Good evening. Today is March 26th, 20126 and the time is 6:30 p.m. I will now call the regular meeting of the District 191 Board of Education to order. Welcome to those of you who are in the audience and those watching online. Chair Alt,
Vice Chair Hume, and our clerk. um are unable to attend this evening and per policy, our first order of business is to elect a temporary chair. Is there a motion to appoint a chair for this evening's meeting?
>> I move for Director Anderson to serve as chair. >> Second. >> Moved by uh Director Chester, seconded by Director Saxi. Is there any discussion?
All those in favor say I. I. All right. So I will be serving as chair promp tonight. Director Saxi, will you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Do I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda? So moved.
>> Second by Director Chester, second by Dr. Saxi. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. >> All those opposed say nay. The motion carries unanimously. We will start off this evening's meeting with a schoolboard report school report
from Vista View Elementary School and 191 Virtual Academy grades K through 5. Presenting this report this evening is Dr. Chris Belmont, assistant superintendent. Angie Pole, principal, Cynthia Ruiz, cultural liaison, Corenza
Cooper, and Corbin Arleno, teachers. Welcome everyone. >> Thank you Cherry Anderson, Superintendent Daniels, members of the board. Um we're in the final chapter of our school reports for this this year. Hard to believe how quickly it's gone. And so tonight um much like Principal
Ron had to do previously um get kind of two schools in one and one principal. So, um, a reminder to the board, the school reports are, um, intended to share, um, specific and and real
examples of our core values being being, um, served in real time as well as on that datadriven like highly collaborative, innovative spirit that we want in all of our schools and how it's showing up in school improvement
efforts. So, Dr. Paul, great. So, good evening members of the board, Dr. Daniels, and our 191 community. I'm so pleased to be here tonight to share about two incredible schools. Um, I have the privilege of serving as principal at
both 191 Virtual Academy K5 and Vista View Elementary. I have three amazing individuals with me to help us share our stories about each of these communities. So Cynthia Ruiz is our Spanish speaking cultural liaison at both schools and
Kenza Cooper is a 23 teacher in virtual academy and then Corbin Orinko is a fifth grade teacher at Vista View. So tonight we'll share how both communities have met the moment and we'll specifically highlight our academic
programming and family engagement. So, I want to start by sharing a little bit about our 191 virtual academy K5. We all know that our community was greatly impacted by Operation Metro Surge and many of our families felt unsafe um
being out in the community or sending students to school. So, I am so proud of the work that our district did to meet the moment and incredibly proud of Virtual Academy and all of the efforts that went into
stepping up to meet the moment. Um, you can see from the enrollment chart that's there, we grew by 700% over the winter months. In a very short time, we went from about 40 students to 300 students and now back down again. So, we've
experienced the changes in the onboarding of students and then the departure of students. So, I want to commend our virtual academy staff and how they made all of the adjustments to meet the moment. And I also want to say
it wasn't just a technical shift. It was a shift from the heart. And when we started to experience this surge in the community, Kenza reached out to me immediately and said, "I have space in my class. I have room. Please welcome students into our
school." And we made the adjustments to make that happen. It was a heavy lift for staff. Um, but it was made lighter by the fact that we have a strong foundation to build on. So, I want to share a little bit about that foundation. So, our school improvement
plan is really based on our drive to provide our students and families with a rigorous, highquality learning experience. We know students choose virtual academy for a variety of
reasons. And for many of them, it's because they didn't experience success in an in-person learning environment or they didn't feel like they fit in. So we welcome them into virtual academy and we know that some students because of past experience maybe are coming with some
skill gaps or some needs to grow um academically. So our goal is really around that growth and accelerating growth to close gaps and to help students reach grade level proficiency.
So you can see our goal this year was for all students to meet their growth projection and we want to grow that from 48% meeting that growth projection last year to 51% this year. And again the importance of that growth goal is about
closing gaps and helping kids reach that academic proficiency at grade level. Our main strategies towards that goal are to enhance our literacy instruction and really build on all of the learning that we've done the last few years and especially with carry all last year and
bringing in um our phonics integrity curriculum and also provide literacy and social emotional support for students and work closely with our families. We know that their partnership in this learning experience, especially when we're in
their homes, is imperative. So, I'm going to turn things over to Mrs. Cooper to talk about what these strategies look like in action. One area of our focus was looking at the curriculum. We follow and maintain the district pacing guide and adapted the materials to meet the
needs of our virtual learners to make them more interactive online. our virtual um learners when they come or maybe in this situation have flexed back or flexed in were able to join our classroom with confidence and pride and with shared learning experiences because
we are all in the same place on our pacing guides. Um data is very driven our work is very driven by data. We're able to work as a team across grade levels K through five to meet our diverse learning needs providing small
groups and win opportunities. We're able to truly think outside that box with our flexible scheduling and cross-grade level skill building. We meet our social emotional needs with spark experiences such as spirit and dressup days. We had
our bring our pet today to work today day. So we all got to bring our pets or our stuffed animals because we're in our home and we welcome everybody in our home to class. So we got to have a spirit days. Um and of course the best part of the day is recess for any student in elementary school. So having
recess time in breakout rooms, playing dolls, making up dances. We're in a headstand contest phase right now. Um and sharing our favorite toys during our daily meetings and morning meetings. We connect with one another, sharing our experiences. We utilize this our um
secondstep curriculum as well. Um adapting it again to meet the needs of our virtual learners. It's truly a joy to know that our students feel safe learning and making connections with new friends and their teachers online. We really are a part of the child's home.
And to join in on our teachers classes and see the engagement of students is is truly incredible. what our teachers do um to keep students engaged, but also to meet their needs academically, to take
our um curriculum, our materials from in-person learning and adapt it all to an online environment. It's truly incredible. So, thank you for all of the work. And you can see from comments from our families that they
have reached out to acknowledge that work. I know, Mrs. Cooper, you said you've received a lot of messages and you've received a lot of messages from families. Just so appreciative. Um, our families that have been with us appreciated everything we did to support
the community. Our families that have transitioned in um have also just reached out multiple times to share their their gratefulness for all of the work that we did. So, so thank you. Um, and I also, we know that family
engagement is an integral part, as I said before, of our learning experience. We are literally in students homes and their parents are are their EAs, their educational assistants. They're sitting next to them or walking by in the
background. Um, our families are always there in virtual academy. So I want to share a little bit about how we met the moment with family engagement and how we reached out and supported our families as we made this big transition and how
we always support them in virtual academy. So I'll turn things over to Miss Wiz. >> Yes. Uh family engagement was a super top priority for all of us in virtual academy especially as these families were navigating some very challenging times and as many of you know most
families could not leave their homes. So we had to find a way to meet their needs. And so one of the ways that um we did that was social workers and cultural liaison really came together and uh made up a plan to deliver materials that they needed to be successful in virtual
academy. And our onboarding process usually is the family and the student is invited into the school and we sit down with them and we go step by step. Obviously, we had to switch some things around and the first thing we did was make sure that our um welcome folder was
translated. We had an onboarding packet with pictures as well that was also translated. Kindergarten through 5ifth, each grade level had a parent meeting with the students as well and I was invited as well. So, we walked through everything
on how to log in, the expectations for virtual academy, how to find schedules, and it was done every time we had a new wave of students. So, we were doing about at least one a week, if not more. Um, and I got great feedback from families about that. Families really
enjoyed being able to have that same same stuff that we were talking about being repeated. it would get easier for them every week as they went on. And that's one less stress that they had to worry about. And with uh families that maybe needed a little bit more support, we did one-on-one. I did plenty of
FaceTime calls with families as well and really just showed them, okay, this is where you click to get onto your class. And the goal was just so that they felt supported. And that was just one less thing to stress about. And um I really do believe that they felt that way. I've got I got many calls and many messages
about families on their way out as well saying that they were very grateful for their experience in Virtual Academy. >> And our students as they're returning to the building are still talking about the new friendships they made, their teachers and experiences online. And our
kids online are still talking about their in-person schools. And like at Vista View, I just learned of a class that sent a bunch of notes to a student that's online and they're staying connected still. So that bridge continues.
Um, so thank you both again for all that you did to help us navigate this huge transition and to help us the moment. I'm very proud of the work Virtual Academy did. Mhm. >> And we'll switch gears and talk a little bit about Vista View and how we've met
the moment. Um, I want to share a little bit about the work that we've done to support our student success and specifically highlight our literacy curriculum pilot for grades three through five and again family engagement. So, a little bit about our foundation
and our plan in at Vista View. So, we were really proud to celebrate meeting our academic achievement goals last year. Um, this was huge for our staff. We had 87% of our students who started the year at grade level or above remain
there by the end of the year. Our goal had been about 82%. So we surpassed that goal and now we are aiming to boost that up to 90% of our students at grade level staying at grade level throughout the year. We also exceeded our goal of 58%
of students below grade level making typical or aggressive growth again focusing on closing gaps by making that aggressive growth. So the goal had been 58% we uh achieved 62% and surpassed that.
We want to keep building on that success. And so now our goal is to grow that to 65% this year. Again, as I said with Virtual Academy, we're focused in on that growth and
helping our students move to grade level. We know that the more students grow, the more they move to that grade level and we close gaps. So, our strategies for meeting those goals are very similar to virtual academy and that we have that strong foundation of
literacy work we've been doing and that literacy learning we've been doing that we're building on. Um, we have the additional strategy of a curriculum pilot in grades three through five with a new curriculum. So, I'm going to turn things over to Mrs. Oro to talk about that pilot.
>> Hi, it's great to see you all. I'm really excited to share my experiences this year with um our new curriculum. I've been at 191 for about 18 years. I've taught mostly fifth grade. Um throughout that time, and I feel like um throughout that time, I've really
noticed a lot about, you know, changing curriculums and and what kids are are needing that we maybe weren't able to provide before. So, when I was asked to pilot, I very excitedly said, "Yes, I want to be part of this." Um, one of the things that I know we really needed was increased rigor for our students,
particularly thinking about our older kids who take the state tests in the spring. Um, the curriculum that we've been using this year, I really, really enjoy. Um, teaching it is fun. Um, the kids enjoy learning it even though they'll tell you it's hard. Um, they
have they have learned a lot more than they ever thought they really could. Um, one of the highlights I've seen is students have been able to generate and really refine their writing more so than I can remember in a long time. The work they've been able to produce their own
ideas and find them on their own are really encouraging to me as a teacher. Um, and their ability to talk about complex topics like themes and why the character was motivated to do what they did and whether the decision was good or bad or maybe both. um has been fun to
hear them talk with each other and be able to justify their thinking. Um we've had good support from Katie Ness here at 191 and the arts and letters staff who have even arranged a call for us with another school to compare what we're doing and and see what's been working
well and how we can improve. Um you can see the quotes that students have put. These were real quotes from my students what they said about their time. Um there's a picture of Omar at the bottom. He's in the blue coat. And when I asked him about his writing, which he's showing you in the picture, he said, "I
spent, you know, two months writing in this workbook over and over and over again. We wrote in this workbook." He's like, "I filled all the pages, but" and then he shut it and said, "But I really don't need to look at it because I know the book so well." So, I think that says a lot about um how he feels about
himself as a learner and what he's been able to achieve. Um, so thank you for your time and for letting me share about my experiences this year. >> And I think when we first saw the curriculum and saw the rigor, I think there was some anxiety like, can our
kids do it? And our kids saw it and said, whoa, this is a lot. Can we do this? And what they've shown us over and over again is that they can. And so I think there's been a true mindset shift in staff that they're seeing that the
kids can do it and that makes us raise the bar more and the kids are seeing that they can do it and they're feeling that success and they want it more. So, I'm just I'm so excited about this curriculum and and whichever curriculum
we choose moving forward, I know that it will make a difference and it will bring this rigorous learning experience and literacy experience for our kids. Uh, and the data is great. It's showing an impact already. Um, so you can see our
growth fall to winter over the last few years for this grade band. Um, in the past we had 43% of students making typical or aggressive growth and this year it was 52%. So that was a growth of 9%. You can also take a look at our
fifth grade cohort data um and notice that there's been a change over time for them. As third graders, 35% were proficient or at grade level. As fourth graders, 40% and it's jumped up to 46%. So, we're well on our way to reaching
our academic goals for this year and exceeding those. I think this data shows that we're on the right track. Things can only get better. And I know that it will. I know that's where we're headed is we are moving in the right direction, making the progress we need to make. And
that progress, that experience of success will breed more success. So, I'm very excited. Thank you for sharing about it, Gordon. And then uh for family engagement at Vist, we really wanted families to feel supported and safe if they were sending
their students um to our school. And uh that looked like sharing a lot of resources for our families and also being very open uh if families had any questions or concerns and reassuring them of our safety policies that we had. Um, we also have uh coffee and
conversations which are our parent meetings that we have and they're usually in person. We do a morning session and an afternoon session. But during this time, we also offered a virtual session. And families were really happy about that to still be able
to be connected to the school even though they maybe didn't feel so safe themselves to come to the school. And uh during that meeting we learned about uh learning strategies and games that they could do at home because as you know a lot of families were worried about that
well if my student misses a day or two like are they going to be falling behind? What can we do at home? So we really took the time to um teach them some games and some strategies during our coffee and conversation meeting. And we also had a uh family fun night where over 250 of our uh people came and
attended and they also took materials home um that uh supported learning at home in such a fun way. And it was we do stations and so they learned how to use it at the family fun night and could apply it at home too. Um and one of the things that I'm just really proud of was
the amount of support that we had from all of our staff at Vist and our community. uh did weekly grocery deliveries to at least 15 families. And they got fresh food, produce, and toiletries. And this was teachers
volunteering their time and coordinating with me and with the families and families just felt so happy. It was just such I I get a little emotional about it because I would get all these calls of families being so happy to see familiar
faces, see teachers of their student, their students being so excited that they get to see their their teachers. Um so it was just such a beautiful way to see our Vista View community come together and help out our families.
>> Thank you, Cynthia. >> So thank you all. Um, these are two incredible schools and I'm so privileged to be a part of both communities. I'm proud of how we met the moment and I'm proud of all the progress we're making and I can't wait to celebrate meeting
our goals. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Are there any comments or questions from the board? >> Director Saxi. um just gratitude on behalf of myself and the community. Um I think we take for granted to some degree
how much educators meet the moment and then this was a moment that was unprecedented and you wouldn't ever have expected it or frankly it was absurd um what the community had to go through. Um so stepping up and meeting that moment
is very very impressive. director. >> I just want to piggy back off of that and just say I loved hearing how we showed up for our families and community members. Um I just um I can't imagine what they must have gone through, but
just hearing how we stepped in and you know did things differently um adapted um to the needs of our our families um I think was amazing. So really appreciate the hard work that went into that and that it really
impacted them. So thank you. >> And I also want to acknowledge how our families stepped up for one another as well and we had families donating. We also had families picking up students and bringing them to school or bringing them to events. So our families, our
community stepped up for one another as well. >> Yep. I would just say the same. It just really um affirms how much I'm so proud of our community
and really value um our staff and our way to be flexible and pivot. We had to flex be flexible and pivot when co happened right away and to have a strong virtual academy that could make that shift when we needed it in that moment
was great. Um, I was going to say something else and it just left my brain. I'm sorry. But it does it does make me really um proud to be part of our community and demon and just see that um love and in
times when people feel hopeless to see this hope. >> Thank you. Um I mean obviously I agree with all that. Um, but I do want to say um because I saw some of it uh firsthand
um what the cultural liaison especially have done. Um Cynthia, you specifically only because you're the one who I witnessed working um and and along with our social workers. Uh you deserve a huge kudos because um I know that there
was a lot of extra work for you and you stepped up and I really really appreciate that. I know our families do too. Thank you. >> I do have two questions. I'm sorry guys. I'm sorry. >> Is it related? And um you might be able it might be all one. Um so I'm curious
uh the for the students in virtual academy um did you feel like there was having more students in the classroom was beneficial >> to their uh learning? And two-parter. Um
are you finding that there are families who want now that they're in VA they're like we kind of like it want to stay? >> Um from my experience having my my students were very helpful. The ones that I kind of call my OG students you know they were so incredibly helpful and
excited to go into breakout rooms with new friends and say here this is how we do this and here's how I share my screen here and here's how I do this so I could work with other students. One of the great things about being online is that we can continue to be flexible with our scheduling and make it look very
creative so that it didn't feel overwhelmingly large. Even though we had a lot of people coming in, a lot of new students, a lot of families coming in, we still were able to structure it by bringing in additional teachers, creating an atmosphere that still everybody felt very welcome. We had
interactive virtual field trips. We also do some field trips in person for those that feel comfortable and families are invited to those because that's part of being our virtual academy is that we're a family kind of a feeling and it never felt and it still doesn't feel that our
family isn't connected. And with that, yes, we have some families that are really enjoying being online and didn't even realize this was an option even though we are a school in 191. um outside communities have reached out to me even outside of the school saying hey
we didn't have a lot of options in our district could we look at yours and things like that so offering them to come and meet with us um to see that I think that not only meeting the needs of our community they've also kind of met some of our students needs as far as kind of a little more fun in the
classroom like I said I had a zoo on that pet day I had birds rabbits a turtle at one point So that's really great. I love that. Thank you. >> Thanks for sharing.
>> All right. So up next is the student performance and achievement committee report on addressing disparities from Isis Buchanan, director of educational equity. Amina Aftadol, director of curriculum instruction and assessment.
And Amy Petroski, director of students, let me try that again. Director of Student Support Services. Welcome. That's a lot of words. Good evening, board chair Anderson, Superintendent Daniels, and members of
the board. Um this evening uh we are here to share uh some data along with information on the actions and strategies that staff are taking to provide 191 students with opportunities for success in a variety of ways.
Um we will be looking at how our educational ser system is serving some groups of students better than others as we consider three areas both academic behavior and multilingual learning. you will see areas of strength, areas of growth, and areas of challenge.
We ground ourselves in the district's strategic direction of developing ways that the educators can strive to better address the diversity of learner needs. Educators uh are seeking to create systems that live out the district core values and actively represent um a
responsive and equitable educational system. As we look at academic data, it is important that we recognize that they do reflect a point in time. We are looking back on last year and we're looking at data that comes from the spring of 2025.
First is a look at the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments in Reading, uh, which measure how the system of curriculum and instruction is effectively serving students. As a public school, we seek to acknowledge and disrupt the legacy of underserving black, indigenous, and other students of
color. We see here the ongoing and continuing to growing uh disparities uh in the struggle for reading uh grade level reading attainment. The district did move negatively away from the CACR
goal. Uh in this view, the disparity in proficiency in the system can be seen spread across various groups of students. There continues to be a significant disparity on the MCA for our Latino students, which often reflects uh
uh many of our English learners as well. But I do um as I often do want to offer you another view and this one is focused on growth. It is here that you see using uh the information from the A-reading assessments a much more uniformed in
uniform impact of typical and aggressive growth among the different groups of students. In this view, you are able to see that our instructional programming does offer a more equitable opportunity for students to grow regardless of their starting point both in elementary as
seen here in the intermediate grades and in middle school. So the green lines that you're seeing here on the graph on the right side are uh showing the um the common uh attainment of typical and
aggressive growth for the students. As we look forward into next year and our strategic response for improving literacy and reading, um we do uh know that we will engage our secondary teachers in the read act literacy training and as was shared um earlier
from the Vista View teachers, uh the intermediate grades will begin the implementation across the district of the comprehensive literacy curriculum. The curriculum is aligned to the read act and to the science of reading and as you heard does provide an integrated
approach to word study, comprehension and writing. And uh the results of that integrated uh rigor um is definitely felt and seen by both teachers and students. And so we are excited to move forward with that implementation for
grades three through five next year. Um the addition of a site instructional coaches will also provide strong tier one literacy support for our students at the site level. When we take a look at math
students in grades 3 through 11 on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments, we do see a similar pattern of disparities illustrating a systemic challenge of meeting diverse needs. With math proficiency as a gateway to access uh in higher education and higher earning
professions, educators are looking at what strategies can be used to bridge these gaps in math. Um and again we can see that as uh we disagregate that out by different demographic groups that um again our Latino students tend to uh be the
students that are uh continuing to experience the significant gap. However, when we look at our growth data um I do want to point out a couple of things. First of all, when you look on the right hand side, you see some
significant commonalities in typical and aggressive growth by students in all demographic groups. And I just want to point out that our Latino students do not experience that disparity in growth
attainment that uh we see in the proficiency standards. Um, we also see those positive results for our students in almost every demographic group at the middle school. We continue to underserve our uh native
and indigenous students uh in math. When we think about the strategic response, um I I know that uh one of the questions that was shared was how does the high school math curriculum review address specifically the disparities? And one of the things that we want to
take a look at um is the opportunity to examine our curriculum and our course sequences and how they are serving or not serving um certain groups of students. Um, it allows us to do that deep work and think about renewing um
and purchasing curriculum that can be more representative that it can address the new standards which are uh focused um that do have a focus on indigenous students and indigenous culture and allowing us to choose curriculum that
might better um impact our students who may have language diversity since many times those are students who continue to struggle with attainment. Um, we do continue to work on our advanced math in grades four and five. One of the things that we know is that
the advanced math experience in grades four and five often times serves as a jump off point or an entry point for students into advanced math at the middle school which puts them on a track um overall for um onboarding. Through the review of the high school course
sequence, we are building in more multiple opportunities for students to jump into the advanced learning tracks for math because they are very linear. Um, but the advanced uh work the work by the advanced learning specialists in
grades four and five is specifically through our work with the universal plus grant from the department of education in the past few years. um I to identify students who are traditionally underserved in mathematics and underrepresented in higher um and
advanced math and trying to create opportunities for those students to be represented in the ma advanced math. And so those uh grade four and five advanced math groups continue to work toward that identification and broaden that that opportunity for students. We also have
seen some really fascinating mid-year results from our flex win intervention of exact path which is an online um uh supplement that uh students have been working through in both middle schools this year with a very strong
implementation and we have seen that the winter growth um and attainment from those students has been exceptional exceptional and exceeded what exact path has um set for targets for students who complete those um indicators. And so
we're really looking forward to seeing what that might look like for our spring um uh screening data and uh attainment for students uh in that. But providing that uh broad supplement for all students in math um really does help
create that more personalized learning path for students. And with that, I'm happy to share with Director Pitroski. Good evening. Um, as we look at this first slide in the first semester of the
2526 school year, we see that the district suspensions a rate of 3.14% for BIPO students compared to the 1.25% of white students. Um, while our overall numbers are lower than the 2023 peak, a
BIPO student in our district is still more 150% more likely to be suspended. If you look at the bar chart, you'll notice that while we've successfully reduced suspension rate for both groups over the last 3 years, the gap between
the blue and the red remain. This tells us that generally reductions in discipline are not automatically resulting in equitable outcomes. This slide highlights the disproportionality gap itself. Even as a total suspensions decrease, our
relatively disparity has spiked to 150%. But when we dig deeper into the why behind our district numbers, we find that disproportionality is not a uniform issue. It is being driven significantly significant spikes in two of our
specific buildings. The strategic response of the MTSS and positive behavior support, our student support team problem solving, and our non-exclusionary discipline are working for the majority of our sites. the strategic response of our administrative
oversight by moving specifically um into uh reviewing data more on a semester and an year- end result to a much more in time um data informed adjustments can be made throughout the
school year. And by shifting our focus where the data is really significant, we can move the needle that on that 150% district gap much faster. Good evening. Um, Chair Anderson, Superintendent Dr. Daniels, and members of the board. So, for my portion of this
report, I'll be reviewing our English language acquisition growth rates. And again, this is for um fiscal year 25 um that we're reflecting on. And some of the things you can see on this slide is that um there is some enrollment stability with our multilingual
learners. Um the enrollment remains very similar over the last three years and you can just see the um number of students we have at each of our grade levels. Um and I think some of this data you've seen before like middle school
had a little increase because I don't know we don't we're trying to figure out that why but um we have that and so I just think that our enrollment is pretty stable right now. you can go to the next one.
And so on this slide, um just to um just go back to the WEDA language development proficiency levels, just making sure that people know that um the blue area is for our students who are level one and two who are entering and
emerging English learners. And then the green column is for students who are in the developing and expanding range. And so we have had success in improving our language development and growth. Um for students specifically the students who
are um in the levels one and two domains are um growing and then shifting over. And so when you look at our numbers for the 2026 school year where we are right now, you can see we're almost at a even um placement. And so with that we
increased our enrollment of or ML teachers to support students who have more needs. But now some of that um support is like balancing out because students are um shifting and growing. And then I also think that our enrollment for newcomers
has like decreased based on the you know the things that are going on with um immigration work in the US right now. um for the current um we've noted a very small decline in the number of new students arriving with that entering and
emerging language. And so this next few slides sort of go hand in hand. So this shows you the snapshot of our um growth with language development. And so the gray and gold
bar is sharing our district data. And so you can see that um the number of our students who were showing growth towards those targets was 28.4% last year. The slides on the right are the blue and the
green are for the state averages for Minnesota. And so last year we like 0.1 increased over what the state's growth target was. And if you shift to the next slide, you can see that in 2025
um we went from we went up like.33% from where we were in fiscal year 24 to 25. Um and then when you look at the broader context of our district, we're performing slightly um above the state
average, which is approximately 27.9%. Um and um for the historical context, in 2024, we saw 1.8% increase. And then this past year, um there was still a 6 decrease
for the state, but we went slightly above what um we had. And so we're hopeful for our 2026 test scores that even though we feel that um the presentation before shared some light on how um testing was impacted because the
window for access testing occurred we still had a 80 at least I think it probably was higher than 80% but um return rate of students actually taking the assessments and so every student who felt safe and who was coming to school like we were testing kids right to the
very end and so um Dr. Lowe, our assessment coordinator, all of our school um assessment coordinators really worked hard to make sure we were informing parents about what their choices were for the testing and then when students came back in person, ensuring that we were assessing as many
students um that were ready as possible. And then um last year we started to add this information about the bilingual skills and world language proficiency. And so you can see here the number of students who are participating in that
program. Students who um score in various um ranges on the assessments do have a chance to um earn college credit um that they could use at some of our universities here in Minnesota. And you can see that this past year we had a few
less languages of what students tested in. But in 2025, Amharic, Chinese, French, Somalia, and Spanish were the categories. And so we're still on track to do these assessments again this year and we'll continue to report um you know
student progress towards um that work. And then um in alignment with the other. So some of our focus areas going into fiscal year 27 um is that we acknowledge that there's still significant work to be done to adjust our programming to
meet the needs of our unique um multilingual learners. But we also want to address those disparities by moving forward with the focus on professional development, datadriven decision making, and the need to have some systemic alignment um to ensure comprehensive
support throughout the district. We continue to ensure that strategies to support multilingual students are embedded in a way that supports language growth and academic rigor. And as shared at the last board meeting, some of the things that we're doing include ensuring
that all staff know about strategies that they can use to help English language learners and that those same strategies help all students in the classroom. Um, and I invested in these targeted initiatives. We really aim not only to close the proficiency gap, but
to stay focused on evolving our instructional model to capitalize on the linguistic assets um that students bring to the classroom. All right. So, thank you. That is the end of our report. Thank you. Are there any comments or
questions from board members? Anyone? All right. Um, thank you. We're good. Making this an easy one tonight. Now it is time to receive updates on board committees, appointments, and school assignments. Do board members
have any reports they wish to share? >> Sure, I will go. >> Dr. Chester, >> yes. Uh the legislative committee met on Tuesday. Um it was a very short meeting um recapping um as I um gave us a report
at our last uh board meeting. um about our day on the hill for MSBA and MASA and um what we are wanting to do as next steps which is send letters of thanks to the two representatives we met and
extend invitations to future legislative meetings or meetings with Dr. Daniels with those that we have not. Um and then I'll just go on to um 9:17. uh that board um meets the first Tuesday of
every month. Um during that meeting um we were told and instructed about their legislative platform which we then now brought with us in conjunction with our legislative platform when we were on the hill and um they are in the midst of their strategic planning process. And
during our meeting, we had a um kind of a like a exercise related to gathering information for the strategic plan. >> That concludes those two reports. >> Thank you.
>> Um at the policy review committee meeting, we um discussed a few changes, some of which are in our consent agenda um tonight, I believe. No, next time. Just kidding. They will be there next time.
Um, and I am going to say um it is coming close to the end of the um Girtton's flower spring sale uh for Foundation 191. So, if you haven't yet put in your flower order, do that soon
before time runs out. All right. I'm not >> anything from negotiations. >> Uh not at this time other than the um we'll be hearing very shortly about the principal association. >> Thank you. >> Okay.
We will now move to the business portion of our meeting. We will start by approving the consent consent agenda. Although board action is required, it is generally unnecessary to hold discussion on these items. In the event a board member wishes to discuss an item, that
item will be moved for separate consideration. Do more board members wish to remove any items from the consent items? Is there a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda? So moved.
Moved by Director Worb. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second by Director Chester. All in favor say I. I. >> I. >> All oppose say nay. The motion carries unanimously. We just have one item under new business. We are being asked to approve
the collective bargaining agreement with the Burnsville Principles Association. Presenting the recommendation for this evening will be Stacy Sovine, executive director of administrative services. >> Good evening, Chair Anderson, Dr. Daniels, member of the board. Uh,
tonight I am bringing to you the recommended changes for our agreement with the Burnsville Principal Association. uh in February we met uh briefly uh to discuss uh just a few language items as well as economic items. We do have 18 principles within
this unit. The highlights of this were removing dated language, clarifying holiday and emergency sick and safetime language as well as adding anou for the Minnesota paid family leave. Overall, the economics for the package is a
two-year increase of $254,000 or an MSBA uh two-year package increase of just under 5%. So, with that, it is my recommendation that the board of education approve the proposed revisions and readopt the unchanged language in the 2527 master agreement with the
Burnsville Principal Association. >> Is there a motion to approve this collective bargaining agreement with the Burnsville Principles Association? So moved. >> Moved by director Saxi. >> Second. >> Seconded by Director Worb. Is there any discussion? >> All right. All those in favor say I.
>> I. All those opposed say nay. The motion carries unanimously. This concludes new business. The time is now 7:21. And having no further agenda items, I call to adjourn the meeting of the ISD board of education. Thank you
everyone.