##VIDEO ID:35ksHG0BDoo## of isd622 Schoolboard to order uh first thing up is the Pledge of Allegiance uned States stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all so first up um is approval of the agenda can I get a motion and a second to approve second um so moved by Nancy Livingston seconded by Michelle yenner um next up is also that's approved what was that we have four yeah we're good um so next up is the achievement awards do you want me to read this yeah I'll go stand by okay perfect stud CE gaki and Eliana dollar Simmons were recently elected president and Secretary of the capital division of the Minnesota Association of student councils masc allows high school student council members to participate in Regional and state leadership activities while representing their school in these roles they will interact with student council leadership within the region and around the state participate in service projects and further develop their leadership skills the Minnesota Association of student councils is affiliated with the Minnesota Association of Secondary School principles as a division of Student Activities and uh we have uh both here tonight um all right if uh if you could come on up um so see and Eliana we would love to present you with an [Applause] award if you don't mind ladies what we're going to do is have a photo opportunity but before we do that would you be willing to just say a word or two about you know what what you're excited about with this new opportunity and Leadership representation opportunity for for us all right who's first all right CeCe just tell us a little bit about it what you're looking forward to um it's a super fun we get to interact with other student councils and learn new ideas so that's actually how we got the idea for Polar paloa uh which is a really fun event before homecoming so it just opens the doors for so many new things to happen and I am most excited because North is hosting our fall conference um October 25th so I'm very excited for that um we'll have lots of different uh councils coming and yeah I'm just really excited for it wonderful Elana you want to add a little bit hope it's tall enough um so our role as president and secretary is to ensure that all of the student councils within the capitol division get to learn a lot about leadership and enjoy their time in their student councils we are currently working on the fall conference and hopefully we'll have lots of updates coming soon thank you very exciting at this time ladies we're going to have you come stand right over here and we're going to do a little group photo so we can uh and you're going to want to hold your certificates up so we can remember what you're being honored for and our school board members will come on down apologies we have a little bit smaller board tonight we've got a few with conflicts this evening but um we're going to make sure this picture gets sent out wide and far so come on up we're laughing we realize we don't have our photographer in front of all right thank you right come in Theo CCE and Elana are representing all the state of Minnesota in the student council Statewide or all right excellent exed conratulations our first student Award of the new school year pretty exciting congratulations do I just stay up here am my next um so the next up is um oh do we have anybody for public comment okay so I'm going to move on to the consent agenda um consent agenda consists of routine items that are acted on in a single Consolidated motion without board discussion board members have the option of pulling items off the consent agenda if they wish to discuss them or consider them individually does anyone want to pull anything um could I pull the grant acceptance yep so Grant acceptance H okay so can I move to approve a through G and then also I all right I'll second so um moved by Michelle yenner seconded by Caleb um and then pulling out the grant acceptance um any discussion besides that piece all right um all in favor say I I and all opposed say nay right the consent agenda consent agenda minus H um passes so when do we talk about that no no perfect um I didn't necessarily want to talk about it I just thought it was great to see this list of Grants and I just wanted to make sure that we highlighted them um So Christine can I just ask you to quick or somebody on the C let me pull them up real quick moment thank you all right thank you so much I will tell you one thing that we're really proud of this year as you know we've really put a con a concerted effort forward we have a new uh director of Grants and special projects and um one of the reasons we intentionally put this possession on our new position to added this to our team this past year is because you know this post um covid recovery time there's a lot of funding both at the state and federal level that are tied to Grants they're not direct allocations they're they're competitive grant opportunities um many of which are are pushing school districts around the country to innovate and come up with Creative Solutions it's an opportunity um to try out new programs and innovative ideas so that that you know as we gain traction and show things that are working well there hopefully can be broader expansion of those those kinds of programs and funding streams available and so I just wanted to say a couple words about this right now because uh we hired our our grants and direct director of Grants and special projects back in November and we are now have brought in over three and a half million dollars just in that short amount of time and so um there's a few that are in here the Minnesota Department of Education grow your own adult pathway there's several grow your own programs a couple of them um to help us incre increase the number of folks who are U becoming teachers particularly teachers of color it's a way to help people get financial support as they're studying and learning um in educational environments to be able to get those teaching degrees we got a really large after school Community Learning grant that is going to really really change the way we offer after school programming for middle school students um that is a $1.5 million Grant over three years it's going to be a huge huge uh ch change and an amazing opportunity for our our um our middle school students um we were awarded a full service Community School Grant uh Richardson Elementary this first year is going to be a planning Grant where we're going to work with the community full service Community Schools provide wraparound Services across a number of different areas understanding that the needs of the whole child and a family um there's a lot of things that go into ensuring kids um have access to high quality education and it's a way to provide service is to make sure um where there's a need for U medical support Dental support different kinds of services that will help families and students um to be successful in our academic programs and so the first part of this grant is a planning Grant so we won't be implementing those new programs yet but we get to have some time to actually use those funds to engage our stakeholders and find out ideas and and get uh A needs assessment of our community and then um our mckin vento competitive Grant just provides additional f funding to support students experiencing homelessness and um ensure there's Equitable access to education so that's a really exciting piece as well 3M gives uh we have been awarded a number of different um amounts through 3M gives uh there's a affinity group career day that's going to help our student high school students attend a career exposure event at the 3M Innovation Center and if you haven't been there it's an amazing place to be um 3m's also awarded us a concept to customer career day and this allows another experience for high school students to learn about career exposure again at the 3M Innovation Center and we also accepted a l a window film donation installation and it's a film that actually provides um Energy Efficiency it reflects solar light back so that you don't absorb so much heat in your buildings and finally we have a grant through Prairie care for mental health services and Early Education is going to be using these funds to just provide additional training to support social emotional learning of uh training for staff and helping families stay more connected to community resources that are available to them and so this is just a a list of a a number of different grants we've been awarded and we're very very thrilled to be accepting these um new funds into our district to help us innovate I want to just make a point too we're very careful we don't simply chase the money we make sure that there's plenty of Grants we don't apply for we really make sure that it's aligned to our strategic plan and our goals for our school district and where we can find resources that will help us accelerate our progress towards those goals we're jumping all over them and we are having some pretty neat success right now so it's a really it's a really great time and we're very very proud of Rebecca Doyle our director of Grants and special programs and the work that she and many many of our district leaders have worked together to write these grants and and put these uh programs and ideas together so I'm glad you called it out separately because it really is a big deal for us and and I think we've we've come a long way in a very short time any questions thank you so much for pulling that out Michelle I think it is really good for us to to call that out so um I'm going to read the resolution and then we just have to um motion and second to approve so um be it resolved by the school board of Independent School District number 622 that the school board accepts the following grants so the ones um Christine just read for us or super superintendent tooro um any awarded funds and permits their use as designated by the awarding documents could I get a motion in a second okay moved by peltzman seconded by Livingston um is there any discussion all in favor say I I all opposed say nay all right and that resolution passes um next up we have the superintendent report yep in oh just the introduction yes all right Madam chair directors of the board I'm very pleased to introduce to you our newest team member on our district 622 cabinet you may recall that uh our beloved assistant superintendent of secondary programs Ty Thompson um left us this year she was recruting away to Minneapolis public schools uh to join another former Cabinet member of ours Lisa sales Adams who's now the superintendent there uh to do a lot of that reform work in Minneapolis public schools um as we say so often in District 622 uh when people leave us for a promotion that furthers the work of public education across the metro and Beyond we are so proud of that it's hard to lose good people but it's so wonderful to see so many leaders all over the metro and Beyond who have come and had their Roots um start off here in District 622 so we're incredibly proud for uh Ty Thompson she's now the deputy superintendent um which is this kind of like the second uh in command under the superintendent for Minneapolis public schools were thrilled for her we had a little moment of like oh my goodness who are we going to find in the middle of the summer but we did a really deep search and I could not be more thrilled with who we have hired to replace her in that role and I'd like to introduce you to our new um secondary assistant superintendent Andy Beaton and I'm going to have him just say a little bit about his background and and what brought him over here to 622 so welcome to the team we're thrilled to have you thank you Cherry Yang members of the board superintendent aario thanks for the introduction uh my pleasure to to be here my name is Andy Beaton and um had a long career thinking about starting my 31st year in public education started out as a special education pair professional was a high school social studies teacher a middle school dean and then a principal of three different metro area high schools Columbia Heights Bloomington Kennedy and and Edina um had an opportunity to serve in a district role in Edina last year but uh this opportunity came open and I think the focus on equity and excellence in this school district working with a school district that really has a tremendous stability both in enrollments um with um superintendent leadership over a long period of time was very attractive uh to me to come to this District so I'm hoping to be beloved um as uh our our previous assistant superintendent was and and really do good work and and everyone that I've met in the school district has been really welcoming and you really have an outstanding outstanding team at the district office and the principles that I've worked with so far so thanks for the opportunity and and pleasure to meet you and uh the community questions for me yeah welcome Andy can you tell us a little bit about your family and where you're from sure sure I I currently live in St Louis Park and I have now and I think about the years just before my son was born who's a recent graduate um from St Olaf and uh he went to St Louis Park High School he now works for henpen County in the DA's office so his his degree actually applied to the work that he's doing he's a political science and a statistics major um at St Olaf my daughter is a rising Junior at the University of Minnesota she's in the Carlson School of Management and is on the uh women's soccer team go gos so uh if you want to go to a game this Sunday they play this Sunday I think they play St Thomas they're GNA take it to St Thomas this Sunday it's going to be good um my wife's an English teacher and she works in the Robinsdale School District she's just finished her 28th year she runs uh the bar program also at that high school which is familiar in this school district so she works with all 9th grade students and teacher teams on transition um myself uh besides this work I also do adjunct work at um St Mary's University teach a graduate course um in the Eds program on continuous Improvement and uh our whole family huge soccer fans and Soccer Coaches it's been a big part of our lives and um yeah so that's that's who I am thank you and what was it about 622 that caught your eye when you saw that notice well I think the position also uh I think fit very well into my skill set um looking for leaders that could work in secondary schools I have a lot of secondary experience I think the focus on combination of instruction um Safety and Security um equity and my background and the experience and really the data that I produced across three different systems um and results I think was really a draw for what I can do um and help lead um principles and um and work with a really experienced superintendent and learn from her that's great yeah well welcome and we're happy to have you thank you appreciate it anything else okay thank you thank you all right thank you so much and welcome um so next up we have the student board representative so we have CE G here tonight all right I have a couple things the school year starting up I'm very excited for senior year uh first we have a lap laptop pickup on Wednesday this coming Wednesday so tomorrow then we have open house on August 29th from 5:00 to 7: uh fall Sports have started unfortunately this year I'm not playing tennis but I know that they have started to practice and just saw the football team and soccer team out there so it's exciting to know all those sports are starting and North is fully staffed ready for the new year we're very excited and stuco is is planning lots of things we have Homecoming coming up which means pet Fest Spirit Week dance themes all of it we're loving planning it and we're also planning polar paloa which is the day before homecoming oh and homecoming is September 28th then we also have super fans planning polar Bowl which is a football game for the girls to play uh kind of I think we're we haven't decided on a day yet but it was very fun last year when we played and the Juniors won so this year seniors hopefully will win and uh we're also planning football themes and getting ready for all those fall Sports and then last I already mentioned it but fall conference it will be at North on the 25th so very excited lots of stuff going on oh and we also have a blood drive on October 29th so it's in the fall this year instead of the spring and very excited for that too thank you um any questions CeCe are you not playing tennis because you're still recovering or yes yeah I'm hoping to get back for spring sports but fall was just not going to work yet so are you hoping to get back to dance yes dance and softball that's my goal good luck thank you thank you uh next up we have Finance this is um the renewal of an expiring referendum and then our public discussion of that okay well good evening Sher Yang directors of the board superintendent Tui Osorio and cabinet uh later on in the agenda you see an action item uh for the renewal of the 2016 operating Levy Minnesota statute 126c .17 was updated in 2023 to allow School boards a onetime renewal of an existing operating Levy with the exact same terms so the renewal can happen at a school board business meeting during our renewal window which is now open and at the conclusion of this presentation I will open it up for any public comment from our audience so this slide gives you an overview at our current operating levies in 2021 voters approved the renewal of this existing operating Levy with no increase at the amount of $26.83 per adjusted pupil unit as you recall the Apu or the adjusted pupil unit is our awaited student count based on their grade level the uh renewal up for this evening the 2016 operating Levy will generate $792 183 cents per Apu note that the 2016 Levy is tied to inflation so that number does adjust annually uh school boards also have the option to Levy for local optional Revenue which we do here in 622 at the current rate of $724 per Apu local optional revenue is acted upon during our Levy certification process so you will see more on that uh when I present our proposed Levy in September and our final Levy during our truth and Taxation in December so taking a look at our 2016 operating Levy so for this year for fy2 um we will generate approximately $8.8 million and again that is adjusted annually for inflation the levy supports our Educational Services here in isd622 and a very important note as this is not a new tax but rather a continuation of taxes already being collected and so District administration is recommending that the school board take action later on this evening to renew our 2016 operating Levy and with that I will ask if there is anyone from the public that would like to make any comments if not any questions from the school board Josh can you say some more about why it's a one-time thing I what's the rationale for um you know the one time opportunity it was that was that a consensus thing uh in other words I I know it was um uh an amsd priority for for years and and uh there was a lot of discussion about whether or not um you know going you know to the voter not going to the voters uh was a good idea but uh anyway say some more about this one time op yeah absolutely so it it has been a platform of amsd for a long time as well as msba the Minnesota school boards Association um I do believe that the recent data is about 99% in of of renewals have been passed with voter approval um elections are very expensive to run and so this is an opportunity for school districts again to continue collecting the same am amount of taxes we can't we can't change it so this is collecting the same amount adjusted for inflation so we can't you can't say you're going to renew it and then ask for more um this is a renewal on the exact same terms and so um the continuation of the same level of taxes I think was is a big key to how that passed um but you're right it has been a platform of amsd and MSB for a really long time um because it is costly for school districts to run an election and this is a voter approved um Levy absolutely this was approved in 2016 M okay how much does it cost to run a an election like this you know what I don't have those numbers I can get that information for you I'm not sure if Christine you know a general idea of how much yeah it it really depends on what else is on the ballot and so typically um if if you're running an election and there's not like if you're running it during a regular election it's a little bit less because you're not having to pay for the setup of the election um voting you know uh centers and all of that um so it varies quite a bit I would if I had to guess I would say it's anywhere between um10 to $50,000 it also depends because there's a lot of required Communications that go out and I'm not talking promotional materials just simply the mailings that have to go out to actually inform voters of what's on the ballot and as as Josh said um the platform has been the the advocacy platform we're speaking about whether it's through msba amsd Masa part of the issue is that um when when they've done some studies as Josh mentioned and in in the last you know 20 years when a district went out for a renewal that did not include an increase it was just to renew what you were already paying those almost always almost always pass um and there and and there's a big expense that goes into it not to mention the time that goes into the public meetings and all of the work that has to go into so as as you said the legislature um finally this past not this past session but the one before authorized school boards one time to renew these and these are 10-year operating levies and we now have the authority with Schoolboard vote only to be able to renew one time um and as we know we have two operating levies on the books as Josh mentioned the 2016 and the 2021 that are good for 10 years each and so the idea of being able to renew it one time um without going back to the voters there's also a a real issue out there with um election fatigue because um it's it's there's a lot of um Community frustration with how often school districts are having to go back out and ask for to keep the lights on and keep the things happening so this is one way to sort of offer a reprieve at least one time before you have to go back out and run a public election of course we can always decide we want to go back to ask for more money if we ever ask do that we have to have a voter approved and we have to do all that process but yeah the cost vary so dis differently depending on when you run it just a follow-up comment um it just seems like um there's an expectation in Minnesota that the state doesn't give you each district enough money to run it in a way that people expect that students deserve and so they expect a local effort Y and this is um this is our local effort yeah so okay thank you so I just want to confirm then our vote tonight will be to renew it until 2036 uh and so um we have we have two years and so our renewal window just opened and so it would uh so 20 uh 2026 would be when we would um have the new one start so we had 2036 you were accurate correct unless again we decide to re and replace and ask for more down the road right now I always put in a plug by saying that we still we will need to eventually address our lack of a capital projects Levy for funding technology um that is that has been a need for our district for a number of years um it's not for a lack of trying uh we have tried since I've been here twice and before I was here a couple of times as well we have not been successful yet to get our capital projects Levy past um capital projects levies are um appealing because it spreads it spreads the the piece of the pie uh amongst more U buildings and homes and businesses in the district and so um with an operating Levy it's focused on just pretty primar home values and a lower level for businesses um with our capital projects Levy it's spread wider and so there's less of an impact on our homeowners and so um we will always be advocating for additional money for technology because the needs have not gone away they've only increased for technology and so we have a lot of a lot of replacement and items that we need to eventually um like right now replace without the dedicated funds to do so so just please always keep that in the back of your mind as well and so regarding the the capital projects Levy that would be that would be a completely different Levy that wouldn't supersede this correct okay and that one is not able to be renewed by voter approval if it were to pass and so the the school by sorry excuse me by board approval it's only for operating levies and so capital projects levies Bond referendums cannot extended by board action only by voter approval great thank you yep next up we have the the superintendent uh back to school update all right Madam chair directors of the board um I'm really excited to talk to you about our back to school plans this year um I'll just say you know we've had a number of welcome back events already um our teacher group uh comes back beginning next Monday but we've already had a couple of weeks ago all of our administrators and supervisors back uh for Workshop day we had our clerical welcome back last Thursday uh we had our operations which includes custodians and bus drivers and nutrition services back for workshopping today and I can honestly tell you it is an amazingly positive feeling around here right now we went through so much with the pandemic you know it was up and down in the stress of the change and trying to remember how often we use the word pivot during those years and then of course after the pandemic kind of subsided we were hit with a whole new slew of challenges um and and the repercussions that come with kids being out of school and and um some of the delays in Social Development and things like that not to mention labor shortages and all kinds of things Supply train interruptions and it's been a bumpy road for quite a number of years now and of course here in 622 we were also in the middle of our whole uh facilities plan and the closing of school and changing of boundaries and opening of new schools and shuffling of Staff which was already planned before the pandemic was heading our way so I will tell you I have not felt this positive in a long time as the the feedback we're getting from all of these groups is so amazing just today with our operations our bus drivers and custodians and there was a very large group we were all at North High and the comments afterwards I think I had a dozen people talking like this year feels so good and bus drivers are coming up and it's it's just a really neat feeling so I'm pleased to share some updates with you right now um I will obviously you you've seen this before but this is just our current list of um leadership positions in the school district of which you've already met our newest um our newest cabinet member here as well and Andy Beaton you'll see a few other um mostly same people um but we've kind of organized a reorganized a little bit of which areas of of support are falling under different leaders so you can take a look at that here's a list of our school and program leaders the majority of which are still the same as last year we've had a few changes um particularly of note we have a new principal at Justice Allen page Elementary and we're excited that we not only do we have a new principal there but he's not a new principal he has many years of principal experience behind him Kenny newbie um and a new admin team with him ASA Mada who was over at Sky views over there and tia templon who's a was a third grade teacher is now going to be the associate administrator there um we've had some shifting around uh as well our Sky View assistant superintendent Antoine Williams who filled in to follow ASA came from Richardson so we're working on filling that back filling that position at Richardson but overall incredible stability not a lot of changes in school leadership and amazing amazingly positive and strong folks uh I want to talk a little bit about our our new Educators we had our this week is our our new educator week so all the folks who are new teachers in 622 what an amazing group and I always ask them as we did on Monday morning this week how many I mean they're all new to 622 but how many are new to teaching this is your first teaching job almost no hands went up and I put some information thanks to our HR Director am Le yangang who pulled together a little bit of data on our new teachers we've got about 65 who are new to our school district this year and you can kind of see um The Experience right there we have 12 who are 13 plus experienced teachers who are new to 622 many who have lots of years behind them who chose to come here that says so much about our reputation and it was really delightful to hear people's stories um many from neighboring districts around us and we are so thrilled and we you know I really make sure everybody acknowledges the fact that they're not all new not all new to teaching they're new to us and they bring New Perspectives kind of like our new assistant superintendent they've already dealt with lots of the same issues we're dealing with and they have different perspectives and ideas on how we can handle things it's pretty exciting so um additionally I'm thrilled to tell you we have hired 11 International teachers that are all coming in from the Philippines um we are in the process right now um we've had to go through a lot of learning curve our HR department combined with um Rebecca Doyle our special projects Gina Abramson and um our teaching and learning Department um with Heidi Lee's team with our Equity Department um Lynn f and Lexi Dock and there's been many hands involved in this to learn how to become a sponsor of H1B visas not only are we bringing in 11 teachers who by the way are every one of them has a master's degree some have phds lots of experience um pretty much exclusively coming into special education teaching positions we've been working with um Fridley public schools has hired a number of Philippine teachers prior and we're learning from them they are amazingly gracious with teaching us how they do it most of these at least a good number of these are bringing their spouses and their children and it is a path to residency um they are coming in as tier four fully licensed teachers for the most part we're very excited about that and um the process to get their visas to come through has been you know a little bit of a learning curve for us and we're working it all through so um they are going to be arriving for the most part a little bit after the start of school but we've all got um substitutes and folks involved ready uh to fill in and get that started so that they can come in and then they'll partner with that person who's been covering their class while they get their their feet underneath them and get settled in so that's an exciting prospect um and many community members even Folks at our our area Chambers of Commerce our local Rotary Club others have said how can we help and um because we're we're helping them find housing but there's going to be some furniture needs and and uh you know household supplies that we're going to need to have for them to get them set up right away so that they can kind of hit the ground running and we uh have been in regular communication with them via zoom and every principal has said they're so excited about the person they've hired um and I will tell you they're they're in a lot of our different buildings they're not all together so um it's going to be a new experience for us and a really I think a really fun one and we've been in connection already with the Philippines Center of Maplewood um really great resource right here in our district um and that's exciting as well as some local churches who have some great um already connections to the Philippines and so you'll notice around Minnesota there's already a fairly established community of um nursing staff in our hospitals that have been brought in from the Philippines um highly trained very successful in our systems and so um this is kind of a a new growing area for us and Education Minnesota and our local teacher Union are fully supportive of this hiring of fully licensed International teachers so and I should mention the state of Minnesota passed um last not this past but two years ago they passed some legislation that's called come teach in Minnesota so any fully licensed teachers this is true for those who live in other states in the US as well if they move to Minnesota and they're fully licensed they get a $5,000 stapen upon arrival um to welcome them to Minnesota and encourage people to come and if they after the year end of the first year they get an additional stien too so very exciting it helps people with moving costs and whatnot so thanks to the state of Minnesota and our legislature for helping make that happen as well we do have vacancies remaining as you know we always do um and I had our Amy Le our HR Director pull together just some comparisons from last year um we currently have still 98 employee vacancies last year at this time when I reported to the school board we had 131 we're doing better for for context we have about 2,000 employees more or less in District 622 um and if you look at these right now we still have 17 teacher vacancies and last year at this time we had 43 teacher vacancies so in that regard we're doing a lot better um in many cases we are you know we're filling with long-term substitute uh folks to get the year started as we're continuing to recruit and hire um one area you'll note we do have more Transportation vacancies this year than last year but part of the reason for that is actually um not because we don't have the drivers to run our routes right now but actually because we're trying to hire more inhouse so that we can eventually uh pull back from fewer external contracts with first student and so this is actually an opportunity the reason they're out there and we're posting for them is to try to bring in more relief drivers but also um to get more of those routes once we have the drivers in place we can start to reduce those number of routes we're Contracting externally for it not only saves Us in the Contracting cost but it also employees that are our own employees are are better invested in the work we do they're more connected to our community and it's also a job that comes with benefits and and those contracted roles often don't so that's pretty exciting so we're continuing to work through those and we'll continue to give an update as we move forward into the fall as well um this is just a little bit of some of the some of the work that going on uh and I have our director of teaching learning tidy Heidi Lee sitting behind me Heidi and her team have done a phenomenal job in pulling together our new educator week that is those who are new to 622 and they have a very rich schedule and I gotta tell you talking to that group yesterday was really fun I mean they had balloons and a photo booth and real excitement and energy and um our 62 Education Foundation was also there to provide some treats for them and a real welcoming environment and people were feeling just really excited um about that uh you know start of the school year next week we'll have our welcome back week where the existing teachers will be coming back and and other areas of licensed staff as well as as well as par professionals and others and our whole entire PD calendar is mapped out for the whole school year as well and and our team is so incredibly planful about that and it's we like to make sure people know um what all is happening and so teachers kind of know what their schedules are going to look like for the year their professional development resources and I got to tell you the quality of professional development that our team has been putting out is pretty remarkable and exciting so um yeah sure you know I'm I'm not a teacher but I I just think you know starting a new job is is tough and as they don't come in they don't have to build their own curriculum right I mean oh no not at all we uh we are there and we yes and in fact I love the question because well first and foremost I'll talk in a minute I was going to make an update about the re act the Minnesota re act um there's a whole lot of professional development that comes along with that and we've been working closely with our Union to map out all the hours of training and I'll I'll talk about that in a minute but over recent years you might recall um a couple years back for example Elementary we had dropped Ed a whole new Elementary literacy model a curriculum and as you recall every single elementary teacher was invited and included in the process by having flattening the organization and not making top- down decisions but making decisions with our teachers we have really strong buyin and support for the work we're doing and I can't tell you how many and I know hey could agree with me how many teachers have stopped us and said this is the best professional development I've ever had we have had and you're going to hear about this when we start getting into achievement results um as we get more into those reports this fall the outcomes happening in our youngest Learners um the number of students that are on track at the end of the school year just because we're now aligned and we're working together is stunning um and it's going to take some time for it to move through the system but boy we are having some Synergy happening and and the other thing I want to mention um our elementary has always been fairly well aligned and now we've got some really great new resources but what's really exciting is our secondary models are really aligned and um Heidi and her team and and Courtney McCormick is um now uh our director of post secondary Readiness she and all of our content specialists in the secondary have worked with the teachers to align all the content areas so that people can work together and not in isolation anyone one who comes to this district is not alone because everything is planned together in teams and it is really really not easy to get that level of alignment I've I've said before you know years ago I was an executive director of teaching and learning in in St Paul and it is like kind of hurting butterflies sometimes trying to get everybody aligned and to have that already happening is unbelievable and the buying and the building of it with and for and by the teachers is what makes the difference I'll tell you that so yeah just a follow follow-up comment it I'm glad to hear that and and it not to diss you know private schools or Charter Schools or very small schools but I mean I've heard of teachers who are required as newbies to come in and build their own lesson plans every single day and and we don't do that for people we have all kinds of support and um and it's all um what uh we're building community and we're and we're like you said you know aligning between schools among schools yeah I think this is really an asset that we have you know uh to offer people it's quite stunning honestly um and you know like I've said those um alignment those Curriculum maps and the alignment that has has come um I I can't say enough it works when it's built by the teachers and not um topped down and that's what we've done of course bringing in research along the way but um people are also seeing the success of what they' put together and how it's working and it's it's pretty exciting so a couple things um I want to share with you um our new uh supervisor of Transportation who you all met earlier this spring Julie Drews and her team are doing some amazing work over there our school bus times are listed here what we're also excited about is this new My Ride K12 it's a new and improved bus app for families and um this replaces our former one which was had some glitches and there were some software problems with it and it was kind of an outdated model so this is new exciting and um more should be more efficient and more accurate so um there's a link there you can download it from your app store um and it will help families stay really on track with exactly where their buses at all times if a bus is if it's a snowy morning you'll be able to see where your bus is and how if it's running a little bit late you can see where it is on the map um and it's also just a really good opportunity um we've got a lot of you know over the last number of years we've done a lot of upgrades to our school buses we um as you know we have now GPS's in all our buses and the Vans we have cameras inside all of them um and now just this year we've also got some um you know there's rules against you know as people we use our cell phones sometimes as our Maps right you can't do that Al in a school bus but there is a tablet device that's new this year that actually does allow those drivers so if someone's filling in for a route those are legal they're larger they can be seen better and they're new this year so the drivers are really happy to have that new um that new device at their disposal is well because sometimes if you if you drive a route you know it but if you're filling in for somebody It's tricky because you have to study the map first because you can't be looking at something while you're driving and this offers them the realtime larger view to be able to make sure that they can follow a rout they may not be familiar with so that's exciting as well and as I said cameras are inside and outside on those those vehicles and we pull them all the time if there's ever a question about something so we get speed real time speed reports we can look back and see if anyone was you know if someone says that drive was driving too fast we can look back at the the history and see if they were and exactly when and exactly how fast they were going with camera views from the inside and outside so pretty high-tech and really really cool stuff that helps us make sure our kids are safe and that Ames are informed just just a comment about about bus riding in general I mean I just think it's such um a benefit for for parents and kids to not have to be driven to school every day and wait on those long lines yes and all of that hubub at the entrance to the school um uh on a personal note this year I have the opportunity to put three little boys on the school bus to Weaver school at 8:40 in the morning and uh it's really really going to be fun uh prek um first grade and fourth grade yes so anyway I'm looking forward to loading them on the bus I bet you are that's exciting you know something I want to mention too um in all of our welcome back planning we've spent a lot of time talking about the importance and the we've done a lot of work in the last couple years about relationships and not just student and adult relationships but adults feeling connected to a community um I asked the school bus and the drivers and our custodians this morning raise your hand if you're new to 622 and raise your hand if you you're returning almost all are returning when people come back to us that says a lot and I'm really excited about the work our Equity department and our HR department have done to do stay interviews to find out why people come back and we know we always say people don't quit jobs they quit bosses but they also leave if they don't feel connected and so one thing we been talking a lot about with our administrators is if you think about you know if you ever have stressful times um there's some really interesting research out there uh they've done some interesting research for example like emergency room nurses who stick around even through traumatic and highly stressful experiences if they're connected to each other and have a feeling of strong support they actually recover from traumatic events better and faster and the same is true in work environments as well so we're focusing a lot on that and something we're intentionally focusing on a bus driver um it's a pretty isolating job you are connected to children but you don't have an adult to look at and say oh my gosh did you hear that that was funny or you know those adult connections and so our school staff have been really working to make sure everybody knows the name of all their drivers and that the kids learn the names of the drivers and they have connections to adults and relationships with them and um the drivers I can't tell you how many told me just this morning stopped me to say you know what I feel so welcomed in my schools I'm working with and I feel um a connection to those communities and they don't feel like they're in this isolated place as much as they used to at all and we're continuing to work on that and so um we're even going to be uh surveying the drivers this year to try to give Awards out to the schools that are doing that best so um that's going to be a fun competition for us just to follow up to that um I totally agree with that I mean I think sometimes we um don't appreciate how much of an impact the bus drivers the lunch personel the person the secretary the school secret do they still call them school secretaries office coordinators office coordinators um those folks um um have such an impact on on the uh culture of the school and the kids and I will tell you we've been spending a lot of time talking with all of our different groups and and getting feedback from them and people are really appreciating and noticing that effort and feeling connected and they're coming back it's really exciting Christine I had a question up on Transportation so in the um previous slide about vacancies there was about 20 Transportation vacancies um are they mostly in bus drivers or are they in other areas how's that going to impact this well it's drivers and monitors but again those are postings that they're not we're not we're not at danger of cancelling routes okay we're trying to post for additional drivers so that if we can get some extras on staff we have more relief drivers and also uh once we get more then we can rely Less on contracted services for those got it so the reason we have an uptick there is actually because we're trying to create more in-house vacancies so that we can start to build that um a a bigger Workforce so we have a more than what we uh origin like the bare minimum so we can have a little bit better so that we can then start to cut down on external contracts and such yeah good thank you uh nutrition services you know we spent a lot of time here um doing our wonderful world cafes with high school students and Gathering feedback and one thing our students told us is we want more diverse menu options and you know we want to feel like our cultures are represented in our nutrition and our our lunch services and our meals that we are served and so our nutrition services team which is an amazing team um is jumping right in and we're having Taste of the world Wednesdays this year and so there's going to be um new items tested out on Wednesdays and we're going to collect feedback from students and staff and um quarterly do reviews to see which are the things that are working well and people are really loving and we'll add more of those to the menu so we're really appreciative that our nutrition services team is innovative and responding to the requests of our students so that's pretty exciting as well couple construction updates um we've come a long way uh a lot of our buildings are are for the most part done two big pieces still being wrapped up tarton high school still has another year of major construction um in fact this is going to be probably our most challenging year we are going to have to put the entrance of the school in the back of the building for a whole school year we've temporarily relocated the offices to the back of the building and as you've heard part of the construction challenges is reduction in parking spots the good news is um Sarah Gad our director of operations has been working with a couple of local churches and uh Andy has been very active in that already as well has been in some meetings and working with our principal descent over there and we have um worked out a plan so that we have all of the what would be reduced spots um replaced with local churches that are walkable and we're going to make sure we have walkability cleared paths for kids to keep being able to come into school that way and so um lots of innovative thinking and and of course we're going to keep monitoring and adjusting as you know the weeks go by so we can see how things are working but but um that has been uh a lot of work going into that and um we're really excited about the collaboration some of our Community Partners have provided in that regard so and I know we've had some discussion a little bit as a school board about that too and so um if you have any questions about that I know Andy can help with that because he's been part of those meetings nothing like jumping in we also had he joined our team and we're like by the way you're in charge our crisis go our crisis response and he's he's jumped in with both feet because he's got a lot of good experience so it's kind of fun um I know the how has the parking for Tartan been is I know we extended to the churches in the area to get temporary parking spot spots for the Y and we've now got church Council approvals to cover um two churches are going to cover it and the number of slots is it 80 for each of them and we will have all of the slots that would have been reduced now replaced with uh local walk you know spots right next door that kids can walk to so we should we're it's still annoying because we still have to work around things and we're going to have to plow paths and things like that but we have all those slots now covered and so we are not going to have a reduction in the number of slots this year perfect is it shuttle or are they walking are they able to walk to it should be all walkable there's there's two lots along tenth um and actually we've been working with &p and buildings and grounds to actually create a walkway that's a long tenth near the stadium where they don't have to walk all the way around campus to get to the the main entry um which is now on the west side of the building and there'll be some limited student parking also along Greenway in the parking lots near the construction site so between those three sites um we should be able to uh recapture the parking that was lost for students and then of course when the construction is done we'll have more parking than we had before so that's a good thing um I'll mention Webster education center as it's now called um which used to be our Webster Elementary is almost ready for the start of school our Harmony K12 program is moving from the harmony building into the Webster education center um and Trisha has been overseeing all of that program development there so that's really exciting and a really great piece too is that uh not quite yet but at least no later than next fall we're actually going to have a community health clinic in that building as well uh odm group is the group we're working with on that and in the meantime they were serving us with some um some mobile clinics that are going to be doing some vaccination and physical clinics for us as well I'll share that as well but um we will definitely uh get you into Webster to take a look at how that's been renovated and um I know Nancy you have a long history with Webster and and your husband too buil painting the mural there and whatnot so we'll take a look at that but very exciting to have that ready as well a much a a really wonderful space for our students in the harmony K12 program oh yes um we've got some 6 to2 vaccination clinics which is also provided through that Odin group that we're working with and so those are listed here our secondary sites will all have um clinics set up for both vaccinations and sports physicals and several of our elementary our larger elementaries are going to also have vaccine clinics as well so um we're getting that word out to our families so that'll be really exciting to help people be ready for the start of school the Minnesota react um I am not going to spend a lot of time on because you're going to hear more about it but I will tell you that a lot of thought has gone into this because the training that's required of our teachers is about 55 hours up to 55 hours of time we had some funding from the state to pay for that but it was not enough to cover the time entirely and so um Heidi Lee our director of teaching and learning has worked really closely with our teacher Union and our HR department to put together um in in statute the requirement is that you have to come up with anou a memorandum of understanding with your teacher Union to agree how that's going to be organized and we have a beautiful plan that people are feeling good about and I will tell you the teachers who've actually been going through the training veteran teachers have stopped us to say it's really good training I mean they're really feeling positive about it so that's pretty exciting too so you know it's it's um it's not easy to tackle something new especially if you've been doing this a long time but they've really embraced it and done a phenomenal job so we'll have some more updates up for that for you about that as we go through the school year on how that's going uh I want to call attention to focus on student attendance it's all hands on deck um as you know attendance student attendance has been a challenge nationally and Statewide and here in 622 since the pandemic more than ever um and so all of our school sites have indp each site has their own attendance support and intervention plan that's part of their annual sip goals their school Improvement goals so you'll get a copy of all those they're just being finalized right now we're really working on making sure staff families and Community are really aware of the need um because we we need the whole world and we need daycares and and um grandparents and aunts and uncles to understand the importance of attendance and so um we're we've been working really hard to make sure that everybody understands how important this situation is and obviously lots of going on with the state to Advocate at the legislature and the mde level um we've been part of a number of task forces working with County leaders our attorney general um Keith Ellison's office and even the governor's office to put together proposals to take to the legislature this year to try to infuse more supports for student attendance um and I will am very excited to tell you about this new program um through the Minnesota Alliance For Youth which is a nonprofit organization of which our board chair K Yang is the HR Director there there um we have uh there's a program there it's an americore program called Promise fellow and we have applied for and been awarded five positions um they're an amazing bargain for us because the cost for us is about $6500 a school year we get the person 35 hours a week all year long and their focus is on student attendance so we're thrilled we've applied for a position to be at each of our middle schools each of our high schools and our online and Alternative High School as well and so um there's great benefits for that I want to put a plugin because we are still looking for applicants there um there's some really cool benefits that come with it not only um do is it great experience for people um the requirement is you must be 18 years old uh it's great for kids who maybe are taking a gap year between you know high school and college it's great for retirees it's great for parents who want to do this um and there's a a stien that comes with with it about $2,200 a month or 21 $2,200 a month I believe they get paid they also get free medical and dental care and they get a a tuition reimbursement award or a a tuition award at the end of their program worth about I think $6,000 and it can be used to pay for college classes in tuition or to pay off student loans that already are existing so there's some really cool benefits there's even some additional pieces with regard to child care supports and all kinds of things um so I have a link in here of those benefits and candidate applications but we are really excited to try to get the word out and we want folks who come from our own community that are invested and connected to our community and I don't know um K if you want to add anything about it but it's a really amazing program I'm thrilled we're getting this year yeah I mean I don't have much it's um it is an AER cor program and so um we we lean on a lot of the the stuff that state and National marps provides um and then there was also a lot of training that happened s do um so these individuals also get support from um The Alliance as well as whatever support's offered here through 622 so yeah Transportation support child care assistance training health I mean there's a lot of benefits to it so we really want to spread the word and get some really good applicants in here for us so um I've got the link in there for applicants to apply as well so and that is being coordinated and overseen by our secondary assistant superintendent Andy Beaton one more task that's on his plate as he arrives in the door um comment uh I think one thing we learned from Freedom School with its amazing attendance that that is if you make it attractive for kids yes and you make it welcoming and fun in addition to you know learning um of course uh your attendance will will benefit hugely and so I'm um glad that as a district we have such a focus on um extracurricular activities for example um theater and music and sports and debate and and what's that business group called EPA and deca EPA and deca and all of those things um th those are really important when we're talking about attendance and and increasing attention and as you know our goal is ultimately 100% of second students connected to a club a sport a performing art an activity and we measure that and we report that um every trimester to the school board so you'll see those in our regular updates to you guys and that's part of each site's own uh intervention and attendance plan as well so when those are all embedded in there and I will tell you we're we've told students too if there's a club or an activity that you'd like to have that we don't offer tell us about it let's see if we can get it going so um there's really neat cool things coming out of um student interest inventories and things like that as well so that's pretty exciting I want to add to we're going to have a district attendance oversight committee districtwide as well this year um to really monitor from a a a aggregate Collective all these programs so we can really have some conversation about how these interventions and opportunities are impacting our outcomes I will tell you and I'm going to share a couple of slides with you um you know we started down this path really diving into this last year after our strategic plan efforts um we consider students who are the state does chronically absent students are those that Miss 10% or more of school days so if we have 172 school days a student who misses 17.2 school days is chronically absent which is kind of a lot right and um if you look at our numbers our um the students who are most ruent are our 12th graders um followed by our 11th graders and you can see we made some progress in all areas last year so I'm going to show you some other grades as well from 2223 down to 2324 we made some progress we want to make a really big jump in progress this year so this is high school 12th grade and 11th grade then we have our Middle School you can see those are better numbers and our kindergarteners are our third most Trent students so a lot of Education with amilies about what it means to go to kindergarten it's not just playtime or optional time um not only do we have all our academic skills that are learned in kindergarten but those social emotional a playground squabble is developmentally appropriate it helps us learn to navigate um conflict how to get our needs met and communicate and um so we're really helping doing a lot of work with our uh orientation meetings and welcome back with families about this and we also have been really helping families we've got this really cool brochure that's going out to all our Elementary families to show you what do you learn in kindergarten right what are this what are the things that we try to accomplish in learning kindergarten so it's not demystify it let's talk about what has to happen and so um really intentionally focusing on especially our 12th 11th graders and kindergarteners um amongst others and kudos to our fifth graders because they are doing the best of everyone I will say our Statewide average this past year was about 30% in the state that are Trent in 622 we got down to 28% to total and when you think about how much higher poverty we are than the state and our homeless rate is higher than the state we're beinga the odds of course the bar is kind of low when you're 30% of the state is already chronically absent but um our efforts are starting to pay off and we're going to keep working really hard at that so um we'll be reporting regularly on this in our updates to the school board this year as well as all of our work with the community and I will tell you every public meeting we're in whether it's our local Chambers of Commerce our our elected officials our Rotary Club our churches we're telling everybody about this problem so that everybody's aware of it and can help us really really try to get ahead of it and tackle it we have a new strategic plan as you know we spent a lot of work this is our first year of implementation of the new plan that was adopted this past winter and um I'm not going to dig into a lot of this right now but every single presentation that comes forward is aligned to this new strategic plan these five buckets academic achievement graduation post secondary Safety and Security social emotional learning and equity and inclusion and so you're going to see everything that comes forward is all aligned to these goals areas and so when you hear program presentations when you hear our high school principls come and present to you our middle schools everything is going to be organized into these buckets so you can see how we're progressing in these areas and we'll be monitoring um because this is what our data and our community perception conversations told us are our priorities right now so we're very excited about that and even our bus drivers are invested in these areas we spend a lot of time working on these pieces so lots happening right now um there's probably 10 more things I could be diving into right now but I wanted to give you a quick overview of some things we're really focusing on right now um questions and and relative to overall enrollment how are we doing compared to very well um and I will tell you every year you make projections and you use a lot of modeling right we use historical um data that tries to help us get the best predictive uh measure of how many students we think are going to show up at each grade level of course the biggest question grades are those transition grades how many kindergarteners are going to come how many sixth graders are going to come to our middle schools and how many ninth graders in our high schools because within the other grades you can get a fair decent chance of who's coming back and whatnot our uh School leaders have been calling families to to really confirm and get numbers on those we will be watching every single day of those first days of school um and you know we'll have a lot of conversations um at our cabinet level for hotspots because as you know you can build this perfect schedule and all of a sudden you get some folks who show up the second week of school or we get some unexpected changes in those numbers where we need to obviously if we need to shift Staffing or add additional supports and we'll be watching those very very carefully but all indications are enrollments up at every level which is pretty exciting so um we're we've had Fairly con you know this is my 10th year here as superintendent and we I was looking back at slides from 10 years ago and our enrollment is fairly much where it was then I predict it's going to go up because the numbers we're seeing right now are just looking really good um so hopefully um we're monitoring very closely uh those those numbers at each grade level and and I think the programming that we're offering is really really rich and I think people are catching on to that and it's we're going to keep it keep it going well we'll be continuing to update you on all these areas as we move forward thank you thank you should I read the evaluation then okay um so so State statue requires that we give a summary of the evaluation that we did on June 18th so I'm going to share the summary of this meeting um the school board met on June 18th for the annual evaluation of a superintendent Tui asorio superintendent Tui asorio provides the district with leadership communication and advocacy her commitment to equity achievement and belonging among other strategies is guiding our district post-pandemic to address learning loss and chronic absenteeism she continues to be an extraordinary subject matter expert is sensitive to school climate and District matters cultivates a leadership Pipeline and maintains strong relationships among her among her successes this year superintendent tuoro and her team continue to lead our construction efforts as it nearest completion in our district the board is pleased to see the results in the improvement in our buildings leading to enhanced learning environments improved health and well-being increased safety encouraged collabor collaboration and access to technology additionally superintendent tuoro successfully led a collaborative team in developing the district's new strategic plan with it finalized and approved the board looks forward to its implementation resulting in moving the district towards our goals while the district saw a budget shortfall we believe the efforts of superintendent tuoro from prior prior years helped the district avoid significant Cuts additionally we continue to be disappointed that our district learn outcomes are not where we would like them to be but the board believes various strategies and efforts put in place by superintendent Tui ooro and her team will lead our district to improve these numbers the board continues to have great confidence in superintendent 22 Soro and her leadership and appreciates her continued commitment to 622 thank you thank you yeah sorry I'm talking a lot I just want to thank um chair Yang for your work and in U in getting this evaluation together and being um very inclusive with all the board and um and capturing all of our thoughts and uh and you know we have as a board we have one employee our superintendent so so it's uh it's a worthy effort and I appreciate your leadership on that thank you I appreciate everybody's collaboration so it was a good it was a good process so y um I just also wanted to make a quick comment when um Christine introduced Andy Andy made a comment about he was impressed by the consistency of leadership in the district and I think it is remarkable that we've had you leading the district for 10 years and I'm really grateful as somebody who's had kids in the district over the last 10 years that we have had that consistency and Leadership and I think uh job like a superintendent is a big job and you learn and you grow and I think you've learned and grown over those 10 years and so thank you very much for everything you're doing and we're so happy to have you in leadership as I said earlier people don't quit jobs they quit bosses and I've got some really great ones I I have said this so many times that it it makes a really big difference to have a school board that works together um and if you look at what happens all around the state and the country it's when there's Division and fracturing um it's a lot of work to work as a team as a board and so I'm just really grateful as I say to everyone um I'm really grateful to have a a board that actually works together and works for students um people's egos are not are checked at the door and people really are about problem solving issues and that makes me thrilled to be here and it's what's kept me here all this time it's such an amazing place to be and I'm so proud of that and I'm I'm grateful even as new board members have come and gone you all have worked really well to make sure people feel welcomed and included and learn and um it's a safe place to ask questions and and Learn and Grow because part of why you have um public public members of the public in governing boards and school boards it really brings a lot more learning and and knowledge sharing across um sectors of the community and I just appreciate the work you guys do to work together and support all of our team at the same time so thank you for that too thank you um so we're going to move on to our action items so the first one is the acknowledgement of contributions um I get to read it this month so Minnesota statute 123b 02 permits school boards to receive for the benefit of the district requests donations or gifts for any proper purpose and apply the same to the purpose designated in that behalf the board may act as Trustee of any trusts created for the benefit of the district and for the benefit of peoples thereof therefore the Director of Finance recommends the following resolution um oh these are the the contributions um um will be resolved by the school board of independent should I read that yet I don't need to read that yet um so July um so we're going to do July and August because we're going to have a board meeting in July so July we received from Best Buy um the in the amount of $5,000 and this was support for bsu's fall trip to tour colleges for the HBCU um so at the end of July the total monetary contribution was 74,000 $434 77 um in August um we received from Ryan lote a large surface rug for Sky View epic program um to assist the program with needed Furnishings um from Anonymous of $50 for meals and wheels Knights of Columbus Council Grand Knight Richard gr Gro um $1,178 and this was for enrichment activities for adults with cognitive disabilities Community Bridge Gladstone Kenny Family Foundation for $113,000 enrichment activities for adults with cognitive disabilities Community Bridge Gladstone um Dennis and Connie delor $1,000 enrichment activities for adults with cognitive disabilities Community Bridge Gladstone um this one was a group um donations so um Alicia mccorkel Janelle cumer Amy Boris Amber G Jan odard Kim roaring Susan buou Melissa vanan Sher Whitbeck and Patricia Peters um donated two coffee makers and a variety of snacks um for the coffee for senior interest groups and snacks for Bingo prizes that brings our um current current fiscal year one more oh oh Sher runch a coffee maker to provide for coffee for the senior interest groups missed that one uh so that brings our total fiscal year uh 2425 monetary contributions the1 15,000 228 um be it resolved by the school board of Independent School District number 622 that the Schoolboard accept with appreciation these contributions and permit their use as designated by the donors could I get a motion in a second so move to Second all right U moved by Peli seconded by Anderson um any discussion uh all in favor say I I all oppose say nay all right and these are accepted um next up we have the renewal of an expiring referendum and this is um the action item from Josh's presentation earlier um I'm going to read the authorization of renewal paragraph is that okay may okay um so the board hereby determines and declares that it is necessary and expedient for the district to renew the expiring referendum in the same per pupil amount as is current in the expiring referendum the additional revenue from the renewed referendum Revenue authorization will be used to finance School operations the renewed referendum Revenue authorization will be applicable for 10 years beginning with taxes payable 2027 unless otherwise revoked or reduced as provided by law could I get a motion in a second oh we have to do um roll call right okay so moved by pelzman second by Anderson and then may is going to do a roll call Dan pelzman I Michelle janner hi Caleb Anderson hi Nancy Livingston hi ke Yang hi um so this resolution passes thank you um next up is teaching and learning this is the calendar revision then I'm I'll actually cover that one okay um even though we have our director of teaching and learning Heidi Lee here she actually oversees our calendar committee as well we'll just um this is a very minor uh item here every year we adopt our SC our calendar in the fall for the following year and because we know that we don't at the time we adopt the calendar we don't yet know when the ACT Testing date is going to be for that next school year and so every year around this time we know where the date is and we have to add that in so if you look at the version that was published online last fall it says to be determined and so um this now includes um this change the date has been added in here so we have a school day designated ated it's going to be on uh April 8th 2025 it's going to be an in-person school day for 10th and 11th graders so that they can do act and MCA testing and a remote learning day for 9th and 12th grade students um this Chang it's not something new we do this every year um and we carefully monitor the number of hours and days so that we don't fall below the state required minimum for those so um that is all taken into account with this resolution so I'd like to propose that we adopt this um minor adjustment to our calendar to include this testing date thank you Christine so be it resolved by the school board of Independent School District number 622 that the 2024 2025 school calendar be revised to reflect April 8th 2025 as an in-person school day for 10th and 11th grade students for the purpose of act MCA testing and a remote learning day for 9th and 12th grade students could I get a motion in a second so second okay moved by um Anderson seconded by peltzman um is there any discussion okay um all in favor say I all oppos say nay okay um that revision passes thank you um next up we're moving to um policy revision policy adoption all right I'm going to take a big deep breath here because we have a lot right now um as reminder we maintain our set of board policies here in our school district uh the Minnesota school boards Association also maintains a set of model policies that we use as a reference when we look at and and they have a team of legal advisers who take a look whenever new legislative changes happen um and they send us lists of uh recommended revisions to update our policies to remain in compliance with new statutory language and uh in the past it seemed like we would get them once a year this the end of the legislative season but there's been so much legislation passed in the last couple years that we tend to get them in trickles along the way um and I will tell you we've got uh two policies for adoption this evening and revision of 37 policies um normally we do three full readings of all of these um but because these are basically a um revisions and an adoption due to legislative changes and with the start of school um we are legally allowed to do so in uh the two readings we had a a first reading at our study session last time and we are um proposing that we get these finalized tonight so that we can start school with these new policy changes in place and so with that I'm going to read to you um the list of what these are and um the titles of those that we're proposing uh be adopted and changed and then um we will have you uh it will be my recommendation that those adoptions be adopted this evening so that we can start the school year with everything in place the two policies that are proposed for new Adoption the first of which is policy number 66.5 Library materials this is a new policy that is tied to new statutory language regarding um responsibility over Library materials um it includes definitions responsibility for how we select Library materials it includes criteria that needs to go into this um it also includes a requirement that school districts must have the oversight of a licensed library media specialist um as you know we have not had a full-time person on staff before we've had hired folks in in and on an hourly basis periodically when needed but we now have a full-time library media specialist to oversee all of this work together um and I thank our teaching and learning department for their thorough search in that regard um I also want to mention that um when we adopt Schoolboard policies I know it could be easy to re St but I want to thank our board for really diving in and combing these to look carefully at these recommendations our cabinet members do so and our our board looks at these carefully um and in this particular lens I'm going to uh thank our director Michelle yanner who put a lot of time in with our teaching learn Department to really kind of comb through these pieces as well and so um it includes uh a whole organization around instructional materials Review Committee um and oversight on how those materials will be managed supervised and um how our process will look when we have a challenge to materials so that we have a process in there as well as um prohibition of retaliation um for and we cannot discriminate against any discip or discipline an employee for cl for complying with all of these pieces and so this is a new policy for adoption um largely tied to legislative changes um and some really thoughtful consideration as to what those procedures will look like inside of that Within our 622 work here so that is uh policy 66.5 Library materials the second policy we're proposing for adoption is policy 522 student sex non-discrimination Title 9 I should mention we already have a policy 522 uh referring to uh student sex non-discrimination Title 9 but due to the very significant substantial changes in legislation so much of this policy is actually being revised in compliance with this new language that um our Minnesota school boards Association attorneys are recommending we adopt it as a whole new policy even though technically we already have that in existence but it's so uh there's so many changes included in this and I want to just highlight a few things um this is essentially a new entirely new policy I should mention that our uh our secondary our Elementary in student services assistant superintendent Trisha St Michaels is our title n Guru she spends a lot of time in this and looking at this and supporting with any Title 9 investigation requests um in conjunction with uh outside attorneys when needed as well and so um this is a new policy that includes a lot of information in connection to the new requirements of this uh legislative changes in 20124 it includes language that also expands the scope of our District's obligations with regard to um this Title 9 language uh it includes a lot of information about uh the role of the title 9 coordinator and how that needs to be uh designated um there's a lot of pieces in there that include requirements related to protecting parent family marital status and related conditions um it also has language in there regarding um emergency removal of students or employees during an investigation when there's a risk of um harassment and or violence that has happened it also strongly recommends we work with legal council which we always do in these types of situations as well it identifies a grievance procedures for handling these types of Investigations um and there's a number of folks that come into time frames how we manage the investigative process um it also addresses um some parts of the language I'm going to be honest are a little bit untested so far with this new language and so there's advice in there about again continuing to connect with outside Council all that as well um we also must be careful that um we are not uh treating folks differently based on sex otherwise otherwise permitted it has some language around our printed material requirements um and also language around data requirements that are tied to this new legislation and so um policy 522 student sex non-discrimination Title 9 there's a lengthy change to it as you've all reviewed together um as our last study session and it's all available online as well so uh we are proposing that those two policies be adopted as new policies and if I recall May these should be voted on first before we do the revisions or do they get voted on all together can you remind me okay shall I go right into the revision ones as well and then you can decide if you want to vote on them as a whole group okay here we go I'm going to take a deep breath um these 37 proposed revised policies uh for the most part have very minor changes and they are tied to uh statutory language changes that exist so uh these are all things that are updating our our policies to reflect new changes in statute policy number 102 equal Educational Opportunity it adds legislative change to discrimination definition policy 104 Mission values and beliefs um it refers removes that world's best Workforce from statutory reference because that uh titled no longer exists in statute world's best Workforce um so that's updated policy 207 public hearings uh it reviees the address requirement if you remember when folks want to speak in public comment there's there used to be a requirement that they must state their name and AD home address that's now eliminated from that policy as well due to statutory changes policy 5 413 harassment and violence updates familial status definition policy 416 drug alcohol and Cannabis Testing it adds language related to oral fluid testing which is also in State Statute uh policy for uh 18 drug-free workplace adds protection for persons in the Minnesota patient registry program policy 419 tobacc free environment possession and use of tobacco tobacco related devices and electronic delivery devices vaping awareness and prevention instruction adds smudging as a permissible activity for that culturally relevant inclusivity there that's a language that changed in State Statute as well policy 425 staff development it adds par professional training Provisions policy 501 School weapons it does update language around toy guns and suspension policy 503 student attendance it updates um language around excused absences and adds a note on unexcused absences policy 506 student discipline adds unscheduled student removal Provisions 59 enrollment of non-resident students it removes School Readiness plus and it adds School of Parents Choice Law language policy 512 School sponsored student Publications and activities adds a student journalist law policy 513 student promotion retention and program design also removes that reference to world's best Workforce policy 515 protection and privacy of pupil records adds explanator explanatory note for directory information policy 516 student medications it also adds some new statutory provisions and rearranges sections for clarity policy 521 student disability non-discrimination it up updat statutory definition of Disability Policy 524 internet acceptable use and safety policy it adds new title and new cell phone provision policy 532 use of Peace Officers adds some school resource officer language policy 536 service animals adds protections for persons with disabilities policy 61 School District curriculum and instructional goals also removes reference to world's best Workforce policy 603 curriculum development removes world's best Lang world's best Workforce again and updates some legal references policy 604 instructional curriculum adds pending change to health standards policy 606 textbooks instructional materials and Library materials it removes the library materials due to the adoption of the new policy 66.5 policy 608 instructional Services special education adds child with a disability Provisions policy 609 religion as a cultural observance provision policy 613 graduation requirements it updates graduation requirements and updates legal references as well policy 614 school district testing plan and procedure it adds a retaliation prohibition policy 615 testing accommodations and modifications it updates statutory references policy 616 School District system accountability removes also that reference to world's best Workforce apies AP policy 620 credit for learning adds weighted grade provision and PSO dates I should add you know remember we had the conversation a couple years ago at the request of some of our students to review the uh consideration of waiting grades for PSO courses which uh under the leadership of uh Courtney McCormack who is our director of postsecondary Readiness and a lot of work with our school counselors we actually made that change well ahead of the state state statute changing and I just want to complement our team again because we're ahead of the curve on that one and I've been a part of a lot of emails and Communications with school districts about how are you handling this right now and I'm like we already did that a long time ago so it's been kind of great to see that as well kudos to our team and to our students for bringing that to our attention um I want to add okay which one was I on now six thank you 62 four online learning options as tuition and fee provision policy 707 transportation of public school students add and fix citations that are in there policy 708 transportation of non-public students school students changes shall to must Clarity of course policy 709 student Transportation safety adds electric bcal provision I know this isn't about that but I wanted you to notice that in our new parking lot revisions we have now electric charging stations going in so kudos to our team on that one we're ahead of the curve again policy 802 disposition of obsolete equipment adds um ms7 47185 for legal references and policy 806 crisis management which adds a note regarding permissive cardiac emergency response plan again I am recommending that we adopt these two new policies as well as these 37 revisions of policies so that we are then in compliance with latest statutory changes and ahead of the new school year having these in place for the the beginning of the new school year as well thank you that was a that was quite a bit definitely a mouthful all right so I'm going to read the policy revision first and then I'll do the adoption after that so um the be it resolved by the school board of Independent School District 22 um hereby revises the following policies and you can find this in board book um but there's 37 um that we are revising based on msba recommended recommended changes so could I get a a motion in a second move second right moved by Livingston seconded by Anderson do we have any um discussion okay um could I get um well actually all in favor say I I all oppos say n all right um so those revisions pass um let me just move to my next one and this is for the adoption um so the adoption um is for let's see be resolved by the school board of Independent School District 622 hereby adopt um 522 student sex non-discrimination and 66.5 Library materials um could I get a motion in a second mov right move by yard um second by peltzman um any discussion okay all in favor say I I all oppos say nay all right and those pass um next up we have board communication Nancy well I know this is a really nervous time for students and families but I think that uh the back to school um uh looming is is all the pieces are in place and it's going to be okay it's going to be okay so uh so just chill it'll be okay um and uh among our 10,000 students I'm sure there's a candidate for vice president of the United States in there some way so so um these are uh this is our future so that's all thanks um I just want to acknowledge how hard uh our our teachers and our other staff uh have been working lately to get our schools ready for our kids to come back um I know a lot of parents are excited uh for the school year to start back up um and hopefully uh um kids are too uh I know a lot of kids are but um I uh I just um I'm really appreciative for all the work uh that our employees have been doing um because it is a lot of work to get ready for the school year um but uh it it's all going to work out really well and I think it'll be an outstanding school [Music] year um I don't really have anything but I'd also like to just welcome back the teachers and staff and the students um my third of three kids is starting High School this year G be an adventure for all of us right and I apologize upfront to any teachers uh yeah I just want to add that you know everyone in my household is excited for school to start um and and I hope that that is similarly felt across all of our our student households um and I just wanted to Echo also something that CCE said earlier about um what an exciting time it is to see you know the student athletes back out starting to practice and get ready for the the fall um and like everything starting to come together it's very exciting time I also am echoing what everyone says um I'm very excited my kids have not done anything all summer so they're not looking forward to school but I'm excited for them to to go back and re-energize their brains so um it'll be a good time uh I'm I'm you know being a part of Schoolboard I um get the back backseat to seeing what all the administrators are doing in the summer so um just want to thank everybody that has put all that hard work into training and getting everyone ready and I'm excited for the teachers um for all the stuff they've done um over the summer and staff and just I'm excited so it'll be a good school year all right um future board dates so we have um the next business meeting will be September 17 2024 6 o'clock P.M in the boardroom do I have to set that do I have to do a motion for that okay but not for the board meeting okay good I ask this every time um so could I get a h Motion in a second to adjourn tonight's meeting so all right moved by uh Anderson seconded by Martins um any discussion Livingston sorry any discussion do we want to keep this meeting going no okay um all in favor say I all oppose say all right meeting is adjourned thank you so much