##VIDEO ID:pcb8D631hS8## is to provide a safe and caring climate and culture in which we engage Inspire educate uh prepare and Empower all Learners in partnership with their surrounding Community to be successful in today's and tomorrow's Society Bruce will you please lead us in the P Allegiance United States stands thank you and then when you're ready can you please call roll here here here here is here and he here all board members are present Bruce you're welcome do I need to do that again no I think everybody probably okay uh the following cabinet members and staff are present at the district office with us superintendent Dr Lorie putam assistant superintendent for E5 learning Nikki Hansen assistant superintendent for E12 Educational Services Shannon avenson executive director of Community Education Adam Holm executive director of finance and business services Amy skallerud executive director of operations Joel height Camp executive director of research enrollment and assessments Donna roer executive director of Special Projects Gary Gangi executive director of community engagement and Communications Tammy Dand media technicians Paul Novak and Gordy Scott and custodian onsite is Austin goodwater thank you then I'm looking for a motion to approve tonight's Board of Education meeting and work session agenda so move second classic I have a motion by Scott a second by Natalie uh Bruce can you call vote my yeah you just keep it on for a little bit I think I will do that okay uh Heather Williams Bruce henches votes yes Shannon HZ yes Diana Fenton yes Zack dhol Natalie Copeland yes and Scott andreon yes okay thank you 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 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 personnel staff changes Item B approval of monthly financial report for November 2024 item C approval of monthly Treasures report for November 2024 and item D approval of amended 2025 legislative platform 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 tonight's consent agenda as read so so moved mixing it up there we'll go with uh Bruce and do I have a second second okay uh second by Scott uh Bruce can you call vote again uh Scott andron yes Natalie Copeland yes Zack dhal Diana Fenton yes Shannon HZ yes Bruce henches votes yes and Heather WI yes okay thank you uh first up we have information items one exciting information item tonight we have the preschool for Success update and we have Nikki Hansen a superintendent of E5 learning will be introducing our presenters tonight all right just give me one minute we have a little bit of spinning happening with [Music] technology all right good evening chair HW superintendent putam and members of the board tonight I get the privilege of introducing Amy tromley and Gayla holgren two Community Partners who wear mini hats in our community um and tonight our here is rotarian sharing an update on our preschool for Success partnership with District 742 so welcome Amy and welcome Gayla let's see is my mic on yes thank you so much we are really delighted to be here and update you on our preschool for for preschool for Success program um I I'd like to start by backtracking a little bit and tell you how a group of rotarians got involved in preschool it really started with um a a book club it was a national goal in rotary uh uh diversity equity and inclusion and our Rotary Club a group of about 15 people got together and did some reading of various articles and books on a diversity equity and inclusion and achievement Gap and graduation rates and we had a discussion that night I really really engaging discussion and out of that came the commitment that we wanted to do something in our community uh to affect the graduation rates and the and achievement Gap and diversity and equity and inclusion and that's how preschool started but we had to um go back to our club and convince them to do that we wanted to do this so we brought in some of the St Cloud District uh Preschool teachers who presented to us and brought in a lot of data and we did some research and uh what we wanted to do is make it a signature project uh I've been in rotary for over 30 years and uh every 56 years we have a signature project uh we've done Pathways for youth cop houses Summertime by George building houses with Humanity uh Habit Habitat for Humanity and so we wanted to make it a signature project and to do that we had to had the entire Club vote on that Heathers a rotarian too you've probably been involved in in a couple of these so we took it to the club and we presented some data about why we wanted to do this and one of the things uh was that 35,000 students in Minnesota are not ready with the skills they need to start kindergarten that that's a terrible statistics and and we know too and we told him about Bill Gates about how the first five years affect um how the eight next 80 turn out and that kids start behind never catch up so we got together with our club and made some presentations and we talked about not just the humanitarian aspect of it but the economic aspect a lot of CEOs and business people in rotary and for every dollar invested in preschool there's a $16 return to the community or another way to say it is there's a 7 to 10% uh return on their investment so we tried to show them that benefited them as a community to invest in preschool we we also showed them some research and one of the F my favorite ones was a Parry study and the Perry study was done in Michigan and it uh followed preschool kids for 40 years and what they found as they followed those kids through those 40 years that were in preschool they had a control a control group that was not in preschool and in the the Perry study kids they found that they were more successful in life they were had higher earning greater academic sess and had better health even as adults and as students they found that they had less specialed referrals they had less discipline problems higher graduation rates in fact the Perry study as you can see on the slide there uh the graduation rate was 80% for their group of preschoolers compared to 60% in the in the non- preschool students so that was some of the data we presented to them and uh they agreed and we agreed that it takes the community to raise a child and they supported that as a a signature project usually their three years were we're into our fourth year with this one and it involves not just um donating money from our foundation it also involves what we call boots on the ground which means we get involved that we are actively involved in the program not just donating money to it so here are some of our um Partners this is a partnership between the district and the Rotary Club but we have many other partners as well we have um I think uh probably over 50 rotarians that have donated uh 50 I mean sorry 500 to ,000 in scholarship money many many community members Gary Marsen is my co-chair and uh he's has been contacting a lot of community members he's been out sending out thank you letters and we're still getting money back in as we as we have uh he fundraises that continue to uh earn money for the scholarship program and donations but you can see there we also have large donations from like the Richie Foundation the um St Cloud morning Optimist Club is several years given us money the Center Care Foundation uh initiative Foundation um Parker Foundation Sterns electric Center Care leaf and shields um I I probably am missing a couple there because we continue to fundraise and we continue to get donations three of our important Partners they're all important but uh a United has just been a vital partner Amy's here from United Way uh she serves on our board we have a 15ers board uh that has been meeting monthly now for over three years and we have um reach up Head Start and Boys and Girls Club on the board as well uh the boys and girls club actually the first year uh offer we did use their classrooms because the school district did not have classroom classrooms and we offered the program there a little bit about funding that first year uh we had actually less than a year to plan which is probably not ideal but we did get the program up and running that first year but we had didn't have classrooms so we used the boys and girls club and then uh we didn't have busing uh Gary gangji really tried to uh at that time to accommodate it but we we just could not accommodate the busing and of course then the parents couldn't get him there so even though we wanted to have a 90 kids we only had 29 and ended the year with 25 um Mike rard was on our board at that time and Nikki has replaced them now and uh Mike rard was just very very instrumental in helping us resolve that the second year and we were able to um put the classrooms back in the building get them on the bus routes and we were able to do 96 kids and and fundraised there you can see over $120,000 and the same same thing with the uh third year um we had 96 kids and again raised over $100,000 uh this year I'm happy to report we're still working on it in fact I just got a report today and we had some more checks coming in we have over $100,000 and it and I'm sure we'll get a bit more uh the first year as I said we were in the boys and girls club we had uh ended with 25 kids the program we use the school district curriculum and that year we had um three classrooms or let's see three sections um in those two sites and we use the school district curriculum we hired the teachers St Cloud School District employees they are and the PA of professional and um uh that was the program the first year and the second year then uh one of the goals as I said boots on the ground one of the goals was to get involved in the group in the in preschool through Community activity and so we had a community activity and we are continuing to do that and we had four-year-old programs that year and because of again classroom space we moved into some three-year-old programs and our goal was 96 students we started we did get 96 students and we finished the year with 96 students uh let's see they were at Discovery and core review and tahi and uh we got into the classroom a little bit one of the goals is to do volunteering in the class classroom as well as the community events Gary and I started it out with uh gingerbread men I think there's a slide in here of Gary with them P making cookies and uh so he and I did that and then we've uh brought rotarians in uh where we did paints uh finger paint giveaway and they played with kids and did finger painting went to the gym and did some playing uh we'll have about 15 G uh rotarians that will come in and volunteer on those activities recently we've done uh the hats and mittens and this year for the first time we gave winter coats to all 90 kids in the program and it's not just giving them the coats is coming in and engaging with them and and spending some time with them when we do that and uh to this now at this point our goal was to have 30% of our rotarians volunteering in the program and we're over 35% so we're we're pretty happy about that um let's see what else have I got here oh signature projects aren't up forever usually they're three years sometimes they go a little longer we're into our fourth year so one of our goals always was to work with the legislature to get additional funding and we have gone both both the last two years we've had rotary days at the capital we've met with legislators and we've advocated for additional funding and we will continue to do that now the hard part is the statistics Amy is going to share the statistics um and she's GNA you know and that's been something that we just did this year and Janie um Conway worked with us and she was just wonderful uh listening to what we wanted going back and working at it bringing it back making it user friendly for a bunch of rotarians and so um uh and a lot of it is again with the elementary skills so I'm going to let Amy do that cuz she's got a background well as an former preschool student of theity St Cloud area school district that went to Washington and had marcha elg for preschool and uh Bruce henches as a social studies teacher and Gayla holgren as a principal uh graduating from Tech High School in 1996 it's an honor to be here to present to you this great data um and really what we have here in St Cloud and and what the district is making happen it is a program like no other there are you know communities across the state that are jealous of this kind of public private partnership uh and we're making it happen through so many great opportunities and the leadership of rotary and uh rotary sucked Me In by doing this project and you know what a what a great way to to get involved and so looking at the data and this data right here that you're looking at is not new data to most of you uh for the most part but when we look at the reading proficiency of kids we know that kids actually need to be wired by age three to be reading proficiently and at grade level uh each year beyond that that so what are we doing early on because when we invest early we get a great Roi uh what we though see in the end is that we can start looking at it at that third grade reading proficiency and we've started to look at it even earlier which is next in these slides uh but what we know and you see across the line there are all students in Minnesota and the reading proficiency um and then you look at St Cloud area school district's reading proficiency um and and how that is broken out uh then we go specifically deep er down into areas where uh we know there are more uh I I like to call them delivery gaps maybe school districts don't always appreciate that as much or because when we think about right academic gaps or achievement gaps or opportunity gaps it's really you know how am I delivering my services so that people are satisfied in getting the product that they need and so if we're not delivering that as as best we can how are we going to change our delivery models to make sure that that client that student that child is benefiting from it because if I'm going to the gym and I'm not getting a a good you know workout or if I'm not going to a restaurant I'm not getting the the product I'm hoping for it it's a delivery issue and you know it takes two people on that so we look at it that way and there are some definite strategic gaps that we uh at preschool for success in the rotary want to look at uh focusing on and and targeting so that kids have the pockets that the the coins stay in so that they can contribute back to the society later on and every child deserves that and so we look at our students living in poverty uh we look at our multilingual Learners who are learning in a different language at home and are multilingual and they're coming with two languages to school right framing that as an asset and when we're assessing them in not their first language there are going to be gaps that we see in this data and so how do we how do we change that narrative for our community and and and these that these young people uh so those are the two focus groups we've really looked at is students living in poverty and multilingual Learners in and amongst that is also our bipo population which we also have focused on as well so as young people are our families are able to enroll they do need to qualify as a student who is living in low socioeconomic conditions which in the district is considered free and reduced lunch uh so that they can access this program for free um so they can start school off on the right foot and so as we looked at our data and our demographics for the district as well as the goals of the Rotary we wanted to make sure our demographics and and the populations we were trying to serve and support in in growth areas and opportunities to have a better delivery model uh making sure we're delivering the these services to the students who need it the most uh we were able to see uh through the great collaboration with Jamie and Nikki leading that uh pulling the data those percentages across the board right are are the populations we're looking to serve then we get into the really cool stuff right that we're really excited about and and looking at that long-term trajectory so we really appreciate the partnership uh with Nikki and Donna and team and Jamie to start looking at are what we are doing is that making a difference right because just delivering something just providing and having you know attended does not necessarily mean you're having the kinds of impact that you want to have right surgeons might do 100 surgeries but if 90 of them are botched that's not a very good delivery model we want to make sure that we're also delivering on that and so when we look at students um on free and reduced lunch meal status what you'll see here is their their first grade um the breakdown of the the students that were serving and so when we look at that breakdown um of the kids now so these are now kindergarteners and first graders when we look at the districtwide some of them have moved from free introduced lunch to being on a paid status within their family model that's a great thing to be considering but this is the breakdown that of the students that were serving now that they are in the district full-time we also will look at retention in a little bit too right now we'll look at retention look at that I knew where we were going so here we've done a great job of looking at are the kids who are coming into the district right if we're investing in them early are they also staying here because as a community that has a great education system uh with open enrollment opportunities um uh broal School opportunities Charter School opportunities you know they they have these options and so I think there's a belief also if they start with us they will see the great product that we have and they can stay with us in the district and these are students again living in low socioeconomic conditions and we know the trans transiency of some of those populations and so when we see that 80% of those young people who started with us in preschool for Success are also staying with us like I don't have the actual demographic or the data to say like what the actual retention rate is but like to me that's really impressive so might be something for the district to look at what that retention rate is for a normal cohort and whatnot uh of students but to me that that's amazing that if they're coming in they're staying with us and so then we wanted to look at some sorts of different types of impact that it's also having on the children that are participating in the program and uh you know we don't have strong social emotional data yet that we can look at um there is a kindergarten fall assessment that's supposed to be starting in 2026 or 2025 in the fall I don't know if that's going to actually happen but I'm nerdly excited about that um but the district does uh their uh fastbridge early reading assessments and fastbridge early math and so here what you'll see is uh districtwide 42% of kids are on On Target um on their early re reading um assessments that they take and the kids who attended preschool for Success so it's not only preschool it's not preschool but it's the preschool for Success classes so the boots on the grounds some of the additional supports and weron um you know they were performing at 49.6% On Target so you see a 7.6% increase and that's what that um talks about over the overall District average and then if you look at the sum risk which means they're kind of on the bubble and what that means is if they're on target they're um statistically on track to pass or be proficient on the third grade MCAS uh and so some risk means like a little bit of intervention could be really helpful uh 25.6% of the dis uh of the district 24% of the students so that's what you want to see and then of course the high risk is still there and so seeing that about 8% of the uh percentage points higher than the rest of the district are these kids who attended preschools for success is happening that shows a sum impact um you know again statistical analysis we'd have to you know probably pay like $30,000 for that but we're we're seeing that happened and we also see that then in early math um again districtwide 62.6% and those kids who are on target for Mass 73.5% so about 11% increase above and beyond um the general population here again we believe there are some pieces within that and we want to continue to to track that so we can see um those positive impacts right that Roi that we're able to have by investing in these young people early now early reading and early math they're going to test more of a broad scope of what children have from basic literacy skills which is you know Reading Writing listening you know interpreting comprehending ing all of those pieces when you're when you're a five or a six-year-old letter names and letter sounds is a very skill-based concept right we can teach kids this is an a this is a b this is a c it's much harder to teach a complex literacy expectation of making connections through text for example and when we look at this to see even a higher percentage rate of success for these students shows us that we can teach these skills to young children so much of their life right 80% of brain development happens in the first three years of life and so we're capturing on that you know three years and four-year-olds that we can really build on that and we're able to deliver these types of skills to kids who might not have access to them so it's great to see 16% above uh where the General District is uh that again these kids who are in the preschool for Success program are showing and we see the same ex you know type of information with letter sounds so again when you can teach those simple SK skills to kids those skills then turn into the ability to move on to those higher level thinking skills and connections so lots of great data to share with you uh on the impact side of things but you know really being able to offer a young person a loving caring environment where they feel accepted and wanting to be and the joy of being able to make gingerbread people with Gary and Gayla you know all of that is even more meaning ful than than those basic numbers so we were so excited to to see this data and you know it really made us feel like we're making a difference and uh so that's why I think we're so motivated to continue and uh that's part of what the plans are for this year this year we have six classrooms at um Madison um uh Lincoln and tahi and uh we're foury olds only four year olds this year three teachers and three Paris but we're really focusing on advoc um advocating this year with the legislature and trying to get additional funding um we um are very excited that Senator putam is working with us and has um drafted a bill and it's a bill that would uh give us additional funding for uh two years and uh we would be um a pilot site for the State uh a model for other communities to look at again opportunity to gather additional data to to look at what we're doing and and why it's successful and uh have other communities take a look at that so the legislature would also say uh that we needed to continue our partnership and continue our involvement our boots on the ground and that rotary would have to continue contributing uh financially as well so we're very excited about that and Amy and I and Gary will be going down to the senate in March and doing some testifying and hoping that uh that hands out and um then we would be moving into uh five and six years so um we love this quote this was a quote from our very first night it's easier to build strong children than to build rep or to repair broken men and that came out of our very first discussion and uh we're just really focused on the fact that we can make a difference in our community by focusing on preschool so we'll take questions I'm going to uh show a few pictures here while you take some questions a couple community events there working with the Spring Fling and then um uh the winter event we also did one down at the Roosevelt uh park down there with pizza and give uh uh pop and all kinds of games and activities and then you see John bodet volunteering and uh like I said we have a bunch of rotarians that have been getting in the classroom and it's so so valuable to our rotarians who probably have never been in a preschool classroom certainly aren't aware of the diversity and challenge the school district has they walk away just amazed and so impressed and um really more committed so questions then Scott did you turn your microphone off or on I I I can hear you just fine but I all the people who are watching at home want to hear these questions you understand this is my first meeting back I so I'm here to help you this microphone on and off but um just looking at a little bit of your data regarding early reading 49% of students um are on target for kindergarten uh for early reading 74% for math how do you explain that difference that's a great question for Nikki um they are different assessments and so they test different standards right um so when we look at this one thing that I want to point out is when we're looking at those increases for that cohort of prek for Success students you're looking at a cohort of all students who got a preschool experience when you're looking at that compared to District you're looking at some students who got a preschool experience and some students who did not and So currently we have 706 kindergarteners within District 742 342 of them are currently this month in a 4-year-old program which means we're currently serving in a 4-year-old preschool program about half of our incoming kindergarteners and so when you see some of that uh discrepancy in success that is where some of that lies I'm looking more for the discrepancy between kindergarten Readiness for math versus kindergarten Readiness for reading going back to the first is it more common for students to be ready for math than for I would say my gut tells me Bruce without the historical Trends and patterns in that not necessarily I think it depends a lot on the students who are showing up this was also our first year so this comparative data to last school year was the first year we implemented fast Bridge assessments so we had a change in our assessments and so we're watching closely what are the trends and patterns telling us and then what are our instructional next steps so I think at this point in our data we just don't know yet because of the earliness of these new assessments okay thank you you have more questions well uh my second question was going to be uh um does the preschool for Success program oper operates separately than the district's preschool it does not now I forgot my mic so so it's the same curriculum across all okay it is the same curriculum they district teachers they are supported by our district leaders and District resources um and so it really is a partnership in the hiring and supporting of those teachers and those students along with the funding and great collaboration with rotary um these halfday programs or all day programs our four-year-old program is half day there's an AM session and a PM session so you see three classrooms six sessions or six groups of students okay um how many of these kids can understand English are are we teaching English at this level or what what do we got yes absolutely we are teaching English and they understand English yep um we provide lunch and breakfast or or we do that is an exciting update this is the first year um that with that Universal meals program for our am session we provide breakfast for our PM session we provide lunch so that is a a new update this year and we are getting really good reviews from teachers and from students and families thank you thank you Gayla Amy um I was there the first night when we had the conversation so um I I do appreciate uh and I want to highlight um the role that rotary plays and these signature projects um and when they when rotary commits to doing something they roll up their sleeves and and they make it happen that said I guess my question um is more about the funding because we do the signature projects always usually have an Exit Plan and obviously um with the leg with legislative support or without legislative support at this point uh what is the sustainability of the program and and I know when when rotary starts its projects the intention is not to leave them or back away from something that isn't continuing so if the legislature doesn't come through both from a district and a rotary perspective what happens next and how long are we prepared to support in the 50-50 share I don't think I can really answer that you know uh we uh are still fundraising and um we aren't taking money from the foundation this year it's all fundraising um and so um that it's a big question the goal was to uh because signature projects there's an exit plan as Heather said and and like uh Pathways for youth was turned over to Lutheran Social Services our exit plan was the legislature and uh they haven't come through they I know some funding was increased this last year uh they haven't come through but that's our really our Exit Plan uh because rotary is is not in the business of doing preschools forever or any of our projects uh that's that's that isn't with our mission that we do a long-term forever project but uh we're committed to work with the legislature when we started there were 250 kids on the waiting list and our goal and these were kids that qualified based on state guidelines however the state didn't give the school district enough money to to provide the preschool for all of them so our goal was to eliminate that waiting list and it's still our goal and we check in with uh Nikki every meeting how many kids on the waiting list now and it has gone down considerably I don't know what it is today today is 119 um and so those are four-year-olds who are registered and waiting to get in and so that is one of our goals as a team is how do we continue to look at giving those opportunities and that access um the other thing that I just want to mention is we've been in good partnership and communication so we were aware that this is not a longterm forever thing um and District 742 has been working to provide every VPK opportunity and get those grants and we are happy to stay committed to trying to sustain those classrooms that we have established and so we've been aware of that in our staffing process and looking to those grants and opportunities to sustain what we have started as a partnership yeah that 119 brings instant tears to my eyes no lie because we're doing y'all are we talk about preschool for Success when we need to talk about something happy here on the school board that we talk about preschool for success I mean it's just there's so much Beauty in the reason why you did it and what you're seeing because of that and um and there's still a long way to go and I agree with you the legislature is the only way that we can ensure early learning for all students and I think it's a really important though to keep bringing up that 119 because these are what families are like yes and then they're like how you know so it's not a desire it's not a lack of Desire it's just a lack of lots of other things that we need to make it happen and so thank you for meeting that need that is so great in our community um the retention rate of 80% we also like to hear that because that's something we talk about a lot is retaining our students for um for all of all that we can um I remember well the the man we want to provide busing but it was during the pandemic and how do we do that and then you were able to the next time and that's just it's just those access and opportunities um and reducing those barriers that has been at the key to the success of this plan so thank you for doing that um this is the reason why people look to St Cloud in in the education system in in Minnesota to say we need to look what St Cloud's doing because it's it is that private public partnership that we're all really proud of that we have in this community and not only that but like when you say how many people gave $500 to $1,000 like that's that's a lot of money and for that to be directly benefiting a family and our community um it's just it's a beautiful thing um the reason 119 just gets really gets me I think is because I um worked at a church just so my kids could have free preschool because we really didn't have the money for them to go and pay for it so um you know and that was my privilege to be able to do that and have a music degree to work there in order to do that but um the that's basically what I wanted to just put on the table is that sometimes I think in our Community can be like oh but if if families just no families want but there just always isn't a bridge and so thank you for being part of that bridge really appreciate you we we are 37th in the nation uh for providing preschool to four year olds state of Minnesota the state of Minnesota yes that's why we need to work with the legislature yeah I you guys haven't heard this but we um I I uh taught in Georgia and during that time I was teaching there they made free preschool for all and their the gains that they've made in the last 20 years have been pretty amazing because of it but yeah all right legislature let's go do they differentiate that number between urban and rural or different types of school districts so do we know when when it says that we're 37th um ranking wise are Urban or wealth or are wealthier schools in better position and and is part of that just the the overall discrepancy in in some of our Urban and and Rural schools so my my understanding of that number is it's 37th in the nation for how our governments invest in schools and being able to provide preschool so it's not me taking it out of my pocket so my child can have preschool it's the N the dollars invested into children into threeyear olds I think that was on the start Tribune wasn't it if I remember right Star Tribune and if you really want the data I can send you all the links about it really cool I think it might even be linked in the presentation okay well Gayla and Amy thank you for being here tonight thank you for choosing us um thank you for um all the work that's being done our district and our community is very fortunate thanks thanks to all of you making it happen because not not every school district Across the Nation across the state would do something as Brave as this so thanks to you for making it happen Okay moving on to discussion and action items tonight we just have one item in this category it's a discussion item it is the Elementary School boundaries presented by Nikki Hansen assistant superintendent of E5 learning and Joel high camp executive director of operations yes good evening again chair H superintendent putam and members of the board uh now we get to transition to working with executive director hi camp and giving you a Southside Elementary School enrollment and space facilities uh realities and current updates and so just to give a little bit of the facility's landscape we know that we currently have challenges for space at oakill and tahi and we currently have space opportunities that exist at clear viiew this slide is going to show you some enrollment Trends from 20156 to current uh one thing to note that this enrollment does not include preschool those four-year-old classrooms that we just talked about and we did make a push to get all of those preschool classes back in their school communities for a number of reasons um because we felt it was best for kids and their experience in education to support them in their next steps and so that current number on the side also includes those preschool four-year-old class classrooms that are within those spaces um one thing you'll note up on the or oill that Top Line is you'll see the that Trend at 776 they currently have three preschool classrooms serving about 90 students so three 90 students are added uh to that current number you'll see tahi and Lincoln next we had about three four years ago that two schools one one Community movement where we have our prek through 30 graders at tahi and our fourth and fifth graders serving at Lincoln um this year we did add one of those preschool for Success classrooms back to that tahi Lincoln Community they now serve four preschool classrooms two at tahi and two at Lincoln to provide space tahi was out of classroom space we had a slight opportunity at Lincoln and so because they serve the same families we were able to serve some preschoolers at Lincoln you'll see the yellow highlights in 20 2 23 23 24 that is when we did the swap when we initially started it was third through fifth grade at Lincoln and then we transitioned third grade to tahi because again we had space concerns at Lincoln and so we were doing the best we could with the space we had available um but that's why those numbers kind of flipflop there and then at Clear View you'll see in 156 we had 485 students and currently we've seen a a decrease over the years to maintaining pretty consistent consistant number is right around 400 um which is where we see that space opportunity for these two communities each year as we begin um thinking about where the space is at and where where there may be constraints in the future we do reach out to some of our partners uh and so we did reach out to City Planning and uh got some updates for the near future and so what you see right now is a map of the entire district and you'll see another uh map on the next slide here that also highlights a little bit easier where the schools bar for each of them but if you look just go back one real quick right in right in the middle um you'll see there are four red dots kind of all together those all fall within the oakill area and then the one dot off to the east or the the right side of that map uh is in the tah area so if you go ahead now Nikki thank you you'll see the entirety of the district um uh of where each boundary lies and again with the constraints we currently have at oakill and knowing that there are four um somewhat large developments happen in those areas um trying to project for the future um that that could cause some future constraints and so just some considerations tonight um we are asking for the board to consider moving that St Augusta area and the county road 8 South of Minnesota Boulevard into the clear viw attendance area this would be a a proposal that would start 25 26 school year and would be optional for existing 742 students uh new to District students would attend clear viw and kindergarten students with siblings would utilize the same waiver process as clear viw immersion students what that would mean as an example would be if I have a fourth grader who has attended oakill and I am part of that St AUST gusta boundary and I have a kindergartener who's starting that kindergartener could ride the bus and attend Oak Hill uh with that fourth grader for their fourth grade year in kindergarten year their fifth grade year and first grade year and once that fifth grader transition to middle school that family would then have the option to do an IND District transfer request through a policy 599 or to transition with transportation to the Clear View uh School uh this boundary adjustment we did also want to mention has no impact on middle or High School placements so the proposal for the oakill area is outlined and bolded there um in the in the black line it is all of the area south of I94 and then all of the area that's east of 43rd Avenue which then turns into County Road 136 uh that current area um currently has approximately 23 families um that this that this would affect when you go to the Lincoln tilai area again it's outlined there in the uh the bolded black lines that is the area uh that is south of Minnesota Boulevard if you're not sure what road that is that is what many call the prison road that comes off of Highway 10 um the West boundary is the river and the East boundary is Highway 10 uh and then it butts up to the current Clear View boundary on the South Side um that area is a little bit larger familywise we're looking at uh approximately 89 families I believe uh just about a 100 when you include prek uh both of those Maps just for awareness for everyone and anyone that's watching both maps are available on the District web page um it's not easy to see now but if you download it off the web page and you can zoom in every street that's on there has the actual um street name and then we also did put a uh address finder where you can type in your address with an overlay of the district map and the proposed areas are are highlighted in a light blue and families can see exactly where their house may may fall in each of these areas with that we will take any questions that you have anybody have any questions at all the the is it Southeast side um is that going to be the I'm just thinking about the bus cuz you have to go up to the bridge and around what kind of busing increase time would a child have that's a great question so with all of these changes really not very much with all the immersion that we have transportation happening with students all over the district um when we do an overlay of where our current students are that maybe go to tah or Lincoln and then who's attending clear view um for immersion many of those spots overlap and so we have buses going in and out of these areas already um we're just instead of having two buses go we'll actually have one bus go um it actually should make it a little more streamlined for those students but that we won't go all the way to the bridge with this right Minnesota Boulevard is still south of the of the University Bridge okay does that make sense so it would go um essentially to where the curve on Riverside Drive starts to make the curve toward the stop light that's where the line would be y that's where the line would go so we would avoid bridge is this going to be it's just an information item is this come back as an action item then exp anybody else have any questions or comments at all Natalie I know this was mentioned but can you whoever the right person is give like a 50,000 foot overview of how we're talking with families about this yeah so we sent out a communication on Monday um superintendent putam sent the message to both School communities uh we also um offered an opportunity for them to reach out with any questions we got a handful of parents who reached out that we personally connected with uh we shifted this to a discussion item tonight to hopefully generate some interest in in reaching out with any questions that we make sure that we can ease their minds um and we also feel that having this be an option for 25 26 also gives families some flexibility in their choices and so we welcome anyone to reach out with any questions and we will be happy to to discuss and talk with them for such a Hot Topic this feels really soft and sound and and calm and and positive I guess yeah just a shout out quick to uh the department of Ed too I reached out to a contact and within a matter I I talked to him on Friday and by the end of the day Monday he had the the mapfinder built for us with our own boundaries parents could put in their own address it puts a pin right on the map so just a shout out to MD for the help on that yeah nice tool all right I started the conversation I was so impressed still impressed all right thank you guys okay um so next we have moving on to reports we have the Board of Education standing committee reports um by the committee chairs but um I highly doubt the beginning of 2025 that um we have not met because we just had our new assignments um on Monday so uh no reports there correct okay so then moving on to Future agenda items uh the January regular board meeting topics will include the comprehensive Arts planning program Apollo School presentation girls soccer Co-op and then the action item for the Elementary School boundaries um at this time does any board member uh want to suggest a future agenda item okay so I'm looking for a motion to adjourn our board meeting second okay have a motion by Natalie a second by Scott all in favor to adjourn our board meeting say I I opposed okay so the board meeting is adjourned at 7:24 and at that same time we are opening up our work session on tonight's work session we have two items first up the full service Community Schools presentation welcome song Maxwell director of Partnerships for Student Success this is [Music] exciting and if you would introduce your team that would be excellent thank you I did okay thank you um good evening chair hos Dr putam distinguished members of the board Welcome to our new members colleagues and listening public um we are very delighted to be here tonight to present about the full service Community Schools to my left I have amran YF who is our site coordinator at Discovery and to my right Abdullah M who is the site coordinator at north um full service Community Schools are not A New Concept they have been um gained significant momentum in recent decades as a holistic way to support our students and their families the roots of this model can be traced back to the early 20th century and the work of um education Pioneers like Jane Adams who established settlement houses to provide Social Services alongside educational programs the modern full service Community School approach emerged in the 1900s and 2000s with a coalition for Community Schools defining them as both a place and a set of Partnerships between the school and other community resources that integrate academics Health and Social Services Youth and Community Development and Community engagement today there are over 5,000 full service community schools across the United States um they are found in urban and suburban and Rural communities uh they are funded through a variety of sources including federal grants state and local funding and private philanthropic support our full service Community School Grant um was awarded a Federal grant we were awarded for five years of funding year one was dedicated to planning which is nice not all grants provide that time um and then we are fortunate to have funding for two site coordinators to help lead the work in the schools our 129 page Grant application will be our blueprint um and our assessments will help us refine our work and if you would like to read that Grant application I am happy to send it to you so what are full service Community Schools um at their most basic level they provide wraparound services to promote Student Success so we put students in the center and we bring them uh Community Partners and and school resources and they both provide um so it creates a hub of support for both students and for families which is kind of a distinction from other things the core components of a full service Community Schools and sometimes you will hear this referred to as pillars the federal government and the state government kind of call them different things but we can just call them four common things um they focus on expanded learning opportunities so that's like before and after school programming and summer enrichment so this is an all year thing not just an academic activity um integrated student supports which would include Mental Health Services nutrition assistance and family engagement community- based Partnerships that are leveraged and local resources and expertise are utilized um collaborative leadership which is also kind of a a different philosophy I think for a school district and other organizations um to have that building and here making sure that all voices the staff the students the parents the Community Partners are heard um as you're building and and learning in this process these key components are going to help us build systemic change by providing these wraparound supports through collaborative Partnerships and most importantly um students and families gaining agency that's kind of what uh excited me the most when I started engaging this work and came back from the initial conference you know the the possibilities are kind of endless in terms of what can happen with this this work um research consistently shows that there's a positive impact from Full Service Community Schools they have been linked to improved academic achievement better School attendance reduced disciplinary incidents and stronger Family School Community connections things that we all want for our community this model has proven particularly beneficial for students from lowincome backgrounds and marginalized communities and because of our vision of success um of thriving students with Equitable outcomes will create stronger communities both inside and outside of our classroom and into our communities so we have started with um our two schools as we mentioned before with Discovery and North Junior High and then Services have been based upon needs assessments which have been CLE excuse me completed at both schools um through our Partnerships with local nonprofits Healthcare Providers and government agencies these schools are going to offer a wide range of services after school tutoring and enrichment programs um on-site Medical Dental and mental health clinics food shelves and clothing closets um and we're hoping to do adult education classes and job training and other parenting classes so the goal is to address the comprehensive needs of the students and families um removing barriers to learning and empowering the entire community so in closing full service Community Schools provide us an opportunity to CH challenge systemic racism by creating spaces and support for those most in need in our community where they go on a daily basis by integrating academics Health and Social Services in our institutions we can drive positive change I'm very proud that the St Claus School District um is participating in this important work so thank you for the opportunity to present an overview we'll be happy to take any questions anybody have any questions Natalie Thank You song and thank you team for being here and all of the work you've already done towards this um wonderful project can you talk a little bit more about what went into the needs assessments and um were there things that surprised you that you learned from those needs assessment at Discovery and and uh North right yes yeah I think um the greatest thing that we learned was that we did a family needs assessment and we have so if everyone wants to take two these are from um the needs assessments we conducted a family needs assessment and a staff needs assessment and I think the most wonderful thing about it was that the staff took it after the family so they didn't see the information first but the staff what they identified as the needs of their families was exactly aligned with what the families had identified yeah so they had at both schools so they have a deep pulse on what they need that so that was a really the beautiful thing so the needs assessments were conducted by survey um so we spent a lot of time surveying students and families um some of them were done at connections conferences um and a lot were done also by follow-up phone calls so it was it was a big process and then the staff ones were conducted at staff meetings that always is nice when they align because than obviously we're already doing yes we're in the right direction we can just continue expanding it um and then what has I know it's been a long year and yet it's like wait we're having to open now what in the world but um what has encouraged you the most and I'd love to hear from your partners as well what has encouraged you most about this um newer I mean not new compared to you know the 1800s but I mean newer for our community um what what encourages you about this I um I'll have you to speak in a minute but what encouraged me the most was really initially when Dr put putam put out the call to our partners they came they came in numbers and they have stayed and they are with us and they are excited to be doing this work um we already have Community Partners in our schools right I mean they come and do things with us but this is a more systematized way to create so that's how we're going to sustain this work by being able to roll this out to other schools once the system is built but um I think their dedication has been really wonderful yeah did you have anything you want to add um not I think you said it all but to actually meet the needs of our families um like s said we have food banies we have um a closet where we have all the winter gears um so even getting calls from different schools um we have provided in l students who are attending ALC um we had um gave um a lot of donation to um other schools like Lincoln tahi Madison um sharing with the foods all the resources that we have even though we have two two schools that are identified um as a Community Partners we also share all the resources with other schools I think uh I'm going to put it together nicely um part of the reason for me as well was being new to District as well and new to St Cloud I think um song taking a chance on me and R as well um bringing New Perspective to the team uh um we have a real small But Mighty team but wonderful thanks you guys um I have a couple of comments uh and then one question first of all I appreciate that you provided historical perspective um and and I think particularly because what it does is it normalizes that this isn't a new service for current immigrants this goes back over a hundred years and it is normalizing that we have as a as a country and as a as communities across the country we have been providing services to all sorts of immigrants for decades literally and so I think it's really important to provide that sort of um historical perspective um the other point that I would make is wraparound services are very common at the University level um and and very accepted that when you go when you let your kids or you help your kids to move particularly traditional aged but even now as we see um additional adult Learners they're continually looking at wraparound services and how they provide everything from Health Services to mental health um to academic advising to everything uh it's best practices so I think that that sort of perspective is really important to this conversation and to to the community understanding why this is important within our district one question that I do have um because it's based upon needs and I know around um free and reduced lunch um there's stigma sometimes associated with that which is why they they really push for Universal Services do you see that same if it's based upon needs is it available to students of means and if not do you see a division um or a lack of integration and do students at Discovery and families at Discovery understand why it would be available to some students and not to others and do we do education around that so my short answer is no I don't see that but I'm not in the school on a daily basis I think Omron might be able to address that were you going to answer that is that what you were doing no is not what you were doing no I all the like I said like all the services is actually available for anybody who have a need so and I don't think it is a stigma I think um having that information like kids would actually come and say oh I lost the M that you gave me the other day and I need one I'm like yep absolutely here you go you know that you can come to this space um uh teachers know that they can come into um my room and request all the stuff that they need for the families and if I can give you some numbers um so we had like I give out like 48 hats um 62 mittens um 11 jackets um 39 boots um and 58 um snow pants and especially starting with uh the winter um that was a lot of stuff that the kids needed it so yeah the Community Schools seems to be a centralization of services but we've only got two of them going which means we have a lot of services that are decentralized or overlapping or how are you working kind of a two- system deal Yep this grant um afforded us the ability to use two sites and and I think until the system is built you know it doesn't roll out to more sites but we're fortunate to have an elementary and a secondary school um to start this work at and it is not that this work isn't done at other schools right I mean I think when Becky Estrada did her presentation I was like you're doing this you're you're you're doing full service commun school work she just didn't get a grant to do it right so we got a grant and kind of a head start and um I really think that I hope the work that we're doing with our partners to kind of systematize it will make it easier to roll it out to Future sites okay any other comments or questions thank you thank you for being here and this and thank you for every one of those pages of the grant so much appreciated all your hard work and your team thank you okay last up tonight is uh the school's update we have Nikki Hansen again assistant superintendent of E5 learning and Shannon avenson assistant superintendent of E12 Educational Services I apologize I'm having some technology difficulties today but we will get this rolling oh it just does not like my beautiful picture there um but I will I will roll anyways um tonight for our elementary update we get to highlight our oakill owls and their picture of safety which I will put in the PDF for notes so that you can see later is a beautiful picture of uh two lines within the gym space and AP Anderson talks about the highlights of their physical education class where teachers always put Safety First teachers are careful with equipment and rules and that provides a safe and nurturing environment where children learn and are supported and cared for fortunately pictures are working here now um this image represents presents a belonging at Oak Hill every year our second graders celebrate together on a schoolwide anti-bullying parade on Unity day they spread their message of Unity by promoting kindness and all all the ways to stop bullying their message promotes Community Spirit kindness acceptance and inclusion this is an exciting one uh this picture illustrates our District's collaboration and partnership with great theater our students and staff work together with great theater the members to perform Finding Nemo and this is that fifth grade play in a week um that is throughout all of our elementaries this school year and this Pro shared project enriches students educational experiences and fosters a wide range of skills and attributes that contribute to their overall development and future success and unfortunately we got one more blank one so hopefully this is better for you Shannon um but this picture was a beautiful picture of Oakley the owl and some students from December who received student of the month Awards uh oakill celebrates monthly assemblies where they celebrate both their academic and their social emotional Excellence that's looking better I am um presenting for Jason tonight and it is short and sweet and I am not asking him to give me anymore because I um uh he is enjoying his time at home um he uh is sharing safety here they had uh North family conferences this week and so you can see pictures here of North family conferences in the gym also belonging uh they had over 60 students at North compete in their Annual Spelling be uh collaboration students with uh good attendance got to participate in a no tardy party I love it um safety um oh whoops sorry went ahead there uh the robotics team won awards at the last league tournament and uh three out of four teams are already headed to the state tournament and moving on to uh safety um I uh took some from information from my student services team uh and last month alone we trained 90 bus drivers from troix and spaner um in reframing behaviors and deescalation deescalation strategies um and this is new to us year we haven't done a lot of training with um our U bus drivers that we contract so this is actually really exciting um additionally we are continuing to do restorative practices trainings for student support staff our par professionals um today we had a training actually in this room for our nutritional services staff for CPI training and again some um really on building healthy relationships with students and how to repair harm um so that was really exciting um let me see here uh belonging um our goal is always to reinforce a sense of belonging for our students again I think I've talked about Laurel scherg um she is going around our elementary schools and supporting setting up these hubs creating hallway hubs and regulation stations and Elementary classrooms which really just offer that in the- moment opportunity for students to really get to self-regulate and then um some mindfulness so that they can just return to the classroom when they're ready um I think about four of our elementary rooms as Nikki's nodding her head and then um tahi nexts they're working on so it's just a beautiful opportunity for our students to be able to practice this um on their own collaboration um this is an a United Way is here tonight um this is just another opportunity to show and highlight a beautiful collaboration with United Way um over the last four years we have got a grant through United Way um where they help provide some funding for us to be able to get a general education social worker just for tahi um we started out with her working specifically with kindergarten um and she has continued to work with those kids as they progress through first second and third grade and now she's working with over 200 students at tahi really closely with fam she does skills training seal lessons with those kiddos she is just a huge part of that tahi team it's just a beautiful thing um and so we really appreciate that partner parip with tahi and that's some United Way staff and they come in and they they get to observe her in in action over there um and she's just a beautiful addition to the tahi team and then high expectations and high support that is um one of our new um clerical in uh my student services team Debbie um we are now using uh sped forms it's a student management system for our 504 plans um 504 plans is an accommodation plans for students with disabilities who don't quite qualify for maybe uh an IEP um for special education but need an accommodation plan um what's really amazing about using sped forms we're one of the very very few districts who are doing this is that um it really helps us be um really diligent about doing 504s correctly being um very good about um um following accommodation in a really accurate way the other thing that it does is um when we are transferring 504s to other districts um it give makes sure that students 504s are being transferred um correctly um also other districts are using five um sped form systems for IEPs so what that means is um IEPs um that we are transferring because we are using it for IEPs as well um when students are moving from here to let's say anandale or Kimble or anywhere else a students record is being transferred all of it is really kind of seamless um probably about two or three years years ago we were using a dis different system and it just was much more complicated so our our transferring into this new sped form system has just been a really good thing for our staff for our students and and really for our entire team thank you thank you very much okay wow that's an impressive first out of the gate to set in that bar or low or whichever one okay looking for a motion to adjourn our work session and a motion by Natalie second and a second by Scott all in favor say I I I opposed okay uh thank you very much uh meeting work session is adjourned at 7:48 pm. have a good night and thanks for watching Lori know I ask you a question about the this grant is this during the day or is this an evening okay okay that's what I thought