##VIDEO ID:cqQyJL5DWs0## to order it is August 21st 2024 and the time is 6 6:37 p.m. our mission is to provide a safe and caring climate and culture in which we engage Inspire educate prepare and Empower all Learners in partnership with their surrounding Community to be successful in today's and tomorrow's Society Zach can you please lead us in the pledge allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you and then can you please call R can uh the following board members are presentent at The District administration office Natalie Copeland here El dalren here Zack dhol is here Shannon HZ here Heather Williams here and the following uh board members are remote Monica shagara Schwartz she's here uh remote and a board member andreon is not present tonight happy birthday Mr andron and the following cabinet members and staff are present at the district Administration office superintendent Dr Lorie putam assistant superintendent of secondary education Dr Jason Harris assistant superintendent of prek through grade five education Nikki Hansen assistant superintendent of E12 student services Shannon avenson executive director of Community Education Adam Holm executive director of finance and business services Amy scholaro executive director of operations Joel heid Camp executive director of Special Projects Gary gangji executive director of research enrollment and assessment Don roer director of community engagement and Communications Tammy Dand media technicians Paul Novak and Gordy Scott and the custodian on site is Aiden not sure thank you Zach then we need to uh approve tonight's meeting agenda um so I'm looking for a motion to approve the Board of Education meeting agenda for tonight so moved second I have a motion by Miss weams and a second by Miss Copeland Zack can you call vote again Shannon hos yes Zack dhol say yes Al doen yes Natalie Copeland yes Heather Williams yes Monica sigara Schwarz yes okay then we have the consent agenda the consent agenda consists of non-controversial items that the board adopts routinely without debate any single member May remove an item from the consent agenda by requesting removal at the time the consent agenda is moved for adoption on tonight's consent agenda item a approval of minutes from July 17th 2024 Item B approval of bills and other Financial trans transactions in the grand total amount of 8,576 n323 cents item C approval of personnel staff changes item D acceptance of Grant Awards and donations item e McKinley addition and renovation project change orders totaling $3,233 46 item F Apollo ltfm change orders totaling $ 26,7 7899 item G Apollo parking lot change orders totaling $2,517 item H sale of surplus and obsolete equipment item I revised quarterly expenditures for board members and item J approval of resolution calling for the school district general election at this time does any board member wish to remove an item from the consent agenda okay then I'm looking for a motion to approve the consent agenda as read so moved and do have a second second of a motion by Natalie and a second by Al Zach can you call vote again U Al do yes Zach dhol yes Shannon hos yes Heather Williams yes Monica Sara Schwarz yes Natalie Comin yes okay thank you moving on to our one informational item tonight it is the safety and belonging in schools through building relationships and Partnerships with Sr we have Joel he cemp executive director of operations presenting and we'll be introducing his team here tonight good evening chair HW superintendent putam and members of the board I'm excited to uh introduce our two guests here this this evening uh next to me I have Sergeant Greg kleinfelter and then next to him is Commander Marty Seer and we're here to give an update on our school resource officer program and we titled this uh presentation safety and belonging in schools through relationships and Partnerships and that really is how it is going to uh hopefully feel to all of you uh in how we work through our uh every day in our schools and the the partnership that we have with our local police Department we began this evening just highlighting side by side the mission statements both of the school district and of the police department and I wanted to just call out the similarities that are there as well uh both of them having values around caring around partnership and specifically uh supporting uh our communities as a school district supporting our school communities and as the police department supporting the entire St Cloud Community we do that uh in a variety of ways and I think you're going to be astounded in all the ways that they're going to highlight here this evening but really centered on some guiding principles of uh being student centered having strong communication both the school district with the PD and the PD with the school district high levels of trust throughout all of the work that we do uh and then also having very clearly defined roles in what a school district employee or how a school is going to support students and how a school resource officer May support either the school or uh or their students officer clle felter all right um so uh our current school resource officer team you can see it's our division is a community engagement division that's commanded by Commander uh SE um I specifically am a sergeant within the community engagement division uh specifically uh in charge of the sro's again my name is Greg kleinfelter and then we have six sro's that are uh in our organization you can see the names up there and the positions afterwards so like officer Ben eberg he floats uh and covers at all the schools and then the way the schools obviously work is they're assigned to a primary school which would either be a a High School junior high or um KJ and then they all get assigned um elementary schools as their Secondary School um we have multiple roles within uh our programs um we look at ourselves as Educators uh emergency managers uh we obviously do safety and we do safety first and foremost and and prioritize that but we also uh work strongly with mentors the pictures that you see there are from our Skyla Camp um uh we did not climb the ropes because we just didn't there was the adults that didn't want to do it but so but the kids were all ready to go up those big ropes and across but we decided not to so um as Educators so we'll break down a little bit of that last slide so as Educators we do and all of the sixth graders within the whole District at least in St Cloud proper um we get taught they get taught keys by our their junior high uh it would be either officer Larson or um officer Lester this year Lester will be over at North so uh and it's knowledge and education for youth success it just talks it's done over a group uh uh many days in in smaller groups but they get to teach we teach about drugs alcohol cyber bullying um uh all kinds of other um Social Media stuff so they all sixth graders in the district get that um and then in the middle school they're they our sro's get approached all the time by different teachers they'll just come to them and say hey do you have time can you work in this class for this hour can can you come and we're we're having I'm hearing this issue with some of the students in my class can you come and just talk about this so there's a lot of random educating that goes on um and most of that stuff revolves around the Alcohol Tobacco um and uh Social Media stuff mostly Social Media stuff good um we talk with a high school at the same thing that happens in the middle schools happens at the high schools um and just a little I mean they just have much higher level conversations um they talk about current issues we've done in the past uh we've done um supported the district uh as they've taught some intro to law enforcement courses um there's some exciting news that we I'll talk about a little bit later with that um so we've done work with them also in the high schools we do we have a prize Group which you can see what it it's promoting resilient Youth and uh through support and education basically that group is a group of kids that somehow some way in their lives have been affected by incarceration so we uh get this group together um and we do a lot of uh we have a lot of presenters that come in and talk about being able to um do self-care and and social emotional healing um and we try to to create an environment which is safe for them to uh be vulnerable uh and talk with uh other kids that are in the similar situation so that's a huge success um we continue to do uh like some higher level stuff around prom we'll do Mack crash we just did a Mack crash last year at Apollo High School um that was a big success the kids um we had we wish we could have brought the helicopter in but they wouldn't fly uh we're dependent on mother nature for some of that but the kids seem to really like it they had a lot of questions about it um and that revolves uh obviously around prom week and prom safety and then so what I told you before is previously we've helped with the teaching of um law enforcement it's like a 101 kind of an intro to law enforcement class one of the things that we just have been able to solidify and I'm pretty excited about is that um with in partnership with Dr putam and and Commander SE we've been given the permission to teach the class this year on our own so we'll have um it'll be a partnership probably between myself uh one of the other SRO officer Sherry more than likely and then one of our other commanders uh commander ellering who does a lot of other educating at uh secondary education uh sites are going to actually put the curriculum together work with you and figure out how um we can get that done and uh we're going to have to do it in Fairly short order but we're super excited about it and that will start uh one class at Apollo and one class at Tech uh for the first try so that'll get going here shortly um as emergency manners the S SRO do a lot of uh joint training um we train uh I specifically I think am involved in a lot of conversations with the district um with input from our SRO we just had a training out at Tech this last week where they talked about their evacuation and reunification planning and they use the sro's um to bounce ideas off and to get sometimes I think the beauty of the partnership really becomes you know all the teachers and all of the administrators they have one they think alike and we come in with a little bit different thought process that um really benefits I think the planning so that worked really good we talk a lot about school safety procedures um each of the sro's is constantly in conversations with um the their school administration um and take advantage of all of uh that expertise it works out it I just can't say how positively it works out it's it's fantastic so um and then I'm a part of oh I guess we all are but I'm specifically go to all the epac meetings so we're involved there safety is kind of our bread and butter right that's what we do and we hopefully do the best there's little I mean site monitoring we're just talking about we're always there we look for things that are out of place we do whatever we can whatever uh we address things that are uncomfortable for us we address things that are really good um but all with the the vision of of school safety not uh physical safety but also um the safety of the students and the staff obviously we do criminal investigations uh medical emergency responses um we'll do some Crisis Intervention um we've worked really well with um most of the crisis intervention we do as kind of a as kind of a secondary thing to the school staff because the school staff does a good job of that um and then we'll fill in sometimes as we all know there's certain situations where Mental Health crisis becomes potentially physical or dangerous and that's where we can step in and help out um and our goal uh if you don't get anything out of this our goal uh other than this is true is our our goal is we want to keep the students and the staff safe and we want to have strong relationships with as many uh of the staff and especially of the students as we possibly can and then we work with active threat preparation we've done done a lot of that uh lately um and so that gets done every year so so this is the fun stuff when we talk about being mentors this is what we for our our St Cloud Police Department in our community engagement division we'll talk a little bit about our cop houses and what the our CRT division or our CRT um group does but for us and the school of resource officers we're in charge of our Skyla program if you don't know what that is it's a St Cloud youth leadership academy you can read kind of what uh who's invol D it's boys and girls within the district um ages 13 to 16 I'll tell you I can't tell you or explain to you any better than this when I took this job I've been working four years I think four years as this job in this role and when I came on board I thought to myself okay Skyla is going to be a necessary evil because we got to take 15 to 20 kids up to Camp Ripley for a week and we're going to hang out with them all week I'm going to be away from my family for an entire week and um people say it's going to be fun um I can tell you now I've been up there many times and it's the fundamentally most um rewarding rewarding yeah it's the thing that's affected my career by far the most is Skyla the relationships that you build I can't my wife always ask me why do you keep going and I'm like it's it's easy because the relationships that I have with students when I come back um we each get a moniker so we each we give them all a moniker um one of them mon so they all they all come up with their given names and they all leave with our names that we choose so one of them one of the young men and boys Skyla was Slim Shady um one of the I can't remember I I know one of the girls was Princess and last year one of them was um Ace so we give them all nicknames well over the course of time they call me Grandpa Greg so and I'm I'm don't know why is maybe my gray hair and that I'm fairly old um however they call me Grandpa Greg so the but when I go to teer Apollo these kids are there and I'll walk in there it's my favorite thing to do in school year I'll walk down and I'll go into the commons and all I hear is Grandpa Greg Grandpa Greg Grandpa Greg and I'll turn around and you'll literally have two or three of the students come up they're hugging me they're giving me five um they're dabbing me up whatever it is and it's they all want to have conversations and about what am I doing how's my family what are you know they want to tell me about their families it's very honestly the most rewarding thing so if you want to know more about Skyla you can reach out to me and I can talk about Skyla for hours so these are the graduates from this year uh the girls uh are on the top and then the boys so what what we do for our program is they come with socks and underwear and nothing else and we provide them all the clothes for the week we provide them all the food for the week um one of the boys we called Skittles because he tried to sneak like a one pound bag of Skittles on the bus and we won't let him so um so with that uh these are the two graduating classes this year we're super proud of those guys and girls um our sro's through that level of trust it's amazing that they get approached all the time about them going through difficult times some things are criminal some things aren't some things are just hey I can't deal with this at home right now or and some things have to be addressed at a at a school level and other things they just want to talk so it's it's an amazing relationship that we are able to build um the other thing that we can do is we have access to pretty good uh outside Community Resources so if that makes sense for them at the time those decisions kind of get made with within the partnership of the school staff and us um so uh and I think there's a lot of exciting things coming down the pipe with this as it relates to uh the Community Schools project and stuff so there this is an exciting spot um and the bottom one is what we do that's our goal that's our one goal um I'll talk brief ly about our so sros are just part of our community engagement division So within that division there's our ccit team and our CRT team I'll let our commander talk about that one of the things that we do a lot of work with is I think you're a lot of you are familiar with the cop house we have a current cop house uh on the south side right by hos Park um that's been operational for a few years now and we've seen just huge growth in all the students and the district does have office space in that cop house so there are future plans are expanded we've talked about you'll hear Commander uh uh explain a little bit more about the Salem House and the 1010 house the north house um is kind of conceptual uh and it's going to play in with our Community Schools project um so I think when when we started talking I'm on the committee with the Community Schools project and when we started to talk about that I talk with Dr puam a lot and just said this sounds a lot like a cop house and then I would talk with the commander and so that's kind of how we got conceptually is probably a North cop house um kind of thing so the other thing sro's do is we this year is something new is we partner with all the boys and girls club which is all of our students and so the cop house on the South Side they were be able to functionally serve a lot of those kids but we felt like okay we need to serve the kids also on the North side or on the east side so we've done week-long pal camps with them so we go in Monday through Thursday um and we give them a lot of uh cool cop stuff or play uh and they get to see our cool cop stuff but then we it's awesome we play kickball or whiffle ball or I mean last but this year now we did a reading program we did a spelling be with them on the east side um so it it's a lot of our sro's get as much out of it as the kids do so um go ahead the next yep so I'll let Commander s explain all right is this on it is in my defense my phone was off but I have one app that overrides it in the middle of the night it's does it at Schoolboard meetings as well so I apologize if it goes off again it could but anyway um this is uh basically if you look at it I realize it's very small um our division we're probably one of the only departments that has it Community engent actual division of of people and it originally started with the cop house and um and you can see that's called the CRT team that's a community Response Team uh that also uh included our community crime impact team our H officers as soon as uh I got the position that's what it looked like I immediately I asked hey I think the SRO should be in our group I want to expand the size of our division to uh an actual division size so we've got about uh 21 sworn officers in the division now we also have the V Defender task force uh you may wonder why is that in a community engaged Division I always tell people we we have to engage the community and that's it's all levels of the community um and watching all these people interact um you know our CRT team can be dealing with people um you know out fishing and uh with the hockey or a soccer camp um and then the next day they're in another Community trying to find somebody that was an offender against somebody in our community so um having that blend within the division really is is is how we sit now and with the school resource officers um you can see there's the six where always to me I if we I always want to expand even more um but part of our big goal and and the chief's goal is how do we get some of these kids from the school district um from a young age to look into law enforcement look into the fire profession look into EMS um and part of that is really what what what we're trying to do uh we have a lot of officers that are from outside of this city they know nothing about it when they come here um there's a lot that started out here um a lot of our cops all went to St Cloud State um and have had a lot of exposure to it so that's kind of what we're trying to do in the big picture um we go to the next slide so a lot of this some of this is concept some of this is is reality and I guess I'd call it our goals but we have one Legacy cop house right now that's in the South Side that's the yellow box um the green and the blue box up there uh the greenhouse is the Salem House which is going it's a cop house with a concept that's going to work with our mental health response teams um it's more medical uh Community focused um much different of a cop house than you we'd think of no cop house is the same and that that's kind of the rule um uh nationally but our the blue box down there is the 1010 Park um and that is that is going to be very similar to The Legacy cop house so we're going to split the team um we have office space for the school district if they want to be partners in that uh we're breaking ground on that in the next couple weeks so both the Salem and the 1010 cop houses we're looking at spring for a grand opening for both um but that whole park is there this the referendum for the parks uh that's one of the parks that's affected so is H Park where the Legacy cop house is so the amount of uh fiscal um contributions to those Parks uh and its closeness to tahi especially is of great interest I would think to 742 the the red box indicates more of the concept or goal of how do we create yet a different version of of our cop house and how do we staff it and that's my challenge is I'm going to I'm going to staff the Legacy and the 1010 Cop House through our CRT program um my community crime impact team with the mental health responders are going to staff the uh Salem house and I'm looking at our sro's to be the primary staff that are going to work out of the north um in the future so that's kind of our big picture and finally um this just kind of uh just a slide on our uh what we do as a division as a whole and our goals um all together of what we accomplish within our division [Music] all right back to me so one of the the I think unique things that uh we're a part of uh this our police department and ends up being one of our um Janelle hos one of our uh SRO and myself uh partner with those people on there and it's so the concept of a cat team came across it came across our plate many years ago and we did it on the adult side it was an adult basically a multi um collaborative effort between a bunch of of different groups to try to reduce the number of of um trips to the hospital or trips to detox on the adult side trips to all you know lower um lower our the law enforcement uh resource drain but at the same time giving these adults um different paths to success that was really super uh successful for us so we're a while back we like let's do it on the juvenile side so we're like let's can we do it on the juvenile side so we got those Partners together we had a lot of conversations we had strong commitment from the school district we had strong commitment from Sterns County um and what we quickly realized though was it's not nearly it's it's going to take a lot more effort than the adult side because the adult side they get to fend for themselves right if you have a chronic inebriate male that is is has a problem then we can put him down a certain path and he does it all himself but when we start dealing on the juvenile side it becomes a family issue and all of a sudden the resources then what we within weeks quickly when we started to actually do the work we were like wait a minute we can't affect these kids without affecting the families I mean there's just you can't it just doesn't work so what the jcat team does is we've taken a small um we try to keep a smaller group because it's so resource intensive uh and we and we work with the parents we provide uh whatever they really need whether it's um therapy whether it's uh School help whether whether it's um clothing potential housing all of that stuff the things that create barriers for the these kids to do well in school that's not related to schoolwork is what we try to wrap around and help them with so the jcat team we did just see receive an award um or at least some uh recognition from um some national groups on the efforts that we are doing there so that's something that we're proud of uh and you guys should be proud of too because the um the district is the main driver of the intel on that the District brings most of the Intel to the game to and and gives us what we need to to be able to help these families so you all should be very very proud of that with that we're going to do this a little different than we normally do uh before we go on into our last topic we wanted to just pause and allow for any specific questions around the SRO program the impact or the partnership that we have for that Heather thank you for the work that you do um can you talk a little bit about um away for the day and the impact that you saw particularly around cyber bullying um last year as a result I'll speak to that first for from my perspective being at South for so long the away for for the day was a game changer in the um maybe not specifically on the cyber bullying side although we did hear a lot less of that um a lot less student conflict uh I can remember my first handful of years as both an AP and a principal of the issues that would come to us as a as a leadership team at a building uh that would stem from the weekend and then carry on all throughout the day uh or or at lunchtime when we finally got to see that person uh we we almost stopped it honestly it was very very little the impact of students just being focused on school um not to say we didn't have conflict that may have started outside of school but the continuation of that conflict was um at least that South Junior High right I can't speak for any other school um but we felt it from day one and I I will have to admit I don't know much about it so I'm not going to be able to speak articulately about what's going how it affected us I'm sure the sro's are all all of them would know much more about it and how it affected each of their schools um but at my level it honestly didn't get to me second question can you talk a little bit about um the difference between programming around alcohol um and drug awareness at the junior high and the high school level including um approach to Naran uh and and the responsibility of students in taking care of one another and what sort of um rates do we see with drug and alcohol use within the schools I can talk what I would say the difference in the programming is not um the ultimate message is the same it's just how you deliver it right we're delivering a different style of message to the sixth graders than we would do to the high school kids um you speak more frankly to the high school kids um but very honestly um what I would tell you is that the messages the goal of the messages is not in incredibly different because sixth graders need that same message the the same end message as 12th graders do it's just needs to come in a different way so that they can absorb it does that make sense um I would say from our point of view um is there the rate of uh consumption or the rate of incidence involving drugs or alcohol [Music] um in the schools is I would say relatively low I mean it happens I always tell the district staff you know we can't put our heads in the sand on this CU it happens there it's there um but I wouldn't say it's at an astronomical rate um I don't do you know Shannon how much Narcan or what the uses of or the number of uses of Narcan I don't know it's very little um at most two times I believe yeah so um but the drugs the drugs especially I mean the kids I don't you don't see the kids walking around trying to sip booze you know that's they the the drugs are way easier to bring in and to use um I would say the challenges that we have related to what we teach has way more to do with social media than it has to do with the alcohol or drugs social media um is the main driver of I would argue is I can argue all day with you is the main main driver of behavior is social media as a father of five I could do without the internet I we don't let's just go back to like phone books and all of that that would be fun I I would say anecdotally um when talking to our counseling teams we hear much more about um kids use outside of school right and the pressure to use in the community or at home when they're around their peers and and middle schooler specifically as my background how to help them navigate that but as far as in school goes like officer Kleinfeld just said quite quite small more outside I agree I think that the I honestly believe the students find respit in the schools they find the schools as a sanctuary of okay I don't have to worry about that I'm going to have to have conversations about that and it's going to come up in my friend groups and I'm going to have to and talk about it or either go or not go or and either support them or not support him but they don't have to make those decisions in school they have to make those decisions outside of school because I just don't think I think many of them come to school and it's a safe place whether they all act like it all the time is probably not uh is not evident but I truly believe that they find schools to be safe and um their place of not having to worry about that stuff and then my last question um can you talk a little bit about how all of this is funding including scy um and your cats program where does funding come from for the leadership so the Skyla uh one of the things I and I'll pass it off to Commander s in a second uh but I do want to say this our department um so our division within our division uh all of the Skyla program all of the pal program anything that the SOS do um including other things that cost a fair amount of money like with our Skyla group groups well now we do the best that we can basically in a in a nutshell we take the Skyla groups and it's kind of the the conglomerate of kids and then we'll pin whe them into different groups that they like we have a fishing crew we have a a women of worth group we have a weightlifting crew we have um a hockey crew and all of those kids now it's so much easier to filter them from Skyla and into and then we pick up those that all of a sudden there's skla kids are back at school and their buddies or their friends are like hey wait a minute I want to go sledding or I want to go I want to get in the gym or I want to go fishing and it it it drives all of that all of that on the SRO side is funded within our Administration um we do have some cops grants or a grant from Walmart that has supports us with um five ,000 a year for Shop with a cop and with some of our summer programming um but the rest of it we have I can't tell you enough of of about the commitment from our Administration to these programs and to these kids it's unbelievable and I I can speak to the city of St Cloud they you know we each of these groups SRO group has a a line item uh CRT has or budget um um and I believe Chief Anderson started off with a youth engagement budget which is really why I wanted Greg in my division no it it it it's a it's a decent size budget for us to I mean you saw the clothing those kids were wearing when they went to Skyla that was part of the original commitment that uh Chief Anderson wanted that Chief Oxon is is carrying forward so we we don't that that's a city commitment to what we're trying to do um I'd be remiss not to mention the public safety Foundation um they give Sergeant Ryan s who runs CRT uh a pretty significant budget for youth programming to run primarily out of hos Park and the cop house itself so those two things combine primarily fund and we get a lot of donations um we we're finding that when people find out what we're doing um like the DNR for example uh we we got a $5,000 Grant they said why didn't you ask for 25 because this matches exactly what they're trying to do we just had uh groups of kids up to the Boundary Water canoe areas for a week uh boys and girls group separate um but they they our our folks had to go up there and manage them up there in that environment uh and give them experiences they probably would never have experienced in their life if they hadn't had went with this group group so uh I got to give most of the credit to the city of St Cloud just for funding a decent budget for us to move forward with it and then the Community Partners that work with us to include 742 I'll give you a quick story about those suits uh that you saw the boys in so when we were at boy Skyla this year we knew that they were getting suits well one of the boys um had an interview at Culver's the next day on Friday when we came back and yeah so and he uh we had to we told him you're not going to be able to go to your interview but are you willing to go I said after so we were able to get him in his suit he graduated and we were a I called down to the manager at Culver's and we negotiated uh the interview in the afternoon so he's able to wear his brand new suit to the interview at Culver's and from all I've heard is that he got the job so I don't I'm sure it was on his own Merit but the suit didn't help or heard anything [Music] Natalie yeah thanks Heather for asking that question about funding um I'm just really grateful number one when you said schools are a respit for our students and their safe places that sometimes our community doesn't think that and to hear that directly from the people who help us keep it safe is really wonderful and um beautiful to hear from the commitment and the funding from the city and in our partnership so thank you I have a couple questions um one is uh kind of a major question and and see what you say to it but what in your opinion in working with our students what do our students and families need most in our community um and I think from the juvenile um cat team that might be where you see that but what is what what's the need out there right now in my opinion so I for many years I said the epidemic that we have in nationally with students is not anything to do with students it's a parenting epidemic I have a CH I that's my Pulpit answer what the city and the children need is for us to rebuild especially in our city there's a strong population of kids in our city and especially their parents that don't trust the cops they don't trust the school they have all kinds of challenges when it comes to um to uh being supportive of their children and we need what they need is for us to do a really good job at what we're continuing to do at building relationships but moreover reach out and involve the the parents we are trying to get that done the the Community Schools project on the North side is going to get that done that will involve the all of the parents it will involve all all of the children and I guarantee you once that rolls you you will see Higher Achievement and you will see much more success from those students because to me the thing that lacks right now is we need to get the parents engaged and um we're I think it's uphill battle because many of them don't trust us and many of them don't trust you and I'm not saying that to dig on the school district because I just think it's the reality and I think any work toward building that trust on both sides and really being strong communicators and bringing those voices in and letting them know that they matter on the parent side and how incredibly important they are to the success of their own children um it will go a long way that's what we're I don't know that we're missing it I just think we can never get enough of it that makes sense no it does make sense as a parent of three and as you know folks in the community especially I would say single moms are like I can't do it all you know single dads whatever but um so anything that we can do collaboratively it can only help thank you um a couple more questions one is speaking of um affected communities we have uh we talk here about our disproportionately affected communities when it comes to suspensions um and that same group of folks also we see that as being dis personally affected by our law enforcement and our prisons as well um so we talk a lot about students of color and students on individual education plans that's where we see the um disproportionality in our suspensions so can you talk a little bit about how uh you guys are involved in that I know we are the ones that do the suspension but then what are the parts in place that you know try to prevent something like that happening that you guys do collaboratively it might be more of a jel question but um yeah I think that's one of the ways where that um that clear line is at right the SRO aren't a part of the discipline at school right that's all Administration following student code of conduct where I think we we intervene I think we where your question is going where we intervene is a as principles and administrators we see a lot in our students that sometimes others don't see right we see those leadership qualities or we see that that Longing For Love or or or caring from somebody um and that comes out in lots of different ways and sometimes it comes out as Behavior Uh and so from my me speaking personally it's seeing that that quality in a student that needs to come out and then partnering with the sro's right to get them a part of a Skyla program right getting them a regular check-in with uh officer Larsson at South Junior High and and really finding finding that way to pull out the things there's a student in the picture that's one of a sou student um who sometimes struggled at school right and uh I got to go to his graduation and I think he was shocked that I was there I think he was shocked that other people would would care enough to come watch him be a part of that um we also know officer Larson pulled me to the side in just a quick story said he tried to quit on on day one right after Sunday night it was too hard for for him and he wanted to go home and see Mom and we saw that at school right we saw him avoid situations that were really really hard U but through my communication with officer Larson officer Larson knew that was what was he was going to see right and he knew that he was going to have to push a little bit to get him through that first night or that second day um and then he didn't want to go home right he was he was loving it and so it's it's that partnership that really allows us to see things in students to get them into programs that are going to help them down the line thanks Joel that resilience is the key that's really great and that's what we've heard from you guys before about Skyla is that it it's building resilience for sure uh the last thing I have is um can you just remind us um I know we talked about this a couple years ago but specifically when um there was the issue with the uh State last year and what holes can be done versus what can't and then kind of how we navigated that together um what are your deescalation um techniques or trainings that you use for your SRO so each of the our new SRO have to go through a three day um basic basic it's a basic SRO school um most of that talks about um deescalation and and um dealing with that student population but I would say moreover our department now not only uh as an SRO but as a police officer in general with the new some of the new mandates from the post board um we get deescalation I mean and officer moving forward getss deescalation um training as as an ongoing practice right one of the things that I would tell you is what I would ask of you from a school board and when you think about are our sro's trained as they should be um I would tell you that anything that's going on with the training mandates or the talks about they need to do this or they need to do that I promise you I promise you that we're already doing it there was nothing in those mandates nothing in the holds or no holds or anything that scared us that said wait a minute um this is going to be a huge change all of that we were doing it was all consistent with current practice um and so when we went into it originally it came down for me and Marty might have a different opinion but for me it was just they wanted to hold us to a different two sets of rules and we just needed to be held to one set of rules and that's once they got that figured out it was good so um all of that training for our sro's and all of that training they go into the police department I mean the the police department and the police officers coming into the SRO program if they didn't have that three-day training all right they could come in and do the job no problem because they're already trained that it just enhances is kind of the student uh portion of it and so I I we're really well trained so thank you and you know that was a hard year the year after George Floyd was murdered when we had the discussion about SRO and some people calling for them not to be in schools and so when um the reason I ask that question every time you're here because I want the most updated answer because families will ask me right because there's that mistrust and because there's um disproportionality in it you know and then I'm able to say this is specifically what we do we can't speak for the rest of Minnesota but we can speak about us I'll I've said this to Dr putam and a lot of the administrative staff that I call friends here is if you ever and to the school board if you have people that are not trusting that or you have people that want to ask the hard questions um I please give them my name and my phone or they can call the PD I'll give them myself cell phone I guess but um they certainly can call me because I want to have those conversations because I'm pretty passionate on from our side that we do such a good job that anybody that wants to tell us that we don't I'm willing and wanting to have that conversation because I believe in a simple adult two-way conversation of both explaining and listening that I can make them feel comfortable with what we're doing so I encourage you if give them my name because I will talk to every one of them I'll do that and they'll probably say no because they don't trust you and then I'll be the bridge you know and be like how about next time so and I'll meet you if you want to be a bridge and they want to come to Coffee I don't drink it I it'll be Dam do but I'm willing to go to I'm willing to go have that conversation whatever energy you need man go for it but just lastly thanks for bringing dad energy into this job I really see that in you and I really appreciate that so thank you you're [Music] welcome okay I'll probably sound like I'm rambling because there's like a million things going through my head I've been trying to figure out how to how to summarize it into something that sounds coherent and I don't know if I can um first of all thanks for everything you guys do thanks for keeping our community safe uh I don't know that I can imagine a more difficult job than being a police officer every single time you get a call you're going into trauma there there's some trauma involved in every single call different forms of trauma but every single call is being is is trauma and so as a police officer you're immersed in trauma all day every day year after year after year and that has to be really really wearing and difficult on a person but every one of those calls has after effects in the community and in the schools and when you go to a home and there's a trauma the kids in that home carry that to school with them the next day and when you have kids that are experiencing trauma they can't learn and we know that I talk about maso's pyramid all the time and if a kid is down in one of the bottom two levels of maso's pyramid forget it they're not going to learn a thing they have to be up towards the top of that pyramid and so therefore we have lots of supports within the schools trying to lift kids up into those levels where they can actually learn um I'm glad that the SRO are in the school because it and I'm glad that you said that our schools are kind of a respit which means in a sense we're being somewhat successful that kids feel like they can go into a school and they're not going to experience severe trauma while they're at school and I know there's bullying and things like that that come into play which maybe affect that some but for the most part when kids come into a school they feel safe and that's a really positive thing and for you guys to be able to interact with kids in an environment where they feel safe it's much more likely that you're going to come out with a a a good response and a good interaction with those kids and they need those good interactions because like you said the there's a lot of people in the community a lot of families let me tell you when you go to those calls that are involving a lot of trauma when you drive away people aren't a lot of people aren't saying oh that was great right I'm so glad the cops came um and you never get calls where people are just they want to they want to say something really good to you and say how great their day is going and I it's just I just can't imagine on that but what one of the things I was going to say is that uh you mentioned that a lot of or a fair amount of time in schools as an SRO has spent counseling kids and I wish that wasn't the case I wish that our I wish that we had more mental health professionals in the schools that could counsel those kids so that your energy and time could be spent on developing relationships with more kids and developing trust with the police department within the community and I think a lot of the efforts a lot of the things that are taught that you put up on the screen anyway are symptoms they they they're aimed at the symptoms of trauma and not not as much at building that relationship to avoid some of those symptoms or to to I I don't I don't know what I'm trying to say there but I I overall just thanks for what you do it's not an easy you're welcome I think not an easy job when it comes to counseling I I think we call a counseling I think we just call it bsing I mean we're we're bringing kids in and we're talking the nice thing about us being in the school when it comes to some of the trauma that these kids get is we can talk to them about hey it was pretty dang scary when that door got kicked in wasn't it and yep that was a FL that's called a flashbang and it's really super loud and it I'm sure that scared the heck out of you um so we get to talk to him at a level where um I don't know that the student or that the teachers you know or the therapists get to so um it we I my goal is to take advantage of that as much as we can so and that kid any kid that would experience that is going to the next day when they come to school they're in no shape to learn just they aren't that's a fact and so it's a it's a really important relationship and again just thanks for thanks for doing it we need people like you Monica thank you um well thank you very much for your work um this is uh I I didn't wanted to ask many questions because um I'm online and it's not as fun um but um you CAU my attention when you were talking about couple of things that I want you to to to say more about um so you said something about um the isure not the kids um the issue are the parents and I I like you toow orate more on on that what do you mean and and more than what do you mean U not really asking for your personal opinion about parenting in general but what what are what are you what what is your your your take as an as the position that you are in as an officer or in the schools with that so so kind of like what's the point of the comment um then the other the other part that I wanted to talk more about is trust because you talk a lot about about trust and the whole conversation with Natalie was about trust and trust is a thing that I believe needs definition I mean I can't I can trust my best friend and I might not lend her money or or or I can lend you money and I not let you take care of my children um or or or I think that you're great at protecting people because you're an officer but I don't think that you're great at educating my kids so it's it's that part of the trust needs qualific qualification and I think that using it as a blanket um term for a little bit of everything um well it generates confusion so I I am a little bit confused about that I would like you to um say more about those two things all right um on the first one with the parenting um I think what I would say on the parenting is is I the parents are the parents that I come across are eager to help their children and I think that that they want to help but the parents are also in situations uh in many of the families that I see that have their own barriers there's a lot of barriers whether it's uh economic barriers whether it's you know all of that that goes with it um I think the parents are are the parents need some help and whether that's help from us whether that's help from um the school district um I don't expect the school district to do the parenting as a parent of my own five I don't expect the school district to do that however um I do want them to partner to give me a plan and and and try to figure out what might be the best options for my kids to learn uh and learn at the highest level that they can so when it comes to that question or the comments that I made it all revolves around how can we do a better job both with the police department and with um the schools to wrap the parents into the overall picture because I everything that I've seen since I've done this job is the kids can't do it without any of us so that to that I'll speak to that on the trust thing I get I understand where you're coming from where trust gets kind of thrown out uh as a coverall to everything but what I would tell you on trust is this I want you to know and to trust me that I will do and our officers and the City of St Cloud within the srl program will do everything in our power to to fulfill those things that we've seen on our slideshow whether it's safety whether it's educating whether it's mentoring whether it's um Emergency Management we will give you our best effort but you can also trust me and parents can trust me that if they're in an environment that I have to go into outside as a police officer and their kids need to be placed they can trust that I will do what's best for their kids and I don't I'm very open about that trust is about being open and honest and having two-way conversations and and having that information pass back and forth free so I don't say trust to use it as a blanket I you can trust in what I tell you that I'll do everything and I can to get the your kids to learn at the highest level and have the best time doing it um but you can also trust that when push comes to shove and your kids need or some kids need to be protected I will absolutely do everything in my power to protect them if that helps thank you Joel did you have a part two then we do and I'll try and keep it as brief as possible we've been here for a while uh but we also just want to give a quick highlight of just just the overall safety practices that are happening throughout all of our schools I did something similar to this about a year ago to the day uh and so just a a couple of things that we have in place throughout all of our buildings um we do have a a raptor system implemented into all of our sites uh this is an opportunity for us to just vet guests that come into the building uh it includes a scan of a driver 's license that goes through uh many databases specifically looking for some sex offender type uh offenses that could be out there and that allows us to really monitor who's coming through our doors uh the active threat drills that we've highlighted here in the past we have drill number one prepared for our staff already next week uh that will happen during Workshop week uh with some tabletop conversations at the building sites uh then we have four more that are planned throughout the course of the year with each School partaking in those on the same day uh we do that because of the legislation that's happened that asks us to make sure that we allow parents to opt out of those so they have 24hour notice and we also put supports in place within our buildings for students that maybe experience things they didn't expect and need some extra support uh after the fact the other cool partnership that we have going on right now is that uh next Thursday uh we've got a really big uh kind of a team partnership happening with uh with the St claw police department and the federal law enforcement training center um where we're going to do some SRO single officer training over at St Claud State and we offered uh free to all of our staff uh anyone that wants to come and so officer kleinfelter and I are going to do four hours of tabletop conversation with any staff member that chooses to go in the morning then they'll get a opportunity to be a participant in the active training for our SRO in the afternoon and when we provided that opportunity uh last time I checked we were just over a hundred of our staff are volunteering their time to come be a part of that so it's definitely definitely something that our staff is looking to learn more about obviously we have the physical and active observation throughout all of our sites not both not just with our sro's but with all of our administrators and staff throughout the buildings it's a common expectation of of principles with their staff uh different times throughout the day we have our controlled entrances at all of our sites except Apollo currently uh that is the one school that does not have one uh we recently got a school safety Grant and we are in the process of um doing some mapping of all of our sites that will interface with the 911 Center so if someone called 911 on one of our sites they'd be able to see exactly where in the building that call is coming from which is really cool also through that Grant we're implementing uh the say something Anonymous Reporting System uh that is coming to us free through the Sandy Hook Foundation crisis go has been something we've used in our in our system for quite a while typically it's been used as a notification system uh for individuals that are de heart of hearing uh we are going to try to broaden that use into all other types of emergencies it'll include the integration again of maps of the buildings it'll have all of our students and students excuse me all of our students and all of our staff uh implemented and we're going to hopefully utilize it as a um an accounting system if something should happen where we need to evacuate a building uh rather than have a printed paper copy of of a class roster which is only as good is the day that you print it uh using that that system is going to be very very helpful and then the other exciting piece uh officer kleim filter uh Gary gangji myself and uh some other school staff have been working on a behavioral threat assessment or safety assessment uh design that our schools can use when um you know we have a a specific student that may need some very targeted intervention uh we're trying to develop something that we can use as a tool uh to streamline that process and that is the end of what we have if there's any further questions specifically on those three slides we'd be happy to take them did anybody have any other questions L from a law enforcement standpoint what do you see as the benefits of a safe and secure entrance I just think it it buys time right it's insurance policy it buys because and if you're talking strictly from a safe and secure entrance you can mon you can at least slow down people that are trying to get in the building um and we know especially on the active threat side that um from Once the um crisis starts literally we need to keep people s people need to keep themselves safe um for five to 8 minutes if you can survive 8 minutes in an active threat nationally you you will live um um so what we try to do with safe the with the safe and secure entrances what I look at it is it's saying okay if we can buy a minute of that time before they can get in a building or at least we have camera footage or we have information from who might be coming in as violent as it could be um it buys us time and it gives us Intel I'm all about having a secure entrance that sounds that sounds like um I'm not being critical of it no sounds like you're approaching it from an active shooter type yep of scenario not totally but yes and I I'm I always go back and forth in my my own head as to what are the real benefits of a safe and secure entrance um in those types of situations I'm not always I'm not so certain that the the threat would choose that entrance as the most likely entrance to come through uh but the other side of a safe and secure entrance has to do with uh not active shooter type situations but uh say a a a non-custodial parent that may come and pick up a child that has to go through the office to get there they're not going to they're not going to shoot out a door to come through somewhere else in the building to get that kid but they will go through the office and then that that forces them to go through the office and so you gain a lot of safety there and probably of the thousands or hundreds of thousands of schools around the country that have safe and secure entrances there's probably been more safety created in those types of scenarios than actually active shooter Tye there situations but no doubt I I just I guess I kind of wanted to hear and and if there's any other situ ations where I can tell causing people to go through that anecdotic or anecdotic is that the right the way I say it anyway um at Apollo last year we had a guy that came in right through the door and and was made it made it into the hallway Not only was it a guy a a male that wasn't even supposed to be on site had no reason to be there but also we've had kids come in from other school schs within the district and like start roaming the Halls looking to uh fight other kids or uh at least um jaw Jack with other kids so um and then at north um we had a parent come in even through the secured entrance they let her in and but she that parent just decided she was going to go try to find the girl that was there to fight her daughter and was going to take it into her own so um you're absolutely right about that I mean active threat stuff is on the extreme I get that um and it does way more to just keep you have to be able to monitor is with this this the size of the school district and the number of students you have it's imperative that you monitor who's coming in and who's going out of your schools and that's the secured entrance is by far the best way to do that at a school like Tech and I'm asking these questions because I won't get an opportunity to do it in any other format um a school like Tech which was built with the idea of creating a safe and secure entrance um and really funneling all all traffic coming and going from the building into one one small one into the main entrance yep so the parking lots are out there the kids park out there everybody Parks out there and they come in may come in different doors with key cards um but as far as the public itself there's one place to park and come in yep when you have a school set up like Apollo the parking lot is off on the North side the safe and secure entrance or the main entrance to the building is on the west side and so you've got people coming and going from the north side parking lot all day day long so those doors are being open and closed and open and closed open and closed open and closed with who knows who's going in and out of those doors yet down here we have this new safe and secure entrance that forces people to go through an office if if this were to be built how do you control that well one of the things I would say at Apollo is is a little bit of a give and take right you had the luxury with tech to be able to build a brand new building y so you got to pick and choose kind of what you wanted um I am a graduate of Apollo 1987 um and I uh enjoyed the ability to go in and out of the modular system while I was attending there um and spent many days on a golf course uh I did attend all my classes though uh and graduated with a a pretty good GPA however what I would tell you Al about that is I don't believe that during this because I had Apollo quite a bit and I don't believe those doors on because the student body can't use those doors and they do a pretty good job of monitoring that I would say like a door is it seven any Apollo seven or the door on the north side of the commons that door doesn't get used very much um during the school day at all because all the students and all the staff know to come in door two or door one right in the front by by the capsule so that door that door gets used a lot for events right so on at events it's a different ball game you're letting them in even at Tech they're not going through the secured uh entrances for events at Tech either so um I would say that it's a without going and re totally revamping Apollo and and and really spending in an elaborate amount of money to create that secondary um secure entrance I just don't know that it's worth uh that money in my opinion now because I just don't see the use of it so most of all of the foot traffic during the day is that I see is generally going in and out the main doors it's hard I know I'm hid in the corner just want um just back rewind so uh just wanted to say thank you as as the mental Health guy in the jail and uh Schoolboard member just you guys do an amazing job and I truly and genuinely believe that St Cloud and weight Park PDR are a step ahead of the rest when I go out other places in the community and I explain things like the cat team and our SRO program people they're they're wow sometimes so thank you for all awesome work you're doing you're welcome thank you okay thank you very much for sharing your time oh Monica yeah thank you so much just a follow up with what you just said did you say that it's not worth it to get the secure entrance for Apollo in the referendum nope that's not what I said what I said was um the secure entrance at I I believe from what I know the secure entrance they you're asking for is for the front doors of Apollo um and that is exactly um I the question that Al asked was referencing door seven or the door on the north side of the activities door and that door um would be I just don't see the usage uh during the day with students or staff uh when I'm there um to represent um that I guess K thank you yep okay thank you guys very much for all your time as well you're welcome we appreciate you guys okay moving on to our action items first action item up tonight is the approval of the 2425 student and family handbooks presented by Nikki Hansen assistant superintendent of prek through 5 education yeah good evening chw superintendent putam and board members last session we had the opportunity to review our proposal 2425 handbook and tonight the administration recommends the approval of the 2425 handbook any questions at all motion I would move that we approve the 2425 handbooks are we doing High School Junior and Elementary together I believe so yep yes Elementary and secondary student and family handbooks that we approve the elementary and second secondary student handbooks 2425 you have a second second I have a motion by l a second by Natalie any discussion at all Zach can you call vote um Natalie Copeland yes Heather Williams yes Shannon hos yes Zach dhol yes El doen yes Monica sigara Schwartz yes okay thank you and then uh Nikki h presenting again next we have the approval of the 2024 2025 weather related e-learning days plan yes good evening again chaira superintendent butam and board members in an effort to continue student learning in the event of weather related school closings we will continue using e-learning days during the 2425 school year for inclement weather closings pursuant to Minnesota statute 128414 as circumstances allow this year the first inclement weather day will be a school closing day or a traditional snow day the 2 through 6th inclement weather closing will be e-learning days and if Mother Nature brings us more inclement weather days s and 8 will also be school closing days any inclement weather days following these eight days will be makeup days determined by the superintendent in consultation with the school board decisions made for our makeup day structure we're in partnership with the stcloud area Education Association as well as our surrounding districts and the loss productivity cost of a school closing or traditional snow day is $570,000 for a school district during an a weather related e-learning day students and licensed staff will have the following expectations preschool students will access and complete a series of pre-assigned activities that will be made available to students in inhome packets and will also be accessible online students in grades K5 will access assessments on student devices via seesaw or if devices were not sent home they will complete a series of pre-assigned learning activities that are made available to in to students through inhome packets and are also accessible on our website licensed staff will post learning activities on seesaw by 9:00 a.m. on the day of an e-learning day students in grades 6 through 12 will access assignments on student devices via schooly licensed staff will post learning activities on schooly by 10:00 a.m. on the day of an e-learning day licensed staff members will be available during student contact hours to answer student questions and provide guidance through email seesaw and schooly platforms accommodations for students who receive special education and El services will also be provided virtually licensed staff who are unable to teach on an e-learning day due to a discretionary day illness or medical appointment for themselves or a family member or other absence reason must request time off in Skyward and post the learning activity for the day on the learning management system in lie of posting sub plans in addition staff should email the principal and Lead secretary so that they are made aware that the employee will not be a made available to students or parents during these contact hours licensed staff who are on duty during e-learning days must be in service during their regular teaching day and must complete these following expectations Early Childhood staff will make a plan for e-learning days with their site administrator or supervisor K5 licensed staff will post the activities on seesaw by 9:00 a.m. on the day of the e-learning day and 6 through 12 licensed staff will post e-learning activities by 10:00 a.m. through schoolagy Li licensed staff must be available during the day um and be able to be contacted by email direct school phone message Andor Cesar schooly platforms to answer and assist students and parents time not engaged in posting lessons or in direct contact with students may be used for planning and preparation Time Each classroom teacher who serves students is responsible for posting lessons grading and completing attendance on e-learning days non-instructional licensed staff including counselors School psychologists social workers nurses SLP Etc will make a plan with their supervisor for their work on their e-learning day part-time contract teachers will be available during their regular scheduled hours in the event of an e-learning day for non-licensed staff um and 10-month employees who will not report to work on site will work as follows staff who can work effectively from home may do so with the pre-approval from their supervisor exam examples of these positions include clerical head Cooks BRS bti and mental health support staff non-licensed staff who do not support instruction whose regular work cannot be performed at home shall receive full pay for the e-learning day examples of these positions include bus drivers nutritional Services Transportation par Educators door monitors and csos in the event of an e-learning day for 12month non-li Li staff who can report to work safely may do so examples of these positions would include our custodians and our Engineers 12-month non-licensed staff who can work from home may do so with the approval of their supervisor examples of these employee groups could include clerical or our non-represented 12-month staff staff who cannot report to work and choose and whose work cannot be performed at home shall receive full pay for the e-learning day and employees who choose not to work from home and in a snow or ice e-closing day may use accumulative leave or other paid leave time to make up for any hours lost that is the extent of our student our staff and our non-licensed staff expectations with our e-learning day as well as our proposed platform for what we will use for e-learning days due due to weather related closings this school year and AD Administration is recommending the approval of these guidelines thank you does anybody have any questions or comments and again this is an action item Al go ahead I have some comments I wouldn't be me if I didn't say something um when I so I pulled up the statutes from 2017 and 2023 the the statute just got changed this year from what it was and our legislature inserted a word into this statute the 2017 said a school board May adopt an e-learning day plan after Consulting with the exclusive representative of the teachers in 2023 it said a school board May adopt an e-learning day plan after meeting and negotiating with the exclusive representative of the teachers that one word is a is a decision by some representative I don't know who introduced the legislation I wish that I knew that but that that introduction of that word is causing school districts all over the state to change their e-learning days from e-learning days to snow days and at a cost in our district of 5 you said 570 and in in in our school district it cost 570,000 per day in Lost instruction to change from an e-learning day where there's at least some learning going on to a snow day um and in in the old plan we didn't lose those until after the fifth day because that was the maximum that you could do with the legislature um we invested millions of dollars into devices and making it giving uh inhome internet for students and things so that they were able to learn at home a lot of that came out of the pandemic not out of snow days but after that investment was made it made it very easy for us to convert snow days into e-learning days and we were able to get some instruction on those first snow days we just spent $900,000 in our contracts to add 15 minutes to the school day uh that's I think was it 900 or was it more than 900 I could have been more than 900 but anyway we we added time to the contract and now we're giving half of it back in the first snow day and we're giving the other half back in the second snow day so we're right back to where we started as far as time that we're buying back and all due to some legislator that wanted to get in bed with the Min Education Minnesota and and make it make give another day off and we romanticized snow days and I know that back when I was in school I loved it when it snowed and I didn't have to go to school for the day but hey we've come a long way and we're we need we need educational time we need more time to teach our students we know that we talk about it all the time and now we're just due to our legislature handing handing back more time off and I just feel that that piece of it is wrong I don't know the legislature has a lot of things to prioritize over snow days um maybe look at the special ed cross subsidy maybe look at the English language learner cross subsidy maybe start looking at some of that stuff and not worry about snow days quite so much but that's my two cents I will probably vote against this not because I want it to fail I think that you know Lori and her team did a good job of negotiating with our Union we we're doing one at the beginning and one at the end not two at the beginning uh but I'm doing it in protests to whoever that legislator is I want to make sure that in my very little way and with the few people that watch this meeting I can make it very apparent that the cost of that vote in our district was $500,000 up to a million dollars and Statewide you're talking hundreds of millions of dollars so that we can have a snow day when we've spent hundreds of millions of dollars to avoid having snow days thank you anybody else okay looking for a motion to approve the 2024 2025 weather related e-learning days plan so moved have a second second okay I have a motion by Natalie and a second by Heather Zack can you call vote Heather Williams yes Monica Sara Schwartz well yes Natalie Copeland yes El delren no Zach door holds yes Shannon hos yes okay thank you uh one more action item tonight we have the approval of the proposed resolutions for msba delegate conference presented by board member Al doen okay so again on again we've got three different resolutions that we're going to be discussing um the first one having to do with artificial intelligence and as asking the legis I'm actually I'm just going to turn it over to you Lori um so that you can talk about the artificial intelligence resolution thank you um so this is um we still have to remove that one uh first sentence where you asked to have it Minnesota education generative AI allowance that will be removed um so if you approve it please know you would be approving it without that um because I forgot to have that done so my apologies to this board um so uh barring that piece uh this resolution uh calls for um a comprehensive review and redesign of the Minnesota state content stand standards to include significant onetime funding to support this major revision to account for the competencies required to thrive in an AI enhanced society and World um so there's some where as is to set the stage um that we reviewed last time and then we call upon the legislature to fund and support mde with this significant comprehensive review um to advocate for the development of new courses and programs that address emerging Fields U of work and the arriving technologies that will impact Society um really focusing on areas and I think it's important to just name them for their public so I'm going to in case they can't see it uh Technology and Engineering social sciences creative arts entrepreneurship and business um sometimes I think people think we're just talking about coding um but that's not at all the case right our students are going to need all of these uh uh to be proficient all these knowledge areas uh to thrive in the future Workforce um and then also you know any new learning for students comes with uh significant learning for our staff so to provide some uh funding and and time for the required professional development and to do all this work in partnership with local businesses Industries and higher education to be sure that we're um not working in isolation um but that as a state we're really working together um to prepare um all of our students for the future of the Minnesota WorkForce do you want to do one then no I just want to say that I talked to Denise Dietrich at the school boards Association and they're very excited about this one so I I imagine this is going to get a positive uh recommendation from them at the conference do you want to vote for this one now or yeah I would do a monitor okay can you read the title again what are we calling that one absolutely uh this is uh resolution uh 2024-the of AI yes please I was just noticing that the the alliance is also down below as well yeah so just to remove both those thank you Dr petam okay looking for a motion then second motion by Natalie second by Al any further discussion I can I just say um when those two changes are made can you have Jan or Jan could you please forward a copy of that to Denise Dietrich at the min school boards Association that can you call vote can um Zach dhol CS Shannon hos yes Heather Williams yes Monica sigara Schwarz yes Natalie Copeland yes El doen yes okay next one the next resolution had to do with uh legislative action increasing the legislative per pup funding limit and no it had to do with increasing the legislative per pup funding limit for lease Levy yeah right yeah so we need to change so we need to change wording yeah um and Amy I'm GNA let you talk about it um yes so and this is another one where um we had talked at the last meeting about whether or not um we wanted that $266 that we had put in was sort of an arbitrary number um and so we had talked somewhat about leaving that open-ended just to say significantly increase um the lease Levy Authority um that 266 was taking what it's at today and just adjusting it by um the the per puple formula allowance increase over the years um but construction inflationary uh costs have increased obviously significantly higher than what our funding increases have been um so we can revise that to um to take out the dollar amount um and part of the backstory on this uh is just the fact that it's been the same dollar amount for about 10 years um and that lease Levy Authority is really our only option um as a district if enrollment increases or or there's drastic shifts and we need to do an addition or lease space to provide instructional um facilities outside of going for a a referendum um and so that's um kind of the um the background on this [Music] one there are some facilities that we lease and we plan to continue leasing we're not going to build say a hockey arena um the hockey program needs both boys and girls need space um right and the current I mean the current cap is is clearly sufficient to cover what we have for annual operating leases um at least for our district those are those are a lot smaller um in terms of of the dollar amounts um and those are existing leases and so um those don't increase significantly year-over-year um but the bigger cost would be if all of a sudden we we need to add an elementary school or add an addition or lease space because our elementary schools are all at capacity um we as a district are very close to that lease Levy cap uh and really would have no um no option that's solely within our control um outside of going to voters or um for a referendum anybody have any questions or comments on this okay looking for a motion to approve this and we're changing the the title on there oh Monica y oh I have a motion by Monica do I have a second second and I have a second by Al any further questions were you or taking the amount out and just including the word significant yeah and school boards Association may have some some input on that on on what they would what they would like to see I know when I talked to Denise about this one she had mentioned that she was going to go back and check to see exactly what they already had she thought that they may have had some things within their uh legislative um platform that dealt with leis but this this could be different enough so um I'll still bring it but yep sounds good okay Zach can you call vote again on this one Shannon hos yes Heather Williams yes Monica Sara Schwartz yes Natalie Copland yes El do yes Zack doorold yes okay last one okay the last one I brought a paper copy and left it on your desk there uh and I also brought you a copy of the office of legislative auditor evaluation report summary um I highlighted two spots on here one on the second page is when compared to district schools with similar demographic Charter Schools generally did not perform as well on the 2007 MCA 2 exams specifically only 15% of charter schools performed better on the MCA exams in district schools with similar demographics in our district it's 100% performed poorer than than us um and more than half of the parable 40% perform um was the relates to the accountability piece we were talking to and in the OA report now and Lori I I I want to open this up more for discussion it's not going to be me telling you what I'm putting in here I want to have questions uh as far as charter schools are concerned when I was talking to Denise we actually had a little confusion on the state or federal requirements for uh School Improvement plans do they apply to Charter Schools or do they not apply to Charter Schools and if you don't know that's okay too um and I'm wondering if we she Denise felt that school Improvement plans applied and I think in this OA report it's saying that school Improvement plans apply but it says it's really muddled up as far as who they communicate with and how they communicate and I the second thing that I highlighted in here talked about Charter School sponsors and in addition to authorizing new Charter Schools sponsors must monitor their performance however some sponsors do not fulfill their responsibility leading to gaps in Charter School oversight one sponsor we visited did not did not know the charter school she sponsors had not made ayp in the previous year another sponsor reviews his Charter Schools annual report but otherwise does not does not monitor the academic or financial performance of the schools and so the OA report although I believe the the the school school Improvement plans are federal right sorry sorry that's I'm gathering they they can be they're they're um if you're an identified School District under um every student's succeeds act then yes you are required to post those on your website yeah School Improvement plan okay even Charter there um yes because Charters are under the public school domain yep and that's that's what Denise was saying too but the question then becomes with the oversight of the schools who becomes responsible and if the if the the if the sponsors of the charters aren't monitoring it and I think as Charter Schools would become bigger and more uh let's let's say the word for-profit type Charter Schools uh I'm not so I'm not so sure that they're as involved in the data day of those schools but the OA was very critical of the oversight of charter schools because of the lack of definition or lack of direction as to who responsibility it is to oversee those schools um in the in our resolution that we brought forward last year we said and this was the one this was the one that made it to the final in the delegate assembly was be it resolved that msba urges the legislature to hold charter schools to a standard of student outcome performance at least equal to the public school district in which they are located Charter Schools whose performance meets or exceeds the Local District should be allowed to thrive Charters underperform underperforming should be placed on school Improvement plans and ultimately closed if results do not improve that was what we brought forth last year msba recommended voting mba's recommendation was no uh we're not going to support this one and that was because of the the fact that the process for school Improvement plans is in place for schools but there's a very confusing appar apparatus of how to support it so I I mean I'm I'm still mixed on this whether we should bring something or not I still think it's a good idea to bring something so that we can keep this front and center um but how we would want to word it I'm open for discussion on that completely open okay anybody have any thoughts on this go ahead Monica you say Monica yep yes okay um what what I wanted to suggest is maybe if we can get a working group to do this because I really appreciate the the research and the work that um Al has been doing on his own um but but I don't know that we're going to get to any point within a a a work session in a board meeting unless we really get a chunk of time for for doing this um I I think I like what I like some parts of what you have there um I just saw you scrolling down or or the person that was scrolling down to it like wow this is a lot and I don't recommend a resolution that has that much content in it because I don't think that anybody will read it um but but um so so there are so I think that it needs to be tweak and I also um I also don't think that I understand like I as you were saying like you you were having some conversations with people about uh what is what is called what what are really the rules for us and for the child of school and so I'm not sure that we are understand or that I at least uh I am just understanding how is that we are competing um and is that is that how is that how is that we need to level the field no it it just uh it it's yeah I it's not completely clear for me so I I guess that's why I wanted to suggest that maybe we think about having a a working group for that um developing a committee and I don't know if that's going to take a long time but maybe just if we do that that that might take us somewhere my my response to that Monica is if we want to do that then we're not bringing it this year because we don't have that kind of time we have about we the very latest I think we could approve a resolution would be at the next meeting I see so for for this year I if you want to bring it out to 2020 5 December of 2025 then it could be done um I part of part of where I'm really confused is in in this is again I want to bring something forward to keep the to keep the subject fresh and and current and to keep any some conversation going on it but the resolution that was approved last year was asking the legislature to review the results of the OA report that's right in front of you here and to come up with a plan uh and to to put in place those those pieces that are relevant and if you look at the key recommendations a lot of those key recommendations are what we're talking about right now is this the most recent Ola report yes they've done 15 years ago 16 years ago they've done nothing they've done absolutely nothing with the OA report yeah um all I or the group I would be supportive of taking something forward just it's best practice on behalf of students and taxpayers um the fact that it's the the last report of which our recommendation or resolution addresses is 16 years old is just poor practice and I I think it's just in our best interest for students for the state to hold people accountable for holding schools accountable and and schools equally accountable when they're being funded um or detracting from public schools I wonder if we could bring something forward that would just say that we keep it to address the OA report no but keep it they have it's in mba's legislative platform right now that they want to ask the legislature to revisit this report and hold schools accountable but would would it be in our interest to just bring something as simple as a resolution stating that we want the the legislature to examine without going to the OA report to examine the accountability of charter schools and develop a plan or to to examine and develop a plan for holding Charter Schools accountable and just leave it at that and we could always reference in there again at the OA report I I Lori go ahead I like I like where you're going I think we' have to say um would have to ask the legislature kind of like what we did with the AI to fund right because they can they can't do the study but they can fund the study so do they direct mde right provide the funding to mde to do the study or I don't know who directs the OA right Governor maybe I don't know um but that would be a is that a separate if we said that direct the funding to mde like we did with a geni one yeah I'm just thinking how we don't really have to say where do the funding we just ask for the study right auditor's office by the way the auditor's office office so but that was the old one right the old one directs the OA so that so our past resolution asked the school the legislature to revisit the 2008 report right okay so could we now say ask the legislature to direct funding to a task force led by mde to or to revise correct yeah to study and revise the 2008 yeah I like it I like it yeah can I I like it too to say I don't like this one I'm just I will say more I'm again like I said last time really uncomfortable tying student performance outcomes to any of this right now because it's so that's one of the things but it's so much more vast than that as well and I really like that msba already is saying yeah let's look at this 2008 Ridiculousness but I like your idea Lori of having the funding as well I would definitely support that I wouldn't support bringing this this one the number 10 Heather so if we tell them to fund it I guess my question is we have a report from 20 8 that was funded and done and and act and has it been acted on no so is there a next compon I mean it's not just about funding it and studying it it's it still goes back to holding develop a plan or respond in some way to the accountability piece of it because you can fund a plan and it can sit on a or you can fund a study that sits on a shelf like we have here um but what is the piece of it that funds it funds A study um identifies the process and then creates creates action well I guess there one thing at the time the next resolution will be just get it off the shelf [Music] fun something to make people do their jobs well there's I mean there are a number of things that they do that are they start the study and then they stop because they found out how expensive it was going to be except the one on snow [Laughter] days um but you know it's it's like pente back during the pente administration they started a study to figure out what it would actually cost to educate students to to state standards and it turned out that it was going to cost a whole lot more than they wanted to spend so they suspended the study and and refused to do any to make take any kind of action on it and this is kind of the same thing I think it may not be as much the money here as in 2008 especially when Charter Schools were first getting they were really just kind of starting to gain some momentum uh I think that from a school choice standpoint it probably was very difficult to move forward on anything that was going to be interfering with Charter Schools but we're in a different age right now where where charter schools have become 40% of the Metro District's students open and rolling out into charter schools and so you've got 40% of the students in the metro area attending schools that have less accountability and there's something really wrong with that we're not dealing with a couple thousand students out of the Minneapolis School District we're dealing with tens of thousands of students in the Minneapolis School District we have five Charters here looking at maybe seven it's becoming a bigger and bigger piece of our school dist of our of the of our community and yet the accountability still isn't there and so the world has changed since 2008 Mandie as I'm looking at the major findings and key recommendations I just know from my time on a charter school board that some of these have already been dealt with and some haven't so I think that's you know like the it used to be that teachers had to um comprise a majority of of of the charter school board but it isn't that way anymore and so like you just look at this and you say okay well which one of these are still the recommendations and the findings that hav been been dealt with and then deal with those that would at least get us somewhere um so that's I think that this needs to be looked at and it needs to be looked at by someone who understands what has already been change versus what hasn't already well that would be that would be our request to fund a new study and revise the 2008 Ola report yeah right that's great Heather yeah I was just going to say to to fund the revision or updating the OA report related to Charter Schools including academic and financial implications um to to students and public schools and then set forth an accountability plan it should be done right here so on the a couple of other things just from from Donna are that the state needs a tool to revoke sponsors and the state needs the ability to set expectations for sponsors and that would be two things that could be included is that the authorizer is that what we're talking authorizer so I think there's probably some work that should be done and maybe instead of saying maybe instead of asking so again we're asking the school boards Association to ask mde that's that's what this is about not to ask mde to ask the legislature and so instead of saying hey legislature we want you to go back and review the 2008 Charter School OA report and make the needed changes we're saying A legislature we want you to fund a study and revise the 2008 legislative plat or the the OA report and then and then act on do we want to include that and just say and then act on the ACT on accountability on the accountability or the recommended accountability revisions why not huh that's something we could do between now in next meeting and then vote on it because that's our that's our last time to vote on it is next meeting before you need to have it Al is that what you're saying maybe are if you're writing that um or whoever is writing that if we could get I don't if this is the right thing to do get a copy beforehand to review it so we know how to talk about it once we're coming to the to the meeting yep I can have I can have Lori send that out I can't send it out but okay and then we'll get that added to the agenda for our next but I can I mean I have I have in in my great notes Here just says allocate funding to study and revise the 2008 OA report and act on the accountability recommendations just added really big b letters big fun so be it resolved that msba urges the legislature to allocate funding to study and revise the 2008 OA report and act on the accountability recommendations and it's mde that act on the revised accountability recommendations okay well is is it MD no auditor's office we're asking auditor so OA is the auditor's office correct and they're the ones who did the report they're the ones who did the report they're the ones who would do the report again Y and that language and then the legislature would act on the accountability recommendations yeah it would be Bill and then mde would Implement those yeah that would be the last step so act on act on and implement the accountability recommendations okay we got that verbatim okay and do you want to well I gave you both these right I think in in the background section I think that we should have something similar and I I can either either I can write it or or you can but in here we State you know we kind of go into uh how it affects the St Cloud school district and especially how we're directly affected by charter school performance using MCA test scores local charter schools are performing on average more than a 10-point deficit and when students who attend k K8 six or eight charter schools and then enroll in the St Cloud secondary schools they come to us significantly behind uh we also see a substantial number of students who come back to our district from Charter Schools every year the St Cloud area school district incurs additional costs including remedial education which I know remedial isn't really the word that we're supposed to use uh to bring these students up to their to the level of their peers I think there's something of that has to be in there to say why we're asking for this we're not just asking for Charter Schools there's actually a cost to us so and that's again that's right at the bottom I have a comment about that go ahead mon so what one thing about the choice um which which yes Char schools provide a choice that we could go deeper into it it's not it's not really a choice for every student because if they don't have the the the the same requirements or the same programs that we need to have for El students for example or disability students or if they don't suffer about those kind of things that they're really not being a choice for those students so I I think that that's a thring of equity of chartered schools per se and then we we are creating segregation um by having those schools and not having all those supports I don't know if there's anything that we can say about that or that we can maybe not for this legislation but maybe we can think that deep deeper on that we provide don't we we provide special education services don't we for we don't no it's right they they Charter Schools do but we do for parochial schools yeah but that's that's my point if those if we are if we can fit that if kids um uh that have uh that are English Learners go to char school because they believe it's better and then they come back to us because they didn't have the support that they needed well that is that is segregation that is that is an issue of those those schools not providing those they not hold to the same standards that we are but that's that's my my hypothesis and that that provide that cost us I mean I they come back to us not learning at the level that they should be learning or they they haven't learned at the level that they should be learning and so therefore we have catchup to do with them and we have to provide additional resources to try to catch those kids up this is where it gets dicey for me because my kids came from charter schools into public school sorry they're both public charter into St CLA schools and they w't B so and I'm not bragging on my kids I'm just saying like that's not true across the board MCA scores I totally get that so I think that's where when we say too much about this it's then if someone could poke a hole in what we say I don't want that to happen that's why I'm a big proponent of this 50,000 foot like study the study and update it and then provide accountability and because once we get into the weeds it gets anecdotal [Music] I'll just say that my kids came from charter schools of 742 because there wasn't the supports that were needed so that's exactly true but when you say anecdotal I want to say that there's nothing more anecdotal than saying that your kids were fine that's as anecdotal as you can get and I'm I'm I'm saying more on in on average when charter schools are are are performing at more than 10 points deficit to the St Cloud School District when those kids come to the school district on average they're behind on average and that's that's what I'm getting at and then they're forc not not just me that's what this was getting at um there's of course there's exceptions and you know and being a Schoolboard member your kids would probably be in a position where they'd get more support full of okay so we'll bring this back thank you for all the work yeah we'll bring this one back so the two passed yes so Jan actually if you could forward a copy of those two to Denise and I we we should include in them a paragraph As I and I for J I I forwarded to you the entire book from last year and in each of our resolutions it stated that the resolution was passed by the St Cloud School Board in a whatever the vote was um and that paragraph needs to be in each one of these also because the the resolutions have to be passed by a school board they can't be individual good all right thanks for all that work okay uh then on to something really really exciting we have the second reading for proposed revised board policy 704 which is the development and maintenance of an inventory of fixed assets and fixed asset accounting system presented by Amy scall executive director of finance and business services has to get added to the board board meeting portion not the work session all right good evening chair Haw superintendent putam members of the board this is the second reading of the um fixed asset uh policy that we went over at the last meeting there were no changes from the first reading um and again the only change is to add the paragraph um talking about what our capitalization thresholds um that we use for audit purposes are any questions at all all right coming back on the consent agenda thanks all right moving on to reports we have superintendent reports to present a thank you chair H members of the board cabinet and our friends listening from home uh just wanted to give a couple updates on as we're heading where we're at as we're heading into the school year teachers come back licensed staff come back on Monday hard to believe and our students uh get to come back the next week so we're really excited about that um in terms of Staffing we are in amazing shape thanks to the hard work of all the folks sitting here and our our human resources and special education teams um we are down to only needing two special education teachers which is just brilliant given the Statewide shortage I'm still needing a few itinerant staff so if anyone's listening we are um still looking for some speech language and school psychologist um time uh in terms of non-licensed Staff we are uh doing equally as well we only have um eight para openings which is incredible and we have interviews scheduled um over the upcoming days um that would fill I believe six of those eight positions if they're all successful candidates uh our bus drivers are fully staffed and we have uh five openings in our nutrition team so looking still for uh folks to join us there um we are expanding The Welcome Center hours um it began today um so we know that we still have some families who have um we suspect uh still need to enroll um and then we know from our census data that there are still some families out there that we could capture and so this evening and when whenever they are not busy our welcome center staff under the direction of Adam and Bashar are going through the census data and calling all those families uh they have been called once before in the spring um by um thanks to Nikki and our uh Elementary principal team but we're doing a second pass um but we do have extended hours um this evening we just closed at 8 but tomorrow uh Thursday 8:22 from 4: to 8 Tuesday 8:27 also from 4 to 8 and Wednesday 8:28 from 4 to 8 and then we were open this Saturday from 99: to 1 and next Saturday from 9:00 to 1 so again um uh tomorrow night Tuesday Wednesday of next uh week and then both Saturdays so we encourage our families to come on in and get registered so we can have our schools and our classrooms fully ready for our students when they come uh the week uh following I also want to celebrate we have some key uh celebrations um Marin Wagner um was named uh she's a Kennedy art teacher she was named um the rookie art educator of the year in the for the whole state so congratulations to Marin um and welcome visits were a huge success for anybody um who is listening who doesn't know welcome visits we in our entire District leadership team um and some of our um Equity team uh go to visit all of the new students in our uh School District so all of our kindergarteners and then anybody newly enrolled in grades 1 through 12 um we visited uh 1 1,130 students homes so that's a lot and very exciting um and then 95% of the staff who completed the survey um for we're switching on to new teacher Academy now my apologies um so we just uh welcome new teachers and then all of our special education staff uh non-licensed staff we welcome back today um and then 95% of our staff who completed the survey said they felt a sense of welcoming and belonging and some of the feedback that we got was this was the best onboarding I've ever exper experienced and that was from somebody who has been in multiple districts and that was um uh that sentiment was repeated multiple times so I want to say a sincere thank you to our leaders um many of whom are also not in this room our directors um and our coordinators who made that possible so um my last thing that I want to just share because I thought this is amazing is as you know we have a a tight partnership with a United Way of Central Minnesota um and uh through their hard work for to get grants and then the hard work of our staff to implement um we have um Extended programming um during the summer and after school so for 742 uh from the last year so from June 1 2023 to May 31 2024 we had uh 250,000 additional learning hours beyond the school day uh which is just phenomenal so that equates to 8,000 days of learning that happened and the unduplicated count of participants is 1,822 of our students so just an incredible uh Testament and data real hard data right um that shows um what real um committed partnership looks like and how that can impact our students so thank you to the United Way and thank you to our staff that makes that happen thank you then we have the Board of Education standing committee reports uh achievement integation and Equity committee chair Natalie copelan thank you chair H we this morning we planned our meeting topics for the 2425 school year um we're ongoing um talking about our portrait of a 742 graduate moving into um timeline and action stage on that and then um uh we also talked about uh oh we were going to talk about 23 24 disciplin data but we moved that um to September so that's what we plan to talk about um on that time and then as well uh we talked about something else that I was going to say let me get to my email h ah yes okay um we were talking a lot about the Captivate media findings that um Dr putam sent out to us uh as a as a board and we are wanting to and this might just land under um future board agenda topics but we are um Desiring for a board topic work session to be around that the pr Captivate media findings and how we can um join with the leadership team in knowing what we should and would love to say about our wonderful District all right thank you and then board finance and audit committee chair Al doen yeah we met we met last week um and a real short report but the committee discussed a number of items related to a potential future referendum for Apollo High School including costs to run a stand alone Standalone election I talked about some different options and that that'll all be coming to the board for approval at some point here um in in November uh to make those decisions so there were really no decisions made didn't talk much about the the remodel or anything like that talked a little bit about uh some areas of the school but not not a long not a long discussion on that it was mainly about the referendum so uh that's it I just it was a short meeting and a short report all right thank you lastly we have future agenda items the September 4th board meeting work session topics will include the summer programming summary the summer project status report Innovation and instruction roadmap schools updates policy readings and then the third MSP resolution that we're going to add um at this time does any board member wish to suggest a future agenda item Natalie we I heard yours anybody else all right uh that was everything on our agenda looking for a motion to adjourn uh thank you um all in favor say I opposed all right meeting is adjourned thanks Monica uh 8:51 p.m thank you for watching we'll be back Wednesday September 4th thank you for having me here byebye bye that's the thank you very very much