##VIDEO ID:fjyIOgyGJ6g## I'd like to call to order order the meeting of the school board of Independent School District 624 ask the clerk to please call the role lyd here Daniels here Ellison here new master here Strife OG here Thompson here Aran here thank you I would ask everyone to please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all we have before us this evening an agenda I would ask for a motion to approve so moved a motion by Miss Thompson and a second second um second by Dr naster all in favor please say I I oppose same sign and we have an agenda um we are also really excited this evening we have a new uh Schoolboard student liaison and got pull up to my there she is okay Lydia can you help us pronounce your last name to make sure we get it right it's Klein Hans it's very German Klein Hans okay wonderful so this is Lydia Klein Hans um she is going to be our student representative for the school year 12th grade student at White bur Lake Area High School she's involved in the student council she's a trumpet section leader in the band plays club soccer and works at a lifeguard at the YMCA she's also a part-time PSO student at St Kate's so Lydia we are thrilled to have you I think we're going to do a picture okay and we're GNA do a picture and I just Lydia yeah and I just want to note that not all school boards in the state of Minnesota have a student liaison and so we love it and we are fortunate to have students up here with us so we'll do a real quick picture and then we'll come back to the agenda all right we also have have before us an a consent agenda which are the regular things that come before us monthly um including donations and as always our community has been incredibly generous to our community especially for back to school items and so thank you to everyone who made donations I would ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved a motion by Miss Strife oi and a second second second by Miss Daniels any questions okay this will will require a rule call vote I would ask the clerk to please call the ro beloy hi Daniels hi Ellison hi new master hi Strife OG hi Thompson hi Aran I and we have a consent agenda it is now the time for public forum portion of the meeting there were zero requests submitted to speak so we will move into our informational items uh informational item C1 the superintendent and the students report Dr km thank you chair thank you chair Ellison uh members of the board so Lydia turn it over to you here to kick us off hello wiper leg families and Community it is very exciting to be back at school and I'm very excited to be serving as the class of 202's student liaison the most exciting thing about being back at school has been our transition into our new combined high school after having our very first home football game on August 29th you can definitely feel the excitement and pride that came from our unified student body and as a senior I can confidently say that we are all very proud to be graduating from such a beautiful campus so thank you to everyone who has made this happen fall Sports in the School Musical among other exciting opportunities are back with our beautiful new sports fields and Facilities I recommend attending as many fall Sports as possible including soccer volleyball and football shout out to our undfeated girls soccer team however as a musician I think the most exciting part about being back to school has been seeing the brand new music rooms and seeing the new Auditorium that is still under construction I would also like to highlight the fall musical is underway auditions begin this week you can access all of the information you need at the wiper Lake Area High School theater website you'll never regret spending your money in evening on seeing the fall musical it is always fantastic to see and you can tell our theater kids pour their hearts and souls into their performances lastly our next football game is this Friday September 13th at 7 p.m. it is against Woodberry and the theme is pink out in honors of those who have battled breast cancer you can purchase tck tickets online through the links and activity activities and athletic section of the weekly announc ments Google Document all right thank you Lydia nice job yeah I'll just roll right into mine uh so we've enjoyed welcoming students back for the 2425 Academic Year Elementary and secondary students started last week and our early childhood programs began this week so throughout the district there are were many excited Smiles as students returned after summer vacation or in some instances and quite a few instances for the very first time as new students in White Bear We wish all of our students terrific year in addition to our weekly e newsletters and usual information share outs we invite you to enjoy two Independent School District 624 inspired initiatives on our district Facebook and Instagram pages every Friday the district will post a video update of the week in 62.4 seconds and weekday mornings right at 6:24 a.m. we will share 624 facts on the district's Facebook and Instagram Pages videos can also be found on the district's YouTube uh YouTube channel District community members age 65 and older are invited to apply for our lifetime senior activity pass which allows free entry into a variety of activities for entertainment including home athletic contests if you'd like to join the more than 1,000 senior community members who enjoy the benefit call uh my office at 65147 7563 to request a free lifetime senior activity pass wonderful any questions for Dr kasmer wonderful thank you move into our first or a second uh informational item C2 the opening school report so this is always a great moment the beginning of the school year where we get to hear from all the various departments and hear about what's going on in the buildings so this is exciting um Dr K all right I'll kick it off so leadership team I think we're we're starting with our teaching department is that right so Dr gpie and babish so yeah this is always a highlight um we look forward to this every year it's been a great start to the year I I I I did make it into each building I know I spent um all day Thursday last week at the high school and and just enjoying the um that historic day that it was 9 through 12 alog together um and then uh throughout the day today I finished up getting into all the buildings and checking in with folks and it's just there's a lot of real positive energy throughout so we're excited to be able to share um a lot of information tonight so we Alison you're kicking it off so CH Ellison members of the board thank you for having us tonight it's really an honor to be able to share the work that we did in preparation of the school year and the school year as Dr K just said has been so fun to be a part of watching our high school open and just everything that's going on in the buildings so I wanted to provide a brief teaching and learning overview people often think because I share the title with one Department that they that we only have one teaching and learning department and so we actually have four Department ments that Encompass teaching and learning and you're going to hear from all four of the directors that's educational equity and achievement student Support Services technology and Innovation and teaching and learning and all of us work in Partnership to support um our principles and I think that's really important because we're really intentional about that work um and really excited about all the things that we're doing to make sure our students reach their um outcomes and their you know postsecondary Pathways and so really supporting the principles who in turn support all of our amazing Educators and staff this summer has been a really um large one and um really busy as we continue to really prepare ourselves for this upcoming school year I wanted to share in four different areas we have worked really hard around developing our leaders and when we think of leaders we don't always just think about the people with for for formal titles leadership is is a disposition not solely a position I often talk about and so how do we build leadership amongst our instructional leaders um and make sure that our principles and District staff have what they need to navigate all the different changes that we have but also how do we continue to build up educator leaders and other staff leaders that really can help us as we lean into the work that we've been doing so the three areas that we're focusing on as we um really kicked off this in the summer and into this school year our instructional leadership how do we support our principles and Educators around that so that we can continue to impact um student outcome measures positively how do we manage change we managed a lot of change some of us a lot of it we've controlled and we're really excited about it but some of it is changes that are just off you know in the world and so how do we come together and really make sure that we're doing that well and then always our family and Community Partnerships we value our community we value our families and how do we make sure that that relationship is truly a partnership so those are the three areas we're focusing on um the theme you'll hear me talk a lot about a lot is how we we intentionally collaborate and so this summer people will often ask us how is your summer off and sometimes summer is the busiest time for at least for parts of it I think everyone tries really hard to make sure we take care of ourselves as well but District building leaders Educators they collaborated all summer long around curriculum around assessment around reporting and then professional development and I'm really proud of the work that we've done we've done as you know a really significant heavy lift with implementing new literacy curriculum or the work we're doing around science and all of that is done in collaboration with teacher leaders principles co-leading that with our district departments and we're really intentional about how do we create a culture that really is that partnership between buildings and district and where sometimes it'll be like never the two shall meet or US versus them and I really truly believe that when we get that partnership functioning at its highest that's when we'll have the greatest impact for our kids and so this summer I I wish I could count how many people um were a part of things but I have my greatest fears I leave someone out so I um I can just promise you every single pretty much every day even in July where it's probably the quiet quietest around here there were people leaning into those areas finally we just um revamped our data days for those of you who've been here a while we had one day that we would all come together in August to look at our data and we've extended that to two days and I rebranded it as the instructional Leadership Institute and it was um a really energizing two days teams of Educators and leaders came together to really look at how do we continuously improve as an organization what are the outcome measures that we're we're deciding this is how we know we've been successful as students and then where do we need to get better where is it frustrating that they haven't moved yet and why haven't they moved and so the commitment amongst all of our Educators to not only really dive into their data at their schools and sites but collaborate amongst elementary schools and both middle schools and then to have one high school was just it was a very very special time and felt like um everyone was coming together and really aligning in a way that um we've been working towards then finally our students are also really busy and so if you recall Brian Peloquin and Adrian Turner used to come present in this presentation but we've decided they'll come to a couple work study sessions during the year so it can be a more in-depth but I I wanted to bring some stats for you because um there's so much to celebrate and so Brian put together stats for me for Student Activities when we um now that we've finished the 23 24 school year and I'm going to share them with you 1,179 students participated in Minnesota State High School league sports 299 students participated in Fine Arts 355 students participated in non Minnesota State High School league activities and sports we had four teams go to state boys cross country girls soccer girls basketball and boys hockey we had individuals make it to state in the following sports girls cross country girls swim and dive wrestling gymnastic boys swim and dive boys track girls track boys Golf and girls golf our fall musical earned its highest rating ever from the hin theater trust Spotlight and performed their Showcase in the spring we had two members of the speech team Mariam and suu won not only the Minnesota State High School league speech contest but also the the national contest and we had two coaches inducted into their coaches Hall of Fame Jeremy post and Dan kashit I would say last year was an awfully successful year um and so for this year in the fall we H over the summer we had 279 students participate in summer strength and conditioning and we have 537 students participating in Fall Minnesota State High School league of sports that's the highest rate of participation since before Co and so we continue to lean in and how do we have our students connected not only we obviously focus on their academic achievement but how are they really feeling successful connected and what Lydia just talked about all the different ways to get involved and so a shout out to all their coaches the staff families and community members who continue to support them oh now I will introduce um Jen babish who is our director of teaching and learning who will talk so each one of the directors will talk more in depth about the work they LED this summer good evening I'd like to continue to highlight our students um this summer we had 24 students in career Pathways participate in summer internships and jobs and you'll see here from the pictures um one thing I wanted to highlight was our Minnesota Trades Academy we had 11 students from mid June to Mid August participate in a paid summer construction internship experience where um four days of work four days a week they worked and one of those days was shadowing and appr apprentice and then they'd go back to the construction career pathway space um at the high school and practice their skills and learning um that they learned during The Apprentice days so we're super excited this has been an ongoing summer opportunity for our students that I wanted to highlight and then also we had um we welcomed over 50 new Educators I think it's about um we probably had about 40 last year so about 10 new um Educators to wiper Lake Area Schools um and our theme was proud to be a bear and we spent the time the Educators spent time in their respective buildings with mentors instructional coaches and the principles um our new Educators also heard from District leadership around the importance of building relationships partnering together and embracing change right and I'd like to introduce our director of student Support Services Le Orin good evening so this summer our transition education center shifted to the Hugo Elementary and our young adults are so excited to have that access to that expanded space they have beautiful outdoor areas as well as the indoor gym and lunchroom and so they had an open house just last week and it was well attended by parents and our young adults and so that's one of the things that we really excited about this school year and then last year we added a family engagement teacher to our earliest Learners in early childhood and she held monthly parent groups called the little bears club and or the little bears group and they met every month around topics that they were interested in and we're really excited about this because it culminated at the end of the school year where all the parents came with their Stu with their children and met with the teachers and they really appreciated the fact that they could put input into some of the topics that they wanted to talk through as well as just making those uh collaboration and and relationships with families right when they're starting their career in special education so some of those are some of the things that we did over the summer and I would like to introduce our educational equity and achievement director Brenton good evening um so I just wanted to start really quick just to uh with our new employee induction uh that we had we really focused on three areas during there and that was with our Indian Ed um our um Equity decision-making protocol and racial biased harm protocol as well and uh family engagement along with our mtss processes were the three bucket areas that we chose to address with our new teachers and staff um one of the of the things that we did talk with them about this um I really enjoy this slide as I really talk about the differences between equality diversity Equity acceptance and belonging so regardless of the amount of melanin that your body produces we really want to make sure that our department focuses on everybody and really addresses that so I'm not a shoe guy because I'm cheap but if I was this is what I would go with um so uh we really wanted to talk about equality is everything is is everyone getting a pair of shoes diversity is everyone getting a different type of shoe Equity is everyone getting a pair of shoes that fits acceptance is understanding we all wear different kinds of shoes and belonging is wearing the shoes that you want without the fear of judgment over the summer uh myself along with Vincent uh p who is our Indian Ed coordinator uh we put together a professional development opportunity for all staff members to take uh in our district uh which was our historical trauma PD as of three something this afternoon 3:30 um approximately 45 between 45 and 50% of the District staff have taken and completed and pass the uh quiz that goes along with that uh p PD which is awesome they have uh we requested that it they all take it before September 30th uh so we're well on the way with that as well and that I must say actually came as a result of our um non-c concurrence with our APAC committee so that was one of the requests that they asked um that we have all staff members participate in that um and so one of the last slides I have here um is that the ready for school event that took place uh a couple weeks before our students returned uh at the high at the new high school which was awesome um a few key points I do want to thank Briana uh santoscoy our family engagement coordinator as well as everyone else who volunteered their time and efforts to make this event a amazing um opportunity for our community 400 plus uh backpacks were uh and supplies were distributed to families that day 100 plus families had access to parent view and applied for educational benefits with assistance from uh interpreters who were there uh to provide their support as well as our it Department uh making sure that they had access and capabilities uh Bear Care Clinic was also present and uh scheduled appointments for physicals and vaccines as well as Community EDS sharing their uh resources and in programming and early childhood opportunities so that I know that's a short list but I really want to thank everyone that took place or took a part of that it was amazing event and the whole time I kept telling myself Brenton take pictures Brenton take pictures I took one and that's the picture so um we we we love Juan Juan is at the Tech campus now um he's amazing and his mom so yeah it was great so anyway at this time I would like to intr uce our technology and Innovations uh director Susan Herer you're thank you I would also like to start by recognizing our students from Tech Depot we had 25 students who worked um all summer to help us get ready including the day after school let out to come in and help us move all of the technology out of the sites that we're having construction as quickly as possible and then getting everything back into place in time for school to start and for teachers to have everything they need the work couldn't have been done without the work of the tech team and the 25 students in Tech Depot um and again we were so busy Brenton is one picture ahead of us we didn't even get a picture of the students working that's how busy it was um they also were just they worked on getting 1,400 Chromebooks ready for the students coming back the ninth graders sixth graders and all of our new students this included unboxing everyone they had to personally touch each one log in them make sure they were connecting and they had that done within a week we were shocked there was no way we could have done that without their help um we also worked on the repurpose Chromebooks as well as continuing to work on deploying some new desktops um to our staff uh additionally as you can imagine with the introduction of two new sites new buildings we had to Mig at all of our information from uh Sunrise to Mariner and then to combine the high school data so our teams uh our systems applications teams worked hard all summer to make sure all of that information was was accurate in all of our systems um it's a it's a large piece of work to do that and I'm very impressed with the speed at which they got that completed additionally we moved our library system Destiny into the cloud for more reliability and also to be able to um to provide better support for our staff and students uh other pieces include Synergy and again creating two new sites there but we're on the latest update and we're continuing to implement new features that will help uh our staff and our parents and our students have better information so a couple of the features are Hall passs where students will be able to basically create a hall pass within student view the teachers will see that we can get better information on when students are out of class and how long they are additionally tardy kiosk should help at the high school with students using their badge in order to badge into school when they're late and again we're going to get better information from that that we can share with families and additionally we set up standards based grading for the high schools um for cyber security uh we began a partnership with arctic wolf which is going to help us with our managed uh security system they'll be Prov providing us with that protection we want to make sure all of our student data is safe um and this is the next step for us as we work towards uh really improving our cyber security stance we continue cyber security education for staff including fishing simulations as well as just general knowledge around password security and other pieces and then lastly we were visited the technician support model last year we moved to uh a Shar team of north and south and after getting feedback and upon reflection of how well that worked we divided the district into thirds and there's a team of two uh tier one techs that are working at each of those uh what we hope from that is that those teams are two can build relationships within those buildings and with each other in order for us to better support those sites thank you operations is next good evening um facilities has been in a uh you know at a working at a uh frantic clip all summer long we've had a lot going on across the district we had several big moves that had to happen before we could do anything so all of our South Campus staff and their supplies and equipment had to move to the high school uh all of our Sunrise Park staff and supplies had to move to Mariner and then Tech had to move to um Hugo Elementary all of that had to happen within about 72 hours so thank you to um our custodian team who worked uh really really hard to make that happen and Kevin Fernandez clean them all their whole team outstanding work getting that move to occur in a very short amount of time because construction doesn't wait um so we had multiple big projects at marer middle school they had uh phase one of a two-phase project on their HVAC and so we ripped that apart and that will be completed again next summer and then we'll wrap things up and be done at Mariner at the high school uh that's been in continuous construction of course for years but uh we completed phase three and we are almost done with the high school just a little bit of work to do but as Wayne mentioned early a historic day as we reopen that after 41 years uh we will reopen as a 912 High School Central Middle School uh we took a three years of Summer construction decided to comess it into two and so this past summer and next summer very intense summers at Central but the payoff would be they won't have a third year of it so thanks to that team they've been very patient they had to uh almost like moving out they had to pack everything up for the construction this summer um but we'll see a great beautiful new gym at Central that has now is now being used some wonderful flexible spaces that have been opened up in that um in that building that's from the 50s and so it's very traditional but now has some wonderful flexible spaces and they're probably already enjoying the HVAC improvements in most of that building V Heights we put a new roof on the North half of the building that will allow the solar panels to be um installed next summer um I mentioned that Tech moved into their space and uh in the final phases of the monument sign project um projects currently underway the Performing Art Center will be opened that will be completed end of November we have some concerts that'll be performed there in December that we'll look forward to um as we Christen that new space uh pricefield some improvements just to the throwing area on the north side of pricefield um and then Sunrise Park that construction has begun and the district office staff will be moving out and out of current building into the sunrise Park Center in um January along with the school board um and then again the Solar projects at the high school and at vness uh security upgrades continue across the district um integration of the lockdown system with the building is an important part of it that blue lockdown button or red lockdown button that you see on that top photo those exist across the school district and places where people can lock down a building um just with the push of a button and so the integration is getting doors to close and secure that building as they do that uh security cameras are continuing to get improved across the school district especially in some outside spaces in where we improve buildings like at Central Middle School creating Flex spaces create some voids or some um some areas that need additional cameras so we're continuing those improvements the threat assessment protocol uh we've been working with our building leaders and our student support staff on recognizing potential threats in the building and so those individuals were trained on the comprehensive school threat assessment guidelines and um uh we'll continue to or th that those staff will be using those um those protocols this year to recognize threats in the building and uh as a way to keep us all safe and then standard reunification method we're working with the county on um countywide processes nutrition services department also had a busy summer served nearly 10,000 breakfasts this summer and 14 ,000 lunches we're in year two now when school starts of the free meal program uh free breakfast free lunch um it will continue um uh gladly continue that program the farm to school Institute is a professional development process for some of our nutrition leaders but it also then um was allows us to um to build sustainable farm- to school programs that support Minnesota's food system in collaboration with mde and uh University of Minnesota extension program one way that we saw that in action was at Freedom School this summer where our nutrition staff read to students but they also brought them on a field trip uh to Marina on St Croy where they got to visit one of the uh food providers for their program you if you were at any open houses you enjoyed some local apples from Pine Tree that was part of that program and we'll learn more about that as the year moves on the bulk milk initiative is kind of school we or cool we have about five schools now that have bulk milk being served kids tell us the taste is better but importantly it's keeping U milk curtains out of landfills just at onique Elementary in the first four days of school they kept more than a thousand cartons out of landfills so multiply that over many buildings over many days um it's significant 60% less milk waste and on average students were consuming an additional ounce of milk at with each lunch so successful program um and wellness programming is continuing with the wellness committee working with each building to promote um Wellness activities across the district uh transportation is always a challenging start to the school year uh they work hard to get the routes figured out and then they get hundreds of changes in the 72 hours before school starts and so that can Challen that can create some challenges for them but they've been doing lots of tweaking on routes making things run more smoothly they'll continue to tweak those over the next week or two and we appreciate uh our students and parents for their patience um as there's been some challenges with Transportation along the way hiring drivers have been a challenge for school districts Across the Nation in Whitebear Lake we're fortunate we are fully staffed with drivers and bus AIDS uh but that's not true of all of our contractors and so on those areas we have we have some challenges what we have been able to do is take some routes back to the district offering routes having less with contractors um buses are going to drive about almost a million and a half miles this year make over half a million stops uh there's a lot of moving Parts in the transportation department so we thank them and we'll turn it over to human resources good evening um so as Allison had stated uh the summer can be one of our busiest months and in the HR department it really is uh those are our busiest months of the year there um so we hired over 130 new employees 61 of which were uh new teachers um which is about kind of par for the course for us uh that was in addition to all of the seasonal uh employees that were hired to support our programming during the summer and all the contracts that are changed to uh bring employees in to extend their employment for the summer so a huge thanks to my staff uh to get us to this point long days long hours so uh it's always greatly appreciated every year here um you know we'll you'll notice on the next slide it is going to be our uh everpresent we hiring slide but what I can tell you is uh we're really in a very envious position because with the unemployment rate looking the way that it does in the Twin Cities um you know there's a fierce competition for employees as we're looking to fill positions and really in all of our departments although we are still hiring in a few right now if you took a snapshot at some point in the summer we were really staffed for the year so the hiring that we're doing is just that kind of continuous hiring as people are coming going moving through you know their Journey so that's what that looks like but we're really in a very good um place that way so um another note that I want to just quickly make is that uh last year we moved to a new substitute management partner and in each month last year we saw at least a double digigit increase in our fill rate after making that uh move to collaborate with teachers on call um so that's been highly successful that said there's still a lot of stress uh you know in buildings um trying to fill those positions and so it hasn't uh you know eliminated the struggle that really every District deals with however it has been a significant Improvement for us so just wanted to give you uh that brief update um another Point here two is that later on I'll be asking for your approval of a tentative agreement our extended day staff and that will wrap up our bargaining cycle here for a two-year period so we're excited um to move into a year here where we can concentrate on some other items um as we move into things so we're excited there um not necessarily the sexiest of bullet points but we have converted files to a digital format uh which has been a Herculean three-year task as um our staff has gone through that process without bringing on additional Staffing and what it's really going to allow us to do is just efficiency for us but it's also going to transfer to all of our employees too and that they're going to be able to get access to documents um far more quickly than they've been able to and just generally get their questions you know answered a little bit more easily so um that's been a really great thing and again a huge thanks to my staff as they've worked over a very very long time to make the magic happen as I said we are hiring um in a number of areas especially still in um extended day nutrition services to some extent we're always looking on the bus driver front and we're going to continue to get out into the community to the extent possible to make sure that people are aware of those opportunities um but we really are in pretty darn good shape like I said uh really an enviable position um compared to a lot of my colleagues that I'm speaking to in surrounding districts so we're feeling pretty good about where we are at the moment any questions yes oh uh Miss Daniels we still hire some uh building substitutes within that have contracts with us that we don't use the service for yes we do um so we do that and there's a couple of nice things number one that's really helpful um it it's been uh you know a great service to our students really because there's some really committed core substitutes there it also really helps us bring on um it helps us really in attracting sometimes more talented or just get bigger pools of long-term substitutes as well because we can augment a partial year with that building substitute role where they really know what they're going to be stepping into and know that they're going to be employed for a year so it's been terrific from that standpoint too they can get to know students before stepping into a long-term sub for instance or they're familiar with students when they get done with a long-term sub R and are able to still be a part of that building and the culture there so um that's been uh a huge benefit for us no other questions then I'll step aside and Tim Mau will uh come up to present for Community Services thank you all right good evening chair Elsa members of the board it's a great to be here not because we get to be here in front of you guys but today's one of my favorite days where we got to welcome our littlest Learners our early childhood kids up to uh our Early Childhood Program today and it's just it's one of my favorite mornings watching the kids either get off a bus or a parent drop off and you know parents trusting us with their littlest Learners coming in for the first time making a good impression with them and and making sure that they have a great first day and the three sites that I went to today was literally all smiles every kid was happy to go meet with their classmates and be with their teacher zero tears uh which I think think is probably a first for me there's usually a couple that don't want to leave Mom and Dad but uh just goes to show all the work that leads up to the school year open houses making those connections with families and with those kids that are that our teachers and our staff do a really great job making sure parents know what to expect when they come in and kids are coming in confident happy and fun and ready for a fun time but um as we kind of look through the slides and some of the data just to reminder you know our Early Childhood Program um has uh we have full and half day and different options for programs across the district at ormandy Park and our six out of our nine elementaries and tamarak nature center a nice variety to meet families where they're at that meets what their current needs are or wants are for their children in early childhood um and it's not just Early Childhood I think it's also important to remember that we serve uh you know ECFE programs and new parents uh with birth to two and and then as they grow into be three and five into our programs um but we also work with them through home visiting community outreach uh provide family classes or parent classes uh offer activities seek to build home and school Partnerships to support families into the future as they continue to grow in our community and we work really hard to help families connect with one another and with our schools uh right away through our Early Childhood Program uh numbers up there showing we're a little south from where we started last year um but I think an important thing to take into place here we have a a number of students in our ecsc program that are still going through evaluations um we have a small weight list at two sites on the south end at vness and um uh currently Venus and Lake airs that we're working through right now to work through the details with transportation and other pieces to offer another section when those are completed and that section gets added will be right about where we started last year at and phone calls do keep coming in it is a moving Target dayto day so uh we're very hopeful that we'll get those details ironed out here soon and can reach out to those um few families on our wait list to offer that new section and get them in our buildings as soon as we possibly can um a lot of the um we still have a little bit of space a lot of our sections on the positive side are really almost full like across the board um we don't I don't think any one of our sections across our programs has maybe more than three spots left in them so um and that's only at a handful of spots so um we're we're getting close but we're definitely meeting the need and like I said once that additional section gets added once we work through those um we'll alleviate that weight list to make sure we still have a little bit of room for any new families that might be looking for uh additional um Early Childhood programming um and we did um bring in some new leadership you know darc Rodriguez um took a new job outside of the district late last year so we welcomed Kristen Nelson um our new assistant director of Early Child through programs to the district she started over the summer uh just a big thank you to our leadership at Normandy Park and the front office team there welcoming her in getting her grounded as she starts off the school year uh really just a supportive culture we have there and and she's felt that um and it's been very very nice as she leads into this first uh first week of uh programming with students so uh and then moving on um our out of school times programs um you know as we talked about Staffing and hiring um we are are still with the weight list but I think it's important to look at how far we've come since last year when you look at the data um and all the work the hard work that our out of school time staff continues to do on a daily basis of interviewing and uh making hires and bringing new people into our programs last year we were just shy of 400 students on a wait list uh this year right now we're around 175 180 and again that is a moving Target we get new calls every day of people that either want care or plans have changed and they're looking to to not needed or made different Arrangements but um the amount of new students that we're serving to an increase from last year from you know starting the year last year at 753 students uh to starting this year just under 900 so uh significant need and increase met uh uh throughout our buildings um and again we're still working hard to work with our our um radar our Solutions who's been a really great partner with us in finding staff and helping us get to the point where we can hopefully see uh down the road here a future of alleviating our weight list across the board for that as we go but you know as Matt as Matt mentioned earlier too we do this is the time of year too when we get in the buildings and people get offered other positions or they make connections in the buildings and they take a different job either within the building or a different opportunity so it is you know we deal a lot of uh um movement within those positions as well that we navigate so uh kudos to our our out of school time and uh extended day teams to uh work through those and continue to offer the care that they do for all of our families and students that need it um uh and we are uh continuing to partner positions with our school day hours you know we always look to partner with nutrition services or at the building level with uh you know uh uh lunch positions or recess positions and what can we do to create a more robust opportunity for someone who's looking to work uh within Whitebear Lake Area Schools and what we can do to provide a more again robust position to uh attract uh new people to work with us and and uh you know make connections with our kids and and see them throughout the year um another way we're doing that too is also continuing to work with our high school for credit uh High School Credit uh students that are in there for early release and working with local companies um to help our high volume recruiting efforts and all have been very helpful um and our our staff continues to grow because of that um and again but we're just trying to meet the need that's out there in the community and uh again we wish we didn't have a weight list but the the jump from last year to this year is a significant uh data to show that we're moving in the right direction and and doing what we can to meet that need um and just for youth enrichment offerings up there I think it's uh important just to show the amount of offerings are looking to increase um from not only over the summer but then into the fall and really doing what we can to balance those across our buildings so every family no matter what school or School boundary you're living and has some type of opportunity or access to an enrichment opportunity after school um through our youth enrichment and development program as well um and then a little piece from over the summer our targeted Services Program uh summer school program served over 400 kids uh on our program this summer um another you know to show the increase in Staffing summer we had a 55 uh contracts increase from the previous summer but no weight list over the summer and um currently looking to partner positions with school day hours oh sorry I'm looking at the wrong slide sorry about that um with our targeted Services Program over the summer um again our um a lot of those were held at uh matosa Elementary and some other uh schools for the summer but um over 400 kids across our three programs here for the summer uh and add an additional 120 for those that we served over at Freedom schools down at Willow Lane Elementary um a really a fun and busy summer like it was a lot of fun and uh really busy but like the amount of uh work put into and opportunities for kids uh to enhance and not you know try to prevent that summer learning loss for parents who are looking for that for their child and create those opportunities um through different topics so in camp summer they use topics of create your own business nature Pokemon steam game design mindfulness cooking and other options the curriculum that we use for our camp summer program really allows teachers to you know take an adventure with those students through that curriculum through a different area topic that might speak to that kid so if I you know if my kid loves Pokemon then I can explore math or different subject matter and those things through the world of Pokemon and and kind of create that uh connection with those students and uh huge thank you to many of our local businesses and vendors you know we get a lot of help from our community across the district but um we have a lot of people who donated supplies for our Olympics day and on the last day of Middle School uh at summer U uh and then an exciting I think we shared at the end of the school year last year but we were very fortunate enough to be awarded an after school Community Learning Grant um and that work started off right away this summer so it was a really quick um uh turnaround um you know Nicole Oswald and her team and leadership team with uh in collaboration with teaching and learning the what we had to require the minimum number of hours for programming to meet the grant needs had to increase what we currently had in place uh so we had to add an hour or an hour and a half after the normal day for what we had originally planned and kind of speed that up for the summer to to meet the needs for that Grant but they again working with Community Partners and uh uh look with other U organizations around to provide those opportunities um students had a lot of fun at their camps and they got to explore the Great Outdoors by fishing learning to kayak uh learning about careers and meeting community members in those positions and spending extra time exploring uh creative stem projects and engaging in sports and games uh at a soccer camp as well so a lot of those things seems like that we do kind of all the time in the work that we do in community services and Community Ed but to be able to organize that in collaboration with what we currently had in in place for summer you and camp summer for the summer to go was again no easy feat so hats off to our staff to pull that off um and the grant uh positively impacted us of course and uh with freedom schools directly we were able to increase the number of seats offered in that program over the summer uh to be able to get more kids in that program so we originally had been approved for 100 and then with the original with the support from the grant we're able to expand that to 120 um and looking forward to do that for the upcoming years as well or upcoming Seasons here as well um and we'll get more information to you guys about that Grant as the school year goes right now we're in the middle of um getting our school year plans approved and we'll be looking to start those up uh with our uh the four schools that were approved for that were at um Lake airs Birch uh Willow and Badness um so Nicole is working with those uh four principles and team leadership and teaching and learning to work through those work plans leading up as we get ramped up here for later in October for those things to start and those will provide free enrichment opportunities for uh qualifying students that are looking to uh you know that need some support and academic support through student support um targeted services so um Youth recck and middle school activities um yeah they kicking off here for the fall um you know the numbers you know we are very busy in the summer time with all that we do with our camps clinics Rec Sports and everything and that kind of bleeds into the fall as well so our our numbers are are really fantastic for our youth sports and Rec Sports of the Fall we have uh over 400 kids participating in our soccer program that's serves prek through uh uh fourth grade um uh and then um our flag football program that's kindergarten through fifth grade we have over 300 kids right now playing football so if you're driving around the fields at night here um or on the weekends you'll see kids playing around uh FL football and then for grades three through six for our wck volleyball program we have just over 150 students participated in that as well um and that all of course you know we can't do what we do in that area without the volunteers of our parents and community members who want want to volunteer their time and coach for our team so we're very thankful for that um and our registration for our winter wreck basketball league is also open at this time uh Middle School athletics is off and running as well we have cross country girls tennis uh volleyball and then new this year we have uh offered soccer after school um as well so right now we have 20 kids that are currently registered for Middle School soccer um which is great because we know like it was in our fall catalog that hit homes in August but you know we all know parents are busy and you likely middle school kids I know I didn't I wouldn't look at things until school started but yeah we had I think we had four or five registered as of like the first day of school and now we're up to 20 and expecting to still take on more um and again just looking to expand what we can offer to our Middle School uh students and families and and really that's about building you know it's building connections and that positive relationship with school and that strong community support but also that that school pride and that being a bearer right um I just wanted to show up here for you know if you want to play good you got to look good right so we we did put some money into some new uniforms for our uh Middle School volleyball teams uh this year historically we've used Rec shirts and and other uh shirts like that but we said no it's time to really start let's get the let's get our girls volleyball team some nice uniforms to wear for the summer to really feel like a a team and and looking good so that's just a snapshot so we have uh I I don't know which color is for which school but we have gray and we have black that are for Central uh and Mariner uh middle schools this year so um that in collaboration with our intermal programs are offering um again we have fall intermurals we have our ultimate frisbee program going on right now um we usually again we're serving 20 to 30 some students in that program too uh then looking to expand on that to again provide that variety of Student Activities after school that meets them where they're at if they want to compete at a different level or a more casual intermural program different costs associated with that that gives kids more opportunities to different activities and and and be a part of different teams and programs so and working our way up here our adult programs and facility use um you know you can look at the data that's on the board but I mean really when you take a step back and and think about all we do in adult uh enrichment and adult with disabilities uh adult education and our senior program um we really are focused on creating opportunities and for for adults in our community to explore their interests and passions and that personal growth with whatever that passion or hobby may be uh health and wellness but most importantly it's it's building that human Connection in community right creating opportunities for people to connect with each other uh around a shared topic or a hobby uh we're just very proud of the work that we're doing um not only for our students but especially for our adults and expanded Community um in our area and what we're able to offer uh and pictured there to the right they wanted to give a shout out that his that gentleman's name is Mike pulson uh Mike worked um he was awarded a grand champion for his work that he's holding up there at the Washington County Fair so they just wanted to give him a little little props there for the work that he did and his his purple ribbon there so you know kudos to Mike for the for the awesome artwork that he did there to to become a grand champion at the fair um and again we hats off and we appreciate all the community support we continue to get for our Meals on Wheels program um again we can't help serve the community uh members in need for that for just a daily meal and food without the you know consistent uh volunteer drivers and people that work within that area to get people a meal every single day uh throughout that uh program um and just Publications which you have likely seen in your home are online but this is just a snapshot here so our big fall catalog that hit homes mid August I'm sure many of you have seen that are they in our buildings or likely in your homes uh it's a seasonal catalog that uh comes to your door three times a year um in addition to that we also have our uh our The Voice which is our senior publication that goes out uh quarterly as well uh for our older adults um and then above that is our community Bridge Consortium uh brochure that goes out to our uh and available to our Stu or excuse me adults with disabilities and creating opportunities for different activities Games events and collaboration with our neighboring uh districts and cities as well um and there our our early childhood registration guide ECFE registration guides again that you see likely in all the front offices across all of our buildings so uh different ways to get in touch with us and to get uh any information on what we might have going on so please take a look at those and our website and then the last big plug our first Community event kicking off this year is our be bike ride um we're switching it up a little bit this year and we're really excited about it so the last three years uh this has been in place we've done that it's mainly just been adults and every now and then we'd get a student involved in that for either a 25 mile or 50 mile bike ride money raised uh stays with us and supports uh financial assistance and scholarships for students that want to participate in any youth enrichment or wreck program sport activity that just needs a little bit of financial help uh money raised for that goes to support uh those students and Families in Need for that um this year we wanted to to expand that a little bit and make it a broader Community event so we're working in collaboration with the High School uh to offer this um at the tail end of homecoming week on the Saturday morning October 12th after the homecoming game um so in addition to those 20 if you're serious bike rider and you want to go on that 25 or 50 mile route I will wave to you as you start riding away you want to see me on that route um but in addition to that this year we're excited we're we're starting from the high school um we will have a 9mile route that'll leave the high school and go around bald eagle it's about 9.2 uh they wouldn't let me call it a 10 I really wanted to call it the 10 Mile route but they said nope it's 9.2 uh so a nice fairly uh you know student friendly familyfriendly 9M route around the lake uh but even for our younger riders or a family that just want to get students out and families outside and come see our spaces uh we're going to have a fun little Route Around Central and the high school campus as well so there'll be stagered start times more information can be found there uh it is free to attend it is free to ride um we are asking those that have the ability to to um there are different suggested donations amount donation amounts when you register um but again we just want people there we want people to come uh check out our spaces be a part of the event make a connection with somebody and go ride some bikes that day uh and if you're in a position to make one of those suggested donations we really really appreciate it um it does go a long way to help a lot of families and students in need to to get an activity or sport or an enrichment class after school um and if you want something to take home uh we will be working with our friends down at Revolution Sports we have some tailored uh quarter Zips that any participant that donates $50 or more uh to participate will be able to take home a quarter zip home with them as well um so just know that going forward but we hope to see you guys all there even if you don't want to ride come applaud and cheer on people that are riding uh and just come out and hang out for a little while but it'll start around 9 for that 50 mile 25 mile ride and then we'll ask the younger Riders to show up there around 11: and try to wrap things up between 12:00 and 1 so it' be a nice way to wrap up homecoming so all right any questions on anything all right then I'm G to pass it over to Marissa Vetti with uh community relations and Communications hello everybody I'm your second to last uh presentation here and so again I'm Marissa vety the communications director and every year I get to come up here and really celebrate all of the wonderful things that are happening and that's what we get to do in the Communications office every day as well really making sure that we can inform people what is happening um So that obviously so that they're aware of it they can be proud of it and then they can engage with us in the different opportuni ities as well so we will start um and again we have many uh different activities that we're focused on and and many different projects that we're working on throughout the summer as well so this is a snapshot of a few of few of our favorites or a few of the ones that you might recognize the most so the first one would be our printed calendar which is mailed to all of our families and available to uh those who might want to pick it up at district offices as well and I will share that um this is something a printed calendar cend is sort of Gone by the wayside and we've been told by our community this cannot go to the Wayside uh because this is what we look forward to we have people who are calling us in June asking when is the calendar and we can't put it together until all of the events of course are are finalized uh but that's been really fun and even uh not too long ago I had somebody who had written in and said I'm looking for the calendar is it coming soon we have a tradition it goes right on our refrigerator and so there's nothing more heartwarming for me to hear that uh the the beautiful photos that we're able to take at the events throughout the year and in the classrooms and on the you know playgrounds that they're being enjoyed and really uh making a difference for families and I know they're um you know going through the pages trying to see who they know uh which is always a really fun tradition I think uh for our families so in addition to that of course we were working on updating the website of you've uh We've covered the different changes that have happened throughout the district so it was working on those changes in addition to once again hosting the back to school page trying to be a One-Stop shop for families we're trying to figure out um you know what is the school supply list going to look like when do I go back to school with Stager starts and that um so we did offer that and host that again for this year in addition to of course the the annual updates and the even more robust annual updates that we worked on this year the beginning of the year of course is a time for us to reach out to family so of course Dr K did did an electronic uh letter to our our staff members and then we also did a printed letter to our families as well we had an English version and then those families who speak Spanish did receive an English and a Spanish version of that same letter it also includes important information about um our our media release and and other information that we wanted families to have a tangible piece of paper telling them important updates um and then they'll hear it in other ways of course as well we also get to work with different departments throughout the district to help them get their messages out and so once again this year we got to work with the nutrition services department so if any of you have little ones in your homes you probably remember getting a postcard and that was really fun for us to work with them on a couple of years ago to launch this you know the practice your pin and we we heard from families that their students were literally in that upper corner of that postcard doing a practice run uh before they would would come into school so that's again heartwarming it's it's nice to hear the the feedback that what we've brainstormed and what we've worked on um to help serve the community is is indeed working uh and then school videos these are just a few of them that we we got to work on this year um video isn't always the avenue to get information out but in a few uh in a few ways it absolutely is so you can see the the samples we've got here we helped the high school with a traffic video so really helping families and helping students understand you go in this way you park in this slot and here's how you leave and the buses are going to do this and get you know stay stay in your lane literally and figuratively um and so we we worked with them on that and then we introduced two of our new school leaders for our ALC and for the high school so that was a fun one to work on as well and then beay did visit some of our building leaders and pull together a Go video so it was go do all sorts of wonderful things and you probably saw it we shared it as the e- newsletter video Edition a couple of uh Sundays ago and then of course ending with the go Bears because we wouldn't do it any other way I think and then for convocation again back to to Dr K part of his letter was inviting our staff members back to join us for convocation we were out in the stadium Outdoors again for this year um we had some incredible visitors which was amazing uh we had Willie jet join us from the Department of Ed we had um somebody that I think is a favorite of probably all of us Jim Galvin was there as well and then Dr Kay gave his um gave his speech and or connected with us and then we had student um student participants as well so that was a really fun way to kick off the year and then of course for people to go into the high school and check it out if they hadn't been there already something that our office facilitated with the help of course of our uh families and community members was the back toschool Bears hashtag backtoschool bears and so the E newsletter letter that we sent out last night had a collage of photos that people had turned in that was our K through 12 plus students um photos that families had turned in and or a sampling of that and then we hope that this week our early childhood families will be doing the same so that we can do a similar uh a similar collage coming up as well so that's always a fun way to to come back into the school year and and be excited about it with the community additionally our regular communication channels that we have been using during the summertime we slow down a little bit with them and then in August we ramp right back up um so our community e- newsletters we the families have already become begun receiving and will continue to get a weekly e-newsletter either a video Edition or a text Edition on Sunday evenings to start their week out and then we've got our 624 facts on social media so Facebook and Instagram at 6:24 a.m. as Dr K mentioned in his super tenant report and then our week in 62.4 seconds as well we got to launch that last Friday because we finally had a week back with the students which was amazing so uh families and community members and students of course and staff can enjoy those throughout the year as well on Fridays and then last but not least um we I have communications trainings just for our staff members so we did do something with our leaders and then we'll continue to to offer just nuggets of information So that obviously um it is a goal that we have the districtwide communications happening as well but that the communications and engagement with our building leaders and our teachers and that um that that can really be a robust way and that people can feel like and can can be served by uh good Communications that is happening through the schools in The District in the classrooms so that is it and with that I'll turn back over and you'll get a bit of enrollment update from Mr Tim wall thank you okay always at this first board meeting in September we give an update of where we are at the beginning of the school year for enrollment so we'll look first at elementary most of our elementary schools are uh within just a few students of where they were last year with the exception of one and that's matosa at minus 56 and uh oddly that's a very small kindergarten class that came into mosa this year and as we started to register our kindergarten students this past winter we discovered that uh there were many less siblings in this particular group than we've seen in the past uh so that's uh kind of the outlier on that list and so that leaves us at minus 44 at the elementary um mosa also had a a much larger fifth grade class leave last year than um you know than they have this year here so uh you put those two together and we end up with that number of minus 56 otherwise pretty stable at matosa and all of our other elementary schools so we start the year with 3,672 enrolled K5 uh we look at secondary things changed quite a bit um in the middle school is interesting Mariner is up 103 students this year and uh centrals down a little bit recall that a year ago we changed the attendance boundary and that last year didn't had a smaller effect in that many of the students were reassigned to the Southside in intradistrict transferred into Central to stay there this year we saw much less of that so more of those families who were in their second year assigned to Mariner went to Mariner um we also saw um a significant increase in the sixth grade cohort from what we had from the number that we grad uated in June um to the 615 fifth graders and we currently have 666 graders enrolled so really significant jump um in our sixth grade cohort and our seventh and eighth grade cohorts both up as well so at the middle school level we're up 54 students um at 1,886 um at the high school level our uh Unified High School is up 7 73 students this year um we saw at the 9th and 10th grade level some increases in enrollment from last year's cohort so we're seeing some open enrollment increases at the high school our ALC started a little smaller than it did last year and I think last year was a bit of an outlier at the alc with 158 typically they're in that 125 range to start um so I think we're probably getting closer to the norm this year at the area Learning Center and the transition education program expanded um they're programming a little bit to accept more students so we see a little increase there so our 912 total is plus 61 students the 612 total is 115 then we have the the minus 44 at the elementary school so we're starting the school year with a K12 total of 8,389 students and that's an increase of 71 over a year ago questions on that uh Mr eoi how is the current enrollment compared to pre-co enrollment numbers um you know I should have looked at that but pretty close to what where we were yeah a little bit lower yeah we're still down a little bit yeah yeah we're on I think we were at 87 was our high water mark 8700 yeah and okay so there's one more just a video here and I'm going to get it started [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] joyful oh wow okay that's yeah that's a lot any questions or comments from board members uh Miss Thompson I guess just a comment on the calendar it is a very great thing in my like I got to August and then the the week was almost the month was almost done and I was like I don't have my September what are we going to do I can't possibly put up a different calendar so thankfully it came and then there was you know we didn't have a lapse in in time there so we didn't have to put up a different calendar so I do also we greatly appreciate the calendars oh go ahead Miss blade I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all the work that happens during the summer that makes all of this happen and we appreciate you Dr AR he's got it oh thank you I mean yeah we it looks great but we know that there was a lot of sweat and worry and hard work to get it all done and so we appreciate it yeah I think it's really easy to kind of get stuck in your your perspective and like where you are with your kids in the district or wherever you live in the district and to see all of this and to realize the diversity of programs and experiences is is always a reset I think for for all of us and Dr newas would agree with what every one said it was amazing and cheerful and the amount of effort and moving is what floored me because I've moved schools and moved a library but to move an entire District like that I really think you needed a magic wand I don't know how they did it but I can imagine it was a lot of heavy work so and everyone who had to upend what their cozy classroom where they'd been for years perhaps and as joyful as they were to go to a new classroom it's painful and it's like what do you take what do you get rid of and a whole new experience and then you do the I did three of the open houses and it's just amazing all over so I think it's a joyful is a good word well thank you to everybody in this room and out of this room who did so much work to get ready for the school year so we're going to move into our discussion items uh discussion item D1 the summary of the superintendent's evaluation and this one is me so the school board met with superintendent kasmer on August 26th to review his annual evaluation Dr kasmer continues to meet the expectations of the school board and areas of leadership for continuous Improvement of student achievement communication stakeholder involvement fiscal responsibility school facilities and policy implementation and development superintendent kasmer and the school board have established the following priorities for the 2024 2025 school year strategic plan implementation educational equity and academic achievement change leadership and management fiscal management and Facilities plan and implementation the board would like to thank Dr kasmer and fellow cabinet members for their continued leadership during this really exciting time for our district uh we had a great conversation about Dr kasmer cheek's strengths and places for growth and I think I can speak for the board that we're really fortunate to have you here do you want to give a speech Wayne or okay okay all right then we will move into our second discussion item D2 the first reading of school board policies for those who are new to this process we do two readings of board policies the first is we read through them as a board um we make any recommendations for changes or edits and then they come to us again a second time for approval so these are the the policies coming before us for a first reading tonight 507 507.00 2 608 616 620 and 806 um board members if you have any edits or changes suggestions please point out which policy and which page in the board packet for those of you who haven't seen the board packet if if you haven't looked online it's 429 pages long um because of the lot yeah because a lot of policies so who has comments or questions first batch on the first read yes okay so then we these will move to the October meeting for approval um then we'll move into our operational items E1 action on tentative agreement 20 2023 to 25 fiscal year extended St staff Mr mons all right so as I said this is our last uh tenative agreement that I'm bringing before the board for this cycle I'd like to say thank you to both the representatives from SEIU Local 284 uh for the uh bargaining unit and also uh my cohort that uh worked on behalf of the district and I'm pleased that we were able to get this done uh during the summer before we got into the school year here so with that I make the recommendation you've heard the recommended action could I get a motion to approve so moveed a motion by Miss Bloyd and a second second uh second by Dr newmaster any questions or comments this will require a roll call vote I would ask the clerk to please call the role Bloyd hi Daniels hi Ellison hi new master hi Strife ogi hi Tom I Aran I and the motion passes thank you and into our last operational item E2 action on Schoolboard policies so these 28 policies and I just want to say thank you to the policy committee for this is a lot of work to review all of these policies so to our board members and our staff thank you for all this work um so these are due um had a first reading in August 102 204 5 413 416 418 425 503 506 509 512 513 515 516 521 524 535 601 603 604 609 613 615 619 624 707 78 709 802 that was one breath um all right who does anybody have any questions please give me the policy and the page number uh Dr newas is one piece of um policy 524 it's on page 346 and on reading them I actually read them all again this time and I started thinking more about cell phones as I'd been reading in the paper and everywhere else about it too and thought you know it might be a good idea to use a more general term because we have apple watches and fitbits that you can watch the game on and get messages on and send messages and so maybe something I have no problem with the with 524 but maybe we should use something like personal communication device or because it's not just cell phones I mean you can do anything I know my brother and sister-in-law are always getting messages on their on their Fitbit and I know the Apple phones that my kids have my adult kids are the same you can leave your cell phone off the dinner table but people are still checking their watches so that just might be something to mention so are you thinking even in the title of the policy so internet Technologies and personal communication communication devices acceptable use have to look it up but I would say that would be a more inclusive title for the sort of thing where looking at not being disrupt in class or your dinner table M um and then just use it concept kind of like when they changed world's best Workforce to a much better version and just all the way through the the policy change the verbage or the the words um Miss Daniels I would U agree with that I work also um with the 916 School Board and we just um had the same sort of discussion when we approved that policy too and it was going to go back to the committee and they were going to make sure that the verbage was a little bit expanded to make sure it covered all the communication devices that students may use in a classroom or may not be able to use at that time so so would the recommendation would be to remove 524 from this approval and to go back to the policy committee for more edits and then bring it back to us at the next board meeting is that the recommendation otherwise I think the policy was great yeah um Dr K yeah I Dr gpie the only way to do it if you want to comment on that Dr glasby yeah um if you look at 2D on page one it defines electronic Technologies and it refers to computers peripherals printers telephones and the applications they support or access so I get that it's not specifically talking about fitbits and all that um I it's up to you guys what you want to do however for us the policy absolutely covers what we need in the schools and because cell phones have been such a topic I would I when we took it back I would want to keep cell phones in there and then expand it but we're still really working through some of those SmartWatches and they're not as prevalent right now in schools and so they haven't impacted us so I think it's an important conversation but I feel like 2D and then the cell phones together really help us as we look at implementing practices in our schools thank Miss Daniels I just was going to say because you're the users of the policy and the people that have to implement it and you know best I would go with you know whatever another approach might be to accept it as it is but then get it back in line so that we can start the year with an updated policy rather than pull it back I think this is an important one that we have updated and then but then get it back in the in the hopper to to review so what I'm G to recommend oh I'm sorry Mr ioi so is the recommendation that we ask kids to not have I'm not exactly sure what I mean I I get what the I think I understand what the question is you know go back and review it and make sure other devices are covered I think I think that might take some time I also think that um starting the year with an updated policy like this would probably make a lot of sense rather than push this off but then we can we certainly can take the comments here and and rework it and bring it down the road Thompson um I just I remember we kind of discussed this a little bit when we talked about this policy and that you all felt comfortable with the way that it is addressed and then just knowing kids today yes they may text but rarely they're not like us they use Snapchat they use other things and I don't guess I know if you can access those on your Apple watch if you had one but I don't think it's the same kind of way of communicating that they do and I guess I don't know how we would necessarily manage everybody's watches or Fitbit devices but I know we had talked about it I feel like one of us asked a question about that and it was addressed in some of the other are is here well and I anticipate that we might have some updated language after we've had a year of really looking at our cell phone practices that we realize okay we need this support from policy or and or we see what other area districts have done with the legislation changes and their own policies um so we purposely kept it where we were making sure we were meeting the legislation and then with the um practices that I shared last um work study session on how we're handling it right now but it will for sure continue to be a topic for us at least leadership meetings just thinking about technology there could be something else that you don't even haven't even heard of yet that you might want to the second time around add yeah because it might be available in six months that we haven't so I I like I like the Dr K's idea of approving it and then yeah having it come getting it back in the list to be reviewed again yep so what I'm hearing is approve as is now with the understanding that this will come back to us sooner rather than later as we have time to assess how the the policy is working and the procedures that go along with it correct uh Dr naster and I think too as you have the discussion with your classroom and I remember doing that in the media center with students and teachers talking about this too you have some some ability to kind of explain a little bit more it's the disruption the distraction and it could be many things but the cell phone is ubiquitous so it's there so I mean I'd be comfortable it's not written in stone and Lord knows Tech has changed at a blinding speed I'll have to ask my daughter tonight if she's doing all kinds of things with her Apple watch I don't know this is good conversation any other questions or comments about this policy or others so what we're we're going to oh I'm sorry Miss blade if we put this back in um the rotation can we set a time potentially for the rotation because I think we actually need to go through this for a period of time to to assess what what's missing from it can we say next summer or can we say after the fall sem so my anticipation was that if we needed anything we would for sure have a semester under our belt and then we would you know talk as administrators check the data and then but otherwise bring it more you know in the summer for any updates that we have then we have a full year okay but I'll bring it sooner if people are talking about it for sure okay so what I'm hearing is that it's going to stay in for this round of approval thank you Dr lesby all right any further comments or questions about any of these policies all right so the way we generally do this is we approve them in one Fell Swoop so if I could get a motion to approve these 28 policies so moved a motion by Dr arand and a second second a second by Miss Thompson all in favor of approval please say I I oppose same sign and the motion passes we're coming into the last item on the agenda board Forum this is an opportunity for board members to talk about what's going on in the district um from their Vantage Point as board members so does anybody have anything for board Forum Miss Thompson well I'm just excited for the school year to have started and for the Unified High School to have begun my daughter is a 10th grader and so far has enjoyed her first couple of days of school I mean as much as any 10th grader can enjoy going back to school in the fall um and then I did uh get a email in parent view that I just wanted to share with the community in case you don't check your parent view or you haven't seen it um Miss olon who is our career Pathways coordinator sent out a Google Classroom sign up for all of our career pathway programs that we have in the school that way your kids can access information about a career pathway they might be interested in you know we have automotive industry we have the business side of it we have communications and Tech and engineering and manufactur Ing and it and health and wellness and we have a new education pathway and just some great opportunities for kids to get exposure to other things uh not everybody is going to go off to postsecondary school and and many of these require postsecondary education as well so just something for parents to consider looking at and maybe you know get your kids interested in some other options so just I would wanted to share that great um way for kids to get a little more active in some of our pathway programs RS and for our parents to know about it as well uh Miss blade I just wanted to say welcome back to all of the teachers and students and we're glad to have you in the buildings and I see there's a bunch of government students here so we'd love to get your feedback on the new building as well so thank you everyone oh Dr arand uh I just want to let everybody know that's part of the wiper Lake Area School the Ramsey County League of local government will be starting a three-part session on artificial intelligence uh this Friday it's from 8 to 9 and then October 11th from 8 to 9 and then November 8th from 8 to 9 so we're going to be talking about the implications of artificial intelligence how it can be used what are the pitfalls so it it sounds like you know it's going to be exciting to see how we can use it and how how it's going to go so that'll be through Ramsey County League of local governments it's you can check the website or you if you've ever gone to anything you've gotten an email but I'm going to go I'm going to nerd out so I think it'll be fun um I in the vein of sometimes you just don't always know about all the amazing things happening in the district this past Saturday I went to the Gopher game because our pep band was playing on the field at halftime with the U ofm pep band and bands from all over the state obviously White Bear was the best one on the field um but it just you know I'd never been to a gopher's game and it was just so exciting to see the white bear kids down there with the U ofm band and it's just an incredible opportunity for our students um so thank you for all the things that we know about and that we you know don't always see that are going on in the district with that I would ask for a motion to adjourn uh chair I I motion for an adjournment a motion by Dr arand and a second second uh second by Miss Daniels all in favor of adjournment please say I I oppose same sign and we are adjourned