##VIDEO ID:aEsD66DUcFY## good evening it is 5:30 on October 21st in the Rockford area school district boardroom I would like to call our regular meeting for order and we will start with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice I I know right excellent all right uh next item is board roll call Madam clerk will you please call the role here J Johnson here here J Ed here J here J here excellent we do have full board here uh next agenda item is the approval of our agenda agenda was presented to you and provided earlier I would like a motion to approve tonight's agenda I'll make a motion to approve the agenda thank you Miss Johnson there is motion can I have a second second thank you Miss Neil and there's a first and a second any discussion or changes see none all those in favor signify by I I post agenda carries unanimously number three is public comments and we have no public comments this evening number four is our consent agenda provided in front of you um I just have one question before we go Dr idle Hoover um retention schedule is that is the school district records retention schedule that's relatively standard yes yes it's a standard process thank you thank you just reading in in the like Communications threee Communications thing okay perfect all right so with that I appreciate a motion for tonight's consent agenda I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda thank you Miss Johnson there's a first is there a second second thank you Miss Edwards there's a first and a second any discussion seeing no discussion all those in favor by I I opposed consent agenda carries unanimously superintendent report Dr Ryle Hoover thank you chair Gord the first thing I want to do is welcome all these amazing faces out here today this is really bringing some energy to the board meeting and you could stay the whole time if you want um you know with mea now in our our rearview mirror our sites are set on the home stretch of 2024 while much has been accomplished this year we have some great work in front of us as we close out the calendar and build for 2025 tonight as you see we have uh re's principal Brendon I who's here um before we hear from Brenda I would like to report some recent happenings from both our high school and our middle school so starting with the High School uh students have been commenting um on the dramatic increase in engagement and decrease of homework and this is directly tied to according to staff members there the restrictions on personal technology so um the cell phone protocols put in place um have been very positively received even if some kids maybe sometimes don't like they don't have it um ninth grade uh NHS members uh completed a community project and a Capstone experience of the ibmp um they've already begun a series of College and Career visits through their partnership with Northwest suburb and other organizations students and staff created awareness displays for mental health awareness month indigenous people's day and Hispanic Heritage Month uh the SLT began their first Renaissance challenge which is a program aimed at building positive culture and that's sponsored by Justin I know principal manard has been heavily engaged with that group did that during the month of October teachers sing reasons why you are awesome for individual students and they are folding origami shapes Mr manard delivers them to the students in class I do know that he has learned how to fold origami I saw it personally um uh students at the high school have partnered with tuffies in the spot to host an art show on Tuesday October 29th uh proceeds from that art sale will go to the soldier six fund which sponsors the training of support dogs for veterans and First Responders right here in Rockford students also completed their uh Rockford area school's connectedness survey and their building operational leadership team will be reviewing the results at a meeting later this month to to look at the Baseline data and set goals to increase and Foster connectedness across the building at the Middle School uh the student council um has been elected and they've immediately gone to work creating PSAs about lunchroom expectations uh planning dress up days and determining priorities for the school year special thanks to Abby Coffman for all her efforts um to be a leader of leaders they're building instructional leadership or built has been uh working diligently to finalize their school Improvement plan reviewing data from their student connectedness survey approving individual goals and preparing uh for professional development in October and November uh the Math teachers at the middle school spent an entire afternoon examining uh the next steps for curriculum implementation primary focus included clarifying the difference in math standards and review of MCA test specs as a team moves forward with identifying power standards and creating learning targets and assessments additionally they spent time creating a rotating schedule um to staff a schoolwide math homework help in the media center on Tuesdays and Thursdays um discussing how to implement a new tool ISL that we're bringing to the system and how that will improve student learning and um we do have the EXL group presenting to us on the 4th of November um and determine what district provided curricular resources identifying uh to help us mapping our math curriculum our adsis Math teachers um Abby buddy leworth and Emily Herold they met with Jennifer sprag and Kevin nef to identify essential uh parts of Adis math as we start uh this year with consistent Staffing they have also been meeting weekly to examine data identify students and Trends and scheduled intervention groups um this includes meetings of one-on-one with principal wara and a Math 180 training has been set up for October 16th so a lot going on in the world of math at the middle school um they've also been partnering with different specialists at MSO and the Rockford uh Ed Foundation to improve programming and special ed particularly in the ASD and DCd programs um again um those are happenings at our secondary schools before we get to um our guests from Reams tonight I'll share a few things that we been busy at in other areas um our building instructional leadership teams in Partnership and with guidance of Department of learning Innovation have been planning and implementing professional development both here on October 16th and again on November 4th the work this year is centered on our instructional road map uh with three areas of concentration this year academic standards mapping constructing visible and usable instructional learning targets and aligning formative and summative assessments to those aforementioned learning targets and standards in addition to this uh and in concert with some MD reports we've also started the process of integrating data and using data to better inform all of our instructional practices this work will take some time but our built members have been working on this uh via the PLC Pro process and the work to date has been outstanding in keeping with the instructional theme our Adis team continues to meet and work diligently in the areas of student intervention because this is year two of our two-year plan continuous Improvement conversations already started regarding the process and planning for our school year 2026 and 2027 application our efforts are focused on designing this plan earlier enough so that we can build academic schedules around our Adis efforts versus the other way around um it might seem like a small thing but it really does matter as we look to implement Adis with the utmost Fidelity speaking of fidelity the read act um which you may have heard a thing or two about most of our staff um has already completed that phase one training um that was required by mde uh going through the process myself it was clear uh that a coaching uh partnership was was necessary to ensure that Fidelity and the best possible outcomes for our kids so to this end we are progressing forward with a literacy coaching model uh freeing racial yage up as um she's also one of our co- literacy leads to serve in this capacity with some additional training and several months to assess this work we're going to be in a good position determine the long-term feasibility of a coaching model I'll also mention that both um Rachel and Kathy Matson our learning Innovation Specialists will be starting in January some coaching training through the Harvard Graduate School of Ed education which is an all online version and we're excited for that because sometimes leading one's peers can be challenging and so we're working towards the best way to coach up uh our colleagues while working aside them and supp supporting them um outside of the instructional work our financial auditor spent time on site and I am pleased to share that our consultant CFO Bridget Peterson was on site with them the process went seamlessly uh Bridget who is an expert on school Finance and Accounting she began her career as an auditor and listening to her work and uh watched closely the work she was doing with the outside Auditors was quite enjoyable um she did en Choice uh share some preliminary findings with the finance committee a few weeks ago and the completed audit will be shared with the entire board at our December meeting on the human resources front we're pleased to report that we have a tenative agreement with our multi-unit 284 group we had hoped to bring that uh forward for board approval tonight but with mea break and the 284 bargaining unit bylaws which require a specific number of days uh for a ratification vote plans are now to bring that for your approval in November um Mike mcnalty um our director of operations along with with Jeff kenet our director of Technology uh recently convened our district Safety Committee to to discuss all aspects of school safety including physical safety and cyber security the committee will be meeting regularly as we continue to strengthen our Safety and Security matters throughout the district I also had a chance to meet recently with representative Kristen Robbins uh we discussed uh State Rep a variety of educational topics and I'm grateful for the time she spent here in our district and the attention provided to Rockford area schools I also had an opportunity to visit with Kevin iner britson from the crows our local Town baseball team we discussed the potential of a continued and mutually beneficial partnership with them in other happenings we continue to share information regarded regarding our proposed capital projects Levy as part of this work videos and educational literature have been shared uh in a variety of media platforms as well as US mail and I've been busy presenting and engaging in Q&A sessions as this moveed towards a vote on November 5th I'll be sharing this information tomorrow with our seniors at the RCC at 10:00 again tomorrow evening at the high school for anyone who's interested in attending at 6 and then again on that is at 6 is that correct and then again um in the city of corkran on Wednesday night so taking the show on the road and sharing and answering questions with respect to the project uh the capital projects Levy as I do monthly I attended meetings of our partner Affiliates MSO amsd MSA and saf of particular interest as a sitting member of the saf executive team we're pleased to share we have partner with the lobing lobbying firm Capitol Hill associat to Lobby on behalf of fair and equalized taxing parameters which will benefit districts like ours where we do not have a large business and industry partnership to assist with the residential tax burden in addition as a member of the Masa legislative action team I also participated in the initial stages of the 2025 Masa or Masa legislative platform that will guide statewide lobbying efforts as the session opens in January uh I also attended along with activities director Dan Pratt and Rockford High School principal pal Minard the fall meeting of the Wright County conference and internally we engaged in meetings with the facilities and finance committees and we had a very productive um board work session a few weeks ago and a final item I like to share that is something that's new that we've started a new initiative designated that we be sharing here at board meetings we will highlight an employee or member of our community and what we will from now on be affectionately known as the rocket Spotlight nominations will be open to all and recipients will be selected by their team of peers our first rocket Spotlight will presented to the ream staff member a ream staff member at our January meeting with others to follow on selected months throughout the school year while we will still continue with our annual year-end Awards we felt it important to share the great work of even more people in our school community so lots of cool things happening um and one more thing we want to do honor and um showcase the work of the great people in our system so other than that it's been a pretty pretty boring month um but a lot of great things happening in our school so thank you excellent any questions for Dr rold one the tppy art presentation when is that what time is that t October 2 I'm tired to do so it's October 29th from 6:30 to 8:30 and this is a pet friendly event so if you want to bring your family friends with you there'll be treats there for your puppies as well thank you very much all right Dr Ido who appreciate that lots of work for that month and then we'll continue to move on because your community survey presentation is next then we'll get to all the fun stuff all right so um as as the board is is aware we last year wanted to gain a pulse of the community and so we did design a survey um and it's a branch survey um which I'll discuss here in a moment to really get the feelings and and um ideas perceptions of uh those in our school Community both parents and Guardians as well as community members at large um this community survey was used again to gain a deeper understanding of the feelings and perceptions and the feedback will be used for continuous Improvement so when we're in h this survey was administered electronically shared via email social media and our website and was sent out U to the entire community the rocket report publication in the spring survey was opened for almost 2 months there were a total of 231 completed surveys and again it was a branched survey meaning an individual's answers dictated the next questions that they would be answering I want to share a disclaimer on this as one would do on all surveys is you know the number of participants answering a specific question can can greatly skew sometimes the percentages or the data being shown and I'll also share that just like a lot of times we might see where um different parts of people's lives um are going a little better than others um it might be where I'll just use an example Elementary School the Middle School in that adolescence area through High School sometimes there's different feelings and perceptions and this is all for us to continuously improve in our processes what are the findings um of the members given the survey um a great deal of them a vast majority almost 93% were parents guardians or careers of current students in our system but we did have some members um with no children attending our schools and I want to start with our early childhood programs again this is just the data that's that came from those surveys here so 97% of those with children participating in ECS Andor preschool belied it was a welcoming environment the same number said it was a safe environment 100% of the leads are accessible uh to them for questions and 94% mentioned they're aware of opportunities for input or already get involved in early childhood programming and 94% said they would classify our early childhood programming as excellent or good really good marks for our Early Childhood Program and those actually came as no surprise as I entered this system about 18 months ago it's one of the first things I noticed was the excellent work happening through uh Community ad and early childhood um it's an Exemplar program um regardless of the size of a system moving on to our our um our Reams our elementary school we had 128 responses you can see there the grade levels in which the responses came from and again incredibly High marks for the welcoming and safe environment um principles is accessible for questions and concerns and um the experience is excellent are good by a vast majority you know one thing we've noticed throughout this is the opportunity for inputter to get involved and that's an area of growth I think throughout our system so still seeing almost 70% is pretty high as a number um but that's just more Outreach that we can do to get more people involved in our system a little more about the elementary school again these numbers are incredibly High um 94% would recommend the school to their friend or their neighbor that number is is is fantastic um and and I really believe that that last one there um 90% believe their child social emotional needs are being met is really really important um I want to mention there's a little asteris there by the third bullet um is as you recall we did some Cost Containment that really um primarily dealt with the elementary school early on this year thankfully we were able after this survey was administered we were able to um really ascertain class size and add some staffing back to the elementary school so this was actually before we added Staffing back so I think the number might even be a little bit higher here's the middle school again you'll see the breakdown of respondents there very welcoming environment very safe environment um principles accessible and this one here lots of opportunities for input so this was a very high number for that and 79% almost four out of five would say they're experien their children is excellent or good and these numbers are not quite as high as the elementary school but these are still incredibly High numbers um and generally speaking you'll see middle schools are lower across the the board for most places that's often a challenging time for our young people I won't read through all of those but these are again exceptionally High numbers here's our high school and you'll see the breakdown again like the other ones warm and welcoming environment safe environment uh principles accessible for questions and there a little less again opportunities to be involved with the high school this isn't that uncommon often times as parents kind of get through the system they're kind of like you're good um but again we want our parents and families to know that they're more than welcome to be involved in our schools even at the high school level and again um nine out of 10 would classify their children's or their child's experience as excellent or good these numbers across the board are incredibly high and I'm really proud to say that the the the families um who have their students in our school are providing High marks um to the work that's being done in our system and again I'll point out that that last one that 89% again believe their child's social emotional needs are being met um that's that's really important um we have a mission here of educating kids and we take that mission very seriously but we also know what happens best when we provide an environment where kids are feeling safe and they're feeling good about their surroundings um again I I'll share here that this is um the response rate from the community members with no children in our schools I want to say this again we only had 17 people respond to this survey in that category it's significant to us as a system because everybody's opinions significant but from a statistical standpoint that would be considered statistically insignificant um in terms of a survey um only four out of those 17 um respondents shared why their students weren't here and you can see those answers there again I'm just sharing this um in full transparency these are just the results that I took right out of the survey itself um quality of Education from those 17 members that responded again not a statistically High number but um vast majority um you know classified as excellent good and fair this one here is around the quality of Education the last two years the reason there's two years there is because we're going to give this survey almost this identical survey maybe a few questions added every two years um this is our Baseline year to see where we are the hope is that we're going to see more than 17 respondents in this area as we go forward this is what those folks said again I want to say this these look like large segments of the py graph but I think 17% is two people something along those lines maybe it's three or four I can't remember but it's a relatively small number um members of the school board being accessible this is what those 17 respondents had to share again most of them are not interacting with the school board so almost half would say it's not applicable similar respondents here from um with respect to District administration and School administration and this one here is um doing the right thing for my uh for children in the district and a good value for their investment again I'll remind you there's only 17 respondents here so the percentages while they may look high in any one of those areas is not necessarily a huge number of people sharing those sentiments this is where they're getting information um District Facebook page and they would have had more than one answer here by the way on this one so that's why you'll see more than 17 respondents there and preferred method is also the Facebook page so now we're going to shift to parents and Guardians in our system again a much higher response rate and if you'll look here um these numbers are really really high education over the last two years Schoolboard accessibility please stop me if I'm going too fast district and School administration accessibility this one means a lot to me here this is the question around trusting Rock for are schools to do what's right for uh the children in the system and this this is a very um High number good value again this is a very high number number and where we're receiving information so you'll see this is slightly different um whereas last time you saw the Facebook page was the the highest here you're going to see that the district email is listed as number one followed by the rocket report or a district newslet preferred method of communication again following the similar Trends this is a question that I added in here because I really wanted to make sure kids were connected at school um a core group of friends and while I'm really proud of almost 85% um we want to make this 100 every kid should have a core group of friends and as I tell my own children it's that important to have a lot of friends but it's important to have some good ones and so this is something that we're focusing on and while you heard me in my uh superintendent report talk a little bit about the connectedness survey that's really what that's all about connecting kids this should come as no surprise our kids are actively engaged in our activities here so huge numbers of kids um 85% are engaged in at least one Sporter activity this is really um important to note because again one in five of our kids is is uh tending us out of District to Northwest Suburban they're still involved in our school that's really important and it isn't like they just like being here during the day for the academics they stay and they want to stay involved huge credit to our staff um and and also the families again a question that I think is really important here there's at least one trusted adult that children can go to that number is also very high so some themes and uh opportunities for growth and examination I'll go ahead and read these to you parents Guardians and caregivers of children in our schools appear overwhelmingly happy with their experience and value Rockford and the value Rockford area schools provides these are the folks that have the best window into what's going on in our schools and I'm really proud of the the data that we're seeing out of this survey again although statistically insignificant uh the community members who do not have children were less favorable in their answers and experiences and value and our work is to provide more Outreach and engagement with these populations uh via short answer responses because we did have a spot for that addressing bullying was the most prominent comment in the um the open-ended place I'll like sure at the board and the community that steps have been taken in this area and will continue to reflect on these practices and communicate with families it wasn't widespread but it was mentioned enough that I wanted to make sure I shared it with the board at large um again via short answer questions class size um concerned about staff compensation necessary to keep and compete with local districts the maintenance of our facilities and secondary course offerings they did show up more than once in the in the comments um that were provided at the end of the survey and then via short answer questions teacher principle and support staff quality this was not just multiple times but overwhelming um um the respect and the pride and the belief that the teachers and the principles and support staff care about them as kids and their families question y head yeah so just had a couple questions um in the middle school and high school report section there's an asteris by the safy safe environment question was that intentional I think it was done on accident okay perfect just wanted to make sure if there was a reason I'll try to remember what it was no it's okay because you called it out before but not on those two might have been a cut and there wasn't something that we didn't know or we were missing um with the no children currently enrolled in our district those 17 individuals was that no children currently or ever that one I did not specify that's something I would do in the next one so I'm guessing that it's maybe ever or not currently because we had only the four respondents of why they weren't here now cool um and then my other just question is we get a lot of updates as a board um and for good reason right because we manage the financials and all that we talk a lot about school size we talk about compensation and negotiations we talk about curriculum um the one thing that I would love to start to see highlighted perhaps and we'll lead on your example or you know kind of how you think we should be notified or discussed but um bullying so if that was a prominent concern that you kind of saw through theme and there is there are actions being done and taken um to Heart then that might be a nice update just to kind of do a loop back and so that the board can generally see that forward progress is being made in that issue so that would be maybe my other observation and then my last observation is hats off so like to have so many top box like answers in that survey of um High remarks and high regards that's um really impressive so hats off to you and your team yeah yeah and and I'll throw that back to you as a board as well it starts with the collective work that happens in this room and I'm really really proud of particularly what our parents and Guardians are saying about their children's experience um it it's really positive and um you know it gives me chills just thinking about it at times and um makes us want to do even better work PR I was just wondering if you've ever considered for some of those to add kind of a qualitative review like why you know so if if you feel like this is a no for you can you tell me why it's because it's hard when it just numbers it's hard to know what the action step should be so it's if that would be a branch that and it wouldn't have to be it could be an optional answer you don't have to but some of those like well why and the the one that the two special ed students that makes perfect sense to me I don't need to know why for that but some of the other questions I'm like well tell me more Yep yeah I I think this is a good starting point for us and then we'll tweak this survey and we'll bring it back here two years from now and I hope our numbers are even better and and I hope we get more um we're going to find other ways to engage folks who don't have children in our system as well so that we have a higher number um in that area so thank you go ahead one comment that is the one thing that like for people the difference between the people who have kids in the system and the people who don't so reaching out to them um and we're going to talk about a l later I mean that's a big part if if they feel like our school is not valuable and they're not going to want to invest in it so finding out how to reach out to those people and make sure um that they know what's happening in the school and that they feel that they can reach out uh the school board was school board accessible to me was pretty I thought the number was low for people who thought it was accessible so um yeah and I'll say this most folks are not looking to reach out to any of you nor looking to reach out to me even though we look at it another part of the disclaimer is sometimes you see the D like really I'm always open to talk and we and I know all of us are right but it um I think we'll do we'll be even more intentional and that's that's some good learning from this is how can we be even more intentional of reaching out to folks who don't have kids in our system whether they're um you know senior citizens or folks who chose to send their kids elsewhere or just people that happen to live here and don't have kids um we can do more and we will yeah and even get just getting more responses will round it out yes for sure any other questions for Dr rido uh Dr thank you for the numbers very good numbers interested to see how your student voice survey also compares to those numbers and I'm I'm very happy you pointed out Middle School is difficult for the kids it's also difficult to parent yeah so yeah it is and again that that's one that you know I've been a part of surveys of this sort before and middle school is usually where you see that little trough and it has I don't believe it has any you know implication or anything happening in our middle school I just think it's and by the way those numbers are still good the numbers at the other ends just are exceptionally High um so thank you and yes we'll continue to work on that and there are some questions on here um to your point CH Gordy that are similar in the student connectedness survey as the ones that are on the survey to the families excellent thank you so much all right um record for you is n house earliest time ever for an elementary report I would think do I go first or can I let these guys they let them go first the elementary celebration let's celebrate let's celebrate well I want to introduce to you part of our theater group so last year at this time um we had a different theater teacher and I I brought her and we kind of introduced to you all of the things that theater was going to give to students and I said be careful because at some point I'm going to bring students and they're going to share with you well tonight's the night um the one thing that I that I I so this is our theater Tre grp we have troops that meet every morning um so we have fourth graders that are meeting every morning during their wind time some are going to music some are going to theater some are going to Art some are going and they rotate those throughout the the school year and so this is our our uh first theater troop um this is Alicia El ringer she is our new theater teacher she greets kids every morning walks around breakfast with a different puppet every day so she is out and about and um just really really engaging kids the one thing I said to them this morning I hopped in and watched kind of what they were going to do tonight and and I said you know the thing I know that about our school board is they're interested in the process so you're not going to see a presentation final product play whatever this is the process that they go through every day and I shared with them you know me standing here tonight presenting to you makes some people quiver in their shoes and say never ever ever ever this is so they can all do something like that someday and so um that's what they're going to share with you I'm going to let Alicia share with you kind of what she takes kids through in a week in theater class in troops and then they're going to do some fun things for you so I'm going to turn it over to them awesome thank you so much for being here and allowing us to come into your space thank you parents for waiting and being a part of this process too we would not be able to do this without your kids so thank you so much for bringing them with you um a little bit about what my process looks like um I am a big puppet girl so you will see me walking around the school with a puppet in my hand each classroom has a specific classroom puppet so this is my fourth grade puppet this is Teddy um who's very in yes you know very interactive with our classes so I thought for the use of our time um I won't have time to go through my everything I do in class but I'll give you a general Outlook of what that looks like and I'm actually going to invite my theater kids to come on up and form a little circle here so we can show them what this looks like in real time all right and I see a lot of my other theater friends out here so when I say something and you recognize it you can go ahead and say that too okay all right so Teddy's going to start by greeting you all hello good afternoon hello hello it's good to see you hello hello hello oh hello how's it going hello hello oh BL nice all right everybody we're going to start with our warming up our actor tool so what's our first actor tool our voice everyone say this is my voice this is my voice you's got a voice for me today thank you there she is my voice repeat this is my voice this is my voice this is my voice who's got it who's got it we're being shy we're never shy my voice very good everyone say this is my voice very good we're going to tickle our brains we're going to say this is my imagination this is my meditation from the top of your head down to the tip of your toes you're going to say this is my body this is my body who's got a movement take it away everyone do that very good who has another movement for me go for it this is my body go ahead very good of course this is my body let's do one more right here perfect this is my body very good then you're going to uh take out your magnifying glass turn to your neighbor say I'm exploring this is my exploration this is my exploration very good show me self-d discipline hands and say hum hum say this is my self- discipline this is my self discipline very good very good and then we usually do some sort of physical warmup which is when I say lion show me what it looks like when I say mouse lion Mouse lion Mouse lion Mouse very good very good and then typically after we do this we go into our do you know what time it is of the week word of the week of the week word of the week word of the week everyone yes we learn a word of the week which usually is relevant to whatever lesson we're focusing on for the day and then after that we hear Teddy say who's that that very good and then we share an artist of the week which also usually has to do with whatever theme that we're teaching for the week and then we spend the last few minutes of class doing our lesson depending on the things that we are focusing on we're currently in our imagination unit so we're doing a lot of imagination games which is what we're going to show you today for some of our games are we ready we got it okay we are going to start with Here Comes Sammy so if you are in here come Sammy you're going to this is our stage this is what we're going to use if you're off go to the off stage Center and we have our three people in the store one Sammy stand over there Sammy can stand right there okay all right let's give her a lights camera action when we're ready ready lights camera action have you heard about Samy he loves thring pineapples at us you he about um when I was holding clothes he literally undid all my work and when we always we get some pizza he always eats it yeah especially pepp he loves pepp yeah and he always um takes all the stuff off the racks and throws it at us how does Sammy walk he kind walks like something see talk he always gives us like he like scares us and he sounds like you're doing that wrong do it again I hope he doesn't come to work [Music] today is that full their [Music] clothes let's fold the clothes back pineapples they're nice and spiky today hope hopefully he doesn't scare us let's pull the clothes guys you're scary are you eating that was our lunch break that's a sad let's that's not very nice let's finish holding our clothes that's not nice stop I'm doing your clothes I'm hiding behind you and Ste nice next we're going to play called newscasters I get my two newscasters up to the front start us off we're going to remind your friends any of you can join give the spotlight to our friends who have the mic okay so if you haven't had a chance to speak yet let them speak and you can add to the scene okay all right here we go lights camera action today on my weird news uh we'll be reporting some interesting things my name is Amelia aart and his name is um Mickey Mouse we're passing it on to George Washington George Washington please come forward and take the newscast so introduce yourself I am George Washington what are you reporting on the lighthouse what's happening at the Lighthouse give us some words someone is robbing the White House somebody is robbing the lighthous oh [Music] no what's happening why are they robbing the lighthouse they want all the money very good now send it to our next newscaster uh Batman sending it to Batman did you hear about uh the Earth is being shreded into pieces byos [Music] and you're going to send it to our next news C fce yourself my is SpongBob what are you reporting on [Music] one more Billy sending it to Billy bil oh goodness maybe Billy Bob can you interview one of the people who just got infected with this horrible disease from this flower don't touch the flowers and look there's an old woman coming oh what's happening here don't touch the flowers don't touch the the water where's the water the flowers oh what's happening here there's a new freeze please oh I see okay um so I'm just not supposed to don't touch the flower tou but what if I want to touch the FL okay I got to get my kids from basketball I basketball very good and send it back to our anchors that's all we have today for my weird new today I just wanted to open up for questions from har or school board if you have want to ask our kids any questions about theater class or things they taken away from so anyone on the board have first of all thank you excellent appreciate you guys coming and parents joining us uh any questions from the board no excellent thought that was cool yes it was very good Dr r i I don't have a question question but I just you know I I I see the confidence and the smiles and the fun the energy and the creativity um with with all of you kids and it just makes me smile and um thank you for your energy that you're bringing to this program um this is this is why we do what we do and and I want to thank the board too because this is we do cool stuff at our board meetings right and so this is this is really um what you wouldn't consider I guess inside the box at a board meeting but this was really neat to see and I want to again thank you kids for you know just your your your willingness to come here tonight with a bunch of old people and adults and and and to put yourself out there because that is really a big deal and we're starting to talk about lifelong skills and what what exists out there and it's you know it's creativity Innovation curiosity those types of things you just demonstrated a whole bunch of that in a very short amount of time so I want to say thank you yeah if you guys want to come back in the M see going take a bow for everyone and we can picture [Applause] bring the puppet could you feel the energy you could bottle that magic am iink this I was hoping you talk to us with the puppet I was good just saying but now we'll move on to your me too yes Elementary principles report you know I'm pretty [Laughter] shy um well first of all I just I kind of want to just go through happenings that are going on in our building um I know that um Dr R Hoover gave my portion of the report last month but um we've had a great start to the school year um outside of you know our tragedy that happened and I just want to give a huge shout out to my staff um who to take care of the hearts of kids every single day and um whether things come out straightforward or sideways or however that comes out they continue to emerge and they will and I'm super super proud of them and just all the ways they're meeting the needs of kids um I will say in 34 years of education it's probably one of the hardest years I started and losing a child is never easy um I lost one child in my career and it was to cancer and we knew it was coming and this one we did not so um I just huge shout out to our staff they've been incredible and our kids are holding each other up and um you know Alicia said when she first was meeting kids out out front uh tonight she said every single one of my kids came I said welcome to raford this is what we do in record we support each other we are here we show up and so um like I said you know we're moving forward and I'm just super proud of people and um you know you can't change happened but we can sure work with it and deal with it and and help each other through it so um we we kicked off our year with assessment days like we've always done um we had a great you know start as we've moved forward um we had the kindness Retreat early on in September with our fourth graders um it's always super important to do that as early as possible um because we need a whole year benefit with them um our kindergarten kicked out field trips to the fire station you know nothing has changed there they still get to go to the fire station and P the hose and do all the cool things there so um and then our second grade has already gone to Stages Theater and uh a huge shout out also to our Ed Foundation who has been really supportive in um funding those field trips and and some of those things for our our kids um we have continued with Alice training and implementation um at Reams just in in working through um how would we deal with an intruder we've done you know we front frontload our drills um with fire Dr and and safety drills we reach out to parents always um at least the day before and just say hey FYI we're having a drill just in case you want to talk to your child about it or if they come home and you know they're a little unnerved about things we make it as kid-friendly as possible but um you know the goal is always to help kids be prepared and not scared and um just what do we do in in the case that you know there's something that happens that really is out of the ordinary um so we will continue to work on those um we have raw Wrestling coming to be demonstrating in PE classes on October 25th and I know you might go okay why did you put that on your report it's so cool and the amount of kids that sign up for wrestling because of that it's all I guess when I look at our our elementary school and we do things like this it's that Community School connection you know we talk a lot about just as we went through the survey about how do we bring more people in how do we connect people um that's really important when they come in and and they always come back to us and say God the amount of kids that sign up for wrestling after this is astronomical which is co so they get our kids all fired up and so they'll be coming in on October 25th um again with that personal connection piece and that Community Connection is our Veterans Day program um I had a gentleman come into my office I think it was the second week of school he is the person I usually reach out to um when it comes to can we get the veterans here for our Veterans Day program said do you want us this year I said I want you every year that I'm here and so um we have them organized and and coming already and we will be working with student speakers and um Mr Elison talked to me the other day he said I'm starting rehearsals with our kids with our our patriotic songs and so we will do um I I always say it's it's the quickest program we have in our building it's about a 20 minute program it's the most stressful program to me anyway because we want to do everything right because the respect that we have for our veterans and what they've done and the teaching that goes behind that for our kids is so important and it's one of my favorite programs of the year but it's high stress just because I want kids to really understand the importance of that um I've had lots of people say to me over the years this is great this is so great for kids to be taught this why do we stand at a parade when the veterans walk by it's out of respect why do we do this why do we do that and we talk through all that during the program so again it's about a 20 minute program but it's really the teaching of the so um that will be coming up on Veterans Day um and I don't have it on my report but I do want to dovetail a little bit as I was listening to the high school and middle school report we are also starting um student council has started in our building and um my two counselors um Alison Leo and Katie Reynolds started this last year and every single child in third or fourth grade if they would like to be part of student council can be and so when they opened up the meeting it's just you know the first thing they have is an informational meeting somebody said you know you could have like 150 kids in there and they said we and so a lot of kids come and they gather the information and before the meeting is over about 20 kids walk out and say yeah this isn't for me which is fine because they came and got the information but what they do is they have several different groups that the kids will sign up for so they can sign up to the classro can sign up to be um part of the Green Team and so they're cleaning up around the school they can sign up to to do kindness acts they can sign up to so they have little you know different subcommittees that they sign up for and then they have homework before they come to the next meeting they don't do their homework they don't come to the meeting so it's part of that you know leaning the responsibility from a child and saying okay you want to be part of this not just getting you out of class you have work to do and so um they did this last year and it was so so highly successful and the kids are so excited about it so we are officially starting next week with our first meeting um and any third and fourth grader who wants to be on student council candy which I'd love because it's not a popularity contest it's not a voting they if they want to serve they serve and so we're giving kids a lot of opportunities so um again not on my report but as as Dr R Hoover um read through that I thought I should share that with the board because it's pretty cool it's pretty cool to see so um I would also like to go to um um talking a little bit about our um literacy updates especially I know you know we heard that math is super heavy and a lot of focus around that at Middle School it's not that we're ignoring that but literacy is a big Focus um I'm going to give a shout out to Rachel yakish I know she's here tonight um she has been our literacy lead in the building and um the things that have happened around literacy in our building in the last year have been pretty incredible and they will only continue to move forward as we move forward um every single person in our building has either been trained in Orton Gillingham or will be trained in core if they're a new higher um I know Dr Jeff said he was training core this summer so was I um God bless all the people that teach a teach literacy every day it's like it's incredible just the amount of knowledge that goes around that and um and so that that will be happening I already have people that uh again were hired um after the the training of Orton Gillingham that they were they've already started and they're signed up for training so that's going to be coming really soon um Rachel does a a leading with literacy once a month with in our our building so we pull together as a staff um it's not an option do I come or do I not if I teach reading or I I don't you come because literacy is everybody and so fire teachers are there music teachers are there art teachers are there they come and we do um just a little bit of a she does a presentation on you know what's going on what do you need how can we help um how do we Infuse literacy in some of our other areas um and so that's highlighted um every month as well um when we started all of the science of reading and all of the implementation um we do have a Google classroom in our um building just of all the things that that teachers need and we decided that a reading um literacy Google Classroom would be really important to have um again I'm going to shout out to Rachel and credit um split up by grade level split up by all the different areas split up by I shared this with Dr Jeff last spring and we were kind of like look at all this the resources are endless and um again that's just really really powerful for our teachers when they want to take time to you know plug through all of those um we talked a little bit uh I know Dr Jeff mentioned about EXL for math and reading that we're going to be working on in our building as well and we'll be getting trained for that and that's that's obviously being rolled through our built team um and then we have um interviews this week we are looking to hire um a part-time pullup third grade teacher our third grade numbers are pretty high right now um so that third grade teacher will do one section of math one section of reading to reduce the pressure on all of the sections and then they will do um some of those adsis classes to free Rachel up so she can do some coaching um and we've talked a lot about in our building at the leadership team um now that we've all been trained how do we make sure that's implemented with Fidelity and you know it's real easy to start in gungho and then slip back to this is how I've always done it and maybe I nobody will notice and we just can't have that happen we can't and so um you know and and Dr Jeff said it best it's it's hard to coach your peers it's hard to coach your peers and so we're going to work really closely together I think Rachel's done a fantastic job of of doing that and work um it's going to be fun I've talked to some a lot of teachers who are super excited to say I would love to have her come in and teach a lesson and just have me watch with my kids or teach alongside or there's so many options we can do um it's really about you know letting those walls down and just saying I'm going to be vulnerable and I'm going to just allow this to happen the cool thing is we were all trained at the same time you know and so we've talked a lot about that you know just try it try it push up your sleev and try and make those mistakes and do those things and we going to do it together so again a lot about literacy um the next thing I would like to talk about a little bit is letter leaders and math Masters um I almost want to turn you Rachel and ask you to to share this this is older kids in our building that Rachel's working with um who are coming down to those that kindergarten Age first grade age and pulling them out and just running things like doing they know um so we're empowering some of our older kids to work with our younger kids to how do we do some coaching and helping in house and so that's something that has been started as letter leaders and math matters so you know just doing some very basic things with kids so important and of course it's like a big Brother Big Sister kind of thing then too so it's been really really nice to see um I want to go down into our built team our built has been meeting and working really closely um we're trying to finish up our sip goals and and so um and I've I've listed them all out there we're going to uh improve those instructional practices um and that's happening at all buildings that's going to be that curriculum mapping um which starts with learning targets assessments making sure we know our standards making sure all of those areas are are clear and we're all on the same page and working together with that um grade levels will complete this structure for English language arts and math and um um obviously the the um art and music and mement there for subject area so we're working on that really closely um the student connectedness um again our students have taken our third and fourth graders are the ones that take the my Sabers um which is that that survey um our little kids don't take that but we make sure that they have connectedness through um lessons with our counselors they do lessons weekly with our counselors um and our counselors have split up um our stud by grade level so they are responsible for a grade level um uh kindergarten they share but other than that they're responsible for a grade level so so a child can say that's my counselor um they have somebody to go to and they have weekly lessons with that counselor um and talking about connectedness talking about kindness talking about all those things that help kids you know friendships and and things like that um and then if we see kids that you know we know need more of an adult oneon-one we hook them up with a rocky buddy um we started this years ago where a teacher any staff member actually secretary anybody can say I want to be a rocky buddy well this kid needs an adult and this is not we're going to sit and do homework this is we're going to play you know basketball or we're going to do an art project we're just going to have fun together and they do that Weekly with somebody um maybe they have lunch every week or they do something um just so they have another adult connectedness so there's uh Rocky buddies there that we do also um and then our last uh goal will be on student growth based on Fast Bridge testing um literacy and math supports and interventions we'll be looking at that saying how do we make sure we have enough interventions for students that really need them especially as we go through and that's where that data driven you know um look will at all of our data and say okay who's who's struggling and who also then is at that high level that we're making sure they're working with you know our hols of the world and our Exel kids and making sure that we're not putting s on kids too so so a lot going on at Rings a lot of fun stuff excellent does anyone have any questions from Miss Snipes I'm I'm going to hit you with with a tough one okay all right okay I'm schoolwide work right with the read and all the other things that are happening with literacy um I'll hit you with the the uh the music side of it right it's pretty simple with uh the core right but can you explain how our music or even more difficult fied might be to embed the literacy work thank you um if you walk into our gym right now you can see they have a word wall just like a lot of teachers do um in their classroom these are the words we really know these are the words we're focusing on these are the words they have a through z on their wall and they're all fied words but it's all literacy what does this mean what does this mean so as they're learning and as they go through it there's literacy being brought in um obviously I can speak of music as a former music teacher you know you go through I'll give you an example of what Darren Lon does he does does uh he teaches star Sangle Banner right away in the fall every year um you hear it everywhere okay what does it mean what does this word mean what does this word mean what does this phrase mean why and then he goes into the whole history of it and they learn all about that but they really know what all those words in the the um staran mean and they're big words they're big words for a fourth grader um you can do the same thing in Arc you can do the same thing you can pull in uh language and literacy everywhere everywhere and it's it's interesting because sometimes we will have you know our Specialists that will reach out to Rachel or reach out to someone and just say hey can you help me more of how can I pull out more of this or how could I do more of this um like I said it's everywhere and everybody's really trying to help to say what is it what is it that I can do in my area to really uh Empower kids to to do more learning especially as thank you give you the easy one with music I can talk about them all any any questions all good thank you very much I appreciate not not a question but just thank you for your leadership and I think the board can probably tell there's a pretty significant um undertone of of using um strong instructional practices and then um the accompanying data to drive instruction and we talked about I liked your question um because it everyone teaches literacy um everyone in our system teaches literacy in some way shape or form um or should be teaching literacy and so um because reading is the key to learning and we have identified areas in which we can grow and we're working on that at every one of our levels and starts at so thank you and it's fun to to see kids like you saw tonight take all of that and move it into now I can be in front of people now I'm building confidence now I'm you know and and just coupling that building with you know the Arts as well as all the learning it's pretty hard for watch so yeah even some of the little nerves they have that's why perfect excellent thank you so much appreciate you sharing your kids with us too of course always and they can come do the national or the Pledge of Allegiance with us every time more fun more fun that I saw little gig it just works it does it does level thank you thank you uh we'll move on to 6C with our APAC update and excited to have Dr Perry Buffy come and join us and I know there's others so if they wish to uh follow you for support or just throw things from behind that's F well and maybe I'll thanks maybe I'll just um start by you've introduced me but I'm Perry Buffy you use that word doctor because I'm a chiropractor in this town I'll take a minute and explain exp you know what am I doing here why do I get to have a badge you um this is the apack group American Indian parent advisory committee jessal stand up for a second she's our chairperson Elizabeth black is our hello Vice chairperson Kindra wand is my rightand person as I like to say and here we have Terry ER with us har resident of Rockford for a long time and I think and and supplies me with wild rice sometimes and um part of white Earth Nation but what I want to say I hope this is okay if I say this I I think of her as an elder and in the very Indian Community the elders are very very important so I feel really really honored to have Terry with us um okay so I had to wrap my head around what American Indian education Aid is and I took some words out of in to say that their office is committed to supporting districts to ensure that every American Indian student reaches their full potential within their school communities through meaningful Equitable and targeted educational experiences that airms and values their unique cultural identities and I picked that part out because it's say to me this was us at a wild rice Festival you know this this isn't just us examining Heritage and going and looking at you know interesting displays as in field trips and us being Spectators but really valuing Val valuing who everybody is as a person and everything that makes up to them as a person their whole being including all of their past um this is actually in there that whole having people reach their full potential that's actually what drives me and I want to to sort of address this thing because it comes up almost every day for me you know I've only been doing this for not even two months but why are you doing this you have a job is right over there it's just down the street but seeing humans reach their full potential is what just just lights me up and so I do that as a chir practor in my office I do that as a volunteer in the schools I do it as a mentor I'm a strive mentor and um and a few other things about me and then I'll say why it why it this jumped out at me so I graduated from Rockford High School in 1982 and when I gradu in my senior year of high school I was in this honors English class was Carol osor y Carri back there oh sure yeah car my teacher you had her too yeah oh okay and I and I had to do a research paper and I wrote about 1862 us Dakota War which was not taught in curriculum back then but I I had an interest in Native American things already um and I graduated and I went to the University of Minnesota and my major was psychology but I was in American Indian studies minor and then I got a master's degree in history and you know I'm a chiropractice I've that but I had to ask myself too I I saw this job and I thought why why would I even want that job but I thought about my strengths who I am as a person what the gifts that I've been given and I if you don't know Clift and strength finders it's been important in my life and I recommend this positive psychology what it's going and it you identify your strengths and what drives you and if you can actually live from your strengths you're going to you're going to be energized in life and so my top strength achiever I have to do things I always have to do things I thrive on do challenges so here's a challenge connectedness and I heard Brenda talking a lot about connectedness just a few minutes ago and that's my second strength everything's connected we're all connected um learner is one of my strengths I am lifelong learner I like learning for the sake of learning so I could see this as anun to learn more input I'm inquisitive I collect in store information for use at a later unknown date Jenny long time ago I told you about some Indian burial Ms you said where are they do you remember this I do not and I see I remember that and you don't but I st away for later use and um I knew where they were and I told a bunch of people where they are it's not it's not wellknown knowledge but within the city limits the brockford are are Indian baring ws and and even what's not well known in Rockford is that within the city limits is a village that was here before Euro Americans game so you know this is native land that we're on and I like to you know store these little bits of information who knows when I might need them and then I can go out and share them so that's coming up November 9th want to come j go take a look at those uh and then context I looked to the past to inform my present and guide my future so this is all who I am and I saw this job and there's a funny little story I wasn't looking for a job but I saw this aipac Lea is on on a um social media page I was like what what is that I just you know a lot of curiosity I looked in what is that I got to look at that and then I saw this job and I thought I want to do that that job so then I had to talk to Jeff because I already have a job and uh to make sure that um you know if if it could be mildly flexible I could actually make that job work so here I am doing that job that's to address the elephant in the room what why am I here um that there we go okay so I introduced part of the team super important I think been around for five years originated in the 2019 2020 school year 2019 2020 I remember I made a mistake when I wrote that 2014 I think in 10 years but no roughly five years and it serves as an advisory role to the district to help sure that American Indian students are receiving culturally relevant and Equitable educational opportunities and I I I do like that and it's critical to the success of our district and into a partner with um our students so there we are some of us just last weekend down in Minneapolis at something called A wni Falling Water Festival held at St Anthony Falls and just being together and doing things together and and really building teamwork and helping uh kids to be proud of their Heritage and also you know have some resilience because guess what some other kids sometimes are mean you know the parents address bully and they like to do the wah wah wah W stuff and all that and play the drums and stuff and so we had you know um indigenous people's dat last week you know got brought up supposed to get brought up it got brought up in the classes but sometimes people use that in excuse to say you know something negative about some other kids so we want to build up some some um Pride so this program my job is funded with a grant from American Indian education at MD and then through that we're supposed to uh support postsecondary preparation uh academic achievement make sure the curriculum's relevant provide positive reinforcement of self-image develop cultural awareness not just among the pupils but the parents and the staff and then supplement but not supplant the monies that are already there for the other education programs so lot of stuff there we decided to call this thing raise r a i Rockford American Indian student education something falling under APAC it's not its own thing but we kind of want it to just have its own brand I'm the liaison for APAC I I don't get to vote they all vote on how the money is spent I'm just here to help facilitate things but this raise gave us a chance to really think about Mission Vision Values and we're still working on it and this is a work in progress but really we want to accomplish these goals raise the self-image of American Indian students raise student expectations for themselves raise awareness of Native Americans living in our community raise empowered student and family leaders raise the engagement of families and school life raise student achievement scores amongst Native American students in particular raise inspired students committed personal growth raise indigenous people's self-esteem that's my slid to tell me I'm at the end thank excellent any questions Dr not a question again but you know it was interesting you know Dr Bobby didn't sh exactly how we had this conversation but you when he came in visit with me we we talked and you know I could his enthusiasm immediately and the fact that he had connections with some of the folks that are here tonight um their children and others and a deep desire to become involved in the lives of kids and the families in our system what's happened in what two short months has been nothing short of amazing with this group what he didn't mention is that they have already crafted bylaws U approved by their group um and the the engagement level has been really really high um very's he's he's very part-time but he's here most every day and um and I just love seeing him because if you can't tell he's he's got a lot of energy and excitement about what's going on and his commute is nice I don't have getting stopped by you know snowstorm or anything like that but um I also want to um thank the group of four back in the back as well as others who are not here tonight um for the transformation um we we had a good apack program we did we were doing good work but what's happened in the last two months has been extraordinary and um it it just got me excited for the future so again thank you and thank all of you back there for what you're doing for kids and the community because it's pretty amazing thank you can you tell me what's happening in that picture um wild rice when it's harvested um was a cow wild up by you I bet up in otterdale County I bet it does oh we'll have to go hunting for some sometime um well when they harvest it then it has to get roasted if you look look in to the right there's a pot on a fire back there and so you roast on that fire a little bit and then it goes in you can hardly see it but then it goes into a little thing where you sort of grind it and then the man on the left is he's flipping it up in the air to blow off the chaff and so it's it's really labor intensive if you go shopping for wild rice don't confuse cultivated California grown wild rice with Minnesota Gro wild rice they're very very different taste quality everything else you'll pay more for it but when you see what has to go into the it is worth it it is worth it it really is thank you thank you thank you so much appreciate your passion appreciate your passion back there as well thank you for being a part of it thank you everyone glad they could all make it yes all right moving on then to number eight stewardship re of resources Capital project Levy update and discussion Dr rle Hoover it just because I would like to keep this at the Forefront of the conversation both here at the board table and in the community a reminder that there is a capital projects uh Levy uh for the residents to consider on uh Tuesday November F we've had a lot of literature and um messaging going out via social media I mentioned that in my report earlier and again mention and it's worth mentioning again the presentation taking place this week um did have a nice actually about a 90minut conversation with a wonderful resident today um at the end of that conversation you know she says to me well I wasn't sure what I was going to do but after talking to you both myself and my husband are voting yes for sure and and um you know while it you know there there's a lot to consider when folks are looking at this I think the compelling conversation continues to ring true that we do a lot um with the resources that we provided um both as a district and and through the governance model of the board and we will always do great work for kids and everything we can this will simply make it a little bit easier and so you've heard a lot of the conversations tonight around you know our work around academics and while we're not going out for a levy with respect to academics every dollar that we're not spending out of the general fund on technology will go towards academics and that's um that's a really important point for people to keep in mind and that resonated today with the individual I spoke with on the telephone um because it does matter and I'm uh thankful for the support we've received in the community um and also thankful for the conversation and those who are making time to attend uh the presentations that we've already had and the ones that are upcoming and again regardless of how it plays out on the fth we'll do everything we can to make sure that we provide kids with a great experience but um really proud of where we are and um the the meetings coming up here this week I'm excited about um anytime have a chance to talk about our school district with folks is something that excites me and I think again we have a very um compelling reason that why we're asking so um that's what's going on in the front of the capital projects Levy right now and pretty soon it'll be just um let's let's wait and see what happens so um a lot of great things happening around that area and there was another social media video that that dropped this afternoon so hopefully you had a chance to see it and more conversations to Miss Johnson you so one got out today and does that mention the um meeting or whatever tomorrow night and on Wednesday does it say that in there can can we put a post out there or something that would have that I I I share it as soon goes out she been talking about this quite uh no the video did not have that today but there will be a post going out tomorrow we've done weekly posts for the last two weeks we did a post and then we did a nice little video last week great um tomorrow's will just be another post reminding people of the different meetings that we have this week and to come on out and ask all your questions perfect awesome and if you happen to see the star tribun today um Courtney was quoted in there they called last Friday um because they did a story on all of the tech levies uh Capital project levies going around uh the metro and we were mentioned and they mentioned and referred to our website um and we had a quote from Courtney in there which she did really well so thank you for her speaking on behal of the school district excellent tomorrow 6: p.m. Auditorium at the high school Wednesday is where and time 6 well I believe I'm looking that up right now to be sure I'm giving you the right information that also 6 p.m. and that's at corkin City Hall in the chambers okay and is it just your presentation at that time or are you tail tailing into their just me okay yeah we'll see how many people show up I think a lot I did talk to some folks from the corporate here that are coming tomorrow night so it might just be like three people on Wednesday but um I'm coming anyway so I want to make sure that we have give everyone a chance to come and hear about the the rationale and they get their questions answered so tomorrow 6 p.m Auditorium High School Wednesday 6 PM corkin City Hall that's correct there thank you and also tomorrow 10:00 a.m. for the seniors in the community and if somebody wants to sneak in who doesn't have gray hair that's okay too that's going to be where that will be at the RCC okay um and hopefully the the person you talk to her husband's aware she's figuring out what he's doing I hope that well she already told me that yeah Miss NE uh do we have any numbers from early voting I don't know if that's a thing we can do or early voting is going on but they won't publish that information and early voting is a little bit tricky here in our split County and um it would have been helpful had we been able to to staff early voting you know location here in our community but we were not able to do that thank you very much all right so then we will move on to nine culture of collective Purpose with uh assurance and compliance with state and federal law prohibiting discrimination Dr R upon intended I'd like to share for that you can be assured that we are in compliance with all state and federal laws prohibiting discrimination in fact I submitted a document to mde today um verifying that fact and um we had massive participation primarily because we HED them really hard this year and um we are in full compliance excellent so this is an item for Action meeing approval I'd appreciate a motion I'll make a motion to approve the assurance and compliance of with state and federal law prohibiting discrimination thank you so much Miss Johnson there's a first and a second please second thank you Miss prasa there is a first and a second any discussion seen no discussion all those in favor signify by I I HST and this does care unanimously thank you so much we will then continue on to the board handbook final approval uh if you recall at our last work session I believe didn't we yeah at our last work session uh we did have uh Jessica and a present um our board handbook for our first reading there are a couple additions with uh Communications via email phone call whatever social media um as well well as what was the other one um just I guess meeting practice I guess so and again this is a living document so if we need to think about or change anything uh we always have that opportunity um so either of you two I haven't had a chance since our works honestly I've had no opportunity even open my computer other than to go over look over our agenda I have not had an opportunity to do those a minor adjustments that we were going to do so that has not been done yet but I I don't see why we can't move ahead I mean it's like we said it's something that we can always adjust and change if you guys are all okay with that well it's a living document isn't it like it's not being published and then because a one additional chapter that or not chapter but like area that I'm going to add in for first read and a second read is around like if there's Communications about our One EMP employee that we're in charge of and so that'll be coming in in like November for work session discussion um versus just popping it in um I think that's good and then we could approve it that evening because it's a back to back or we could approve it in December for that particular chapter um but I don't see any reason you know disappoint in this I think it makes sense to approve it with new board members coming in so that we have one this is what it is as we change y y that makes sense and we had that discussion today at school board 101 that it's a living breathing document things can change good yep and they were quite appreciative of the oh my gosh like so appreciative of it I got on my other screen amazing so my my only my only question formatting question uh page 12 the things that we added last time they're in green and there's some yellow highlighting are we just going to clean that up She Green is indicating that that is the new section the yellow was kind of what we had played with so very I just want to make you know formatting and structure yellow and green there's there's will say yellow and green no I'm okay very good if this is what we wish I'm fine with whatever it's just a thing more to make it easier to read and understand what you were I just wanted to make sure I understood just good question all right very good question thank you so this is an item for Action so I would appreciate a motion to approve our board handbook I would love to make a motion to approve our board handbook I'd love to second that motion excellent we have two loveling leveling uh first and seconds right so any discussion negative no one very good all right so all those in favor signify by I iOS and that motion does carry so excellent that's awesome um number 10 Community School Family Partnership contributions or donations Dr R Hoover yeah we had several donations in fact 21 in total for this month and I would like to thank and express our appreciation to all of those who contributed and donate to the district over the last month excellent thank you so much this is a resolution and the uh contributions are greatly appreciated um as this is a resolution Madam or sorry I need a motion I make a motion to approve the um resolution of acknowledgement of contributions and donations thank you Miss Neil and there's a first and a second I'll second thank you m hilstrom there's a first and a second any discussion resolution call uh Madam clerk please uh Jenny nean hi Jamie hilstrom I prasa hi Jessica Johnson hi Eric hi Amy Edwards hi excellent thank you so much uh so that is approved next item on their scheduling canvas of election results Dr Ido yep as per state protocols um we have 3 to 10 days post elction to um canvas and certify the election results uh so the proposed date to do so um pending board approval and calendar reconciliations between everybody is Wednesday November 13th of 2024 um probably going to be about a five minute meeting um based on your availability so in the past we've done that like 700 a.m. like literally walk in open the meeting approve it close meeting it's 5 minutes whatever time the board is interested in doing it is 5es I have 11:00 not like in the S I know I have 11:00 flight so I would need to it would have to be a which sorry that would be the 13th of November I have a question can this be virtual I don't we've never done it for I don't know I don't because it's voting you would have we'd have to post where you're at and all of that that would all have to be posted what about is eight tough is school starting is that tough for no that's not hard for me I I'll work around whatever the board decides would eight be better for you Jenny me yes yeah later the better I I I can't go too late um I gotta be like well I have to go to the airport so yeah I you guys you guys tell me what time does 8 A.M work for the group I will not be available the 11th 12th nor the 13th would it earlier be better can we go the week before like the seventh or eth seventh it be the Friday is the only day that we could but it's question questionable if we'd have everything by that day oh what about I feel what about Tuesday the 12 you said you're gone that day too and the Veterans Day is well other just I'm at the M masasa legislative committee meeting on the 12th and then I'm at bright works for amsd on the 14th I don't have to be there I'm not a v member of this but I just want to show you that the only day that week I can make it of the 12th 13th and 14th is the 13th but again I don't need to be present for you guys to vote and you're leaving the 13th I'm leaving the 11th the day that we talked about no I'm leaving the 13th but not till 11: right my flight's at 11: my only opportunity would be the 13th in the uh later afternoon or the 14th those would be my only two days but I don't have to be here so or Friday as and does that go past our days that we need to do it work day or calendar days which we would prefer to leave the Friday open just as an emergency if we need to reschedule so y'all are good on Wednesday morning you have Quorum and we have Quorum yep so is is 8 a.m. too late for you is so I could I mean we could do Thursday or we could do seven on Wednesday Wednesday seven Wednesday just do seven Wednesday my pick my kids up at seven yeah you have to be in the car and in front of the bus though you do realize that so that's 7:15 Wednesday afternoon is not an option well it's the same either way because she'll be gone but if you'll be here just fine yeah so we can do do eight but I don't know Amy how about you in the afternoon I got people all day so yeah so morning would be best does not work for me either 7:15 here in the boardroom yes in out in five minutes pry much how it goes yep it's super quick yeah we've done it before so you I will not be you're out of I am in at yeah in a district at 8 a.m. so very good excellent you guys take care of it I love it that's why we have a good board all right so that was 10B never 10 C can be S of election results that is going to be Wednesday the I got to pull the dat again November 13th at 7:15 in the district office boardroom then the policy committee meeting Monday November 25 400 p.m. in the district office conference room Board of Education work session Monday November 25 5:30 district office boardroom regular meeting of the Board of Education Monday November 25 6:30 in the district office boardroom any updates or additions or correction on that um oh we do need to add in we do need to add in here M because we have five board members going we do I'm you're not I thought you were so four yeah there's four so there is a quum so yeah we need to make sure that so add that in that is November um 15th through the 17th nope 17th through 19 oh 17 through 19 yeah 17 through 19 so and the location is craigin in niswa or Brainard one or the other is that area Gull Lake Area Gull Lake Area yes anyways yeah so excellent all right so are any other additions or subtractions or Corrections no all good very good uh then we'll go to board updates and I can go first since our last meeting uh we had a couple facilities meetings we had a board work session uh a couple coffees and conversations with msba um and other than that that was about it for myself I figured I'd go first I can go next if that's cool please uh so board prep a couple of those going into work sessions as well as um this meeting here with Jeff and Eric um Finance Committee of the board met on the 10th of October um and then also two facilities committee meetings and the reason that we're meeting as a facilities committee and you guys have had a little bit of a preview on that um is just to kind of make sure that we're ticking and tying all of the abatement Bond dollars and and so that's kind of what that group is working on right now so we're meeting weekly um well not quite week well pretty regularly um just to make sure is taking and tying it from a budget perspective and all the things so that'll come back to the board probably in December is what we were thinking uh for a conversation so good stuff I got any questions for myself for Miss Edwards forgot to say that before very good next Miss um uh finance committee meeting on the 10th um and I pretty sure that was the only other meeting meeting but um still volunteering with state routs to school to get our kids across Highway 55 in the afternoons um and I was blessed to be able to donate and provide a meal for our football team um did that a couple of times one was totally donated one was at a deep discount um so I'm I feel very happy about that um excellent um I think I had a negotiations meeting the day after our last uh board meeting so negotiations we WRA that up um and then uh copying conversations also through msba and that is it I can go CU I have not done anything except flying a plane in the last month lots of flying on a plane all right so I had negotiations maso meeting um not as a board member but I did attend the chamber and got to listen to Dr ryal Hoover speak did a great job at that that was wonderful I I really enjoy the chamber one seeing all of our community and what was amazing we had three um two Representatives themselves and then uh emmer had a representative there from his office so that was pretty nice to have our representatives there at our chamber uh Joe McDonald and Christian Robins Christian robins and yeah so it was just it was it was really nice it was great um uh um Early Childhood committee um so if you guys remember through negotiations with um EMR um there was an Mo MOA put in place to discuss with um Early Childhood uh School Readiness starting early and they're doing the research to see about being able to start the um preschool classes earlier and maybe go later in the school year because they start a few weeks in and end before Memorial Day currently and they're looking at maybe extending the school year for them and what are the implications of that and what uh you know costs and stuff like that and how does it affect busing um and one of the requirements was to have a Schoolboard member on that committee so I am on that committee with them and we meet and we met last spring and now we met again and uh we'll we have to have everything wrapped up before January because January is when they put together all the fees for the following year so we have everything decided as to what's going to happen and if if we're going to extend that or not so um the committee is amazing and they are really doing a good job of their research and digging into things to make sure that we're making good choices for our community so um I'm on that and I attended Schoolboard 101 today so that was nice and um excited it's fun to be a part of something like that and just um see two new people that had threw their hat in the ring and they're excited about being on the board as well and um yeah I think it's sad that I'm but um excited to that we have people that are excited to be there so yeah um I think that's I said maso chamber yep there we go that's it perfect thank you so much any questions for Jessica all right uh I will make motion to adjourn second thank you Miss nean there's first and a second any further all those in favor I oppos 74 yese that's beautiful find