item. Did I wait too long? You kind of did. Next time. All right. Our first agenda item is a student presentation from Lydia Misara giving us a culture week
recap. And I think she might be getting introduced by M. [Music] She's more since I'm here. I will introduce her. I can tell you we have fantastic
fantastic. It was the first time that we've ever done this and her along with her fellow students organized this entire event and it started months ago. There have been lots of meetings and lots of details and it went
off so that this nice job. Well, hi. My name is Masara and at Austin High School, we had culture week, which is a week of celebrating all the different cultures we have at
AHS. To begin, my name is Masara and I'm the president of the African Student Association. So, first I have a video [Music] [Music] Jumbo down.
[Music] We are all We are Austin. We are Austin. We are Austin. We are Austin. We are Austin. We are Austin. [Music]
We are Austin. We are Austin. We are Austin. We are Austin. We are Austin. We are Austin. We are Austin. We are Austin. We are Austin. [Music] the African Student Association, the
Asian Student Union, and the Hispanic Latino Youth Club all came together to create that video as sort of like a showcase to what culture week was. We collaborated with Mr. Ryan Myers and we made that video and we showed it to the entire school at Pepfest. So, this slide
explains what the purpose of culture week is. It is a time to celebrate each other, to celebrate our differences, our traditions, and the experiences of the different people in our community. We wanted to make this culture week happen because at Austin High School, we have such a big vast diversity of students
with different backgrounds from cultures and countries. And we thought that we thought that it would be important to showcase our differences. So, this is when we had Mr. Schmidt introduce us. And then these were Hi everyone, I'm state
representative Khan her. I'm sorry that I could not be here in person with all of you today. However, I'm glad to join all of you via this video. As a state representative, I am elected to represent over 40,000 constituents in district 64 which is located in St.
Paul, Minnesota. The primary objective of my job is to pass the laws for our state. Doing this work has been the greatest honor of my life. I came to this country as a refugee when I was just 3 years old. I was born in the mountains of loss. Because I am M, we
did not have any rights in my birth country. That is why the work that I do now is so important. The fight for education, housing, healthcare, equal rights, and democracy are core to my life experience. In this work, I carried
my culture with me every day. bills that I have passed that are not specifically for young people, but is informed by my life as a bilingual woman of color that grew up in poverty and a first generation to go to college. Doubling the ELP per people
funding for kids and college education. Eliminating child marriages. Free higher education for any child who has ever been in the foster care system. Protections for veterans. Prohibiting an employer from inquiring about your past pay when they are in the hiring process with you. Funding for a job training at
the International Institute are just a few of the bills that I'm very proud to have passed and I was the chief author on. On days that I know that I'll be defending my bills, I would long clothes on the House floor. It gives me power to display proudly my culture. I also feel
like it's channeling all of my ancestors and those who came before me and the shoulders of those I am standing on. Never in my life did I ever think that this is what I would be doing one day. As you all celebrate culture week, remember that our state is diverse and
it is a better state because of its diversity. The future belongs to you. You may not yet know what you will do in 10, 20, 30 years from now. But the best way to position yourself or what the future holds is to study hard. To never
stop learning and to be curious. If there's one thing I would tell my younger self, that is that you never have to give up your identity and what you believe in successful in this life. I hope that you all have a great week. Celebrate each other, lift each other
up, and remember that this work can't be done. Sorry about that. Can I ask you a question? Yeah. How did you get to to make that? She's a pretty high power. Well, um, a lot of her mom had a
connection with her and she wasn't able to join us in person and talk, so she decided that it'd be good to shoot a video to hopefully inspire the students. Um, we also had a dance. Can you say one thing? I would just like to say to the teachers in this room that Koli was the
uh chairperson of the legislative commission on pension retirement for the last two years and uh she's done an outstanding job and hopefully she'll have that position again but at pensions for teachers in the state of Minnesota. Thank you. We also had a karate dance
with different students from the current culture dancing. Um here are some of the dressup days that we had. So on Monday we had dream day. So the students at AHS were able to wear like their pajamas. On Tuesdays, we had color colors of the
world day. So then people from each continent could wear a different color. So for example, I'm African so I'll wear blue. But if you're like from America, you can wear black. Uh from Asia, you can wear red and different stuff, etc. And then we also sold these lucky
bracelets for a dollar. And we completely sold out within our like second day of which was nice. Well, Wednesday was flag day, so then students from could wear their flag or like the jerseys that had their flags on it. Thursday was go back in time day, so
it was time to go back in time and the different students were able to wear like different vintage clothing and were able to showcase their culture that way. And then Friday was our big day, which was our heritage day, which is the final day where all the students were able to
wear their different cultural clothing and showcase their differences. Here are some pictures from of like our volleyball tournament that we had that night on Thursday. And we had a bunch of student uh students and teachers playing the game and we raised
a lot of money. And then we also had Miguel Bar speaking at our pep fest and he said a lot of words of encouragement to the students and he really impacted a lot of us. And then here are some pictures of
culture week. So down up above is from the petfest and those are all the students that participated in the pepfest and then in the picture below we have all the students that dressed up in their culture wear uh taken together. As you can see, all the different students and all the different clothes are
wearing. It was a really beautiful time. And then here's some pictures of the culture boards that we had during the fashion show walk. And we also had a fashion show walk. And up there is a picture of all the students that participated in the fashion show walk. And then we had some different posters
as well. And then we also played like a trivia game with the students and it was really fun and I think that a lot of people had fun with the week. I would like to thank you guys for letting me come up here and share about culture week. Thank you.
[Applause] Thank you. Does anybody have any questions before we let her run? [Music] I don't have a question. I just have a comment. Thank you for presenting. You
did an amazing job. Thanks for coming. We appreciate that you took the time to be with us tonight. Thanks. [Applause] is giving me the evil
eye. It's all about her right now. Hello board members, superintendent page. It is my honor to recognize Anita Ralph who has been our student rep one of our uh student representatives for the past two years.
Um it's been a lot of fun getting to know Anita over the past two years. And I'm just going to read a little bit of the um letter of recommendation that I wrote for Anita to pursue the MSBA scholarship. Um, it's the one
scholarship that our two representatives are eligible for their senior year. They haven't announced yet who has won it, so fingers crossed still for you. In my role as board chair for the Austin Public Schools Board of Education, I've had the privilege of working with Anita for the past two
years through her role as a student school board representative. She has served as a representative for the class of 2025 and is a student I regularly seek out for her keen perspective and insight. Anita has accomplished much in her high school career. From maintaining
a 4.0 unweighted GPA to receiving college credits and pursuing a challenging course load. Anita is a driven student with plans to enroll in a doctor of pharmacy program at the University of Minnesota. Go first.
[Music] She has prepared herself for success beyond the classroom by being actively involved in extracurricular activities that have given her leadership opportunities and have pushed her to think at an organizational level. Something that I believe will make her
an effective leader in her career. Of note is her active involvement in Austin's CEO program in which she learned how to be a business owner, how to network, and how to build professional relationships. She has proven her ability to de to develop a trustworthy
brand selling fresh roasted coffee through her small business, Sprouse Roast, of which I am a regular customer and I hope all of you are too. She is consistent in her product development and I can always count on her to deliver on her commitments.
Watching Anita develop her leadership skills and style over the past few years has been an honor to observe. She has learned many lessons about teamwork and the importance of bringing together a variety of voices to the table. She is
inquisitive and makes space for others to be heard, which to me is a strength that not many are able to harness at such a young age. Her teachability and coachability along with her passing drive make her a force that will make a significant and
positive impact on our world. And I can't wait to see what Anita does. Congratulations and we will miss you. [Applause] go around. Congratulations. [Music]
All right. Next, we're going to have our superintendent report with Dr. Beach. Thank you, Chair Debate, members of the board. Uh, a few things to share with you tonight. Uh first of all, I just want to talk about uh last week's uh graduation rates uh that shared out. Uh
Austin Public Schools continues uh strengthening the foundation for long-term success for our students. And our graduation rates for the 2024 school year uh look pretty consistent with recent years. And at the same time, we've seen some groups uh that have had
some show some meaningful growth. Uh but one thing I want to touch on uh tonight is uh and we've been talking about this throughout the year is attendance and uh there is a direct line with attendance at school and graduation. We've done some analysis on
the class of 2020 20 uh 24 and of students that graduated 91% uh attended school on a regular basis. Students that dropped out had an attendance rate of 68%. and students still enrolled continue to
extend into the next year or transition programs have some varied attendance as well, but most showed stronger patterns than those who left the school. So, there's no way around it. Students who show up consistently are far more likely to graduate. And this connection isn't
theoretical. It's visible in our own classrooms year after year. It's why Austin Public Schools continues to make daily attendance a key focus because it's not just about compliance. It's about connection. And students who are
present are more likely to engage, build relationships, stay on track with credits, and ultimately earn their diploma. And we're not waiting around until the senior year to act. This year, we've launched our Packer Profile seminar class, a class that's built for
ninth graders. It schedules them every student uh in a structured way to set goals, learn essential academic and life skills, and chart their own high school journey. And each student leaves with a portfolio that reflects where they've been and where they're headed. It's
personal, it's practical, and it matters. We also expanded the bar program, building assets and reducing risk. across both Austin High School and Ellis Middle School. Bar focuses on early relationship building, real time
data, and proactive support. And you're going to hear more about that tonight. I'm happy to say that it's working. But these aren't just numbers. These are signals that our strategy is working and early support and strong relationships and consistent engagement matter. Now,
if we want graduation rates to rise, and we do, uh we don't need to guess where to start. We start with attendance. We know graduation doesn't begin in 12th grade. It begins the moment students walk in our doors. And when we build
strong 9th grade systems, strengthen daily attendance, and make school feel purposeful, we have more students reach the finish line. A major milestone. Uh hundreds of staff across the district have completed the read training and this was a very
heavy lift with changes to our schedules, our calendars and professional development. Uh but our staff met this head on and they did a fantastic job. Their flexibility and commitment show what it means to prioritize students and when the work is
complex and demanding, they did it. So really appreciate our staff and the work they've done this year with that. A big congratulations to our newest Austin High School Music Hall of Fame inductees. Uh we had Patricia Masel from
the class of 1955, Barry Rush from 1960, and Brian Christensen from 1997. These three graduates have made a significant contribution to music through performance and education in the industry at large. They'll be honored at a banquet at the McFale Center on uh for
music on May 15th, followed by a recognition during the Austin High School band concert. This Hall of Fame was launched by Ken Johnson in 2009 and continues to spotlight alumni who make music part of their lifelong impact. On
May 4th, I had the privilege of attending the Minnesota Teacher of the Year Banquet where our very own Kristoff Dundas was honored as a finalist. While he didn't take home the final award, there's no question his passion, his energy, and care for his students make
him a top tier educator in every sense. And if you haven't heard his latest Packer Cast episode, I highly recommend it. Give it a listen. It's on an authentic glimpse into what great teaching looks like. Taste of Nations returns on May 17th at Van Hill Park.
This event is a fixture in our community for over a decade and it celebrates the cultures and stories that shape our county and it continues to grow each year. APS is proud to be part of organizing part of this event and we hope to see you there. Our recent night
uh last month was on poetry brought together student poets from across all grade levels. finalists shared their work in front of a public audience and this was an impressive night of talent, courage, and creativity. Congratulations to all of those who participated and
especially the winners for each of the buildings from kindergarten all the way through high school. Jen Sims is a former head coach of the Austin Packer dance team and has been was inducted into the Minnesota Association of Dance Teams Hall of Fame.
Her legacy began. She took a struggling program and led it to third place state finish and launching what has now become over 20 straight state appearances including the state title in 2022. She helped define what high standards look
like and her impact continues to date. Our students also continue to shine academically. This year's AAW Women's History Project contest featured outstanding work from students in Dennis Schwab's American history classes and
projects ranged from the Women's Rights Movement to activism in the digital age and several students tied for first or second place and the winners are going to be honored at the AU banquet this month. Last week, Austin High School's award ceremony reminded us what
education is all about. students striving for excellence and the educators guiding them every step of the way. In the middle of teacher appreciation is the perfect time to thank the teachers, the coaches, and the support staff who help students thrive. Your study impact shows up in student
success every day. I'm also excited to share that a record number of students received the Minnesota Bilingual Seals this year, 39 total. These students have demonstrated advanced proficiency in a second language and met the academic requirements for the SEAL.
This group includes seals from Spanish to Mandarin Chinese and much more. These recognitions not only uh our academic achievements but cultural fluency as well and many students are earning their college credit along the way. This
Wednesday is the War County CEO program will host his annual trade show at Packer Arena. I encourage you to stop by and support these young entrepreneurs. They spent the year developing real businesses that you heard a little bit ago and learning what it takes to lead
an innovate. The Austin High School Theater Club is set to perform their spring production of Common Brown next week at Ellis Middle School. This performance funds May 17th and the 18th and shows explores the connection through funny and powerful emotional
moments in a coffee shop setting. one student uh doing meaningful high our students are doing meaningful high quality work and I hope you can come out and support them. More county community health assessment is complete and we've shared this out and I'm proud of how our
district helped shape it shape it. We promoted the survey to our schools and helped gather input from families from over 44 languages. This diversity matters and our involvement ensured that under reppresented voices had a seat at the table. The reported identified top
priorities including access to care that's a wellness, housing, chemical health and the next phase is about the community and health improvement plan which will roll out this fall with strategic goals shaped around these priorities and Allison Scott from county
will be visiting with the board this summer. Now, something that's really truly transformational and be shared out on Friday is the Fedland Foundation has selected Austin High School for a full weight room renovation. And this is their largest project to date. This is
an incredible opportunity for our district and our students. This renovation is going to bring state-of-the-art training equipment uh to our building and it creates expanded access for our younger students at Ellis as well and supports both in season and
offseason training. Construction of that will begin at the end of May and is expected to wrap up by late fall. We will have a ribbon cutting um ceremony here in the future once we get closer to the project completion. Uh this year was also our
first the our superintendent student advisory council. Uh this is a group of students from 9th through 12th grade that provides a space for conversations about working what what's working what needs improvement and what ideas they might have to bring forward. The topics
this year include student included student well-being engagement and equity and communication and their insights are smart honest and already helping shape decision making. and we hosted our uh future teacher
signing event last week as part of our grow your own grant. Uh several students that are planning to pursue careers in education and are already getting hands-on experience through mentorship. It was an inspiring way to hear why they chose this path and it's also a reminder
that the next generation of great educators are already in our classrooms. And finally, I just want to say thank you to me for your role as our school board representative and also Michael for his work this year. So, congratulations. That's my report.
Thank you. I actually have a question. Dr. P, you mentioned about the uh great room renovation. You use the word training that is and then but last week I think you g us a couple of scenarios about
different training opportunities. Is there training that comes in the field or is it just equipment? Equipment. Yeah. Okay. My second question is the last few years I've driven bus for smart transit and four days a week I
take kids to Woodson and four days a week I take kids home from Head Start. And it's not unusual to see the parents come onto the bus in the morning and for them to be waiting on the doorstep at night. Um, and that's really good to
see. Undoubtedly, something happens over time with a select group of people, students. Um, because I always tell these mothers, I want to see your daughter running in the bus when she's a senior, like she's running today when she's a kindergartener, you know? and and so is
there what are we doing to reach out to parents to make them part of the I guess solution to the absenteeism that you're saying is pretty important. Yeah, I think we've done a few things that uh levels of information sharing uh with
that the importance of that. We also have a a group of um professionals in our school district. Our student support team are also working to to reach out and work with families and we work with the county. Uh we did have a large uh gathering um looking at Cherry Bot here
a couple months ago. Uh one um to get grounded in what our data is showing and then also uh letting people know the resources that we have in the district. Um there are some pilot programs around the state um right now and I think we
possibly could see something that comes out of the legislature with some changes and more supports but uh our data is very clear uh when our kids are in school. Um it's good things that are happen. It is a partnership between the home and the school. Absolutely. Okay.
Thanks. I have a couple questions too. Um, we talked earlier about the location of the wait room for the feeling foundation if we were restricted to the basement. Could you talk a little bit about what the pre-plan looked at and how you did a feasibility assessment on other space?
Yeah. Other than just the current location. Our our first uh and where we ended up is is our original space. Uh we did look at some options around um school districts gym was uh considered. Uh one of the things that we have with that location too is the amount of
rentals and community usage that we have and uh we felt losing that amount of space here would uh would be a hindrance to our programming and also what the community has access to. Um so um we looked at that and you know we're back
to our original spot here with our pre-planning and conversations with their team. And then the second one I want to add was um on the attendance rate you talk about um pilot programs around the state of Minneapolis
start to do and there was an article from Roosevelt school about peer um peers helping out each other to attract people to stay in school or come to school. Have we considered anything like that here in Austin a peer program? Um
not to my knowledge. um currently uh I can't say from from years past but I know that's that's part of it and there's some more information that's coming out this week uh that that speak to those kinds of programs. I know there the pilot programs that are going around um the the districts uh around the state
right now have have different things that they're looking at and I think what they're doing with those pilot programs is see what is the best results and what could be replicated for other school districts. So more information that as I said our need is very
clear that the students in school the outcomes. Any other questions reports go first. Yeah, Dr. Re, you mentioned earlier the court meeting and I I was in this room and it was packed in this area here and
there were people in the risers and little first grader girl and guy. You could hear them up there in the top rafter which is a tribute to these bad boys. I know some people like to mute my uh microphone now and then, but if you
can really hear this is state-of-the-art and so I I I tell you, I was at the um the uh distinguished student the other night and I was at the uh new teachers and I love the commons area. is not
conducive to to that kind of I'm just telling you I really like to see everything involving speaking in this room because we're we got a great space here. A great space. Just a suggestion. Um, if you remember last month, um, I
talked a little bit about the welding competition over in Rochester. And, you know, I'm on the Southeast Service Cory where we have, uh, Stony League, we have, um, um, young authors, we have young writers, we have knowledge bowl, and
this is finally something for the nonacademic student, and it's really a great thing. And, uh, so I think it was April 30th over some state-of-the-art manufacturing uh environment. They had students from Southeastern Minnesota
come over and compete in welding. And I just contacted Southeast Service Cooper the other day. 177 young people competed. They also had a career fair. There were 400 people at that career fair. And just going back to that
distinguished scholar night, uh Mr. Stanley who teaches over on this side of the fourth street uh was recognized by a student and those two guys had been over at the competition and I think Mr. Stanley won the adult competition for
the second city here. So it's uh it's really a great thing and uh it empowers a lot of young people and I'm just proud as the Dickens that uh we're doing it um in that field. Um, I would also say uh and I'm not a computer person. I'm gonna
have to contact Corey about this. And but um and also we received or not we uh Southeast Surf program received over $8,000 from mechanical manufacturing companies in southeastern Minnesota to
help sponsor this welding. So there's a lot of companies that are invested in this and want people to come out and come into their workforce. is boys. Is that what we're all about to a large degree? But we we had great contributions there. And then we also
got I couldn't I looked at this u I have a pair of glasses in my pocket. It was 1.148 million from Metronic to the Minnesota STEM ecosystem. It was um CPUs. I think
they're like uh construction production units or something, but they're like boards that you can use in computer environments. And uh I think they got some other ones recently and they called uh Amy up recently today maybe and asked her if she likes them. So it's it's
really a lot of generous people out there who are um are trying to help these young people around southeast Minnesota do well. Um I would also like to say before I
conclude here is that I know um everybody wants something to happen right now and unfortunately unfortunately that's not the way it happens and uh uh I know there we had some things last study session we talked
about uh and we're really hampered those of you are not on the board the open meeting law makes it impossible for us to meet less than three or three three people. So, it's really difficult people. I just want you to know that it's difficult to communicate and get
things going. But we're going to have a study session, I think, in a couple weeks. We're going to have a schoolboard evaluation. Um, and then we're going to talk about some of those issues that have been that came up in the last study session. And I'm bringing a six-ack of Red Bull because I think it might be a
long session and and more power do it. The legislature does it all the time. Why can't we? But I think there's things we need to talk about. I think to to make my mind feel better, I think we're going to to deal with some things
and talk about talk. That's nice. Talk. Okay. Thank you. Can I go? You sure can. Um so these last uh few weeks have been a lot about appreciation with uh national principles week and then also
teacher appreciation week uh last week and just want to say thank you again to all the administrators and teachers that are in the room tonight but online and in this district that we appreciate what you do every single day. Um, I wanted to
read uh a quick note that um Miss Rowley shared on Facebook from Sumar Elementary uh 3 days ago. It says, "Dear Sumar teachers, happy teacher appreciation week. I see you put so much heart into each day working tirelessly to serve our students well. Your dedication,
positivity, and teamwork build the strong culture we're so proud of and remind us that teamwork truly makes the dream work. You belong here and I couldn't do more I couldn't be more honored to serve alongside each of you. We love our teachers and are endlessly grateful for all you do with deep
appreciation, Miss Rolley. Um on top of that, there was celebrations at many of our elementary schools uh over the last couple of weeks. Um so I really appreciate all the work and um resources put against those.
Um, the last thing that I would like to do is just thank the board uh for sitting down with me over the last couple of months and getting to know each of you better. It's I think it's healthy conversation to to sit down and and just talk. Uh, as said, it's very difficult to to do that and it's timely.
So, um, but I think it's good for us to to just listen and hear and understand where we all stand is from our what our passions are, what um, motivates us. Um, so thank you for that. Over the last few weeks, I've had the
honor of receiving information from many teachers, parents, parents, union reps, and community members. Communication has taken place by in-person meetings, phone conversations, emails, and letters in
the mail. Thank you. Thank you to everyone who felt comfortable to reach out to me to share their personal testimonies, concerns, ideas, and data. While not every communication I received was negative,
many of the communications expressed heartfelt concerns. As Don mentioned, the board will continue to discuss the climate in the district in the upcoming study session on May
27. Um, in addition, I've been able to participate in lots of exciting events in the district over the last few weeks. um went to the academic excellence celebration where the high distinction
students were recognized along with their honored teachers. Uh the future teacher club signing ceremony that Dr. Paige had mentioned um where the honored educated educators were also present in the
celebration. So that was a really fun event. Um, I made the Southgate first grade concert. So, thank you to Mr. Hen for the invitation. It was phenomenal.
Um, went to the awards ceremony where the students were honored for recognitions and scholarships that they received. Summer family night. That was I could not even believe the the people
that were there. It was just phenomenal. Um, so thank you to Principal Raleigh for that invitation. It was a fun evening. Um, I went to Battle of Connects. Um, so
thank you to Emily Hublin for that invitation. I wasn't able to help as much as I had hoped to because I had to get back for a meeting, but um, looked like was a everybody had a great time. Um,
and then Friday I got to listen to presentations and Lisa Sanders AP human geography class um from the students that are going to the Minnesota Youth Institute on May 14th. So that was
really a fun day. They did amazing. had little notes. Some of them just had a little note card with like three bullet points on it and they talked for three minutes. It was just amazing. Um, and I also participated in my first Apex
meeting. Um, so that was a really good meeting. Uh, Jenna, I'm gonna massacre her name. So he um she's the outreach coordinator for southern Minnesota regional legal
services. Um so she gave everybody she did a presentation on all the legal services that they have available for lowincome adults and then also um for the seniors. Um it's just an
amazing um service that I didn't even know existed. Um Amber Matson, she's the family support services coordinator for the parenting resource source center. Um
she gave us an update on the Syll Center and gave us some good information on that. Um there was a um an open house um that was last Thursday on May 8th. I did not make it
to that, but that looked like a kind of funny event, too. Can you tell us what Apex is? Because that was my first meeting. Yes. Uh Apex is a community group uh that's uh chaired by former mayor Brian Re
looks at just some of the diversity and multicultural experiences and supports that are available in Austin to help our citizens board member on that committee is really a good thing. I would agree. I learn a
lot. And then Laura Hi, she's the housing development director for Three Rivers Community Action. She's also on city council. Um she talked about uh concept for a new
housing develop development in Austin. So that was really interesting to hear about. And then Apex um and the welcome center are going to have their 25th anniversary.
Um so that was in September. Is that right? Yes. They're targeting welcome week. Yeah. Mide September targeting welcome week. So for volunteers to help plan the celebration
if anybody's interested. Well, thank you, Dr. Paige, for the more county health nurs. That's great information. Yes, it is. Uh, and there's everyone has access to the full report. So, I believe
it's July 14th that she will be here. Thanks, Our next agenda item is last student represent superintendent page chairperson jubet and members of the board. My name is and I'm your 12th grade representative for this year. I
will be presenting to you the student report. The music department is ending with a bang as many of the year's final concerts takes place. Last Thursday, the senior orchestra concert happened, marking the last official concert the 2025 seniors were playing. At the
concert, for the first time, senior students received AHS music stalls, which is an amazing way to recognize the commitment and hard work that goes into completing all four years of the high school music programs. Then on the 15th, band class will start
at 700 p.m. in Milton Auditorium. Recently, Kristoff Dundas progressed on to be a top finalist for the Minnesota Teacher of the Year Award. This is a great reflection on Austin Public Schools. And if you want to see all the hard work the band has put in, make sure
to have Band Blast on your calendar. Lastly, the AHS spring choir concert is taking place on May 21st at 700 p.m. in the Austin Auditorium as they rebound quickly from the Austin. I'm sure you won't will not want to miss their spring lineup of
songs. Next, many of our clubs are still making an impact as we have fewer and fewer days left of the year. Starting with the Go Green Club members planted seeds at Sar and South Elementary Schools in their birthday. It was amazing to see our older high school students connect with the elementary
kids while spreading awareness about being environmentally conscious. The club also donated trees to members of the community at the nature center for Arbor Day celebration. Last week was teacher apprec appreciation week and in honor of
the celebration, NHS students hosted a supply drive and breakfast. During the drive, NHS members collected school supplies and donations to purchase necessities for teachers classrooms. Then on the following Wednesday, they gave away the supplies along with
providing a delicious breakfast for all the staff. This was a great way to say thank you to our teachers as they do so much for their students. The end of the school year is upon us and the annual awards night took place on May 7th where 117 seniors received
the Austin scholarship. This opportunity opens so many doors for our seniors and can help aid in receiving an education that might have been added. The support from the Hornell Foundation never wavers and is greatly appreciated by the whole student body and community. Besides the
Austin insurance scholarship, the ability to take PSCO classes and RCC classes, Brighton Town is a resource that helps advance many of the students of HS. We are grateful for the partnership between Austin High School and Riverland as it provides a big step
towards our future. Some big dates coming up are on the 23rd is the last day for our high school seniors and then on the 30th, which marks the end of all regular scheduled classes. The 30th will also end in an early release for all
students as this is also the day of graduation. The ceremony will start at 700 p.m. in Milton auditorium. But before graduation, a practice rehearsal will take place on May 28th. As my time on the board comes to
close, I just wanted to thank all the members and superintendent Paige for the amazing experience I have had as a student representative. I have learned so much in the two years I have served and it is amazing to experience firsthand all you do for the community and school district. I'm honored to have
played a role in shaping AHS. And with that, this completes my report. Thank you for your time. And does have anyone have any questions? I ask one. Yes. Well, it's already established presence here. It's going to
be an empty chair, but I just want to say I'm going to miss the clarity in which you speak, how organized you are, how serious you take this. I mean, it for you it's a it's a big deal and it shows that you put your life your life into it every time you come here. So,
thank you for that. Thank you. No, this is a really great opportunity and I'm glad our district provides this for all the students each year to have this opportunity to speak and make a change. Yeah. Any other questions or comments?
Good luck to you. Thank [Applause] you. All [Music]
right. Is there a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda? Motion by D. Second by Carol. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Anybody opposed? Motion
passes. Right. Our next agenda item is an a bar update with our bar coordinators Karen Dunar and Good evening. Um, my name is Karen Dunar. I'm the middle school middle school bar coordinator.
said better. Um, my name is Cara Dunar. I'm the Ellis Middle School bar coordinator and I'm happy to be here tonight to share some um of our data from this year, our first year of implementation at Ellis. And then I'm Angie Taylor. I
am the bar coordinator of the high school and I will also be sharing about um our implementation process over the last two years. Um, we wanted to just highlight this slide because we believe that bar really connects to our strategic priorities.
Um, specifically the support and resources to ensure a safe and welcoming learning environment and also the district-wide multi-ter systems of support for all learners. Um, just a review of the bar model. Angie told me that um everyone
here has already had um what we like to call bar 101. So I won't go into detail with this, but these are the strategies that are connected to bar. Um and when I first learned about this a few years ago, I felt like, wow, this is everything that we know as far as best
practices and it's all in one model. So it's exciting that way. Um one of the features of bar is that we're connected to a coach. Um this is the um third visit bar coaching report for Ellis Middle School. Um the
first year of implementation of our coach visits four times um and then we have weekly conversations um throughout the year. So you can see that um we are we are doing well for our first year. Um the things that we really our coach and
and the bar center team felt like we have in place right now is that professional development time lessons and contextual support. And we're still of course working on everything. We we can expect to be perfect the first year. It's that cycle of continued improvement. Um but we'll really focus
on our block team meetings, community connect meetings, and that whole student emphasis. Um we have been featured in the bar cent's newsletter a couple of times. This is one of the features from the February bar newsletter. Um, and this is some of our students completing
an eye time lesson, which these took place weekly at Ellis Middle School in our four course subjects. They rotated where the lessons took place. Um, data. So, we Dr. Paige emphas emphasized attendance and we also in
that's one thing that we're really looking at. You can see that um, we have had some improvements. We're comparing last year's quarter 3 um, which was 91.62% 62% at Ellis and this year it's 92.37% and of course we would like to
see that continue to increase. One thing we really hear a lot at our bar meetings from teachers is oh the students are fine when they're here but when they're not here it's really hard to get caught up on the work every time in this class. Um yes you can you can make up the
assignments but there's so much about being in school that it's hard to make up. Um we also collected um data collection on academics. Um and again the baseline year 14.9% is was the quarter 3 failure rate and failure rate means the percent
of FS that um students got that quarter. Am I getting that right Cy? Okay. Um and then we're comparing that to our 2425 which um is 12.5%. So going in the right direction and we would of course like that to continue to decline. our our
teachers work really hard with our students. Students are working hard too, but um our teachers really again and again, you know, that individual attention to students um it's just really needed and and really appreciated by them even if they don't always say
it. Um behavior. So our baseline 2324 um this is behavior incidents through March 31st. So these are incidents that are documented in our infinite campus system as majors. You can see last year we were at 1587 and this year it's 397
which is a huge drop. Um and that drop I I'll be honest there's a few different factors that I believe contributes to that far. But another one is that um our dean of students and our assistant principal are really working hard to keep students in class and supporting
teachers within the classroom instead of having students um leave the classroom. And last year every time a student left the classroom that was documented as a major and called home. And so you can see um that that really that focus has
affected our behavior incidents as well. Um, another piece of data that we collect, so the the bar team meetings, um, small block, big block, community connect, the goal is to discuss every single student at least once over the course of the school year. The
discussions are strength-based and focus on the whole student. As of May 5th, we have discussed 97.7% of the students. So, we are definitely on track to meet that. Well, many students we discuss more than once if there are concerns and and we work on smart goals and
interventions. Um but we are proud of that role. Our teachers have worked really hard and um these bar bar team meetings take place um twice a week. Once for small block, once for big block and then the community connect as well. Can I ask a question about that? Yeah.
Um and then once you just talked about the whole student, can you tell can you tell the board what you mean by bar student? Absolutely. Um first of all I think the one difference um between these bar meetings and other team meetings that I've been part of is I
think it's really easy to skip the the strengths and so having that as part of it. We can talk about the students strengths first because everyone has strengths and then we can talk about as far as the whole student you know things that we might be concerned about whether it be academics or attendance or social
emotional. Um, our school counselors come to all of our Big Bot meetings so they can help with those concerns as well. Um, we also talk about the ways that students are connected to the school community. Um, and a lot of times that sparks conversations. You know, teacher might say, "Oh, I didn't realize
they were in soccer. I have a I have a connection to that student because soccer is a real love of mine, too." Um, the other thing with the whole student is the weekly eye time lessons. they really focus on um things like goal setting and communication and um how we
treat other people um and honoring cultures. So looking at again that whole student. Um one other goal that we have and we got this idea from war and and from Angie she said they did this at the high school is um making sure that this is a way that we can connect with both
families and students. um because we we send a positive postcard home where our goal is to have at least one positive postcard go home to every single student. Um I'll be curious to see if we meet that goal. We have a ways to go. Um as of May 9th, 82.2% of our students had
received at least one positive postcard. So we'll see how we do. Um but we do have not just our team teachers participating in that, but 93% of our certified staff has sent at least one postcard. So, we have a lot of teachers um that really see this as a benefit for
kids. Um kids will say thank you to teachers sometimes sometimes kind of shily off to the side, but it does it does matter to them. Um and parents also have mentioned the postcards um that they appreciate that as well.
Um this is one thing I'll just touch on briefly, but we um as part of our this is one way that it connects to our MTSS process. Um because supplemental support team is is usually talking about groups of students and we really do do that
with bar as well. A lot of it's individual students, but this was one thing that the assistant principal de of students and I tried. Um, so we were looking at the failure rate and specifically the number of students who failed two or more classes because um I
know from working at the high school that that's really tough. If you failed two or more classes in one school year, then it makes it really hard to be on track for graduation. So we looked at our students who first quarter had failed two or more classes and then we took those students that happen to be in
study hall. So it's kind of a random sample third quarter because we wanted to do check-in. We didn't want them to miss class time. We wanted to do it during a study hall. And so, collectively, we worked with 17 different students. It's just a really consistent, a lot of you know what check-in entails. It's I'll tell you,
it's not magic. I mean, it's personal conversation with the student once a week um one-on-one talking about attendance, talking about grades. They they track their grades on a tracking sheet, sending a positive postcard home. Um, in another message I I really tried with my group of students. I was really
helping them to understand what does failing and passing mean? They most of them didn't know. I asked them what percent do you have to get in a class to pass? And they weren't able to tell me. But by the time we talked about it for nine weeks in a row, they could certainly tell me that. Um, and then we could look at, oh my gosh, you're at
56%, you're so close to passing. You can do it. You know, there's not that much more that you need to do. And you can see that we had some success with this. Um, quarter 1, the same group of students had 45 FS between them. Quarter 2 53 Fs and quarter 3 24. Um, so we're
we're looking at ways that we might be able to um have this have this process work within our school day um for more children and involve more people. Um, another group intervention that we um took from the high school, Angie really
talked about this and how catch days. Um we do them in our core subjects. The core subjects that want to do it um either one and seventh, one and eighth. So it could be a total of eight catch days over the course of the quarter. And what it is basically is a way for teachers to work with the kids that need
the help and then that the students that are done with all their work can do some enriching activities that we were able to organize and purchase through our um the AP grant that we got which was awesome. Um it we've kind of worked our way up. Like I said, now we have eight this this quarter. We started out with
just two or three and people have really um seen that it helps it helps teachers. I've had a lot of teachers say, "Wow, it's just so great to be able to work one-on-one with the kids that really need [Music] it." Okay, last thing. Um this is we
focus on family too and we had a a very successful family event where we had about 105 people present. I will say 25 of those people were volunteers. We had a lot of um high school student volunteers um for Austin insurance hours. We had a lot of um clubs there
like to stay on the student council um that had volunteers there as well. Um this is just a little bit about um the bar is expanding to J next year. So, grades five and six. And they have a they have a really great model for it.
Um they're they're I think everyone here knows that they're moving to um you know two two teachers. One's teaching reading math science, the other one's teaching reading math social studies and then they share those kids. Um so it'll be 12 teams with just 60 kids and then the big
block after school I time lessons weekly. And then as far as the exact goals, those are still to be determined, but we're really excited about expanding this to J. I'll turn it over to Angie. All right. Thank you. Um I wanted to start
by just saying um we actually just got back from attending um the bar national conference. Um I had the privilege of presenting again this year, but this year I got to present with a teacher, which was really great. Um, and we were able to focus on some of the interventions that we are doing at the
high school. But not only that, that the data that we're using to validate the impact. Um, I like sharing this because we go every time and Corey is like the star highlight. Um, after our presentations, we like, how do you get those spreadsheets? Where do you get all your data? Who gives you all that
information? You're so lucky in your district. So, just a shout out to Corey. um just because he makes my life so much easier. Um and he gives teachers, you know, weekly data that we can use to assess how students are doing um and
that is really has a lot to do with um the progress that we are making. So, a little little sidebar with that, but um I'm here to just kind of talk about how year two is going with bar at the high school. Um, as a reminder, last year we
just had um one um team, one bar team in the ninth grade. We started small so we can get an idea of how this was going to work, how we can make sure that as we are rolling it up, we can um do it in a way that we're um following the
implementation model. Um and so we had one section of bar last year, we had four teachers on that team and we served about 90 students. During that same year, ALC became interested and they were like, "Angie, can we try bar?" And so, um, we dabbled with that. Um,
structurally, it was a little bit harder because we didn't set it up going in, but we were able to get an idea of, um, the small block and the big block meetings and, um, get that going. And so, um, by the end of the year, um, the ALC was really adapting the model. Um,
into year two, um, we were able, um, to run two teams. Um this year um most of our ninth graders um are teens. And I say most because um we do have students that have very unique schedules. Um and we're still trying to figure out how we
um can make bar teams touch them too. Um but I would say the the majority of our students um were able to be teamed. We have two bar teams, six teachers on each. Um the big change this year is the infusion of the factor profile seminar
course into the bar model. Um those teachers became part of our team which was wonderful. Um and with that class then that gave us an opportunity um to find ways to provide interventions to students. Wednesdays are typically
academic support days in packer profile and those are days often when we're doing um academic interventions that often a content teacher will pair with a profile teacher to help a student if they're struggling in a course. um it gave us a time and space to do that. A
high school schedule, we don't have as much flexibility and we have to get flexibility to give these to students because this is what I say most time students need more time. um more time allows them to ask those questions, to get some ree teaching, um to get more oneonone support and the
pack profile class allowed us to get a lot of the interventions that we wanted to do because if you remember last year, I talked a little bit about how we tried it before um school like study hour with teachers and teachers volunteered to give up that time in the morning. Unfortunately, it was poorly attended um
and so we needed to get more creative about what we can offer during the school day. Um, and like Karen had talked about, we also run catch days as well. And that's provides another opportunity for students to get more one-on-one time with those content teachers or teachers who are the experts
in that area to help them. Um, the last one I ran I I did for social studies and I have one teacher that said he stopped counting after he got 100 assignment or assessments and the other one um got like 80 plus. Um and so that again just
tells you sometimes we just need to find creative ways to give students more time. Um year two um um is also um we are fully um implemented in ALC and instead of just focusing on 9th grade um
because that is a small um um school we do bar 9 through 11 and next year it'll be 9 through 12. Um, so that has been really great to have that additional time to problem solve because if you've heard from me before, the reason I like bar is it gives teachers time and place
to do their best work. Um, teachers do amazing things, but often time they need the structure in that day to be able to collaborate with each other and have extra time to think creatively about how we can help students and this model allows for that. Um, so I'll just go in. I'm going
to just show a little bit of data. Oh, that's right. I have to click it. It doesn't automatically advance for me. Um just a reminder. So, um key insights from um year one when we just had that small pilot group. Um you will see we
saw and I'm going to gloss over this because in year two you'll or year two you'll see the data again. But we saw we started to see a decline in the failure rates. Um we saw a significant decrease in the amount of behaviors that this that that last year's cohort had in
eighth grade compared to ninth grade. Um attendance maintained there was no significant improvement or decline in attendance unfortunately. Um but one of the biggest things that came out of it was credit attainment. Um and I'm just going to review those slides with you. And so
um as you know we need 24 credits to graduate. And so if students can have six or more at the end of their um freshman year, they're considered on track. Um and so that was a measure we decided to look at. I'm so grateful. That's a shout out to Blake Harris. He's, you know, we were looking at
failures and attendance and he's like we should also look at a credit approval. And we would have missed that. This is one of our biggest um areas of impact. Um and so this first slide here was the year before the pilot year. So this was 223. um 66% of our ninth graders attained six
or more credits. Then last year with that pilot group just um of the one one one group of nth graders 71% of our nth graders um attain six or more credits. So that was uh if I do my math that was 67
right go back 66. So a 5% increase. Um but then if we just looked at our students last year, just those 90 students, 78% of them um earned six or more credits. Um and so we are excited to see the promise that was showing with
um credit attainment. Um year two, um we have data through first semester. Um we will be getting a ton more data that I I'll talk about at the end at the close of this
year. Um but we did a semester um data dive to just kind of see some um key insights that they're finding with that. And what we saw is failure rates are continuing to go down. Actually when I um spoke with um Mr. Schmidt, we are seeing that they are getting much closer
to rates that we saw before CO. So that's super exciting. Um, again, we're seeing a significant decline in behaviors from their um, this cohort from when they were in eighth grade to transitioning to the high school. Um,
and again, attendance appears to be less impacted. So, that is one area we're still looking to make movement on. Um, but at the end of this year, we're also going to um, try another attendance measure that I think is equally important, and you've probably heard Dr. page talk about this, but that is the
chronic absenteeism instead of percent in attendance. Um, and so next year if I come back, you'll see me report on that to see if we're making any movement with chronic absenteeism. Um, and so this is just a little bit of data over time. This is going to show our failure rate for ninth
graders. So not the same kids, but the same grade. Um, so in 2023, you're going to see our failure rate was 15.1%. um last year it was 12.7 and this year at semester 2 it was 9.8. So this is really exciting to see um us get back to
those preandemic um failure rates. Um this is cohort data. So this is comparing my current 9th graders to themselves and going back in time and looking at their failure rates. So this same group of kids that were in nth
grade and seventh grade um at quarter 2 or at the end of our semester the failure rate was 11 um24 when they were eighth graders their failure rate was 21.19 and as freshman it that's first semester it was 9.8.
This um talks a little bit also about um behavior data. And this is where um there's a lot of different data in here. And I like to show this because it tells you the importance of looking at data when I say comparing cohorts to um
themselves over time because we all know we have children. Cohorts all have their own unique vibe to them, right? And so sometimes comparing nth grade and nth grade and nth grade doesn't tell the whole story, but it does tell a story. Um, and so I like to make sure we're using data for both just to see the
whole um um story. So if you look at this, I'm going to be real honest, it doesn't look like we made a ton of movement um with um behavior. It seems pretty flatline. What you're seeing in the bar graph is that recidivism rate. And so that is how often the same
student is going to get another behavior referral. And so that's comparing nth grade over the last three years. But if I go to the next slide, this is showing um the behavior data of my nth grade compared to themselves over time.
And so if you look at that, you can see that their behavior rates have gone down significantly. And if we look at individual students when we are problem solving them on team and we do a dive into previous behaviors, we're seeing that there's much less behavior referrals as they're coming
up. Um and that is the end. A couple more things that I am looking forward to letting you guys know. Um, like Karen, um, we on team, so on my teams, the students that are teams, both of our teams have been able to send a positive postcard to a student that we're at
100%. So, we made that. Um, and bar itself does teacher surveys and student surveys. Um, last year our sample size was so small and I'll have comparative data and so we weren't able to get um, teacher feedback. I did my own um to get
a little bit of teacher feedback, but that is something I'll be able to present on um is just what teachers are saying. But if I want to say anything, please come talk to to the teachers at the high school. Um they have tons of insight. They do really, really, really great work. They have lots of time to
collaborate. They give really good feedback. Um and they can tell you the ins and outs of our what they appreciate about the block meetings. Um what they appreciate about eye times. They'll tell you some of our challenges that we're continuing to work on. Um, but they can
do it even better than I can and they have really great stories. Um, and so right now we have six teach or 12 teachers on the AHS team. Um, and then we have three on our ALC team. Um, and so whenever you're if you happen to be
in the building and you run across them, I encourage you to talk to them about this model because they'll give you even more information. I just want to thank you for that invitation to come up and talk to the teachers. Yeah, because they do have stories to tell, right? Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Um,
any other questions? Yeah. What is a catch day? Oh, thank you. So, a catch day actually tomorrow. Um, catch days, first off, I have to say, um, I know like physical books are going away, but media centers are very important. So if
I have to say anything, they um provide space for us to be creative. Um and I am so thankful for the one at the high school. I can't even explain it. So um what happened is this was the brainchild um again Blake Harris. we were problem solving last year and I was like and he
asked um I said well what do you need like how can we get students you know to get caught up and he's like I need you to take all the kids we're all caught up out of my class so I can focus on my students who need more attention and I was like okay well and that was it and
so what we do is like social studies I will go down to the media center I'll work with our um um um staff in the media center and we will put out all type of enrichments activities um for the students who are caught up and then I the two of us man we have all these
activities they have phones it's so great they socialize it's so great I I should invite you to catch so you can see it but um we have as many activities as we can I tried to find some physical ones and tomorrow we can go outside and have indoor but they come
down and then the students are all caught up get enrichment sometimes kids come down and actually do homework for other classes which is awesome Um, and then the rest of the students who are missing assignments or assessments get to stay up there with the teachers and have a day to go back and do some of
those. Um, I can have twothirds of a class. I can have half a class. I can have, you know, every class is different, but I can we can usually hold I can usually do two teachers in a day. Um, Karen I think does it pretty similarly. Yeah. Yeah. My ours very
similar. We actually have one Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week. So if anybody's at Ellis, come on in. We use the media center. We're also going to use outside. Um, kind of depends upon our staffing and sometimes we have three teachers. So then we're really hoping that we it's good weather so we can take some of the kids outside. But we do
things like, you know, we do have video games, but we also have board games. We have VR goggles. We have puzzles. We have we have like coloring. A lot of our kids like to color. Um, and I I would echo what Andrew said, like it's so they're having so much fun with each other. Oh, we have ping pong. We have
ball. It's just it's party. Um yeah, so that's been really great and feedback from students. Um the first year I ran it and I was like, you know, for students who have to stay stay back, you know, I was wondering, but one day I had the perfect I had a student and this was when I was combining two different
teachers. So I was a student who got to come down for catch day for one class and then stayed up with the teacher for the other class. Um and I said, "Well, what do you think about it?" He's like, "It was perfect. I needed all that extra help." And so really, it wasn't even a negative. but he was so happy to get the extra um time and attention as the with
his teaching one class and he was super excited about other class to be able to come down um and do it. Um, and so next year I will have a little bit more time as a bar coordinator. So we'll be able to offer a little bit more because you have to be creating for them to be able to do. But
yeah, that is the catch day. One other question. Um, when you're talking about the behavior of referrals and how they gone down so much, you mentioned that students were you being able to leave them in the classroom rather than move up in the
classroom. Yeah, that's fair. Y what does that look like and how does it impact the other students that are in the classroom? Right. Right. Great question. It's more um think about it like teachers still I mean they will ask for help. It might not it might be in the moment or it might be after class,
you know, they'll still get help from our native students um with ideas, maybe take a student for a walk, you know, just other things that the student needs. But what we found at Ellis um because we were instituting you know if you need a student removed we're here for you. We can do that. Uh but it
really when we looked at the data it didn't work really for anybody. What happened in a lot of cases is it kind of um it kind of hurt the relationship between the teacher and the student um when they're being removed um when I made them house at home because I was
the assistant principal at that time and I I wasn't really able to I wasn't there in the classroom and so I couldn't really have a meaningful conversation with a parent about what actually happened. Um, and then sometimes we all middle school students, people would be
plotting and they'd be like, "Oh, I'm going to try and get removed from my class and you try and get removed from your class and then we'll all end up in the same place." And it just turned into a little bit of a game that way. Um, and and kind of a habit, I would say,
instead of the idea that, hey, the students it's so important to be in the class when you're not. we talked about attendance, you know, and so if you're not physically in the classroom, whether it's because you're at home or whether it's because you're, you know, farmed off to this other location, you're not
learning. Um, so, but as far as like the atmosphere for the rest of the students in the classroom, I mean, the de students and the assistant principal are still there to support the teachers when they need it and problem solve and and do everything that needs to be done. Um, sometimes it involves the parent meeting. Sometimes, you know, it
involves um them meeting with the students as well. Any other questions? I do have a question because I have that exact question behavior, but on your slides when you're talking about you had in
parentheses major. Can you kind of clarify what what is a major behavior? Yep. I I mean the an easy definition is a major is a behavior that's put in our infinite campus system. That's the way we do it at
Ellis. Whereas if the teacher when teachers are seeing things, we have a system that's um outside of the infinite campus system. It's for PBIS that where they would put minors in. And so we're still keeping that data. It's just it's just separately. Um there I mean there
is a minor a way to put a minor in a campus, but we're not using we're collecting that data separately. and the dean of students. I know I also she really looks at the minor data as well that the teachers are putting in and she um reacts accordingly. I mean as far as
that goes, but as far as what constitutes a a major, I think maybe that was more of what your question was um that there's a lot of different incidents within the fit that definition
like um controlled substance, you know, that that happened at school. Um, if a if a student threatens somebody else, that's certainly a major. Um, if there's any if there's a physical altercation, that might be called disorderly conduct. It might also be called fighting. It might be called assault. You know, those
those are all majors. Um, those are a few. I sound exhausted though. Thank you. I just like to react to your statements about you using the word fun. use things like chess, um, pingpong or x Google or
various things. And, uh, I see those as being play. I think play is important and it might have impact on behaviors, you know. So, I commend you on on talking about that. That's really important to the whole child.
Yeah. Tomorrow, we're going to try hand jam. If anybody's played that before, spikeball, maybe. Thank you. Thank you. Our next item on the agenda is our addiction and talented and math audit updates with our GT and 57 curriculum
coordinator and our curriculum coordinator. Okay. Three school years ago, the district conducted a K12 math program review. And so tonight, Andre and I are here to update you on the steps we've taken based on those recommendations
that we received from that program review um probably about two years ago to the date. Um so focusing today on our MTSS like how we support all students within our system and really looking
from the kids perspective is that um they have teachers and staff that work with me in a in a way that benefits all students. So we're talking tonight about all students across the spectrum of math success and then GT for families. We want to make sure
that their children are challenged but not overwhelmed in learning and development. they're listened to and provided choice and voice in their learning options. And for staff, we want to make sure that they're working in a district that's willing to adapt and change when necessary to best meet the needs of all
students. And we're obviously communicating what we've done thus far. So the elementary um key initiatives that were given to us after the program review was complete was to take a look at our assessments that we are using and make sure they were aligned to our
Minnesota state standards. Consider the depth of knowledge questions that we use in those assessments. Review and revise the delivery of instructional practices as they were found to be very traditional. uh review standards and benchmarks to be sure there's a sense of
how students will do on the MCAs and then align vocabulary and strategies across grade levels. Review best practices of small group instruction to review and support early skills based on strands of standards. So those were kind of our six main um directions given to
us at the elementary level. So in year one um we use our grade level leaders. So each grade K through four has two teachers that lead the grade level meetings. We did a book study on math fact fluency. One of the things that we
hear often is that our students lack um basic number sense or um math facts. So we did a lot of work on what does that mean and what does best practice of instruction look like around number combinations and fluency. We also reviewed the Minnesota math
lessons and updated the rigor and we reviewed our unit assessments to align with state standards. That was year one. This past year, we did a book study on um small group instruction and how to
best um get students involved in the process of learning. uh research says that just taking the daily lesson and doing it again in a small group doesn't necessarily create more success for those students. So we needed to take a look at what would best practices of
math instruction look like. Uh we focused on tools and preparation for MCAs for grades three and four and we shared resources on the teaching and learning site for numeracy and fluency. Um the coaches and the grade level leaders collected several ideas of how
to grow numerousy in their students and we put them into a common hold in place so that all the teachers could access those. We identified the standards aligned to each question on the unit assessments and we collected feedback on those revised assessments. And so again
this spring summer uh the grade level leaders are revising unit assessments again and that's a pattern that we will continue to do annually. Next year three um we are happy to have PLC's back in action. we kind of had to pause our PLC model due
to the readact training. So that will be back on schedule and we will use some of those meetings to review the outcomes for students on those unit assessments that we have revised and aligned standards. We will review and align curriculum and assessment with new math standards. So just when we got all of
that done, there's new math standards coming in next year's kindergarteners will take MCAs when they're in third grade aligned to the new standards. So we have to get off and running. Um, and we have some documents from the state department of what's new in these standards that wasn't in the standards
before, what has been removed, and then what is virtually very much the same. We will review and update the math vocabulary document. Two teachers working on that right now to make sure that the vocabulary used in the new standards still aligns with the
vocabulary we are using from my math, our curriculum. Um, we are starting to dive into equity in math instruction and we are aligning uh summer school math instruction to a new math standards for next summer and looking at some new resources. And then
one of the things from our book study this year is a process called TQE and it's a devise a task. The teacher prepares questions that we they will ask the students in small group that are very open-ended and then look for evidence of student understanding. Um, one of the great things about the book
study we did this year was there were several instructional videos. Uh, so it would be a teacher modeling a small group lesson with students that we could access. Gives teachers a really good idea of what good small group math instruction looks like. We will now start to develop our own questions and
problems for students to solve in small group. That's the end of our plan for K through four. Any questions for me? area for 5 to 12. Good evening. I'm here to talk about
512 math. Uh as part of the program review for math 512, there was eight different initiatives that we were asked to take a look at. First is honors track conversations that establish multiple entry points and criteria. This also
matches very nicely with some of the work that we're doing in our GT programming. Assign specific benchmarks to assessment questions, standards driven course assessments for each grade for each course regardless of what grade it's being taught in. We have some courses that are actually taught in
multiple grades between grade conversations that facilitate common language and strategies that are developmental established and after the MCA plan that prepares students for the next course. conversations about depth of knowledge level questions used in
class and assessments in the curriculum, spiraling throughout the year and review new resources after new standards are finalized, which is very exciting because they were just finalized in April. Um, which will really help drive our work in the next couple of
years. Uh year one, our 512 uh department meetings, uh our math department did a deep dive into NCA scores and district math data to understand what our current context was. Uh they started between grade level communication about common language and strategies used to teach math. And in a
second, you're going to see why maybe that's a little bit challenging for some of our programming right now. And a review of NCA calculator tools. Um each year in on the NCA exam, they've been updating the tools. there was a new set of tools that was also introduced this year that we shared with our
staff. So, one reason why some of the between grade level conversations might be a little challenging is that if you look at our current um alignment and our programming that we use in math, um we're moving between different companies as part of our curriculum. Um, and I'm a
believer in that having some consistency um, between what's happening at each grade level will help us have better conversations and better use of vocabulary. Um, and so we are going through a math curriculum review. In two years, we'll have new curriculum. Um, and but we're going to start that
process now so we can start to have those conversations, align them to standards, and really make some movement there. In year two, um, we had conversations around entrance to honors programming. This happened some of our 512 math
meetings, department chair meetings, and our IG schedule transition. So, we we're looking at exploring opportunities for multiple entry points into honors or advanced curriculum. And next year, we will implement advanced programming in both math and reading at
IG standards work for 512 math meeting. there are five math meetings. Um really focus now on reviewing new standards to identify what the students need to know and do. Um just last Friday uh working with our math coach uh we attended a
compass meeting where they started to talk about how we can break down our standards to meet the needs of our students and our staff so we really know what's being asked. We're going to talk have conversations about how to build from grade level to grade level and what is our common language and strategies
which I think will be very very helpful for us. And then also year two this year uh technology use uh we reviewed MCA testing calculators uh they added Desmos they also added multiplication tables for students to be able to use as part
of testing. Um and we saw smart technology go away. It's outdated. It's not being updated. And so there was opportunities to introduce both class point and class screen as opportunities to have some of those tools to use our math
classroom. Next year uh 2526 uh we are implementing a part-time math coach to support the audit audit work across the 512 math classes. I'm excited to say that Tony Ederson will be our math coach. Um he's very passionate about teaching and wants to continue to stay
in the classroom which I appreciate. Um he's a really strong teacher in our classroom living the experience while also coaching teachers. Um and excited to have him join our coaching team. Uh we will be offering accelerated math courses at IG Bolton next year which is very
exciting. We're going to begin the curriculum review process and this is where that intensive work starts to begin. again brand new standards and so a lot of the work was kind of on hold waiting for what are they going to be how are they going to change shared that we've been attending some meetings and
they have given us a really nice crosswalk document that was created actually by a different district um but MDE is also coming out with some of their own crosswalk documents um this fall so we'll review course alignment 512 with the opportunity for honors
entry points align standards to courses reviewing curriculums and resources common resources across the 512 system to ensure common language and teaching strategies. This is going to be multi-year. It's not going to be a one year and done. This will be a process for us. We'll continue to look at
technology resources to support the curriculum and we'll as we move through the curriculum process build standards driven assessments looking at depth of knowledge and this will really start taking place 26 27 beyond. Questions about math? Can I ask a question about the standards? Is there
a significant change? Um, looking at the crosswalk document, they have the standards that are completely new. Okay. They have some that are have changed with some significance and some that have made the same. Some
standards have moved grade levels. Um, and so looking at to see where they're aligned. So, it's going to be some work to really sit down and look at them and really say, "What is in this grade level? What is aligned here?" And so, that's significant work. And so, when we talk about it being a multi-year
process, we really want to be intentional about it to make sure we get it right. Great. All right. Then, I'm going to move on to our GT program review. Um through our GT review there was six things for us to
take a look at. One revise identification procedures to promote uh proportionate representation of culturally diver diverse students. Increase fidelity and implementation of cluster groupings in grades K8. Increase the availability of enrichment
activities for students particularly at the secondary level. Four, provide frequent ongoing professional development for GT teachers with an emphasis on training and differentiation for all teachers. Provide teacher parent meetings to communicate information about the program and student progress
and expand district and site personnel with roles and responsibilities for maintaining program goals and implementation across district schools. So in year one, uh we have a really great advanced academic and PI team that comes together and works really well
together and we're really instrumental in working on the uh program information and so work to develop an advanced academic program description. We updated our website to reflect that. There's some links there that link you to that.
We also have talked significantly about our identification practices. Um we updated and revised our early entrance to kindergarten and grade acceleration uh procedures. Um they align with board policy and we used them a couple of
times. Also in year one we looked at advanced academic and high academy identification criteria. So we did a review of our current practices. We researched identification practices used by different schools across the state. We worked with Carrie to refine
practices and gather information and feedback from them. Um, as we put together our identification procedures throughout the way, we had them give us feedback to say, "Yep, have you thought about this?" And so really looking at using multiple measures to look at how our students are performing and use criteria to identify students for the PI
program for the 2025 school year. Uh, as far as professional development, I encourage our staff al staff and families across the district to attend the GT symposium that will be happening again this summer in June. And there's some really great programming there
that free for us to attend and teachers get like 24 credits. So, that's a really kind of good bonus to attend that. um differentiated instruction PD was provided to our year two teachers across the district and really working on looking at the work of Tracy Emman and
Carol and Tom Thompson and both leaders in that work. Um it's been really fun working with our year two teachers on what are some different strategies and ways to approach um differentiation in their classroom not just with our advanced academic teachers but also with our new teachers to our district. And
then family communication. Um we did a welcome night at our J PI program for identified students and families. Before we had just done this at um Southgate. So uh last year for the first time we invited the current fourth graders in the PI programming as well as any new
students identified to come and have anformational meeting there and that was very well received. This year, uh, our progress has maybe been a little bit slow because our teachers have been participating in OLA training and they need the time to really be able to focus on that. So, we
haven't been able to gather out of the PLC group. Um, they're really fun groups to get together and share ideas with, but it's been a little bit on pause, but we have still moved forward with some of our work. Uh, so we looking at our identification processes for PI advanced academics and also the advanced
programming at J Colton trying to gather their feedback. Uh so we've used that new criteria and we continue to review the effectiveness and so as we really get here into the summer we'll I'll do a little bit more of a deep dive into our data to see how did our identific
identification criteria work in our programming. Uh the other thing that we work together as a group is we each have our own kind of way or system of communicating with families in our buildings. And so when our students are identified for um advanced academics, we
really wanted to be able to provide a consistent message about the work that we're doing to our families. And so this year worked with our teachers to update our advanced academic letters so that when students enter into programming, they're going to get a letter starting next year that will say a welcome from
the teacher how the child was selected, what they are studying or working on, and what they will miss on their classroom. So will they miss small group reading? Will they miss small group math? What are they missing out on when they're not in that classroom environment? The other thing that we've
been working on um is we're working on putting together a s'more that we'll be able to share with our families throughout the year. Um so we've been designing what this newsletter will look like, but we really want to be able to share the families program our program definition. We want to be able to
introduce who our teachers are. We want to talk about what is the current service of study that they're working on because each of our grades are doing just something a little bit different. Whether it be working on critical thinking, reading a novel, we want to be able to share that information. You want to share any upcoming activities that
are advanced families may be interested in participating in and then links and resources for gifted children and their families. Um there's many resources out there that we can connect families with. also want to work on explicit invitation to visit uh caregivers at
conferences. I think sometimes our families go to conferences and they don't always have the opportunity to talk with our uh advanced academic teachers and we want to make sure they have that opportunity and know that it's available to them. Again, this year with professional
development encourage attendance at the GT symposium. Um they we've actually been asked to learn a little bit about our GT programming in one of the many sessions during the afternoon. Uh provide opportunities for GT teachers to attend MEGT that's the Minnesota Association. Unfortunately this year we
didn't have teachers available. Lots of different activities going on with their families. I want to be able to honor that as well. But it is an opportunity for our teachers to attend if they would like. And then continue the differentiation instruction PD for our year two teachers in the district. as we get together next year. I'm really
excited to have more time with them. We uh have talked about what our PLC time will look like and how we can gather together. Uh we want to investigate and expand our enrichment activities and we're excited that we'll have that opportunity next year at Colton. We want to evaluate and adjust and modify
communication and identification plans. So continue to find ways to communicate with our families and also make sure that our identifi identification practices are what they need to be. We want to continue to identify and deliver professional development opportunities. Continued alignment of our curriculum
and resources. And again, we're four different elementary buildings and we're finding that there's different materials and resources in each of our spaces. Um really want to be able to come together with them and make sure we have consistent curriculum so that we're all on the same page and working on the same ideas. I will just tell you the last
time I meet with them, met with them, um it was really a wonderful experience. They were sitting around the table talking about next year and talking about curriculum and the comment was I really like to learn from you about how you do this in your building. Um and so they really work together as a team and
value each other and your input and I love staying in that space with them. Uh investigate cluster grouping options at our elementarymentaries. I know some of that's already happening as we think about classrooms for next year and students in those spaces um at JJ Holton
and all of our elementary buildings. And then we need to develop a program evaluation plan. We wanted to try to get some things in place first before we can really dive into what is that going to look like for our system. So, lots of work to continue to do um but really exciting
work. Any questions? two questions um about um becoming a student in gifted and talented. Are you invited? Are you selected? Do you apply? Is a combination of those things? Yeah. So, what what we
do is and really I rely on our teachers at the site to work with their buildings to identify students. Uh one of the focuses that we do put an emphasis on is we look at star testing. Uh so that's our benchmark with testing that we do throughout the year and how students are
performing on that. We also use KOAT testing um to help identify students. We identify students u especially with the non-verbal category for our young scholars program. Um so we use those two measures and then there's also some teacher recommendation that teachers ask
questions where are students at and some of those pieces. So, a lot of it's based on testing um and looking at where students are at. We have kind of a benchmark threshold, but it may may be plus or minus um based on the grade level or opportunities, number of staff,
pieces like that. Thanks. Um on your key GT initiatives, I'd like to ask you about um bullet point number four. Sure. It states uh my frequent uh you've talked about this a lot tonight ongoing professional development for GT teachers
and we all are lifelong learners right uh and then it says um with an emphasis on training and differentiation. Can you explain to me what differentiation means? It's really about meeting our students where where they're at and how can we provide the best education for
each student sitting in our classroom. So, how can we look at a lesson and adapt it to make sure that each student can approach it? Um, I can think back to some of my own experience. This is a very rudimentary example. Um, but I would oftentimes hand out a reading to
my students when they came into my classroom. Um, the one I'm thinking about in particular was primary source information. and I knew my students and what level of reading ability they had based on looking at their day data and I could provide an appropriate reading
sample for them so that they could read it and still participate in the conversation hear what others were saying in the classroom. So really working to modify or adjust to make sure that learning is approachable for all of our students.
Okay, next one. Thank you. Thank you. Our next update is on multi-tered systems of support with executive director of academics and administrative services and executive director of special services.
It's coming. Chair duvet school board. Superintendent uh I'm Katie Gaskin and I'm here tonight with Sherat and we are going to give you an update on our MTSS uh systems of supports across the across the
district. Um so as we think about this information and we will try and be uh as we approach this information tonight we're really focusing on our strategic priority number three which is district to provide multi-tered assistance of supports for all learners. kind of what
Andrew was just talking about as well as our latest speaking about our program really meeting kids where they're at and providing them the supports that they need. So, we're going to use the acronym MTSS quite a bit tonight and as we're doing that I'm going to challenge you to really think about our core values and
the different values that are coming out in this work across our system particularly being responsible. Our staff are incredible and they are so responsive and responsible to our students for meeting them where they're at as well as being a learner. We have
taken uh this program review back in 2021 is when it was completed. Um and it is a multi-year process of implementation as well as evaluation. And so we're all learners in this process. I know there a number of times tonight when we talk about the learning that has gone on across the
system. Um so tonight we'll also discuss some of the pieces um in regards to our desired daily experience. And I think it's really important to note that it is just that it's a desire. It's something we're working towards and constantly working at. Um so one of the things that
we're working at with our faith assistance of support is really that they have that our students have teachers and staff that work with them uh in a way that benefits all students. for our families. We're working towards making sure that our
teachers know our kids, which they do an incredible job of, but that also means knowing their academic data, behavior data, attendance data. It's a lot for our teachers to to really wrap their brains around. And so making sure that we're doing our job and providing tools
and resources to do so as well as time. And then for our staff, uh, working in a collaborative, not competitive environment that honors the unique strengths of each individual. Our staff serve an incredible amount of gifts and talents within each classroom,
and that requires a lot of tools and resources to be able to meet all of those needs. So, the Minnesota MTSS uh, structure is really made up of five fundamental components. Um and you will
you will hear a little bit about our journey tonight uh in regards to our audit or our program review that was completed back in 2021 and the different places that we have taken those recommendations uh and the different components that they touch. So that
first one, infrastructure and continuous improvement. Just really important that we not only have structures set up for our staff to be constant learners and and stewards of their students needs, but also that we're looking at continually improving them. Um we'll
also talk a little bit about those multi-layered practices and supports and some of our decision rules that Sherry's going to discuss. Um and then particularly our look at assessment data as data informs our process of instruction as well as how we we meet
our students in our classrooms every day. Um so our program review started back in 2021. We had a comprehensive review which included staff surveys and and everything under the sun in terms of focus groups and so on both with all of
our stakeholder groups um to really provide us like Andrea and Sheila shared uh a list of key initiatives. This provided us uh pages I believe it was 93 pages of of work and and feedback on our
MTS system considering it's all that we do and who we are. Um so in 2223 uh the first step that we took based off of our initiatives was really helping our system to understand the why and the what of MTSS. What is MTSS? Why do we
need MTSS? What does that mean for me on Tuesday at 9:30 in my classroom? Um and so we did some of that work with different teams across the system, but we also did a teams inventory. Some one of the initiatives that that was recommended for us was really to align align our team structure across our
system um good, bad, right or wrong, we all had many of different many different teams within our buildings and were functioning all with a little bit different purpose. Um and as we learned through our program review, we also share a number of staff. And so for them
to code switch depending on the building got a little exhausting. And so one of the recommendations was really to understand what the teams are within our system and how we can align them. In 23 24 we then took that first step of creating district aligned teams uh
within our our buildings and our sites. And then those teams did an intense amount of learning uh about their role and what all of the different teams are. I had a great opportunity of of working and and learning with the Banfield team.
Um and it was just really insightful to learn from our our colleagues at MDE and Carrie and then what does that mean for us in our school system here in Austin um and then this year uh and future years we'll really be working on that
implementation change management. So taking those initiatives and making sure that they're ready within the system and and supporting our staff, our students and our system in meeting uh meeting those recommendations. So the first team that we have is our
district MTSS team. And this team has taken quite an evolution from our program review year to now. Um so we've always had a district MTSS team, but our focus has become really refined because of our program review and the needs that
our buildings are telling us. Um so few things that we've really focused on this year. Number one is just implement implementing the the recommendations from the audit. So, we've been very focused and highly motivated to really move uh in that implementation plan.
We've been looking at things like assessment. Our uh read act legislation has really taken uh quite a stance and has made us shift some gears in terms of how we assess students and and what systems we are allowed to use to assess
students. Um, so we've done quite a bit of work in also uh understanding what the data means because it's one thing to assess students, it's another thing to take a look at it and and understand how that can impact instruction. Um, we've also worked intentionally around
feedback loops. Uh, our district team only functions as well as our site teams. And so really making sure that we're connected to those site teams and understanding what are the the issues or the successes that they are experiencing are incredibly important in order for
the district team to be responsive. We developed uh two years ago we developed an FAQ just for ourselves for the questions we were getting from our site teams to then get answers to and make sure that we we have a consortium of responses and and ways in which we can
support our teams. And then we've also been working on developing a handbook of resources and consistent tools for our site teams to utilize. So what are those site teams? We really have four tiers of teams that are operationalized at each of the building levels. The first one is
a school leadership team. Each of our sites has a team of school leaders. Um and that team is really identifying those district or those buildingwide priorities um and and how they're going to put those in the strategic plan
within their sites. We also have professional learning communities or PLC's um and those have had to take a bit of a pause which has been kind of sad for some of our buildings. They really enjoyed that time to work together, but they should be back in full swing uh next year. Uh really
talking around instruction, student data, assessment, and and how we are to to what our students need. That next tier is the supplemental support team. So that's our tier 2 team when we're talking about groups of students who may not be being successful in tier one and
what kinds of interventions or structures are we able to put into into place to support them. And then we have our intensive support team and that is our tier three team. So when we get down to an individual level for a student who
may have been we tried this intervention and that intervention and it's just we're not finding success, we're going to move to more of an intensive support team model around that student. Uh that involves a number of different stakeholders. Um, our school leadership teams are
incredible and I feel like they've been going through lots of growing pains and figuring out how they best function and as a district team we're really trying to also develop tools kind of building a plane as they and flying a plane as they build it um to support these teams. So
this year we're working on creating tools to support their goal creation that align with their PLC's as well as just their organizational meetings. So when they kick off the year and they're talking about their priorities and their QBIS and their professional development
plan, how can we provide a tool and support for them to make sure that all those things happen? Um, and then we're also working to provide them with like a regular reading framework that just helps guide their work. Uh, it's not going to limit their work, but also make sure that we don't miss any of those
components of those five uh elements of MTSS. And then for professional learning communities, um we've done an incredible amount of work with our district uh leaders or principles have actually done uh for the last year and a half. They
did uh they've done a lot of learning work around PLC's and what do good PLC's need to function? What are those organizational pieces that need to be in place as well as structures to support teachers in having good conversations about instruction? Um so that has been
taking place this year. And then we're also looking at what are some of those tools that that PLC's will need. Uh we will be integrating a new data system called edgy climber next year which will really be transformative for our PLC's
to have easier access to data and for them to give us feedback on what works and isn't working for them so that we can create systems for them to be able to really talk around their student data. All right, I'll turn it over to Sherry. All right. So the next team in our
support structure under MTSS is our supplemental support team. And again, this is the team that looks at building level data. So they look at attendance data, behavior data, academic data, and then makes decisions about moving students around to various small
groupoup interventions to try to meet their needs. Uh, one of the pieces of work that our district level team has been doing this year is trying to come up with a standard format for buildings to follow in how they look at the data and structure those meetings. Um, so I
was actually talking to I met with our student support professionals today and they were pretty excited about the prospect of moving forward under a new framework like this for next year. Um, we also have been working on menus of interventions at the different sites
both for behavior and academics and then decision roles. So, I'll show you a couple of examples of those. So, this is an example for grades 1 through four of our reading interventions that are in place throughout the district. You can see
that it works among the five different areas of reading and across tiers one, two, and three. So tier one interventions would be delivered within the general education environment. Tier two may also be uh implemented in the general ed environment but in a small
group with an interventionist or a specialist. And then tier three is more individualized or even smaller group more intensive interventions. And then along with that we have decision rules for reading. So we start out we identify the specific
area of reading that the student has a deficit in. We use our data to do that and then that drives what direction we go for the interventions and then based on how the student does as determined by our progress monitoring data we know where to move within the flowchart uh of
decisions. This is an example of a behavior intervention chart at Holton. Again, behaviors that can be implemented either in tier one, tier two or tier three. And then decision rules for behavior. So depending on if it's a
major or minor behavior, what are the steps that we can follow in intervening uh with this behavior and then our final team, our final layer of support is our intensive support team. Um with this process, Corey very
kindly helped us build our forms for the process right within Infinite Campus. The beautiful thing about that is they flow right along with the student as they move building to building. So, we've got a nice history right in front of us to be able to track the students
progress. Um, in addition to that though, so we're going to maintain those same base forms that are already built in campus, but in in addition, we're trying to standardize some of the supplemental forms that teams have found with trial and error that they're needing. So, sometimes they want to they
might want to gather a developmental and health history from the family. Or if it's an EL student, they might want to do a more in-depth EL questionnaire with the family. Or maybe we want to do like a screening observation with our occupational therapist or our speech
clinician or we might want to do a classroom observation. So we're trying to add in some more standardized forms for that process so that across the buildings we have a more standardized process. And then lastly, uh we just wanted to
include here our district vision card for MTSS. Just to kind of ground you again in this card, the middle uh section there, the tan section is our baseline and our goal is to be moving to the right. So you can see overall we are
making progress um as we move along. So for the top line of reading well by third grade, uh you can see our baseline in the top row there. and then slowly we've been making progress to the right uh side. Same with eighth grade math
proficiency. We have a baseline in the middle and then making progress each of the three years. Um so boy that is really small. So we want to make sure
that yeah we want Yes. Thank you. This is our kindergarten benchmarking assessment. So you can see we have our um we had our benchmarking year and then we took a step backward the following year but then we took a step forward and and that is coming along as well. Then
we want participation in our advanced programming to be reflective of our student population. So looking at the diversity of students participating again we're making progress in that area. Um so um our having our teams in place,
we feel like that's really become pretty much standard practice. The past two years we've had all four teams in place and all of our sites. This is uh an item that could likely be moving off our vision card in the future and making room for another area of study. And then
the very last one is our area we're continuing to really prioritize and focus on and that is our graduation rates. um that one is um down at a level one currently, but as Dr. Paige indicated earlier, it's a real area of focus. We're working with some of our
community partners, with our bar teams, with our SST teams to focus in on that attendance and interventions in that area. And that is our presentation. Do you have any questions? I love a good flowchart. So, thank you
for adding that. That is so helpful. And thank you for sharing your vision card. I heard about those a long time ago and it's that's a really great visual for us. So, thank you. Thank
you. Our next agenda item is a referendum discussion with Superintendent DeS representative C. Peterson and PMA Representative Michael. [Music]
Thank you, uh, Chair Bay, members of the board. As our team gets situated here, uh, tonight, the board's going to review proposed ballot question and the potential scope of projects that could be included in a future referendum and the supporting materials that provide a
summary and detailed information organizing each of the project categories. uh and building along with the draft ballot language and estimated tax impact as well. Uh this information will serve as the foundation for the re required review and comment that needs
to be submitted by June 17th. And I will turn it over to Sue and Michael. Here we go. Thanks. [Music] All right. Thanks for letting us join you. Oh, thanks for letting us I usually
don't need the microphone. Thanks for letting us join you tonight. Um, we want to go through, as Dr. Paige said, this is a a long journey. In fact, as I was looking back through um the reports and our board reports and our facility committee
reports, I think we started this work in 2022. So here we are um at a time where tonight after our work together hopefully we will have some thoughtfulness of um do we want to put a
question or questions on the ballot this coming November. So I really want to just remind you of the important data um collection and information that we have gathered and have had conversation with you about over the last three years. And
so that facility condition assessment where our team has gone into your buildings um really looked at the needs of your buildings. We've analyzed capacity. Um we've analyzed what the educational needs are in your school and then we've done some prioritization of
what those projects would look like. And so really our hope is that we take all of that work and say what are those next steps for facility projects within all of your buildings. So, if you recall, um, in, like I said, in
2022, we started really having some conversation. And so those of you that are new to the board will be able to go back through some of those other reports and look at we initially, if you recall when um our team was here, we started talking about where those general
education classrooms and the capacity of each of your buildings and also those support spaces that we would need. So how many kiddos can we fit in each of your schools? Because at one point we thought, are we crowded? Are we going to need to expand? What does that look
like? You also conducted two different enrollment projection studies. So, you worked with Hazel Reinhardt in November of 2024. You received a report from Teamworks that really analyzed your community's demographics and your
housing and workforce and said, "Here's what we anticipate for what enrollment should look like." So you have all of those reports that we've been thoughtful of as we've moved forward. In January of 23, our team of engineers and building
facility assessment experts walked all of your buildings and really started looking at what needs um for making improvements and addressing building systems and building envelopes needs to be done. And so you have heard that
report and seen that the spreadsheet you have in front of you that hopefully you received in advance of today is one that we then took all of that information um working with Joe and Todd and said okay
which projects really do we need to be thoughtful about while using a bond. So you see that we had about $64.6 6 million in projects um that we had identified as um projects that really
across all of your buildings. So, we wanted to give you that information as far as um broken down by building as far as what projects would be done so you can see that. Again, this is the high level, those additional pages. We wanted
to make sure you really could say, "Yep, we understand what projects would be included should we move forward on a bond." So, um, that's there. Then, last a few weeks ago, you heard from the
Morris Leatherman team regarding the community survey that they conducted. And if you recall in that presentation, he talked about project prioritization as far as what were the priorities of your taxpayers as far as what types of
projects were they um feeling that they would support? Should they be included in a bond? So things like we heard athletic projects didn't have as much support, but other investments in your buildings certainly did. And we also
looked at where were people's, you know, where were they at as far as supporting a potential bond. And so we certainly heard a foot on the gas um you know, not a pump the brakes um during that
presentation. And we really started to be able to to narrow in on that tax threshold of your citizens. And so where that landed as far as how do we now back into a bond um for you know for
putting a question or questions on the ballot. So you've got that information again like I talked about the project prioritization from the survey and then we tried to align that with the facility assessment data that we've been talking
about for two years. We've taken projects out that we knew Joe um was going to be able to tackle with other dollars over the next year. And so we've got done all of that work which has led us to the bond opportunity and really
kind of some decisions that we want as we think are thoughtful for today. So, if you recall really that that last um meeting that you had with um Peter Leatherman, we talked about um perhaps a
two question ballot. So, we removed some projects and that we could really see based on all of the data and the work we've done over the last few years that we could see a a first question that would have about $54.4 $4 million and
facility improvement projects. And then question two would be that Ellis pool um renovation at the 11.9 million. And so if you're like, what does that all include? That's why again we wanted to make sure you had
that um at spreadsheet lots and lots of pages that our team has been combing through for um months and months. And so that's really where that lands. And then uh Michael and his team really make the
magic happen of all right, if we're going to if we're going to move forward with a two question ballot and a $54.7 million question one and roughly a $12 million question too. What does that mean to the taxpayer? because really
that's um ultimately as people go to the ballots they want to know what projects are being completed in a way they can understand them and then two what's it going to cost me and so you have that on your second handout there as well to
just really look at based on the type of property or properties that a resident would own um what that tax increase would look like. And so we do feel that this aligns with the information that you gathered from that survey as far as
where this this would be um would make sense. So I'm going to pause there. Anything you need to add yet? You're good. Okay. Not yet. Um yep. Yeah. Can you explain uh the difference between a hosted and non-hosted agricultural
company? Yes, I'm happy to do that. Thanks, Michael Har. Happy to be here with you tonight. So there's um there's homestead and nonh homestead for both agricultural and residential property and they are different in how they function. I think more people are familiar with the
homestead. So I'm going to start there to kind of draw a comparison. But with homestead if you qualif if you live there as your primary residence there's a portion of your tax value that you do not pay tax on. So your taxes are are lower. Now with a residential property that phases out as your property value
gets higher. And if your property value is in excess of 517,000, there's no benefit. But certainly within a median home here uh in your community of around $200,000, there would be significant benefit. When you look at agricultural
property, it's the same concept that it's it's a piece of agricultural land that you live on or near. Um, and the counties determines that there is a limitation in how much land you can own that qualifies as homestead. For the
current tax year, you can own up to $3.5 million worth of land that is homesteaded. And next year, that will be $3.8 million worth significant land owner to cross over that threshold, but there certainly are folks that that qualify there. Um and the difference is
in the way the taxes are levied for a homestead piece of land in and agriculture buildings you pay half the taxes is what it functionally works out to be. So if you look at that chart you'll see that the the nonh homestead is exactly double what the homestead is.
Thanks. All right. So that key timing as I said you know we really felt that after the Morris Leman study we felt that there was um you know an appetite for keeping our foot on the gas and what does that look like? So critical activities of
next steps in order to consider a November 4 ballot. So that would be when you, you know, folks could go to the polls and vote is that a review and comment needs to be submitted to the Minnesota Department of Education by
June 17th. So our teams would work together and that's a significant document where we're really putting all of the data that we've been presenting to you over the last three years in essence building our case to the state
that this is in the best interest of taxpayers to move this forward to the voters. So tonight really um our intention is to ask you that if indeed you want to keep November 4 on the table that we need to move forward and have
permission to move forward with that comment. What happens after that? Um then the adoption of that actual resolution. So we did provide that with you just so you can start to wrap your head around it but certainly want to
take action on that tonight. But we've got a drop dead date of that August 12th um that the state mandates that you're adopting that resolution. So our recommendation would be that if we're continuing to move forward, you would
consider taking action at your July board meeting to adopt that question. What happens after that? Um then we get busy with what I would call an intense information campaign. And so we would work with you and if there's other
consultants that you choose to bring forward to be part of that information team. There's all kinds of mailings and community meetings and websites and and information that we push out on social media to make sure that people understand the questions that are being
put forward and what it's going to cost them. So again, that's very typical of the work that we do to move a district forward from now until election day. So finally, I'll just show you, you've got this in your handout as well.
You should have seen it in advance of tonight um that we worked with your bond council of just um creating what we would anticipate would be your valid question. certainly subject to your input and review, but likely what this
would look like at the polls. Can I ask a question? Go for it. Thanks. Um, your architects came here over the last couple years and did an awesome job of going through the buildings. You've talked about that, showing us pictures,
talking low priority, mid priority, high priority. And maybe this will go to you too. Uh Joe, uh this this list here, is this a combination those things? If there were 300 items that they went through, are all of them here? Some of
them here top priority? I mean, Yep. Good, good question. So, let me take it first, Joe, and then you can jump in. So, you can see on that cover sheet, um, priorities one and two were all included, but we did have about 13
million that we've pulled out that were things that um the that Joe was going to be covering probably in the next 18 months that he had other dollars intended for. So we went through after we had the whole list um we had things
that we we removed and then those priority three projects we did not include. So those are things that we're saying are 10 plus years out of needing to be dealt with. Can I ask you one more question? Leave
you alone. No. Um I thought at one point I saw the number 84 million. Did I see that? you saw that on the survey. And so that really was um when we were looking at all the different projects, that was a
number that um when when Morris Leman had said, "Okay, if you were going to do absolutely everything, um what would that number look like?" 84 million. And so we did see in um the data back that we think that number was too high. So
again, when we look at that tax tolerance or that threshold of your community, um we felt that was perhaps over the line of what your citizens would think was acceptable. So then you feel like uh 54 million and 202 then that's
a a good number. Yep. We've had lots of meetings of looking and saying, okay, you know, what does that look like? And so the other benefit is to taking that in in splitting those um the ballot into those two questions. So having that 54 million of those critical pieces and
then as I like to say this sink or swim of Ellis pool on its own. So question two will be dependent on question one. So we're not going to fix the pool at Ellis if the residents don't feel that those other projects also warrant an investment.
Thank you. I've got just a clarification question on this sheet that you gave us. Question one is like 54.4 plus a little
bit million. And then on the ballot question, it's 54.7. Yep. Yeah, it's a pretty a pretty simple answer, but the difference there is that the the 54.4 is project cost and we need
to have an financing expense like closing cost, analogous like closing cost if you purchase a home. And so that's the that's the difference between the two. So we make sure you have the full 54.4 projects. I don't know if you can answer this
question, but we move forward with November 4th, 2025. What other elections? This is it. questions.
This may be a question for Joe. What are the risks if we don't run for a referendum in the risk if we continue to do what we've been doing and I think we've been doing a good job of is you know tackling the stuff that we can with the budgets we
have and what plans for it you know we adjust them we try to look out 10 years ahead um but stuff comes up in between sometimes we have to switch and you know do something else I mean we'll just keep tackling it and doing it like we have been I've got a great team but and
custodians that help keep the buildings up. So, um it's just we can tackle a lot more at once having a budget like that. I mean, just take the bathrooms for example all across the district. That's a pretty high ticket value. I mean, it
would take us years and years and years and years just if we just focused on the bathroom. So, kind of gives us a little flexibility of trying to hit, you know, shut down maybe two or three buildings a summer and doing a lot of projects at once instead of just doing what we can
right now with our budgets. Great. Thank you. Yes. I went to Dallas and just been talked about and I I was looking for the line item and it's there. Um they talked and I think it's
for now it's for the flooring out there but they talk when I say they the director and etc talking about renovating that facility in such a manner that all plays would be out
there. You know does that ring a bell? Yes. Is that something is that something that is going to be taken care of in this particular referendum? Yeah, we have uh summer projects that are starting this summer on the LS
auditorium uh that we get started with and then we do have some mining projects across the district which the board has already approved but we also have sound lighting stage work uh that'll uh take multiple years. What? It'll take
multiple years uh to do, but we'll we get back starting this fall to be able to use that space. Then I had I had another question uh about just going over this. I noticed a
lot about um fire safety upgrades that are really expensive. Can you speak to those? Um, not specifically, but what I would say was that when we start when our cost estimating team looks at what does that fire safety look like, they
put that into, you know, a spreadsheet of based on square footage, what that renovation would need within each of the buildings. So, things are surprisingly expensive. Um, you know, and certainly the code pieces. So, we've worked with Joe on what does that mean in each of
the buildings and the systems have to be replaced by that, right? fire fire suppression and fire um some of those systems, right? Thanks. What are we looking for at the next step? Yep. So, I think the ask on the
table that we talked about in advance of the meeting was if it's the desire of the board to keep November um on the table as a potential ballot question, you're looking for giving us direction today um to move forward with authoring
and submitting the review and comment to MDE. Um really, you know, with an understanding that these are the draft questions. So, all of the documentation would align with the things that we talked about today. The projects included would be what's in this lengthy
um spreadsheet for you and that would get submitted to MD by that June 17th deadline and then you'd look for taking action on that ballot question likely at your July meeting. All right. Is there a motion to
authorize district administration to complete and submit the review and comment to the Minnesota Department of Education as required for proposed facility improvements under consideration for a November 4th, 2025
referendum? Motion by second conversation. I'd like to just say that you uh did a fine job tonight laying this out in clear terms. Both of you, we really
appreciate it because it's a it's a it's a pretty big list. I did I did I kind of shared when you said that that drop dead moment that kind of scared me a little bit, but thank you. Anybody else?
All right. All those in favor. Anybody opposed? Motion passes. Thank you so much for presenting on that. Our next agenda item is
ouration request approval of our executive director of finance and operations Todd Le. It is my honor um to be in front of you again tonight to go through the donations for our amazing community. So I'll read these off one by one then ask
for your approval as each one of these donations does meet schoolboard policy 706. So, Zimmerly family $300. AHS girls track. Sarah Saley's
$500 community education more than pink program. Sarah Sles $500 community education beyond blue program. American Legion Post 91 $1,000 Excel Passion
Program project at Ellis Middle School Inventory Trading Company $290 girls and boys track program West Minister Church $200 English language learners program Palmer Bus Services
Todd Eufus $250 DCD special ed department in memory of Alvin Gonzalez. Huido. Say that again. Buido. Guido. Recent graduate. Thank you.
Coolest projects, Jolie Wy. $80. Austin High School. David Luis Bhoff and Rosie Saltz. $500. AHS athletic scholarships. VFW Gambling $250 AHS. Quantis Club $500
Summer Sar Elementary Packer Backer Booster Club $4,000 AHS4 Athletic Scholarships Austin Rotary Club $100 Austin. And thank you to all these for their donations.
Is there a motion to approve the donations? Second. Motion by Carol, second by John. Any discussion? I just like to point out um for the group um is down toward the bottom David Lie Celts $500 for athletic
scholarship and I believe that's the name of Dick Seltz and Dick Seltz was probably one of the finest baseball coaches that Minnesota has ever had and he's one of our own. If you go to the same baseball you see all the Austin there with the except
Joe Croc Jr. 19 2000 T20. Did Joe take him to 220? Yeah. Yeah, sure. All right, that's awesome. Further
discussion. All those in favor? Motion passes. Thank you. We have one delegation tonight. Um reminder that each presentation is limited to five minutes and no response or nor action shall be taken by the
board during the delegation portion of the meeting. The school board will not hear complaints about individual school employees or permit discussion of such matters in an open meeting. Those complaints must be submitted in writing to school administration. Profanity and
use of other inappropriate language will also not be permitted. Our delegation's unique is surely working. This evening has been far this evening has been far too many acronyms and the word data for me. I'm
sorry. So, where do I start? I realize that this this examination of Austin public schools started with an elementary issue, but many of these concerns are systematic. A negativity of staff has
permeated our schools climate on many levels. Let's go to the end. Let's go to the high school. We've seen the latest numbers regarding low graduation rates. We see about 7.5 out of 10 seniors complete their credits.
But let's get even a little more concerned. We see that 27 of those kids who didn't walk the stage finished their credits and were able to get a diploma. But there were 33 10% of the class that just
vanished. Where' they go? Did anyone watch them go? Who was supposed to be there to let let them go? Who was helping them all the way through grade 12? I believe more importantly than that stat is the high school attendance
rates. An alarming 59.3% that's not even six out of 10 students have consistent attendance. And why is that? Studies show that kids don't go to school
because nobody cares that they are there. They drop out because nobody cares if they leave. Will you say how can that be? Our teachers care, our administrators care, our levels of
intervention care. So what happens? My interpretation is that in this minor educational system they get lost because meeting attending administrators, program changing people
on special assignments and curriculum adjusting exhausted teachers are drowning in stuff. The big district seems to be busy adding initiatives and people in administrative offices and missing their main focus.
Kids, there are multiple levels of people who create things and keep documents that never get down to the core of it all. Kids, the focus appears to be numbers and not humanity. Let's take something as simple
as the connect time at the high school. This free strategy was a short block of time daily or reduced to a few times a week where groups of students met with one teacher for a year or up to four years to receive information pertinent
to the entire school or their particular grade level, check grades, work on career exploration, or just have conversations. The teachers could get to know their kids personally. And as the Rochester superintendent said about their
improving graduation rates, let students get connected to someone in the school. Correlation of dropping connect from the program and dropping graduation rates is in the number. A smart person told me, you can never build long-term
positive change in any organization without stakeholder input and staff buying. If there's a master plan, it will not be successful unless you are ga engaging staff in that process. Let's look at
just one example of how leadership ignores the knowledge of staff and does what it wants regardless of educated input profile. That's another long story. It was brought in by the superintendent from Byron. He pushed it
on students and parents without any voice. The curriculum hadn't even been written when the students were required to register for it. The faculty leadership team at the high school voted against and voiced against this year-long voice, of course, but they
were not listened to. This rejection made them feel defeated. So, they went back to their rooms, kept their heads down, and did their jobs the best they could. And this is the tone of the system to be told what to do. Keep your mouth shut and
don't ask any questions or challenge some new do something. Every time Pat Parlin and I go to a coffee with a superintendent or another concerned citizens meeting, both our husbands ask, "Why? What are you trying to
accomplish quite honestly? We cannot quantify what we're pushing for. We want teachers and their students valued and listened to and care about. We both love education and we were fortunate enough
to work when administrators listened or at least we weren't in fear of administrative leave or being forced to another job when we spoke. Thank you, Shel. Okay. Thank you. [Applause]
[Applause] A reminder of our our next uh study session on Tuesday, May 27th at 400 p.m. in the district office conference room. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? Second. All those in favor? I thank you.