##VIDEO ID:FSqu7l562so## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] good evening it is Thursday November 21st at 6 PM we are at the district service center in Cottage Grove Minnesota we would like to acknowledge that the land on which We Gather is the land of the mawakan Dakota people meakan means dwellers of the spirit Spirit Lake our first item on the agenda is roll call Dana rayan Clark here Sharon vaner here Eric tesner here Pat Driscoll here Melinda dolles here simy pet here Katie Schwarz here um 2.0 pledge of Allegiance please stand United States nais andice 3.0 is approval of the agenda can I get a motion to approve moved second moved by Ryan seconded by simy Sim any comments all those in favor I opposed motion passes 4.0 is comments to the board we do not have any this evening so we will move on to 5.0 and that is our consent items all consent items are considered routine and non-controversial by the Schoolboard and will be approved by a single motion there will be no separate discussion of these items prior to this meeting board me members have had the opportunity to review each of these items and may have requested for any item to be removed to an action item for consider that did not happen this evening so can I get a motion to approve so moved second motion by Melinda seconded by semy all those in favor I any opposed motion passes okay on to 6.0 and that is our information items we do have one item on the agenda tonight and that is 6.1 and that is our high school course catalog and that will be presented by Christine Schaefer assistant superintendent good good evening School Board chair Schwarz School Board member superintendent Nelson we are here tonight to review our high school course catalog and share any additions that have been made to that um course catalog as you're aware this is a catalog of all of our High School courses for our comprehensive high schools and our online high school so you may be thinking school year just started and you're already planning for next year and yes we are and here's why our high schools have been preparing for the last couple of months for the registration process to begin for the 25 26 school year and that'll start in December so therefore it's important important that our C course catalog is finalized by the end of November so that in December we can start meeting with students so starting in December students get information related to registration and they will start that process in January our high school counselors go to our middle schools and share the information with 8th grade and they also go to our High School classrooms and talk through the registration process and then in January students start to register and that is completed by the end of January and once that's completed our high school administrators begin creating their master schedule and looking at staff for the 25 26 school year so as you can see the process of course scheduling Master scheduling and Staffing is really a year-long process at our high schools so before we review the course catalog I'd like to review quickly the graduation requirements and I know you've seen these um these are not new and these are mandated by the Minnesota Department of Ed and so you can see we have four years of language arts three years of math three years of science three and a half years of social studies one trimester credit each of health and fied two trimester credits of Fine Art and then a minimum of 22 elective trimester credits the change in the new legislation is this year's current nth graders will be required to take personal finance and that will be added so they so starting with this graduating class of 2028 they'll need 67 credits to graduate and we have not added that yet we are waiting from the framework from mde to create that course and Mark's going to talk a little bit about that um so as you can see with 66 required credits to graduate when they take four years of classes with us 18 credits per year they can actually earn 72 credits so they have a bit bit of a buffer in there so that's how that works all right so with that with all that background information I'd like to introduce Mark mckam the director of secondary teaching and learning thank you as superintendent Schaefer good evening School Board uh chair Schwartz Schoolboard members and superintendent neelon uh it's great to be with you tonight excited to come and share uh the new changes to the 2526 course guide uh as a former High School principal it's an exciting time of the year uh because you know schools are really focused on trying to create the best learning experiences right now but they've also pivoted and they're planning really actively for the next school year um as assistant superintendent schaer indicated uh we're going to start with the big picture in mind and look at some of the legislation that's guiding our work towards 2627 uh and I'd like to give you an update on on each one of these if I could please first is the personal finance uh we will offer this course as a trimester course in 2627 and it's because mde just released a framework this fall uh with those details uh we need to gather more feedback from principles and departments and other interested parties to find out exactly where that course will land and which department and evaluate the existing personal finance uh class that we have uh to make sure that we meet all those requirements secondly uh we have the government and citizenship uh requirement it requires students to complete a course for credit in government and citizenship within the current social studies uh credit requirements and our long-standing 12th grade class uh in social studies uh covers these requirements thirdly we have the ethnic studies uh component this requires high schools to offer an ethnic studies course aligned with State social studies standards by the 26 27 uh school year and we're awaiting a framework from mde on this uh course what we do know is that this will be uh needs to be a standalone trimester course uh that an elective offering uh there's a legislative working group uh currently on this and we'll uh be awaiting uh further guidance from that group Next is the American Indian culture and language class uh this is an expectation that was outlined in the American Indian legislation passed in uh 2023 uh it indicates that if uh indigenous uh students over a certain threshold in terms of a percentage of population of our student population uh that we are to offer a uh uh uh language and culture classes uh TLS is uh currently working with her indigenous uh education coordinator to look at the logistics of this and how we would offer potentially two different classes Dakota and oju language and culture uh there's currently no uh specific date uh indicated in terms of implementation for for those courses but it is a conversation and planning that we're having currently next is uh the uh the require school districts to offer as part of the social studies curriculum uh education on the Holocaust and genocide in Middle School and High School curriculum by the 26 27 school year uh again we're awaiting further clarification from mde there's a legislative working group on this as well um we currently uh meet these standards uh and requirements based on the 2011 and the 2021 social study standards uh but again we're awaiting those specifics to make sure that we're uh covering all of those requirements so with that that's kind of the the macro as we think about teaching and learning secondary what's guiding our work and looking farther out but now we get to talk a lot about next year uh which doesn't seem that far off uh we've been talking about 25 26 uh for about six or seven months now uh so uh let's take a look at some of the the the courses first of all our course guide let's have a reminder that our strategic plan really calls out the student experience and I think one of the special Parts about the student experience is the wide variety of offerings that we get to uh offer our students across our high schools we depend on uh our administrators for being in tune with our student interests our teachers and of course our students uh for sharing their ideas and then we work our best way to put those elective options uh in in play so without further ado just taking a look at the process it really is a Sprint as assistant superintendent Schaefer said in the fall right so we come back and we get all these new course proposals from staff at the beginning of October and immediately we get to work in a committee of principles uh High School principls assistant superintendent Schaefer myself in evaluating those course proposals uh we make decisions on those and they get into the course guide for the 25 26 uh school year uh from there we're busy getting registration materials uh printed and out to middle schools and high schools and we're already into those information nights and opportunity nights in January and then in February the students are registering for the next year uh so I always say that with a smile because it's just amazing we uh the planning that goes into the next school year so now I'm excited to share uh the new courses that have been added for the 2526 school year uh you can see here that there are a couple different options uh uh for students in the uh family and consumer science uh Department uh we have some concurrent enrollment options there personal and family living and LIF span development we have a new English language arts class filmmakers and film Masters movies as narrative art and then we have several online options that will be added spanning several different departments uh across our district uh we also have brick and mortar uh engineering classes that will be added and technically just for your own purposes as you're looking at this slide know that we could say it's Creative Design and Engineering a but B and C could be separated here because those are three separate classes uh in career and tech ed uh we're also adding AP Spanish AP French fine art photography C art and artists of Europe robotics 3 and projectly the way computer integrated manufacturing so a real Variety in a lot of different departments uh for students in this upcoming year something we have our eye on is we know and it's been such a pleasure getting to know as a high school principal to know our High School principles and and the staff in each one of these buildings they need to be in tune with what the students are really interested in and what's relevant to them and uh they do a great job when they come through the course proposal process of being in tune with what students are really after but we're going to spend time this year looking at are there even more intentional ways that we can leverage student voice in uh in the course proposal and the course offerings that we put in the next course guide a year from now when we're having this conversation so we have a great student ambassador group um you know uh from from uh your work with them and we also have other technology platforms that we could crowdsource ideas and and expose students to real life crowdsourcing that takes place in Industry uh so we look forward to partnering we've got really talented principles and I'll really lean into uh their ideas as well with that I'll I'll turn it over for questions but thank you it's a good opportunity to come and be able to speak to some of the new courses so I appreciate your time tonight yeah I have a I have a question about the um the courses so you said the requirements there's going to be more credits that students will be required the personal finance course okay I'm just wondering if you can clarify like how that would fit in as opposed to like if you have the High achieving students that are taking the AP courses which a lot of them already are a semester more or a trimester more than the other ones and if they're also wanting to take language and and arts like you know band Orchestra or choir how they' be able to fit that in because I know a lot of them are already having to take like that extra gym course in the summer if this is something they would have to take on their own time or how they would fit that in yep well first remember this isn't something that we had a choice right this is legislative you mandated but I think if you were to ask um our high school principls they feel like see our seniors a lot of seniors have a lot of space in their schedule so we have some um 12th graders that really all they need to take is English 12 and economics and the rest are elective so I do hear you that U um students that are taking AP and orchest and all of those things might have a tight time but we really feel like we could we could require a lot more for our 12th grade students and that's probably where this class is going to land 11th and 12th grade and it will fit without a problem um but and I know there was another question about um students taking an overload or taking additional classes we offer six courses during dur during the school day so they couldn't take another class with us but we um have no parameters around if a student takes a course at night online or in the summer online they pay for those on their own and we do have many students that do that and we take those when we accept those credits under their transcript so many times students do choose that option I know last summer for the first time our sashka online offered some summer courses that students could take so that we could offer those too and we had I think Nick said about 40 students that um took a math class or took something in the summer so that they could free up their schedule so and we will probably open up those offerings to your point of if we have students that can't fit it all in they could choose that as an option too and Christine that's how our um some of our students are taking their fied course in the summer they're registering and paying for that yes overload yep okay so this Finance course might potentially be offered online too where they could take that absolutely yes yep Y and then in terms of the extra Social Studies classes so you said that the course for credit in government and citizenship counts with our current government class already satisfies that so what is the intent behind the new um how is that new law supposed to fit in or or you know because I thought if government has always been required as a it's it's a graduation requirement correct it already is yes so what is different about this new requirement do you know yeah so keeping in mind that when we when we have direction from MD uh we're bringing the entire State up to a certain level and so all we're saying is our existing course meets the requirements that were already outlined in the legislation okay so we don't have to do any like this is we have already yeah thank you yeah I have a quick question uh with with regards to you had mentioned that the mde was um putting forth guidelines or you're waiting for those guidelines for some of the new courses um do you have any idea when when those guidelines would be available or when they would be out yeah we currently don't we we have a teaching and learning secondary uh uh staff that sit in on all of the meetings and uh they they just uh often the language is soon the legislative uh working groups are working on them there's not a specific uh date when we receive those so I assume that with the mde they put out they put out guidelines for for every course in high for all high schools or how does that or just new ones or how does that work just these new ones I mean there are parameters around some of our um required classes but not all classes no okay they've done this before though they've put out guidelines for for new courses that have been added or or acquired in high school yes what you I don't know if you can answer this but is there a way that you can speak about I guess what those you've seen out of guidelines in the past as far as how they categorize what the courses need to include that sort of thing I I can't speak to specifics and I don't know Mark if you can but I do know they have a working group with with people across the state and Educators from across the state that put those together and I don't know if you have you have any more information about that no I don't no we haven't we haven't seen the Frameworks yet so I it would be I I certainly is something that we can come back and report to the board about yeah I guess that's what I'm interested in because I would like to know I guess what what for example what topic matters are are required to be discussed and that sort of thing yeah okay is and specific course or uh no I I'm just I'm just I mean just in general I guess I'm just interested in how they lay these types of guidelines out because I would like to know um how narrowly you know they construe like you're required to teach this specific topic within this course or are you or are you not that sort of thing okay um I don't know if that Julie maybe this question for you but is that something that you could provide to the board absolutely I think um what I hear you asking Eric is what are those standards for the different courses and so like Elementary lit we have all the standards um and those standards come down from the Minnesota Department of Education so yes and I think we also have to remember that this legislation was passed um June 30th July 1st and so there are working groups and once we have that information I'm happy to pass that along so board members can see what those standards are in those re required courses um one other question about the brick and mortar classes how do students know um what school they're at right like if a student is like oh this uh uh personal and family living class is really interesting to me is that something that gets offered across all three high schools or how does that work it's specific in the course guide it'll say right next to the course which school is at yes so if a student wants to take a course that's offered at a different High School do they have to then you know transit to another school to take that course right now we do not have students that do that um if we see that there are students at a particular brick and mortar school that want to take something what we've been doing is offering it online so we have many classes offered online that maybe we're having a hard time finding a license teacher to teach that we'll put online with that teacher so that anyone can take it all right any other questions okay see none thank you oh thank you I wish I could thank you Mark Christine okay moving on to 7.0 action item 7.1 is proposed policy changes and that is presented by Julie neelson superintendent thank you this evening I'm I am seeking approval for the eight policies that were brought forth um to our last board meetings those policies include One 600 series policy that 620 credit for Learning and we talked extensively about that one as well as seven policies that fit in the 700 series with deal with which deal with our budget um establishment of the School District budget modifications fund balance accounting annual audit Investments and acceptance um at our last board meeting on November 7th uh there were no other comments or feedback and so the policies are moving forward as presented and this evening I am asking for approval of those eight policies can I get a motion to approve moved second motion by Sharon seconded by Eric er um any comments okay seeing none all those in favor I I opposed motion passes we will move on to 7.2 calendar for the 2025 26 school year and that will also be presented by Julie neelson superintendent thank you um again the proposed calendar was brought for information to the board um on November 7th this evening I am bringing it Forward asking for approval um as you can see from your board cover report uh the calendar has been vetted through various groups um we also had a steering committee that reviewed it as was shared last time our calendar just had very slight alterations but looks very similar to last year's calendar and this last week at our all district advisory meetings with our district advisory groups um we also had the chance to share the calendar with them and gather any feedback and um overall uh the calendar was very well received and there were no questions so this evening I am asking for approval on the 2526 K12 school calendar can I get a motion to approve moved second motion by Ryan seconded by pad any comments all those in favor I I any oppose motion passes we will move on to 8.0 and that is our superintendent report I feel like I'm going to slow it down a little bit because we've got to be here for at least 30 minutes I think no um for the students sake out there who have this as a course project right um just a couple of updates our construction projects continue across the district to share with the board that gosh was it Monday Tuesday or Wednesday I think it was Monday or Tuesday um we had a meeting at Park High School with the city of Cottage Grove um and that was by invitation so that neighborhood neighbors around the school could come and see the the plan for the road um while it was not well attended we had a lot of Administrators there prepared um but the individuals that did attend shared good information and I think felt very positive about the how the roads and how the system of traffic flowing in and out of the school was going to work um secondly we had our first district our student District uh youth Ambassador group meeting and so starting in December we will have our wonderful students sitting next to me uh so that will start at our next meeting December 12th um and then finally uh Tuesday December 26th will be our last student day students will be off next Wednesday and they will be off the following Monday for a teacher Workshop day so just as a reminder as families look at the calendar and then finally it is that season of lots not a lot but lots of concerts from band Orchestra and choir um almost every single night there's some music event happening throughout the district so please anybody viewing uh be sure to take those concerts in um our students are just incredible so thank you thank you Julie okay on to 9.0 future meeting dates we have one meeting in December so that will be December 12th and that is our business meeting and it will be here at the district service center at 6m and then on January 2nd we will have a Schoolboard business meeting to go through the first of the year um priorities and that is at the district service center at 6 pm and then immediately following that meeting we will have our Workshop meeting also on January 2nd with that 10.0 and we are adjourned wow two meetings in AOW e [Music] m he [Music] m 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