##VIDEO ID:YLH3aMvjIM0## [Music] pretty comfortable over what's that different this was just straight from the the hospital that's the only one that fits right to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation God indivisible and justice for all right than for coming in tonight everyone this super nice day we're having Outdoors no storms like we had here two weeks ago be nice for meeting get started here if we could get the adoption of the agenda there a motion thank youill a second second thank am is there any discussion on the adoption of the agenda any discussion if not say pass thank you very much consideration visitors we have two people here tonight be a three minute instruction with the board tonight Mr John Anderson and J hum here you see the 30 second mark down here bya start John sir I thanks for thanks for the discussion I know our superintendent is going to give a presentation apparently later oncl and uh I would would course like to see that before I make any comments but knowing what I know about it I just want to make a couple quick observations as uh as our superintendent has given the presentation i' like to consider that half of our students in our district are performing and that's kind of generous at performing at grade level maybe the other half learned um so there's an opportunity cost to adopting anything that's distracting from core academics and I see SEO uh as a big distraction and I'm just h a couple bullet points I didn't really put a lot of time into preparing this but um for one thing it's politically divisive uh very polarizing topic meaning it's going to take time tonight and it's going to drive a lot of discussion here that in my opinion it's kind of unnecessary questions what curriculum is going to be involved in this is the curriculum more approved is there an OP option for parents that find this uh unbeneficial and which classes will this be implemented in through what types of pedagogies and I know that like I said I wish I could have seen superintend presentation before ask these questions but it's something to be something to be considered to of um what kind of metrics past how do we know that this thing is beneficial what are the costs what you know and and in present times how are we going to determine whether it's effective or not and whether it really should be taking up that opportunity and the other question we need to consider are are are teachers licensed in Psychology because this is basically like the name says emotional emotional intelligence it's very self introspective which is distracting from from the particular things that we really want to pay attention to thank you and that's so just keep those questions in mind as we're as we're looking at it because I think there is an opportunity cost with everything that we're introducing that is not focusing on getting those grade levels up thank you thank you God for coming in than see again Mr about debate thank you board chair superintendent school board executive board and Comm members uh I'd like to start off by saying I was at the football game last Friday on a beautiful night and I know we're only a week in but I had talked to many students parents and uh faculty members and everyone to a te was saying how great start this year has gotten off to and so um you know I don't know what has caused that but let's uh keep up to good uh the good work here everything's going smoothly it sounds it's good to see people back in class the reason for my speak speaking tonight is to is on the uh activity of debate we lost uh Mr Sherer uh when he uh left his position last year and uh Mr tul the English teacher stepped up in his place and we really appreciate that uh good friends with the tul family and uh their kids and I I knew when we first started uh talking to him about uh covering for this position he said that he'd have to sleep in his garage and so uh I I'm really happy that he stepped up for this uh it's a it's a program that's invaluable to people my son's personally involved with this uh Wednesday 911 uh they have a meeting at 2:40 p.m in room D12 d215 in the high school it's open to all eth to 12th graders and um uh these kids are and their families are welcome to find out what it's about and no pressure but it's an activity that I see in my son in particular has huge measurements of uh other effects it translates into everything else that he deals with his communication skills his courage his intelligence and uh it's very good for a life skill to learn it's these people really go far in life if they're if they're good at it and uh I really appreciate Mr tul stepping up to keep our fledgling uh debate team in action and a little known fact is that the only St Francis Club Sporter activity ever to win a State title was debate in 1983 so um I think it was 83 I actually was one that Sherer won nationals but then there was there may I may be wrong on the other day I was in debate I would actually know these facts but um it is the only uh uh State um Championship that came from St Francis so anyway thank you Mr tul and if you're interested in debate come check it out it'll be around thank you tonight thank you all right next up is the consent agenda motion to accept consent agenda agenda discussion if not all in favor say I I oppos motion passes for consent agenda thank you very much next up is information items and Report the first one out tonight will be SE social emotional learning discussion Mr superintendent going to kick it off for us yeah and I really don't have much of a presentation uh I just included information and background information sheet um because I I think board members had requested a chance to discuss uh during tonight's meeting uh so I'll keep my my part really short so we can have more discussion and uh one thing that you'll want to look at is theal brochure that was developed by our curriculum and instruction uh Department uh that talks about uh what social emotional learning includes uh the five core competencies of social emotional learning which are self-awareness social awareness responsible decision making self-management and relation skills and then also just a reminder that um does not include um things like critical race Theory or mental health Health Services in the classroom group therapy uh individual Mental Health Services um religious teaching or anything like that so it's not those kinds of things and um also I I want to uh so certainly if you have questions about the brochure uh feel free to bring them up during the discussion I do want to point out uh one thing uh first of all the uh social emotional learning is not a new thing in schools it's been around I know mik star would say at least 50 years ago um Richard uh at the last board meeting uh brought an example uh from a gentleman who had want a contest about a 100 years ago and you know that particular example really it was called a moral code uh and so that was common 100 years ago people talking about Moral Moral code I'm just going to read a couple of things that William Hutchins promoted 100 years ago things like do your part everyone is expected to pull their own rape be a good sport no cheating on tests during ball games good sports shake hands team players celebrate everyone's victories give it your all and everything keep your cool rain in emotions count to 10 when upset think about before uh think before acting level heads lead to smarter choices uh Stand Tall listen to your elders but choose for yourself being different was not something to fear courage is admired problem solving is a PR skill spread kindness the Golden Rule gossip was frown upon be Dependable promises are meant to be kept punctuality honesty owning up for mistakes fixing mistakes reliability are all important team up work well with others keep shared spaces tidy I should really focus on that one a sunny attitude is encourag Chase the truth uh proof important before jumping concl iions stand it for what's right honesty with yourself and others that was a few years ago and when Richard was outlining uh that particular moral code you know I realized I think many people in the audience realized that is a great example of social emotional learning that's it that was 100 years ago they called it moral code then when I was growing up in school we would call it things like character education that was really popular there have been other names for those important Concepts if you go back even further uh the Bible talks about virtues things like humility and kindness um so it's not just a modern day thing it's not something that carsten brought uh to St Francis it's truly uh a part of of our social culture our history and uh everything in schools in fact I was talking to one colleague a few months ago and mentioned you know the concerns or questions about social emotional learning and his statement was that is the Bedrock for everything we do in schools you know we need to work with our kids and hopefully parents are working with the kids to make sure that we know how to interact with with each other that we have strong interpersonal skills uh that we know how to calm down and regulate our emotions uh and you know that's the job of parents and school officials and of course the kids themselves so when we're talking about social emotional learning that's what we're talking about and I think it's imperative to teach those skills to our kids at all levels because it's a important for them to work together it's important for them to learn how to work with others in job situations you know after high school it's important for for people to learn how to regulate emotions uh and if we do those things well that will help with our test course it will help with our behavior in and so really that's all I have to say right now but uh I'm assuming there'll be a lot of discussion about all right so we have discussion here tonight on like psby we did an hourong psby discussion we have an hourong discussion tonight on SE to kick off by part of the discussion oncl and so forth again I went out because I have not received any phone calls on or uh last spring I went out and talked to the people lined up pick up their kids in the Middle School 61 family members I talk to and not one person talked about or Kelby pel got go popular again this year so I went out again do my job I have contact lots of people and you can call it Fields gas station County Market cic corn business places you name it I've been to it I went out and I asked a question what do you think about our schools what are the issues you see about our school what the problems in our school again I had this time I talked to 52 people not one person brought up SC not one person brought up P one person all she said was what's the bullying like on the school buses I said we are addressing that we are working on that if it happen that's the only issue this time with one person on the school bus for bu so's out there I'm glad Richard brought us some information it's over 100 years old that is probably the basis of start in and education this have discussion on it uh who wants to speak next on I have a question yes am um I know he had asked and I'm also curious I know we had gotten um some handouts from Castle um who are we using as guidance for social emotional learning it isn't I mean there has to be something that teachers are going to and using as guidance social emotional learning and who are where are they being pointed what what are you giving them in order to have it successful uh because again there's is concern and I've heard concern that U we are going down the path of having teachers now they're not licensed counselors and licensed psychologists and sometimes you can do more harm than good if it's done wrong if it's done right great but these aren't Li um counselors and where do we are we putting too much on the um teachers plate by moov moving down this but my first one is where is the guidance what do they go to what are we giving them in order to help them learn how to use social promotional L because it's changed over the years 100 years ago uh it's even changed since 99 a lot of the a lot of the readings I've done so yeah thankfully though a lot of the information is the same uh for example the things I I mentioned with Richard's comments are part of our social emotional learning framework uh we do use Castle sometimes as a resource to understand the components of social emotional learning but as far as I know it's not a curriculum uh you know we look at other curriculum uh to support the components of the framework that we want to focus on and so we have the second step curriculum for example for elementary schools we don't have it at the at the middle school or high school but it list the the different curriculum work uh that we use with our kids uh we also use programs uh for other groups of kids uh for example there's a boy town uh program that has social emotional learning components and it's especially um effective for kids who have some Behavior issues so we use that uh we use the uh Zone regulation kind of process where you know kids can identify for themselves are they really out of control are they you know high flying you know on that particular day are they kind of down and out are they you know somewhere in between and so that kind of work helps kids learn where they are and then they can understand strategies that they can use to regulate their behavior so those are some examples none of those specific examples are Castle you know but Castle has a framework I think one of our biggest um pieces we're using was the ideas came up from our community our school board and our stakeholders as our profiles of a graduate and under that category one of them is emotionally intelligent and so we have some indicators of what what does that mean to be emotionally intelligent what does that look like and so those are developed across all the levels and those came out of stakeholder feedback before my time I don't know how many years back but that has been approved by our community stakeholders so um I Heard Casto was mentioned which I have concerns over Casto I've mentioned before on their website it's um Castle the CN Castle stands for collaborative as it is is both who we are and how we work um and then goes on to talk about with growth comes a commitment to ensure seal is dynamic and inclusive of all Learners we strive to identify and contribute to the types of educational experiences that Foster personal Collective growth and well-being especially for those in our society who are underserved we imagine communities in which all young children across race ethnicity family income levels learning abilities home language immigration status gender identity sexual orientation and other factors have the skills relationship and environments to thrive it mentions it not only it mentions it not only as um their mission statement but it also it's embedded in other areas here in their work here it says cell can be a powerful level for creating just inclusive healthy schools um where then know again and mentions the same things that I just mentioned here um it also it's a uh what concerns me is this is exactly the the language in here is exactly what the board said no to three and a half four years ago Jake's in the room here he sat on the board when we said no to equity they came forth with an equity um with the committee that they wanted to do um the board said no we then came up with um I'd have to look it up I should have printed it but it was an equal opportunities committee where you're not focused on Race ethnicity gender identity and um the district said that our um employees probably wouldn't be interested in that so we didn't approve it but the board said no to the equity I did notice on the castle website they did talk about about um culture um the culture groups that we started here I'm not sure when that was started who started it who's on there but I don't recall that being approved at the board level um whether or not it should or shouldn't have been I know they did they tried to with the equity committee and it didn't get approval and the cultural comp or the cultural committee has never come forth before the board for approval if that's the Avenue we wanted to go for it we didn't even hear from our community member at the last board meeting who Saidi thought you guys said no to this I heard it our community was aware of it and now we're back talking about this again that's why I wanted to talk about it what are the teachers talking about you can all say well it's social emotion it doesn't have to do with Equity but when you go to the castle website it does include it on there it includes it on there so what are the teachers using how are they using it I don't want this stuff in the classroom we did it want it three or four years ago when we when the board said no to it we voted down the equity committee it hasn't come forth before the board to be talked about again and it was last year when we gave a presentation and all sudden the words are standing out as words that i' looked at before and that we've said no to and then the more I dug into Castle the more I went no this is the stuff we said no to I'm sorry go ahead um everything she said I'm going to add to that castle has been around um for more than 30 years from 20 2016 to present it has been in the school's um uh as social emotional learning in 2020 it it um changed to become transition transformative social emotional learning um which is basically race and gender ideology embedded into what had previously been neutral student competencies which is what we want to see in our students is the neutral student competencies um concerns with Castle's El umal going off of what um Amy just said top down approach we have a National Organ organization dictating standards to States and schools we have a massive me mental health data collection from invasive surveys and assessments without parental consent this is Castle I don't know you know if this is what's going on in our schools but this is what Castle wants to bring into all schools across the country what's the source of that doc um it's off it's I I'll get you the source it's it's on my home computer I'll email it to you surveys are connected to student identification numbers um data is interpreted through a critical race Theory Viewpoint and always turns results with systemic oppression seal uses a critical race Theory framework seal counselors are trained to affirm all identities and shift School culture to celebrate them and influence others has a collective political IDE ideology Focus encourages group think and discourages individuality these constructs a health a child's identity and modifies student values beliefs and behaviors to accept new social norms questions who has the moral Authority the individual the group which group changes how problem solving work uses a restorative practice discipline which places behavioral issues on society rather than with individual responsibility anti-intellectual removes rational thought and reason and focuses on emotional analysis undermines family morals and parental rights rewards those seeking power and victimhood teaches children what makes themselves feel good is of highest value impedes seal growth INF fuels shame and resentment intensifies tribalism through identity groups which intensifies aggression Prejudice and cruelty it's designed to tear apart the individual and Western Civilization LCL programs are extremely expensive and essentially pyramid schemes profiting off of taxpayers that's a concern with the castle definition of and bringing Castle into um our district again who r that I I'll get it to you I I have the where it came from or university college out State y I'll get that to you I'll email it and if I could just respond real quickly I think that information is complet wrong completely so there's two sides to every coin right and I'm right and you're right and this time yeah okay yep I think that is a political message I think it's a message intending to erode something that's important to us um and I I'm not sure if I agree with any of those comments about or castle and I realize there are always two sides it doesn't mean that there's truth in both sides you know that has nothing what what was just read there I have never seen in this school district or any school district never that's why it's important when I look at stuff and read a lot of stuff especially today's political world everything has to be verified who wrote it who said it where's it coming from should we have better understanding of who is it in indidual who wrote something if we don't have the the name of individual where they came from I'll get you the information but with today's today's political world with all the input from China and Russia and everything else we hear about every day right now up to the election there's so much false information being put out there and there's two sides of every story we agree yet you have to know where it come from who wrote it verify verifi I verify I don't care you're what political party you have now to ask verify and that you know said that she'll share the source which is good um yeah uh just a couple of comments uh first uh our questions uh any of the culture groups you talked about or committees was is that the Multicultural student group or no it was called the equity committee they came forth as permission to start it and the board said no gotcha and we had we named it um we had Walter Hudson develop it with us he's a representative from the um from Albertville St Michael he actually developed it for us and I think it was called the equal opportunities committee that we were going to approve and at that time Miss geese if my memory serves me correct said I said should we adopt this one and she goes well I'm not sure if the employees would be interested in that one so we didn't adopt but it didn't give permission to start with the equity and this is from the castle website this isn't some article this is straight from Castle on there and it's mentioned a few times so this isn't some who who wrote it who pretended that they put this on the castle website any one of you can go to the website right now draw it up and it's under you'll find it under our mission the miss our mission and work at cast and it has this paragraph and there's a few other places that it's also mentioned into um I think some of the concerns with parents and myself is that it distracts from academic learning if we're talking about and again it's um it's teachers that aren't they're not counselors they have no um training in psychiatric work with students so it can be harmful if you're using it in in the wrong way um some parents fear thatl is a way to indoctrinate Children about gender identity racial inequity and sexual orientation again I read the paragraph here that's from Castle this is isn't Amy Kelly making this up this is from their Castle website um some say SEO focuses um too much on some people say that SEO programs Focus too much on children's identities such as their race or gender so that's just and I share that concern I see our academic test scor so that's why I asked what are we using from Castle because if you go to their website you can see this on their website can I ask name one specific thing in our school district that we're doing that you would object to in terms of SEO that's why I'm asking what are you using I don't know what's going to come up in the classrooms this year Mr Anderson I don't want it to so you you that's why I'm asking are we that's why I'm asking where are we getting our information from seal because it has changed into transformative secl so you have not seen anything in our school district that would that would that would that you'd object to you're assuming that we're going to do those things I'm asking to have a conversation these are concerns of about secl what are we doing here give me give me some and our parents some type of um assurance that you're not doing this because this is on the website I'm not going to accuse anyone I asked to use castle where are our teachers getting their information to use seal because I want to I want to be assured that we're not going down the slippery slope and that we don't go down the slippery slope that's why I want to talk about it am do you have any issues with the flyer that is put up by the district for what is in our school district no okay not that I see that does that take your concerns away of what might happen with this is the definition that our school district is using this is how we are using in our classrooms does that take away the fear of what could happen or what because it is very confusing um you're saying that it's bleeded into the classroom I said this is on the CLE website but you said earlier that it is bleeding into the classroom and that people have said it's bleeding into the classroom but we don't have any examples of that in our district so does this concern you with what is what was been presented to us by our staff as to how we use SEO is there things in there that concern you um with our implementation I fully understand your concern with Castle which is a resource not something that we have purchased not something that we uh fully use it is a framework that has a lot of things in it which I think you probably would agree with some of the things that are in there and disagree with other things this is our District's definition what what issues do we have with that I can I go ahead I do have concerns about our teachers being used as counselors the brochure looks nice it does but if teachers aren't trained and I have heard from teachers who feel like they get more and more things put on their plate more and more things they have to do in the classroom that they don't feel um that they're not counselors yeah and we're not doing anything uh that would re in the classroom that would require a counseling degree or a school psychologist degree we're very careful about that so uh you know I know that for sure think about it in this way do you think we should have elementary teachers teaching their kids to take terms I mean it's really that is an example of seal you know and it's the basic stuff like understanding the rules of a game following the rules of the teacher and the game it's those kinds of things that we're really focus on you know we aren't talking about you know the things that you describe I I have not seen or heard anything like that in St Francis schools I haven't then I would make a suggestion that we consider moving away from the castle um the whole castle thing and stick with just you know and stick with your Basics um you know ABCs one two 3s and teaching our kids how to be good kids without going utilizing the castle program um because I have more information this one actually has the um editor and he's on the house committee on Appropriations labor Health and Human Services education and related agencies and he has nothing good to say about castle either um Castle is a program that has worked its way into school districts with an agenda um take the ca off of it and we have seal and it can be benign I mean seal can be benign exactly as you're saying it's it's the method in which we're promoting it to the students and to the teachers through the curriculum through that second step program um through training to the teachers bringing in a climate committee into our schools which was never approved um for you know what we've discussed before um get rid of Castle get second the Second Step get rid of Castle the whole thing and go back to the basics teach the kids exactly what you read at the beginning so you U what what good kids you said good kids what do you mean by that exactly that respectful and no hierarchy nobody is better than anybody else but we don't call each other out either you know and I know a lot of other things too yeah I mean it's it's essentially what this is but when you start bringing a castle in and you start building off of all their programs everything that I pulled up I mean aside from written by Castle has nothing good to say about the program Castle it's a back door from from what we hear is it's a back door and it's it's transformed over the last 30 plus years to 2021 and became literally transformative seal um so get castle out of the building get him out of there go back to teaching them the basics the basics including how to interact with other yes and how to calm emotions without utilizing this program we have spent a lot of money um on the castle program the Second Step curriculum I don't think we've spent any money on cast The Castle is the second a framework there second second step is a cast control now did you have I gave the board members a month a whole month to look at Second Step curriculum no one came to the office so I want to know exactly what in the Second Step curriculum is objectionable it's part of Castle so it's nothing specific in the curriculum you didn't find anything in there you're just saying that oh I I I looked at the curriculum with the Second Step yeah I I think I have a fourth grade a fourth grade one um so what specifically in that curriculum is objectionable exactly what they say here um so you see that in the Second Step curriculum in the Second Step curriculum yeah yeah I I'll I'll put some stuff together and send it to you yeah because that's what I need to know here I know oh should maybe and by the way while you're I agree with Nate you said it a lot better than I do um but you know there are things in kind of the information that Amy shared and Annette shared that I don't agree with either you know and and so whenever we have a curriculum or in this case a framework we analiz that and figure out what we're going to focus on or what we're going to use so I you know but the second step curriculum I I haven't heard any objections from anybody staff members parents school board members and it was available for all of us to look at for mon well let me ask you this how long is the second step program in in our um District probably four years I 18 okay I think preschool okay so the second step program prevents and this is out of the grade four the book prevents this is a pretty serious statement the second grade or the second step program prevents problem behaviors peer rejection impulsivity antisocial Behavior low academic achievement by developing student self-regulation skills social emotional competencies and school connectedness how long has this program been in our um schools and have we seen an improvement things have gone downhill uh that's not true okay you know this past year our discipline data went down significantly it was truly breakthrough changes in terms of major incidents minor incidents out of school suspensions it was a great year there's no doubt about it and I'm not saying that it's because of the Second Step curriculum which is Elementary Focus uh maybe that's part of it um there's a lot of great teaching going on a lot of emphasis onal skills the board approved some extra administrative support and that made a difference but the behavior incidents went down significantly and we all be proud of that we all have a part of that you know and I I I don't think anyone could say that uh the Second Step curriculum was isn't effective because of everything that happened during covid the political upheaval the changes in parenting structures you know just so many things out there uh but you know we believe that it's it's it has made a difference and we continue to make a difference um when you talk about St Francis has their own SEO I believe you but I do have concerns when you bring in Castle because of the website and what I've read that isn't what it's on there this is what I don't want this is what I don't like so I would like to have us disassociate with castle and I don't know how you go about then but I do I believe that I I'm not a fan of C and I um because it's all over their website my fear is that it's embedded in there and sometimes you're teaching it you you um don't even you don't even know you're teaching it again I have not seen or heard anything that would be objectionable I don't think anyone here in our school district in terms of Maybe I'm Wrong you know we're all people uh but I think it's it's handled really well and uh you know I talked to teachers some administrators about it I look through the Second Step curriculum and you know from what I've seen I'm I'm very confident um I I realized a few years ago when Castle changed their framework 2020 right yeah that I knew that would create some potential issues U because it did change uh but that doesn't mean we changed our approach to incorporate those particular items I mean there is real value in the castle framework uh and we just have to choose what we're going to focus on [Music] we're my concern going forward as well would be the castle and the pby standards how they come together um how they work in how they would work together um down the road again I would like to see Castle not be a part of our um curriculum but even as K cuz I will do you do you recall on there I could pull it up but I went to the Second Step curriculum and I happened to just pull up something on white supremacy in the classroom or something so there is some types of embedded whether or not our hopefully our teachers wouldn't use that but that was from Second Step yeah I haven't seen that in the Second Step curriculum uh we only have it I believe for preschool and Elementary so I haven't looked at middle school and high school because we don't have that here so and I know that um you know there are other program offerings you know Second Step isn't the only you know curriculum but yeah we we're using it for preschool and Elementary and I I haven't seen anything objectionable in that where is our Academy moving forward and are they a part of it as far as the the any type of pby standard or are they developing a class for teachers and if so what is it um so that the board is aware of any I mean I understand it's what there's only for um tier two and was it tier three ler but they're also every kid coming out of college has been indoctrinated into this way of thinking I'll call it that I speak to kids who are in school right now going to education some of them aren't thrilled with that um is our Academy joining for es and are they looking at somehow moving it in or being a part of teachers in their pby standards so we're meeting with them on Thursday to start that discussion okay can you keep the board apprised on those discussions and how and that will if it will enter into classrooms and if it does how and how we can keep parents involved and as far as the opting out and or maybe it would be opt in yeah it's going to be a year-long process I think um and I I hate to throw this out here U but I I honestly think that uh your real concerns might come out when the new social study standards are implemented um you know like studies and and those kinds of things uh we saw two years before that implemented um so we're going to be carefully looking at that and you know I think the pby standards and I understand your questions and perspectives uh but you know I'm I'm really confident in the work that we're doing um and uh I feel really good about that but the social study standards will be more controversial there's no doubt oh um John asked a couple of questions I didn't write them all down but if I could just take a little time here to to try the um opting out of ccul it's in my administrative reports and um well I I mentioned this last time uh that I had a legal counsel kind of review some curriculum popped out issues and so I came up with a first draft of a procedure uh that will more clearly explain to parents when they can op out and so you know we have some time you know to to figure this out because I want to do it right uh but we do have the first draft cabinet looked at it not too long ago and uh we came up with some questions that I want to follow with the attorney so that we can you know kind of put that together I can certainly run it by the policy committee or maybe the full School Board as sort of an FYI uh as long as people understand that you know as we go through these processes and challenges uh you know we'll learn from that but I'm willing to share that when it's ready to to be shared some of the other questions he had was what are the approved classes for seal and what are some classes that um involve seal within the class and what are our metrics showing that showing that um that we're tracking this and are we sharing this data nationally um that we're collecting on the students what are the costs for SE SE and do our teachers have a lure in Psychology with some of his other questions too well they don't need lure as a counselor or a psychologist they just don't for the seal curriculum it's not required I don't think that um Mr Hutchins from 100 years ago you know suggested moral codes that would require licenser I know character education from the 70s and ' 80s when I was gr that didn't require any lure and thisal curriculum that we use doesn't require either so I don't recall the cost off hand for the second St curriculum but it wasn't a major expense and and you said that you thought maybe it was around 2018 that it was purchased so that was before my time I really don't know what and what type of Mentor um are we using to um support using castle and their um their curriculum and what metrics are we using because right now for the last number of years our grades have not been good well we're using uh major discipline incidents minor discipline incidents number of out of school suspensions the number of harassment and bullying reports uh there may be one or two others as well that's all related to this most of the assessment though will be done you know by classroom teachers you know especially the elementary teachers who know you know they're the ones who are going to know if kids are taking terms if they are letting each other uh speak if they're you know all those kinds of things and that those are really hard metrics um you know to quantify uh but certainly from a district perspective um you know the ones I mentioned are the ones that we're using and again like that mention we had low scores the last couple of years which is understandable and again those scores came from the co years and now we're seeing a big change happen we have coaches out there we have new reading act out there we have math people out there we see some good things happening in the near future I agree with the N we did have low scores and but yet that's naturally known Across the Nation not just in our district not in our state Across the Nation we got that information everybody had trouble yet we see some stuff getting Improvement we're still looking at all the grades out there is there enough money was there enough money was it use properly to help these kids improve and it comes down to teachers doing their job and the kids doing their job to learn and listen in the classroom Mr n had hand um I've got one comment and a question for superintendent so uh is not a separate curriculum uh it is not a separate purchase curriculum it is the five core competencies that are on that flyer are embedded into some of the curriculum that we have approved in what we do in our classrooms it is not a specific lesson that the teachers go we are now doing then we're doing math and we're doing reading it is embedded into the lessons and the teaching that they do uh it talks you know some of the things talking to our teachers uh how they use they work with individual students to set goals in areas where they may need Improvement so that's not a specific subject or curriculum it covers the student um they conduct U they assign group projects where the students self-d delegate the roles so they put them in groups and the kids determine who is doing what step that's that's the five competencies that's what they're doing to include all the things that Mr Anderson discussed with our preschool and our Early learn from elementary kids it is not a specific topic or curriculum that we have purchased Castle is not a curriculum it is a framework that organizations use to help them in implementing some of the umal um competencies across the board we have not purchased anything from Castle correct Mr Anderson sorry I know no do we send any data or reports to C no okay great Comm so um as far as we go back to the metrics and you brought up the discipline um and last year was the first year and last school year was the first year that we've really started um we kind of created a baseline yeah or two years ago was the Baseline I don't remember getting the two years ago I remember it coming out for 20324 well that was we compar data from two years ago with with this past Year's data and that's where we saw the significant decrease okay um because those were if you're if if you're you're saying that the Baseline for the metrics is going to be the discipline and not grades because I think grades would be a huge metric as W could be and and the the grades are not great either all right you talking about like student achievement on ass yes there's there's a bunch of different metrics we should be looking at when we're using these Castle um programs yeah and those are should be all SE and and it should be grades and it should be discipline like you mentioned and as far as I can remember we've only started really use an educ climber and I can't remember the other one to try to get everybody on the same page so we don't even have a full metric to say that they improve because we don't really know what it was before we have data from the 2223 school year and from the 2324 school year and it shows a significant drop we met our fiveyear breakthrough goal in one year that's how good the change was and it was because of a number of factors um you know instructions one of them but so with the extra support you know that we have I mean there are all sorts of things that contributed to that um you know and we are tracking you know the student achievement results math reading um as well as you know some other metrics like technology and you know those kinds of things so we we are tracking that uh I you know and those went up too you know out of the 28 things that we measured our metrics our goals one of them declined three were stagnant or stable and 24 of them had growth strong growth or breakthrough growth we had a fantastic year last year fantastic I'm I'm not saying thatal instruction caused all those things I think it's impossible to prove that one way or the other it is but what we're doing in St Francis School worked really well last year and I have the data to show it I have shown it with the school board take a look at our meetings in June take a look at the um uh the option one of the options for my own eval ation I have everything marked out the only two I had marked at that time was our overall MCA results for reading which went up uh and our overall MCA results for ma which went up one went up 5.3% the other one went up I think 2.8% that that that's those metrics that we had agreed to and we analyzed this past year comments discussion any more uh information relate to the board here no other comments okay then we'll move on uh next on the agenda coming up let see summary of the superintendent eval and roles uh you seeing your uh board book out there all the information we did the discussion on the superintendent evaluation I took notes on it I sat down Mr Brandon over here we have to put together a summary conclusion that you see on your board book I called Mr Nate over there and said Nate if you have some comment you made some good comment there a lot of notes down can you give us some more information on the summary here what you do see and so with Nate and my notes together with Mr Brandon over here helping do all this we have a summary on the superintendent evaluation uh that was uh done on August 26 2024 Now by law I not have to read what you see in front of you and Miss VA says well a good suggestion to read it so everybody knows what's going on with it now I can read this I don't have to read it you tell me from the board what do you want you want me to read the whole paragraph for you or you can read it yourself I'm comfortable either way any any questions Rob I guess it would be more for the audience who got right in front of us maybe pull it up there well I can have you that is one of my weaknesses I they have noise weakness when you touch your to did you with the noise the loud voice me at your house so all right so up on the board there you'll see on the uh screen the uh performance are reviewed in the summary of the main comments all the way from 1B all the way through to seven Fox there are nine areas nine elements that we had discussion on not for taken put together on each area do anyone have any questions about the summary conclusion now one thing I want to do here and I had a file and I'm used to files I'm not used some people around here that can go completely paperless and their office in HR and so forth I have paper pile on each and everything I every done and that come from a military day that's why I have paper pile my person file on the superintendent I cannot find it I'll be honest with you I told you before I do not know where it's at this one is quite full I asked Vanessa to have me a copy a hard copy of this to go on the file because in January when you have the uh what do you call it reorganization the reorganization meeting this file here will be given to New School Board shair to have exact copy of what we did this year and what the follow on for the following uh four years for the next board just so you know we will have a nice file but again you have all the information all the elements are right here in your board book on the screen any questions about the uh summary for the superintendent do you see anything that I missed that you want to have added to it Mr Rob sorry they're just pointing out your your errors what either just the blue underline words to be corrected say again some of the wording needs to be corrected the wording yeah just the BL underline that's up there okay talk where at well I haven't read them all but it says it's when apostrophe shouldn't be I think holistic is sped wrong okay so there's just some grammar stff okay did that to myself Mr brand we'll fix that yeah we take care of that if you would send that to Brandon andon have this your computer we'll get the grammar St something please give it to us yeah I didn't see it at first I only saw it on the board there okay good no problem anything else about it the summary okay so we're going to go in the summary of it yes ma'am question comment n just one comment just want to thank superintendent for um what I think we evaluated as an effective year with your performance I know that we were able to discuss some some areas that youel in and some areas that we as a board are looking for improvement for different procedures and how we move forward and I know that you took notes on that and we have future meetings where we're going to talk through some of those goals uh but just wanted to highlight um two areas that we had strengths for you which was visibility and approachability and School Safety and Security so again just want to thank you for your efforts this last year and I appreciate the discussion I I always think that the discussion about the ratings is much more important than natural ratings regardless of if they're high or low and I thought it was a really good discussion with good feedback okay then we'll move on next up on the agenda we have here is the uh report Mr superint uh just four items to bring up after I want to highlight that we had a great first week uh Jake mentioned that uh earlier very impressed um each building was running smoothly uh there are some issues you know parent student related issues that we're working through uh but I'm confident that you know those will be resolved so thank you to the the school board members and the entire staff um including teachers for their work to start the year uh the items I'll highlight are in the board packet Library materials review commit I'm going to leave this on there until we get this going uh we were delayed by a week uh because only one teacher applied to beond the committee uh and then there were some issues with reposting it um but Stacy Claudia and I are meeting this week to get the ball rolling and just need that second teacher to sign up and then we're good to go so I think once we get that started then um I'm confident that things will really run on a good routine another thing I mentioned to Jill and Amy during the policy committee is that the middle school went through a whole bunch of books that were in the media center uh and we think they were probably from some of them were from when it was a high school a long time ago and uh so they they've been going through those books and removing those that we don't think are appropriate for our middle school kids so at least we're we're taking a proactive approach uh as we can uh to remove some materials uh but we still want to honor the process uh when books are challenged and so we'll be working we'll be starting that year soon School Board candidate forum is on September 24th at 7 pm at the Performing Art Center everyone's invited and who's going to run that for question to the candidates who's sh that up Community advisory council is Spearing that effort um Jordan oconnell and Barb Anderson will be the two of our moderators if you will um there is a link on our website to for Community to submit questions in advance those questions will be vetted at a meeting prior to the 24th it'll be Ved on the 23rd and then a list of questions will be drawn from community members hopefully there's not right now we only had a couple submissions so encourage people to get out there and submit their questions in advance so that uh we can get them to board members so that they can prep a little bit as well our potential for candidates again that's September 24 7M St FR high school performing arts center everyone listening in please come down it won't be aired live it'll be recorded and just can play later be able to have access to it okay good I'll mention one more thing and then turn over to Rob if you're okay uh curriculum opt out procedures I mentioned that earlier it's an important topic for us and so we'll keep working on that over the next few weeks okay BR question I'll try but I'm sure Mr linquist knows more about this than I do but U Minnesota State High School leag when they first started just govern rates 10 through 12 because that's what I think back then high school was considered so up until now 9th grade if you have a true ninth grade team they're not recovered under the Minnesota State High School league rals or insurance so now they're finally after decades looking at adding ninth grade as a covered sport ju just that it's catastrophic insurance that covers that so that's just the update and you get to vote on our behalf between October 4th and 18th if anyone has questions can they contact you or it I had a question for you oh any question yes ahead I was just looking to see if we could get an update on how the blesses are running I don't know where you guys want maybe have some information on that I know there were some concerns sure and Brandon do you want to respond to that question about the bus services as a school year started yes I know there's a new routing software being used this year and some of the the times have not been as tight or as close as we would have liked to the drivers worked really hard last week when they actually able to drive the vots and come back provide feedback on the voting and I believe by the end of last week there was better information provided to the parents so that it was more accurate and um be working on to address any of the issues with the new software yeah one of the all add to that is that the new software didn't have um a way to share data with our student management system called Infinite Campus and so that's why the trans department and then email parents with New Times uh now I authorize spending some money hopefully it's a couple thousand bucks at all to to have an infant campus develop that script so that the data from the Transportation Department can be on the infite campus program so I'm not sure what the status of that is but that will help a lot once that get it questions of the superintendent for his report all right not we'll move on uh next up action items we have year 6.1 2024 in the Iowa resolution appointed superintendent uh so mve are second second thank you rob discussion it's an annual thing that we do every year for the superintendent no discussion all the say I I oppos motion passes thank you very much next up 6.2 policy revision who headed our last meeting 5 6 7 9 54 uh M to accept you J a second than discussion on the four policies discuss if not all fa say I I oppose thank you motion passes next up is the approval of behavior intervention assistant payment uh motion to accept thank you Nate sir second thank you deal discussion discussion not all the I oppose thank you payment being made next up 6.4 approval of bus driers work agreement has just been added Mo to accept the contract with bus drivers thank you deal here second second thank you Amy discussion on the contract for bus driers discussion questions on contract if not are we currently so we have some so many ra drivers and we have budgeted what we call unassigned drivers that are are kind of our first substitutes which we budget up to eight of them I think we are up to seven so technically not fly staff but this is the best position we've been in for a while thank you forther discussion on the contract for buses if oppos motion passes thank you very much next up is 6.5 approve contract negotiation for the superintendent for superintendent Anderson so at this time I make a move to approve the negotiate subsequent employment contract with Carson Anderson I move to make it happen J second thank you n discussion any discuss um the only question I want to discuss on this is upon approval of the sub committee um will be decided i' like to have discussion on who's on that sube for for the initial discussion yes okay now questions were asked here a while back uh Rob and I are on the [Music] committee Comm good question po up Rob I'm off I'm gone I won't be here next year that's a fact Rob we're hoping going to be here right Rob is running Pam is gone Pam and I are gone but Rob's going to be here hopefully wins the election who should be on that committee I would like to add a couple of people to the committee because I want people on there now we're going to be here two years from now after January what only two people we that n and name andette Nate and Jo will be here for two more years for sure so we should have two people on to talk about because they're going to be helping the new board understand why this discussion Happ how we did it so I talked to Rob about it you know to do the contract I like to have two more people on it it could be a Nate or Jill between three of you which two of you would like to be on the committee for instruction like to be H it ask question one second so wants to be on it thank you you want to be on it good you two are going to be here January for the next two years with Rob right okay but I'm gone so the four of us can get together just have a question by Amy first go ahead has there been talked with the members that are on the committee now because this was approved last January by the full by all of us here of who would sit on that committee has there been conversation with with Pam of who will sit on the on who sits on the committee for the superintendent for negotiating the contract we approve it just like we do um rights yes theion like any other Union group we just have a Mee super then we bring to the whole board no I understand how it works Mr that's not my question my question is have you spoken to the board member that's currently on the committee Pam if is she willing to step back because this board did approve her as being the person to negotiate the contract you know I'm just actually actually the chair appoints all committee members I appoint the Pam yes the Pam is gone I don't only have to wait two three four weeks to get this process started so my question is have you spoken with Pam about this about her or did you just remove her she's gone she's not around for two three four week or time frame is going to be so so I have not asked her about it so you have not talked to her about it correct not said she said Mike I'm going to be gone that's okay so that's why I want other people involved not just me and Rob I want other people be here for next year yes so you you're adding two individuals to the committee I'll appoint two more people the committee Brandon is there any issues with four school board members meeting open meet and violation that's right that's right thank you thank you that's why everybody has a piece of here to speak up keep water that is correct that is correct usually would have three members even any Union group would be two to three members if they all show up if the want to be there so I'm looking for where we approved it and I'm not saying that we approved it at our meeting well no committee chair appoints all committee members right but Miss Kelly said we approved it at a meeting and we did not approve it at a meeting right if we just appoint you all put down what you want and I see there oh God yeah yeah yeah correct all right Nate thank you for keeping out a hot water here with four people will be in trouble so Mr start your goal is to start um the contract negotiations um sooner than later right so is that what you're asking to do is to to form a committee of three that can start meeting um immediately on contract negotiation correct so be three people on the committee correct to do the uh discussion superintend on what we going to do for his future contract two questions here that's if this motion passes corre to right to enter negotiation right if this motion passes corre will be changing who's on that committee I guess for me one of the main jobs of the school board is overseeing the superintendent and hiring and doing whatever I don't think that we would do anything as far as hiring somebody without all seven people being present it just is when it's not a pressing issue I mean we this is the earliest we've ever did a contract with a superintendent usually it's in February I not say we have to wait that long but for me it would be nice if all seven people were here to give their input on on right we're going to have the committee like un group three people meet with the individual group individual we work on the negotiations of the language to pay and then it back to the whole board and that could be two weeks for now three weeks and P will be back by the should I have a b more than lik yes because we have to sit down with the super and have the meeting that's the St that's start point for us B deal so the intent of this is to have a subset negotiate a contract with the superintendent ensure that his needs are being considered the board's needs are being considered and then there's something brought back to for the board to talk about Rob what I'm hearing you say and maybe I'm misinterpreting this is you would like to have the new board no okay you just like to have all seven of us full board make a decision so it could be negotiated up front and wait until pan get to approve to approve and Rob right the fact that we never been they allow us to be 35 days off yet I cannot think back when was the last time we the negotiation of the time frame of four people going off the board possibly and then a new Bo coming in and start the contract and the new board even had got phase one two and three done and they got started doing contracts that's the issue that's what I'm looking at and I'm trying to protect the superintendent to make sure that we take care of him in the future here and not have the new board be involved because they're still learning with the AG one two and three Mr Rob yeah and I'm not saying we have to wait till January we still got September October November [Music] December to make a decision to me I I know there's been other decisions where I had to miss a meeting and I've wanted to be a part of it but it was voted on even though it wasn't a pressing issue and I don't see this as being a pressing issue I mean I'm sure person wants to get it done and settled but I just like to have everybody's in right and we will on the final contract Miss so are you um suggest that we not even approve the negotiation today and hold up until Pam gets here and then approve negotiations yeah yeah I kind of I kind of agree with um Rob that we can move this off of here and bring it up on the next meeting um when Pam's here to approve negotiations give her an opportunity so let's see hand back at the next meeting but I'm gone and let's say at the next meeting Nate's gone and let's say at the next meeting Amy's gone everybody knew it was on tonight's agenda if there was anything to be discussed or any concern that they wanted brought forward as always we should be communicating that with the chair I think she did I'm not sure we're not done yet talking H tight go ahead I'm not sure why will delay a vote if how are we going to know that everybody's going to be here of the next meeting and that's why I'm looking at taking care of the superintendent did Pam get a hold of me yeah P got holder me and if she was here she probably v no but she's not here and you're right what if I tell you what I almost wasn't here tonight I be right up front with you I had the death in the family meeting is done he proba going to be dead I won't be at his at his side we got in the family but this is PR you over that and I'm here I can be gone next month too for another death in the family yes I could be gone right now if I wanted to but I'm here for this schol board meeting I'll guarantee you I bet your dollar bill and I walk out that grown have texed me saying my phone already blown up on me I B he already died tonight I'm not there by his side so we have a choice to be here or not to be here we cannot delay this Mr I make motion that we table the appr no we don't we're not motioning any I have a motion on the floor either we do it or we don't do it I'm not going to take your table I have motion the floor and been seconded that we into negotiations for the discussion yes or no that we ENT into negotiations all right I'm going to take a vote all in favor ENT negotiation raise your hand Jill Nate and star who raise a hand no to the inter negotiations Amy Rob and Anette now we have a tie now we're like in downtown Ina right now with three three and and Robinsdale and other school district out they having trouble right now now we're at stand still three and three which means the next meeting my knowledge has to come back up then correct uh not necessarily uh my suggestion if you don't want to negotiate is to work with Brandon on next steps um you know I think this is a clear message that the board does not want me to come back and that's your call it's your decision we have to do what's right for the community but if that's the case then you should uh work with Brandon on You know if there's another motion that has to be considered um by the way I've never been in this situation before I've always been offered another contract so this is new to me but I think you should work with Brandon about are there other motions and then ask him to develop a plan for possibly Hing a search for Rob I think you're reading this room this is more about being a full board and not not your negotiation as far as the making of decision to negotiate or to approve a contract to go into negotiation well I don't know I just feel like Pam should be a part of this discussion and I don't see waiting till the next meeting is being issued yeah and I don't know if if Cam will be here at the next meeting or if everyone will be here at the next meeting um you know my request and it's up to the board it's up to the board but you know I have a life plan as well and the longer it waits then you know it just makes you know fores some action on you know what needs to happen next I'm sorry didn't need to jump go like to make a motion that this item is on the next agenda and we um will forward on it no matter who's at the meeting clarification that we go through with the vote again um and that can be done but the board can vote their conscience I mean you can't so I mean I think there needs to be dis right now I feel like we have one person who's just decided which way this board is going to go with no discussion that's it we're going to end it I have the floor right now you gave it to me and there hasn't been a discussion on do we want to extend the contract if we do how long do we want to extend the contract knowing full well that there is a full four people coming on this year carsten I don't know what this board is going to decide because we haven't discussed it but we don't have seven board members here and it is our most important role of sitting on a board is hiring the super intendant he is the Visionary he sets the he sets the sale afloat the the school board is supposed to set the the direction that we go this is the direction we want to go and then the superintendent gets us there it is an important shoe to roll the fill and this board I feel needs to have discussion full discussion full board participation on on that role so question for discussion you all have the time frame to bring up all that you want to bring up and Y all didn't bring anything up until right now the very end after we had a 33 vote I asked to have discussion give me your input give me your thoughts give me your ideas and was it was very very reserved Mr Nate I was just going to say the same thing we had a motion a second and a time for discussion but there was no the only discussion was the makeup of the committee to negotiate which led me to believe that we all were in favor of Contin the contract negotiation there was no negot or no discussion about if we should do it if we shouldn't do it length of it none of that um none of that was discussed the only thing was discussed was the makeup of the committee in my 12 years on the board I've never seen a situation like this pop in front of me in 12 years I'd like to table the approval of the contract negotiations for vote voted on table something it's a 33 vote there's a motion on the floor it hasn't been seconded I'll second that motion the motion was to put this on the agenda for the next yeah it's going be the next agenda I hope you have seven people here I hope you have all seven people here next agenda if we can have discussion on it Mr N I would highly encourage us as board members if we're not going to be here to send our comments and our discussion points to Mr star uh so if there's something that needs to get brought up uh that he can do that for us if you're not going to be here uh I don't make my decisions based on who is at the board table and who is not I make my decisions based off of um the situation that we are in so it's very frustrating to me you me you're not going to be I take the information but doesn't do any good because uh the bo every year if it's five or six people or seven so we'll push it out we have it on the next next agenda two weeks from now and hopefully Miss Pam will be here with us and hope that nobody else will be gone all right move forward then look like so that be a tie on that one right there topics your board book take a look at board M report we'll move through on that one other than that nothing great reports from families and students uh the school year has started off with uh nothing but good things uh we've had some hiccups with Transportation but I know we've been working through some of that but just a thank you to all of our staff for everything they've done from ground to custodial to teachers to everyone that supports I haven't been any meetings outside the school board meeting so I have nothing to report no I attended the policy committee tonight and we'll have some policies brought forth at the next board meeting deal um I a good policy this evening and exactly what AM said we have some policy that'll come forward um nothing with good reports even the concerns with Transportation this year there are nothing as as substantial as last year or previous years so hudos to your team they this year not only this year but the kick off this year I hadal complaint brought to me um and uh last I just want to make sure the superintendent I fully support you in negotiating a u contract coming back um I'd ask you if you kind to hold off two weeks but I'm hoping that this board we come back with a different discussions I love living and working here I want to retire here someday but I also recognize the School Board needs to make a decision about what they think is best of the school so hopefully they're Jing together you know and but certainly the the sooner the better for me all right uh meour at 8:01 today thank you folks thank you very much car