elements um now we're the process of actually taking in the recommendations and partnering with our staff um to move forward so I want to share the four recommendations that I'll provided through um our our review with um educational elements last year um the first recommendation is to establish a design team to continue creting a vision for Middle School experience including developing a purpose statement and learning profile and I'll say that's the process that we're in right now partnering with our staff at each of the three middle schools um is to start uh recommendation one recommendation two states uh align to a common student centered instructional approach and all courses to support young adolescent development and increase student engagement and ownership recommendation three is to provide students with more opportunities to develop Future Ready skills throughout the Middle School experience and the last recommendation is to consider alternative schedules structures that allows for expanding exploitatory courses to reflect student interests um one thing that stands out with the four recommendations is very student- centered um in what they're asking us or tasking us to do um with the recommendation is obviously that's something as Educators that we we're always put in the front center is what we can do for our students but through the surveys of of staff students and parents as well as taking that feedback as well and implemented within our four recommendations other things that we did um that we have done this year and we're going to continue to do um is meet um us three Middle School principles um Angie and Jen as well have had consistent meetings um where we we discussed our structural changes and Implement and implementations of recommendations three and four um the next part is expor of best practices so we've met with many schools throughout year one and year two as well looked at different models of what a remodel could look like um for us and try to our best to implement that as well um identif identification of key components so there's fixed and flex components for implementation so the fixed obviously is things that should happen throughout the three middle schools and the flex um portion of it is obviously each Middle School can um add their own flare what whatever we work with our teachers on um so we have a design team our district design team and we have a building design team as well that'll be working through that and then um we also presented obviously our next steps with our staff November 20th because it's been a while since we had communicated what next steps look like um I think the reason for that was we wanted to be sure with as as our team of what does it look like when we present the staff um so everybody's on board they understand where we are at and we're just being very transparent in our process good evening I'm Molly hollahan and I'm the principal of chipa um and I wanted to talk a little a little bit about that presentation that we gave to our staff on November 20th all three buildings presented the same information and we wanted to make sure that teachers knew what would be fixed and what would be flexed in this process um so what is fixed is that we are all committed to working collaboratively together and having stakeholders from all three buildings partner together to move towards an ideal state where we Implement all four of those recommendations the structural changes that is referenced in the fourth recommendation is something that the administ ation will decide at a master schedule level to help create a daily designated time starting in grade six we will start in grade six and then look at Future implementation in grade seven and 8 we're starting in grade six because it's the entry point to Middle School obviously um but it is also where we currently have some availability in our instructional minutes currently students take six classes over the seven period day so we will be able to have some instructional minutes that we can devote to this this work every day what is flexed um is the learner profile that we say that we are going to create that will simply State the knowledge skills and habits that we will intentionally teach over the course of middle school that we know what all adolescence need we want to ensure that we have a clear vision of what the student experience will look like across the middle school with keeping a close eye on the developmental nature of middle schoolers um after the design team creates that learner profile we are also charging that team specifically with outlining and defining those Future Ready skills that we know students need so if you're kind of wondering what we mean by Future Ready skills we're talking about expanding opportunities for students to engage in critical thinking collaboration creativity communication overall Future Ready skills content is intended to provide authentic learning experiences for our students that includes things like guest speakers field trips community outreach um Project based learning passion projects whatever else the design team determines as ways for students to have more voice and choice in their learning which ultimately increases engagement the flexed part of that is that each school will have opportunities and some autonomy on how to use that daily dedicated time to teach these skills that time might be used slightly differently in each building but all three buildings commit to ensuring that they have that time to meet the objectives of the learner profile that the design committee creates and finally the timeline for implementation is flexed if one building is ready to start next year then that's great um we don't want to cheat time we want to have a clear vision and specific plans for how to use and how to effectively use that daily time in grade six so if a building needs a little more time to be ready to have full implementation then we could look towards starting that implementation in the 25 26 school year uh as long as we're all meeting that fixed notion of moving towards an ideal state with implementing all four of those recommendations hi everyone I'm Lindsay sck I'm the principal of Hi View and the perk of going last is that everybody covered all my information so I will work to summarize what's going on um so for our next steps we are excited to have our design team at the district level so this is going to be constituted of people from across all three elementary schools I think we have 16 people um across all three schools covering a variety of grade levels and content areas for a wide representation we have our first meeting on Thursday and that group will be meeting over the course of 10 hours between now and March to be looking at the districtwide component of the work the things that the that regardless of where you attend middle school and M zo this will be part of your work that is the learner profile otherwise known as a portrait of a learner so they'll be working to identify what that is and study what that looks like in their spaces um and it will also be identifying which skills are needed to paint that portrait of a learner so that will be the district design work once they start going each of us will be gathering building level teams which will be in addition to those 16 people probably another 16 to 20 people if not more across the system who will be part of Designing those building level components that Molly talked about which would be Readiness implementation and then the structure kind of constructing what that designated time will look like to reach those Future Ready skills and that portrait of a learner at each site so we are super excited to get started and dig in and we've got a lot of really excited people coming alongside us great so we believe that this focused and collaborative approach will really help to ensure that our implementation aligns with the district's vision for a robust and Future Ready experience for all of our middle school students and that's our report mark great we entertain any questions any questions for the the crew here well thanks so much for all your work I think um I think I mentioned this before my middle daughter was in sixth grade the last time we looked at the middle school um uh approach and I think it's time A lot has changed I think about what her experience was like the world has changed a lot so um I think it's great we're taking this look at it I appreciate all of your time I appreciate please extend to the design teams at the district level and H your building we know that's additional time for all of your staff members and we really appreci appreciate their perspective and and their um just buying an intention to want to make changes that benefit all the Learners in our buildings thanks thank you all right thank you everyone guys all at this time we'll move on to item 7.1 um amsd update Jim um yeah amsd met last Friday and I had Chris and Alyssa with me um and we spent more time believe it or not on the legislative agenda um that's what we finally approved uh we tweaked the school safety and the bonding levies and referendum one a little bit but that's what we did so uh we have a platform to go to the legislature and as we noted tonight a few times the legislature mandates to us to do a lot of things like hold the hearing we did on taxes tonight to uh cell phone policies to how much uh money we can Levy so it's a very important an work and um appreciate that we have a lot of Partners at amsd helping us with these things so thank you thank you Jim appreciate your participation and your updates um next is item 7.2 Schoolboard member updates and I actually am gonna kick us off um I would like to congratulate the Irondale girls swim and dive um that they have outdone themselves in the classroom um they have the highest team GPA in the state which is 4.05 so congratulation um to the girls swim and dive team um they uh definitely uh deserve Kudos so um if you're watching um or hopefully you'll you'll hear um that you got some shout out tonight so and then also to um you know this is a um you know a Sentimental emotional time for folks and I just want to thank um to my board colleagues um to superintendent Lennox um to the cabinet as well as to our community um just thank you um for your partnership and um you know we're heading into the holiday season and however you celebrate um I hope you have a wonderful holiday season um and just a big thanks to our staff our students um and our community members so does anyone else have any updates I wanted to mention at our last board meeting uh superintendent Lennox um mentioned an award that our community ed department and the city of New Brighton had received for the community lunchin and after that Carl Brown invited the board to stop by at the community luncheon uh the week of Thanksgiving and I was able to go over to Arendale um an amazing room full of people uh the city of New Brighton had a weight list Community Ed had a wait list there was actually apparently a woman who called the city of New Brighton office about an hour before the event and said I know I'm far down on the waight list but just so you know I'm ready in case there's a spot for me so um people looked forward to this event it was wonderful that uh New Brighton Parks and re uh folks uh served the meal and uh they had I believe they had Elvis singing so um Neil Diamond Neil Diamond that's right just for clarity for clarity I could see where you'd mix those up he did elv this last time apparently um anyway so that was great um also the iron Del reps um mention the seniors to seniors concert this week just to have you know you don't have to officially be a senior citizen to attend um although I do have the requisite hair color you are welcome no matter your age no matter your hair color um but that will be held at the Irondale Auditorium Thursday at 12:30 it's um seniors to seniors it's the uh the Irondale band Orchestra and choir that each are made up mainly of Juniors and seniors and then they bust uh seniors in from the community but all are welcome so there you go great thank you any other updates I just wanted to say I didn't have a 916 update because we haven't met since the last board meeting so I didn't want anyone to think that I was okay we were forgetting about our 916 friends no we did not we didn't have a meeting thank you sha I just wanted to say thank you and acknowledge our amazing Community um our we had a a slew of um of community members come speak to us for um public comment today and it every time it almost moves me to tears because it just shows me shows us just how much the community cares um you know it's it's one of those things where you know there's always more questions to ask and more conversation to have um but I'm I'm really moved and grateful that our community is so incredibly invested in our district in our kids um all across for every single role you know both from superintendent lenux to our board to uh community members to staff to to students um it's it's really really cool and in a time and a day and age when we are so disconnected to see such an Engaged Community um thank you thank you thank you Alysa any others all right if there's nothing else to come before the board this meeting is adjourned e for