##VIDEO ID:2BG4Yn5iT8Q## e e e e e e e e e e e e we will call this meeting to order Joan W call director hacker here director Kellenberg here director laow here director Petri here director here chair Sherman here great let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Al the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all I will um go ahead and make a motion to approve tonight's agenda can I get a second so moved great director the ler second and all those in favor of approving tonight's agenda raise your hand and say I I iOS agenda passes moving on to our consent agenda up on the screen we have items A and B I'll make a motion to approve tonight's consent but can I get a second second great Dr Lower with a second all those in favor of approving tonight's consent agenda raise your hand and say I I I opposed consent passes we're going to move on to our first item for this evening under strategic Direction a ensuring the learning process is adaptable to meet individual student needs we're going to have a back to school report enrollment Transportation Staffing and professional development we're g to welcome Mark Jo so Mark is gonna take the first part of this and then I will talk about PD and uh the end of it the end of the presentation so great go ahead Mark well good evening on board um tonight we get to talk about just the first day of school first week of school and kind of update you some of the things of where we're at um with some of our systems um can I go one by one so as we do each slide please feel free to stop at each slide and ask questions because as we go on the next one is kind of a different topic so please feel free to jump in um as we go along so the first one is looking at our first day enrollment now this is a snapshot in time so first day enrollment we had over 8,100 kids here in our system you can see the breakdown with Elementary secondary as well as Early Childhood special education um that's both at our early childhood Family Center as well as some of the students that are in our elementary schools within our preschool program looking that 8146 number that is the first day we have our official number which is October 1st so that's kind of we'll be reporting back to a later time say what our our official October first number is for enrollment for the year but that's what our snapshot is right now and as we look at kind of first day we kind of see where we're at with a Teamworks projection I remember a few years ago we had Teamworks kind of looking at that 10-year projection of where our enrollment would be based on that so this number Falls within that Teamworks projection so we're really trending on a nice path from enrollment wise based off the first day of school numbers so yeah that 261 Early Childhood is that early childhood and special ed or is that the same NOP it's it's it's students that are receiving special education services in early childhood so that does not include the regular Ed preschool students okay so it it comes down to a funding source so we get funding for the Early Childhood special education students The Early Childhood regular Ed is run through Community Ed that is not a funding mechanism for our district that's a community ed um funding source okay so that's why we report that number and not the whole preschool of how many preschool kids we have um uh I'm glad to hear that we're sort of on track with what t- Merz was saying you know and I know that we also you know Co had a big impact on um on enrollment I'm just wondering how this number compares to what we had the first day of school last year do you happen uh up a little bit yeah it's actually down a couple students down about 30 kids or so um but again it's always the the first number is tricky because we stagger our starts and so secondary already had a week of school and so you'll always see a DI I shouldn't say always traditionally here you see a dip between what your first day of school number is and what your October 1 number is because if somebody moves away they're quick to enroll into another District they're not always quick to De enroll from where they came from so there's some of the students that we have on our roster that aren't there the first day or first week of school so that first week for secondary a lot of those students were cleaned up and were able to process those students where the first day of school of Elementary we didn't have that opportunity so then this week we clean up so that's why that's a different typically a different number come October one than it is right now yeah and I know that the October 1 number is the important one so but to get into your other question in terms where we are with covid we're up 100 students or so over from where we were from our Co numbers so we we've been having a steadily rise since Co here a few years ago so our numbers are up since the the pandemics great thank you I I can get you the exact number I just don't remember top my head of what're well I mean the October 1 number is the most correct I was just curious about where that trend line was with with the back to school number anything else enrollment before we go I believe the next one's Staffing so looking at just districtwide here um since the the 1 of July we had 42 teachers that we've hired um 66 support staff now support staff is PA professionals it's office staff it's custodians it's Food Service um tech support all those um different groups fall in that support staff and then 10 directors or principes or coordinators specialist supervisors Etc as the new staff we've welcomed to our district since um the beginning of of our year which is July one just to clarify those are not 10 new positions those are 10 hires in the administrators it's new people it's not new positions correct that's a very good distinction um looking at our unfilled positions we do have two um teachers they're actually both at the high school um there's two open spots there we have a a school nurse um 18 pair of positions that are open um eight nutrition services through all of our schools not just still water but Monami panalo 916 all our different sites there's eight there um six custodians one um engagement specialist which is an East African engagement specialist and then 15 coaches and advisers now most of those are winter and spring activities there's not our we don't have 15 openings for our fall sports or our fall activities most of those are winter spring openings that have yet to start great Dr Funk if you take a look at the 18 pair professionals I want to illustrate a gift from the legislature that keeps on giving so couple years ago the legislature said for hourly employees who are are employed by School District districts they can now collect sun summer unemployment our 18 pair professionals you see unfilled here are are an unintended consequence of that legislation we just had within the last few days before school started 15 or 16 PA of professionals resign after they collected their summer unemployment if that summer unemployment had not been in place they likely would have resigned in June and we would have had a couple of months to try and fill those positions so um I will certainly be sharing this concern with our elected officials at the state cab I'm sure we're not the only District that had that I will find out in a meeting here in the next few days yeah and those par professional positions are critical are school I mean they are they they are the behind the scenes meeting the needs of our kids on a daily basis U so this is a very U significant issue and somehow they got to come up with a fix um for this the legislature we cannot do this we cannot do this at the beginning of every school year thank you for that any other questions on Staffing okay next one's Transportation um I know we talked a lot at the last boarding board meeting here about Transportation some of our systems challenges that we have I just want to start out and just say a huge thank you to our families our community and our staff have been extremely patient and wonderful to work with the vast majority of phone calls that we've had with families have been very positive of thank you for taking our call thank you for bring this to our attention thank you for working through this as quickly as you can and getting through those issues and I just want to give a shout out because the majority of of interactions that we've had not only myself but people within the transportation team has been very positive with the community so thank them for that um we transport over 8,000 students um the first day of school in the first week this week um with all the system we still have a few lingering issues but the volume of calls and and emails has decreased quite a bit um we still have a few issues that we're working through with some of our families um most notely a couple big ones is the alternate address so if it's a split family or if there's a daycare before after school the um primary um resident address comes through and that one's routed fine it's that alternate or second address that didn't come through and the merge so we're just taking down their um new address or what that spot they want to be routed to and it takes about a two-day turnaround by the time we get our system there's a nightly rollover then the next day you route it into the system and then um then they're ready to go on a route in about two days kind of turn around there um this week I know we had talked about the week of the 9th to start to look at students who live outside of our district um so they're not in the Still Water boundary but may want Transportation um just a reminder we do not pick up at their house or a nearest stop for a district families they get to the nearest relt that currently exists within our system also there's some families that live within two miles um that may be looking to get on again not where they currently are or they're near a stop but a stop that already currently exists we're working right now with the bus garage to do audits of every route so the bus garage is having half hour meetings with each driver to talk about their route from a couple different perspectives one is what's the capacity look like so we can go in our Sy system and say there's 68 students or 52 students or whatever that looks like on the route you're running this on a daily basis it's been two weeks how many kiddos are actually showing up is there stops that students aren't at that we can call families and say hey do you want Transportation do you not and have those conversations the second part of that conversation are safety concerns from a driver standpoint so we hear a lot from families of the stop may be dangerous you know there we have to cross a road or there's not a sidewalk to get to that which we address the safety ones as diligently as fast as we can but it's also nice to hear from a driver perspective too to say you know what I think can we move this stop or can we do that just it's a safety concern from their perspective so we can get multiple angles um from a safety side for our students so as we work through those and the and the garage Works through those individual meetings with um the drivers they're compiling that information and then we'll start next week to look at here's a list of families whether they're out a district within the two mile um that have requested to get on an existing stop and then work through that process at that time so that's kind of one of the things that we're working on um right now from our end so I will open up to questions or comments that you may have around Transportation yeah um I imagine you got a stack of tickets when people call in and just want not a safety change not an urgent change but maybe a customer service change the bus stops Three Doors Down and nobody gets on why can't it just stop here instead that type of thing is there still unresolved those or are we just waiting to clear up the bigger pictures so right now we've been dealing with the bigger picture we do have a list right now I believe it's 29 of the ones that you're talking about of of ones that may not be a safety concern but things that we want to clean up um we'll get to it we want address the ones that are more urgent right now but yes we will get to those um here as quickly as we can so those are on a list that we have right um how do people because I have been hearing in the community that there are still unresolved issues and I'm talking to people about you know who to email who to call can you just for clarification kind of explain what you what fames should be doing yeah the the most efficient way is to email our transportation department which is school bus at stillwaters schools.org so school bus is one word and then at stillwaterschools which is one word.org that is the quickest and fastest way to um get through to our transportation department when we were you know the first week of the school year when a lot of these things we were just finding out and we're trying to figure out what is actually going on with our system we had about 500 messages within that that school um board email that we were not read at that point that we had to work through as of about noon or one o'clock today we were in the 20s and most of those were just recent ones so we went through all the way back or last couple weeks and tried to reply to the families that came through it so we have a a system in place and I do want to shout out to a lot of people just more than our transportation department there's a lot of other departments and people that have step up to help answer phone calls we turn messages return emails to make sure families are heard and we have a system to take that information kind of funnel it down to to our routers so they can really pinpoint what's the student what's their ID is it a second address is it a route change is it a safety concern you know whatever that is so we can um have a process to funnel through as many RS as we can each day okay and so Mark I'm still hearing from some folks that my kid gets on the bus at spot a close to my house in the morning and then in the afternoon they're dropped off at a completely different spot maybe you know couple blocks away is that a software issue is that what's what's the rationale behind that if this is the bus you're getting on in the morning it's bucks bus whatever the pencil bus and then in the afternoon your completely different bus is taking you home couple blocks away why is that happening so to answer your question it's yes and yes some of it is um mainly in the secondary we have a couple buildings where kids may take two different buses they take the fork bus to school and they take the snowflake bus home some of that has to do with um our secondary with shuttle buses and and the systems where we run two different rout groups AM and PM so those would have pickup and drop off locations because they're two separate routes you just don't run the one in the morning and then turn around and run the same thing in the afternoon there are couple elementary schools that have that but for the majority Elementary most elementaries have the same morning and afternoon the other part of that is some of that is we're finding is a software glitch in terms of getting picked up they drive by the house the other thing thing with that is there are families you know we run into you know a dozen maybe two dozen or so that have two kids or three kids within a household that have different routes two kids ride the butterfly and one kid rides the chair bus they're going to the same school they're going to the same school with different pickups and so forth so we're working through that's a a software of how come two kids got one and one didn't the other those are things we're working through we're talking to the families and say okay your two kids are getting on the snowflake just put them on the Snowflake and we'll work through that as you know and talk to the garage and say the Johnson family just just know that the three of them are going to be at this stop and then we'll work through the other end on the back end to figure out what the issue is so some of it is a routing but some of it is also a software and we're trying to figure out which one fits into which family's issue so just a couple thoughts on this software piece all right and I'm watching two different vendors and we're having problems with both and but one of the vendors traversa at least is trying and they're trying to be supportive and they're trying to um you know I'll spend hours and hours working with our people to try and get this thing fixed the other vendor power school has virtually done nothing to support us in this whole process okay as far as technical support I mean I can I consider power schools tech support and abject failure in uh in our situation here um and so if we're not able to fix things on the power school end then what's happened happening on the Traverse end is not uh helping out so when people are asking what's the future of uh software well first of all we're going to find software that works with each other um and what that looks like from RFP process that remains to be turn be determined but the other thing is it's going to be have to be compatible but the tech support has got to exist and for the number of systems we purchased through uh um Power School in the realm of 250 $50,000 this year their level of tech support has been unbelievably non-existent so I just want to be clear about that thank you for that update um any other questions I know it's not an ideal situation and we certainly apologize to families and but there are I appreciate the future the forward yeah but but I said it pains me to sit here and say okay you know I'm blaming this on systems that don't work and while parents are getting their kids dropped off at different houses or kids in the same house are told to get on different buses this has got to be fixed and it will be um because this just cannot continue right thank you for that and so for right now email is the best attempt what kind of response times can families expect I mean just to set that expectation is it same day two days so response would be I'd say within 24 hours you get a response okay typically right now when school year starts any new um entry we say three to five days is kind of our stand standard so whether it's you know special education IEP change or a family moves in we've always just had a kind of a 3 to 5 day by the time you enroll to time your bus obviously we're going to look to do it quicker than that um but that's kind of what the standard is throughout the year right thank you and then also if I can just add one more thing just for the public is we're we're getting close towards the end but if families can check their app you know each night and each morning because we are routing kids um still and there may times may change slightly if there is a a big change where it's more than five minutes we'll send an email through um our system to each family on the bus to let them know what it is but it also just for next couple weeks just to double check on their um app to make sure that their time is is the same here every day it's not going to be forever but just for the next week or so if we could continue that practice that'd be very helpful thank you thank you great um did you want to handle the professional development yep so a lot of this will look familiar to some of the board members who were at the start of the back to school thing with all of our staff but I just wanted to remind the whole board kind of what we're doing um really three key areas literacy equity and social emotional learning um we have em Equity embedded into our trainings uh for as far as literacy letters clearly is our Focus this year 236 staff including all prek 5 teachers um prek ml teachers and special education teachers in addition we have uh um middle schools going through bar training on the social emotional piece and Mental Health First Aid Brookview has got a real heavy lift because they have a number of teachers who are going through bar training at the same time we're asking them to do letters training um and so then the high school's primary focus is as we're looking at block scheduling potentially for next year what's that going to look like how do we teach different courses how do we teach within the block so that's really if I were to show you one slide on the District level PD that's what we're looking at at the start of the school year next slide please can I ask a question before you go um the letters training delighted to hear that we're really diving into that because that is going to address that literacy piece that we really need to have but but my I also understand that it's pretty intensive the lit the letters and so um that means probably you're going to have a lot of sub costs no no we have seven PD days throughout the year and we are doing it within most of those PD days so we have set it up um purposefully to uh um to address it in this manner Caitlyn you can tell me if I'm if it's different yep so we are not going to need a lot of Subs because the way we structure PD good good you don't need to try to grab some money out of the state to pay for that sort of thing then huh correct okay good um go ahead you before I move on hang on um I'm noticing the high school block schedule transition um as far as I know we haven't officially made any decisions on that so what is the timeline looks like we're getting PD on it already or when is that starting um can you just give us you should start to see I think in October November time frame some potential course requests come in your way that if we add if we do Transition to this here are some new credit Alternatives um I we went through the year-long calendar for the board a couple months ago I'll have to I don't have it in front of me but I think there's some some dates in there that are like check marks along the way as far as um transitioning and and uh but I'll have to I'll have to get back to you on that okay and again just there's our Focus um so I talk litters um we're doing fast Bridge testing at the high school this year this is new so we have not really we've had the MCA testing but we've never tested our kids uh on literacy and math at the high school using fastbridge which gives us snapshots throughout the year um so that's uh real positive for us um the other thing is we are really starting a much more intense focus on assessment data and um Elsa's going to come and talk a little bit tonight and then at the next meeting we'll even going more in depth on uh on our state assessments and then um we are also taking a look at none of the language arts curriculum we currently have is uh on the state's adopted list for uh um receiving dollars urement for the state either phonic or um our our core literacy curriculum so we are starting to look at different options for the future what what that would look like and cost and those pieces go ahead next slide yes um can you talk a little bit more about why we're expanding the fast bridge to the high school or do we lack um other assessments or what is what is this going to do for us if we expand this to the school it can identify kids who are um in need of extra support and so I think we have a misnomer that okay by the time they get to the high school all kids can read and and kids can learn and this will really help us Focus resources for for some students who may need that extra help um now we don't have money for interventionists per se but um it will give us a better idea of of of our what we doing from a curricular angle meeting better me or best meeting the needs of our students um and we just haven't done that I mean we've had our our regular assessments we give within the classrooms but we use fast Bridge K8 and by when we get to the high school we just don't do it anymore so um this is a a shift for the district yes Andrew and so along that lines is this a best practice across other districts in the Metro or is something that we're trying to be more diligent about of getting better data um I have to get back to that I don't know about fast bridge but a fast bridge is becoming the tool we use um their nwaa used map testing would go um further than than our current uh um assessment protocols that we've utilized um but I think it's a best and and again fast Bridge is a fast it's a quick assessment gives us a snapshot on time and where our kids are at then I just had a question um with our language arts curriculum is letter land gonna have to go away or will that it's not on the list for so for the of the different curriculums that have been approved by the state so far so not sure yet okay because that is I mean I've seen that in the instruction the instruction in same you know just classes I have visited and it's very phonics based I'm surprised it's not um on the list do you anticipate that we might be able to advate no crystal bow into what they're doing okay I know a lot of teachers like that agreed can I just ask you about the bullet point that says staff will become proficient in reviewing literacy and other assessment uh data can you talk a little bit more about that what is I mean what do they what are they not doing that they need to do is it is it going to involve our new assessment team I mean can you just give us some more detail about that so at the beginning actually it was early August we brought the principles together and um we had a lot of information that that Elsa had put together and and Caitlyn and Dr AR bamu kind of led the led the training um with Sky HRA our our literacy specialist and we worked through looking at student data at the building level by grades and utilizing the system and identifying Trends and and different areas um you know if if we have gaps in different units we're teaching can be identified within the uh um assessments we're giving so I think for some of the princi principles this was like the first time they had really done that and um and so the intent is um as uh Dr bamu said we're here to help you learn how to utilize these Data Systems and once you learn how to utilize the data system and we will help you until you're proficient at it then it will be our expectation that you utilize it and so the first step is getting our building leaders to understand this and then we're going to have our building leadership teams understand it so that they can collectively look at the data at the building level and then the goal is to have our professional learning communities or our cat teams collaborative action teams use this data um I think too often we have not done a decent job of diving into the data it's just been okay here's the data um so what and so this is really a much deeper so what and we had a real successful uh Aton Lakeland has got done a really nice job of seeing the data adapting the teach the teaching to meet the needs of the students based upon the data and um we're seeing some pretty strong results out of that building so the challenge for us is how do we grow that to scale districtwide so that's why that that bullet point is up there I'm assuming that connects with the fast Bridge being um yeah fast bridge is one of the primary data points because because you're so this is this is a deliberate effort to be more data driven in terms of assessment because then that helps you figure out how to help kids better is that am I jumping to too many conclusions I mean we want our kids to learn okay so if we don't know what we don't know how can we adjust our education system to meet their needs so um yes and so the fast fast bridge is the tool we are primarily utilizing um when looking at this data my guess is if we identified some sort of need through fastbridge on interventionists like Hey we're really we need more interventionist than we thought I mean based on the these results that that would have to be something we would look at for priority based budgeting conversations or are the interventionists meeting the needs of the students right exactly okay so yeah again it the shift is data focused and so we're becoming more of a data driven organization I love that great um equity and inclusion um we have some schools who are doing some really great things with it but we don't have a district level perspective on this and so um we have hired a a new Equity coordinator at the district level um and what's Jack wen's last name Alis a um so she comes to us from Columbia it's a very diverse uh school system and she is going to be really helping us put in some districtwide systems um around Equity inclusion um as we know the world is changing we need to be prepared better at preparing our students for an evolving World um and then one of the first things that we are working on we've been working on for the last two years our identity harm protocols and uh Jacqueline is uh um taking the lead on that and she's meeting with um Equity Specialists from a couple different Metro districts to see how they're doing it and we should see something coming forward on that and you'll get a brief to the board uh sometime probably start a second quarter so that's been a long time coming yeah um maybe some people who are not familiar with that term would you mind just sort of yep telling us what that's all about so often times in school it'll be there might be a disciplinary situation and somebody may call a student a bad name or uh or you know they may have said it I just called you a racial term but I was just joking and essentially this provides the school system a framework on how to um deal with situations where students have been harmed by what other students are uh um verbally or or uh WR through written means um so it what it does is it it provides us um really strong protocols to follow that this will not be um tolerated and it also has timelines with protocols and so sometimes times you know we may get into a situation um and families may feel that the district's not listening to them uh this provides nope if this happens here's a situation we look into it and here's our communication protocol that goes along with it so um it's a much more proactive approach to things um at the same time it's the staff has clear protocols and we went to a training on this with uh Paul of Forbes C year and a half ago and we had members from the teachers union union there number of Administrators from the district and we all recognize the importance of of putting this together we just haven't had somebody um at the district level who's been able to um to take this on so that's what uh that's what we're doing there good and so right now I'm assuming it's a little bit more ad hoc and things might be different from one school to the next because because there that framework doesn't exist yet is that okay kind of along those same lines are we looking at policy options as well in conjunction with that or is this Standalone what I would imagine is you will soon you will start to see some policies that will probably come with it um but this will be I want to get this out so I don't think this is going to move faster than the policies will okay thanks thank you to me having those consistent procedures is just ensuring the experience of our students across the whole district is the same um on some of these basic basic uh issues thank you um social emotional you heard Rob Bach talk about the success of bar at the high school um we've had a lot of success at Lake Elmo um as well and now at Aton Lakeland and we are continuing again in a in a budget constrained environment with the addition of uh additional funding from the state we are able to expand to Brook viiew as brookf Still Water middle and Oakland Middle this will be year two one and a half or year two for for all three of those schools um we've expanded our Mental Health Services contract with family means so we will have more mental health services available for our students the other piece of that is um we will also be able to to I think utilize some of our counselors from family means to work with our staff on uh um dealing with difficult situations um so I think that uh that's that's another positive for us and then you know attendance is an important uh remains important for us we want our kids in school and how are we meeting the needs of our students um as we're still recovering from some of the postco attendance issues questions comments on that okay um that concludes the back to school report for now more details to come on on certain um elements within are there any other questions that anyone thought of with that we will move on to our next agenda item which is an assessment update and a relatively new face I'll let Dr Funk introduce Elsa Elsa mon is here and she is uh I think she we briefly had you come meet in front of the board uh when we first hired you and so Elsa tonight since I've asked her to speak and as I stated previously we are going to be going more in depth um at the elementary level here in a couple weeks but since this has been in the news I I felt that it's important that the board and the public get a just a snapshot brief of where we are and so what she's going to cover tonight are really two different things she's going to talk about um our MCA and M mtas results but she's going to compare us to the east Metro and then I've also asked her to compare us to similar type school districts within the state so when she's comparing us to similar type districts I told her to use these parameters they should be within 5% of us on a free and reduced launch rate so we're similar levels of uh um you de uh Financial demographic or fiscal demographic within the the school district and they should be within a couple thousand students of us and so that's what you'll see from Elsa here tonight so I'll just turn it over to you thank you superintendent thank you board I'll get started here Joan if you want to go to the next slide I do want us to start off with a quick grounding in what MCA and MTO exams are what they can and can't do um they really are a tool designed to measure achievement around the Minnesota state standards we have many different assessment tools that we use we have fast Bridge we have classroom assessments all of those measure slightly different things and these provide the highest level overview for that reason we really use them at a summarized level at the district level which is what we're staying at today but also school grade and student groups to look at students access to academic content including to evaluate Equity between student groups and of course these are one piece of data it's one day typically for each test so it's that one snapshot and point in time so here we have a chart comparing still wat's performance among East metro schools for reading math and science as you can see at a quick glance Still Water performs second among that group of schools across all of those subject levels so fairly consistent on the next slide we have the raw numbers I'm not going to spend too long here but if you want to skip to Still Water reading we're at 59% proficiency math 58% science 52% and this all represents a slight increase from our performance levels last year if we go to those comparison districts so those are districts that are similar size similar proportion of free and reduced lunch students we see that the graphs start to look a little bit different and still water is in the bottom two for math and reading and the top two for science again those are the same numbers but we see a kind of different distribution I wanted to spend some time looking at how this Compares historically all districts in the state all districts in the country went through the same pandemic and all districts that we looked at and compared to had that same drop the average for reading was around a 10o drop math an eight-point Drop science I'll have to check my notes but I think it's about a 12 Point drop and still water is no exception to this and we also see that among East metro schools the recovery is mixed we have about three years of good MCA data that's not really enough to establish a clear Trend towards recovery for any of these districts and when we look at comparison districts by and large it looks the same thank you so to summarize very quickly our scores did you want to oh go ahead jump in our scores improved slightly from last year to this year in all subjects we rank second among the other East Metro school districts but second last one comparing with districts that have a similar size and percentage of students eligible for free and reduced lunch and while we all saw significant drops in scores post pandemic we're not really close to making up that ground I'll pause there for questions or if Dr Funk has anything he would like to add any questions guess I'll start yeah um I really appreciate looking at the comparison districts that's data that's kind of new to us um and we usually focus on our geographic area so this was particularly interesting to me um and I guess kind of trying to make sense of these Trends um I'm trying to figure out are there any glaringly obvious um explanations for the success of certain schools that are of our our size similar demographic similar um free and reduced lunch is there anything obvious that sticks out that we can try to replicate um and if not like would we be how could we use this data to hopefully learn from people who are doing better than us although can I just because I looked at the same thing you did and I just want to Pig you back but when I was looking at the charts it's interesting that even though we're second to the bottom our trend line is going up versus the comparative trend line on the districts even though we're second to the bottom their trend lines are going down not all of them some of them were yes most of them yes you know where one was kind of going up up like ours but I guess I was I I I am curious of the difference like you are but I was pleasantly looking at the trend for us in comparative districts was a little bit more of a positive than that so if you wanted to feel better thanks but no I'm curious on the same question you had just the I think all everything we show you and you heard me talk about this two years ago is a snapshot in time as as also stated of our systems so if we're putting the right systems in place all right right curriculum right professional development um given our teachers time to think breathe um and become more reflective um putting the right supports in place for our students who need the additional supports we should see a continuation in a positive trend um so that's what we're task to do with here at the district level you know my my take away from that and thank you for putting this together is you know okay so who's the green line is that Aina up there he what what's Edina doing okay well one of the things on they're on a block schedule but they're in a modified block okay does that have any impact on things don't know I mean that's just a data point because but I know we went to to a high school last year one group that's not on here because they're different slightly different demographic is Yetta okay wetta is higher than e on this this um um scale over there in the Gold Coast when it comes to funding or fund I was gonna say funding is probably related to this could be and those and those districts over there have historically had more funding right other and I think that that is truly a factor um but the other thing is what are we doing with the funding we have you know that's what our community wants to know um or or would want to know um so there's there's a lot of different pieces in here but the things that we can control as a district are the things I talked about is our curriculum aligned to the standards are we are we ensuring that what we're teaching is to the standards uh um are we providing the proper supports for our staff um and I and I think if we do these things the letters training that's a huge piece of the PD um we will continue we're on a slight upward trajectory here but we should continue on a positive trajectory moving forward the other thing I will share with you um stability and Leadership okay I think if you go through the number of people who've come and gone in this District over the years and and um the schools have done a good a a great job of okay we're focusing on what we know at the school level let the district stuff take care of itself and so I think the longer term stability you have in place at the district level I I think that that uh helps out as well an observation you know I where we're at is important but for me what's more important is the direction we're going you look at that last segment there we have a steeper line than all the others just just about if you take that out another year we're going up I mean we'll this same conversation next year we might be the the standard up there for the others to follow I would say that's that is the intent what I have often seen in education is the roller coaster okay so again what are we doing from a systems angle to get us off the roller coaster and get us in the proper TR trajectory and I think from my standpoint it um I know all the work from our staff and our families that go into seeing even just a little bit of improvement and so I think it's important to take the time to celebrate that I mean on the pony plan we really had reading as a A literacy as a focus and as a whole as a district you know we're not looking at individual schools and where there needs to be Improvement or whatnot but as a whole we did see some improvement so I think that's important to recognize but it would be remiss if I didn't say that just Statewide there if for me there's an issue because we should be higher I'd like to see these numbers higher I mean it's not a very you know being less than 60% isn't where any District in the state wants to be um so there's lots of work to be done but it's just I think it is important to take the time to say hey we really focused on on this we really as a district under your leadership Dr Funk and your team we saw some success and so to build on that it's not going to be fixed overnight we knew that going into this it's just not we didn't get here overnight and it's not going to be we're not going to dig out of it overnight but it's a it's progress and the teachers are working hard and absolutely and they're we're we're starting to do you're starting to see some some good results here all right but when you hear me say expect more all right I'm expected more from this front row back here okay and and they are the ones who are going to posture us for Success um with our principles and with our with our teachers moving forward if we're focused on the right areas um there's no reason we should not continue with positive trend lines we're seeing oh yeah um I just want to add I also think that the more heavily implemented attendance at schools has definitely been benit fitting the trends to have um like to have them inclin because with more attendance then STS are kids are actually learning the curriculum I think that's benefiting test scores absolutely thank you for that yes so I just want to um Echo what a couple of the board members have said number one I'm um nobody is satisfied with these numbers right um we know that we can do better here in Stillwater but one of the I see a couple of Trends here that I'm I'm very happy to see I mean um I really like the idea that we are comparing ourselves to similar districts rather than just to the ones who are contiguous to us um because I I do think that we get a better better measure of ourselves if we if we look at other districts that are similar to us um but and I also so I also am just thrilled that we're going in the direction of more evaluation of assessment that we're not just sort of doing it and then just putting it on a shelf because that what is the point of doing it then I mean and I love the idea that we are taking more of a systems approach to this um you know uh the fact that we have a relatively new superintendent and he's implementing some of these things is um kind of an exciting thing so I am cautiously optimistic I guess that that we are kind of taking charge of this situation and hopefully we'll see that trend line continue to go up one thing that I would love to at some point be able to look at and for me it's just comes down to the funding and how these the districts that are like us I think you said from attendance and free and reduced I would just love to look at what their you know what their pupil got that I I don't know if that's possible but it get but um just looking at where they're local and funding is that too and we'll look forward like I said Dr Funk has already said there'll be a deeper Dive by school um as we go into this certainly more Nuance that way um but certainly that's all happening right now behind the scenes so yeah couple thoughts on that so you will see how the elementary is did you know in a couple weeks following that up as I talked about a a few months ago we are going to have uh each building come you know to a study session for the next year plus and they will part of what they will be sharing with the board is their assessment data at the building level and what their strategies are as far as what programming what ass how they're looking at assessments how they're adjust ing their resources to meet the needs of their students moving forward so you'll be able to hear it um and it's a good check for us to make sure that we're taking a consistent approach across the district agree any other questions on that okay we're gonna move on thank you Elsa thank you very much all right we're going to move on to our next item which is uh strategic Direction see utilize systems and align resources in an efficient manner to support learning and we're going to I'm asking uh for action on the board um's behalf regarding the superintendent's contract I have some comments all right the superintendent's contract expires June 30th 2025 after the conclusion of superintendent funk's annual review I initiated the process of of negotiating a second contract with superintendent Funk on behalf of the school board director thand and I have had a number of negotiation sessions with the superintendent Andrew and I worked in conjunction with Chris carlston executive director of HR and District lers to come to an agreement on the terms of a second three-year contract pending board approval this evening tonight the board is a I I am asking you the board to approve a subsequent three-year contract beginning July 1st 2025 through June 30th 2028 this is a standard term for superintendent contracts they go in three-year terms the proposed contract includes a salary and total compensation increase that is more reflective of current market conditions the superintendent's value and districts and District's interest in maintaining stability in this critical leadership role the market review that we conducted is based on total compensation of superintendent in eight districts from the metro area districts were selected based on location and or size changes to the contract include the following a compensation adjustment to the market rate for superintendents in similar size school districts in the Twin City's metropolitan area we also really looked at experience of um superintendent as well years of experience compensation for retention and education level um and this this additional compensation I just want the community to own cost neutral to the overall benefits package so that's important to to highlight there um I would like to thank Andrew Chris superintendent Funk and district attorneys for the time involved in getting to the contract being recommended to the board tonight for your approval I would also like to thank the board for their service to our district we all strive to create a respectful environment where we can talk about our students needs and um and find we talk about our students needs and ways to best support the work of the district's staff in meeting those needs your support and our ability to work together respectfully is something I don't think any of us take for granted given recent history there are a few of us here tonight who were serving on the school board during the superintendent search process that culminated in the district hiring Dr Funk as I reflect on that time being able to secure a second contract with Dr Funk is welcome news for the Stillwater area public school district in taking this action Tonight We are continuing to move away from a history of excessive leadership turnover the board believes stability and the superintendent Position will yield positive results for our students staff and families superintendent Funk has performed well during his first two plus years in the district and I'm looking forward to his continued tenure as a Stillwater as the Stillwater area public schools superintendent with that I would like to make a motion to approve the contract on tonight's agenda I will Second Great any discuss question or comments by anyone can just make one comment um you did a wonderful job thanking everybody and I would like to thank you for your work on this um this was and you thanked Andrew as well but yes thank you Andrew too um but this I know was a lot of work going into it and on behalf of the board so I really appreciate um all the effort that went into this and really in securing um a second contract for our superintendent so that we can continue the stability in moving forward for another three years four years from now but so thank you for all your work I appreciate it thank you apprciate great all right um we have a motion on the floor in a second all those in favor of approving this contract raise your hand and say I I I opposed motion passes thank you all right thought I think F voted no back [Laughter] there hey just I just want to thank the board um you've heard me say this before I've been a superintendent a long time and superintendant can't do great things without great boards and you know when I was looking at potentially coming to Still Water a number of years ago a few years ago now um I talked to my wife about it and I said watch what was watching you on video and I said I can work with this board they are um not a lot of experience but they they focus on what's important and um you have done that and we have focused on what's important and we have worked through a number of of issues and we still have some things to work through as we move forward here um but uh I I am exceptionally pleased to remain here as your superintendent and you know it's always hard coming into a new organization because you inherit something that's not necessarily your team you inherit processes and systems and so um you know team has evolved over the last two years but I can confidently say we have got some really quality people um working for the district at the uh at the highest level and you know we talked about these results here um I will it is my belief not just hope believe that we will continue to see um our students uh growth moving in the the right direction because that's what we're about at the end of the day as our students and what we can do to support the students um so thank you and I look forward to working uh as I told people when I came here um six to 10 years and so uh we'll see where that goes so thanks very much thank you great well um we'll move on to our next item which is policy hi welcome Mr Lee we're gonna start with some policy on a first read and I'll turn it over to you wonderful well good evening chair Sherman and members of the board um we have several policies to review um and take a look at so we'll just uh we'll get started um so we have several uh policies for a first reading all of these policies would be new to the district um and support the work that we do here um as a district so the first policy is uh policy 509 interviews of students by outside agencies and just to highlight the purpose of this uh policy is that on rare occasions persons with other than School District offical persons other than School District officials and employees May believe it necessary to speak with a student during the school day student safety and disruption of the educational program is of Paramount concern to the school district the purpose of this policy is to establish the procedures for considering whether to Grant access to students by authorized individuals during the school day so this lays that out and the procedures for that it gives the principle of the building a great level of responsibility um to review any type of request um for that the policy also includes um and and kind of the majority of the body of the policy is um is referring to interviews conducted under the Mal treatment of minors act um so this is very consistent with our responsibilities under that act of uh when any when there's a Mal treatment um investigation happening so with that um that's the first reading we'll uh certainly take any comments um and then bring this back at the next board meing for a a second reading and certainly as you continue to read through these two email um is also a good way to get feedback but did you have a comment okay I I could have asked at the time when I first read this I was thinking media but really that's not media you know if a reporter wants to come and talk to a student who's done something right does that play into here is that a different certainly would if if there was any media request um to speak to a specific student um it would follow under this policy which again would state that uh that unless it's a really rare circumstance it will be not allowed uh during the school day uh so students can continue to be focused on their their learning within the school day so all right second policy is uh 527 again a new uh policy and this is uh the student use and parking of voter Vehicles patrols inspections and searches so the purpose of this policy is to provide guidelines for the use and parking use and parking of Motor Vehicles by students in school district locations to maintain order and discipline in the schools and to protect the health safety and Welfare of students and school Personnel um so it it this this policy is very aligned with our current procedures um for when students you know it's a particularly mostly High School um but when students get their uh parking permit when they go through that process um all the um components of this policy are already in our procedures that students sign off that they agree to um the procedures and processes uh regarding their vehicles on on property um so this kind of just puts it in policy it's a MSB recommended that we have it in policy um principal Bach reviewed uh the policy and felt that it's always good to have policy backing up the procedures uh that that they Implement at the high school so um we'd like to present that for our first reading um and again we'll bring that back for a second reading and Paul just so um do we before these are actually finalized we take out the notes comment right and the um and then I noticed on section four it's a designated School official do we are we going to put a name for something like this or a position put a title okay okay so that was my only perfect but I know still draft y That's thank you and uh the next policy is policy 611 uh home schooling and this is a this one does contain some legal requirements that we uh should have in our policy again it would be new policy for us again pretty straightforward the purpose of the policy is to recognize and provide guidelines in accordance with the state law for parents who wish to have their children receive education in a home school that is an alternative to an accredited public or private school um so it lays out the procedures and processes um for home so res students that are choosing homeschooling uh within the district so take a look at that one for a second reading uh the final policy for a first reading is uh 615 um test accommodations modifications and exemptions for IEPs Section 504 plan and LEP students um this again is a recommended policy one that we don't have it really does uh it's consistent with our current practices um with a lot of the especially with the IEP and the students with disabilities um that's all established through statute and compliance requirements um so again the purpose of the policy is to provide adequate opportunity for students identified as having individualized education program IEPs or Section 504 accommodation plans or our English learner or multilingual uh students um to meet the needs to and to have them participate in Statewide assessment systems designed to hold schools accountable which would be the MCA for the academic performance La all students and you could see in the earlier presentation on the MCA that included MCA and mtas the mtas is the uh special education alternative to that testing so as a district it it uh establishes that we hold that firm and important to follow those rules so that's the conclusion of the first readings right and I think it's just good because we go through these quite a bit but just to explain to people who are intently following policy at home um these these policies it looks like we're just kind of bringing these policies here but we meet quite frequently as a committee um with the help of Joan Paul um and the superintendent route these all and vet them all through the appropriate staff and through any other you know kind of constituents that need to Have Eyes on this so when we bring it to you um they have been looked at and they have been reviewed and so yes we'll move on unless there's any pending questions and again this is a first reading so feel free to send feedback to both Joan and Paul um but we'll go to a second reading of policy 515 yes so we we reviewed uh first reading of the last meeting uh this is 515 protection and privacy of pupil records um this is a uh a mandatory and a has a lot of legal requirements to it um and so um we've had a chance to look at that it's a pretty U we did not make very many there very minor changes to this in the revision under the guidance of M msba and their attorneys um so it just brings us up to date um to make sure that we're right at up to date with uh um the requirements under this policy so there any questions or and this is kind of the time when we we have decided as a board we really need to keep these policies moving and um going even in the midst of a study session so if there's anyone in the public that would like to come uh forward and specifically speak about policy 5:15 they're welcome to do so seeing no feedback which is shocking right um uh we will cons we will move on to action on this item so I will go ahead and make a motion to approve policy 515 can I get a second second great director kelzenberg with the second and any discussion okay all those in favor of approving policy 515 raise your hand and say I I I opposed policy 515 passes and then the last action for this evening is we're going to quickly look at revoking policy 6161 and as you can see it's riveting and offered a lot of value and um seeing as there is absolutely no value in this policy we are the the committee is recommending rev revocation of this so I will go ahead and make the motion to revoke is there a second second great director Hocker with a second um any questions for Paul on revoking this um policy I'm just wondering why he renumbered this in 2021 yeah I don't know story yeah I'll tell you later great okay um with no comments or discussion on this one uh all those in favor of revoking for 616 point1 raise your hand and say I I opposed policy revoked thank you thank you Paul and um now our last item now that we're done with policy is strategic Direction D develop strong Partnerships with the communities we serve and we're bringing uh executive director drummer hen back for long-term facility maintenance summer update good evening welcome back um this is just kind of a brief update here of some of the projects we did over the summer to um maintain our buildings um through our long-term facility fa maintenance so just want to just remind you some of the goals that we have through our long-term facility maintenance funding um is to continue the the maintenance and improvements of our district buildings and our facilities to provide learning spaces that mean the needs of our students which are our users replace um or uh replace our outdated equipment and Furnishings um provide uh accessible facilities for all users by replacing non-compliant elements mainly making um Ada restrooms or Ada accessible um facilities within our buildings and then the removal as asbest from our school building so as we do projects we always make sure that there's no asbest there before we start to open up our facilities so I take it through just kind of building by building alphabetically um and just kind of just briefly talk about some of the work that was done and you can kind of see some Associated pictures with them as well can I just ask a quick question before you go on um can you talk about the asbestos situation do we still have a lot of es in our building in Pockets there's there's not a lot but there is some pockets and areas that um are still there as we open it up to do certain things like in our older buildings like some our older buildings mainly like walls and um floors type of things if you when you when you rip up flooring replace flooring sometimes there's as is there sometimes in pockets of walls behind chalkboards yes we still do have chalkboards in some of our buildings um there are some areas there here's an interesting fact about long-term facilities Revenue you can use it to remove asbestos but not replace so you can pay for the Espress to be removed but if you have to put up a new wall no that doesn't cover that you District's got to pay for it you can't use long-term facility maintenance funding for that to put up to replace a wall that has right that that's why we do the asbest as we do the projects is when it's there we do the asbest and then use the funding to replace what we have okay got it got it okay all right thank you so just starting at after and Aton had work um mainly in their office area which is connected to the nurse's office so we replac the casework in the office and then also replaced uh the casework in the nurse's office as well as um made the toilet in the nurse's office that restroom area Ada accessible um so you kind of see the top is the the main office the bottom picture is the nurse's office at Lily Lake um we did some classroom um renovation where we placed finishes casework sinks marker boards lights technology in the the mag area there were six classrooms um in the mag area that we replaced those furnishes we added the security glazing which we talked about in the bond to the main entry and then also in their main office area which is connected to their nurse's office we replace the the toilet or the restroom area to provide ad accessibility into that restroom in the nurse's office and then some of the doors we didn't do all of the doors um but the ones that were were really worn and torn we replaced the exterior and interior doors and then the hardware that's associated with those moving on to Rutherford um it was replac the the lighting and and ceiling tiles um at Rutherford which is really riveting picture of the ceiling Stonebridge um replace the the finishes casework sinks Etc in the South classrooms this is the fourth year you probably see have Stonebridge for a few years we've kind of taken the building in in four pieces and so this is the last of the classroom renovation of stone Bridges the eight classrooms along that South Wall or the South um exterior wall of the building those eight classrooms got um all those finishes replaced um they had security glaz glazing at at Stonebridge so we placed that in the main entry area and then again their nurse's office and health room um had a a bigger restroom to provide ad accessibility to that toilet or that restroom area in the nurse's office and then in the hallway or Corridor area as well as the cafeteria replac the lighting in those areas and then moving on to Stillwater Middle um the big area there was the kitchen and cafeteria so repl the lighting in the kitchen cafeteria repl the flooring and ceilings and then specifically in the kitchen um the original walk-in cooler walk-in freezer um was replaced as well so basically the whole kitchen area was gutted and replaced and then the flooring and the ceilings and the cafeteria or the eating part of the cafeteria um was replaced as well as well as the sidewalk walking into the auditorium so it wasn't all the sidewalk areas but the sidewalk towards the auditor torium was replaced um which is some of the wear and tear that that specific sidewalk had throughout the years so I believe that is it and I will open up to questions or comments that you may have what's I mean just out of curiosity I always just like to hear what what's the reaction of Staff when you come in and see some of these like Lily Lake got a lot of attention y so um the sidewalk nobody really cares and notices I was going to say ceiling tiles probably nobody really care about ceiling tiles except you know have to cover all their um stuff because of the Dust okay so as you place some of those things but in terms of the areas like a Stonebridge or a Lily Lake or even the the kitchen cafeteria here the staff love the the new spaces and so as part of the design process you know we go through user groups with our bond projects and those sorts of things for some of those um ly Lake and Stonebridge we did a very similar process of you know as a replacing casework what do we want do we want tall cabinets do we want short cabinets we want countertop space do we want lockable cabinets not lockable cabinets um sync you know location there's a plumbing there but is it Mak sense to move it here move it there wherever so they're a part of that planning process for those specific areas to really make sure that the space is usable usable and functional for them and their students I was able to get to Lily last week to see the fifth grade they absolutely all three teachers were ecstatic so um I mean and I think this is a really good example where not only does it look beautiful and we take great great pride in our buildings but when superintendent when you talk about meeting student needs like at Lily having the walls and having that space better you know just it functions better for student learning and for our staff to be able to teach our students so I was excited to see that project addressed it'll be impactful I um Still Water middle uh being an exemption exception there I hope we got a bulk discount on these gray carpet squares because I saw that throughout all these buildings and I just hope that color science today current AS Val from wal explained previously to me that this is the in color and I hope it lasts for a while it's it's neutral I like yes um I have a question and then a comment my question is I I noticed that in most of these projects you're replacing lighting is there a reason for that um so as lights fail and replace you really can't replace the fluorescent bulbs and things that we have they just don't make those anymore so when they fail we usually do ceilings and and lighting at the same time so replace it with LED lights I was wondering if it was a change over to more um energy efficient kind of lighting if that was the reason um and then just a comment I mean it um thank you for this report I mean we're I mean I guess and maybe you've done this before but I guess I I mostly think about our this report as being just a list of items and I like the fact that you've given us it given it to us this way and I wonder if each of these schools might not not want to send this out in their newsletter to parents um you know just to sort of tell them what's happened in the building um this is just a a nice a nice visual way to sort of announce to the community what's happened and also it's just nice for people to understand where their tax dollars go I mean we can't allow these buildings to deteriorate to the point where we just have to bulldoze them under and that's why we ask you know our community to um fund some of this every year and so it's just nice for them to see what we're doing with those funds so any other comments or questions great thank you Mark for that update and with that we're adjourned get a home in time for the debate all right exactly e for