##VIDEO ID:p76b-HQkIMM## and now turn over to Dr Edwards to talk a little bit about some of the areas of focus um some big areas for us this year around uh teaching and learning most definitely some big areas obviously as we've talked about in the adoption of the updated strategic plan uh academic Excellence is at the core of our work and uh one of the things that uh continues to be uh something that we bring to our teachers each and every day is a focus on how can we do uh our curriculum review adoption and implementation process in a way that is uh creating that opportunity for a viable and guaranteed curriculum for all of our students that align with our national state local standards we definitely know that uh that continues to be a challenge for us uh in that as standards change we need to adapt our practices in alignment with that um and we definitely are making those adjustments uh you as a board have heard uh over the course of the last couple of years some uh fairly significant adjustments that we've made um most often around instructional practices first and then finding a curriculum that aligns uh to allow us to make those shifts and instructional practices all so that we can bring about those higher levels of student achievement and uh we have obviously implemented new math curriculum at the elementary level ining new math curriculum at this U Middle School level and beginning that work at the uh High School level as well um and we on the verge and and just a bit of a teaser we're going to bring back to you as a board at the upcoming uh September 9th meeting some additional uh background and detail around the uh upcoming react implementation and we bringing a team of folks that are part of have been a part of uh planning that and getting that ready for launch uh as we bring that phase one to our Elementary's uh teachers and our special teachers across our system K12 um with that in mind um obviously when we ask our teachers to change their practice we need to engage in uh high levels of professional development to do so obviously our staff are our greatest resource with regard to that and uh we definitely need to make sure that that work is aligned uh that's a word that I've used U numerous times uh as we are moving out our new strategic plan with our learning leaders throughout the summer months and uh had a chance to kick off this afternoon as a matter of fact with our 612 teachers talking about that alignment uh to not only uh the time that we have uh but all components so for example we were talking today this afternoon as a matter of fact shared with you as a board back in our June meeting about the new Frameworks for evaluation teacher evaluation Frameworks and today we spent time uh sharing with our uh secondary staff because we had begun that work with our Elementary staff last year um to align the curriculum work and instructional work that we were doing so we're doing that um to maximize The Limited opportunities uh time is uh a precious commodity as we know we never have enough time so how do we make that work aligned uh through our existing uh time including the learning team structure that cuon brings to us as well as our uh early release days that are so uh invaluable to our St to allow them to continue to grow um along those lines our school continuous Improvement uh plans we worked a lot this past summer uh in collaboration among our Lai Team U most specifically Dr zush and I in bringing a school continuous Improvement plan to our respective sites uh that was aligned to our new strategic plan and uh visually made that uh very clear that academic excellence was our top priority at our site levels so uh the document that that they are preparing that we will work to have uh both a working document as well as a a front-facing document forward facing document uh has very clearly at the top uh academic excellence and our setting goals around that um I was reminded of uh one actually a couple of buildings that were engaged in that conversation recently as they were shaping that plan for the upcoming year when Dr Thomas was talking about the D's and fs and the conversation we were having earlier with the contract for PSO that's a focus that our uh schools have been doing our secondary schools in particular uh recognizing that that's something that they need to pay particular close attention to um and each site uh in collaboration with their building instructional leadership team um another acronym built uh that we have they develop that skip plan and and again we want to make sure that it's aligned to our new Street strategic plan and then finally uh point of emphasis I wanted to make was that we uh continue to maintain a strong commitment to engaging with our community around teaching and learning and our advisory committee uh we increased our participation in that this past year and had a really strong interest I I alluded to that at our August meeting when presenting our uh our roster for the upcoming school year and we're going to continue to uh bring that forward and strong Community engagement in the work as well as expanding to include um Sam's earlier Point uh APAC specifically was is a gap that we're going to make sure to uh have a part of that work as we move forward so excited it was great to have uh teachers I got a chance to visit with a number of Elementary uh buildings not all of them this morning um but there's a great energy around uh this renewed Focus that I would say around the Strategic plan and look forward to thank you n thank you so um you all mentioned this earlier um just around your retreat in and that uh this whole notion of focusing on continually improving and using data to kind of drive that process and so Dr zush will be coming forward also to really talk about how we've centered our work around a continuous Improvement practice model knowing that uh none of us are perfect and none of our students are perfect and our processes and what how we assess for learning these are things that we're always wanting to make sure are driving a lot of our key decisions um um in the district so what that let Dr zers talk a little bit about some of our uh her efforts in that space thank you good evening to the board um yeah in uh kind of what Dr Edwards was already saying um with the continues Improvement plan and the department Improvement plan just trying to get um everything aligned to the Strategic plan and then also um work with departments and schools to come up with key metrics um to determine um in particular um those leading indicators that can help us determine whether um schools or departments are making progress towards their goals um so that we can make those midcourse Corrections um we've been having some really good conversations about some different data points that we can be using um on those different plans um the a lot of the work I've been doing over the last two years have been a lot of data quality clean up so that I so that the data can be more transparent um it has to be in a certain state in order for it to provide useful information um so a lot of that has just been um tightening up processes I just spent two hours today with Deans again tightening up um Behavior data codes and all those things so that we can really clean up our Data Systems um and have that data be transparent um in a way that's useful and giving us good information to be able to act on um so that data quality and transparency is really in alignment with the Strategic plan I'm going to continue to work on that um with the fast Bridge reporting and the behavior reporting that I did at the end of last year um and then working on attendance reporting as well and then um in terms of community engagement really trying to bridge the family connection on on um kind of that the positive and areas for improvement in terms of the feedback for families um by providing that fast Bridge information to families um the barrier for that in the past has been the Comfort level of teachers being able to speak about that um comfortably to parents so tomorrow we're doing a complete refresh of fastb training for all K5 staff so that they're reorienting it came during the pandemic so it's just just kind of a refresh restart on the fast Bridge um ass a screener to make sure everyone's doing it in the same way and knows how to implement it with Fidelity um and also the why behind it so that we have a better and deeper understanding of why we're doing that and what it's telling us um so that is going to be um happening not tomorrow sorry Wednesday um and then uh kindergarten first grade teachers are actually going to be doing it themselves this year because the um assessment monitors were tired over Co with Co dollars um so they're going to be really digging in a lot deeper into what that data is telling them and why they're giving that assessment um and the last thing um I wanted to just point out is my focus this year is really as Bridging the Gap between assessment and instruction I think um currently there's some disconnect between assessment and instruction and really trying to um bridge that Gap so that we're using assessment um information to drive instruction and drive decision making versus it being seen more as a separate thing um so a lot of um just I'm going to the other thing I'm implementing is Benchmark data from MCAS it's really like breaking apart what is going well within each of our MCA strands and how it aligns to standards uh so that is all getting rolled out um this week as well so that the MCA data is much more actionable ume previously it's kind of that rearview mirror look um but this will be able we'll be able to have conversations about how to actually make it actionable from an instructional perspective if I if I may add something that uh we Dr zish and I are quite excited about um talking about making data actionable with the skip plans at the high school level uh some focus on the uh and the different components data that that gives to us to indicate student progress and where there are gaps and that's something that we're going to um spend the we are spending a significant amount of time with the high school team they are leaving that charge to really make that come to life as a as a indicator of progress and where we need to continue to grow yeah similar to mca's acts has Benchmark data um and we're really unpacking that and helping specific departments at the high school understand where things are falling through the cracks in terms of um you know Miss Concepts and you know at what mapping at what grade students get that information when they might need to return to it in order to stay on track for those College benchmarks for act so kind of a parallel project at the high school with acts as um I'm doing with MCAS at um have a question for the MCA data um is it instantaneous that you can that we as a district receive received the results is that correct that teachers can access it almost instantaneously or is that what you're referring to when you saying that you're going to be using that data um well the preliminary results are instantaneous but they're embargoed so we can't share them they come out this Thursday um the data I'm talking about that I'm doing all the mapping of is specifically and I'm using it with the previous year's data to get the whole um system set up but really understanding because each MCA um there's each MCA like section of questions is aligned to a grade level standard and so really pulling apart where the specific things that are district like that we see as a system are areas of strength and areas of challenge we don't have the benchmarks report until the data becomes unemaro but just trying to roll out that whole system so that when we do get the data on Thursday it'll be ready to go right so really understanding we we falling short within those looking at historic Trends right so that it's stand very granular way and and yes to standards and so the board you all are going to hear a lot of conversation around alignment of assessment to instruction as a state this this is a big conversation um because there are some structural components that many are kind of sounding some alarms about um that just are not making much sense across the entire State misalignment between how we're assessing kids how the standard how the standards are reading the dep the depth of knowledge our ability to understand a very granular granular level what does this MCA score mean when you unpack that into the substring within that to say it's this specific skill set and that skill set ties directly to this standard by by mde there's just been a lot of holes with assessment I think we're also going to be seeing some continued conversations around the utility and do we continue certain assessments or certain grade levels to take certain assessments because we're seeing massive Trends and patterns emerge throughout the state of certain time frames or grade levels assessments don't really make sense by the time we actually can take action on the data that we receive um so more to come on on that because this is a bigger uh conversation than just our district many superintendents um this is likely going to be something that will land in a legislative agenda from amsd it's that big of a conversation so um stay tuned for that but we just kind of had our our first kind of egg crack on that last Friday morning um with the MSD so do our like does that also apply to fast Bridge or like does our fast Bridge better align to standards I mean I'm not trying to get but I'm just like trying to understand the correlation between um it it's different because fast Bridge is a screener fast Bridge me measures prerequisite skills that students need in order to access grade level content okay so it's really identifying if there's a gap that needs to be filled in order for them to obtain the knowledge needed in the standard it doesn't measure standards okay that makes sense thank you we'll be bringing um a much more robust conversation on this topic and this intersectionality um at the study session in September um we that's that's our plan anyways okay thank you Dr Z thank you talk um all right I believe dror cha next on Deck um to talk a little bit about student sport Services okay so I was um kind of reflecting on the core beliefs of accountability respect unity and stewardship when I um put together what I would talk about today accountability is kind of built into at least special education right every student has an individualized education plan um that is gone over annually with parents and and goals are monitored multiple times a year one thing that I'm I'm going to work on um with the staff in my department towards that academic excellence and this accountability piece is a real push on data that's quantifiable and really aligned to everything that's that's going on so parents truly can understand it a little bit better and um it it's I feel like I'm sort of mimicking and echoing what's been said but that assessment and progress monitoring like what are we assessing and what are we monitoring and is the data that we're monitoring really getting to the goal that we want so we're working on that I'm excited we're actually doing some of the that first trainings tomorrow afternoon on working through some of that um we've also done a lot of work around um PA professional um professional development over the last two years and that's in a push to really um help support them to help support our students um another way we show accountability and respect is through our quarterly special education parent advisory Council meetings where parents have the opportunity to provide us feedback um on District development of programs that serve families and students um using a specialized special education services partnering with families is always an important component to moving forward with our work um obviously we're pretty big on unity and respect in special ed uh we have a team of amazing Educators both in and out of special education right now over the last 18 months or so really growing our unified programming um through the Special Olympics the goal is to develop authentic relationships between our students with disabilities with our students without disabilities ities um we are um two electives taking off this year at the high school one is a unified F class and the other is a unified fax class or cooking class so we're really excited to get those going our goal this year lck year not is to make all of our schools Unified Schools um and we are meeting with um I think it's the build the the building level leadership teams on Thursday of all the schools interested to really try to get it going right now it's the middle schools and the high schools have it going pretty well now we're just trying to move that down into the elementary level another way we strive for Unity and respect is through our special education advisory councils annual inclusivity Awards so every year our special ed advisory Council asks parents and students and staff to nominate people it could be other parents it could be other students um staff members at any level to that um kind of exemplify Unity it doesn't necessarily even have to do a special ad but what are we doing to really make sure our our environments are really really inclusive and so um those are always a big hit um Everyone is always touched when they're able to do that I mean we honor custodians bus drivers teachers other students we parent groups um they're always that's always a fun part of the year and then I think it's also important to be accountable to staff and be respectful of our staff um and so I provide a monthly update to our team and we've also worked really hard the last couple years on a workload analysis to Ure Equitable Staffing not just based on numbers but also just based on workload and I've worked um pretty closely with um director Herman and and director Frederickson on kind of a predictable base Staffing model so we can be really responsible um financially so we know what it is and we can really justify when we are asking for more staff like you know we have this base model and and these are why we're asking for more so you can ensure that get stewardship there um and then work um with a workflow committee with staff too that we meet twice a year just to make sure that that people are feeling things are Equitable across the buildings and then the load that they have cuz 13 kids here and 13 kids here could be a really different workload um within special education um so with that um we'll continue to work towards that data and academic Excellence um in student Support Services as well as across the district while we still are optimizing our resources and being positive so all right thanks Michelle thanks Michelle and Mr Powers I think will be coming up next and as he's coming forward you know obviously newer in the role and um he doesn't know I was going to say this and I didn't either until uh I just kind of felt it but when when we were interviewing for this role you know obviously a really critical role to to fill um one of the things that stood out to me um about Daniel is uh he made a statement I'm I'm paraphrasing every person that walks into one of our buildings is my customer and I'm going to tell you in the short time that he's been with us I have seen that in every interaction I've had with um to know that you uphold customer satisfaction customer service at that level is something that you know I just want to thank you for in that short time because that's what people are continuing to tell tell me so kids aren't going to learn in a dirty unsafe building and and that's something that you also spoke about in your interview and how that's super important you see a direct correlation between your work and the outcomes of our faith so um turn this to you and speak on behalf of your team following up on that I have a conceit and I admit it full out this doesn't happen without the operational side of things because the buildings have to be maintained they have to be cleaned how I work with my team is exactly what Dr Thomas was talking about everyone that comes into my building I don't care who they are they are my customer it could be the students it could be the teaching staff it might be the community at large because everyone in our community will use one of our facilities and it's not just when they're coming into those buildings it's when they're walking outside and seeing the condition that the outside of the building is at it matters those those opinions those people that are calling us up and sending those emails when they have a question about why something looks the way it does um it matters to me and I need to make sure and find out first off why it looks that way how I can correct it and how I can make it more appealing to everyone else in the community because everyone in the community sees our buildings um we are the people we're the the first thing they see when they walk in we're the last thing they see when they leave my goal is to make sure that every one of our facilities gets done that attention whether it's five Hawks or the high school I'm there to make sure that I get the attention to all of those locations and how I do that is I work with everyone of my staff I work with my vendors to make sure that we're doing things as efficiently as we can um that might mean using the correct chemicals that might be um teaching my staff how to do things differently um making sure that I'm giving them the type of attention that they deserve to get their job done I talk a lot about my style of leadership my style of leadership is to give my team the tools they need and get out of their way let them do their job and when they have those questions to reach out to me and when I can help I will help them whether it's teaching them how to strip a floor better or whether it's grabbing a a corner of something they're trying to move my job is to be there to to help them get their job done so that we can be there for the community I talk a lot about um making sure that we're planning for the future for our buildings um there's more than just the needs right now I could tell you a dozen things that we're dealing with in every building in the district but how we plan for the maintenance of those buildings make sure that we can maintain and be the proper stewards of those locations is a very important part of everything that I do when I'm like reaching out and looking at these things so I do consider operations we're the people behind the scenes but we aren't and I hope that um everyone around here and the community um that they will reach out to me if they see something and question something so that we can make sure and make it better for them as well I the last time I spoke uh with the high school group and this is a it's a weird thing that I do a lot of the times um and the people here may know this answer they may not how many times have we landed on the moon how many people have walked on the moon most people don't know I mean I was alive for all of those so I remember vividly every time we did it we landed on the moon six times 12 people walked on the moon what did those people learn to do what they're doing I get emotional sorry that's my gig it's the teachers that taught those kids how to get there those teachers were able to do that because we did our job so we don't know if we've got the next Neil Armstrong in our school or the next Einstein or the next Prima ballerina my job is to make sure and give them the facility so that they can reach their goals and that's that's that's the way I look at my job that's the straightforward thing and as I look at our plan I it doesn't change it my job is to make sure I do the things the best I can every day and I'm hoping that um like I said before that people will reach out to me and help me to make my job better thank you for all I appreciate your heart behind the work I mean the it truly is the heart that matters and and um it is evident that your heart is in the work that you do to serve our students and our community and I appreciate you sharing that with us tonight thank you thanks than Joel's going to bring us home um you heard a little bit about the phenomenal work that he and his team are doing in Community Education but uh you know we we clearly have traditional daytime instructional uh support that happens with our students but as Daniel said too a lot of our families access our schools outside of our traditional K12 instructional time um and and this is the heart and soul of that and and how that's grown immensely since you're your tenure in our district so I yield to you I was going to say Save The Best For Last but clearly I can't beat make us cry too no I'm going to try not to but um I in a short amount of time I've really appreciated working with Dan as well and 100% support what you just shared here's very much about our facilities and making sure that we're providing appropriate space um in the Community Education Department I my team and I have been meeting and discussing the new strategic plan and really how we can align towards that through everything from our early childhood programs to our adult programming our facility use reservations and really we came up with five different areas that we're going to focus on and and clearly we haven't had a ton of time to dig into all of those yet um and a lot of these words or phrases are words and phrases you've heard numerous times tonight and so I'm going to keep this short and brief but uh our Focus areas one is around citizen involvement that's one of the key aspects of Community Education is involving your community members in your schools whether that's through the facility use whether it's volunteering in programs and also a big push on getting new members to join our advisory Council both our early childhood Council as well as our Community Education Council that is a way for community members to become involved um whether they have kids in the schools or not they can still help us determine what are the needs in our community and how as a school district and Community head program can we support those needs the second part is on collaboration and partnership um we have City programs here that offer a lot of parks and recreational programming uh in some districts Community EDS provide that uh as the cities don't have it but what are some ways that we can continue to partner with them and improve and increase the programming and opportunities that our students have in our community uh also looking to collaborate with our County with community service based organizations our local libraries anybody who's willing to work with us and provide additional opportunities resources and again meeting the needs of our community members so collaboration and partnership um engagement and accessibility so we've talked a ton about this in our community ad program is how do we continue to engage our community members specifically those who again may not have children in our schools what can we provide them what can we offer them not just around supporting our schools but really enriching their lives as well and that really goes back to our Adult Enrichment classes and opportunities that we provide um and the engagement accessibility is also around our facility use getting people in the buildings whe whether it's PL programs whether it's a play or a musical going on getting people into our facilities and having them become engaged and see what we offer here in Prior Lake is really important to accountability is another one and all of us have talked about the accountability piece um one of the things that or a couple things that we do is we provide an annual report every year on our participation numbers we also report back on our financials throughout the year um and that from Early Childhood submitting annual reports every year to our community ed program on our enrollment numbers and our classes on the amount of uh use of our facilities all of that goes back to our state reporting to hold us accountable um and it also includes our kids company programming so a lot of what we do when through those reports gets tied back to some of the funding that we received and again Community head doesn't receive a lot of funding most of our program is fee based about 92% is fee based we do receive some support and so we want to be accountable to that just like all other departments and program areas in our schools and then the last piece is alignment we've heard others talk about alignment as well that really talks specifically about our early Ed programs and one of the big things is making sure that our prek program is aligned to our elementaries so that by the time those four and five year olds become kindergarteners we've prepared them for kindergarten we've we've made sure that they're ready to move on to that next level and hear sometimes people talking about prek becoming the new kindergarten but really our focus is on the same thing it has been for years and years and years and that's around the social and emotional development so that they are ready to learn and is there an academic component absolutely there's some academics involved in preschool but it's really about teaching them how to learn preparing them for that so aligning our prek program to our K both in the academic areas as well as assessments and we worked a lot with Jenny this year on the assessment piece and we use different tools and what they utilize in our K12 system but um the tools that we're using align well to the tools that the district is using so you can easily transfer data from what we're receiving on our on our pre students and transfer that into the kindergarten and Elementary age St so again citizen involvement collaboration and Partnerships engagement and accessibility the accountability piece and Alignment are the five main areas that my team will be focusing on this next year questions for me thank you I'd like to say that that Community um back to school event was excellent thank you thank you huge credit to the communications team as well so we partnered on that it was a great event and that the rain stopped that was me in my car about 5 minutes before when they were dropping off the bounce houses like please called Kim Barlo and he did us a solid so I I hope you all you know becoming uh a world class District Center on students driven by results is does not happen by by chance it's great intentionality um of the leadership team that you heard from today we really proud to work alongside these folks every single day and really excited for the year that we're kicking off tomorrow so thank you for taking a little time at the study session so you got a little chance to understand how we are breathing life into the Strategic plan um and becoming that um so thank you cheer friends I turn it back to you for the next agenda thank you very much next is on the agenda is the audit update by Direct Dr Fredick um if you could just indulge me for just a moment before I start the audit update I wanted to give you all a an update on our investments because I did talk to um PMA um the end of last week and as you know when we reinvest um it happens very quickly and so I don't have a lot of time to to bring it to the board so I just wanted to give you an update um we do have um two um fixed rate Investments that uh matured this week and then by the end of the year there'll be another 2 million that have matured um the feds have indicated that they're going to be dropping interest rates three times and by the end of the year um we're anticipating by the end of uh next month the rate will be about 5% by November it'll be down to 4.7 December 4.3 and by next may we anticipated about 3.7% so um what I had a conversation with the folks at PMA and we are going to take um $3 million um and invest in two CDs one a 17mon um that we're going to get about 4.12% and then another 1.5 million for 23 month that we're going to need about 3.95% net rate which actually will if the interest rates do end up at 3% by next year then we've locked in at higher than that so um I indicated for them to go ahead so just wanted to let you all know that thank you thank you very much excellent update now under the audit good a let's move along um the audit update um I don't have something official to give you yet because we are still working on the audit we have three more um audit entries that we're working on we still have to book the TR PR which is teacher retirement and the uh public employees retirement those are always one of the last things that we enter we also have to get our final state aid and the tax receivable so those have to get booked yet um I can tell you that um we are looking at um our original budget for Revenue was 11 15.1 million we're going to end up about 119 19.3 million um expenses we budgeted 116.5 million we're going to end up around and again these are not final numbers but we're going to end up about 123 million we're doing doing some deep um analytical work to see where the differences are uh and for Revenue I can tell you that um when we have given the numbers to the board um I think you all recall that sheet that I give you that has the all of the different state AIDS and then the levies and then the we can have other Revenue so as we look at the state AIDS we're not off that far we had budgeted 93.3 million and we're coming in about 94.7 million so that's about a 1.6% difference um the levy we budgeted 18.2 million and we're coming in about 18.7 um which is just under a 3% but where we did get significant amount of additional revenue is in the other categories um we budgeted 3.6 6 million and we're coming in about 5.8 so an example of that is interest income when I budget for interest income I take a threeyear average I look at the past three years see what we had over the past three years and come up with an average so we budgeted about um just under $500,000 and we actually got 1.2 million this year which is a good thing but it's um again it's not something that I can necessarily predict I just have to go by um the averages over the 3 years we also for athletics we budgeted 790 million we came in a little over a million um e rates we budgeted 10,000 and came in at 82,000 um I did not um budget anything for donations or Insurance Recovery and we're actually getting almost 500,000 from for that Insurance Recovery the biggest one is the high school scoreboard um as you all know got hit by lightning we didn't know whether we were going to be able to recover any insurance on that turns out we did but then we also had to buy a new scoreboard so kind of worked out so um the biggest uh variance in that revenue is coming from other Revenue sources as we looked at the expenses um it's a difference of about $6.5 million little over two million of it is from special ed we just spent more money and part of that was as you recall when we were doing the budget for this year we moved some salary positions out of federal dollars and put them into the state aid so that we could put the tuition in Federal which then in two years will give us some state aid on the special ed special ed is always at least a year or two behind of the revenue so we ended up having more expenses um last year in order to get more Revenue next year we also um have spent about $2.3 million on extra time which includes like this prep um Extended time um stiens any of that we did not budget 2.3 million so that we overspent that um our PSO came in 320,000 more than we budgeted um the teachers on call it came in 200,000 more than we budgeted um equipment and supplies was almost a million dollars more but again about two 250,000 of that was the scoreboard which we have Insurance Recovery money to support that um one thing that we are going to be looking into is we spent um about $700,000 more in transportation than what we budgeted so we're trying to dig into that to see where that came from um and that makes up the majority of what the 6 and a half million is so we will be giving you a more detailed analysis of where we over spent um but the majority of it is going to be in special education and then some of those that I just mentioned that we overspent um the Auditors will plan to be here in October for the board meeting in October so they'll give a detailed report um again they're making the final entries um I'm will be meeting with them next week to see if there's any um comments that or findings that they're um seeing so far so I don't anticipate giving you much of an update on the September 9th board meeting because again it's just not done yet um but certainly in the September study session I should have much more detail to give you and it we can do a lot more um digging into the preliminary analytics so that's what I have for the audit update thank you Tammy I know that that's a lot of work and looking forward to more of the detail breakdown as it becomes more solidified yes uh next is you again for the levy certification update yes the levy certification we had till last Friday to enter um some of the preliminary data we have to enter leases we enter ltfm long-term fail maintenance information we enter enrollment projections um we've got all of those done they Department of Education will be running the first run of their Levy certification and limitation report next Friday um which is September 6th so I will try to get something um to you by that Monday September 9th board meeting but again it might be that September study session um is it's it's a 40-page report and you have to like look at each line on there to make sure that all of the formuls are correct and match up what you anticipate seeing in there so I will do my best to get you something on September 9th but more than likely it will be um very detailed report on the September study session and then on the October um we'll do a preliminary um certification and then have more conversations through November and then December we'll have the truth and Taxation hearing and then you need to vote on the final certification in between there we'll have a referendum vote okay uh and the enrollment update the enrollment update um I am happy to say that our kindergarten numbers are looking really good um we're about 62 this is as of last Friday we have about 62 more kindergarteners than what we initially thought we would have um which is great news um means we have about 140 more kids than what we originally um projected so that is good news but we'll wait till next week to see who actually shows up and then we'll um have that official October 1st count um but so far it's looking pretty good the board sorry what does that put us at total for kindergarten um we projected 496 and as of Friday we have 558 sorry 5 558 I was just wondering is is that like are you seeing that pretty much gender across the elementary schools or is it one not so kindergarten there's 62 more first grade five more second grade eight more third grade 13 fours two fifth grade has one more sixth grade has 11 um seventh grade has six eighth grade has nine more ninth grade has 10 more 10th grade has 14 more 11th grade actually has six less and 12th grade has 10 more so it's a net of 140 over projection right but I mean in terms of like the kindergarteners because I know like what was it last year yeah like I know last year like Lola had its the last school year that they had their biggest kindergarten or was it for this year last year we fifth section I just wondered if that was the case sure um it's a little bit across the board but the two schools that have have seen the most growth in their kindergarten class compared to their first grade class is five Hawks um their kindergarten is at 72 where their first grade is at 66 and Glendale their kindergarten is at 102 where their first grade is at 85 um but we are seeing um the kindergarteners are popping up or it seem to be popping up in all of our schools to say enough but I'm glad they're appearing okay so um next we have uh Proclamation find it here and thank you um well actually I was going to ask you to read it oh so than hand it back to start go ahead okay uh this Proclamation is for the payroll staff appreciation week September 2nd through 6 2024 Prior Lake Savage area schools recognizes September 2 through 6 2024 as payroll staff Appreciation Week our payroll staff play a key role in managing the salaries and wages of our more than 1,300 staff this week we share our thanks and gratitude for for these essential staff whereas Prior Lake Savage area schools has two full-time payroll staff whereas payroll staff support Prior Lake Savage Area School staff through ensuring proper paychecks including the management of over 11,000 retirement and voluntary deductions whereas payroll staff manage 80% of the district's general fund budget which amounts to a 90 million payroll budget for the fiscal year 2024 and 25 there for let it be resolved the Board of Education hereby extends its appreciation to all Prior Lake Savage Area Schools payroll staff for their work supporting all employees and ultimately the success of our students and Proclaim September 2nd through 6 2024 to be payroll staff Appreciation Week in Prior Lake Savage area schools very much director Herman thank you um Vice chair bullan for reading that and members of the board for the pation um this is one of those that truly is a thankless job and um unnoticed until there's an issue um but with the thousands of pieces of information that they go to through meticulously to make sure that we have accurate payrolls um every single year every single other week aounds me um for two people doing that much information for that many employees but on top of that this year as you know we're working through the mandatory upgrade on SK on Skyward and so while they're doing this every um almost every other week um they're also working on upgrading our system to the point that the First full complete um comparative payroll on the new system they only had $26 difference um the vendor was blown away first of all the fact that they did a full complete usually people just choose to do a mini version of a of a payroll the first time they did the whole thing time cards stiens everything and the first time they were only $26 off the second time they're only pennies off um and they were highly impressed by our individuals that not just in payroll but in the business office and and HR and technology that the proactive approach that they take to dig into issues and resolve them before they even come to the paycheck at the end of the day has been um very wildly impressive from the whole team and especially from our two payroll staff so um thank you very much for your appreciation I know they appreciate it as well and um I will make sure to definitely pass along thank you director Herman that's pretty amazing for two people very amazing um next we move on to policy and director Herman that's you too and first we're going to start with policy 56 for student discipline um I'm not sure if you want to give a briefing on changes um yes thank you um chair France members of the board um Mr policies up for anro r view um and there were also some slight legal changes based off of the um changes with the school resource officer and also just making sure we updated some different definitions throughout to make sure that we had the same names of policies were consistent um and the definition uh the different definitions throughout that need to be updated there's no substantial changes though was mainly clean up around that um and updating for statutory changes around the the school resource officer are there any questions question um since we've developed a practice of linking policies with policies you I mean as I'm looking through here and I might answer my own question when to the last page because I don't know if we have a oh we do have them listed on the back okay okay that answers my question because what I'm thinking of is as you go through the violations and looking at like violation of school District's hazing prohibition policy adding like the policy number or is it fine just to have it listed below you know what I mean I think it would be important for us to add the policy number so thank you for noticing that I'll definitely make sure to guys there where they yeah there's several of them where you you list it but I think that would be helpful yes I I completely agree thank you for calling that out I will make sure to update that before bringing it forward to the next next meeting and then I have another question with all all these policies um will these policies be going to the October either the policy committee or the teaching and learning committee before they come back to the board for um these have already been to the policy advisory they have um they've already been I I can't speak to they were yep they were last year to teaching and learning yes so I'm wondering like particularly with the 606 and 605 because there's we I don't think we had a 605 last 606 last year um because that's driven mostly our legislation um if that will come back to the teaching and learning committee so I guess we can talk about that when we get that policy so I have end of those are all my comments um regard to the 5506 student discipline policy okay are there any other questions on the discipline policy and I did want to ask one question question um I noticed and I'm not sure if this is just because of the changes the cross references are underlined here so I assume those are hyperlinks when you go online because some of them are always hyperlinks on the last page when you have review of policies and you list of statutes I'm hoping they are because I like that the cross references are hyperlink thank you I don't believe we have any hyperlinks on legal references though no and that's fine I get it but thank you um and no other questions by [Music] anybody okay going on to policy 606 um so 606 and 66.5 will be difficult to look at separately because they used to be one policy um and um I'll ask Dr Thomas and Dr Edwards to join in here too this is the policy that we started reviewing a year and a half ago um with a a task force to start digging into um into the policy and the procedures um and then also reviewing it um multiple different times at policy advisory committee and then also I believe at teaching and learning as well while that process was happening we also had statuto changes that impacted these policies um so throughout that entire process as we were going through it organically it just became clear um as our previous policy that was joined together being very convoluted at times and difficult process to move forward with mba's recommendation to have the two um and also to make sure then we are in alignment with all of our statutory legal obligations um following that that um statute change that um model policy from msba either Dr Thomas or Dr wants and I would say that this was a this was a singular policy we we had it we just called it out as 1606 we didn't have a 0 five broken out that's really the main difference we also had a lot of procedure tied into that which we kind of thinned out as well after the msba model policy came came around so we briefed it in various groups as a totality of a policy what you see here is bifurcated um which is the msba model um and cleaned up some language and cleaned up some of the um protocols we actually carried over some of that that wasn't in the msba in ours um just because the committee felt that that was really helpful um and I think that's the gist of the changes from the singular policy um everything else stayed roughly the same from where we where we landed as our initial task force and then through different iterations prior to the um msba and the only additional comment I would make is specific to 66.5 um because when we had reviewed that that policy through the multiple processes over the last year and a half um that was not a policy that we had really ever had practice implementing and as we did have practice implementing once the spring of 202 23 school year 232 yeah 22 23 school year and twice last year in 23 24 school year looking at the msba model policy um and implementing and carrying it out there there's great alignment to how we carried it out so that was another piece of the recommendation to bring this as the policy forward okay questions in um I'm on 606 um section five the reconsideration under C I just want to make sure I'm reading this correctly the superintendent should present a procedure to the school board is that what's on the next page do I have that correct um under Pro it says procedures I just want to make sure that that's what this is referencing yes it is okay um okay thank you and then I have a question actually about the procedures so um when the language says procedures any Resident or employee of the school district May formally challenge textbooks and instruction materials um my mind goes to what about a parent of an open enrolled student because you're talking about any Resident or employee of the school district so I feel like there could be a little bit of a miss and maybe it needs to say parent I put parent and guardian as what I was the was the language intentional WR resident you remember no we don't no we would want to ensure that um a parent or guardian of an open enroll student is just like a you know in District so yeah y that should be that should be part of that they have theth they have the authority to to call that question I just would want us to be consistent with how we Define that in other policies Emily parent Guardian parent guardian or parent caregiver it's on our list of consistent reference so we will work through that yeah no that was a good catch and then under two textbook and instruction materials Review Committee I know we've talked about having in the actual um what do you call it teaching and learning committee having the 2/3 representations of parents and community members um I feel like on this list that the parent side is a little bit light and wondering if we if it it would if it would hurt to go up to four parents or legal guardians from the teaching and learning advisory committee um just to balance out that perspective of District employees perspective versus parents which number is that it's under procedur it's on the back page textbook in instructional material 606 not 606 I'm wondering if there's um if there is a reason or statute behind seven members I don't know um but if so it say um the committee shall be formed and shall consist of seven members is that based and statute that number of members is just no the only statute governs the size of the overall teaching and learning advisory okay um and this is reflective of our practice and and the and the practice that we went through four times five times um that um operated well so that's what you see here we that's what's reflected and aligned with um 66.5 the U review that would be established for Library materials as well yeah and I called that I I have that as a note on 66.5 just because you know everybody brings a different perspective um but I think having a healthy balance between parents and District employees I have found on the teaching and learning committee to be just to be bring about more robust conversation so I don't know if it would hurt for us to up a to four appearance of the from the teaching learning advisory committee I'm comfortable with how it is my opinion I think the the representation from the people that are using you know teaching with the curriculum and using the textbooks and materials are pretty well informed wouldn't it be the parents that would be challenging it potentially I me I hear what you're saying they're informed right but if there is a challenge and it needs to go to a Review Committee I just want to make sure ensure that a the parents perspective is um represented fairly from a you know from an equity standpoint or whatever well and hearing from a broader hearing from a broader group of parents I can see how there could that could bring value um and then another thought that pops into my head is the bigger the committee that produ that could potentially bring about its own I don't know maybe I don't want to say challenges it's complexity and the larger the group the larger the group The yeah um you know my question would be would that help reach consensus or would you know I do see I do see value in having more it could it could help with buying too I mean it could help it could help um fostering trust it could I mean it could help and I can also see where there could be complexities um that's a good word so well we're pulling from one committee too um and I'm wondering if I mean how do you determine that pulling from one committee is going to have diversity though that's the thing oh it's pulling pulling from teaching and learning it comes from teaching and learning yes which is a limited size committee too so I'm fine it seemed to work pretty well last year um I mean I would I I don't know if this is a spot where um is this a spot where we do find the will of the board mhm you know thumbs well it's the first the read yeah so they come it have you had many challenges on the textbooks or classroom materials not today or has there been any was there any like feedback after the reviews that you did have last year is there any reviews of the determination or The limed Limited very limited I would say and what about uh Dan remind me of getting parents to participate uh that wasn't um challenging because I had a target audience that teaching and learning committee hear people from yeah um point a clarification is the so any now we we've added parent legal guardian um that can formally challenge is that person or person's included in these two parents legal Guardians they're not part of the Comm right no okay presumably to be could be I it could happen yeah could be a teacher could be yeah unlikely so can we um can I I was just going to say um can we kind of figure out uh the direction we're giving to uh director Herman here are we going to since are we going to stick with seven members or are we going to increase can can I ask this just can we say something like at at least two parents giving the flexibility depending on that would be fine with me I don't know what everybody else feels about that we kind of word Smith round spe specificity on another portion of this of a certain role we didn't want to commit it to a role but what we said could be um so I'm just trying to think of ways if that's the will of the board if you want to go that direction or if you're holding with what we have from our past practice you know last year of of going through this with this committee so I mean you could do that the problem is then you could have like six 10 yeah or you could put a cap too like at least up to well I mean we could it could be two to four parents legal you know um I don't I don't see any harm in in doing that I don't know if we want to can we kind of go around the room and see where people are starting with director olad um on what it says right now would you want it more less changed given flexibility I'm fine with leaving it as this I'd like toize those Dron um I'd like to see a two to four to balance out to the statute that actually um not not that this would have to do a statute but then it would align with the 2third parents and community members of the teaching and learning committee so we're very consistent of the balance between parents perspectives versus um District employee perspectives so two I'd be comfortable with two to four I'd be more comfortable with four director V I'm more inclined to offer a third opinion giving the flexibility to the Review Committee based on the complexity or the sensitivity of the specific material being reviewed so at least the seven it could be more depends on what's the nature of this that's being challenged but that also when you said the flexibility you know we have bullet points of the descriptions of the people were you thinking of bringing in another description uh based upon the needs of the committee I mean I'm trying to figure out where your threshold is sure um I think in terms of the roster I think it's right more of how many people how many voices content Area Teachers who can lend their insight into the specific area and then of course baling with on so could you say consist of at least seven members or at least nine whatever where we land on that you know what I mean that would cover that would allow for movement up I agree with you and up two at least enough to it's in that same space at least enough to seven at Le seven at least seven up to that's yeah um and not specifying where the where it shows up in the bullets M okay that's one way okay uh director bernick I just had no less than two but up to whatever you want to do as far as parent represent teaching oning but um I would be comfortable with doing the two to four parent SL legal Guardians I'm kind of comfortable leaving where it is since at work last year and also um if if we come into a situation where it's not working and we do get feedback then um then uh I think we should make a change but I'm worried that if we leave it with any type of language like that then we're were're particularly given the The Passion of some of the challenges um I just don't want to turn it into um a discussion each time that's you know and if it comes up that it's not working um then then I think we change it but if if it's if there's no problem with the way it is right now uh and it seemed to work well last year um then I'm fine leaving it that's kind of where I am okay so sounds like there's four that would like to have the parameters of the at least up to um tonight so we can go back and rework that I I would kind of build up what you said chair I don't I don't think I want to go through the Litany of roles each time I definitely would be more comfortable saying this is where we'll put it and right now and balancing it I think the logic of balancing against the tnl roster um is defensible logic it's aligned in statute so I would I would put it there as the at least up to and then that gives us the seven to nine for the just for the second bullet just for the second bullet so it would say consist of at least seven members up to nine and that's the second bu would say up or at least two parents up to four so that's where we would put it I'm okay with that yeah I like the specificity I don't want sounds good thank you all right the next one is 66.5 I don't have anything additional to add I I covered both of them as one so um just a reminder that there has been some statutory changes that have impacted this policy so that is included in here as well um but really as Dr Edwards and Dr Thomas said aligning this policy with msv model policy and with the procedures that we have utilized over the year and last year and a half um from implementing the previous policy um I noticed under the Review Committee um that a board member is there have been has been in the past that's correct I had that note as well good catch yes uh we it must not be in the msba model um no true it has been in our I know we've done yeah yep and I think that was um I believe like 606 says at um designated by the chairperson of the Board of Education think that should be in there as well add that back yeah cons y same as the last one yeah so does that does that change under e [Music] then the at least two up two up to yeah we'll keep that consistent we'll mirror that from 606 so I just have a question and we're I'm sorry we're only talking about as want to make sure I'm clear on that we're only talking about 2 e uh 2 D2 e yes yes D where it says two members of the teaching and learning consistent with the other one under reconsideration um am I reading this right that [Music] under section four D the school board May decline to purchase land or sh or remove access to library materials legitimately based on these three criteria is that new language that we've had or was that in Piel this is new statutory language um that is in the msba model policy um that we are recommended to include um that were including the statutory language of so a school board could remove any books from a library under this under those reasons in compliance with state and federal law yes are you you're under four section 4 d School Board May decline to purchase lend or shelf or remove access yeah good call out because I feel like if that's the case why do we have a Review Committee well that's different I mean the Rie committee may bring a recommendation to the board right first ex book and we we have budget oversight so it's Drawing the Line statutorily It also says that we as a school board we over see the textbooks and I think textbooks can be defined as library books and that's where the textbooks separated separated yeah that is separate now for sure no I know but I'm just saying that that's I think that's like Emily said it's being D driven by Statute because it is written in the statute of what a school board's responsibility is and also part of some recent changes right exactly um to Library selections um based off recent recent statutes that have changed um so as we talked a little bit of policy advisory committee and I think we mentioned it here at a few different times um that that's legal guidance from mba's um resources that they have in their monop policy that I would recommend that we keep in there to make sure that we're stat in compliance okay y okay um my only question again I know this is lifted you know what I mean um yeah legitimate pedagogical concerns my definition of legitimate is going to be different than yours and yours and your like how do we define legitimate and does the and then I guess I have a question would would the would it have to go through the process for the board to remove or could the board just remove or decline to purchase blend whatever purchase is the word the discussion was but again it's going to we're going to see some Court action how we can it def like does it my point is does it have to go through a review process before it comes to the board or not okay it reads like it doesn't mhm yeah I'm just trying to fully understand this because I'm not trying to open a can of worms here I'm truly just trying to understand it and if the statute is saying that a board can do that that's what they the statute is saying the board reserves the right so the new statute um and again we're we're all trying to still apart and figure it out and how is it actually and intended versus what it's going to look like CU this is from May 2024 legislation yep um is that there needs to be multiple steps that are followed um while selecting Library material including um the expertise of the of the media specialist um being a part of that um decision-making process um but it also still does provide avenues for other um the ultimate Authority at the end of the day coming to the board level okay so it is it has caused confusion because there's pieces of the statute that state the responsibility or authority or a different terminology lies on the media specialist in selected materials um but then it also still recognizes and acknowledge the school board's ultimate Authority on budget and other aspects of it so we're still trying to weave out how that's all going to interplay with each other um ultimately I don't see that changing our processes here because we already have a review process in place for our our budget for our curriculum for our library materials for them to for individuals to challenge them and bring them forward and we've successfully worked through that process already um and as we learn more about what's what happens after this or the statute came through I maybe we'll have more answers to how to Define these different terminologies that have been out there but I unfortunately don't know much more than that Dan sorry I appreciate all that I don't think we do in carrying this out and I think just like any other policy there are steps proceeding that step and it also in this case gives the authority to well gives control here which is I mean unusual these days yeah a little bit okay now if the purchase of those materials exceeded $25,000 and we saw it come through on the consent agenda then oh that would be kind of an opportunity to Daylight that so what's this all about I don't imagine we have anything that not for a library book hopefully not no they're not that will be really weird um sorry to go backwards but something I noticed too and I I apologize for not bringing it up before when we talk about 606 before we leave 606 can we finish on 66.5 please okay welcome back thanks um so I had one question on there numeral s where talks about the outcomes that uh they'll come before the school board what the final decision is and then the requester will will receive the disposition and they also have the right to appeal I don't see anything in here indicating that will'll actually publish what the outcome is for broader Community to have a sense of so we actually do have that in 606 CU that was something that brought up in policy committee that we would have a running record of that so we just need to lift that language from 606 again as the split I I do believe that we did talk about not putting it in there because of separating out the procedures versus policy aspect of it and how and where we communicate that um is more procedural than policy that was my recollection of the policy advisory committee conversation around that but can we do reference 606 and the cross references yeah well we have procedures in 606 we do but it's about not duplicating language if you cross reference it because one of the when I first started in the policy committee one of our goals was to eliminate the duplication as much as possible if we mentioned at once it's still in policy and then you do the cross reference that way when they go to update it makes makes the update process lot efficient that was the discussion but that is something that we'll be putting on to our website um so I Public Notices in Public Notices so I do apologize I thought it was it was a discussion we had I thought it was in 606 but that was just one that um we discussed well I would assume that the challengers identity would be um kept confidential is that is that correct challenges yeah so when we when we would publish like a book that was challenged we're not publishing the name of the Challenger we're just publishing the the book itself absolutely and the fact that the committee was formed a recommendation of the committee as such now again uh when the when the challeng when a challenge comes in um that information is subject to a data request so anybody can request that information but we're not openly publishing that information right you'd still be rude act in the name of assum just as we' done it would depend on who the the Challenger was and what role they play um um are you done anything else no for okay we'll keep it on the side of the table then um so just having gone through this with the um teach and learning committee um a couple I just noted I went back to my notes through that committee and noted a couple things that I am just going to um talk about that came straight out of that committee um the first thing on the very first page under 66.5 um number two under general statement of purpose um the language about that our district supports the LI Library Bill of Rights adopted by the American Library Association I believe that the feedback on that was challenged because the library Bill of Rights if you check out a book through the library the library cannot um reveal what type of book you checked out it's like a confidentiality phrase or something in the library Bill of Rights and that would be almost impossible as a school district for us to do um if a if a parent or a kid a student protect out a book then a parent should have access to knowing what that book is or if they inquired or whatever um so that came up in the teaching and learning committee about because we're really truly not a library I get what we're trying to respect I get what we're trying to do but I think what we've defined in policy does feedb to what the library B rights um accomplishes or states or whatever um but it also keeps a thought of like a a dual conflict of interest with what is stated in the library Bill rights I'm not tracking I'm not either oh no that's okay no it's okay um so the library Bill of Rights is um it's a bill but it's really designed for libraries and like if you go check out a book um I can't walk into the library and say who checked out this book They're they're going to say that's confidential you know um but in our school district a parent should be able to know what book their child checked out if they inquire um so we are I think the fact is is that we are not a library we are a school district so there's different you go back and read the library of RS there's things in it that would not apply to our school district so I'm reading the general premise of the library Bill of Rights is to implement District policies and procedures in schools to ensure Equitable access to resources and services for all students as adopted on July 2nd 1986 and then um and then the the the American my Association is the ex is the intellectual freedom and expectations um so as a school district and for minors I'm not quite sure that that that's really going to conflict because parents can need some legal Clarity on that I can read this section here so Library Bill of Rights having all people regardless of origin age background reviews possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their Library use librar should advocate for educate about and protect people's privacy safeguarding all Library news data including personally identifiable information so it's that specific element specific cover minors for parents yeah fascinating it really is does it apply to Google I'm trying to remember um so statut we have to have a a statement in our policy um and that was the statement that we had previously used in order to meet meet that statute um so I can look into what I I can look into that concern a little bit more from a legal perspective um but when we talked about it at the policy advisor committee it was simply a this is what was already in our policy so let's just carry it forward so that we can meet that statute require a statement um so we need to find out if we need to have it and if we need to have it I know we s you need to have it um if we're not going to utilize that exact language I need to know what legally we can or cannot and I didn't see that in the msba model policy so I would just maybe I think they have it worded differently where they're not citing specifically the library corre they're not they have the language all in there Y and that's that's the that's the the tricky part is actually stating the library vill rats so maybe we can go back and look at what msba we'll take a look at that okay and then I do know just again I want to completely respect the board's Authority here I just also want to make sure I'm the voice with the policy advisory committee I do know that was a piece that the policy advisory committee all agreed upon and wanted to put back in there um so I just put that out there for you all so that you know that that was a piece that was discussed um and the committee did ask for that to be added back in yeah that it was brought up at the I remember that being brought up and I will say it from my perspective not knowing that exact language as far as privacy for all I I too would prefer to look into the msba verbage um because a parents there's language right in the thing saying we affirm Library Bill rights we affirm the responsibility and right of all parents and Guardians to guide their own children's use of library and its resources libraries and their governing bodies cannot assume the role of parents or the functions of Parental Authority in the private relationship between parent and child libraries and governing B shall ensure that only parents and Guardians have the right and responsibility to determine their children's and only their children's access to Library resources parents and Guardians who do not want their children to have access to specific Library materials and Sur or facilities should should then advise um the governing body um and and governing body should not use a raing system to inhibit a Minor's access to materials is the last statement so parents are Guardians minor supersede which is what I yeah oh okay yeah okay it's clearly stated in here they make a and and they refer to statute and all that in there uh multiple actual statute as well as privacy and interpretation of library bual of Rights U by the American Library Association Council and everything like that that when it comes to school districts it clearly states that it will not come between a parent and child know and is that addressed in 66.5 um section six Parra yeah so that's EXA so then I would question why does the other part have to be stated because like I said I knew that came out of teaching and learning that was one of my um because we're not a library our school district I don't think it distinguishes between the two here it just says basically for parents and Guardians it doesn't say where the library is in the school district not it basically just that parents have rights over their own child and only their child um we confirm with legal on that statement and uh and and and if that's there and that you know yeah I'd like to also understand why msba doesn't have it in there versus let us do some okay thank you okay and then under um five selection of blbe materials um this this was a point that was brought up multiple times and had a lot of great disc discussion just I'm sure you remember this but under the selection of live materials um the question was that the selection the statement was the selection should follow other District policies including the electronic device internet policy where in that I think it's um 44 I think it is let gra my pile of teaching and learning not you're in section 5A oh I'm sorry yes I'm in section 5A apologize for not seeing that um so and then we even got I don't know if everybody on the board got this but it was a email sent from to to down Edwards but basically what it says is that if you link if we were to link um policy 5 I can't find where you read from oh I'm sorry okay under five selection of Library so it's basically like saying these are the guidelines that the library these are the guidelines of the selection process um should result in a library collection that when considered as a whole is consistent with the following criteria and this is that criteria and what was discussed in the committee was that in our 524 electronic technology and acceptable use policy we use very descriptive language about the unacceptable use so selection should follow other District policies including the electronic device internet policy because basically the thought is in the 52 I'm sorry in the 524 policy we list number one pornographic of scene or sexually explicit material or other visual depictions that is harmful to minors and so you probably remember this conversation just but the conversation was if we can Define it in one policy why can't we defin it in this policy and being consistent across basically like we're going to to protect the minds of our children when they're looking at things on the internet and specific to pornographic of scene or sexually exposive material or other visual depictions that's harmful the minors that the request was to put it into the well at that time it was the book po you it wasn't this book policy but it was the 606 policy so see how many I think the the the the broader context around that too sorry I'm dusting my brain off I I I remember the conversation but defining pornographic material and that that's the distinction like we don't own the content that a kid would access on the internet we own content in our libraries and we don't buy pornography and and that was the distinction of language of um pornography you know adult website access they're not going to do that in our libraries that was the part of the conversation I recall to of the broader context because in the statute um what was it uh oh I'm trying to think of what was a statute was it something I don't think it was any of our policies so something with uh the state of Minnesota and how they Define this in literary forms um I is that a state statute I can't recall that was the that was the bigger context that that came in so that's what I recall in addition to that of why that wasn't listed here because that that Tech policy pertains to literary or resources that we don't own that are coded as adult website or whatever right the internet is the adult gambling whatever all the way down I mean I think the challeng is is that they don't really rate books you know so how do we keep inappropriate content out of our district and we're talking like highly inappropriate we're not just talking about some book that maybe you and I don't disagree on as perspectives um so that's what we talked about in the teaching and learning committee is actually writing in the same language that we have in five 524 since they do write books for different grade levels age levels all that kind of stuff and because we're depending on the media specialist to review that um is isn't is that sufficient because media that's why that doesn't exist here I'm not saying that that wasn't the conversation that that didn't happen but I'm just saying that's the logic of why that's not here why it's not included in the model policy correct I would also expand on that I think director Atkinson to to to get to that point we would rely heavily on 5 a um number four um where we' be able to dig into those different areas where to your you know your comment about the highly and appropriate stuff that that's where we've leaned into that and um as Dr Edward stated earlier there has been materials that have been removed um that this these changes wouldn't have changed that outcome that that material still would have been removed because of it being in violation of 584 um I think and from my perspective given the difference in Tex the different state and federal definitions of what is is in in Tex versus what is on TV or on the Internet um I would recommend we stick with the msba as model policy because this gives us a broader flexibility when the different levels relying on the different complexities of it whereas um the internet use is just a little bit more straightforward from a from a legal standpoint in in my opinion and I was happy to see that written in there because of the ages the maturity level CU I think that does um that does help to Define it where we may have been a little bit more loose in the past of that but um so okay that's fine I just wanted to share that and then under um five selection of Library materials and it would be under B um the library Med medial specialist shall consult sources and Specialists experienced in library materials collections um is it possible to somehow say Shel consult three sources two sources I think oftentimes we all know that there's different sources with different viewpoints for library for book reviews and some sources are going to say this is appropriate for this age level and some sources are going to say it's not appropriate so I think having an unbiased um perspective of looking at multiple sources or we could even just use the word shell consult multiple sources would ensure that our library Specialists are doing um giving it sort of an unbiased sources is more than one um but so multiple sources I think says the same thing but sources is more than one so and it's specifically states that are reputable experienced unbiased they so they specifically state in there un professionally trained in school library materials so that we get that bias piece and multiples in the plurals mhm okay and specialist is plural so I wish I think we I mean when I just think about when I when I think about our conversation with the media Specialists they're working as team also they're not working in isolation um and they're conveying you know various book review sites so I I know our staff have talked about that yes okay no that's fine and appreciate that meaning that the sources um references multiple then under um five number seven reconsideration of specific Library materials um there I'm wondering if the language of the people involved on doing the requesting should be consistent with the policy we just looked at 606 where we said oh I can't find it now where we just talked about how it should be yeah res yeah parent Garden that kind of thing but Ure yeah it's it's the same as under procedures one any Resident parent guardian or employee of the school district May well this one yeah it does say School District employee student or a parent or legal guardian of a School District student I think what doesn't say is resident that's the difference so we did have this this um discussion at the policy advisory committee um and this specifically the feedback from the policy advisory committee um did ask how far we can go with restricting and so I did seek advice on that and it's really up to the school board on how far you can either allow or not allow um this to occur um the feedback from the policy advisory committee was that there was there was a Hope from some to only allow those that have a direct impact at that site to be able to challenge and not to be able to have somebody that doesn't have a direct impact at that site to be able to limit materials for students uh the broad students so limiting it to we kept the language and we didn't limit it any further than it already was um but that was part of the discussion at the policy advisory committee was to limit it even more um we we didn't we stuck with what what was in the model policy with School District employe student or parent illegal guardian and not make it have they had to have a connection to that school site um but that was I don't know director bullan if you want to add any more about that conversation or Dr Thomas and Dr Edwards I know you're all there too um I'm having a hard time recollecting yeah it was where there there was conversation about can we limit it to that you have to have a student at that site you have to be a student at that site and we Administration asked for to us to be able to look into that because we didn't know if we could limit it that far or not I did get feedback back that we were able the board can limit it even further um but it's really up to the to the board and the policy and whether or not um we did not include that recommendation from the policy advisory committee in this policy to limit even further we kept it as is but that was feedback from the policy advisory committee we we felt leaving it with the the district employee student or parent legal guardian of the school district still allowed those that have a impact in the system because one thing we didn't want to take away is like if you have a fifth grader and you know a book is in middle school and you want to challenge that for reconsideration before your students there um that makes sense I also can understand the feedback from the policy advisory committee on if we have a resident that doesn't have have any students in school then limiting Library access to students in school didn't seem appropriate to them um so oh just a summary of the conversation that occurred around that topic um but again I don't yeah it was was in internal stakeholder um that that's what that was the will of the committee that um you know as em just stated that was essentially I'm not saying I like this or agree with it but but anybody if any Resident can walk in off the street and challenge a textbook what's the difference I'm not saying I agree with it I'm just saying because I I actually like how it's written but if we're saying anybody can walk in whether they have a student and I guess if you're looking at it as you know Public School taxpayer dollars all of that if you want to go down that road if any Resident can walk in and say I challenge this textbook in this math class or this English class or whatever what what's the difference could that putting it out to the group yeah and could it possibly be I mean I agree with you Jess but could it possibly a be a parent who doesn't have a kid in the district that is like maybe looking to put him in the district or could it be a grandparent you know I mean I think that's where I think resident I I get the challenge I fully understand it um I think you you said it very clearly that the taxpayers and um just I was looking for consistency we did it in one so why wouldn't we do it in the other I I I just want to offer why why we might be inconsistent there I think this would be aligned with the spirit of the conversations that when we're talking about Library materials those are truly optional materials as compared to curricular materials whether or not yep y y sound a broader that's completely big distinction a big distinction it is it makes makes a lot of difference and um yeah I I prefer it the way it is I don't think we should broaden it and I do agree with and you said it very well get a quick PA so how are we with um the section um 7B um as is or ad residence yeah ad is or Asis or ad residence I'm fine with it as is okay as is as is as is director a director vasos no I I'd like to see adress as taxpayers in our district um well we've got the good discussion appreciate that um and then I just have I promise two more things just we put a lot of time into this policy so there's a lot to cover um the last our last policy the Review Committee was subject to open meeting law and that's not stated in here so are we making a change in that I don't think you it it is still open um and we we we did have a conversation at policy advisory committee on that as well um and determined as well that was a procedural thing so to not put it into policy um but that was that was another conversation of policy advisory too was the the the Hope or the advocacy whatever you want to say to to leave it remained open open um the only reason we didn't get added was because procedure versus policy but oh okay yeah but open meeting well really doesn't apply because it's not open meeting law just like the exact meeting open meeting law they're open because of District policy um and procedure so um up to the board if we want to add that um I think it's fine in procedure I'd like to keep it in procedure just because I think it's helpful for even community members to come in and hear different perspectives that they may not understand yeah it's it's there then the last thing I promise um so if a specific Library material is the subject of formal oh I'm sorry I'm going under this policy is too long I couldn't believe how long this policy is four five six S I am under number 7D looks like foral request seven yeah yeah yeah but number the second well it's the the number one second paragraph if a specific Library material is a subject of a formal request for reconsideration and a final decision is made to retain the specific Library material then the library the specific Library material shall not be subject to additional requests for consideration for three calendar years following the date of the final resolution is that statuto or is that something that's driven by our board and this sorry this is not statute um but it's just to prevent an annual challenge of the same thing that gets challenged the year before or 6 months prior or whatever so that we're not going through it so there's a lot of there's a lot of time dedicated to going through this process and so we were determining what is the window of appropriateness that we would have a book kind of reviewed and um that's how we landed there so that we're not constantly doing the same review for the same book over and over and over again hasn't happened but we're trying to prevent that I respect that three years in the calendar year of the life of a a a child who's in our district for 12 kind of feels kind of big so I don't know I would like I would like to see that tightened up to maybe two calendar years but I mean three years you could have a kid entering middle school and go all the way through Middle School you know what I mean so I don't know if it helps or not but one conversation that we did have at policy advisor Queen not specific to this section of it but it may relate for you direct ainson is that in that situation um what's really important is the individual ability to remove aess for their students so should an individual um challenge a book for all students and that doesn't have the outcome that they were maybe hoping for they could still utilize that process to limit it for their own students um in that interim should they want to challenge it again in three years so I do think that there is that fail safe there for the individual parent or the guardian to still remove access for their student or students 606 thank you um I almost forgot um the uh so our our light our media policy has student Representatives is this something to consider for if a textbook or an instructional material is challenged to be in the roster to be in the roster oh I think it says it f two student Representatives as appropriate to the for the library for the other one I think the similar rationale to what I gave in the last answer would apply in this scenario in that curricular decisions are made for all intents and purposes by adults versus students make optional choices with regard to materials I think that's the rationale that I would give to apply here for difference between between the two the director all said were you approaching it from the perspective of providing more of like the student experience versus or into the decision making what were your thoughts there I I guess to me and I completely agree with that this isn't this is an this is an adult decision um I just you know our our CPM curriculum right fresh in our minds and we had a lot of very valid student input from the kiddos that were experiencing it and I think I I just don't want I just don't want their voice to be lost in if something is being challenged or I mean and they could say yeah challenge it I hate it you know whatever um or they could just you know this doesn't bother me and here's why or I don't know I just and maybe it depends on the age right I think a kindergartener probably not so much but a senior or a middle schooler where they do have opinions on what they're taught how they're taught with what they're being taught with and and you know maybe it's something to consider for our next reading I just um you know I just that stood out to me that I know they don't have a choice right and I think that's valid and to your point though with with the developmental age of the student they do participate in that process maybe not so much on the challenge side but like the adoption side they're gaining they're they're gaining we're gaining perspective um they're completing survey data on you know I mean in a formal way they're doing observational data I'm a teacher to see how you know my students might be responding so they're involved in it there um you know I I don't think we're prevented from talking to students if a curriculum gets challenged to go out and just say okay let's let's understand this a little like we can do that that's part of our investigation around a challenge but I don't know if we would necessarily mandate that they be a part of that process from the kind of adult standards driven curricular choice in an adoption that we make that we are Challen that's getting challenged but as a pilot on the front side when we're piloting yeah they're involved in that right directly 100% yeah okay any more discussions on 606 or 66.5 thank you all for the perspectives thank you let's move on to public data request um so 722 is a in or uh inter review and also part of the 700s that we're going over this year um there is no substantial changes it's just cleanup um with a slight addition um to match the msba model policy that there that's all so no other changes except for the light green there and not substant to right any questions okay um with that um I'm going to move on to Super tendent relations um just really quickly I sent a briefing to all the board last week it was ahead of time so the timing when I said the 26th at our last board meeting we were communicating the families ahead so you got that communication that update prior to tonight um so you've seen where we're at um moving forward with um protocols at the high school um the only other thing I would add is that um oh no oh that was it sorry take different different topics so you all have have seen that last Friday okay um informational items um welcoming all of our staff back tomorrow if any of you can make it through would love to have all of you there um that we do every year so breakfast at 7:30 and welcome at 8:00 you out there by 11: bring your money bring your money for the Lakers Laker gear you can buy that as well but like 8 to9 is kind of the bulk of the program and uh yeah and then uh future agenda topics do anybody have any future agenda topics want to consider um certainly not a rush um but we we unfortunately had to touch on it the last couple of meetings with our moments of Silence we've had just a lot of um just especially in the last couple of years and I know we have a policy already for student/staff memorials it's um 531 I just didn't know if there was and and I know I don't know when that particular policy is up for review I didn't look at that part of it but I didn't know you know is there some kind of formality that we can put on acknowledging and honoring and paying tribute to you know students or staff that we lose um Maybe not maybe that particular policy covers it with what we need to do I just I I personally really appreciate when we honor them at the beginning of meetings and yes it's a moment of silence and wish we could do more um but I didn't know if that was something we wanted to discuss on kind of putting some formality behind that um it's it's just weighing a lot on me the last couple of years that I've gone to too many funerals and I just and maybe there's nothing else we can do and maybe that's it and I think and that's completely fair I just I didn't know if that was something that we could talk about oh so I I would have to defer to um director Herman and Dr Thomas about the one policy we have about putting up memorials and all that because I think that is a little different um from what I recall right those are more from memorials yeah and money spent and where it goes and all that kind of stuff but um right now we started the process but we haven't memorialized the process as part of our policy uh to say that we are going to do this and the procedure for making sure that we've checked with their parent or Guardian right to make sure as well as setting that scope of only student or existing staff so the request on the table for the will of the board to add for the future agenda to not get into it is procedure aspects of 531 is what I'm wondering is the is the question I don't know if it's 531 or or whatever that policy extens of it or cuz I'm not talking about like physical memorials right cuz that's more what 531 is parameters and procedures around um memorializing around the death of a student of at the level is that what you're talking about put that on is that a question or is that the will that you guys want to bring that forward as I would be fine discussing that at a future stud session I agree too um is it because I've been doing it now um and I know we talked about it I think since you got came on board um is it okay to continue doing it the way we've been doing does anybody have an issue with that no but we can put it on a meeting I just want to make sure that because we're putting on a meeting yeah okay yeah okay basically really like that toize it a little good idea okay for iner one it guides the it guides how we do it too so that helpful thank I don't I'm sorry um I just had a couple things I'm wondering if we um regarding our conversation earlier about um our board um evaluation do we need to Circle back and work on like setting our goals for the year as a school board and how those goals align to the Strategic plan and would that go to another study session you know that's a good question because we didn't actually finish what we normally do and we do usually set goals for ourselves um I would like to understand the tolerance for going through another Retreat on that or for combining it cuz I know we've got an academic deep dive that I don't know it's going to last 4 hours oh oh no no we're doing that on the work session in September on the 23rd I thought we had a retreat schedule for an academic Deep dive earlier I don't know if that was it it wasn't scheduled we had discussed that but we want to bring information we talked about that today because there was not a retreat on the on the book so well actually I emailed Martha to find out about that recently because we did say we were going to do that Retreat so if we I mean I don't know what the board wants to do we originally had that down as a retreat not as a study session but um I think in terms we can do that in the study session yeah I think so can we make it an an item in a study session to create goals oh yeah but I just didn't know if we wanted to do that with staff and everybody present since it's about us that's the only only thing that you know I'm trying to staff wouldn't stay for that okay we just a topic put it put it at the beginning or put it at the end or the beginning yeah we could do that um then uh director bulying and I will will work on where that would fit in okay okay and on that okay yeah okay anything else thank you all right thank you all right we are done --------- ##VIDEO ID:YlrmesomQhQ## of the Board of Education to order for Monday August 26th uh please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pled Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay all board members are present um there is no one here for the open forum and next I'm going to ask for an approval of the agenda so for the agenda okay all in favor I need I'm sorry I need a motion in a second so Me by director B bullan Y second second by director olad okay all in favor I opposed okay that passes 70 the first item on the agenda is the discussion of the level three G uh grievance um by the PLS faaa um board action is requested you all have the information or sent the information in your packets for the discussion um I need a motion in a second before we get started so Me by director olad second second by director berck okay do we have anyone from um do we have anyone from the other side here chair friends no this is the meeting where you review the written recommendation for the board to take action on okay I wasn't sure if you guys want to speak first or we or the executive uh committee gives their recommendation first I think the committee can give its recommendation first and then we can answer questions if needed okay uh so the executive committee met uh with Council and the um the uh bargaining unit as well as with the administration and the executive committee recommends that uh the board deny the request made by the union and the individual um I'm going to open up for any discussion uh and questions we have legal councel here and administration here ready to respond to any questions there's no questions um I have a question then their contract is that it's not settled the new year contract or when is it up for br La Dr ainson um the the current contract um continues until we reach settlement on the new contract um we have reached settlement they have voted and we'll bring forward that memo to the September 9th board meeting um after that's voted then it'll be considered fully um ratified for us to move forward with that implementation um in that uh the settlement that the memo will be coming forward to the board the language and question um throughout this agreements Remains the Same there are no changes there's no changes to the language and I know that the question I attended that executive committee meeting which is super helpful um he as an observer and um so are there other contracts that do we have similar language in other contracts throughout the district Dron can I ask for clarification when you say similar language which section are you referring to or are you referring to all this the one that they're disputing the two in dispute um the the months is unique to the administrative assistance contract we don't have other contracts that have different positions um assignments that are based off of um different months for example our teacher's contract is 185 days our principal's contract is 2 60 um this um this contract is unique in the fact that it has that month section for the assignments that they're assigned for their position um the unpaid leave language is not unique that is very similar in multiple of our contracts any kind of um sorry can you give any kind of reasoning as to recommending the that so the looking at the contract language I think is the the easiest um place to deny it um the contract um only references unpaid leave in the context of that's something that the board has discretion to offer um so it's not something that you're required to do and then the interpretation that the union has been trying to apply to the um uh benefits language uh is challenging to swear with how we approach an assignment versus um somebody taking leave so an employee who has a 9-month assignment is not a 12-month employee who has 3 months of unpaid leave their assignment is 9 months we expect them to be there for 9 months you know except for the days we allow them to take off um and their interpretation really treats it like a a minimum of nine months but then any employee who works beyond that regardless of their amount of unpaid Le would continue to receive benefits I don't think there's any indication that that was the board's intent in approving the contract and I doubt it was even the Union's intent to um create that type of uh distinction where N9 months is a a threshold and so long as you're there they receive benefits um because that approach um would make it uh challenging to then if we had a 12-month employee and they only worked six months um we would say they worked less than 12 months so or wor less than nine months so they're not receiving benefits so they um approach sort of blurs the line between an assignment and um the what uh the expectation is for the employees um so the district's um interpretation that you know you have as long as you work what you are assigned to work you receive full benefits but once you dip below that you know you have daily adjustments based on um the days that we expected you to be there because one of the reasons to grant that type of lead was the cost savings studio um so we think that that um make sense both in terms of the language and the intent behind the contract are there any other questions are we ready for a vote all right uh with regards to level three grievance um all in favor I is this a is this a roll call vote you all looking at me we're voting to deny it though correct I mean yes I'm sorry all in favor denial thank you all in favor of denial I I any opposed okay that passes 70 all right so next on the agenda is policy 522 Title 9 sex non-discrimination policy we we are asked for board action on this this is not a discussion so I need a motion in a second so made by director bullan second for anybody some right director olad okay handing this over to director Herman as members of the board this is one of the um one of the policy changes that falls under our district policy to allow for a one reading and vote because it's based off of um legal changes that have been implemented as effective as August 1 um we are um recom I am recommending that we move forward with our legal council's recom Commendation for this policy um to limit to only include what we legally have to include to make sure that we um that we cover those bases but we don't expand upon procedure uh procedures within the policy that could um make us out of compliance should there be um future changes um moving forward um so that's why you do see a very shortened version of this policy knowing that sagor statutory requirements supersede our district procedures regardless um and we have our train um here to approaching question or answering questions as well want to open up to discussion you have any questions um I actually like the way it was written because I know that there's a lot of outstanding lawsuits and um regarding this so I I actually I really appreciate the Way It Was Written of what it's else I just had a couple comments but it was um it was just in numbering it was literally just in numbering and I'm trying to find it like I have it in my print out board packet it is under determination whether sex discrimination occurred under letter G um if you go down it says one two 3 4 and then it says four five uh thank you Vice chair bullan I see which which page you're referring to and I will make that adjustment and the I had one comment slash question the language in bullet point number three and five of that same well it was five it will be turned to six so where it says not impose discipline on a respondent in number three and then in number what will be six not discipline a party um I'm wondering if there is a way to turn that into affirmative language like the ne starting with a not I don't it confuses me um again it's just it's just grammatical but I I feel like any way we can be less less confusing the better and if there's if there's reasoning behind it starting with the not CU I had to read back and forth like okay this is you know it was just confusing to me so those were my only comments on the whole whole policy can I address that please so that language actually comment directly from the the regulations where the district has to say that it will do um the things in 1 2 4 uh five um and that it will not do the things in three and what will be six so that's why that language is is a little bit awkward there um we could potentially revise it to put everything the school district will do um together and then do a separate heading that says the district will not and then put those two under it if if it makes sense and that's what the board wants to do it reads fine for me from the nod especially with the um exact wording I understand that the gram grammar of that um so basically the the district will will um you know not discipline or um the party witness or part other will not be subject to discipline for making a false statement or whatever um so I get it I I don't really care either way I don't honestly either it's just I was is sharing my confusion it's understandable from the will the board are we comfortable with leaving it as is or would the will the board like us to make those adjustments I have a clarifying question um this is normally uh reviewed every single year especially because of the volatility of the some of the statutory oblig uh stuff that goes on legislative stuff that goes on with regards to this um I assume it's okay and we can take a look at it again last year based upon knowing that it's going to be reviewed annually that is still a correct statement I'm trying to hold that up right now chair friend on if this is a required an or not I well she's looking that up it's possible that this will be back before you within a year anyway um depending on how things go in in a pellet Court too um and you know we we've been sing out um updates um that certainly Dr Thomas and um executive director Herman receed so we'll keep you updated if when things happen Herman will this be reviewed again next year sorry I'm struggling to to find it on our tracking sheet so I will I will confirm and get back to the board but again as as with any of our policies whether they're on our district policy review for every 3 years um we will we would review should any legal changes be brought forward that we need to do an immediate review around Emily it is an annual it is or is that it is thank you and then I just have a question I know we were all in a meeting since 4:00 but we did receive an email and I don't know if that impacts the policy or not I don't know if you're aware of the email because I don't if you're on it that um as the is ittle what called title n so we have received it does it impacts the policy at all so it it does not impact the policy um we did receive that email um was provided to us so that we can make sure we review it in case we did need to bring forward anything for today and it does it does not impact our policy and how we would implement it okay thank you any other questions okay um are we ready for a vote on the policy with page not sure what page this is but on uh section section g with the U numerical adjustments to make it in line okay so all in favor I I I oppose okay that passes 70 all right on to Personnel items uh and again um I need a motion in a second on this by director olad and then olad sure okay oh don't F over it okay all right and I'm going to hand this over to uh director Herman apologies I'm just pulling it up right now so is this in regards to the candidates for employment resignation leaves of absences all of it through uh through the start of D through the normale contract normally it would be on a consent agenda but because it's extra wasn't sure if you had anything to point out or add um I do not have anything to point out on 7 C1 7 C2 7 C3 um as for 7c4 um as you are aware from Communications we had some staffing adjustments that occurred um administratively that we um we're making recommendation to place Dr um Warner as the interim assistant director of teach and District Improvement under a Posta position and then moving um Lisa Manders who's currently the elementary Dean to the interim Westwood Sage principal for the year um and the costs will be covered by professional development funds and a cost neutral movement um to ensure we have the proper Administration and positions to start off the floater and then and for the 7 C5 um again as you're aware we've had some administrative changes um and an administrative assistant change and our operational depart operational Services Department um we're making the recommendation to eliminate the assistant director of operational Services position eliminate the administrative assistant to the operations Finance position and add a 1.0 operational services supervisor position um with some changes in in how um they're covering those Services um we feel is best to make those changes for the cost savings approach um to and still be able to have the necessary staff to get the work done for this school year are there any questions for director Herman um I have a question about the new positions there's a couple um positions listed as new positions um one's the ECF assistant Edwood I believe and then the other one is ECF assistant another one Edwood new position um can you help um the board understand what's driving the need for those positions and is it um is like where the bu where it's coming out of budget or um or or has they been budgeted for it Dr ainson can you help direct me are you referring to the candidates that have been hired or an additional staff request um nope I believe it's the one that's um have been hired okay understand I believe um new position behind them I believe that you're referring to the recent additions that um we brought forward for additional Staffing um in those positions we've had increases in enrollment in our early learning programming um and additional classes that um that have been receiving extra um uh participation in I think there was it was a Monday Wednesday Friday evening and morning and evening I can't remember exactly the day is there but um those are directly linked to those additional Staffing requests that were approved um for those enrollment increases in those programs okay any other question sorry go ahead the uh administrative um changes so these are for this school year so these will come back next year in terms of any movement if there is mov uh director olad these are only being approved for a one-year interim basis um we would need to determine um actionable steps in the uh spring to bring forward to you for any sort of permanent move or um or not and then based off of that we would make those adjustments whether we're moving forward with them permanently or if we're moving back to a previous model for Staffing in these positions so these are one-ear only positions thank you any other questions hearing no other questions I'm going to call for a vote all in favor I I I opposed that passes 7 Z okay the last one on here is the Normandale contract that was taken off of last uh uh last board uh session board meetings uh agenda because we were still missing a signature I believe so um I need a a motion in a second on this by director bullan second second by Crosby um there's any questions um I just have a question not seeing um I didn't go back and relook at the original contract but are there any major changes from the previous contract to this contract or no or is it just a renewal it's just it's our annual renewal director ainson one of the things I'll share with the board though um that we're going to explore moving forward this year we have seen a significant for last school year we saw a significant surge in PSO enrollment is great for our students um was not something that we anticipated from a budgetary standpoint and we lose part of our ADM as they go off to post secondary um and one of the pushes that I uh would like to explore as as we partner with our higher ed folks is ensuring that we are getting the return on the value when our students are leaving and so putting some additional accountability factors into the contracts um so if we now again I'm not saying this is official but like do we feel it's a great value to send someone to college and they are getting D's and Fs or should we be looking at different thresholds and so those are some of the things that Tammy and I will explore as we renegotiate um for subsequent years moving forward um to ensure that our students are getting the education that they deserve for the resources that are leading our district so we just want to brief the board that that will be coming as we learn more I'll be briefing the board more on that I'm very curious to hear that having a um parent who has had a couple kids go through the PSO program I think the biggest challenges is that they are college students and so how do you like what is your vision for that like from an accountability standpoint um because I agree with you 100% um we can't just have kids taking classes and failing them but yet on the flip side of it the district knows nothing the parent knows nothing because the college doesn't tell them anything I think that's something but that's that's part of the contractual negotiation so we'll have to explore that with the highed institutions but essentially you know one of the things that I would like to explore is what does it look like if we were saying we'll give full contract rate for season above and negotiate rates of pay based upon other areas of performance that below a see do they get 2/3 do they get a third you know those are some of the things that we'll have to explore so there's nothing said but I just want to let you know who picks up the the parent would pick that up or well no this is something that I would be pushing that we would they wouldn't get the they would they would get the full inflation of course know so so again going to explore that we don't know what that will entail but um I just want to ensure that our students to your point when they leave us to go to postsecondary un you know experience acts um it ought to be a great return for that student um and you're right we don't have accountability of that professor's classroom and things of that nature but if we do have some latitude to broker language within a contract that puts expectation around performance-driven contracts versus just a blanket contract those are some of the things that are of interest that I think ultimately serves our students best um how and how does concurrent enrollment fit in that conversation so we offer you know concurrent enrollment classes at the high school that are the college experience in the high school are the dollars follow the kids to our teacher in the high school yeah right so could we explore options to get more concurrent involment classes there's there's ways to look at CIS um a as a higher weight factor and even kind of a recommendation Factor um then it goes down to our ability of sections that we can offer because they have to meet a certain threshold of of certification to be able to teach that course and so if we need more teachers then we have to find ways to get more certification an art yeah so again nothing set in stone but just want to let the board know this is something that we're going to explore um particularly with our new strp plan centering on that outcome of Excellence for our kids um to the extent that we control and support that we will we will look at that so let's um because we're going off topic on the agenda here um I want to reserve the right for Dr Thomas to bring this up at a future study session when it's actually been fully vetted and we actually know legally what we can do and what we can't do because there's a lot involved in that um so I'd like to stick it to the um uh stick with I should stick it to stick with the contract uh and make sure that we get that uh done at this time before we move on to study session um I did have one question about the contract oh okay um at least I think it's about the contract correct me if I'm wrong though so with these classes that um is it a certain track or is it I'm looking at norand Dale's full class offerings and choosing or is it for okay it's an open book okay entire registration guide is available okay any other questions on the contract all right hearing none uh all in favor i i i opposed okay that passes 7 Z at this point we're going to adjourn the meeting and transition to a study session so I need a motion and a second to adjourn so by director bullan second second by director vesas okay all in favor I I oppose okay that passes 7 Z we are adjourned we'll take a few minutes for people to take extra break and then transition at 632 how about that exactly the study session to order um and uh before we go into the purpose and agenda I am going to read and ask um the board for a moment of silence uh for the uh tragic news that we received on a family that is a member of the U PR Lake Savage Area Community um the uh I would like to ask for a moment of silence and the sharing of the tragic news of the passing of dawa noru a fourth grade student from Jeffers pond on August 15th da and his family were involved in a car accident which also claimed the life of his father father tzen drj um his sister TZ in choden who is a sixth grader at Hidden Oaks is current currently remains hospitalized so please join me in a moment of silence uh for this family okay with that I appreciate that um moving on to the purpose and agenda by um um uh Dr Thomas thank you chair France board of directors tonight um for our study session it's our opportunity as always with the board to have deeper discussion on uh key topics that ultimately may come to you for a uh a vote so that this is the time for us to really roll up our sleeves together um and get into some of those um uh we'll have the uh board communication protocol we'll have some updates dates on our summer in esy programming um which is a great fun summer for many of our students um many of the senior leaders here tonight will also um talk a little bit about our Collective strive for excellence really centering our strategic plan work together uh and then provide uh several uh in financial updates by way of our audit Levy certification and enrollment and then closing out with um uh a proclamation and then we've got a couple of policies that will be coming to the board for re review uh policy 506 on student discipline uh 606 and 66.5 around textbook instruction materials and Library uh materials and then uh policy 722 on uh public data requests so with that chair France turn it back to you okay for the first item of the agenda was something from the April study session which is the discussion of the board communication protocol the actual topic was the 3 day um in best in most cases that the chair would provide a response back to uh people who emailed the school board within uh well actually in in most cases within three business days was the way it was phrased so I understand that there's um uh a need for the U discussion of that board communication protocol so I open it up to the to the board for that discussion yeah I mean I think the reason that I we brought this up back in I think it was April or time frame whatever it was doesn't really matter um is that we do have and I brought copies for all the board directors that they like because it was a document that I was referencing when we had um when I brought this up to the board for is that we do have email communication protocols for our board and not only you guys I don't know if you had it I just thought I'd provide them so that we received these when we had our training in um January of two three pass this along see one two three okay to sh yeah yeah yeah thank you so I had my copy handy I keep it in my binder um and so you know it it really just goes through like how do we communicate with our families and um given our new strategic plan and are based on transparency and engagement with the parents um I think that this becomes even more important and so um I understand there was a change made um by chair France in May to change the bounce back email in order to um really solve a problem um but when I look back back this was created in 2016 by the board so my challenge was is like I wanted to see a full board discussion around this um because at the end of the day the message that goes when someone takes the time to email the board and they get the bounceback email and then then their question is you know are they going to get a response where does it get directed to whatever but the way that it was originally written versus how it was changed um I have some concerns with what it was changed to um because my concern is is that and this actually was a real life experience where someone had reached out to our board and got the new bounce back and because it signed chair France's name the original bounce back did not have a chair's name to it it just had said thank you for contacting the board and um it's autogenerated and you know it's been sent to All board members and in most cases within three business days the School Board chair writing on behalf of the entire board will reply with a specific response to your message thanks again for your email as if it was coming from either Administration or from our whole entire board right now the bounceback that was changed not only does it it it's it appears that it's coming from our chair so people are saying oh I got this really vague response back from your chair and I said to this P member well that's not the response like that's just the autor response so it's confusing in the fact that they're thinking that that's the response that they're getting and it's a very general response the other thing that the way that the message was changed is now it says if we believe I don't don't quote me because I don't know if I have it in front of me but if we believe it's necessary to respond we'll respond and I just feel like as a board if somebody takes the time to send an email into the board I personally believe they do receive do deserve a response and I believe it should be the Timely so I think having those protocols in place there's a reason why we have them in place um and so that's why I wanted to you know I think that's why the full board supported this conversation to come to the board for for um for a conversation and we can talk about it and and then my other concern is is um when the chair responds on behalf of the board I think it's really important that the whole board is is CCD on the email so that we can follow the resolution if if the if the email comes into the full board we should be able to follow the resolution of how it was you know and I know understand mistake mistakes happen and stuff but um that's part of the protocols as well it's written in the protocols so so I kind of I kind of think it should go back to way it was I I didn't really have an issue with the way our protocols were written and I'm not sure why it was even changed and maybe you can share with more why it was changed in May why you made the change with Chris um first of all um as was explained over email that this is um the board chairs um decision it has been changed by other board chairs without it's never voted on it's not included in policy and it is included in policy that the board chair does uh have respond on behalf of the board um now I was wasn't part of the board when apparently you said it was created in 2016 but I know there was previous versions and it has never been voted on uh so it is I'm not even sure I never received it in training um but um the bottom line is is that the the message was actually created and changed by various chairs per their discretion um do you have do you have a reference to that like do you have any documentation of that I thought it would be documented the changes are documented right here on the document well you see I don't control Christ's director so Martha whoever Updates this document does a really great job of saying it was created November 22 2016 that's when it was created and then it was updated November 29 2022 I believe that was because our email changed to PLS d.org and so I understand that you that you said you believe that that's your authority to do that I will disagree um I think that this is a message that comes from the entire board and I'm glad that it's here that we can have a discussion about it this evening so your ask is to remove the chair's name from the autor response I my ask is to go back to what we had because I don't I didn't see I personally would like to understand what drove the change why was the autor response changed um I don't see this as any you know why was it changed I mean I this has been in place since 2016 why did it have to be changed I don't believe the same message was in place since 2016 nor was the same format it was it has gone through various this whole document has gone through various permutations according to if a board chair wanted to use it or whatever the um for instance the at the school board meeting the rules um I know came into play later on under uh I believe it was chair Nelson I know that uh there's other things in here about the director of communication creating the message on behalf of the chair that has not been done by every chair uh and then the hierarchy at the very end uh contacting staff with questions or concerns and you were provided this in email by the way this is the hierarchy um that is also not as detailed but is also referenced in policy for all board members um to go by that hierarchy so we are not interrupting administrative normal process flow I I read your email and I'm just say respectfully I disagree so I understand you disagree so I'm going to open it up to the board um now the new message does is is quite uh longer I did work with Christie on it uh to make sure it was more propose to the type of messages that the board is getting I have not received any negative feedback on it whatsoever if anything positive so um but if if you received it from your constituents director Atkinson then that's that's person was confused okay um can you also help understand why the change was made that's what I think this discussion is here for this evening is to understand why was the change why did you feel was necessary to make the change if I remember correctly after it was brought up in April um I feel like we even at the table we were we we had a email test to see the response and I think that what prompted and correct me if I'm wrong but what prompted the change was it being brought up at that at that board meeting study session I think it was study session because I feel like we were here um and it was the three-day concern um and if I remember correctly um I don't you know the three-day was the concern and and you know given work schedule and all the things there's you know sometimes that it can't be responded to in 3 days and so I believe I'm speak I shouldn't be speaking you're fine my belief is that it was prompted from that study session discussion that about the 3 days and then you worked with christe I'll stop that's my recollection as well I thought there was a concern slash whatever concern that you weren't answering timely and that the three-day number was something that we should be looking at that was my recollection that's the first and only time I recall this conversation per policy the board does respond I mean the board chair does respond on behalf of the board um and as I looked at the message um and I think all board chairs have had some issues responding within three business days because some of them require um to be sent to Administration for questions clarifications sometimes the administrator is on vacation uh they can't get back to us right away Etc which is normal because they're inundated with themselves with their own jobs um so I worked with Christie and and um came up with a new message that I feel was more uh indicative uh to say Hey listen if this message requires an administrator an administrator um May reply to you I also stated if the question I could you bring it up because we did send it out to the whole board the new message I'm trying to find I'm trying to find I'm looking through all my emails it was it was sent out by Christie yeah it was in the May time frame I thought I had it printed out to be honest with because unfortunately we email each ourselves we do not get the automated message yeah and my concern is that that message is a message that comes from the whole board not just from the chair and so I understand it is your responsibility to respond on behalf of the board but that message comes from the entire board and so the messaging that is in that language was never discussed at this board table and so I think it's I personally feel that it's respectful to bring it here to have the conversation to make sure that we all align on is that message the message we be should be sending to our community members when they email in are we all aligned on that message um I personally have some concerns with it um but I think it's great that we can talk about it and make sure that we are all aligned did you find it I found it yeah so I can read it read it thank you for contacting the plsas school board we want to let you know that at all Schoolboard directors have received your email we value and appreciate your input and are grateful for your engagement with our district paragraph if your email requires a response or if you've requested one I will get back to you as the school board chair if needed I may also forward your email to the appropriate administrator to ensure your questions or concerns are properly addressed we appreciate your engagement and thank you for your support sincerely Mary France PSS board chair so thank you for that my concern is the very first part is the same um when you go to that second PR paragraph it says if your email requires a response so who determines like in The Way It Was Written previously it said that you will in most cases within 3 days um that the school board chair writing on behalf of the entire board will reply with a specific response to your message and now it's changed to who determines if they require response I me I don't have a issue taking out the three days on the original message um but my concern is that if your email requires response I would think that everybody that emails in would require response and then lastly it has your name signature on it when that whole message is coming from the board the bounceback comes from the board not specifically the chair which is creating a little bit of confusion about whether or not that is the response or should somebody actually expect a different response those are my two concerns so that's different than the original topic so basically it's not it's board communication protocols okay so policy states that the board shair response on behalf of the board that's in policy so the first question I have is do you want to bring that up to change the policy no because that's no I never had an issue with that that's your Authority or your responsibility correct um considering the initial message was never voted on by the board and it has changed we don't know it was in 2016 I went back I saw it was talked about at a study session I did not see it on a board vote but it was discussed at a study session like we're doing right here currently actually I believe it started at a retreat but um the policy so the question is is I so here's the thing so with another board chair and with previous board chairs they've always responded on behalf of the board and they had the right to modify change whatever this protocol however they wanted to um disagree but okay okay do you want to do you want to stop there then because you disagree with that no I disagree that the board the chair has the authority to change the message because you went and directed staff to do something and I can tell you if I as a board member went and directed staff to do something I wouldn't be sitting here today so I that is my concern concern is how what gives the right for any board director to go direct staff which was our communications director to do something when this is this is a board this is the message that we are as a board sending to our community and so that should become a board discussion so I'm glad that we're having this discussion here today I think she was trying to if I could just interject felt like she was trying to solve a then it should have come prior to we couldn't get it on an agenda fast enough like there's just sometimes you just have to solve something quickly and she also probably it is her responsibility as the board chair to respond it is with director cres and director Nelson so I think it would give her the purview to be able to do that in the period of time that it needed to be taken care of now in moving forward I would love to hear exactly what you'd like it to say so that we can all be super clear and then we I'll say oh I like that or I don't I honestly had no problem with the way it was written and if we want to take out the within three business days um I actually looked because um msba has their Schoolboard handbook and in that handbook um they have a little bit of guidance on there but then I went and actually pulled another school district's um um handbook to see how do they handle communication protocols and there it says within 72 hours you will receive a response so it's very similar to what we had now I honestly understand there's schedules you have to connect with admin I respect all that um so could we say within a reasonable time frame I mean in most cases within a real the Schoolboard chair will reply versus um if I'm very concerned with if your email requires a response because who determines if it requires a response some really don't I mean some are like a compliment but respectfully I disagree and would say for your compliment thank you for reaching out to board and showing and engaging with our community or engage you know engaging resp that's why I did it that way because some of them don't some of them are coming in with a comment some of them are just coming in uh and you know some of them actually just ask about something for a student and then we immediately have to send it off because but here's the thing my my concern is number one in the history of this District that I am aware of the policy says the board chair responds and is responsible for representing the board in the communications to the community so if we start saying that the board chair responses need to go to the board for approval do we want well okay well that's what I'm that's what I'm hearing because so I I under my authority as chair I went in and changed it to be more direct now other school board chairs have changed and made their own changes some of them use it some of them don't it's been you know and there's other parts of this protocol too so I'm trying to understand what the what the end result here is so can I uh just step in a second we've heard both both discuss this can the five of us talk a little bit about maybe a potential outcome because I'm guessing we're somewhere in the middle guessing maybe not but we'll find out and we've been here since four o'clock talking about us oh we need to talk about not us and so let's um let's the five of us just say your peace and let's move forward anyone want to go first I understand where that line about if sorry if your email requires if your email requires a response and and I I understand the feeling with that in terms of does it feel dismissive and now now everybody might not everybody getting this might not feel that way at all they're just like I just wanted to email and get my thoughts out and getting this means that you got it everybody's read it I'm good to go other people might look at that and go what do you mean if I understand that I do I can understand where that is coming from I think adding so that's number one number two I think Mary adding your name I actually like that because I think it personalizes it so it's not just a crank it out automated response from the school board it's from Mary School Board chair I actually like that because I think it personalizes it can I just add that everyone still gets the email though and we can still respond regardless of what on top of this yes correct so I think it's what I'm hearing it's kind of that one part on the second paragraph and I think we can very easily say something um even if it's just softening the language a little bit I think it's because I think you can kind of say the same thing but soften it right because again not every email might need a respon or whatever but I think it's something where where we just I don't know soften the language a little bit I'm need for the classes any other IDE so those are the two things that I saw still can't see sorry try these pass around the glasses oh yeah well those are cute on you do you have any input yeah um yeah to director ol's point I might submit a comment and might not even have an any sort of an indication or inclination that I'm going to get a response beyond the bounceback but if I see that language that says if if it weren't a response I'll respond or somebody will respond that might be inflammatory to me to go oh no now you're giving me a response you were giving me a response because this m just by language so it's that director Atkinson's Point who makes that determination of whether response is provided or not and I would probably even go further to say that even if it's not the chair maybe the chair has a designate and that should be incorporated I as the chair or my designate will will respond on our behalf I like that I like that too we've had EMS to the board that are don't want a response and they just send in a message saying you know I am I hope you vote for this that sort of thing um chrisy musman receives all board emails Dr Thomas receives all board emails the entire board receives all board emails and I do so if if there is a reason for a response we have nine voices looking at this uh to indicate that um but I was trying and I'm not trying to be defensive about this but it was really hard because what was happening is is that even if someone sent in a response sent in a message that clearly didn't ask a question or anything like that um uh they were just sending something into us I was having to respond to every single one just saying thank you for after the after the email said thank you for sending aboard and then I'm resending just that statement with nothing else so that's why that was in there but if you truly feel that the board chair director musman director Thomas and all seven of you who also get this email are unable to determine if the the email actually receives a respon should receive receive a response or if the feedback from the communications director and the superintendent and myself determined that it doesn't receive a response are we still supposed to respond or are we can you know I that's my question so when I when I when I actually drafted this with the help of the director of communications that was what was going through my head and uh for the most part almost everybody did receive a response um but uh some of them went directly to the super superintendent some of them went directly to let's say the director of of operations and Facilities some of them went directly to um an administrator like uh the the stuff about prom it was responded and sended you know directly to uh the high school so that's why I'm wondering how if we soften the language or do we still have to provide another response to it because then by default we're sending a response that make sense yeah well I'm a little confused I I think sorry the only thing I'll say having been in those shoes before is that if it says Dr Edwards and the board's copied on Dr Edwards is the person responding he was addressed if it's outside of that scope then the chair would respond granted sometimes it was just a fix you know also more emails to send but in my experience not that that's the proper experience but bur you have thoughts on this no I think we were trying to solve back to it was just the setting expectations of the three days is I think where it all started from and some level of redundancy so there there are sometimes statements written in whatever you got you all have given a couple of examples and I'm wondering if the softening um portion director olad is um you know first of all if it's just a statement that that I wrote Into the board the automatic thank you for um writing to the school board um you know that that piece that gets to that statement kind of a email I'm wondering if the uh this however director ol said said the softening in the language is if you've made a request or or require additional followup I or someone for I or someone from Administration will uh respond back to you within a reasonable whatever reasonable time that way you're catching the statements of saying thank you and they know if they've made a request or if there's something deeper or you will know because when you read it or whomever that oh there's a request in here that's going to require some followup okay so you're you're just stating the fact if you made a request or require additional followup we're not saying who will determine that it's just there I think the reader will be able to determine okay then some something along those lines mhm it gives you a little bit of wiggle room there m yeah give you some latitude and more time if you need it mhm to yeah so and I think that would capture any kind of thing that can get ritten Beyond a simple statement could be a deep substantive inquiry be a data request it could be you know whatever but then I think we're all covered both in the admin side and the board side okay so it would read thank you for contacting the plsas Schoolboard we want I like the first line as it is we want to let you know that all Schoolboard directors have received your email leave value and appreciate your input and our grandp for engagement with her District if you've made a request or or require additional followup I as the chair or designate will respond you forward your email to the appropriate administrator and then we appreciate your engagement thank you for your support sincerely friends boom slide adjustment are people comfortable with that sure okay good um next item on the agenda is oversight of operations the summer program report including Target services and special education by director student Support Services Chuka and director of communications education director do the sides stand off to the sides we don't oh look works all right uh well good evening um to our friends um board of directors Dr Thomas um we're here to talk to you a little about summer because as you know schools don't sleep in the summer so we're going to talk a little bit about all the great things that we did and all the um students that we were able to support this summer I'll start with the special ed portion and then Dr D will take over from there um I don't know how this work I had it going okay so first is extended school year and I know each year I've talked you what that means and these are IEP driven services that are directly from an individualized education plan for a student um with an IEP um there's different qualification requirements to to get there so this wouldn't be anybody can sign up for it it's a i P team decision and we had about 50 kids um qualify for extended school year services and we held services at um Early Childhood at Red Tail Ridge and at the high school um and to support those 50 kids we had about 30 staff in and out um as well our early childhood um Team never sleeps birth to three is year round so they don't have Summers off they work throughout the whole year they continue to provide services and at the secondary level um we didn't just do esy for our Center based students in June we also provided um embedded esy supports within targeted Services by partnering um with Joel and his team and we were able to um support six students within right within targeted services in June and July um and in addition to that U we did have students that chose to go to targeted services and they they had PA support in their IEP we also provided um PA support support so they could successfully um participate in targeted Services all right non-sp special ed um at the uh this is run through Bridges by credit recovery for our high school students who are behind in credits there are about 350 kids or just under that that um worked on credit recovery this summer eages um through two we have two ways they can do that they can come in person or they can do a summer independent St stud um and that ran from basically from June until the middle of August there all right that's why I gave you yeah and I'm really good at it um so I'll begin talking a little bit about our summer targeted Services Program um you can kind of read The Who what why and how we operate this program but it's really to um help keep our students engaged the summer um you know they may be falling behind grade level slightly these students are um essentially they're selected by their classroom teachers to say hey this would be a great opportunity for you um it's completely funded so the students don't pay anything to participate in the program it's based off of our ADM and Seed hours throughout the summer uh we run a four-week program Monday through Thursday and we ran out of two sit this summer go to the next slide uh the elementary program sorry we actually ran out of three sites including our Middle School um but the elementary program we ran out of two sites we ran our summer lit Camp again this year which is a curriculum based program that we started I think three years ago so this was our third year utilizing that program in addition to the summer lit we also do a lot of work around mathematics so the two main focus areas of the sum targeted Services Program are around literature reading and the mathematics this one was for grades one through five um we this was our last year that we were able to have some funding that remain to provide transportation for students so that will be a uh hurdle we're going to try to overcome this next summer um that funding will no longer exist so we're going to really try and find a way because we found over the last two years by being able to provide that Transportation our numbers really increase so we know that that's important to get our students there to help them be successful so so I'm sorry to interrupt I want to make sure I got that right so kids qualify for because of their academic need yes and the state does not fund Transportation Transportation specifically is not funded at all thank you so when you say it was funded this year it's because we did it well we had some dollars remaining through Co I believe yet and now is out ran out after this year and this was the last year that that funding was available wow um can we expand on that a little bit more so I don't cuz I feel that same way so the it was funded with s dollars before that was it funded no no no so this was a h before yes during Co it ended up being funded with the Esser funds and now we're going back to yes we are we are going to start exploring other opportunities that we might be able to utilize to still provide transportation just maybe fewer stops or locations um so that we can try and make it cost effective but we're going to look into other grant opportunities and every every other school district is in this space right so sounds like a and can you share dror doll what kind of a cost what what do you have uh what are we looking at I'm sorry I don't know if that's something you maybe it's something we can probably specifically for transportation or the whole program yeah well it just for me I'm just the unfunded piece you know it's kind of like I don't know know I for some reason the number around $30,000 comes to mind for the summer program to be able to provide transportation okay I appreciate that cuz I it's just something that I'm kind of wanting to have in my head you know just talking with represent representatives and things like that it's just all the little things I think what happens is we we're just finding ourselves with all the little things yes and they make a big difference uh esy is different they do have transportation available for esy that's something in my previous District we took advantage of where we were able to pay a portion and and essentially take larger buses and go out pick up more students where we paid our portion of that but because the buses were already operating we were able to kind of tie into it so that's conversation we'll have but we will need to look for some additional funding in order toy that Joel can I ask a question because I remember this from the southwest Metro um when the funding paid for certain levels of of kids with disabilities and other levels the state had an issue if you put different kids on the same bus yep yes that's tricky so special ed is a protected bucket of money that's only supposed to be used for students in special education sometimes if if the route is running and there's two seats left it's not such a big deal but it yeah it would it would be a little we'd have to work through some things to see if that we have possibility but yes there is and the big the other difference is is that students who are in esy are picked up directly from their home location where with targeted Services we had drop locations so it might be you have a few blocks to go to get to the bus pickup location it's not required to be a direct pickup like it is withs um so as you can see this summer we had 2 54 students uh that participated in our elementary program uh we hosted both at Hamilton Ridge and laola which worked out very well because those were also two sites that we had kids company this summer so those kids did not have to be bused they were already on site that really helped us with our numbers um we also ran our middle school program I should just point out to that um huge credit to Julie seagull she did a ton of work around the elementary program really organizing that um her and I interviewed all of the teachers for the summer um she brought on some fantastic people to work there um and then in addition to her she hired Jenny Whit and Michelle Perkins who were essentially our on-site supervisors um they could jump and help in out in any situation um it's hard to find subs for that in the summer so if somebody called in sick they were available to jump in and help sub for the day if we had a student who was struggling and needed to be taken out to to do one-on-one time or have some additional support having them there this year was was really really beneficial to the students in our program so huge huge shout out to Julie and her team um the middle school program U Melissa canel oversaw our grades six through eight program again this summer um it ran the same time frame as our elementary we had 60 students that were served this summer and there's is really focused around academic skill development Reading Writing and math so very similar to what we're doing in our elementary um clearly at at the middle school level so very similar program again both of these numbers the 60 students here what we had for elementary we're an increase of what we had last year so that's great it means we're serving more students um they're participating and the other thing I'll point out is that those who were registered this year and signed up um the attendance was much higher this year than it was the year before we had in many times we had students who were only coming maybe one or two out of the four days this year the majority of them were there all four days with the exceptions of few vacations and stuff here and there so I think they enjoyed it we received great feedback from families on it and so we're excited to continue that process and then we also ran programming for our early childhood through uh along with ECS they did some classes in June and July um kind of throughout the summer it's like they go four weeks in a row so they kind of bounce around and do some some different activities and things they serviced um 86 students and families this summer in the months of June and July and then in addition to that um we have our screening appointments that are set up for our three to five year olds here coming up actually they already started in August um and that's something that we continually really try to push out there it's important that we get them screened at three and four once they reach the age of five at a certain point we no longer receive funding for them they still should be screened um and that should be done in the first 30 days of kindergarten I don't know if you can read it there but at the bottom but we really encourage them the earlier the better and that does provide funding for us run those and then just a quick overview of our summer in Community Education um we had a another fantastic summer I really do have an amazing team um they work very hard and as you know summer is the busiest time for our crew specifically around youth programming and keeping kids um busy keeping them engaged and active throughout the summer uh we offered 57 new courses this summer um which in comparison I think we offered 27 New last year so we really tried to grow the offerings that we were providing um overall we were up almost 700 participants this summer over last summer um so our youth really jump at ages 6 to 18 Again driers education is a very um strong program in the summer our band lessons are very strong um our tutoring was down and that is something that we're going to refocus on again as we know there are students that really need some additional support and we're looking at um potentially working with Sam and others on how can we better reach these students that need that and be able to provide some opportunities for them to come in so that's something we'll we'll continue to reevaluate and then the big thing again we had our summer swim program back this year after being shut down last summer do the road construction and uh some po Maintenance Building Maintenance um we had a little over a thousand students that participated in that this year which is down from two years ago we kind of expected that um having a summer off people looked elsewhere to find things and they may have found something that worked well for them chose not to come back but uh we were excited just to get it up and going in this summer uh we did have a lot of families that say we'd love if youd go like two more weeks because they took vacations right at the end of July early August and so they were hoping they'd have something to come back to so again we'll we'll re-evaluate that for next summer as well Joel is the um the42 summmer program part of the 2150 youth is not separate y so how does the 2150 compared to other uh years last year year year before um that's up about 680 from last year wow awesome part of it I would say is attributed to offering 57 new programs so there's a lot more opportunities for kids this summer to participate in things we're really focusing on trying to figure out what's the interest that's out there what do they want to be participating in and what's not available currently in our community so I think they did a great job this summer of really hitting on that Mr may I ask what's the most most most popular class we talked about this in committee you know there's a ton of them that they that they enjoy but I would say just anything like the coding robotics those types of things kind of that technology where you bring all of that in those have been really popular so what about etiquette I know that was talked about a good one about which I was really excited to hear that people are excited involved in thaty KS um I know I miss yeah no all of them are I mean the attendance actually overall was really good this summer we canell very few classes which is no go ahead you I was just going to say I think not only does you guys do an amazing job um offering these services classes par meeting but you also employ a lot of these young adults in work community so yep yep we do and I I don't have that number on here um but I do for our kids go when we get to that slide so we do employ a lot of high school age students in the summer college students who are coming back so it's a great opportunity for them as well um I had a question about sorry the tutors um you said numbers were down there but did a lot of those students who would normally get work with a Laker learner tour do the other instead like targeted services like targeted services or anything um they probably do the difference between that is that the tutoring really gets more specific clearly it's oneon-one so they can really get more specific with where the students needs are versus targeted Services where it's a little more generalized you have a classroom of 15 students that you're working with and they try to individualize it but I would say that that could be part of it I also um think there's a lot of there are other opportunities for families but what what we're really trying to encourage is these are our own District staff our own teachers that are providing this they work directly with our curriculum they understand it they know it and so if anybody can really help those students move along it's it's our District staff so we we need to do a better job of really promoting and advertising and recruiting for that and getting the word out there and it's I would say much more cost effective than if you were to go to a private tutoring center or something like that so really trying to drive that I think will be important and my question Pig back on the tutoring um was when you say it's down was it the actual students or the the available tutors no the number of students so last and it's not huge last summer we had 20 okay that participated this summer we were at six and clearly in the summer it is going to be down a little bit that number will go back up the start of the school year and once they're back in and they you know determine whether or not they need some support or help I can we'll start building on that again um but over the summer it does provide opportunity for students because they have a little more time and flexibility within schedule so love to see that go up you um our adult numbers were up too we we had 121 adult participants clearly our summers are really geared towards our youth um adult programming will really pick up now with the fall programs and through our winter spring um but that number is up over 60 participants from last year as well so that's exciting to see um it's it's still the growth area and and Jenny ngie who's our adult and Community engagement coordinator is really looking at new opportunities in the summer on ways that we can engage our adults whether that's partnering with um our cities and other organizations but trying to find ways that we can reach out to our adults over the summer and really providing opportunities that more just kind of fun and light in the summer versus the you know some of the other classes that they might take around learning word in Excel and some of that stuff stuff so but to go up 60 in the adult program area is pretty strong for a summer so we're excited to see that and then lastly on here we include our district facility so this is just to show our clearly our buildings do not shut down in the Summers we had over 46,000 hours of use by district and Community this summer we had 29 different Community user groups and that is on top of all of the community ed activities that are happening all of our high school activities that are happening our camps um pla why there is a ton of use in our building so they do not shut down in the least over the summer months we keep them very active and then kids company um again this program truly continues to just blow me away I mean they do an amazing job this summer they had 550 students enrolled in prek K to 6 which was up 50 students over last year we had to cap it again because we simply ran out of um staff to be able to cover it and just as an example of that we hired 129 staff um for kids company this summer last year we had 90 so that number went up um you know almost 40 staff members over last year and 16 of them are blhs high school students so uh love that they're employing those students um they had an event a week ago they did a color run which was fantastic every single student just about in our summer program participated along with 30 or 40 parents they did it over at the middle school they did the whole chalk thing and they've got some fantastic pictures which I I wish I had to show you but uh one of the staff members who's a high school athlete um on the football team the kids just adore him was literally throwing buckets of chalk on these kids and they just stood there like this they were so excited um so Ashley and MJ and their team do just an amazing job in the summer uh they were able to bring field trips back this year which was great last year they had a few um but even more now the further we get away from the seaword um the better they're able to do a lot more trips and just had an amazing time and then new this summer they added the summer wind down Camp which is running this week so it was an opportunity in the past we typically didn't program this week as staff were coming back into the buildings we really had to clear our space out to allow them to get into their classrooms again and prepare for the school year um this year they worked it out so essentially they're doing field trips every day this week we had to limit it to 66 students based on we still needed some space to come back and meet on site and uh that's really all the room that we had available as teachers were returning we filled that out with I mean as soon as that opened it was full we had 66 students signed up um that's being held over at Westwood and today they were were supposed to go on an outdoor field trip but with the heat that didn't happen so they made it work back on site um found some space over there and did some fun activities with them but that was really well received it was only available to families who were enrolled in our summer program so they it was a first come first serve and we took the first 66 that enrolled so a great opportunity for them this week to participate give a little bit of an extension for families who still needed care yet prior to the start of the school year so that was our summer program um I will mention just briefly it wasn't on the slide we did also partner with ISD 191 this summer they provide a middle school middle school to high school sort of age Child Care Program um it's called The Edge it's for grades 7 through 10 they've offered that in the past and we partnered with them we provided it in our catalog because we don't offer programming for students that age um child care and um I talked with them the other day we had 20 20 students who were from Prior Lake that participated you couldn't tell necessarily if they or our students if they go to another school district but they live in Prior Lake and so that's something we're going to continue to kind of monitor um if that's a program we need to bring back and provide here we could for 20 students it really isn't feasible for us to be able to provide a middle school age program but because they take kids from uh shaki Burnsville Savage Prior Lake they're able to run one big program and so clearly we're not going to try and compete with that but we will keep an eye on it and we'll continue to promote that as an opportunity for our families so they do have an option but if it starts to grow that might be something we look at bringing back in the future what does Child Care look like for grade seven through 10 like it's a lot of field trips a lot of activities it's it's much different something like our K5 um but that is a really tough age group to try and figure out what it is they want to do what they're excited about because most of them don't know want to be on their phones or playing their video games but the the goal of that is to keep them more engaged and participating in activities so it's it's definitely challenging but they do a lot of field trips and is that what used to be our wave or yeah any questions for us on the summer programs it was a fantastic summer we uh we're excited that the kids are going back to school now and we can take a breather but it doesn't stop the programming we still have before after school programs and evening activities that'll continue on and so we're looking forward to another exciting year the only question that I have is with the added interest in let's say you know you've got the coding camps um and the various they're so dedicated you know so kids sign up for like a week at a time and that does attract a lot of middle schoolers and early high schoolers there's the science camps there's also the the zoo camps that go on that are specific to there where the kids can go there and actually kind of work is there are there other opportunities for us to schedule or partner with those programs potentially yeah because you always hear from parents of you know pre-teens and teenagers like I you know parents to work all day and they're looking for something the teenagers is going to be interested in going to um and maybe even have work experience with that sort of thing so it would be great to yeah I would say that's definitely a growth area for us is is that kind of that sixth grade through 10th and 11th grade of providing different opportunities they do get a lot of it through the high school you know there's several clubs and activities that they can participate in the middle school has some programs like that as well but that is a definite growth area for our program we're very heavily focused on that early through grade five uh age student um because it is hard it's hard to find the things that those older kids really want and that they're dedicated to come and do if they're involved in sports or other activities so finding the time that works can be challenging that's an area and the market was amazing yes the art the Art Market Art Market art and crafts yes again I didn't bring it it grew again this year I think we went up by 20 and we had several people reaching out to us now that are interested for next year beyond what we had so it'll grow again for next year so I will be sure to share that with all of you again it was my first time going it was it was wonderful for reminding us last time thank you all thank you okay um uh next we have uh Dr Thomas is going to discuss our Collective strive for excellence yes thank you chair France and board directors um you know earlier at our Retreat I was just thinking about a lot of things about the board and and the governance team and um you know I sit in in a bit of a curious space because I straddle both as an ex official member of governance but my primary sandbox's Administration and um and I'm thinking about the team that I get to work with every day on the admin side as well as the governance side and one of the things that I was reminded of um was Maxwell's book the 21 laws of leadership um you know uh and one of them he talks about the law of the lid and um we're only as good as the highest player uh on on that team if you will and so if you're a level 9 leader and you have a level five supervisor you will only be observed as being a level five leader and you know it just really pushes us to be as good as our weakest link so to be so to speak right um so we're all striving to being our best and that's something that as an admin team we talked a lot about and uh and I'm I'm thrilled to be able to work with this amazing group of people every single day and uh I I don't have a chance to brag about them enough um because I wouldn't be the leader I am here in this District without the collective efficacy of this amazing team that you'll hear briefly from tonight um and one of the things that we're centered on as a team we're a very reflective team um our partnership with stter is goes really deep um another thing I was thinking about um tonight during the retreat was the levels of learning and um you know I'm thinking about you know there's technical things to learn and then there's adaptive things to learn the technical things is like when you have to get an oil change in your car the Adaptive things are when the check engine light comes on in your car um much more deeper diagnostic to understand what you need to do and so this team possesses both and we've gone through iterations of learning of knowing doing and being knowing is the real technical stuff um you don't even have to think about doing it you just that's just part of the things that's the cost of doing business so to speak the doing part that next level of learning I would say is more of your compliance leadership it's the stuff that you know you have to do you know enough about it that if you don't do it things will go back um but it's not um the doing aspect or that becoming aspect and we've talked a lot about that as a team with regards to our strategic plan um and you all have heard me talk a little bit about this too particularly Even in our sessions that the Strategic plan in and of itself is a great product and I love the product that we've developed as a community I really appreciate the process that got to this product and there's no perfect plan there's no perfect words on a plan but I can tell you that our community really leaned in to having some really good conversations to getting us the plan that we have before us um today and as we've discussed as a team the plan is not going to be worth the paper it's printed on if we don't become this plan we know about the stuff that's on this plan we can do some of the things that are in this plan um but if we're going to become this plan that's that's the sleev rolled up that's the Adaptive work and so as a team we also knew the importance of modeling what we expect all throughout the district and so tonight you're going to hear just briefly um uh from each senior leader about their commitment to Excellence um and academic Excellence is something that drives a lot of what we're going to be discussing as a team um even if I'm not in academics proper um we know that is the bread and butter of this organization of this school district this was a big priority for our district so we know that's going to be really important and we also know that our actions our behaviors are manifestations of our internal beliefs and when we go down into the into the core beliefs of accountability respect unity and um stewardship uh again those are simple words but if you become those those words those beliefs let's see what that looks like in action and so that's something that we're committed to to doing I'll talk a little bit more about this tomorrow morning at our all staff welcome um because our doing this is in response to what we heard from those that we serve our staff our parents that student survey is something that's very important to this team and so tonight you'll hear just a little bit about our Collective commitment to being excellent as a leadership team as an admin team um and where our priority Focus for the year is going to be so just wanted to take a few minutes for each uh leader tonight you are getting some previews of this but you'll this is kind of setting the stage for what is to come from each of us throughout the year this year and the and being very deliberate in our intentional work um so that we're not leaving it so with that I am going to turn it over to Christie I think first sure yeah and and we'll just be speaking this um there's no action for you all to take but we want you to understand kind of where we're centering ourselves as we launch tomorrow morning with our entire uh Learning Community good evening um so you know we know that our schools are strongest when we are connected with our community and they take an active role in our schools and so in order for them to feel that way they need to feel informed and feel like they have two-way communication with us so um in my department um small But Mighty Department of two um our job is always to you know share success stories of what's happening with our students and staff as well as share you know important decisions that are made at the board table and at the school level so um you know we do that through a a variet of ways um Laker connections and our website are the two primary sources of um information that people um listed in our last Community survey so we pay a lot of attention um to that um and of course emails always um e- newss is always a you know a big um focus for us as well social media um media requests and then you know we've been really growing our events that we're participating in particularly in the summer um and adding a new that um Joel was speaking about with Joel and the community back to school celebration that was really really well attended and great so um that's a great way to get that two-way communication with people and and at a little more personal level so um the big you know change I think for communications right now is the dissolution of our local newspapers um you know yes newspapers are becoming kind of an Antiquated source of information but they're still important to people and I think people in the community are really feeling that they like to touch people and you know they like their newspaper so um we're looking at ways that we can um you know reach out to those in our community who maybe aren't as connected in um our schools with students and um serve them with information um and a big way we're doing that is through the Public Notices campaign um that you know we have that front and center on our website now at the very top um navigation so people who maybe aren't really familiar with our website and are looking for information can just find that really easy um we've also started working pretty closely with our Savage and pror Lake libraries they too are feeling the same things that we are that people are looking for information so they've been really great to work with and letting us um submit information for them to look at and post on their boards and um uh even above and beyond what is like kind of Baseline Public Notices but they've been open to receiving the Laker connections newsletter um you know flyers for like the back to school event that kind of thing um they're willing to you know take lovey information just that everybody can you know feel um a little bit more connected that way um we you know we have a really strong relationship with our Chambers of Commerce and the business community and um Dr Thomas is always um doing state of the schools presentations um with that audience as well so um you know this year the focus is really going to be just trying to make sure we're balancing all of those different mediums and Everyone likes to get their news a little different way so it's really you know balancing all of it um and then just continuing to look at our survey results to make sure that um people are getting that information and um we don't need to you know we always need to adjust along the way depending on what that what that level is but um that's kind of a quick interal version from Communications so I have a question actually regarding Communications so I've read some of the survey results certainly haven't read them all all and how does one of the feedback that I've read that was a pretty consistent one was that parents have a a feeling that they want to hear more often from their teachers directly about what their kids are doing well versus just you know does that fall under your guidance or does that fall under I mean it's communication so I I don't I understand if it's not yours but that actually that's director ainson that falls heavily onto the academic side and this is actually a point feedback that we received last year and actually we saw some significant growth um in the in the response rate from that particular metric year-over-year because we had great intentionality uh in our schools last year to making those public calls out um phone calls emails um when we are observing the desired outcomes for our kids so that was a very huge campaign highly successful campaign that we ran last year um and had some noted Improvement and I'm just going to add a continued effort around that just last week I was with a number of our building instructional leadership teams what call reference in my slide um and the skip goals and specifically they were uh talking about that aligned with the uh priority of Community Partnerships that was the lens under which they were looking at that at the site level um and really making a concerted effort to continue uh that positive trend that's because it's very true true that is the first place where parents connect with their system thank Youk next we have and I partnered a lot on this um as kind of a a joint teamwork on a lot of our data requests so um understanding that public data request might not seem like it's as involved with student um learning and AC achievement but it's really one of the best ways that we can make sure that we're um upholding our accountability and stewardship um and and responding to those requests so just in the last uh from January 1st through June 30th just a little breakdown for you we went through two uh 2,419 Pages um in logical loan for public data requests um and we have had 3 15 hours of um work on reviewing public data requests and responding to them so so really making a continued commitment of ours to respond to public data requests accurately And Timely um within the best um with within our means possible that is something that we continue to see going up not just with the number of requests but the um the volume of them um for example there was one single request that was over 16 or 6,000 pages in of itself so we're we're seeing that the the volume of the requests are are getting very large as well but making that we remain commit uh committed to our accountability to respond to those in a timely and accurate manner um as we go forward and then in terms of Human Resources um while a lot of the information that we deal with is um sensitive and private data we do remain um committed to accountability and stewardship through a lot of our um hiring and recruitment um controls with Comprehensive School Board packet updates making sure there's detailed Staffing um data provided to all um all of the Schoolboard members are making their decisions any hiring information specific to whether hiring the individual that's replacing somebody or if they a new position um we've expanded our contract settlement memo so that we have more details outlining the total compensation increase um and not just focusing only on the salary or or insurance benefits but really making sure that we're being very clear on everything that's changing including making sure you all have a chance to see the track changes of the contracts before voting on them or any periodic reports that we bring forward to the board whether that's on class size classes or substitutes or leaves that we're experiencing throughout the system also we really focused a lot last year on forming the policy advisory committee because policy and compliance is a huge aspect of Human Resources um and looking forward to continuing that work with the committee this year and um expanding to make sure we even um uh facilitate that communication between the district and stakeholders um as we continue to review our policies moving forward another big change that we've made and continue to um continuing to make the commitment in our negotiations with our contracts not only making sure we have that um updated on our web page for our bargain units but the employee contracts that are settled are linked out there as well for individuals to see it's a great recruitment um tool for us um so they can see their total compensation when looking at our jobs but also in negotiations itself we've really taken the negotiations team have taken a really um strong um value statement and being very transparent at the table and making sure we're upfront and providing data um and our responses to all of the employee groups we work with we feel very strongly that that's the best way to respect them is to make and value them is to make sure they have all the data we have when we're making our decisions um and just being very transparent through that entire process with them and the other major piece of human resources that we remain committed to is um as you're all aware one of the biggest um cost with human resources Beyond salary is Insurance um so continuing our commitment to the insurance committee involvement making sure we have diverse stakeholders at the table um that are engaged and informed as we're making those decisions on premium increases or plan design changes or vendor changes hopefully we won't have another one of those for at least two to three years um but in expanding our our presence out with our um with our um employees as well so making sure we're getting meetings with staff available and then tomorrow actually we're really excited that Terry Shar are benefit specialist organized a benefits Lane um for our vendors to be present to help provide information to our employees so just another way that we're committed to being wise Steward stewardships of our resources and ensuring that our employees understand all that they have available to them um to best make sure that they are utilizing those resources that they have those just some of the um highlights of what HR will continue to focus on this year often times uh dy's crew is the parallel partner in the HR um conversations and so Tammy will talk a little bit about what her and her team are committed um for this year and kind of their areas of focus Al line to the plant we definitely do work very closely with human resources um as especially in some of those contract negotiations we want to make sure that um not only our staff um being treated as fairly and as generously as we can within the parameters that we have in our our checkbook we have to walk a fine line there um we also are continuing to um have our financial advisory committee um um they were established to kind of assist in some of the financial anal analyst analytics um some of our long range planning and and they're very valuable as a community member we have a a quite a diverse team on the committee so they help um it's hard in the business services office that we don't necessarily get out to the schools and see kids um but we the majority of our work is around compliance and um making sure that we're good stewards of our resources and that we're optimizing what resources we do have and and being very accountable with the dollars that we do spend um along those lines we've dashed uh launched a financial dashboard we put that out there so that anybody can go on the online tool and look at the detail of either schools or Departments of what the revenues and expenses are like um um we've had Town Hall meetings I think we've done that for the last three years we've done those twice a year um we provide usually around budgeting and forecasting um we certainly answer any questions that anybody has at those meetings um we've tried to enhance the financial packet that we send to the board every month um we've added a monthly financial statement which I don't think has ever um been done before 3 years ago um we put in a report on the purchases over $25,000 um we're going to try to kind of build on that for next year and and maybe do a little different format um and work on some procurement processes um we also have added a monthly enrollment report to show um every every week we get enrollment updated so I present that every month um I don't think that has been done in the past um last three year or two years I guess will be the third year we've done a fiveyear forecast um and shown different scenarios with the um what our projections would look like using some various assumptions and I think as you've heard me say um we don't have a crystal ball it's let me build a forecast or a budget or a financial plan you have to make some assumptions and and we're trying to be very transparent about what those assumptions are and and um taking any feedback that maybe we need to adjust some of those assumptions we certainly have been doing that um and then I think a big thing we've adjusted our budget timeline so we've moved everything up so that we can um hire earlier and get people established so we're not losing um some good staff um to other districts um and and just making the process a little a little more efficient and a little faster so those are some of the things that we're doing in the business office and we'll certainly continue to to work on um and honing in on being a leral more efficient in some of our areas and I will say we still have a um some openings but compared to where we were three years ago and kind of where we're at now um even within special education uh we we have done an amazing job on filling uh positions with quality folks too so big uh thank you to uh Michelle uh Emily and Tammy and the teams to you know really negotiating good contracts that are competitive um and filling critical hard to fill positions where many of our neighboring districts are really struggling um at this point um and we've got kids coming back in a week so we're really two weeks something like a week a week so had my week so thank you um and they're not going to learn if they're hungry and so Emily em you just stole my life I I had an opportunity to join Emily as she um every year many of us go out to um help with a a kickoff with our food nutrition services staff and many of you know I love to cook and I love to eat and so I'm biased to always want to connect with these folks cuz they are putting food in the bellies and uh just an amazing group of folks that uh we launched with the other day and it was pack um again our my first year here at least that was not the case that room did not look that way that I should say the media center not just a little room the media center filled with staff um that's not what we used to experience so thank you to your leadership and all your amazing staff so I'll turn it to you all right we got to pet a dog that day too yeah we brought a dog into um all right so as a support department although we may not get um students undivided attention in the cafeteria we do know that hungry kids can't learn so um we really pride ourselves in um dedicating that uh dedicating our efforts to keeping those bellies full um we pride ourselves in teaching kids uh where food comes from um we do things like our robust Farm school program where we um do some like events throughout the year and I'm just you know purchasing Farm to school products but we do events where we're teaching kids you know how to hus corn it's was so interesting to me when we started that about five years ago not many kids knew out of hus corn and that was my job as I like I grew up that was my job you know that was the kid's job so um apparently not everybody does that so um but it's really neat now because they they look forward to it they know exactly how to do it um then uh we've got indoor Tower Gardens we're adding another tower garden this year to Glendale so we would like to add a tower garden slowly maybe year after year to each of the elementaries at the very least and then maybe perhaps at secondary level as well um we also have school Gardens and again you know that big sea word that Joe had or you guys had to talked about a lot um a lot of our school Gardens kind of either got lost in construction or have had to um kind of go by the wayside but we do still have our High School Garden it's up and running um and then uh we also do work um to can to encourage you know that two-way communication with our um stakeholders as well we this summer spent a lot of time on our menus and updating that school Cafe app um so it's got a lot more information than it has in the past you know things are kind of leveling out now so we're not having those supply chain issues that we were having before so we feel much more confident that what we order is what's going to show up our back door so um we've added a whole bunch of information for families in our school Cafe app um I do my annual board reports we've done some surveys you know that's kind of the way that we communicate with our our stakeholders um then as many of you have heard me say a million times uh School nutrition is my favorite topic so a few years ago I ran to be the um Minesota School nutrition Association president and this is my presid congratulations thank you sure to see you on the news local news multiple times again this year yeah yeah I know I have my run want the signed autograph pictures head shots awesome um thank you uh director o coming forward to talk a little bit about uh Equity inclusion and uh serving the needs of all of our students and the uniqueness of that right and I have a line I always say too that you have heard me say before that Equity work is work we do together so even though our Equity department is um um just including of our El teachers our um language Leons our American internet program uh we do work very closely with uh other departments uh we work with our social workers um very closely to support students who um have inconsistent housing or maybe um are doubling up with families to provide them support um and then we also work very closely with our Deans in one of our big pieces in our student voice caring committed conversations um many of you have been to um some caring Community conversations event as well um we also have a very um active Equity advisory um who have been getting involved with our student Voice work and also our community work uh last year we brought back um Community coffees and conversations um that's um an event that we do with the cities um to highlight Equity topics um to our community so they can be aware of some of the things that we're discussing and some of the changes that we have in our schools last year we focused on um um the refugee um increasing our community and also um our homeless programs to the community and we'll run four more this year as well um we also work very closely in our community with our specific language groups um we try to do our top five language groups but we've been very active right now in our top four um we have a Russian parent advisory committee meeting that we do um a Spanish um parent advisory committee meeting our Somali and our Cambodian and those meetings are run specifically in the language of of those Community groups there for limiting the barriers to to access for our community there and we have our APAC um Community meetings um they happen quarterly and the exact teams meet monthly um and that's how we all come together to do Equity work thank you thank you Sam I would just say one of the things that I'm excited for that uh Sam and I were talking about is um going back to your whole statement that you know Equity work is our work um you know that this isn't just about what Sam does and really looking at ways that we're going to be embedding um the work um throughout our entire District um you heard earlier um around some of the explorations that we're doing around some of the tutoring aspects and really targeting those needs when we look at some of the gaps that our world's best work it's not so long I'll think of the name of it now the the old world's best Workforce where we have to look at a variety of performance of our students through various um demographic groups um and that is something that we are really excited about to really enhance how some of the Ani support will go directly into more direct instruction um so to really help with those learning gaps that um unfortunately are continuing to occur with some of our students so thank you for your leadership and your team leadership to Hi Marcus hi everyone good even how are you good and uh you all know Marcus uh and uh he leads all of our technology for the district talk a little bit about some of the core work areas for his team this year good evening everyone even here to talk about our technology commitment to Excellence and how it ties in with our strategic plan with our our priorities and our core beliefs so in technology what we have listed is the procure deploy and support hardware and software services and enhance academic Excellence do that every day uh but we're always striving to be better and look for opportunities for growth and improvements in that area um second bll point is to maintain fiscal responsibility by maintaining a positive fund balance and Implement efficiencies in our offerings offerings and services optimize resources I'm constantly working with vendors to ter I use it sharpen their pencil give us their best price to the best of their ability I'm always advocating for that um fiscal responsibility is huge for us and take that very very seriously so it's something that we pride ourselves on and we'll continue to do and then third bullet is to collaborate with local state and federal agencies to strengthen our cyber security posture we've done a lot of things in the past 12 months and we we going to continue to do those things we have partnered with State agencies federal agencies and also some information sharing um consortiums and to help us in the cyber security uh area and to tighten our posture it's super important for us to do the very best that we can in this area to protect all of our stakeholders so those are some of the things that I wanted to highlight this evening do you have any questions of thankful for all that you do with all the technology um and the just the um safe I think it's something that is so not my wheelhouse but um just having my identity stolen this last fall like it you know just was a sliver of the protection that I can only imagine that the team has to do for the whole District um ch we're leveraging all the resources available to us any other questions senior vendor spreadsheet and it's massive yeah it is and so I I do know that you really do try to get the best pric do I think it's really important to build relationships and and when when they're not meeting our needs then we go out to other vendors and see what they can do so U but building that relationship I think is really important thank you Marcus thank you thank you