##VIDEO ID:sZAdn1c5tSw## good evening this work session of the ISD 279 School Board is being held in the Forum room of Educational Service Center at 11200 93rd Avenue North in Maple Grove on Tuesday November 12th 2024 the work session is being audio recorded the recording will be made available on the district website within two business days after the work session has ended with regard to the audio recording our communication staff has asked that we share friendly reminder the side conversations during the work session are picked up by the recorder and can affect sound quality also conversations during transitions between agenda items are on the recording as well the intent of the Schoolboard work session is to allow for Schoolboard discussion of topics work sessions do not include an opportunity for audience members to address the board to acknowledge their attendance this evening I'll ask that all present at the table State their name starting with to my left Jackie Thomas BR School Board member Anthony pis executive director of Technology Sarah Mitchell School Board member Kelly parpart assistant superintendent of secondary schools Steve Fisk assistant superintendent for the elementary schools Jill K director of learning achievement Michael Walker director of educational Equity John Morad Executive Director of Finance and operations Kella executive director of community relations Brian ston Hall executive director of community engagement Heather Douglas School board member Ivon Schwarz Executive Director of Human Resources Amy Moore general counsel Tamara Grady she her hers also School Board member Kim H superintendent and I attend Prince Schoolboard member and president the purpose of the Schoolboard work session is to build trust and teamwork to exchange information and when applicable to provide Direction in order to facilitate efficient and effective decision-making at regular board meetings Dr how would can you share your updates all right thank you welcome everyone here this evening thank you Vice chair Prince and chair Ms Jones and our school board members we're going to start right away this morning with information on our attendance boundary update and um we will have CA and John Mor superintendent H members of the board thank you so much for this opportunity to give you an update on our attendance boundary change process this timeline that you see here is just a reminder from our last conversation uh right now we're at the second note um that's the October through December 2024 um we're developing scenarios uh we're on track to meet the community feedback opportunities which is that third note that you see on here which will be in January um January 15th is our first scheduled one and we'll be sharing more about that here soon um and then January 23rd will also be an opportunity to for the community to provide some input um we will then review that feedback and then make adjustments potentially from that um and then additional feedback opportunities will be considered um afterward and then the plan really is to have final attendance Founders announced at the end of the school year and then uh next uh year we would prepare to welcome new students and then the new attendance boundaries would go into effect the fall of 2026 uh just a reminder on our communication goals um we're striving to ensure clear comprehensive communication that is timely and easily accessible ensure WID SP spread Community understanding and minimize any misinformation we also want to make sure we're easing anxiety with communication that reflects the district's care and concern for staff students and parents and caregivers opportunities are also going to be created as we've shared uh for our audiences to share their thoughts and ask questions along the way and last but certainly not least um one of our main goals here is to maintain the students enrolled in our district we now have a website up and running about attendance boundary changes so you can go directly to district279.org boundaries or click the about us menu on our District web page and select attendance boundary changes this is really where the most detailed information will be about the attendance boundary change process um we have some frequently asked questions you can see this is just kind of a wide screenshot of it um there's even a new update since um the screenshot was last taken we have our timeline our community built parameters which I'll talk about here in in a minute and then the FAQ was just under that we'll continue as we get uh questions that um kind of are common amongst our community members we'll continue to add FAQ to this page so for about a month this fall we had an anonymous what we call thought exchange um in which we ask commun members to respond to this question what should be considered as our community Works to create new attendance boundaries at the elementary and middle school levels this opportunity to provide some feedback to kick off our tenis boundary change process was shared in District and school newsletters via text messages on our websites district and school our social media sites uh digital signage at schools as well we also had handouts in main offices at family and community events and it was mentioned at school family events um like the PTO meetings and conferences um and schools also encourage students to participate we had three almost 3,000 participants in total um just over 1500 dots and 36,000 ratings so every uh thought that's in there uh commun members could go in and then star if they like that or not or how much um what they're liking was in that regard we also had 2% that participated in Spanish this word cloud is just some of the common words that were used in the responses so we have class sizes Community bu Building Together close R bus rides um diversity disruption distance these are just some of the common words that we were finding throughout the thoughts that were shared and these were really the most common themes with a they go from most to least in the order um of being mentioned so the top ones were student social networks and neighborhood schools including the middle to high school alignment uh minimizing disruption proximity to school and transportation efficiency class size um I'll just add in the regards to the class size portion we did have a lot of community members that they wanted to um lower the class size but we'll talk about that kind of what our parameters but our our hope is to stick with those already Schoolboard uh approved uh targets uh F future housing developments diversity and Equity safety considerations and this was really in regards to like Transportation um not uh having students crossover major road grades Etc and then open enrollment there was a probably a 5050 um there wasn't a lot of um commonality on this I would say it would was about 5050 on those liking open enrollment and those not liking open enrollment so based on this feedback um some community-built parameters were formed and this really is to help um develop the scenarios that we'll be presenting to the community in January so the commun commity built parameters are um to Center our core values of honor and integrity belonging inclusion Innovation and Excellence transparency intrinsic value ensure scenarios can function in our system include but included but not limited to Transportation building utilization and capacity enrollment both current and future teaching and learning program offerings and financial costs ensure scenarios have longevity in our system follow the teacher student class targets established by the school board consider the number of students impacted for each scenario consider the student demographics of each scenario consider connecting more schools from level to level um keep neighborhoods intact as much as possible minimize non-contiguous and non- adjoining areas and then maintain the point8 elementary and 1.0 secondary transportation service areas that's the mileage there um maintain safety standards in regard to bus routing so avoiding major roadways Etc avoiding lengthy travel time on buses and complying with state laws Schoolboard policy and negotiated agreements so uh just a reminder our core team's purpose is to lead the attendance boundary change process um as I mentioned they're working to create potential scenarios using these Community built parameters right now and the good news is their work is on scheduled to meet the community sharing plan for January uh so definitely want to make sure everyone is staying informed throughout this process so we have our website up to date um definitely go there for the latest information um stay tuned for regular updates we are our emails our Mass notifications um definitely uh make sure to mark on the calendars those Community informational meetings coming up after winter break in January and then we have two hotlines up and going as well that anyone is welcome to provide um or share any questions or that's to it's better future at district279.org and then the phone number to with that we'll take questions for members you have any questions or coms I just have a question please can you um specify the the point um 8 Elementary and one mile transportation service is that from their home is that from their current school that they wouldn't what that I can answer that so we uh basically draw a concentric circle from this from the school out 8/10 of a mile for walk for elementary and one mile for um middle school and high school and if you're inside that you're ineligible for transportation okay now the state statute allows us to go up two miles but we go considerably less right now okay other questions yeah so I didn't see the um portal um feedback U one of the questions that I have is on participation Ms um do you have were you able to map L the geographic we weren't but uh we will this was an anonymous survey uh essentially so but when we do get uh Community feedback in January we will be asking for addresses and we will be able to plot um those on a map to determine where the feedback is coming from and if we need to do some additional efforts to reach out to to people great well I've heard um feedback from board members um in other areas of Minnesota that they're really impressed with what we're doing and how much Community engagement how much information we have out there so as always it's fantastic to see the approach that the district takes and all of you as decision makers in that thank you okay all right thank you um thanks John thanks K uh we're going to be moving right on to the world T Workforce and achievement integration report uh this evening Dr Bass can be there but we're thrilled uh for this evening we'll receive this update and once again is that commitment to F eal and high quality education across our district so this evening we will um have our presentation from Department of Education equity and learning and achievement under the leadership of Dr Walker and under the leadership of Dr k so um thank you for your attention this evening and we'll go ahead and have them share our report thank you thank you Dr Kyle good evening board members uh tonight Dr Walker and I have two outcomes for our presentation we're going to examine various data points related to both the world's best Workforce and our achievement and integration strategic plan for last school year and then we'll talk about the Strategic Improvement actions that we're working on to positively impact that data so as we begin our presentation we're going to talk about how this aligns to our strategic directions I'm first going to talk about this is the last year of the world's best Workforce report uh the 2024 legislative session has done away with that and changed it to the comprehensive achievement and Civic Readiness Plan y uh Additionally the read act removed all third graders can read at grade level from this year world's best Workforce report we're still going to share that information with you tonight um but just to keep that in mind it will not be in this report moving forward as the comprehensive achievement in Civic Readiness Plan the other four goals remain the same all children are ready for school all racial and economic achievement gaps are closed all students are ready for college and career and all students graduate from high school now I'll turn it over to Dr Walker director of educational Equity to talk about the achievement integration goals good evening everyone as you all know I'm new here so this is our first opportun to you all so thank you for having me superintendent Hy and members of the board so I appreciate that um as you see we're really trying to do this in collaboration with each other and so some of our goals kind of overlap and they uh they support each other and so with the achievement integration goals we have four goals uh the first goal is really around uh supporting uh the specialized programing to seek racial integration Gap reduction and that's to do 1% each year um at schools that were racially identified in our in our plans the second goal is to um is around achievement and so it's the gap between students of color and the Minnesota state goal of 85 % as measured by proficiency on the Minnesota comprehensive mtaa um reading test so to decrease that by 2% uh each year for identified groups our third goal is uh around percent of Staff of color working in oio area schools to again increase that by 1% from the uh 22 Mark of 14.94% and uh our fourth and final goal is uh increase a graduation rate of American Indian students by 4% um per year between 24 and 26 at the end of the integration plan so when we think about um the integration plan obviously we want to connect everything to our strategic priorities and and those that's really important to us and so when we think about what we're doing here it's around how are we addressing and acknowledging and reducing systemic disparities barriers and inequities as we lead develop and align our district towards continuous Improvement and so that's what we're trying to do and that's what our attempt is is really connecting that um as you'll learn about me it's really important important that we are focused on our mission and our vision our values and how that's connected to the work that we're doing and so everything that I'm trying to do as I learn um oio is to make sure that we're connected and simar in that point and perspective uh the next thing is that I'm sure you all are aware as uh Dr K said we're going to be looking at some data and so there's all different types of Lev levels of data and so we have um been working with the book Street data and so we're talking about satellite data which is really around like that high level you know 20,000 ft view of like test scores and that sort of thing then we have the the medium set of data or the uh the map data which is kind of now I'm getting into the classroom about what's going on in the classroom what is that um looking like how our students performing on these formative assessments and then we have what we call Street data or what the book called Street data is really getting into the understanding of what it is our students are facing and how are we listening to those voices as we try to change the outcomes that we're seeing within our system and so this is really important that we listen to those marginalized and minoritized perspectives as we're looking at our achieving integration budget and so with that being said is that you know again I want to be very clear that the data that we are um um going to look at is not where we want to be right so it's something that we need that we know that we need to work on and so we're trying to be very proactive in our approach with this and one way that we're doing is taking our schools through an equity transformation cycle and so at the start of the school year each uh principal met with uh our um data department and they had a data dig to find out what are some of the areas where they can improve upon and so they all were to create an equity um challenge that they wanted to overcome throughout the school year and so what they're doing is looking to obviously as the uh Graphics shows listen uncover reimagine and then move and so that's what uh we'll be working towards with them the department of educational Equity has a program called we have uh e seminars it's called Equity team seminars that the schools are sending their staff members to to start to go through this process and understand how to go through it right so not everybody is an expert at this but this is a learning year for us to gain knowledge and understanding and so we're walking each other through this process so that we can do better for our students and so this is what we'll be kind of honing in on so as you're looking and listening to the data that we're sharing understand that we're already being proactive about some areas that we're going to Target to change some of these outcomes that we may see tonight and with that we're going to move into our first world's best Workforce school all children are ready for school this slide represents our pre and post assessment data for our voluntary pre- students using the teaching strategies gold assessment over the last four years uh the yellow bars are the pre-assessment the beginning of the year and the blue bars are the end of the year assessment the last yellow bar is the 2024 25 preassessment for our our prees uh our goal last year was to CH to move our 39% from the preassessment up to 81% and you'll see see by the graph that we've actually exceeded our goal we me 82% of our uh prees were colleag or colagen career ready yes they are ready but also ready for we start early this Tas measures numeracy literacy and social emotional uh development moving into kindergarten in first grade this is the result of our early reading assessments from fastbridge and the bars on the left left are kindergarten the bars on the right are first grade these are students who are identified as low risk meaning they're not likely to need intervention services during the year so this fall 67% of our kindergarteners were identified as low risk and 55% of our first graders are identified as low lowest it helps us also talk about how are we talking vertically between kindergarten and first grade and between kindergarten and prek about the skills that we need to have mapped out and that leads into some of the work that we're doing you're going to see that all of our work is being done in partnership not just between the Departments here at the district office but also with our site leaders and their teachers and our main focus with prek this year is that programming of what's going to be the structured literacy resource that our prek programs are going to use so we're bringing the teachers together and the program leaders together to talk about that and really having them dig into the research and figure out what's going to be best for their program because we have vastly different programming depending if it's fourstar voluntary prek that is our work with all students ready for kindergarten our next goal centers on all third graders can read a grade level these are our fast Bridge a reading results which are which is given uh fall winter and spring in grades 2 through 5 the leftand bars are the 2020 2 2023 school year the right hand 23 24 the purple or the dark blue are students who are very low risk and the yellow are students who are low risk second and fifth graders both had more students in these two categories than they have had in previous years we're going to break this graph down just a little bit more into the four different categories so when we students take the fastb assessment they're identified as have being very low risk low risk some risk or high risk one of the insights we can draw from this graph is that our second graders and our fifth graders are having higher than typical growth they're having aggressive growth so the two right- Hand categories sum risk and high risk we want to see more yellow bars there because we know that students who are identified as some risk or high risk need to have aggressive growth in order to be meeting grade level standards this data is used to identify students for intervention and then we give them a diagnostic to determine which intervention is going to work best I'm going to talk about that because one of the things we're doing to address the growth rate is we've done an intervention study at elementary to see which interventions are most effective here in asio the data you see in this chart are the MCA results of our third graders over the last three years compared with third graders across like districts life districts are those that have similar demographics to area ASU area schools in terms of size and demographics the bright yellow bar circled in red is oio and the purple bar at the far right is the state as you can see on this chart third grade Scholars and AIO consistently rate second or third in percent proficient among this group of like districts so what is our partnership response to our third grade reading data well as I shared last month it is really our deep implementation work around structured literacy with 95 cor phonics and ccla uh we have we're partnering with the department of educational equity and the SD is the staff development assessment Specialists who work in that department to really get into classrooms and model and Coach teachers and provide ongoing job embedded professional learning uh We've also expanded our L literacy plan Beyond third grade because we want to make sure that all students are reading at grade level in each and every grade K12 this month we're really excited after partnering with Education Minnesota oio and principles we're going to be start starting structured Lear learning walks the structured literacy learning walks in every Elementary classroom so we work to develop a set of look fors and beginning I think in two weeks we're going to be flooding schools and looking for feedback on do what are we seeing in terms of explicit instruction that whole idea I'm going to model this we're going to do it together and then students are going to do it independently we'll be using that data at the system level to inform professional learning and we'll be sharing insights with site leaders about their building and either grade band or grade specifics about things that we're seeing and that they can reinforce and support in their building when they're doing professional development or observations the next piece we're doing is also in partnership with the department of educational equity and that's focusing on our Three core High operational practices elicit High intellectual performance making sure that each student has the opportunity to share their Brilliance each and every day and that teachers are monitoring the where students are at in relation to that grade level standard if students need more support providing intervention in the classroom if they need more in uh enrichment providing that enrichment in the classroom which ties into that amplifying student voice how are we making sure that students get to have some choice in what they read and what they do in each of the classes this builds student agency and confidence and it also involves sharing their perspectives teaching the skills of reflection self-monitoring and questioning and then lastly situating learning in the lives of students we know that the art of teaching is in having a positive relationship with each student so that we can make know what makes learning relevant for them so to do that to situate learning in the lives of students you have to have that relationship to make the curriculum come alive for students our next goal is all students graduate from high school we know that as I said already it begins in prek and it continues through El uh this graph shows the percentage of our elementary students who demonstrated proficiency on the Minnesota comprehensive assessment last spring the reading and math assessments uh are taken in grades three four and five and the Science assessment is only taken in fifth grade for each content area the purple bar on the left represents assio area schools and the gold bar on the right represents the state for reading and maap asio was approximately 1% below the state average for science we were approximately 70% below the state average sorry math weer 1% above the state average this year moving on to middle school this Scrat shows the percentage of students who demonstrated proficiency at Middle School reading in math 6th 7th and eth grade science 8th grade we can see that aoria schools was 3% below the state average in Reading in 2024 and 3% Below in math and 9% below the state average in science moving on to high school reading is taken at the 10th grade level math is taken at the 11th grade level and science is taken after students take biology we were 3% below the state average in Reading 4% Below in math and 5% Below in science as as we stated earlier right reducing the reading proficiency Gap across demographic is our top priority but as we look at this graphic we see that we haven't uh met the mark on that right so we are definitely aware of that and the work and the partnership that we're talking about with high operational practice is a way that we're really um focused on trying to achieve that and so as as you see that um there was a few dips in some of the uh achievement from 23 to 24 um we're still all are not meeting the the mark on the 85% that the state want us to reach uh but again that's the work that we have to embark on and our schools are really uh digging into this when we think about specifically around the achievement integration dollars um our sites who are racially racially identifiable schools one of their goals is to attack this um this literacy Gap here and so this is what they're um focusing on with many of their um Equity transformation cycles that they'll be going through so graduation and draft rates our four-year graduation rate remained constant for the class between the class of 2022 and 2023 I think one thing that's important to remember is that this is for the class of 2023 not the class of 202 for we don't receive that data until March or April uh our four-year dropout rate increased by almost 1% our 7-year graduation rate increased by 2% and our seven-year dropout rate decreased by uh 2.1% so we're getting closer to uh making sure that all students are graduating within 7 years and this is our our goal for around increasing uh American Indian student graduation rates and again uh the state goal Statewide goal is at 90% uh we haven't met that Mark but we're pretty pretty darn close to that but as you can see um the state average is on the blue is the blue bar and then AIO um average is uh is the yellow bar and as you see in 23 we did reach 87.5% so we're really close to that but I really want us to caution us around the end right uh the number of students there is that can fluctuate a lot between what you see and what you don't see around these uh these numbers and so I wanted us to be very Mindful and cautious of that to understand that that end changes a lot and so um just know that we are watching and paying attention to that but what has um connected to this I've talked to uh Ethan who you all will be getting a u presentation from next week around what has been really good uh for American Indian students is around the language acquisition right so uh the Dakota and ojibway languages that has been implemented in our district has really seen a boost of students taking it and and and and thriving in those courses and the additional um education that the staff people that he has to work and support our students um that are um Indian and so that has been really helpful and he has seen the benefits of that and obviously we're seeing it here with our data so we have to continue to do the things that we're doing and then obviously work harder around our College and Career rating and this table Compares ontime oio and Statewide graduation rates for the class of 2023 with those of other large Minnesota districts with comparable demographics the comp districts had at least 800 seniors enrolled in 22 23 with 20 to 4 between 24 and 60% of students receiving gree reduced price meals and between 35 and 82% of students of color oio is the second row from the bottom outlined in black and the state is the bottom row each column designates a different student group all students American Indian Asian black Hispanic white multi-racial female male students receiving multilingual Services students receiving free and reduced price lunch students receiving special education services students who are experiencing homelessness and lastly students with limited or interrupted formal education the district with the highest graduation rate for each particular group is colorcoded in green and the district the lowest graduation rate for that group is colored in in red results are only reported the total number of enrolled students is at least 10 it's important to know that as Dr Walker talked about is that numbers often fluctuate as we look for patterns first we can see that aio's graduation rate overall was in the average range among these districts three districts had higher graduation rates five had lower and one had an identical graduation rate second graduation rates for American Indian students black students white students free students receiving free and reduced price lunch students experiencing homelessness and students with limited or interrupted formal education were higher than that of the state average this t represents the Dropout rates for the class of 2023 like the previous table it has the same student group columns across the top and the same color coding I think the we're spending a lot of time and energy in this area of all students being ready College and Career ready one of our biggest pieces of work is the Minnesota multi-tiered systems of support we have had a district level team for the past two years working on this and that has involved going to I think 15 mde trainings who are leading this work uh in terms of what is we did a need a huge needs assessment with a district team to identify which of the five areas do we need to spend our time in because we can't prioritize everything when everything's a priority nothing gets done so really what is our main focus we also uh learned deeply about what each of the five components means and we developed an implementation plan and and this year of the implementation plan it was to bring this work to the site and form site implementation teams at each of our sites each site is asked to have an M mtss which is a mol site leadership team that has an administrator a leader for academics and a leader for social and emotional learning they are asked to meet what once a month at their sites to sort of look at the overall picture that 20,000 level foot view of the school and what resources are needed for tier one tier two and tier three in the different levels of instruction for both academics and social and emotional learning additionally these groups come together three times a year here at the district office to learn from each other to collaborate and to have some professional learning on what is evidence-based practice what are we doing what is our data saying as a system how do we use our data protocols to make stronger decisions I talked a little bit earlier about uh the elementary intervention C we have been collecting uh data on what evidence-based interventions are being used at each of our elementary sites with each of our students and how our students are responding to those interventions we've done collected formal data for the last three years and we did a study that talked about what was the effect of that uh intervention on students and we've com compiled a list of what's most effective to what's least effective some of the ones that have persistent least effective are ineffective I would say uh have been removed from our system if they're not going to be making differences for students we've taken them out of the rotation we've shared this list with the interventionists at each and every site and the site leaders so they can also make informed decisions as they're uh putting students into intervention after they've been given the diagnostic the other piece is really focusing on that Universal screening data and making sure that each student is uh assessed three times a year so number one we can determine which students need additional support but number two and maybe more importantly is that we can monitor from a site and system level the effectiveness of our highquality core instruction and our resources so having those conversations which leads into that next bullet point of that ongoing data conversations with site leaders whether we're talking about map or satellite data and as we go through the equity team seminars this year really helping them hone in on what is the challenge and what are they going to do to reimagine to solve the challenge how will they collect that information so partnering with Elementary and secondary principles on that has been we just finished our Elementary uh follow-up data dats and we're just starting our secondary followup data digs because what we're focusing on on secondary is that Dropout prevention identifying students who their data suggests may be at risk and what are we doing with them how who is in contact who's that adult Point person to connect them one of the other sort of technical challenges is Unified insights which are which is our data platform uh getting a filter in there so that teachers counselors leaders can go in and say Hey Jill kind you are a 10th grader you should have 50 some credits but you only have 40 what's going on with you and having that conversation rather than maybe having to pull a transcript and do some hand counting so it's more responsive and definitely interactive and then Dr Walker do you want to talk about the in education Staffing some more yeah just the fact that um you know we've increased in education Staffing um based on uh the needs for that and I think that has been again that has been very helpful around ensuring that students are prepared and ready for graduation um as as I keep sharing with you I'm new so I'm learning more about the system and getting my uh feet wet in in uh attending spaces and so uh just being around the Indian education staff I've been to some of their meetings and some of their uh work with students and so I'm seeing the impact that they're making by being visible being there and connecting with those young people and we're seeing some of the benefits of that with the graduation rates right all students are ready for career and college we're going to take a look at some ACT Benchmark data um this is for the class of 2023 uh the blue bars indicate the percent of District graduates that meant the ACT Benchmark for each subject so act sets a benchmark that says if you reach this Benchmark you have a higher propensity of being successful in college then if you don't meet that Benchmark the yellow line that extends beyond the blue bar indicates the percent of students Statewide that met each of the benchmarks the bar furthest to the right combines all four of the benchmarks so English math reading and Savage which are the four of the five component tests it does not include writing what is the Benchmark on that The Benchmark on that is for this year is 20% no the score the score so I don't have the answer I'm I'm not familiar with all the insides of the AC but I do know there's one score pay one score so that is actually interesting because our goal in our actual world world's best Workforce report is the composite score and so in uh 2023 composit score was 19.4 and we wanted to raise that to 19.6 and when we look at it we actually raised it to 20 okay so we continue to test more students and have our composite scores go up so there is a difference between Benchmark and composite score so we're going to transition now to looking at higher education enrollment this we received these results in last you in late November each year from the national student Clearing House which records 97% of all postsecondary student enrollments this is 2-year 4-year technical uh colleges the most recent data is for the class of 2023 the indicator shown on this slide is the percent of our graduates who enrolled in a higher education institution in the first fall after graduation over the past four years aio's highest rate uh post second enrollment is still 2019 just before the pandemic but as we look at Trends we can see that students are increasing their enrollment in colleges we have our Asian students black students hispanic white and multi-racial all increased their enrollment in their first fall after graduation this slide is a continuation of the previous slide for AO graduates in the first fall after uh graduation our female students male students multilingual students all increased their college goinging rates and our free and reduced price lunch students maintained their college enrollment rate for that fall so when we think about college and cred Readiness one of our uh big uh indicators or programs that we use for that is AVID it stands for advancement via individual determination uh and it really has a college career ready framework that is uh really essential so there's a couple things that staff must do and there's also things that students are are expected to do and one of the as you look at the diagram the really important thing this relational capacity right how are we building these relationships and these connections with our students around belief so what is my belief as the adult but then also what are the students beliefs around their own uh capabilities uh to to achieve and accomplish and so I think those are really key and instrumental to the part of how do we make sure that our students are getting what they need and when we think about Avid uh so as a as a new person to uh to AIO what I've learned is that Avid has been from the ground up so typically many districts have a district initiative that starts Avid and then it spreads out toward the schools well what I've learned here in AIO is that the schools wanted to have Avid as their um way of supporting their students and so that made the district say okay we got to do something and support our buildings as they are looking for this college career Readiness program and their focus is not just around the Avid class which is typical like most sites or most uh district will have like Avid class where there's a specific group of students who attend that class or our district here is talking about schoolwide Avid so how do we embed this for all of our students to have access and to uh make sure that we're thinking about college Inc career Readiness for all of our students and so that's a I wouldn't say a different but that's a a more robust model where you're looking at schoolwide first versus the elected class first U so that's a different lens that I I'm learning as as I'm here and so what we have for there each school has a site implementation team that's meaning to discuss and figure out how they're going to design uh the schoolwide uh program within their space and then the district offices which is from uh the department of educational Equity is supporting them in that in that work and so we have uh monthly meetings where we're coming together discussing and talking about that and folks are sharing where they're what they're doing how they're um progressing and then areas that they may be struggling with to try to work uh through that um obviously there's going to be learning walks as we continue to uh progress and learn more so that we'll go out to see what's happening in the buildings give them some feedback so that we can continue to um build up on what we already have um obviously with with Avid a lot of their work is really about how do we get exposure to students so how are they visiting these colleges and universities so we have a specific um trips to tribal colleges historically black college and universities we actually just took a group of students I want to say over mea break uh to visit some schools uh on the East Coast out in the DC area historically black college and universities which is really uh powerful and those students come back really excited about that um and then then um really it's real about uh how are we again making improvements for our students and our and our families because again when we're thinking about uh this this career in college readiness it's not just with the student we have to also incorporate the family as part of that and so our family and Community engagement Department uh face is really about building these Bridges and these gaps specifically for our most marginalized and minoritized populations how are we bringing them in to partner with our schools and so one of their initiatives is really trying to um manage or monitor how often they have FaceTime with these families so they can say does that impact how students are doing outside or in the school system so is the more connections that we have is that going to impact their academic success and so they're they're testing that out right now to see what does that look like um but yes this AVID program like I said is really uh powerful and it's about schoolwide not just the elective course our last goal for world's best Workforce is all racial and economic achievement gaps between students are closed our achievement Gap results in reading math continue to be predictable and pervasive this graph shows the percent of students by race and ethnicity who made typical or more growth on a reading the gray lines at the right indicate the spring of 2024 results with only multi-racial students out forming the previous year's growth this graph shows the percent of students by race and ethnicity who may typical or more growth and on a math it follows a similar disappointing Trend as a reading with American Indian White students out performing the previous year's growth as we work through the equity transformation cycle with staffs this is one area that we've encouraged site leaders and teams to focus on our fouryear graduation Camp sorry about that um again this is just showing where it is for our students of color and and where they land on this uh four-year graduation rate Gap and so as you can see in class of 23 we have our American Indian students again they the 87% um Asian students are at 82% but there's still that that Gap that we're struggling with that we want to uh close and so that's the work that we have to do and again programs like Avid um is working to to change that and really again how are we um paying attention to these specialized populations and that means we have to take some intentional efforts to do that and that's the work again that we're trying to name and then be ttention about focusing on again I want to Center us back into the what I talked about earlier around this e transformation cycle again we're here at the district level and so it's really important that we partner with our school sites around these things and this Equity transformation cycle that we have of people going through gives us an opportunity to have those conversations have those dialogues about what do they see their challenges and then how can we provide the supports to help them address those challenges um again it's not just us here but it's also how are we partnering with our school sites around that and then next the last few uh slides will be about achievement integration the ones that uh the the goals that we didn't address throughout the regular presentation and so this one is around goal one reduce ratio and integration Gap and so as you can see from the graph or or the bar graph is that um the bar the the blue bar is our percentage of students of color and then the grade bar or the grade line that's across that is where our um the threshold for where you become a racially isolated school right so our district um students of color is 62% and so if you're 20% above that that's you become a racially identifiable school and so as you can see we have 11 sites that um meet that threshold and so our goal again is is trying to reduce that uh that integrate or that ratio Gap that we have and so as you can see um we have some programming that we do we have um magnet programming that is trying to do that where we're looking at certain some of our sites to infuse um students to attend that site uh based on the stem or Arts entertainment it could be different um magnet focuses that they have and so that really is about saying how do we make this school attractive to many families that may not be living in that area that will come to that space right and so that is again is the work of the school but also partnering with us to say how do we give them supports to make sure they have a robust magnet programming and so we have Partnerships with uh Northwest in District Suburban that has um supports around that they have trainings workshops to uh support them and then they have also have like libraries and things that can help those uh schools get better at their at their work but I also want to really highlight like Weaver is a school that is a is a um is a magnet that is actually connected or really close to our um our our district average around 61% of our students there are students of color so they have actually made what we want to see as an integrated school and so we're saying how do we support our other schools to try to get to that level and so we can take some learning from their School site to uh to grow and and support the other sites if they are on that path again we know that uh we're not where we want to be with these these numbers but this is the work that we're uh focusing on to make sure we change some of these outcomes the next one is our next goal that we didn't haven't talked about yet is goal three around increasing percent a staff of color um we obviously are very aware that um mirrors are important for our students right do I see people that look like me in the school system as I am going through the school system I think about myself as a young black male is that I didn't have my first black male teacher until I was a sophomore in high school so all throughout High School I didn't have a a teacher that looked like me and so that impacted maybe how I felt if I felt welcome if I felt valued in that space and so how are we being intentional about that in our work so the one thing that I know that is really important I've been talking with uh Human Resources around this is that we know that recruitment is really important around getting staff to be in our buildings however that's only half the B the biggest piece is retention right too often we recruit our families or recruit our staff members into our spaces and then they go out the back door because we haven't done what we needed to do and so our human resources department is doing some really great things to make sure that we're addressing and and being mindful of the barriers that are showing up for our staff of color so we have affinity group spaces that is really um taken on hold where folks have a space to go and talk and share their perspective share their experiences and to gain some you know connection with other folks that may be outside of their building that can help them as they are traveling through this space uh we also have um or I say we but as a system we we are working with um uh our our our teachers of color mentors so there's mentors that are working with our staff to make sure they're getting those services and that support they need again sometimes it's easy to recruit it's hard to retain and so we have we're being a really good focus on retention and retaining our staff members here and so as you can see in 2022 uh the goal was 14.94% all percentage and in 23 and 24 we have exceeded that goal or met that goal right but there are areas in where we can do better if you're looking at our license staff uh percentage that's where we can do a little bit better and so that's about how are we recruiting those teachers and so there's different ways that we're out recruiting teachers for that um we have Partnerships with uh Metro State who has an urban teacher program we're talking about maybe some new innovative ways to go out and be intentional about recruiting at certain types of colleges and local communities and so those things are in the works uh but we're we're looking to increase that CU we know that's an area where we what we can grow in the last slide is really or not the last this next last slide is really just about all the different strategies that we have in our achievement integration plan um you all know many of these things as as being part of the board but we have magnet programming our partnership with National Urban Alliance around High operational practices obviously I talked about Avid um but the other piece that we are really focusing on is that how are we leveraging Our Community Partners and that is really important because again if we don't have the Staffing in our buildings we can leverage and lean on communities to come in and do some work with us and partner with us on this so these strategies are are the things that are implemented in each of the different uh plans I guess what I didn't share and uh my my apologies for that is that when you are a racially identified School you also have to have an additional plan um as part of the achievement immigration dollars and so each one of those schools have a plan and they are really connected to the four bigger plans around again intentionally reducing the ly Gap but then also the um integration Gap the ratio Gap as well so those are the areas that it's focusing on and then finally we get to budget so obviously things cost and so this is how we uh are financially paying for these uh for for these services and these uh programs that we have in staff and so as you can see in 2024 we had a total budget of 5134 million and then for fiscal year 25 we had a little bit of an increase 5171 million and so as you can see uh the differences just kind of going back and forth really quick is that we are really focusing on Direct service with our students as you see an increase in spending uh based from uh last year again we want these dollars to get into the hands of our students so that they can have the uh opportunities that they deserve and so how are we being intentional about that and then you see that we're also looking at professional development and then um the other is at administrative indirect cost so this is these are the dollars that support the work that we're doing in the uh department of educational Equity that also supports the entire system all right that's it thank you board members you have questions or comments I do but um someone else could go first on page 30 I was um struck by theive um second grade and the high risk um do we have any info on how that happened and how we can do that more yeah so they had a very intentional effort on the classroom interventions that they did and then who they like remember if you remember last month I talked about that uh additional literacy block time that they have built in they were intentional about using that and uh for invent intervention and then not having to pull students out of the classroom so they still get that grade level instruction so that is something that we continue to reinforce in our monthly uh connect meetings with site leaders and with the mtss inter interventionist to absolutely replicate that at other grades that's such a great grade to be able to do that with because being so close to a third grade yeah and all the things are together developmentally where it should you know click so I was just impressed with that and excited about that we are too and I and again um I'm so excited that we're expanding the evid programing for that for a while I know that where I work um it is districtwide and it's made difference and I just got a couple questions um Dr k What percentage because you said all pre are engaged in letters training what percentage of kindergarten one first through three are um trained in letters right now because I've heard wonderful things about about that uh last year before the read Act passed we had set up a process to train all of our prek or K3 teachers in volume one of letters so 99.8% of K through3 teachers finished volume one of letters we had one teacher who did not finish which is awesome now we need to get volume two done and so because of our implementation this year we took a pause and we're working with Education Minnesota AIO to develop a plan for getting that done before the deadline of June 2026 okay and how many volumes are there two okay okay please oh yeah we only want two and then we'll also be training our four or five teachers next year as well in a program similar to letters okay and then I know this is a bigger question but just I'd like to be informed um with the science scores just being you know alarmingly low you know just talking to parents and um community members you know just what are kind of the barriers we've identified or moving forward just can you give us kind of a within our time constraints just for sure help us understand that uh I think one of the pieces is that we have limited number of minutes in the day and so one of the benefits of our selection of a structured literacy curriculum with CK is it aligns with our science curriculum of amplifi and so one of our pieces of work that we'll be engaging in this summer is how do we open overlap those two curriculums so that we can uh do some combining so that we're getting science during our literacy block uh I think the other piece to be mindful of with science is that uh there'll be a new MCA science test this spring the MCA 4 rolls out for Science and it is a drastically different test than the previous tests and instead of it being about rope memorization it's about can I do science and that's something that we have been working on K2 for the last 3 years so I think that might be one explanation for why there's a a increase in the gap between our scores and the state the state we changed our instructions before the state changed the test so that would be my quick answer okay okay that's helpful thank you and then I just want to say welcome Dr Walker I haven't had a chance to meet you yet so welcome um and where where can I find right now the schools that are identified as racially isolated do you have that information in here I can tell you let me gr as this current year they're right there so um Birch Grove Crest View Edenbrook Fair Oaks right at the bottom Garden City um Palmer Lake Park Brook you almost made it almost almost made it I I was like I'm Zane wood Brooklyn Middle School North View Middle School and Parks Center Senior High it wasn't a test I'm genuinely I think that was a test see if I can know all the acronym you're welcome I question about the same slide so um I'm curious about the uh focus on the racially segregated schools rather than the other schools because to me the question is not how we diversify those schools but how do we make the wider schools more safe for students color to be in and and so I guess I'm trying to figure out like how you're looking this in terms of segregation or desegregation in terms of like what's the overall goal and where is the emphasis in changing learning environment yeah that's a really great question and I think some of that is predicated on what the achievement integration uh Grant is designed for and so we have to be obviously um compliant with that Grant but I think you're asking another question that I think um what I would say is that so how are we prepared ing those other sites to welcome our students of color I think is what I hear you saying so we have some programming within the department of educational Equity we have like a real talk we have our um our caring and Care caring and connected conversations that is really about uplifting and amplifying student voice that we talked about with the high operational practice so they see mirrors of themselves in those spaces right and so as the staff are working with the students they also influencing the adults that are around in that space so they get connected with the students and now they can connect with the adults in that space to create some differences in those classrooms we think about the um programs of our SD's I'm going forget what the AC staff development assess assessment specialist right so they also partner with our teachers in the classroom to say how are you using and and and and aligning your curriculum to show and and value all Voices All perspectives and again this is that coaching model that that we're working through and so we have uh two department of educational Equity SD's that's new this year that we haven't had in the past that is working with our school sites to uh do just that obviously it's a work in progress so it's not like we're going to do something overnight but that is the uh the work that we're uh working on right now in attemp to get done thank you for that answer no problem and if I can just do a followup s very nice slide about retention and recruitment like what's more important recruitment or retention retention because and and so I'm wondering why this is our overall percentage but like how many people want to stay here because to me like all of this stuff is about like whether or not kids falling behind it it's it's whether or not you have a relationship with that student and you know because before we had metrics we have relationships and smaller class sizes and not trying to go too far down idealism Road on this but like what is our what is our current retention rate say about what we're doing in our district to make the district safe and welcoming for not just staff but also our students which is probably related to the way our schools are segregated I don't have the data right in front of me um we've been tracking the retention um numbers for um staff of color for the last couple of years that are actually very high and I can try to pull that up during our meeting um so they haven't been tracking those we don't have trends for that this length of time um but we have had very high retention of our staff of color um and I get some um I can in a moment just pull that data out I mean yeah obviously it looks like we're improving but this is just this is just one small sliver of what the lived experience is like right and they go hand in hand right cuz it's like we can recruit but what what is the environment that we're bringing St because if they stay they also naturally recruit more people right for sure so DPAC did just dig into the do you want to we'll have that coming but yeah we just we just had done digging into the information that has a lot of the questions that you were referring to about the school environment so we'll be seeing that soon and we can break that down high school as well okay I have a question on this SL uh as well where might um coaches fit in or are they under non-licensed or are they not part of this data set I'm just trying to think for where do we have influential positions in the district where we have those relationships and might that add some additional context to opportunities and you're saying coach you're talking about instructional coaches or athletic coaches atic coach yeah I'm not quite sure where they are where they are rolled up in this data but I will say that many of our coaches are licensed teachers um and so they could fall into that category but there are some who are um who are in support staff positions as well I I can ask and get that information for you I'm just curious because that's such a powerful position too and that just may help us see a full picture it's a really good point and actually a lot of our coaching staff are are not paid for by the district but they're paid by the booster clubs of those organizations and so they would not be considered on staff for us although they are very influential to our students so that's just something to consider maybe a survey of of those um activities might be beneficial ler okay um no I had actually one of the same um questions or concerns um that director grey mentioned um particularly one I want to say thank you to staff and I know we have presentations coming um related to the um American Indian um graduation rates um so like that's exciting to see um but when I saw that and then saw the 8% um dropout rate for black student students um and I'm sure we'll learn more and there's a long list of reasons why we've seen so much success with amican Indian students but I have to imagine that one of those reasons a significant reason is the relationship that we have built um and invested in them um and I'm wondering how we're doing that same for black students particularly given that the Dropout rates are increasing um and so I don't need to necessarily hear response on that today but one of the questions I did have on that is it at Park Center um so I am very familiar with it at AIO at M but what's the status of it at Park Center how many students that we have in the program now I don't know those numbers off the top of my head but I can definitely find out I do know that they were in a um in a what what they what they call the phase planning phase last year and this year they are in an implementation phase so I know they do have the elective course I just don't know how many students off the top of my head who who are participating in that in that um actual course but again remember that the schools are doing it schoolwide so there may be some numbers of that are in the elective course but then they're doing some of the strategies and initiatives and the way that we're changing our beliefs and mindsets that is going to be permeated throughout the entire School building but I'll find out specifically around numbers yeah and I too I'm excited as all um the schoolwide implementation um I still have some questions and for me like it's not quite there in terms of like how effective it's going going to be um schoolwide when it's they're not as immersed in that program as our Avid Scholars and I'm sure we'll learn more um soon but um that's what is kind of holding me back from like jumping up and down about the schoolwide implementation um Dr Walker one of the questions I had for you was on the equity challenges that you mentioned in the beginning um I was wondering if you could speak to what some of those Equity challenges are and if there is clear consistency across the system and the challenges that we're addressing I cannot speak directly to the V challenges um what I can do is I can find out where where there are some that are aligned um the coordinators in our department really go out and work with the principles around that that hasn't been what my job has been since I started so I can definitely find that information out and send it to I think Dr H did you do a report back to the to the board yeah you just need to give it to yes I'm saying I can give it to yeah I'm just making sure I'm just saying this that's the right I'll get it to you and then we'll we'll get that information but we do need for everything we're working on those three CS so that consistency and coherence we need that in equity as so we do need that one thing I wanted to bring up and it's kind of obvious and I don't even know if I should be doing this but one thing we're looking at we're looking at these racially isolated schools which uh kind of triggers me a little bit because um and it's okay I'm a superintendent I'm what I'm saying um um because you also have make a Grove is senior is a racially isolated School we're just looking at the definition of what they're saying what a racially isolated school is so if you have students that are right so if you have students of color that are highly satisfied being at uh North Middle or being at Park Center why would they move if they have faces that reflect their own I mean you walk in the park Center and their staff looks just like them right and they're doing all these things to help it grow so I just want to throw that out there because sometimes we don't always have move babies of color no um sometime they all right we just need to get the academics and social emotional together so I'm sorry that was just a personal no I think that's that is the Quagmire that we in with ACH integration right because that's part of the goal from the state of what we have to kind of abide by and try to accomplish yeah so I think but that is some of the the debate that's out there but we do need to get better in our and babies in those areas for sure for sure and the students themselves have said that's not the answer in the department of education's different student groups that they brought together students don't want to be moved out of their neighborhoods so but you're right we need to look at it across the spectrum because the other part of the district is also racially isolated that actually I'm glad you uh kind of I was going to go back to this slide because I had some similar questions is um where are we seeing the racially isolated schools um for other races or white particularly because that's probably the highest one um but can we get that data where are we seeing that and I'm curious Weaver is super close to the district average but do we have any other schools that are close to that and so I'd really kind of like to see you know what that data is and then also um a thought that I had looking at this is um it doesn't surprise me that Weaver is so close because it has an application process correct yeah and so it's not it's not a neighborhood school so I feel like it doesn't it's not a good model for the way our district operates um even though it's nice to see that it aligns with our District's makeup but I would be curious to see what that other data is um particularly where are we already pretty close to the um the our our Benchmark or the state Benchmark so um that was my question on that oh and my other question was about that are what are real tangible ways that the district actually has some control over in addressing this issue do we have any you to I say that's a different question well I mean right because we want to in terms of opportunity regardless of what students who St who are there but are all the schools equal in opportunity for each and every student yeah I mean you have to significantly you'd have to change boundaries because we have racially isolated communities in the United States right so it if if you're going to say we prioritize keeping neighborhoods together when you have racially isol ated neighborhoods it's very difficult to change it right so you know and I'm just speaking as Brian you know we had this conversation we talk about when we talk about racially isolated schools we our our achievement and integration goals aren't always the same as the state goals right and that's okay because we're having conversations about what's going on in our school district right so if I'm reading this right or if we use the same if I understand the definition that Dr Wu brought forward if in this case we're looking at students of color and if a school is 20 points higher than our 62% of students of color we're calling it racially isolated so if we took 38% white students if a school had 58% or higher white students they would be a racially isolated school if we use the same definition based on race right so any school that has more than 58% white kids would be a racially isolated school so if that's a way that helps us frame this conversation I think that's important that people brought it up in this room and we can do that but I believe Dr Walker's team and LNA they're required to report on the grant that they get and the and the parameters that that Grant sets but we can still have broader conversations beyond that requirement so that that's just how I'm thinking about it as people are asking questions those are great questions yes I mean yes the issue is absolutely contextualized in our history of friend finding and housing disparities yeah and these are conversations that are happening in the department of educational Equity right we're having these conversations all the time again trying to balance okay so how do we address this how do we because we know that we are bound by what the um what the grant is um sharing us what to do but we know there's other work that could be done or that needs to be done as well so those are great questions thank you do you have additional questions I do um way back to test scores uh sorry um let me go back to those pages sorry about that um I'm sorry I didn't I was taking notes at the same time as you were talking um The Benchmark for the composite what was that for the um act so there is no Benchmark for the composite oh okay so there there's benchmarks which predict uh on each test and the overall predict college success and then there's a composite score which is one score that all students get and we raised our composite score from 19.4 to 20 for the class of 2023 do we have a goal our goal was 19.6 okay so we exceeded our goal okay well that's good news M and we tested more students also good news which is all those okay um I had a couple of other questions oh the Avid um love the Avid stuff it's really cool um but I noticed through this and I just don't recall so forgive me I thought that I saw in here somewhere it said that Avid is implemented at specific sites right all secondary sites and then there's one Elementary that has Abit okay so it's not all the sites I just wanted to confirm that cuz I wasn't sure when it said sites if it was which one it was so all secondary and one Elementary and yes okay and then um oh I think actually I answered you answered my question through the presentation so I don't have another one on that thank you I have a question coming back to proficiency so um act and MCA are fairly correlated in the same direction with standards based grading have we seen the same correlation and should we be looking at that as kpi leading indicators so that we're not we're not really surprised at this but it would be good to see like do we have a gap are we saying that we're mastering the standards but then we get are testing not so I'm I'm glad you brought that up one of the things that we have rolled out at the secondary level is this idea of a balanced assessment report so we take trimester grades at a b or better so a 3.0 uh which correlates to proficiency on the MCA and then we compare that with our fast bridge scores which measures the skills of the standard to the MCAS and what we see and then we compare the spring variance between the three and look for that standard deviation to be nerdy for a second um and what we see is that there is a gap between those three scores some uh and we look at it by grade level we look at it by student group and so then what we've worked with secondary leaders on is what's happening in our professional learning teams are our assessments actually assessing the standards or are they assessing something different how are we making sure that we're preparing students for the MCA without teaching to the test teaching them authentic assessment which is at a much higher level than our MCAS how are we getting to that level and how are we making sure that if we're the four teachers that we all have the same expectation of what a free is so we've really focused on that and we have monthly meetings with all secondary site leaders to focus on that balance assessment report and look at it by trimester so one of the things that we're seeing right now is there's a direct correlation between the fast Bridge a reading or a math scores and the MCA scores but there's not that distinct of a correlation between the uh trimester Graves that might so that have an issue corre Y correct correct and we're actively working on it with our leers okay good I'm glad to hear that when we do the um uh math curriculum conversation could we possibly have some data around the um standards based grading yes we can get that for you when we have that that may be helpful to the conversation to see when we make curriculum changes kind know how that's moving if it's possible I don't want you I don't want extra work or we have uh we'll we have that data yeah yeah you know you know I'm getting at I do okay I do perfect you want to a session with that or just as part of because as um when we talk with the math curriculum um and amount one of the questions I is direct instruction like what have we learned from reading right and what are we doing in math and how does that fit to the data I do actually have another MCA question if you don't mind okay so on page 37 goal two um we've got the it's the reduce the reading proficiency Gap thank you um and I was curious this breaks it out by um racial groups but is that encompassing just High School is that all grade levels all grade levels okay and so as a district then what is the district proficiency all grade levels I don't have that on the top of my head but I will get it to Dr H okay okay that was my only question about that a question um so I know that there are um many differences between our districts but because it was listed as a like District BS view um I know yall talk what are they doing working um for both both graduation rates and the I don't have an answer for that is this is my my first year in this position and so it's one of the things that we can absolutely investigate is we're involved in lots of different organization that bring us together like you said so you start asking questions and then um this more of a comment um graduation rates so I I always struggle with this one um as well as the higher enrollment just given the some many reasons why someone may not want to finish high school or even go to um a higher educational institution um but I know that Minnesota is now offering um some education um which I think removes some barriers particularly for many of our students that um hit that or are below that income threshold um so I would love to see some data at some point I don't know if it'll ever be if it's released or or how that works but um our how our students are accessing um free education at the state level um and how we're sort of promoting and and preparing for those opportunities um so yeah that was just kind of one going thank you um I have an answer to that actually um it's up to the schools themselves so like Century College or metro state to get out the word that they have that so so the um letting students know about the North Start promise um has to do with marketing materials that the schools themselves had I mean it'd be great if our school like makes sure those are available and like every school's been doing it on their own but but um I made it it's a great program anybody under any family making under $80,000 a year gets free college bbay though has been working really strongly in our district with that too in the community uh one last comment um I have is on 55 um mention of community engagement um just a thought I know through the foundation grants um Maple Grove Middle School has some work where they have um um like uh more at um career exposure um like I guess like a group of parents come in um have lunch with kids um I I think there's probably an opportunity to learn across our sites who's all bringing different groups in and to maybe um build upon that or uh round that out and look for more opportunities for Community engagement Community groups so in our work ahead that's something of high interest thank you any other questions or comments this was fantastic I think um it was really helpful that we had the English um curriculum review leading into this and that we've got the math one coming up I think what I observed different about this presentation was that there was more focus on what we're doing what we what we are doing what we have done and what we have coming up so I think that adds a lot of context that we haven't had before when we have your drive to change yeah so I I think it's really changed the conversation this time versus past conversations and that was really helpful thank you all right Bo we have our new ship coming over um Mr Mor have a good night all right we're going to go into uh long range financial information and then um John will to introduce your staff yeah we'll make her come sit up here rather than sing this wasn't showing up want to find this room I just remind you it yes is that still all right so while Kelly gets that turned back on here we will get started so thank you Dr H so this evening we're going to be talking about our long range financial planning um we start this process in October each year and and work our way through a new number of steps to get here um a few people that will be presenting for you today um I will kick things off Kelly benusa director Business Services will deliver the bulk of the information and then Brian Severson Hall uh representing Community Education and also Jeff Hansard representing Child Nutrition we speak about their specific areas uh in addition to what Kelly shares um so that kickoff meeting that we had in October we start by setting a parameter for our budget managers um and typically that parameter is based on our long range Financial projection that that 5year Trend that you see on a regular basis so based on the trend work on coming into this fiscal year and forward we've started deficit spending so because of that we've made the recommendation to that group um that no additional funds for strategic priorities be allocated and so we are recommending that the 26 budget be a net zero change Budget moving forward um so as we look move into the basics uh or the basis that we used to to create that long range financial planning model and annual budget framework next page um this is the foundation that kind of we work around um every year to to get to creating the budget to be able to present to you as the school board um LR longrange financial planning or lrfp as it's commonly referred to as a very thorough and well vetted budget process um they're important um it's very important in times of change to understand that having a very disciplined and solid financial budget planning process provide strength to the district to be able to lean on that um in this plan we always operate with with the mission at the center and then there's two kind of main areas the first area I'll highlight is the gray area that's where the budget managers typically live today we are in oval number four which is developing annual budget recommendations based on a board budget Target the school board works around the outside in the teal rectangles um taking action where needed as we present it to you um The Guiding principles um are used to help drive this can they are connect um connect the excuse me this they connected onine the mission to identify and respond to the influence of race connect process through datadriven collaboration decisionmaking um and then we work our way into the steps that that move on with the budget process um the primary process we tend to bring forward is called the pair narrative and I'm going to go ahead and let Kelly walk us through what that process is okay so if we go to page 60 or 61 in your board packet in the electronic packet um or else it's the document on the screen the documents on the screen are just to guide us but we've all got paper copies so if you want to focus in that because the detail gets a little small um but the P or the program efficiency aband and redirective narrative that Paul that um sorry John was referring to um ask six key questions so what resources are being requested a summary or description of the proposal and then we identify and respond to the influence of race and culture in the development of our request and that's that direct connection to our mission strategic plan and our guiding principles for our framework and then the fourth question is what data will be used to measure those results and then how does the request support Equitable student achievement so again it's that process connection to our guiding principles and then we ask what the proposal is the impact or the rationale on the request being made and then finally the legal requirements so we want to make sure that everything we bring forward is um legally allowed um in statute so that we know that we either have to legislate for change or um that we're in compliance when we bring that request forward so the next document um that's in your packet is the fiscal year 21 through 26 school board approved budget adjustments impacting programs and services so this document shows revenues and expenditure adjustments for the past 4 years years the current year and then projects next year so when possible we keep those reductions as far from our direct instruction as possible so since Co and the passage of the operating referendum in November of 22 um we've had a lot of movement within our expenditures and in order to retain our financial position through the intentional use of those expenditure tactics um included on this document are some of those examples and I group those into categories so when we think of what we have um asked the board to help us with we've said sometimes we want onetime costs which are added and then removed the following year such as collocated Services which we did in 20 in 21 uh we have something called a carry contract which we implemented in 24 and it's being removed in 25 and we've also had strategic Investments that have been for one year as in 25 which are going to be removed for 26 we've also had permanent strategic Investments which were added fiscal years 21 22 and 23 we also have a purposeful alignment of enrollment for changes that occur on an annual basis both with early projections and then our actual enoll we were able to sustain more than 9.7 million of programs and services for two years with our federal funds for fiscal years 23 and 24 which then allowed us to add those costs back for fiscal year 25 we've been able to reduce programs when needed such as safe schools in 24 and then also 279 online in 25 we've addressed legislative changes from 23 and we continue to address the family medical leback changes with additional staff and now a new payroll tax which is coming to fund um the program for 25 and then future years and then finally what we've got on our um budget planning is creating capacity for operating startup cost for a new Elementary so those are estimated at $400,000 for 26 with an additional $1.1 million planned for um 2027 so these are positions like an elementary principal office support staff custodial staff those are a few of the positions that you need when you have an additional building um educational staff like teachers um will move with the students and are already um within our system and are addressed through that enrollment process this next document is our historical budget Trend and this document shows 10 years worth of data so again we manage our fund balance to stay above that 5% which is within our board policy that's that red line for fiscal year 25 the current budget and the 9 years of uh prior actual data um the fiscal year 25 adopted budget has a planned operating deficit of 1.7 million which is the green bar being greater than the blue bar and then um our actual revenues for results show that our Revenue was greater than our expenditures seven of the last nine years however the two years when expenditures were greater than Revenue were in fiscal years 22 and 23 and we have to remember that in fiscal year 24 that was the first year of our new operating referendum being included in our budget which was voter approved again in the fall of 22 so this next set of documents are on page 64 to 76 in your electronic packets um and I'm just going to speak briefly about this but not go through all the pages um so again this document provides detail for our general food nutrition community service and capital funds so we utilize our longrange financial planning process for budgeting we document our changes on this year um piece of information from the prior year and also so it's included in our budget document with our adoption each year so this document is a good summary it shows what we're buying the year 25 and it also includes our full-time equivalents or FTE per division department just scroll so if you can find this document in your packets with the blue Highlight um this is what we call our Benchmark districts for financial purposes so originally we had seven uh Financial Benchmark districts this was originally um established within our fiscal committee and also uh using a tool and a company called forecast 5 analytics to determine who would be our Benchmark districts um so for this year we've removed um North St Paul from this comparison due to a continued Decline and enrollment their enrollment is now under 10,000 and we don't feel that that's a a reflective comparison district for us and we'll once again be uh re-evaluating if these are the best financial comparative districts going forward or if there are other ones that better fit us from a financial standpoint so just to walk through the document um a little bit so what we look at is we look at our 24 student demographics so we look at how many students are served what percent of students are color what percent of students are special Education Services identified um what percent of students receive English learner um Services what's the percent with an economic status um and then the next two columns on this document are the voter approved items and those have been updated for this this series of elections in 24 um so both the operating referendum and the capital Levy um and when we look at those markers even with Rochester and Robinsdale now having their that have been approved added to this document we are now for the first time ever um the highest with our operating referendum and also our Capital Levy and so uh moving on then to the revenue assumptions and expenditure assumptions um you can see that what we have for markers are very similar to the three districts that are reporting at this time um and for the districts that are reporting um no reductions have been identified El is still um looking maybe at um something in 27 but it's too early in their process to share any information you we look at the unassigned fund balance you can see there's a wide range of the percentage of fund balance rather than the dollar amount which is a better indicator um and then you can see the two districts that had the additional amount Rochester had an additional $1,133 increase to their fer operating um referendum and then uh Robinsdale was able to renove their Tech Levy so again we're earlier in the process than most districts and that's why we see a lot of blue on this document we'll update it again in February when we come again to the work session um to talk about the lrp process um and this is really consistent where we usually are at this time of year um and that's this document so now moving on to the estimated major cost drivers so again just to orient everyone to this spreadsheet what the spreadsheet has up in the top quadrant is those big broad categories when we talk about a general fund budget to our salaries benefits purchase Services um supplies and others and that total is just short of 35 million and to that we apply that tactic of 3% expenditure growth and that's about $9.4 million that we can grow them for 26 within our model and so then what we start to do is we start to fill in this document as we know information and we work it through those categories again um so for instance for this year what we know at this time is those strategic Investments that were approved for one year only that come out those were all staff so they'll be coming out of the salary component um when we look at our benefits we know that there's a new item coming um for the first the last half excuse me the last half of fiscal year 2026 which is a new payroll tax to pay for the new fmle leave um and so there's an increase there of 433,000 we also know that our transportation contract expires at the end of this year and we're going to have to be renewing that contract um in this fisical year and so when we look at the bottom of this document and we go to the subtotal of known increases we've already ident identified 1.56% of that 3% Target for this um Coming fiscal year and so as we know more items we um add those to the document and so this is a good document to keep us on track and see where we're going um if it's too high or too low and if we have some flexibility the next document is the fiscal year 26 budget planning timeline for all of our operating fund budgets and this document shows those key dates in our budget process and the items in the blue are where the board takes action so just to walk through a few highlights if we go maybe a third the way down the page we get to November 12th and so this is one of those key dates for us where we um affirm the direction that we provided the budget managers in October with Direction um guidance for um the board um tonight and then on Friday we'll meet again with our budget managers and then December 6th we will meet one more time with our budget managers and talk about requests coming forward um and then January 24th we're going to bring our long range financial planning advisory team which is a larger group um that includes some but not all of our budget managers our fiscal members um Union uh leaders um it includes um uh people from the sites that aren't typically at our budget manager meetings um in all sorts of different roles so it's a nice crosssection of individuals um that evaluate those requests coming forward and then in February we'll come back to the board and show the um summary data of all that information that we' gathered through this process on February 11th and then we'll bring that information back to the board on February 25th to approve our 26 adjustments as we then roll into 26 so that's our timeline the next document is our 25 expenditure budgets for all of our budgeted funds so um we utilize this process long range financial planning for all of our funds except for our debt service which is in that orange slice of the P um and this pie chart is good that it shows the relation of all of our funds in relation to each other so you can see the largest one of course is our general fund in the blue and at the beginning of fiscal year 25 we adopted a budget that was just short of 400 million so 399 million so our next document in our packet this evening is our general fund 5year forecast projection so a little bit of History again was a strategic priority with two goals or outcomes for longrange financial planning it was to build that framework was one of the first documents John shared and then the second was the documents then that we'll finish this um evening with um and that was to design a long range Financial forecast model so we're going to review the find year production for the general fund um the other funds presented tonight are going to use the same format and again this is a highlevel visual organizer for the financial forecast and the detailed information supporting the projections is provided on the following pages and this allows for multiple opportunities to view the information so there are three sections to the project which is the same for all the funds again presented tonight however the assumptions and the parameters are differentiated for each fund the top section shows the revenues expenditures differences fund balance amount and then the percentage for that seven-year window which begins with the actual for fiscal year 23 and fiscal year 24 the adopted budget for fiscal year 25 and then projections for fiscal years 26 through 29 so you would typically see um operational adjustments under this chart and there are none at this time the Assumption section shows the revenue and expenditure assumptions being used for 26 through 29 we have increased the revenue based on legislative changes the revenue is going to fluctuate between 2 and 3% increase to the general of basic formula all um and those estimates are provided by the minicipal department of Ed each year expenditures are projected to increase again 3% which is consistent with previous year's tactics and isn't being changed at this time therefore if we exceed those 3% in cost will be outside of the parameters and would be deficit spending at a greater rate than what's on our projection so then moving to the middle section of this document um it shows the budget projections for revenues in blue and then the expenditures in red and the trend lines of those same colors show the annual actual budget or projection for each of those funds and as you can see the expenditures are projected to outpace our revenues beginning in the current year fiscal year 25 by 2.2 million and then the final section looks at the fund balance projection for the same period and the green bar represents our actual and projected fund balances for each year and then the orange bar shows the minimum required fund balance of 5% as set in board policy again those trend lines show the annual project fund balance related to the minimum as you can see the fund balance is projected to start to decline in the current year so again it's important to remember that the 24 uh fiscal year includes the first year of the voter approved operating referendum which is the increase from November 22 and we're currently very close to the cap on our Authority for operating referendum and therefore we can't use the operating referendum in the near future as a Leever to increase a revenue to us balance in future budget deficits and then as I mentioned earlier in that fiscal year 21 through 26 board approved budget document um the expenditure tactics also continue to include the new elementary school as well as several other revenue and expenditure tactics and again business services will be working directly with those budget managers responsible for overseeing those expenditure tactics that are not part of the lrp process by Design again again as John shared we will not be creating any strategic Investments this year due to our current Financial projection we're going to continue to monitor the financial projection to maintain the board required fund balance of 5% in the future and the good news is of course that under this model um we're not planning for any operational reductions through fiscal year 29 however I do want to caution the board however that that funding clip that we talk about in education is projected for fiscal year 30 and so we'll need to address that shortfall earlier so that we can have a softer Landing as we um navigate that 5% Mund balance so fiscal year 2030 is going to be added to our projection this spring and that's when we'll see that uh projection come forward so again included in the current model our current enrollment data which includes the 15-day drops as of October 7th and the preliminary enrollment projections for the years enrollment data will again be updated when the enrollment projections are final this winter and so with that I it off to Jeff hello everyone Jeff and food instri services so food nutrition services and sorry for those of you that have heard it before we are self-funded uh fund so we don't um pull funds from the general fund um so the revenues that we that we receive from reimbursements from breakfast lunch and other meal programs uh are what provides for our staff our equipment cost of food it encompasses all of it um looking at the uh Financial projection um that's on the screen or in the paper in front of you um we see revenues um scheduled expenditure scheduled to outpace revenues um basically from 2025 through 2029 with oper operational reductions uh projected in 28 and uh 29 of 500,000 and 700,000 um these assumptions in they include a revenue increase of 2% annually and an expenditure increase of 3% Ann annually when I look at historically um throughou to MDD USDA how they allocate um breakfast and lunch reimbursements historically they've been between a 3.4 and a 3.7% increase so we're being cautious with our 2% projection here so um I believe that this 28 29 where you're seeing the operational Productions I believe that we will come in closer to that 3% rather than this 2% here on this model and also with the universal free meals that was implemented last year um we saw a significant increase um last year and we're also seeing an increase this year we're seeing uh uh 3% increase in lunch counts and another 8% increase in breakfast counts over what we saw last year so um that's going to help us in our in our projections in 28 and 29 when you're looking at that top box category if you look at actual for 2023 from a revenue perspective we were at 13,7 58,000 and then you see in 2024 a jump down almost 18 million and that's because uh the universal um free SCH school program uh was implemented that was a significant Revenue increase um when you look at the difference in fund balance uh from 2023 we had a reduction of 1 1,750,000 roughly um which brought our fund balance down to 31% and as Kelly had mentioned the general fund has a 5% uh bottom that they're trying to keep ours is a 12% of expenditures and So currently we're at 31% we had scheduled a uh spend down of about $750,000 for that 2023 period in equipment uh replacement and school upgrades so we were looking at going into a loss um because our fund balance was actually it was above what was allowed the USDA sets they allow us three months of average expenditures over a 9month period and so we exceeded that so we were in a planning mode of spending down baking operational improvements um but then we all know that food cost kicked us in the behind a bit right we saw it at homes and we still see it now was an 11% um increase to food costs that we hadn't projected we generally speaking had been at a 34% food cost and in 2023 we saw it rise up to a 40 uh 45% so an 11% increase and we still see that um in our 2024 and um I don't I don't know that it's going to be reducing but moving to the actual 2020 uh 20 24 um we saw that increase due to the free meals program and that helped flow some significant dollars to our bottom line uh to give us an additional $949,000 to our fund balance well still which still puts us in that predic predicament of being slightly over so we're 990,000 over the allowable um so we're still looking at operational improvements in the future to upgrade our facilities um and at the bottom where the fund balance projection you see the green line um going down in 2029 to get closer to that 12% really we have a responsibility and part of the usda's rationale for having that 3month uh expenditure cap on hand is so that we're putting money back into the program to the quality of the food uh and the operations as well as Staffing so um I think that's all well I guess the last thing would be the first year of uh Universal free School meals we saw a 34% increase in breakfast participation which is huge and a SE 15% increase in lunch participation so that with added what we're seeing for September October that brings us to a 44% for breakfast and an 18% Lun uh for lunch previous to Universal free meal so that's a a huge win for families and for students especially those families and students that were on the edge of receiving those benefits and had that had to make tough decisions so that's what I've got for food nutrition services all right I have uh community services so uh just like Jeff's Department are we're a self- sustaining fund and as a reminder approximately 75% of our Revenue comes from participation fees um and around 25% is from state and federal aid and as you can see on our chart our fiscal year actual in 2023 our Revenue outpaced our expenditures by 1.2 million with and ending with a fund balance of 47% just as a reminder for General goals as I think about our department um our overall goal would be that our revenue and expenditures pretty are pretty much parallel to each other so that they would be as equal as possible we're not a for-profit entity or anything like that so we're just trying to cover the costs of the programs that we provide uh and I've always stated my goal is to have a fund balance like everyone else not dip below 7% but also not be above 15% um in order so that we're not overcharging participants uh and I've added a couple new goals in the last few years that I never thought I would need to add but we want to just make sure we're fully staffed and that any anyone who wants to participate can participate I've never had that as a goals before but as this team knows we had some curveballs in the last four years that uh changed that and really impacted our budget um process um actual 20 2024 you can see was a little more ideal where our expenditures uh only outpaced our Revenue by 283,000 which is um less than 2% I believe so pretty close which is our preference bringing a fund balance down to 38.4% and you'll see on here for fiscal years 25 and 26 we are doing a plan uh decrease in spend down of our fund balance I think we're finally back to a spot uh where we're fully staffed where people who want to participate can participate and because of that there's a little higher confidence level to take some actions whereas these last few years we've been pretty cautious on just waiting to see what's going to happen because it's um been a little more roller coaster so with that um in the last 18 to 24 months I think most of you can remember we've brought back all the POS all the uh year- round positions that we eliminated during the pandemic um in June we added 10 site supervisors to our kid stop program um which is basically one of our programs whose Revenue was outpacing its expenditure so we invested back into the program for the families that have been paying those fees and we've also added a talent and acquisition specialist to help us with their Staffing in partnership with HR as well as um partnering with the communications team to add a communication specialist to our team so we're we've brought back all the positions we've adjusted our staffing to reflect uh bringing back our participants uh and we're I'm very excited um to get our fund balance back towards the range that we prefer and you can see starting in fiscal year 2027 and moving forward we have more of a balanced where our revenue and our expenditures are more in alignment with each other and and you can see that just by the lines on the chart right you don't have the up down anymore you have more of the flowing together so that's a I'm feeling great about that I don't I'm going to have to change this report for the new school board right this team has been with me for the last five years of us doing this up and down so thank you to everyone for being supportive but I'll look forward to having a more boring budget report for the next group but I do appreciate uh everyone listening as I've presented these and thought out loud and talked about how we've been trying to adjust to kind of this last four or five years uh in a department that's primarily participation based so that's our community services report so we'll move into the last document in your packet for this evening um the capital fund fiveyear projection again just a reminder this fund is a zerob based budget approach that we take so every request um has to made no matter the dollar amount through our budget managers um in order to build our budget for each year and so the projection includes the enrollment data as of October 7th that was also included in our general fund projection again the top section um if we look at that section you're going to see some operational adjustments for this fund this line highlights adding expenditures of 200,000 for fiscal year 26 and $500,000 for fiscal year 27 through fiscal year 29 for a total um for each of those all of those years added together is $1.7 million and so again the Assumption section for this fund shows the revenues and expenditures at 0% for each of the next um years and then the next section that middle section again as planned expenditures are uh projected again to continue to outpace our revenues again because we're spending that F balance down and then that final section looks at our fund balance projections for again that same time period and the green bars representing our actual or projected fund balances and then that orange bar shows our minimum which is 10% for the spot so just like the general fund the capital model is going to be updated once we have the fiveyear enrollment projections um and then the detail for the financial projection is behind it as it is for all the other funds presented tonight so this is the last document and it moves all of our materials and so now we'll just stop for comments or questions from the board board members comments or questions I have a question um can you tell us what the current cross subsidies are for special the current cross subsid is 44% for 25 and 26 that was the first year that it was added and then it will go to 50% for 27 and then e for um 27 will go to 25% it's at zero right now and I'm just going to look and verify that I said that right so when you say um 44% and 50% what you're saying is it's funded at that rate in the rest word sub uh it's not funded at that rate it's the calculation um which is I think a four page um I don't know 77 line item calculation um which includes the cross subsidy it's supposed to be funded at that rate and there's um caps and all of that that go into it so it's not quite as simple as that it's not like we're going to get from 44 to 50 we're not going to get another 6% because of all the other complexities with it with tuition going with students in and out we do see an increase I just it's it's one of those things that sounds a whole lot better when you say oh it's going from 44 to 50 than it is in reality right it's you're not getting 6% you're getting a fraction of that it just depends on all the other pieces and like you said it's there are so many pieces with our special ed funding that have been built hold harmless unhold harmless unhold harmless to not affect so no District would take any negative that the com the the calculation is the most complex and messed up thing you can imagine um I I would love to see a way to clean that up and make it um much more understandable for folks but uh the legislator is the one has to act on that and I don't blame them for going no because it's it's as messy as possible I was I mean I was mostly looking for the dollar yeah so if we look if we look at the um general fund tactic and so if we look at page um 82 in your board packet we have $1.6 million ear Mark to come in in 27 so we already have the first piece it's already in and then it's Splat for 25 and 26 and then um in 27 we're projecting over 1.6 million I was just asking that because um you know we got all this funding and I want to make sure that you still know that we have cr ities that are still increasing so just a plug for um advocating for that since we're going up on the legislative um agendas kind ofit um the only other thing I wanted to say is Jeff thank you so much for all your work you do in feeding our students please pass that on to your staff um it's it's a hugely incredible um thing that we do for our students and I appreciate that thank you yeah the staff does an amazing job very proud of yeah that's fantastic and um Brian thank you for what you do and for having WR in the ship here um it's it's been a long haul and I just want to have you pass on also that we really appreciate all the hard work that um all of your staff do thank you because I know what it's like to be a kid stop and all that other stuff so I will thank you I do appreciate that and for sure Kelly and um John thank you for all your hard work on making sure that we've stayed so fiscally um responsible and that we're not doing Cuts Like a lot of other districts do and I know I've said that and I know a lot of us have said that before but I just want to make sure that I say that for sure before I'm no longer on the board again thank you yeah to everything that Jack just said um I actually get asked often um if our district is experiencing um some of the cuts that other districts are that's um and so I so thank you um to all of your work um the only question that I had um kind of going back to Jackie was on the uh food and food and nutrition fund so I know that there is only so much that we can control as it relates to inflation um but just wondering like what are we doing to control our costs um related to to food I've seen let's get a little creative with some of our food programs um but yeah just wondering what we're doing to control our clost within our real of control clost would be basically looking when we're menuing items making sure that we're instructing managers on site not to put out things like prepackaged bags of carrots using bulk carrots looking at what types of food that we're offering on those vegetable bars so that they're more economical rather than using pre-portioned items cutting things in house like having Cal cut wedges in house rather than getting in in pre-cut and Cubed things like that um as far as the food itself I mean we're held to you know standards and minimums of what we're of what we're required to give just to keep the calories and the all the good stuff you know vitamins minerals Etc that stay within the nutritional value I guess is what I'm looking for right so we we have that that we're Bound by but really with the with the volume when you have Revenue re who solves a lot of problems when it comes to food cost so that's why we saw more money flow to the bottom line with that additional 4 million because we've got a lot of a lot of items that are are stable right and then that additional Revenue just grows so um ultimately from the food perspective that's where we're at we're doing some Spotlight on Cuisine this year trying to focus on different cultural Foods um that is that's above and beyond what we normally spend but we feel it's important to spend an extra money four to six times a year to try and highlight some different cultural foods and then from a waste perspective I mean we we monitor we monitor the waste onsite um so that what what staff is making that you don't have an extra going to the garbage or going to our Loaves and Fishes partners that we donate our leftovers to depending on what can be Don donated and what can't be donated um to really some tools as well our district chef and our managers that manag the uh site kitchen managers we've got a lot of tools in place as far as recipe calculations and um inventory ordering tools to help them so that they have less product on their shelf ultimately so there's less that can go to waste and what they're producing is really forecasted based off of History right we have a four-week cycle menu so our manager is going to look back at what they did the last couple cyes and try and get it to that spot and then also they incorporate batch cooking on that last lunch or the last two lunches so that the food is fresher obviously the fatch cooking but as they get to that last lunch they they don't have that big extra because they know the last two lunch periods historically I've done 100 for this maybe 150 for this Lunch Period so they can do the math of what they have versus what they need to cook so they would control waste in that manner thank you that was ultim okay well you knock that out the ball kchen for lots of years Swedish Fish there there's been conversation and I've I've had conversations with other directors at director's meeting about bu milk I haven't taken that step yet it's a big step it's a big step um yeah I think from um there there there some logistical things we'd have to tackle plus with uh kids the glasses yeah kids and messes too and yeah so definitely have considered it um no no plans in the near future to go to B though it's successful at high school but okay we're not AIO what's what school um North Park Elementary North Park School for Innovation okay there is still one issue with milk that that we need to bring up to the legislature so today if you're a student who decides you want to bring your own meal but you like a milk we're not allowed to give it to you we can give you a full meal with a milk but we're not allowed to just give you a so what we find is kids are smart they go okay fine I'll take a full meal they set it down or they toss it and they take the milk so trying trying to solve the lwh hanging fruit problem for lack of a better term um to say we we need an alternative to that so that we're not just wasting for wasting sake because kids do that that um and I don't blame them because they they're they're going to solve their own problem which you know that's good but at the same time we could save a lot of waste um by not having to do that and I don't know that's that's one of those questions that I'm not 100% positive if that's a Minnesota Legislature problem or if that's a USDA problem because Food Service intertwines both so tightly that sometimes it's not the the Minnesota legislator's hands are just tied and it's a federal issue I think we don't have that problem because we have so there's no like how many how many people took right and that that bul M at at your school is it after the point of sale or yeah okay cuz that's another challenge right because it's a component you know one of the three components of the five offered that they need to take so yeah if they don't have enough then the student will say I am taking a bill okay and then they take the glass and go okay got it what do you do with K do they get their own milk okay I'm sorry first I I freak out all my talk all day I know okay are there any other additional questions or comments thank you thank you thank you again thank you Jeff I learned a lot tonight Jeff thank you very much um but I'm one of those convenient ones I paid for my little apple slices in a package for for a prek we cup and allow pack sometimes but others all right so just quickly going over to board meeting calendar review um we're quite excited we're going to have a December the Woodland uh choir performance so the um director is quite happy with that uh for those board members will still be with us uh we'll have that operational meeting on January 7th and please hold the date of the 14th for um possible PD as our uh first board coming together groups coming together for that um what day is that again I'm sorry January 14th January 14 January I'm sorry uh January 14th and one of the things that I've been looking at is one of my goals is a new onboarding process for our um school board members that are coming in and one of the goals is to Mentor their or on board them for a full year their first year here so one of the the goals of course will be is like what else does the board want to have addressed during the year at a work session but the goal is to educate the new group coming in so we're just not reviewing what we've already know so spending time with them spending time in different departments and having them catch up to where we're at so we're not necessarily using a work session to repeat what's already been done so I just wanted to share that so if there's anything in the future you see coming that you want to um have us discuss in a work session or you want to know let us know and if you ever want to be part of a site visit let us know as well so great okay wonderful so with that are there any other questions or input okay then this work session is adjourned at 821 p.m. good night everybody and the new Elementary past Planning [Music] Commission going