##VIDEO ID:PjGObGEy_Ec## good evening and welcome to the regular meeting of the St Peter School Board it is Monday September 16th 2024 we are in the St Peter Governor's room at 6:30 p.m. first thing we need to do call the meeting to order um next is the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the for it stands one nation God indivisible and thank you uh next up we need to consider and adopt the agenda um we have one slight change to the agenda uh item action item number 10 uh we're going to slide up to the top of the agenda I know you're all interested in staying for a couple hours but we'll move you to the top to have that conversation first so we're moving item 10 up to number one shifting down accordingly I move that we approve the agenda as you just changed it second we have a motion in a second any discussion all in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign agenda is adopted thank you um Kimberly do we have any requests to speak on the agenda no requests uh next up is approval of consent agenda items uh you'll find the full packet um in front of you and also on the board book portal are there any items that we wish to pull out or comment on I have a couple things um first off I wanted to um point out Joanie Anderson's retirement that she had been with the district since 1990 which is a very very long time um so I want to thank her for all of her years of service and I had a question about all of our teachers that are on overload um just curious like once they go on overload at the what it was 168 students like just talk me through that a little bit is it just kind of like just yeah just talk to me about it a little bit because we have four at the middle school it looks like and one South yeah there are some others as well that will be coming forth I mean so the overload procedure is in really three different buckets and ET you might have to help me if I miss a bucket here one is if you exceed the number of students under the class side CL class size limits at the elementary level or the number of daily students that you see at the secondary level so that triggers an overload the other uh thing that Tri triggers an overload is somebody who takes on an additional class assignment and in lie of their prep period um and then there are some what we would call intermittent overloads where somebody is giving up their prep period for an overload to cover for a teacher for an example on maternity leave but it's not a daily basis all of those have a daily rate of pay of $44 per day so it's triggered in a number of different scenarios and in all those situations obviously that for the district it makes more sense to pay that overload than it would be to hire an additional teacher because I saw it was a lot of it seem to be in The Fad area yeah in in the Middle School John in the fiad area correct that of one allows to okay rather and then with that being said um I wanted to ask because um last time Mr C I couldn't vote on the contract because um that was a conflict of interest so I didn't know if I could vote on the consent agenda being that my husband was one of the people mentioned in the consent agenda we could just pull that out and then you could vote for the or I just don't vote on the consent agenda I didn't know yeah you you could abstain okay other items of note in the consent agenda would entertain a motion accept consent agenda ascribed I'll second we have a motion and a second any further discussion discussion discussion hearing none we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign one abstention consent agenda passes thank you uh next up is the student Spotlight um I know we have students doing amazing things but it's early so we'll get them next time the first one sweet awesome we look forward to that and then we don't have a student council report tonight they are because they are so active and engaged in the St Peter schools activities they're doing the awesome things uh but we will also approve those two Representatives uh and one of action items action items are up next the first is the consider consider the approval of the transportation contract addendum and we have some guests here to also speak to it yeah correct so we have uh Mike henik and Bob Becker who are the owners of 4.0 transportation of St Peter and Monica hash who's the um manager of saints bus for St Peters so thank you for being here tonight we appreciate your your presence uh uh what has occurred is that the school district as you know contracts with 4.0 School services for before and after school bus routes co-curricular travel other related Services over the past month the district has discussed revisions to the contract in order to ensure consistency in service and a reduction in our overall Transportation costs as a part of our budget adjustment plan uh 4.0 has graciously agreed to restructure the Transportation contract uh the business committee reviewed the transportation contract at their meeting on September 13th and recommends its approval um several features it does extend the contract uh out for a period of 10 years it in a in a way uh it sets rates for through 20293 I believe and there's also an opportunity for the district to determine that they may not want to extend the contract for those additional years in other words there's an out clause in the contract uh so uh the business committee spent a fair amount of time reviewing the contract or the addendum uh recommends their approval I would recommend the approval of the contract as well are there questions I'll move the approval I'll second it you have a motion in a second any discussion discuss yeah any discussion I would just Echo what Dr Olson said um I believe it's a beneficial to the district to approve this agreement I guess I would thank um Saints bus for kind of helping us through these couple years that times are tough and just thank them for helping us through the the bumpy times and and allowing us and I think for the most part I mean we seem to have a good relationship of course there's always bumps in the road but for the most part I feel like we've come a long way my kids don't ride the bus anymore but technology wise I feel like we have a good handle on who's on the buses back when the days when it was like you just had to call and do the old radio and hope somebody spoke up and found your kid you know that's what we had to do now I feel like they have a good handle on that so I feel like are going well so and I would Echo that that 4.0 has been a a valued business partner with the St Peter Public Schools since I believe 2007 I think that was when we we started the agreement and we've had excellent service they're very responsive to our needs and um we'd be pleased to continue to work with them over time awesome any further discussion we do have a motion in a second discussion disc discussion discussion hearing none we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign motion carries we've approved the transportation contract addendum thank you very much thank you we appreciate it and you're welcome to stick around if you yeah have a good night thank you very much all right moving on to the new number two on the agenda consider acceptance of gifts donations and grants there are no gifts or donations to report this month makes it an easy action item next item up consider approval of student representatives to the school board for 2024 2025 this is something that you've done on an annual basis since 2007 again uh we're pleased to continue to recommend the inclusion of student representation on the school board uh and the two individuals who would be the student representatives are Emmy remert and Isabelle Mish uh for this school year you can see the guidelines in your addendum to the board packet the student representativ is a non- voting member student Representatives given an opportunity to fully participate in all board discussions held at open meetings of the school board the student representative is expected to attend all regularly scheduled board meetings now that one becomes a bit problematic because our student representatives are very BS busy and involved uh and the student representative May attend phase one of msba board member training I don't think that I recall that's ever occurred but that's been part of the practice so I I would recommend your approval of Emmy rert and Isabelle Mish as the student representatives to the school board for the 20 24 2025 school year motion motion and a second any discussion I would add that I think it's great it's a great way for us to hear about some of the day-to-day stuff that we don't always get to hear about um so and we know attendance is hard because they're extremely busy and involved people but the reports are wonderful when they are here any other discussion we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign motion carries welcome Emmy and Isabelle next up consider certification of the preliminary 2024 pay 2025 Levy Miss Gracia this is kind of a Megan show get all right so you should have four documents in board book or in front of you related to the 24 pay 25 Levy the first one is a memo that summarizes the levy information that we have um to note we have currently a $2.2 million increase in our Levy which uh correlates to 29% increase over last year uh 1.8 million of that is related to the I uh IAQ deferred maintenance and voter approved bonds so that's over 82% of our increase comes directly from those Bond payments coming into play in this fiscal year um there are other factors that are uh parts of this increase as well so if you turn to the second page this is something that we've brought for multiple years now it looks at the Market values of St Peter so as as you can see similarly to previous years we're seeing increases in our market value um additionally two of the figures that are used throughout the levy calculations are the referendum market value and the net adjusted net tax capacity those are also increased uh referend to market value excludes seasonal cabins um and Eggland and then adjusted net tax capacity is all of the parcels but looks at them um with classification rating so as you can see we've seen increases across the board there that combined with our decreasing student population means that our property wealth per pupil is increasing um so how that factors into this Levy then is that we're getting less Aid and more revenue or excuse me less Aid and more Levy from a lot of our categories um so that was a big Factor last year in our Levy increase this year there are a few categories where that comes into play but not near as many as last year um because a lot of those those AIDS already dropped off but in the future if our Market values go down and our student population increases we might see some of that Aid come back but at this point we're pretty far off from having Aid on a number of our categories so it's fully Levy for those categories uh the next page then is just a summary by group of the increases so you'll see there's the general fund community service and then Debt Service um and as you can see just on the graph The Debt Service section obviously is the largest chunk that increases um and like I mentioned general fund gets calculated on referenda market value or net tax capacity so that's just the split of the first two columns but it's a numerical and graphical representation of the increases for this um this Lev cycle and then the very last document which I'm not going to cover in great detail but it's just a very detailed listing of the increases or decreases for all of the categories they also have threeyear adjustments for the Levy um so you'll see those adjustments as well some of the big highlights um for changes just include unemployment um opab career in Tech ltfm and L so those are just some of our categories that had some larger adjustments either in current year or prior your adjustments um to wrap it up we as we do every September we are recommending or requesting that you certify the maximum uh from Friday to today we saw a 2% change that's going to continue to happen over the next um 15 days that they're running the levy um as mde clarifies some of their calculations as we change some of the inputs that we have um and so if we were to under Levy at this point that creates a ceiling which we want to be able to um maximize at this point if in December we decide to under Levy we still have that opportunity to do so but historically I think we have always and across the state it is very common um to certify the maximum in September so that is our recommendation and this uh this presentation was reviewed in detail by the business committee at their meeting on uh September 13 and they recommend as well that you certify the maximum allowable Levy certifi maximum ly okay second motion and a second discussion and questions so a lot of this is because of the referendum and enrollment right is that kind of the two D the big by far the big the big chunk is the the indoor air quality and the the menend the middle project okay which is a significant project it is it's a significant project discussion discussion discussion hearing none we proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign motion carries we have approved the maximum on the 2024 pay 2025 Levy thank you Megan next up consider approval of the 202 3 through 2025 principal contract yeah I just note that the HR committee has reached an agreement on the 2023 2025 contract with St Peter principal's Association uh some of the key items would be 3% 3% on the salary schedule a new option for a 403b match changes for additional stiens based on changes to duties that came about with the budget adjustment plan this past spring um a change reflecting statutory requirements to earn safe and sick time and language clarification in certain sections of the contract um now Bill you're the HR committee rep here so do you want to add anything about the contract well I think um it took us a while to figure out all the language changes um there seemed to be a Mis communication with the superintendent change once we found the actual language that was agreed to and the principles agreed that those language changes for what was agreed to um things went smoothly so what's the new option for the 403 match what is uh I think there's an option for a match of as ,00 so if uh an individual principal um puts in $1,800 into their 403b the district would match the $1,800 okay and I think that's maybe one of the first 403b matches that we've had but I think uh Darren we have all the dates correct now right everything was going to be retroactive to 2021 or something all right I think we have we have a motion in a second I don't know that we do do we don't have a motion yet say as I'm the HR committee rep I'll move approval of this agreement thank you I'll second we have a motion in a second any further discussion discussion discussion we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign motion carries we have approved the 2023 through 2025 principles contract thank you thanks for sticking around principles uh next up we need to consider approval of a revised 2024 2025 interim superintendent agreement uh this was uh from a clarification from the business office it was determined that the interim superintendent agreement required a revision um to article 7 section one I think is what it is um of the agreement in order to maintain eligibility of the interim superintendent to remain on the school district's health and hospitalization group plan um this is a cost neutral change for the district um it's just a change in the benefit um to meet what is needed right so uh we this was talked about I believe at the human resources committee um so we need to change those numbers in here uh they're correct in the contract y there article 7 SE article 7 section one yep I'll make a motion to make that change as indicated to go to the Viva instead of the H or may go to the h instead of the Viva right reverse that rather than the so going to the Via instead of the H second motion and a second any discussion discussion discussion we will proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign motion carries revision has been made thank you for sticking around too you're welcome uh item eight consider approval of contracts and pay scale updates um move something here they are not in that packet yeah there it's it's on number six number six is the policy review manual oh I'm sorry I missed that's my bad I wrote yep my bad we're going to talk about the approval of policy manual first since it's more exciting you can hang out for that too yes I'm just gonna wait yeah why don't you just row chill there if you have input please share sorry about that okay so we have uh updates that we have uh in the policy manual for a second reading and if we have updates from any of the policy committee members any comments um and then you also have in one policy 722 that was recommended uh for a single reading so the the three formal changes to the policy manual if you approved them would be 73.1 concession stand 406 public and private Personnel data and 722 public data and data subject requests and the one the single reading one is just simply just changing personel Personnel names yep yes correct surprised we hadn't done the design change yeah I know I would entertain a motion or Kate do you have something I would move that we approve the policies that are listed first and second readings okay I'll second Motion in a second any discussion discussion hearing none proceed to vote all those in favor signify by by saying I I I oppose same sign motion carries thank you now we'll get to that consider approval of contracts and pay scale updates that's right you know things are serious when I get the old cheaters out so here we go um before you started just just one thing to note I I think in visiting with the board chair um you could potentially approve all of these in one motion but we're thinking that you should take each of them separately so as you go through each one then we'll stop and pause for questions or comments or um ideas or thoughts or whatever they might be and then consider a motion on each of those okay certainly we have six um contracts and pay scale updates for you tonight the first is a 2425 contract for behavior interventionist position at South Elementary this is 174 day contract the hourly rate in reflects a 3.5 increase for the 2 2425 school year any questions about that position so we'll do each of these individually with a motion and a second to approve and then move on to the next one so I would entertain a motion also move second Motion in a second any discussion about the behavioral intervention specialist or behavioral interventionist position discussion and discussion hearing none we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign motion carries that's approved the second contract is a 2425 contract for the Native American Support student support liaison position this is a 10hour a week position that provides support to Native American students and their families the hourly rate reflects a 3.7% increase in addition a $1,500 stien is in place for the work of this position in the American Indian education funding application and on the Native American parent advisory committee this funding the funding for this position is acquired through the American Indian education award contract Charming CL I'll second Motion in a second any discussion I just want to reiterate that last line that this uh funding is acquired for the funding for the American Indian um family parent advisory group yeah thank you any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign motion carries number three the next contract is a two-year contract 2426 for the community and family education Aquatics coordinator this is a stien position The Proposal reflects a 3% increase in year 1 and a 3% increase in year two [Music] to entertain a motion make a motion to approve the aquatics coordinator one second we have a motion in a second any discussion we will proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign motion carries to the aquatics coordinator thank you the next is a 2425 school year Aquatics pay scale for lifeguards lifeguards with w SI head lifeguards and lifeguards for physical education classes the pay scale mirrors lifeguard wages at St Peter Park and Recreation services reck and Leisure Services make a motion to approve the pay scale for Aquatics I'll second it Motion in a second any discussion are we having problems getting mon cards I don't know that we're having I I haven't heard that we're having problems necessarily getting lifeguards but I think if we were to not have our pay scale be equal to lifeguards for the city hires they're not as willing to work as the bottom line yeah no I that was you know I just hear generally around the area in that yeah I don't there's kind of a shortage Tammy I think different times of the day are a little bit more challenging than others like that lap swim in the morning might be maybe folks have some may for ucation classes at times John students but it's tough just to commit to those hours so we're getting creative on how how to manage that any further discussion we will proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign motion carries for lifeguards B the next proposal is for the 2425 school year pay for Saints overtime staff The Proposal is a 3.3% pay increase which would make that do that hourly rate $15.75 per hour and we approve that pay increase I'll second motion we have a motion in a second any discussion discussion discussion we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign motion carries and then lastly um the HR committee had a discussion about substitute teacher and substitute PA professional rates um the recommendation is that at this point no change in The Substitute Teacher rate so that would remain at $180 per day $90 for half a day and an increase of0 50 cents per hour to the par professional substitute rate which would bring that to $15 an hour ation approve the substitute teacher and substitute teacher per professional rates second Motion in a second any discussion discussion discussion hearing none will proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign motion carries thank you that was fun all right next up consider approval of office support contract for 2023 to 2025 the HR committee has reached an agreement on the 2023 2025 contract with office support uh notable changes include 4% 4% on the salary schedule clarifications on emergency and school closing procedur that would be if there would be a day called either by the governor or the superintendent which would be a snow day or a an e-learning day so there are different uh rules in a sense that are followed based on how those days are called off uh there would be an increase in the defined contribution towards health and hospitalization Insurance a change reflecting statutory requirements for earned safe and sick time in additional levels to the Professional Standards program that's where office support can earn some additional pay per hour based on completing professional development that's approved by the district um so bill from the HR committee perspective this was probably our most difficult negotiations um and I think um it's a a small group so it's a difficult to um I mean percentage wise it's a it's a nice percentage but total package is not that it's not that big of an impact on our our budget but uh I think it's important that uh um we maintain competitiveness with the surrounding area in these positions so and the office support group has has uh ratified the contract from their end so it's awaiting your action I'll move okay I'll second you have a motion in a second any discussion discussion discussion thank you to the negotiation team all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign motion carries we've approve the office support contract for 2023 to 2025 thank you next up consider approval of the read act memorandum of understanding with the St Peter Education Association so we have uh we learned that in order for us to receive well not to receive funding to pay for redact training but to access the funding for redak training we have to have a memorandum of understanding with the Teachers Association um the money for redc training is put in a reserved account uh Megan I believe until such time as there's an official memorandum of understanding in place uh the memorandum of understanding needs to outline the teachers who have uh who need required training compensation for training and procedures outlining compliance with Minnesota statute 120b point1 123 which are the redact requirements uh theou is enclosed for your consideration it's been reviewed by the HR committee and is agreed to by the executive committee of the St Peter Education Association so what it does basically is it outlines that teachers are paid their hourly rate is determined by the teacher extra compensation schedule of the master agreement for training that occurs outside of the regular contract at time uh they also are eligible to receive compensation for successfully meeting qm goals tied to redc training and those qm goals are really tied then to improving student achievement in Reading based on the tra training that they receive they also will receive 5050 continuing education units to use towards lure renewal um and there's some in some language in here about um the need to comply with the requirements for redact training for teachers because it is a legal requirement um so given that I recommend your approval of the memorandum of understanding with the St Peter Education Association regarding redact so just for clarification the SBA executive committee had the authority to make the agreement okay that must be according to their bylaws and right now the only teachers that can take the the training are the ones that we've identified yeah Janna you want to yeah we've identified our K classroom teachers our elementary elll teachers and our K12 really K8 special education teachers and then anyone choosing curriculum for reading and literacy okay and so next year will'll be phase two and so we'll catch quite a few more individual there are what roughly 45 50 Early Childhood teachers are doings training as well and so we get funding for for this we do get funding yeah that's above and beyond our per puple unit funding it's it's specific to Reda requirements okay that was a sizable portion of the historic uh legislation for school funding a mandated program but that was yeah funded at least in finally funded yep and I think Megan would be accurate to say that some additional funding was was freed up for the training right ising fing comes in two parts it's the training piece and the curriculum the curriculum piece can also all righty that's a lot of time 50 to 55 hours of training is a lot of training I would entertain a motion I'll make a motion to approve the M Mo with the spa play a little bit of mingle there I'll second we have a motion in a second any further discussion discussion discussion hearing none will proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign motion carries we've approved the react memorandum memorandum of understanding with the St Peter Education Association thank you that concludes the action items portion of the agenda uh next up we have informational items the first is the first reading of revisions to the policy manual those are included in the packet in front of you yeah there are two revisions to the policy manual the first is policy 506 on student discipline um actually the first paragraph that you see in red is a paragraph that was in the model msba policy um but not in our policy so the policy committee is recommending that for consideration the second paragraph is uh some new language that was in the model msba policy in policy 806 the crisis management plan um once you've had an opportunity to First discuss 506 we'll come to 806 and John's going to take you through that rather deep detailed language that uh is being recommended to for addition to 806 crisis management so questions on any questions on probably 506 506 first is this the same this is exactly what we did out at mved for the 506 I believe so yeah this is the model language yeah from the msba yeah model there no other items on 506 we'll jump to M Dr graph and 806 okay thank you uh so the policy committee has asked me to come and give my little Spiel to the full board um this is the same presentation that was also shared with the district Safety Committee which meets quarterly to talk about policies related to safety um so just a quick background so uh statute 121 a.38 was adopted in 2013 and that language substantially changed how we need to approach policy 806 uh specifically with our preparation for active Shooters so that policy um 806 currently does not there's a typo in my presentation this document um our current policy does not include the language that is required of the statute so I wanted to give you a little bit of background on that statute um so that you guys can make an informed decision so the statute uh really defined two different types of uh active or or Preparation drills uh the first is an active shooter drill and the second is an active shooter simulation active shooter simulations you can see in the lower uh right hand side active shooter simulations are the full scale practice with props um those are proh hibited we do not do those but by definition um with our philosophy of run hide fight um we do we believe active shooter drills and if we do active shooter drills there's a whole host of requirements that we must meet and those are outlined on the backside of that page so any questions about the definition of active shooter preparation it's an emergency preparedness drill designed to teach students teachers and school personnel and staff how to respond in the event of an armed Intruder on campus or an armed as salent in the immediate vicinity and that is the purpose of our safety drills okay all right so we'll go through some of the requirements uh of the new statute um so our active shooter drills must be accessible developmentally appropriate and age appropriate including using appropriate safety language and vocabulary culturally aware trauma informed inclusive of accommodations for students with special needs include a reasonable amount of time for students to debrief during debrief time students must be allowed to access any mental health supports on campus so what that might look like or would look like is after our safety drills have concluded uh we would have conversations in the classroom uh to make sure that kids understand that it was a drill uh and the importance of those drills and if any student needed to access our our access our counselors or assal workers um they'd be permitted to do so our active shooter drills must be accompanied by an announcement prior to the drill informing students that there is no danger so we would make the announcement this is a drill this is only a drill uh to make sure that everybody knew um schools must provide notice for every student's parent or legal guardian win practical 24 hours in advance and inform parents that they can opt their children out so we would make that announcement 24 Advance at least 24 hours in advance via thrillshare or Infinite Campus um active shooter drills must uh there must be a plan in place for those who opt out and students are not quired required to participate additionally this is number 11 on that document students in middle and high school must be provided with one hour of violence prevention training annually um we are confident that we take care of this within our health curriculum um our safety drills we talk about things such as if you see something say something uh and that all qualifies number 12 students must be given the opportunity to participate in school safety and violence prevention uh planning and we believe that we do that with our PBIS programs and then lastly the last requirement uh is that boards must discuss the following at a board meeting so boards must discuss the effect of an active shooter drill on safety of students and staff and the Safety Committee believes that uh it increases our safety um being prepared knowing what to do in the rare event of an active shooter and we must also uh discuss the effect of an active shooter drill on the mental health and wellness of students and staff and we're all aware um that these are heavy topics they're not fun topics and it's kind of scary um and when you look at the requirements of one through 10 above we believe that meeting those requirements makes it manageable and makes it uh well worth the effort on the flip side of that there's also discussion that preparation brings stronger mental health so knowing what to do could have a positive benefit on the mental health of staff and students so that is the background on the statute um the Safety Committee recommends uh that the board add the language um which is in the board packet the redline language that would detail these requirements in policy 806 any questions for me so this is a new statute 20123 okay Mr C um Dr graph given the news media coverage of active shooter events um does the dis or the schools do anything with your uh students when there has been a active shooter incident elsewhere in the country and it's flashed across the news um I can only speak for the Middle School perspective we have not um we do communicate about the importance of being prepared during our safe drills um I also want to add that as of right now we are not doing active shooter drills across the district we are simply doing lockdown drills we're waiting guidance um from the board here um before we would move forward because we want to make sure that we're compliant with 121a um prior to moving forward with any active shooter drills I I would note that requirement 13 also I think John has taken you through that tonight so you have uh at a board meeting discussed those two bullet points and as this policy comes back for a second reading we would review those two bullet points again I have a question so Dr graph like we know that that drills like these of all you know lockdown active shooter drills uh feel very necessary in our current age um but we know that they are they can create um some some negative mental health effects for some some responses from some um can you talk a little bit about from a safety committee's perspective you use different language different terminology scaled to the age group right so that the littles are doing lockdowns and it's talked about in a very different way than a high school drill can you just talk a little bit about the how you differentiate correct and please correct me if I'm wrong on this but the language we're using are safety drills and at the lower levels the the procedures are lockdowns it's if there is a danger we lock the doors at the bid and high school levels we begin to talk about scenarios and not in great detail but if the active shooter or if the Intruder is in the gym what decision would we make if we're on the other end of the building so we start to build in those scenarios to match our philosophy of evacuate first so that's how we change it up a little bit so early childhood and South you guys are not doing evacuation drills tied to active shooter training North North has historically until this went into effect so it was more like immediately like lock down clear the hallway get out of view get behind locked doors and then as the year went on we practiced like announcing we a Potential Threat may be but we called them sa you know they were safety drills but we use the term lock down get all the get out of the hallway and then use the Pas and then like Crisis go which is our communication app um to respond and then kids and teachers would kind of go together they' coach them um to our Rally Point or the idea of the Rally Point thank you and I think part of my question was if for those who haven't been part of a drill right the philosophy is prep ation not panic right you know like there is very there's thought put into making sure that calm and and appropriate calmness is kept in place when possible because we don't want to have people panic we want them to feel prepared yeah I know in the policy committee we have spent a lot of time talking about this particular policy um and I think it's important to note that students are not required to participate and the parents are allowed to to up their child out from those particular uh safety drills um the parent has control over a lot of that the kids are the mental health requirements of the kids before during and after any of these simula uh not simulations drill safety drills is really important um and the staff is included their this mental health Wellness of staff is also incorporated into this um plan I think that you know as a member of the committee I think the Safety Committee has done a very thorough job I think this looks like statutory language and it's also best practices and there are constant um committee attention there is constant committee attention to this particular policy therefore I will move that we no it's just an action okay so everybody take a look please take a look at this because it is very thorough and um this is something that we all today need to have in our vision so so our active uh shooter simulations they're not required by law they are prohibited for schools to participate with or in so why do we even talk about I think for me it was nice because when this statute first came out it was hard to differentiate lockdown active shooter drill and active shooter simulation so seeing the the extreme side of that Spectrum helped put it in the box and say okay we're definitely not doing that this is where we fall um law enforcement agencies do participate in active shooter simulations and they can my understanding recruit high school students to participate in those but not during school hours and those drills are very very productive for the First Response teams but not appropriate for our students so during a drill do you like go around and like just check like to see like can I see into that classroom is there like wiggling of a door handle and those kind of things students know that the the the purpose would be to make sure all doors function that they lock so they're they're aware of the fact that somebody will come by and nudge the door they're also aware that somebody will look in the window to make sure that people are quiet and out of sight but that's like as intrusive as it gets it's not going to be y yep it's very quick and and there's a lot of discussion about just safety we just there are many opportunities or many reasons why we might do this and we just want to be prepared if there's ever a d D in the building this is what we would do and John do you want to just mention just a bit about is it standard response protocol that the Safety Committee is looking at yeah so there um officer Hughes Mr dhy and myself went to a training um this past summer uh on standard response protocol and it's a a slightly different way of looking at things and in that schools or organizations prepare people for five different scenarios uh and now that I'm on the spot I'm going to forget the five uh but one is a lock down one's an evacuation one is a hold and a hold would be like what we call a doctor lock so let's say somebody's injured in the hallway or somebody gets sick in the hallway you don't want students moving around so you just put a hold um one's a shelter and that would be like there's some threat outside maybe a rabid raccoon so you just lock the doors and don't anybody out um and then the other one is like the weather the weather safety drill um and in that perhaps the philosophy would switch from a run hide fight to a we are prepared for five different scenarios and we would use these in many many different situations and in that perhaps we wouldn't need to worry about what we're talking about tonight because we would simply do lockdowns So the plan is for the Safety Committee to explore uh standard response protocol um and provide some updates throughout the school year if I might speak from previous experience when I was teaching there were lockdown um active shooter kinds of drills that when they started everyone was anticipatory of them it got to the point where people know now what a tornado drill means or a weather drill they know exactly what it is and they're comfortable doing that procedure and as you as you suggested Dr graph the the knowing what you what to do in most cases is um a very good habit to have in your brain I have a couple um you always talk about lock the doors are you talking about locking the classroom doors because aren't all the outside doors locked clarification so all of our buildings have single point of entrance so all doors are locked throughout the day except the main office and you always have to buzz in to get through that so we are discussing locking the classroom doors many classrooms are always locked um at the middle school we use a magnet so that that door can freely swing you pull the magnet and now it's locked how does that work up at the high school again with all those windows what are they doing uh they're doing their best okay y uh the doors would remain locked but it would be a little more difficult to get out of sight if and in that particular situation because I've thought about that too um these kinds of opportunities to plan in those kinds of classrooms are way better ahead of time than if it were ever needed that we don't want that to happen but they can get a plan for classrooms oh yeah I that's why I was wondering what and our current philosophy is evacuate first great question now I have one more question question cell phones what is our current policy with cell phones so at North and South no cell phones in the classroom they have I mean students have them but I keep they don't use them the teacher may keep them in a spot they don't access them during the instruction Middle School and High School cell phones are away during instructional periods they're okay to be used during passing time and lunch okay so my question is T bill March has you have to have a formal cell phone policy in place by March of 2025 know that question is do you address cell phones as part of the active shooter drill so once again speaking for the the middle school we have not there is going to be some conversation with that the standard response protocol the training we went to encouraged all students to have those cell phones because if something bad were to happen or a lockdown would be called because there is a rabid raccoon outside families will know very quickly and it's very calming to hear your or to see your child's Tech say everything's good there's a raccoon outside um so that would be the ongoing conversation is how do we respond to them my concern is and it would be interesting if we could figure out a way to determine this but if everyone uses their cell phone simultaneously have we overwhelm the system and our emergency services having communic a problems because of it and then the second thing about cell phone use you hate to think about it but over in the Iraq in Afghanistan a large majority of the IEDs are set off by cell phones and if people start using their cell phones if someone has technical expertise we could be setting off explosive devices in the school so back to your first your first point um I do believe that our law enforcement personel have multiple other ways of communicating in addition to cell phone so I don't know that their um communication internally in response to a potential danger would be compromised but I think they probably have range limitations and we can you know that's a good thing we actually have an up meeting coming up here with uh law enforcement be a good thing to talk about sorry to be such a thank you did I also see in here where you cannot combine like you have an active shooter drill so you can't pull the fire alarm oh I would imagine I don't you yeah in the St with something else see that'd be the first thing I'd do why don't don't get people ideas don't get me moving on it's happened next next next information item uh leadership development plan Dr ol yeah I just wanted to share with you and provide you an update on the leadership Saints leadership development plan uh the the plan uh is designed as a formal program uh to provide leadership training for staff members that will be useful in their jobs actually help the district out and provide a basis for becoming fully licensed administrators at the principal Andor superintendent level and or enhance their Readiness to assume positions for which they are licensed um as you look in the information there are there's an emerging principles component there's an emerging superintendent component and there's a career administrator component uh we have one staff member Mr dhy who's in the emergence emerging superintendent component as he's working on his superintendent license and we have one staff member Dr graph who's in the career administrator component who's having opportunities to work on his is uh districtwide leadership skills uh so uh the program I think has been effective in the past uh and with the two individuals we're talking about Mr dhy and Dr graph we are working on developing those action plans that you see the template for which will involve very specific uh strategic Focus areas and goals and actions and uh you'll you'll be hearing from them uh throughout the year we have any teachers we do not have teachers identified in the emerging principal program yet that's something that we're still talking about we do have at least a couple of uh our teacher staff members who are licensed principles so the idea is uh build the bench yeah great I like it uh next up interim superintendent Focus areas and goals 2024 202 yeah just just in terms of the work that uh that I've had an opportunity to do in my rather quick uh transition into the superintendent plan there are uh really five areas that seemed like they were emerging in addition to those operational areas that you always continue to work on uh as you're well aware the first is is the budget so the really the goal there is to develop the annual School District budget in a way that uh evaluates the Effectiveness and efficiency of programs and results in financial stability for the district uh a second area is the men the middle building project and working with Dr graph and uh Seth uh on as the primary context on that we uh and Bill as the board representative we work on the project oversight committee uh and you hear me talk about this a lot the goal is on time on budget and meet the promises made to the taxpayers of the district with the bond that was passed in the spring and I'm here to tell you as of today Seth and John we are on time we are on budget and we're focused on meeting the promises made to the taxpayers of the district uh a third area is communication uh and this is one that we're working with Darren on and Kurt hilderbrand uh to develop a comprehensive communication plan uh that works at improving communication with Target audiences both internally and externally uh it also um identifies strategies for keeping staff families and the community updated on the middle menend the middle project and the plans to stabilize the budget uh probably the one that should have been listed first is student achievement uh so student achievement the goal there is to increase the overall level of student achievement from all students in the district so really a pretty simple way of looking at that is every kid who comes through our door we ought to expect that we move the needle with them every single day and ultimately throughout the entire school year and then the last area is one that I just mentioned uh and that is the leadership development plan so qu I know I Buzz through those rather quickly questions on any of those you mentioned this right off the bat but I I mean these were all kind of created in consultation with a whole bunch of different groups right administrative leadership the school board s Education Association uh so lots of input uh which is wonderful and appreciate your thoughtfulness in in prioritizing some things that we know we need to work on over this next year so so I would uh you know it to be formal we call them strategic the focus areas and goals but I'd call them the big rocks these are the big rocks set some big goals for yourself but I think they're very representative obviously of where we're at and yeah yeah thank you thank you time for reports welcome to the crew all right fearsome foresome we're missing Miss angled Dinger tonight but we will I don't know if anyone's got a report for her or not but all right so in preschool um certainly this time of the year we're all about learning routines and the kids are doing a a good job with that the transitions we're excited we're up uh over 20 kids this year in our School Readiness program so that is really exciting for us uh as you may recall last spring we brought to the board the idea of using the preschool Express transit through the city of St Peter we have three to four buses that are assigned to our program three are regular buses and one a fourth one does just our K ready program which is a Monday through Friday morning program and that has gone very well we're excited to report um those buses are air conditioned they have um seat belts so you you walk in and everybody's safe and sound in their seat and ready for school um so that has been just a really good partnership and had really good um results with that this year so thank you again for your support on making that leap and change to give that a try um they are making some adjusted adjustments to their route times the first week um there were some long rides um but as they got in the groove just like in any bus route they were able to shorten some times and contact families and and do that so that has been working just fine um now we're on to safety so we're talking all things safety as Mr graph talked about safety ours is of course a little bit different but we're focused on bus and then we'll be um focused on fire safety as well and we'll make a full field trip up to the fire station that's our new neighbor so that's always exciting and lots of photo opportunities with a fire hat on so those are good times um last week our ECFE program had the kickoff and it was play and popsicles so families could come to our playground at our Early Childhood Center play on the playground in the evening and have a icy or a freezy and play they had over 27 kids plus family plus um parents and and family members so um there was probably about 50 people there so that was a great turnout we're looking forward to a really great school year and um appreciate the support of the board and our families in the community [Music] hello um I want to start by saying that last week was National arts and education week you may have seen that online and I just want to express my gratitude and appreciation for our teachers that uh work in Visual Arts Music Arts and Performing Arts we've got really dedicated staff across the district and also in Community Education so a shout out to Tammy Skinner who really integrates that in community programming as well um September 15th was also the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month and individual sites are working with Liaisons and teachers with spe special interest in developing age appropriate activities and I know you're going to hear a lot more about this from Annette uh Mrs enginger as they are doing the Hispanic Joy day in October at the high school um like Early Childhood South Elementary has been very focused on routines we've been learning all about star Pride as have I I uh caught myself telling my son he was showing good star Pride last night um um our students have been practicing positive and expected behaviors in the classroom the lunchroom the playground Etc um and we've also of course gotten right into reading and math instruction and social studies and Science and all things specialists in fact we've wrapped up our fast Assessments in reading and math and we're just getting into the Sabers seal so I just want to say thank you to all of the South teachers and the South staff members that have helped me acclimate to the littles um and also to the families for being so welcoming um students at ashaa Learning Academy are also settling into routines um the start of the school year brings so many changes and a significant turnover in that population um many of the clients at the leoa hman center leave at the start of a school year for their next District which for a lot of them is our second week of school so during our second and third week of school at Ashawa we turned over 50% of our students so it's like the first day of school again today um so they're just still settling in um and then Friday is our first professional development day in the district we've got those 50 teachers working on the o and La for redact and then our ECFE is kicking off with letters so lots of exciting stuff I'm going next all right well greetings from North Elementary everybody um we have uh you know historically we've done a spring play at North this we're actually going to have two play performances this year we're doing a fall in a spring play um director uh lenhoff Dustin lenhoff is um our one of our second grade teachers who has gone out he went out last year and found a grant for Performing Arts and so he's using that in order to um expand the offerings at nor so they will they had auditions going on tonight and Wednesday at a parent meeting last week and it's going to be The Reluctant Dragon performed on yeah November 20th at North so mark your calendars now they had a lot of I think it was packed I think Janna was there she said it was quite a great representation so he's Mr loff's doing a great job getting that Performing Arts rolling again bringing a whole new per bringing that stage back you know we haven't used the stage other than for fied and it's been performing arts quite a bit now again so that's pretty awesome um let's see last week um as Mrs Kor talked about we had um or actually Dr graph talked about our safety drills um we it's always a law to make sure that we get through certain safety drills by a certain week uh of the school year so we put in the bus drill the um lockdown drill and the fire drill and we always talk about at North the teachers do a phenomenal job like pre-teaching it but they also talk about it we're not scared we're prepared like we try to instill that you know we we'd love to wish you know like nothing bad would ever happen no tornadoes no fires no but we can't say that so the best next best thing is to be prepared be prepared for those things and so that that's what the teachers do a wonderful job um just getting that message out and going through that process and then answering the questions that kids have you know there's always a lot of wh ifs and they do a nice job just like feeling those questions and like settling the students down and so they can really focus on learning um and then as Mrs SC Mrs Kora talked about the false screeners we're about done with those um we get we have the math and the reading general knowledge screeners which are fast ones fast assessments um comprehension fluency with reading um social emotional with my saers and a new component we're um putting in this year is is another just quick screener um it's called encoding um some of us know that as spelling spelling test um so so there's certain there's certain um words at a certain time of year per at each grade level and so we're going to use that as a screener this year to see if um some of this Phonics work a lot of the phonics work that we've been doing all the way back um in South and preschool is now being applied because ultimately we have to be able to write and communicate that way so that's a new screener we're going to keep an eye on this year so we're excited about that graph one more item Janna talked about um bringing some recognition to our our our artists our art teachers I want to bring some recognition to Our IT department so that's another um staff group that I want to bring a lot of attention to they do a lot of work in the background we have a lot of devices in this District we have servers Wi-Fi all that stuff so uh Mr Sorbo and Kathy wook and uh Paul Johnson and Michael Johnson are doing a great job keeping that all up and running and just ready to have the kids use it and the teachers leverage it for instruction so thanks to that team no uh we're off to an incredible start we had our first uh PBIS assembly schoolwide assembly on September 6th at that assembly we set the stage for the year kind of talked about expectations and say Pride not Stars Pride but Saints Pride uh and then we had some fun uh we had um teacher competitions two teachers per grade level compete in like human Hungry Hungry Hippos uh in eighth grade one uh which is the way it should be every time uh and then assemblies from here on out students will be competing with teachers or with high school students in those games so it was a fun little preview um we set our pride ticket goal at 1,500 tickets in years past it's taken like a quarter to get 1,500 tickets so it kind of worked out celebration once per quarter we are already at 1,300 tickets so we might need to rethink the goals um but awesome awesome job with uh for the kids uh this year's play was announced um you had talked about building the play up at North you must have done a good job because day one fifth graders are in my office what's the play this year what's the play this year um this year's play will be Puffs Puffs is a play on Harry Potter series um it's a story that follows a group of less famous students the Puffs who were sorted into a lesser known house at A Certain Magical school overshadowed by The Adventures of a certain famous boy wizard uh and just quickly here it's a celebration of the overlooked in the ordinary reminding audiences that being part of a story even as a background character can still lead to moments of heroism and per personal growth so very exciting that's good yeah and and that's that's what's funny about it is like they they just get on the line um fast testing is just about completed the Middle School preliminary numbers look promising uh gives us some confidence to keep doing what we're doing uh but keep pushing I guess rather uh in terms of student achievement um our first PD day is on Friday uh Middle School staff will be spending most of the day working on our literacy goal uh we'll spend time identifying tier two and tier three vocabulary words both both the um department and grade levels and hopefully build some learning progressions with those to ensure that kids have the language they need uh as they move to each grade level and lastly shout out to the mainen crew the September heat wave is a killer um but overall the rooms are holding steady and are relatively comfortable uh Seth and the and the crew are working their tails off um today we had two rooms that were overly hot um but we were able to shift classrooms around to make make kids and and staff more comfortable so a huge thank you to to those folks and we can't wait uh for them in the middle to be completed thank you appreciate it superintendent Olson well I just want to Echo what the principals have reported uh great start to the school year uh staff across the district I think are doing a fantastic job in in uh providing for students and educating students and then serving students so it's it's been a good start I've had an opportunity to get around all of the buildings in the district and and and do uh walkarounds or walkthroughs and good good things are happening so I want to report that um secondly just a little preview of of what we're we've been talking about for the October 7th study session of the board there are two primary items one will be the annual report on student achievement which we'll look at our achiev results from last spring uh student attendance uh graduation rates um Etc um and we'll also be talking about plans that we'll be developing to um do a even better job of ensuring that more and more students are proficient in Reading mathematics and science uh and then the second part of that uh study session will be focused on our budget adjustment framework uh so one of the things I wanted to give uh the board members particular a heads up on is to be thinking about those kinds of things that I wouldn't say would necessarily be Untouchables or total non-negotiables but but would be make every effort to preserve fill in the blank uh as we go through the the the budgeting process so you might say uh make every effort to not disproportionately impact uh students of color or students of poverty you might say make every effort to uh maintain reasonable class size or make every effort to ensure that there is a comprehensive elective opportunities in place for students whatever I mean you guys give that some thought because that's one of the things that we're we're looking for in the budget adjustment process as we move forward in the next month or two are those sort of guard rails you know what do we have to have as guardrails as we start looking at how to provide for that Financial stability we're talking about and then the final thing I just want to mention uh we we need to tonight Megan thank you for reminding us of that uh formally announce that the truth in taxation hearing and presentation is set for Monday December 16th 2024 at 6:30 p.m. here in the governor's room and I think that need is is by Statute to announce that when you adopt your prelimin Min Ary Levy so that someone would like to come and question the levy it's been announced as to when that truth and Taxation presentation will occur so duly note that in the record uh that we have announced that that's it for me thank you um we will go around the table before we do committee updates Miss rasbach um just so exciting to hear about the start of the school year with all the students and so much fun to see them around um and I did my first volunteer session at the concession stand at our first uh football game and I could not believe how busy it was I don't think I Stood Still at all that evening but it was so much fun and and we won and did well so do I don't really have any updates either just excited to when I go pick up the kids excited to see all the excitement in the high school parking lot that's always fun lots of new drivers in there I do think we need to look at the traffic flow I don't know um who would look at that maybe Seth maybe go up and look at that traffic flow um the buses have a hard time getting out of the parking lot we have the student section on the okay North southeast west side they have like exclusive rights to leave the parking lot without yielding or stopping number one they go really really fast but the buses do get kind of stuck so something to look at but but it is it is fun if you just want fun just go up there it it's very interesting yeah so cool thanks Mr C yeah a couple of things um I too would like to um give recognition to Seth uh when I'm up doing the bill I'm in his office and I hear him on the phone continuously solving one problem hearing another working uh he's doing an excellent job at least he fools me he's not actually on the phone he's just yeah yeah while the radio you know people come in he deals with them so it's uh um it's impressive to see how he operates with I don't know how many different buildings and people and so forth um secondly the business office uh staff has been very understanding of my questions concerning bills and procedures and so forth and I think that you will be happy next month when that uh quarterly fund balance tracker is revealed because I believe that there there's a much better understanding of the budget up at the district office so great it I think it'll be very few surprises hopefully um then as far as your Communications goal I have a request from a few of the boys down at coffee he been getting athletic events into the yeah yeah um you know the we saw we saw in the paper when the Free Press said you know you got to report your scores and I have no idea who's doing what but it would they were wondering could you put on the homepage just a little section last night athletic results or something something like that that could be posted so well it's kind of kind of interesting uh bill because uh this was an agenda item on our administrative team meeting this afternoon so uh stay tuned yeah so that was just a suggestion so um that's uh all I have but please get the athletic results cu Miss Martins I I would include the academic activities that are results on that too um since Mrs angled Dinger is not here I'm going to throw out a couple of things that are happening this next before our next board meeting um at the high school tomorrow is national voter registration day if you haven't caught that on all of the news feeds and everything and we have at St Peter High School to National League of Women Voters uh National Youth voter engagement fellows this year we have Quinn rasbach and Ryan ramp who are putting on Wednesday an assembly for all 11th and 12th graders to make sure that they understand how to register to vote and where to vote and how to find information on candidates and so on also on um the 11th of October there is the Hispanic Latino Joy day that's going to be taking place at the at the high school and um Mr Warren is working very hard on that and it should be a really as good as the other two Joy days have been and then on October 14th on indigenous people's day the indigen the N the napac organization is putting together a the I think it's the 3 annual um indigenous day walk from the Middle School down to Minnesota Square Park at be watch for information on that that's what I've got cool thank you uh committee updates first up is the education committee um well we had um curriculum review process I'm not going to go into great detail um onto all of that but we talked about what was it of science social and math I think talked about a little bit student achievement but we're going to go over that in study board session and I think that's all we did I'm looking at the agenda that's all I kind of remember doing thank you how about the business committee well the business committee was very busy if you were paying attention during the meeting because we voted on just about everything that we did so um but yeah it uh it's very interesting um it's nice to see that our student count is up from what we anticipated hopefully we'll be able to maintain that um I said the the budget uh we're on track hopefully where we want to be and that's all in the minutes there and the men in the middle project um it's interesting going through all the design stuff that they want to do and you just kind of have to pull them back in every once in a while because The Architects had their way they'd spend that amount of money numerous times over so um I feel comfortable with Dr olssen and Seth and Dr graph we have people who will keep them on task it's kind of exciting to actually see what it's going to look like but it would even be more exciting when they actually start doing something so that'll be with anticipation M thank you policy committee and the policy committee I think we've gone over pretty much everything that we that we did within the agenda tonight and we are kind of looking at how we're going to approach the rest of the policies that need to be revised and so on so they've been very productive meetings thank you for those uh we've got the list of upcoming meetings of the school board we have as Dr Dr Olsson mentioned the school board study session on Monday the 7th uh and then all of our committees are meeting uh over the next or the first couple weeks of October and then our next regular board meeting is back here on Monday October 21st 6:30 pm right aftera right after mea National be well arrested we will back at it that's all we have would entertain a motion to adjourn I will make a motion to adjourn I'll second all those in favor I I meeting is adjourned thank you everyone thank you all right good job Charlie