[music] Good evening. I'd like to call to order this Anoka Henipin School Board meeting for today, February 23rd, 2026. Please join the board in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Our first order of business is to approve the board agenda. Is there a
motion to approve the board agenda as presented? Um, we have a motion from Director Duchaine. Is there a second? >> Second. >> With a second from co-chair Langenfeld. [clears throat] Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say I.
>> I. >> Any opposed? With six in favor and zero opposed, the agenda is approved. Members, the next item on our agenda is item number four, the consent agenda. As normal, members can remove items for separate consideration and discussion if
that's their desire. Is there a motion to accept the consent consent agenda as presented? >> So moved >> with a motion from director Simon. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second from director Arco. Any discussion?
Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any oppose say no. With six in favor and zero opposed, our consent agenda is approved. Our next agenda item is item five, communications, delegations, and petitions. This is our time for
community members to provide input directly to the school board about issues that fall within the board's authority. We plan this agenda item for 15 minutes. Our policy allows for community speakers to speak up to five. Um, but if there are more, we could have
the discretion to reduce that as is. Tonight, we have three cards. So, we will um have five minutes for each individual to speak. Speakers, you will be able to reference a time on the screen to manage your comments and our microphone system will be muted at the
end of the time allowed. We also welcome written testimony if you have any more to say than the time allows. Um please complete yellow cards and provide it to Miss Ball if you would like um written followup. A couple of procedural
reminders are meeting participation procedures are in place to asssure open and orderly public comments as well as to protect the due process and privacy rights of individuals under the law. If speakers use specific names of students, staff or board members, I will need to
interrupt or stop the speaker. Please remember to direct your comments to the school board chair. Members of the audience, please listen respectfully. If the board cannot hear speakers, I may reset the time to allow speakers to be heard. Audience members that disrupt this portion may be asked to leave for
the remainder of the meeting. Okay. We would first like to invite Shayen Berby. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. Good evening. And thank you, Superintendent McIntyre. Um, board members, district staff. My name is
Shayen Burbig. I am a mother of four in this district. I am also speaking as a co-founder of the community organization Parents for Good. I am here tonight to express concerns about the district's communication during teacher contract negotiations and separately school
budgeting. To toward the end of negotiations, the district released communications that were deeply concerning. One graphic that was widely distributed by local media presented information that showed the district was offering payraises to teachers, but in reality,
sorry, the district was offering no pay increase in the new contract and the proposed increase for healthc care contributions did not come close to covering the rising premiums leading to cut in teachers take-home pay. That
communication misrepresented the situation. It was disrespectful to teachers and misleading to the community. It appeared to be meant to turn the public against educators. The conflict we experienced last year was preventable. We understand the bud
budget constraints and we also understand that this board is the only body with the authority to address them. Approving a levy referendum does not prevent careful budgeting. You can and should review expenditures thoroughly.
Refusing to p pursue additional funding while acknowledging shortfalls destabilizes our district. This prolonged conflict has harmed our district's reputation and left unressed will lead us back here in the same situations in less than two years.
The standard course of action when schools are facing a funding gap is to bring a levy referendum to voters. On December 8th, a school a board member stated that those that want a referendum must first convince them that we need one. On January 26th, that school board
member and and an additional school board member acknowledged bud budget shortfalls and suggested there might be additional budget cuts. The board does not need to be convinced that we need additional funding. It knows we need additional funding based on the statements they have made publicly.
Continuing to refuse a referendum while anticipating harmful cuts neglects your responsibility to uphold the district's mission of providing safe, inclusive, and highquality learning environments for all students. We continue this. We will continue this conversation in the
community. You can choose to be a part of shaping a responsible referendum that reflects shared priorities. There are areas where we share common ground, including managing student behavior, cell phone policies. Um, let's work together to build a
budget to build a referendum that the community can support when that stabilizes our schools and addresses our shared concerns. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, if you have anything you would like to leave with Miss Ball, um, our next speaker,
Rod Krune. Good evening. I'm Rod Keane. Um, I've testified several times on behalf of SEAL, DEI, and CRT. I'm going to refer to the three programs as racial education because race is the center of the controversy. CRT is not directly
taught, but its insights into systemic racism, the identification of power blocks, and the duties of the citizens uh citizens are discussed, at least in the new standards. Operation Metro Surge has recently provided a stark real world
validation of why this curriculum is essential for our students. The primary argument against racial education is that it is divisive, that it creates an oppressor versus oppressed narrative. Christian nationalists and others maintain that group identities should be
abandoned in favor of being an individual. Yet they were silent as federal agents used racial profiling to arrest people of color irrespective of citizenship status. Racial education necessarily involves uh using racial
grouping to respond to governmental racism. Denigrating group identity is a technique for disempowering those with little power. Opponents of racial education usually cite the boogeyman cultural Marxism to block racial conversations with the implication that
it is a threat to our liberty. Yet they remain silent about the authoritarian actions that defined metro surge. I cite the murders of Alex Prey and Renee Good were immediately justified by slandering them as domestic terrorists before any investigation.
The refusal to share evidence with Minnesota. There's to be no investigation of goods murder. There is no transparency. Deportations and defiance of court orders, demands to show me your papers. Masked enforcers, unmarked cars, and
disappearances. These hallmarks are of dictatorship have been met with silence or justification by critics. Are they really concerned with freedom and democracy as they claim or do they have an entirely different agenda? Our
students cannot be gaslit about murders that they witnessed. They experienced state terrorism in a country they remember as being free. They've seen Love Your Neighbor in the powerful example of South Minneapolis residents banding together to protect their
neighbors against an occupying force. And they watched an entire political party support the attacks on our liberty. If you try to erase our racial history, they will learn better from the internet. If you dodge the systemic racism they personally witnessed, you
lose their respect and your credibility as educators. Critical race theory explains exactly what we are seeing. The three branches of government working in concert to attack people of color. The attacks were enabled first by a Supreme Court
decision which effectively legalized racial profiling and second Congress's refusal to cross Trump. That is systemic racism. And now the seed of bigotry is is sprouting into the invasive weed of oligarchy and dictatorship.
CRT asks who has the power? How do they get it? And who is it used against? Operation Metro Surge is surely the starkkest validation imaginable of CRT's analysis. At issue is whether we want to educate
self-actuating citizens or compliant subjects. The people of South Minneapolis showed us the meaning of love your neighbor. They stood in solidarity with the oppressed and against the oppressors. That's the goal of racial education. The
anti-woke movement lost the culture war, especially among the young, because too many have friends who are black or brown or gay or trans. We saw how the logic of anti-woke plays out in in Metro Surge. The demonization no longer works.
Because they've lost their legitimacy, they resort to force and assaults on our democracy to prevail. Racial education is the defense of American democracy. is an aggressive program of citizenship that asserts the rights of all and calls out the power
interests that threaten those rights. We cannot abdicate our patriotic responsibility to protect those who cannot protect themselves without foregoing the ability to protect ourselves. We must continue to equip our students with the tools of SEAL, DEI, and CRT to
navigate and eventually dismantle systemic injustice. Thank you. Thank you. If you'd like to leave your comments with Miss Ball. [clears throat] >> Our last speaker is Michelle Powers.
Welcome. Good evening, Superintendent McIntyre, board co-chairs, board members, and the wonderful community members who are here and watching uh right now. My name is Michelle Powers, and I am one of the co-founders of Parents for Good, and I'm
a resident of Ramsey, a mom in the district, and a teacher in the district as well. Over the course of the last month, Parents forgood has been operating mutual aid for the families in an Okah Henipin who are too frightened to leave their homes, go to work, or even grocery shop due to threats of ICE.
We have collected more than 500 volunteers. We have seven drop sites around the district and people who are at our hub 7 days a week to collect, organize, and pack deliveries for these families. I want to mention that we not have not only been collecting food, but
we have also been collecting personal items such as deodorant and toothpaste um as well as cleaning supplies and paper products and even baby supplies like formula and diapers and kitty litter and p puppy food too for the fur babies. In our estimations, which are
rough, but in our estimations, we have provided at least 80,220 meals to families in the Ina Henipin School District boundaries. We aren't looking for a big thank you or any credit. Uh but we do think that Anoka Henipin's lack of response to the
families in our schools during this difficult time has continued to build a lack of trust in the community. Every opportunity that you have passed by not saying something does not go unnoticed. Fortunately, we live in an incredible community and the people who live here
and even those who don't are watching and helping and we are very thankful for them. >> Thank you. If you have any comments, you could leave them with Miss Ball. Um, that is all of the cards that we have for tonight.
Our next agenda item is item six, board calendar and district update. Superintendent McIntyre. >> All right. Thank you, co-chair Hawkman, and good evening, board members. Tonight, I'll be presenting some items of interest to the board and to the community regarding activities and events that we are proud of in our
district. We do this to celebrate our student, staff, and community members who are contributing to the accomplishment of our mission, which is to effectively educate each of our students for success. So, to start things off, this is the time of year when our talented students are competing
for awards. And to start things off, we had eight of our students um at our high schools recognized for their outstanding artwork and writing at the Minnesota Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Blaine High School senior Haley Lavinka
was honored with a gold key award for her original and creative piece this year. Silver Key honors were awarded to Andover High School freshman Gail Udvig and Anoka Middle School for the Arts students Adabella Yang and Evelyn Scarbomb.
Honorable mention awards were presented to Andover Junior El Pak along with a painting by Anoka High School senior Alexa Pastana, a ceramics and glass entry from Anoka sophomore Iris Buckston, and a glass and ceramics entry
from Anoka senior Gus Moran. and you can see those uh pictures on the screen there. So, we just want to take a moment to say congratulations to all the participating students for their high achievement in the arts. Next, we want to recognize Beth Holgrimson, a 21-year veteran educator
at Andover High School. She's been named the 2026 High School Teacher of the Year by the Minnesota Council for the Social Studies. This prestigious award recognizes leading educators within the state's social studies community. So, congratulations to Beth.
Next, the Anoka Area Chamber of Commerce coordinates an annual state of the cities lunchon. This year, the event featured a number of our city leaders. So that included mayor of Anoka Eric Skullquist, andover mayor Jamie Bethl, uh, Rapids Mayor Jerry Ko, Chaplan
Mayor Ryan Sabis, Ramsey Mayor Ryan Henman, and now then city clerk Natalie Johnson, who all provided important updates in the activities in their cities. We were joined by Anoke Deca students Stella Wallheim, Elizabeth
Buffy, Lucy Machulis, and Angel Chabili. They were also there for this real life civics lesson and these students did a great job serving as ambassadors for our school district and represented Enoka High School very well at this business
event. Next, parents of our students involved in our special education programming have a special parent resource event to inform families about resources available at schools in our district. The event is set for Thursday, March 5th from 5:30 to 6:30 at the Educational
Service Center in Anoka. More information about the district's special education programming is available online at ahschools. usac and u it's hard to go on notice. It's tournament time for our student athletes at this point of the year who compete um
in our Minnesota State High School League sections in state playoffs here in late February and early March throughout the month of March honestly. And uh things started off with our Nordic skiing um skiers. And we want to take a moment to recognize the Blaine High School boys Nordic skiing team who
qualified for the state tournament for the fourth straight season. They finished 12th out of 16 teams at state. Uh, special note for Blaine High School head coach Andy Schwen, who was named section five coach of the year. Assistant coach Marie Peters was named section five assistant coach of the
year. And assistant coach Paul Head was named section five volunteer of the year. So clean sweep there for our Blaine uh ski team coaches. Champlain Park High School senior Caleb Osterberg, who qualified for state after winning the section 5 individual title, placed
39th overall at state. and Rapids High School student athletes Ruby Demer and Bethany Law also were able to advance to the state uh championships. In Alpine Skiing, Anoka High School freshman Connor Laughlin advanced onto the state and uh just want to take
another moment to recognize or feel like I do this every year. It's a nice problem to have here for our girls at Andover High School. nine consecutive years at the state tournament and that's 11 total state appearances for the girls hockey team. In gymnastics, Blaine High
School senior Grace Vassel qualified for state in the overall and the floor exercise. She placed seventh in the floor exercise and 13th in the all-around. Anoka High School sophomore Kaylee Lauren placed fourth in the vault and 19th in the all-around. Congratulations
to them. Kun Rapids High School students Nom Yoma participated in the congressional debate and Ajua Amare Quay competed in the Lincoln Douglas debate at the Minnesota
State High School League state debate tournament. Champlain Park High School defeated defeated the Northern Power Proctor High School 32 to 27 to win the 2026 Minnesota State Unified Basketball Championship held on February 12th. The
tournament was hosted at the Target Center in Minneapolis and teams participated before a very enthusiastic crowd. I know some of you were able to attend that I believe. Um and there was just a a strong student and community turnout. So, moving forward, March will see boys
hockey, wrestling, swim and dive, adapted floor hockey, and boys and girls basketball tournaments coming up. And we just want to take a moment to encourage our community members to attend the games and support their favorite teams. Best of luck to all those remaining teams as the uh winter season winds
down. Our Anoka Henipin's annual STEM fair was held Saturday, February 21st at Plane High School. It featured 240 projects from students who opted to immerse themselves in an advanced opportunity to study science and STEM topics of their
choice this school year. Awards were presented to students in a range of categories including evidence and action, design and discovery, presentation power, visionary thinking, and out of the box awards as well for exhibiting creativity and original
thinking. Champlain Park High School teacher Kevin Mullahan served as the coordinator for the STEM fair. So, an extra special thank you for all those extra efforts. February is I love to read month. I know board members have been getting requests
for um being guest readers and teams from our middle schools are coming together throughout the district to convene in our annual um battle of the books and uh they're going to test their knowledge of the materials that they've been reading throughout the
year. This event is set for Wednesday, February 25th, starting at 9:00 a.m. So this Wednesday in the Erling Johnson rooms at the Educational Services Center and the energy is often and always very high for this competition. The traveling trophy is a prestigious award. Uh this
event will also be livereamed and that can be found on the main page of our uh website. And finally, Minnesota celebrating public schools week. So this is a time for the community to come together and celebrate, support and champion public education and those staff members who
directly contribute to the future success of our students and our community as a whole through their daily efforts. The world's changing rapidly and our schools share in the responsibility to educate and prepare students for their future and ana henipin continues to work
for excellence in all we do, but we also take time to celebrate the successes gained in our schools during Minnesota public schools week. So, Co-chair Hookman, thank you. And that concludes my superintendent's report this evening. Lots of ground to cover. >> Thank you. Uh board members, are there
any questions? >> Okay, very good. Thank you. Just a special shout out Kevin Mullahan has been organizing that for years. Hard lots of hard work to help those kids do their their science project. So, wonderful work there. >> Yeah. Thank you. Our next agenda item is
item 7A, American Indian Education Annual Update and Compliance Documents. We welcome Tom Shaw, director of student services, Mindy Meyers, Indian Education Program Coordinator, Kimberly Brendan, AIPAC
Chair, Andrea Small, the AIPCA vice chair, and JOM member. Thank you. Andrea couldn't make it tonight, so just to start there. Thank you, Superintendent McIntyre, Co-Chair Homan, Cochair Langfeld, and members of the board. I'm
Tom Shaw, director of student services. And I'd like to introduce our American Indian program coordinator, Mindy Meyers. Tonight, she is going to share with you a high level overview of the work that our American Indian education team does to support students and families. And
we're, like you said, we're also joined by our wonderful chair, Kim Brendan. So, um, good evening everyone. My name is Mindy Meyers. I'm very happy and excited to be here tonight to tell you about the work that we do that our staff does each and every day to uplift and
help and support our students. And with that, I'll turn it to Kim to introduce herself. >> Yes. Um Chimi Witchi. Um Kimberly Brendan Nigas. Um my name is Kimberly Brendan. I am an enrolled member of the Cuching First Nations in Fort Francis,
Ontario, Canada. Um I have three children now in the district. I used to have four. My other one graduated last year. Um, and I am the APAC chair, current APAC chair. Thank you. >> Uh, so as we like to do, I'd like to
ground us in why American Indian education exists. And really, it goes back to that relationship that our sovereign native nations have with the US government. And so it goes all the [clears throat] way back to when our government signed treaties with the native nations here. Um when we signed
those treaties, the US government made a commitment to support the education of American Indian students and that has looked a lot of different ways since contact and over time. Um some that felt more supportive than others. Uh but
really what we look at when we think of American Indian education today is the movement that happened in the 70s. So as American Indian students started moving off reservation with their families and having a greater presence in our public school systems, we had community members
and tribal leaders who went forward and advocated on behalf of our students unique cultural needs and their academic needs. And so that's really the foundation of what exists today both at the federal and the state level. And so
American Indian Education is unique in the sense that our program exists through legislation at both of those levels. And our program is fully funded by state and federal grant dollars that are specifically set aside in legislation for American Indian
students. Um so if you're interested in learning more about that, there's policies listed up above. And when we think about who our program supports or who's eligible to participate in our supplemental program, that is based on our state definition. Um, and that is
any student who identifies as North American Indian when they enroll in our school. So we utilize our school enrollment information to identify and reach out to our eligible students and families. uh in an noa henipin we serve just over
1,200 American Indian students K12 and in order to do that our team wears a lot of different hats. We are a large district um and we have an amazing team of seven adviserss who do the on the
ground work. We have two staff members that split our elementary sites and support um around 500 students between all of those sites. And then we have five secondary adviserss that are aligned to middle schools and the high schools that feed into them. And they
each support just under 200 students across their schools. Um, when we think about our team and the work that we do, again, there's lots of different buckets and most importantly is that direct work with students in our schools. So, when we think about those two elementary
adviserss, what are they doing every day? Well, they're traveling from site to sight to site to lock in their 30 to 45 minutes twice a month with our K5 students. And their time looks like engaging in cultural activities. And really the core of our work is
connecting with those students and helping instill that sense of pride and connection with their native identity. At the middle school and high school level, it looks a little different. Our adviserss are able to be in the building more frequently. So they as well run sort of monthly or twice monthly culture
groups with their students. But on top of that, they're taking the time to pull data, identify students who are struggling academically or with attendance or with behaviors and connecting with school staff, meeting with those students one-on-one. Um, all of their all of our adviserss are
available to our students and families to attend different meetings and be an additional layer of support. So, our staff often attend IEP meetings, disciplinary meetings, or any other concerns that come up. And then our secondary adviserss also wear an extra hat of supporting that college and
career readiness. And so we'll talk a little bit about what our program did earlier this year later on. Um but a lot of times that's just providing additional information, additional reminders and encouragement and helping students set those goals and and uh fill out applications and scholarships and
things like that. when we are not doing that direct student support in the schools, our program also works to foster a sense of community and provide support through um evening [clears throat] and weekend activities. So, we offer a lot of opportunities for
our families and our students to connect culturally. We have an a traditionally based archery team um culturally based archery team that's been going strong for quite a few years now. We've offered traditional lacrosse. We have Ojiway and Dakota language tables in the evenings.
We do community sewing to support regalia making. Our community has come together the last few years to make ribbon skirts and ribbon shirts that we gift to our seniors as part of our senior honoring ceremony. Um and then we do trimester celebrations. We just had
over 200 people show up to celebrate the achievements, the academic and cultural achievements of our students this year. Um so those are some of the things that we do. And during the day, we try to offer um different opportunities for students to be take two college visits a
year. And we also try to take our students on at least one cultural field trip each year. When we're not wearing that hat, we also work to build a lot of community partnerships. And so with our program, we're really lucky to be able
to offer tutoring scholarships to our students to provide additional support above and beyond the interventions and targeted services that happen in our district. So, we just uh transitioned our partnership to Huntington Learning this year and we are also partnering um
with Advantage Education Programs and are able to offer 60 ACT prep scholarships for our juniors to um prepare for the ACT. Uh we partner with different community organizations to share information about summer programs.
And I believe we're in our fourth year of partnership with the American Indian Family Center who provides at no cost to our program or our students or our district two therapists um that support students across two and a half sites right now. So that's a little bit of
what our program looks like. Um we do set uh program goals each year. So this is an example of two of our program goals. They're based in the Minnesota World's Best Workforce um goal framework and we work with the research
evaluation and testing team and our parent advisory committee to set our goals. Next slide. Um and at this time I'm going to turn it over to Kim. I don't know if I mentioned it, but a lot of the work we do is not
possible without our parent advisory committee. So, we consult with them on every aspect of our program. >> Yeah. And what's nice about the committee is that we are made up of parents, um, indigenous community members, um, guardians, student
representatives. Um, what's really awesome this year is we have five student representatives. Um, so we're able to hear not only committee members, adult committee members voices, but we're also able to hear those um, student voices as well. and so that they
have their their spot at the table where they're letting us know what they think, what is working, what might not be working. Um so it's it's been very lovely to see um the amount of student engagement that we are having in the committee. Um and then other than that
we meet once a month. Um sometimes we might do a special session um not as often but sometimes. Uh and then like I said we do talk about the programming. Um we are very lucky to have both Mindy and Tom um able to make um all the
meetings and are able to answer any questions that we might have. Um so it's been it it's a it's a really great partnership and we really do and I really do this is my >> fourth yeah fourth year yeah on the committee. So it's been really amazing
to see just the progress that um that has been able to occur in in that short amount of time. So I will turn it back to Mindy. All right. >> I think the next slide talks about our JOM committee. So unfortunately Andrea wasn't able to be here tonight, but um
each of our pockets of funding has a parent advisory committee. And so the JOM committee is unique in that they are actually in charge of all of their dollars, not just advisory, but they have to vote on every single dollar
spent out of our grant. And so, uh, that's one pocket of money that supports our students. And then the committee did meet on January 13th and unanimously did vote um, concurrent.
So, the um, concurrence documentation was submitted and requires signatures from our APAC chair, the board co-chairs, and superintendent McIntyre. Um, it is in statute. Each year, the parent committee issues a vote of
concurrence and they discuss whether or not they feel the district essentially is doing the best they can to support American Indian students given all the things happening in a district. And so sometimes that takes into consideration things that are happening within the program, but it's really about do we
occur with the educational offerings of the district. Uh so as we wrap up our presentation tonight, there's just a couple slides for program highlights. This is one um of the things that I alluded to earlier, but we were able to take quite a few of our students to construct tomorrow,
which is a hands-on trades career fair. So it's really exciting to see students engaging and actually doing hands-on activities with the different representatives from the unions. And so they were able to um [clears throat] lay shingles, they were able to walk on
beams, they were able to work with cement, hammer nails. For some students, these are things that they've never had the opportunity to do before. Um I was happy to see how engaged students were with speaking to the different representatives and learning about the different options for like pursuing that
career. And we had quite a few students who walked away expressing that though they hadn't previously thought about a trades career that now they're actually considering and looking to follow up with some of the different representatives. And we were able to tie that to our step program. So we try to
go to construct tomorrow every two to three years and pair it with an opportunity to head over to the step building. I think it's a really unique thing that we have here in Anoka Henipin where our students can work and earn certificates while earning their high
school diploma. And so we like to make sure that all of our students are aware of that opportunity. The next slide just shows just a handful of pictures of some of the things that we've done this year. This is our second annual fall paddle. So, we had some families that braved some rainy weather
and some really low rivers to do some canoeing this year. Um, we gave away in partnership with the Shaka Midwaktinsue community gave away over 60 backpacks filled with school supplies to our families. We hosted some community sewing sessions. Um, we were able to
take our elementary students to go and learn about their duckot relatives at the Gibbs Farm and um at the Bell Museum. We are preparing for our pow-wow, which I just love this picture of two of our students hugging in the middle of the arena last year. Um, so
just an insight into some of the different things we [clears throat] do. This lady on the screen, Jackie Bird, we just had her out. Um, she is an amazing storyteller, just great medicine. She sings, she plays guitar, she does
puppetry. um she brought her sons out and we spent an afternoon with her and I don't know, look her up, Jackie Bird. She's amazing. Uh to wrap up, we just wanted to remind
people of what guides our programming. So everything that we do is grounded in the voice of voices of our students and families. And that comes to us in a lot of different ways. Outside of our monthly meetings with both of our parent committees, um we're always taking into consideration the feedback from students
both at the individual school level advisors adapting what their lessons are going to be based on what students are interested in all the way up to overall programming and what we're offering. And so we have an annual public hearing in the winter that's tied to our trimester celebration. We have an annual needs
assessment of giant survey that we send out in the spring. Um, we have our grant reports that we summarize and send in and getting feedback from those people who oversee our grants. We have two annual tribal consultations
and all of the fun things. So, with that, um, are there any questions? >> Yeah, thank you for that presentation. Board members, do you have any questions for these presenters?
Coach Langanger, >> I don't know if I have questions. I have some comments. First and foremost, thank you for an excellent presentation and thank you for all of the data and other things that you submitted so that we could really dive deep in the success of the program. One of the things that
really jumped out at me and it's not surprising to see that the students are making progress like we need and want is the fact that the strategies that you're using for student support are very carefully and thoughtful in that they are evidence-based. U many of them that
I I recognize and I I really think those are really important. Um I love the celebration of student achievement. That's a really important part that sometimes um I know as an a fellow educator I I didn't always remember to
do. And then to uh you talked about your college visits um you talked about your CTE visits. Those are very important in terms of field of vision and I appreciated that. And then I really, you know, I mean, the parent relationship is
so vitally important to each and every child that we serve. And I think this program really just lifts it up and elevates it to a place where we can see it and we can see how well our kids do when we have that that partnership with
our families and with our educators to really elevate uh the best of every child. And I think the other piece that I really um jumped out at me is the cultural support um so that our students feel valued and respected and understand
you know and you offer it to the community having been at the POW last year and I know many others have attended many years really um celebrating the culture and understanding and inviting people to come and dance as well. And I think
those are just really important parts of who we are as a community and we can learn with and from each other as well. So excellent report. Lots of work still to do. Um it just so many great things for our kids. So I can't thank you
enough and thank you for the team and for all the families that aren't here but have been part of this decision making as well. Appreciate all of you. Director Simon. >> Thanks, Linda. Um, I just wanted to say thank you for your work. It's very impactful. Um, and thank you for
volunteering for four years. That's a It's a lot of work, but it's really appreciated. Um, one request I'd give to Tom, um, Mindy, for some reason on my calendar, I don't see the pow-wow. I don't see some of these things. So, please, just a reminder, send them. I would like to attend as many as I can.
So, thank you. >> Does everybody have a pen? April 11th is the pow-wow at Jamblin Park High School. >> I'll send it over to send it to Corey who will send it over [laughter]
right now. Just kidding. >> All right. Thank you for that presentation. Um, if there are no other comments, is there a motion to approve appendix N, annual compliance document as presented?
>> Thank you, Director Simon. Is there a second? >> Second. >> With a second from Director Duchaine. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, will all those in favor say I? >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Say no. With six in favor and zero opposed, that motion is
approved. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Have a great night. >> Thank you. >> Our next agenda item is general counsel item 8A 410.0 paid leave policy first read. Welcome Tim Palmir, general counsel. Dr.
Jennifer Cherry, chief human service human resources officer. And Jessica Rogers, associate general counsel. >> Thank you, co-chairs Hookman and Langfield. um and rest of the board members here and Superintendent McIntyre. Um we actually have three
policies. I don't know if if uh if I can indulge and just maybe take them um one after another. Um but we um we actually have a new uh leave policy that was adopted uh through considerable work. Um
Jess Rogers who is uh our new associate general counsel has really dug in on this work and Jennifer Cherry uh and countless others have really been um significant in this. I I would be remiss if I didn't say uh the new paid leave policy is really um it's been a heavy
lift. Um this is part of that lift and we have uh Jennifer can speak towards this uh probably most directly but we have a number of people that are working really long hours uh implementing this polic uh this new uh requirement. Um
this this uh policy is intended to at least um get into some of the nuts and the bolts to make it at least easier for administration and and the like. So with that said, I'll I'll hand it over to um Jess Rogers. she can walk us through the the uh recommended uh revisions to this
policy. >> Good evening everyone. So this is a rewrite of policy 410 which is currently titled FMLA Family Medical Leave Act policy. As Tim mentioned, the implementation of Minnesota paid leave on January 1 was the impetus for this rewrite. So what we decided to do is to
create one employee policy that gives employees sort of the whole world of the paid leave programs available to them rather than to have a separate FMLA policy and a Minnesota paid leave policy and a you know ESST [snorts] policy whatever we just decided to combine them for the employees convenience. Um so
there are parts of the FMLA policy that are not strictly speaking required to be in policy but we are as an employer required to give notice of certain things. Those are the posters you'll see in any workplace. Those posters have essentially been incorporated into this policy for both both um Family Medical Leave Act and Minnesota Paid Leave. In
those first two paragraphs, you see those links. That's what those are for. That's part of our legal requirement is to put employees on notice of of those things. Um other than that, like I said, the policy sort of combines them all together. So, one of the first things we do is uh
go through the different types of leave available to all employees. It does state in that second paragraph that this is all subject to collective bargaining agreements. So this is meant to be the basics of what's available to you knowing that there may be more or sometimes some limitations in your
collective bargaining agreement. So on page one we start to go through the different um programs family medical leave act Minnesota paid leave uh Minnesota pregnancy and parental leave which is still legally a thing even though it's basically enveloped within miss Minnesota paid leave and then earn
sick in safe time. The next section goes through the use of leave. Um, one important point is that we changed our process a little bit with the implementation of Minnesota paid leave and we added an email address that doesn't go to a person. It's leaves ahschools us so that it can be checked
by different people. Um, but that's the beginning of our leave process. So any employee who wants to take leave for any reason will send an email to that address and it starts the process. And that is new. So it's good to put that in this uh revised policy. Then when we go through the available
reasons why an employee can take leave, this is sort of the broadest um set of reasoning possible and it comes from Minnesota paid leave which is the broadest of our leave laws. Uh so we want employees to know that basically almost any employee will be a will be
eligible for these types of leave for this amount of time. So when we say there may be limitations in collective bargaining agreement there really there's very few things they can limit. Basically, they can only limit what we allow them to use our acred, paid um sick or vacation time for. Otherwise,
these are all statutory creations. So, we go through uh the different types of leave, who family members are. Again, you'll see it's a very broad definition. These are largely taken from the Minnesota paid leave statute. Um a couple notes on documentation, what they
have to do, uh the certification required under the various programs to take those leaves. And then there are a few things I would like to point out in here that are important. The Minnesota paid leave statute leaves us a few places where we can make decisions. And anytime where we get to make a decision,
it's important for us to put that in policy so employees know what is allowed in our district specifically. The first of those decisions is on page one under paragraph 2, general statement of policy. We say that employees entitled to multiple programs described in this
policy shall be required to take leave under various programs concurrently to the extent allowable. So that's to let them know you don't get 12 weeks of FMLA and 12 weeks of Minnesota paid leave. Generally speaking, you will take those all at the same time. But again, without having that written in policy, it's not
necessarily clear and an employee could potentially grieve if we say, "No, we meant that. We just didn't tell you." The second decision we have to make is on page four under section 4D where it says coordinated leave benefits. And that's where we essentially say that we
do not allow employees to supplement those Minnesota paid leave state payments with their acred uh sick and vacation time. So the law gives the employer the ability to decide. Minnesota paid leave generally will pay somewhere around twothirds of what an employee would normally make depending
on on their salary, but that's an estimate. Employers have the option to allow employees to sort of top off with the paid leaves we give them. This section says we're not doing that right now unless it's required by a collective bargaining agreement. And the reason for that is there are just a lot of
technical issues with this being a brand new law. We weren't entirely sure how they would interpret certain things and we just wanted to be sure if we decide to do this at some point down the road, we are able to do it correctly and in compliance with the law. And with us not knowing how some of these things were
going to be interpreted by the state, we just felt that we couldn't guarantee that we could do it right at this time. So because that's a decision that's left up to the employer, we felt it was important to put that in our policy that at this time employees cannot supplement those Minnesota paid leave payments with
their sick or vacation time unless that becomes required by a collective bargaining agreement. So the third decision that we have to make is under section 5 intermittent leave and the statute again leaves it up to us uh what leave increments employees can take. So
intermittent leave is allowed by the statute. We don't have any control over that. But we do get to decide um how much they have to take. So for non-exempt employees, we have said they will take that leave in 15minute increments. That's consistent with how they take sick and vacation leave. Now if you're an exempt employee, you can
only take leave in half or full day increments, which again is consistent with how they can take sick or vacation time. And that's basically an FLSA requirement for exempt employees. So those are the three decisions that we wanted to make sure we got in our policy so it's clear where our stance is. Um
otherwise we talk about job protection and retaliation. Those are legal requirements of both FMLA and Minnesota paid leave to say that your job is protected during this leave and that we will not retaliate. And if you feel you have been retaliated against it tells them who to report that to. Sorry I know
that was a lot of information very quickly but with that I'm happy to take any questions. Director Ad. >> Hi, thanks. Uh, my question is about the paragraph D that you talked about, coordinated leave benefits.
Uh, could you just go through again what they're what people are allowed to do? In my opinion, the way it's worded is a little confusing. >> Yes. Um, the whole concept is a little confusing. So, what that says is an employee can either use their sick or vacation pay. Those are the acred leaves
that an Okah Henipin gives them or they could choose the Minnesota leave um state payments. So you have to choose one or the other. You can use your paid leave. If you don't have that or if you're saving it for some reason, then you can take those state payments. You just don't get to use both at the same time to get to your full salary. Okay,
that that's probably the part that is not perfectly clear, at least to me, is just the if if you're just reading it like I do. Um I I don't know if you could use a little language that would make that crystal
clear to people because otherwise I think you you know you do say in here you'll only supplement paid leave to the extent required by a bargaining agreement. But I just feel like if you a little bit more make it crystal clear. So you either are going to take your
vacation if you have it or you can choose to take paid leave. That's fine. But you can't supplement paid leave with vacation in order to bring yourself up to your regular pay. I It's not perfectly clear. >> No, that's a fair comment and we went back and forth on this. Some people
refer to it as supplementing. Some people say topping off. We weren't sure what was more common, what people would understand. So it's it's fair. We're not quite there yet. [snorts] >> Director Arco. >> Yes. Uh, thank you, uh, Coacher Hulman.
Um, thank you guys for the presentation. I just had a, as I'm reading through this again, tell me if I'm wrong at any point, but it seems like the Minnesota Paid leave like the section B is, and it offers everything that the Family
and Medical Leave Act offers, but more. Is that an accurate way of describing that? >> I would say that's accurate. Yeah, it's the same amount of leave, but there are many more reasons you can take it. >> Okay. And then there's also the opportunity for like compensation. Um
why then, I guess maybe in your opinion, would when this was passed, why wouldn't the state have not also repealed the Family and Medical Leave Act if the Minnesota Paid leave Act is the same but better? So, because the Family Medical Leave Act is a federal law, so the state
couldn't repeal it. >> Um, yeah. >> Okay. I see. That makes a lot of sense. Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments? Okay. Thank you for that presentation.
Next >> item 8B 605.0 shared time policy first read. >> Thank you co co-chair hopman and board members. Um the next policy is a new policy um uh for the school district
here. We do not currently have a shared time policy. Uh several other school districts actually have adopted policies of this nature. This uh shared time is essentially a program that's established through Minnesota statute that allows public schools to provide instruction to
private and homeschool students on a limited basis. So a student could uh maybe be at a private school but decide they wanted to take an engineering class that we had at one of our schools. Uh shared time affords uh that private school student or homeschool student to come into our school, take that class.
um shared leave or not shared leave, I'm sorry, I'm kind of combining my policies right now, but shared time um actually um affords individuals um or I should say school districts um you know compensation or funding for uh students
who attend on such limited basis. Essentially uh share time is required as a matter of federal and state law with with respect to special education students. that is not so much the case uh for non-special education students.
Um nevertheless in Noah Henipin like many school districts uh permitted by Minnesota statute has historically allowed attendance of non-special education students on a shared time basis. So decisions regarding uh this have historically uh been made at our school sites. And so what we're
proposing with this policy is essentially a uniform approach uh with respect to all of our schools in terms of how they implement um shared time and offering shared time classes. [snorts] Um and uh what I would uh say
here is is that while again there's no requirement of state statute uh to have a shared time um policy actually MDE's division of program finance is strongly advised that school boards have shared time policies. Again we have not
historically had that. So this policy is essentially being proposed to ensure that we have consistency across all school sites and to ensure that our practice aligns with the requirements of state law. Some of the key things that I'll point out with respect to this policy, um it requires uh that students
participating, this is a lot of this is consistent with requirements of state law. Students participating must be residents of Anoka Henipin, uh the Anoka Henipin School District. Uh they're required to maintain their enrollment status in their private or home school setting. uh they will be allowed to participate
in um uh only allowed to participate in in classes that actually um are academic classes required for promotion or graduation. So for example um study hall wouldn't be something that would be offered as a matter of a to a shared time student and you couldn't generate
revenue on the basis of that. Really important part of all this and this is again uh consistent with the way that most schools have approached it. um the the amount of classes that a shared time student is permitted to uh participate uh through this policy would be less
than 50%. So if you have five classes during the day, the shared time student would be afforded the opportunity to attend two um classes whether that's at the um you know secondary level or or elementary level. Um transportation is
not provided as a result of this uh policy. um students are expected to follow the district discipline policy who come in on a shared time uh status and I guess finally the policy uh sets forth um just the procedures that need to be followed time frames and the such
for uh shared time. So we discussed this um at our uh policy committee meeting on February 2nd. Um there was an agreement to move forward for first reading to tonight. Um I do want to say that um this work and this um this particular um
policy was really developed uh with the considerable well actually the hard laboring ore of of Kate Grim and Michelle Vandentop they really uh took the lead on this uh recognizing that we're increasingly fielding questions with respect to shared time students. So with that I'll take any questions
>> board members are there any questions? Director Simon. >> Thanks, Linda. Thank you for presenting. Um, one key [clears throat] thing during the policy committee that we talked about is um not special education but non-special education,
it's voluntary for us to do this. But if students come and do shared time in our schools, we're getting funding from the state for those for that time the students are there. So, I think that's just I think you might have said that, but it's important to reiterate that. Um, one question I asked which I I don't
think we've gotten feedback on. I think Michelle uh Vanintop's getting that possibly is and it was a question I brought up because I've heard this question before from board members is that since it's a voluntary thing that we're doing and we are getting funding but is are we spending anything else in
addition to this right so how does this affect our budget maybe it's all a net positive but sometimes there's unforeseen things that we need to spend money on that uh we're doing so I know she was going to follow up on that and I just want to make sure that I reiterate ated that that the board can get that
feedback. So, thank you. >> Yep. Thank you, um, Director Simon. Um, yeah, and I think that, um, at least in in the discussion, uh, we can actually get a little bit more information on that. Um, the policy really actually kind of kind of makes sure that we're
guarding that. Uh, you know, to ensure, for example, on issues like transportation, we're not um offering additional transportation. We make it clear in the policy that we wouldn't add a section, for example, if we had a shared time student coming in. Um, and it's also always based on on seat
availability. Um, so we we do have some provisions in there that give us flexibility uh to make sure that we're being um, you know, good guardians of our budget. Um, I don't really know the the actual numbers and that's probably another important part of uh getting information in response to what you're
asking, which how many students are we talking about? Um, generally speaking, I mean, we see this with um we do see it with homeschool students who uh want to have uh maybe some opportunity to to access a um a class that's of a complex nature and maybe uh goes beyond the
parent who's providing uh instruction in the home, calculus or u you know an engineering class or a physics class. Um so we see it in that context and then we also see it in situations where families want to have some social opportunities and maybe they pick uh a class that's um
not exactly uh maybe it is academic but al also an opportunity to interact with uh with other peers. So the numbers is important for that question though. So thank you for that. >> Coach Langanger, >> thank you for the presentation. One of
the wonderments that I had when I read this is there any data sharing information or things that would be put in a policy. So for example, if a student comes um the student just comes with no background or no data to support
a course that they might be requesting or coming into the schools. Is there anything like that? how h how how do we know in terms of the right placement or any background about these students that are coming in that we're going to serve? >> Uh that's a really good question. So I I
do um obviously I'm not directly involved in that kind of work. Um but I do think it's um it's within our preview to or purview to be able to say um you need to demonstrate a certain competency and maybe even have a test out option
for that. So if you if I wanted to uh say for example um enroll in a calculus class um did I do the testing that actually allowed me to show that I was able to metriculate or promote to the next uh level of that class. So we do uh I can't speak towards specifics but as I
understand it we have that in place to make sure that we're not placing a student improperly in a class. >> Okay, >> that make sense? >> Yeah, it does make sense. I just wondered if it needed to be included in here, if it was just a step that the schools take and have those conversations about that student before
they come. >> Yeah. And I can I can add clarification. And again, in terms of working with the the group that actually um took a labor in this policy, see whether or not it it uh it can even provide a little bit more information or specifics on that.
>> Thank you, Director Simon. Michelle, just to um this may get at what you said, may not get at all of it, but if you look at uh 4A course prerequisites and demonstrations, it says students granted shared time enrollment in a specific course must have satisfied all
prerequisite course requirements and students may be required to demonstrate appropriate skill and knowledge level for course placement. So, I think I think that answers your question. I'm not sure. >> I could have just said that, too. >> Thanks, >> director. Aette, >> thanks. Um
could you talk you you mentioned that MDE was recommending this policy. What what was the per why why do they recommend it? What what is it intended to do? >> It's in the MARS manual and um the MARS
uh obviously has um school districts tracking enrollment and and attendance of students. I think the um the recommendation is to ensure um compliance with certain requirements as it relates to the shared time law. So
when we talk about um instruction needs to be at the public school, instruction needs to be in an academic area. Those things are clarified through the policy and I'm surmising that MDE actually recommends that as a as a a policy to
clarify those particular pieces. And then uh I think there is also a sense of like what is it? There has to be some defining purpose in terms of what it means to be a sure time. If I took one class at a private school and 80% of my other classes at at the public school,
it starts to look like you're a student enrolled uh in the public school taking uh one class. So there there that has actually been what's accomplished through a lot of these shared time policies, but I can't speak directly towards whether or not that's exactly
what MDE is recommending. Okay. Um so then under uh under B number one, students requesting shared time privileges must remain enrolled at their non-public or home school for the majority of their educational
instruction. What in layman's terms? What are we trying to say there? >> I think it actually gets to again the the notion that they're actually a bonafide non-public school
student. Otherwise, they're they're enrolled in a private school. They're enrolled in they're they're at their they're home school for the majority of their educational instruction. [clears throat] >> In what other status would they be if they weren't in that? Like I don't I don't understand this part.
I'm not sure I really understand the question. >> They're they're either a public school student, but in this case, they're not. So then they are either in a non-public or a home school. What other status could they possibly have is what I'm asking. I don't
understand why I don't I don't get what this provision is aimed at. They must remain enrolled at their non-public school or home school as opposed to what? >> Well, I suppose perhaps no school at all. I mean, and I will I will actually
say that that's and that's um an area where there is some concern. We actually might have um family that's claiming homeschool status and maybe only wants to have their child attending uh two hours a day and are they actually getting the majority of their instruction at home. So, I think it
actually uh ensures that we're we're this is a bonafideed um homeschool student. It's a bonafideed uh non-public or private school student. I may be able to add to that. Um, >> yes, >> the 50% piece that you mentioned. I
think that's in statute. So, just verifying, you know, we can't go above 50% in that share time status. So, the remainder must be greater than 50% either homeschool or um at a private school. And then director Audet for your
first question I just from my experience over time when you get monitored you know fiscal monitoring compliance monitoring having the policy and laying out our practices helps us verify and and comply with those requirements to ensure we get the
funding. So if we don't have those CL those and we're going to get asked what your how are you going about doing this in a practical sense and that that verifies and then that allows us to collect the ADM and the funding that we can collect. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And of course I'm good with that.
I mean I we we should do that. We should collect the funding for sure. I think I'm just trying to understand and what I would what I would not want to do is put anything in place that limits somebody who's either in private school or in
homeschool from being able to participate, you know, in the public system for to the extent that they can. I I it's hard for me to tell if we're trying to do that or not in some way. And in part just because we we get into some of these really specific things. You got to do this, you got to do that.
and my notes as we did that are just why or how come what's the reason for that and so I guess still not perfectly clear with that but I would just say that I I would not be interested in doing that. I'm all for us uh setting out the policy
and the terms for how it works um and ensuring that it you know if it helps us to get the funding when the kids are uh the students are using the program that all makes sense but I don't see a reason to limit them from participating in any way. Yeah, I would want to
>> if I may, I would echo we we agree, right? So, um this really matches practice and there's no intent to to do what you kind of explained there. I think it's all about just having clarity >> and u I often think of over my time, you know, homeschool students may come for
band or >> right >> something they can't get at home, right? And that's a common one or maybe just unique classes that just are hard to provide at home. So, we want we welcome that. just want clear clarity around making sure we can um account for it and
support it and um when asked about it can prove it right. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Director Duchaine. >> Thank you. Uh was there a model policy that you used to base this off of? Like a lot of our policies come from the MSBA
model policies as a starting place and then we go from there. That might help clarify why some of the language sounds the way it does. Yeah, actually um there is not an MSBA model policy, which is interesting. Um the uh there are a number of school districts I I understand that this
policy was drawn from when when Kate Grim actually uh kind of took the laboring or putting it together. Um it it does follow kind of common practice. So I I can speak towards at least other districts adopting similar practices, policies.
[snorts] Okay. Uh thank you for that. Our next agenda item is 8 C907.0 rewards policy repeal. Thank you, Chair, Cochair Hoffman, um,
and school board members. This is kind of an interesting, uh, policy. Um, I'll just I'll say that I maybe one of my New Year's resolutions is to actually, uh, look at uh, some policies that we could consider repealing, and this really falls under that category. Um, this is a
policy that was developed in in 2006. Uh, to my understanding, it's never been implemented. There is a a kind of a a small reference to rewards and the school board's ability to be able to uh adopt a rewards policy under 123B02
subdivision 22. Um but again, there's uh in my uh to my knowledge, it's never been um employed by the school district. Um and there are no uh to my understanding no uh directives or procedures kind of um contemplated by
this particular policy that relates to rewards. So let me just kind of maybe put it in its simplest pos possible terms. I mean is it is it possible for the school board with this policy to issue a reward leading to the um prosecution of someone who engaged in
some conduct within the school? Um the this policy would allow that. um if we had a particular situation which is uh never risen uh risen at this point, could we could the board still come together and actually um decide through its own adoption of a policy to go ahead
and do it? They could. Um but I think actually given the fact that it's uh somewhat of an arcane policy and never been implemented, um I'm going to uh put this in the camp of policies which we could at least consider um repealing. Um, but of course it would be fine if it
stayed uh with uh with our policies as well. So with that, I guess I'll take any questions. >> Board members, any questions? [snorts] >> Question. >> Yes, director. We it would seem like to
me even without a policy like this if the school board wanted to uh they could we could decide to do this anyways. And I don't feel like you need a policy to do it, right? You if if there was a situation that the board wanted to do
something like this, I feel like we could. So I guess it's a yet another reason to say I wouldn't have a problem repealing it, but just wanted to make sure. I guess he can't predict the future. I I would agree with that. I I think the board certainly would have the
authority. It's it's in statute. Um we would just have to come together and decide that we were going to uh put this together. I would I would imagine um that the board wouldn't want uh um you know, administration to decide that we're going to issue a $10,000 reward policy. I think we'd have to clear it
through the board anyway. So, I think it's really kind of a probably something that's predictable, right? Okay, if there are no other comments, is there a motion to approve the repeal of the rewards policy as presented in
appendix Q? >> Thank you, Director Simon. Is there a second? Thank you, co-chair Langenfeld. Um, is there any discussion hearing? None. With all those in favor
say I. >> I. >> Any oppose say no. >> With six in favor and zero opposed. The motion is approved. Thank you for the presentation. >> Thank you. >> Our next agenda item is labor labor relations and benefits. Item 9A.
Authorize the 2025 to 27 special education administration master agreement. Welcome, Dr. Cherry, Chief Human Resource Officer. >> Good evening, Co-Chair Hookman, members of the board, Superintendent McIntyre. Pleased to be here this evening to
announce that our special education administrators who are represented by the Special Education uh Program Supervisors Association have ratified a new two-year agreement with the effective dates July 1, 2025 through June 30th of 2027.
Thanks to the members of this employee team and our district bargaining team for their work in negotiating an updated employment contract. The tenative agreement reached include step movement both years of the contract. Uh salary schedule
improvements include in year one uh moving the offschedule performance and leadership pay to the schedule, adding $250 to each cell on the schedule, plus an additional $1,450 to the top step that would not have seen
step movement that year. In year two, the salary schedule improvement includes dropping the bottom step and adding a new top step, which is $3,275 more than the previous top step.
Flexible benefits account contribution increase $2,49 in the first year. Uh remain stable in the second year. And in year 2, the 403b matching contribution increased $624.
This total compensation package includes a 6.18% increase or $182,000 in new money. The contract equals just over 6 million over the course of the two years of the contract. This proposed agreement is within the authority
provided by the school board and as a result, I am seeking approval of the contract as presented in appendix R. Thank you, Dr. Cherry. Are there any questions from the board? >> Director Adet,
>> thanks. Uh, I noted in section 13 that uh there's a quite a bit of new language inserted in there. Could you just give us a high level overview of what we're doing there? Just I think it's just spelling out some I just don't know why it's added. Uh this group is um a group
that uh has continuing contract status and um under uh continuing contract if uh we are to reduce the workforce in this group. Uh we have to have a way of deciding who's um laid off first or who
goes on an unrequested leave of absence. uh the the uh contract uh previously referred to a statute 122A.40 that was repealed in 2018. And so um uh
when that uh statute was uh repealed, that was the old um LIFO statute. So last in first out was pretty much um based upon seniority. Um all bargaining groups were to bargain language about procedures for ULA. So that had not been
done in the past. >> Okay. >> Um and so this is uh on uh um the language that we we landed on. >> Y >> Okay, good. So there just had not been that language before. So
>> thank you. >> Okay. If there are no other questions, um before us is the approval of the 2025-27 special education administrators master agreement as presented in appendix R. I would entertain a motion to approve the
2025-27 special education administrator master agreement. >> Thank you, Director Adet. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Director Duchaine. Is there any discussion?
Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? With six in favor and zero opposed, the motion is approved. >> Thank you, board. >> Thank you. We are nearing our last board agenda
item. Item 10, board correspondence and communication. Members, this is your opportunity to share happenings in your community and report on committee assignments or other items of interest. Does anyone have anything to share? Director Duchaine.
>> Thank you. Uh just wanted to note a few things going on. I think um first I wanted to congratulate all of our student musicians who were a part of the Northwest Suburban Conference all conference concert uh and uh
festivities. So that includes choir band and orchestra students from all five of our high schools plus the rest of the Northwest Suburban Conference. I think there's 13 schools in total. This was an auditioned um allconerence ensemble and they performed at BETHL last night and
it was it was wonderful. Very very proud of all of our students. It was hosted by Anoka High School. So, Principal Farley and all of the Anoka High School uh music program uh team. Huge thank you to all of you for the work that you did. um
many of our music teachers from the rest of our high schools were all there and you could see the pride that they had in their students and in the performances that happened. So, it was it was a really wonderful experience and I know that um Anoka High School today hosted 2,000 students from across the Northwest
Suburban Conference to listen to each other perform all day long. It was it was choir band and orchestra concerts all day long. Um what an amazing opportunity to celebrate student musicians. Um, I thought it was wonderful. I also wanted to note, we
heard about a ton of teams, and this is maybe breaking news, but the Champlain Park Boys swim and dive team is sending seven swimmers um and and a diver to the state uh meet coming up this weekend. So, really hopeful. Um the the
performances were very impressive. Tons of records broken and maybe more to come at state. So, looking forward to watching that. Uh also Jackson Middle School competed at the state meet through for knowledge bowl which is uh
brightworks spark path uh event I guess is the way to say it and they won the triple team award. So they had the three top scoring teams um from schools that had more than three teams participating. So that was really exciting to see all of those Jackson
students uh out this weekend competing at the knowledge bowl competition. So, thank you, >> Cocher Langanger. >> Thank you. Um, exciting times. I bet the students were inspired by the Olympics.
Keep going. Anyway, um, I I wanted to just share a few things about I Love to Read Month. Obviously, uh, our superintendent talked about the battle of the books, and I think what I'd like to do is extend my gratitude to all of the teachers who write all the
questions. And I got I was over at Jackson, and the students were challenging the questions. Um, so that was interesting as well because there were characters in two books that did the same thing. So, some of that was going on. So, it's very very important
uh to do that. And now so a special thank you to those teachers. Congratulations to all the teams that participated across the district. Now the the winners are coming forward on Wednesday and I'm very excited about that as well. Um I know that many of us
have sat in that room and watched the battles and and obviously a shout out to all the teachers and all the staff who make this happen for our kids because they truly are into it as a competition of reading. So something to celebrate.
Um I also had the privilege to um be a mystery reader. And being a mystery reader is not an easy task if you're not that exciting. So I have been a mystery reader in schools where the Chick-fil-A cow comes in and I'm not as popular. Um,
but I want to give a shout out to Miss Skinner's class and Miss Hoststead's class at Lincoln Elementary and also to um um let's see where I was today. I was with Miss Nelson's class as well at
Ramsey and to our extraordinary volunteer service coordinators to coordinate all the effort. They have all the books ready to go um for anybody who doesn't bring their books and I think that's very helpful as well. So it's it's a joyful time. The students were
extraordinary. We have such great kids. Their behavior is always so engaging. So such great questions. I'm always so impressed and they they always are just outstanding when I've got had the privilege to visit. And then the last
thing is I know I didn't get to go to the Olympics this year, but I was able to attend the Champlain Park High School State United Championship game at Target Center. And it was intense. It truly was
intense right down to the wire. And uh the students were extraordinarily supportive and cheering a lot. And then uh one young man um got to go to the free throw line. Of course, he was fouled red at the end and and it was really interesting because all of the
students knew that this particular student uh didn't welcome all the noise of cheering and screaming. So there was a big hush over all the student body so that the student could focus. It was it was really a celebration and so big cheers at the end and it was really
exciting. So that's what I have. >> Director Arco. >> Yes. Thank you, uh, Coacher Hookman. Um, I got to do two things in the last couple weeks. I went to the science fair at Blaine High School and I got to see I got to actually be one of the judges for that science fair. So, it's fun to
contrast that with like the elementary school science fair as well. Different caliber projects for sure. Um, but well done to all the high school and middle school students who participated. Um, then I also got to participate in the uh I love to read month. I I went to Madison Elementary. I got to read a book
to two different classes. And in one of the classes before before we did the book reading, um they played a game and they invited me to play where they all stood in a circle and they would count down from 1,000 by 100 increments and whoever landed on zero would have to sit
down and you just keep going and keep going until the last person standing wins. And before we started, there's one student who pulled me over and she said, "Here, come stand here. This is the good spot." And I actually won. So apparently we have a genius in our midst because I I don't think I could have counted that
many thousands that fast. But so I had a good time doing that and I appreciate the invite. So yeah. >> Okay. Great. Wonderful to hear all those good things happening in the district. The next item uh number 11 will be conducted in a closed session pursuant
to Minnesota statute 13D.05 05 subsection 2A3 to discuss private student educational data and expulsion. This close session will be held in the Michael Sullivan room. I would entertain a motion to move to the close session.
>> So moved. >> Thank you, Director Simon. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, co-chair Langenfeld. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> Any oppose say no. With six in favor and
zero opposed, we'll move to the executive session in the Michael Sullivan room. Should we take a fivem minute break? The meeting is recessed and will resume at 8:59. >> 7:59.
Time flies.