Uh recess is the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance 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.
Next item on the agenda is public comment. School patrons are given the opportunity to address the school board regarding items that are not on the agenda. All patrons will be asked to state their name for the record. While the board appreciates feedback from the public in this forum, board members will not comment on or discuss topics brought
up by speakers. Professional decorum is expected at all times. If at any times there are violations of the rules of decorum, the chair reserves the right to call a recess or at the end of the session. Is there anyone here for public comment? Anyone here for public comment?
Anyone here for public comment? There being none, we will move on to our program review with special education update from Anthony Frank. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. Good evening.
My name is Anthony Frank and I'm the special ed supervisor serving Delo public schools new this year as I'm sure you're aware. Uh get the pleasure to talk to you tonight and just give an update on what is happening for special education in Delo. Got a few highlights here and updates.
Um just a rough estimate for you guys to know. We have roughly 440 active students or students who are on active IEPs. And the amount of hours that adds up to per week of services is just under 5,000. It's like 4,986,
which incredible number. And right now, uh, speaking of staffing, like, you know, relating to staffing, we're looking at the same number of FTEEs next year throughout the district. That's our hope. That's our plan right now. Um, with, you know, students who are coming in and who's transitioning, graduating
out of the district. Another updates, one of the action cards uh coming into the district that I inherited too was just looking at our level three programming. Um the goal is to support our students, support our staff, and do what we can to keep students here in the district versus going to a level four
program. Um one of the things we're doing recently is Masiko has a classroom systems consultant. Uh her name is Amy Stein. She's coming in. She's been meeting with our sped teachers going into these level three areas and programs um providing us with like tips
on how we might rearrange a room better to support our students and staff or maybe offering suggestions of you know maybe we should look into purchasing this or doing this. Um she comes into the district and she's not here to judge any of our staff members. She's just here to provide any critiques
um suggestions that may be helpful for them and they can just take it or leave it. Um, but we've been working with Amy this year, which has been really helpful. Also, I've been connecting with our staff just saying, "Hey, what do you need to do your job to the best of your ability or what can we do to support you?" Our staff so far has been really
open to, you know, sharing everything that's on their mind. I think we have a lot of good systems in place with our level three programming. We haven't had, well, this year, we haven't had a student transition to a level four program. We've actually inherited a level four student back within the district, which is awesome. Any
questions as I go on here? Please feel free to stop me and say, "Hey, what do you mean by this?" or ask away. So, uh, a couple more sped updates continued. I got to take part in May at the capital. It was two Wednesdays ago. We met with our local, uh, Congress or
legislators, both senators and representatives. Uh, the big highlight for us as a sped supervisor group was just talking about funding, which is always the big hot topic. there's always potential for cuts in the future. So, we were there just sharing, you know, what that means to our departments if we lose
funding and where we have to pull money from. But, it was just a really great way to connect with our legislators who were constituents of. I met with uh Joe McDonald, Bobby Harter, they're both representatives, then a Senator Glenn Grunhagen, who's not necessarily in this
district, but uh our neighboring districts to the south. And it was just good to, you know, do a little meet and greet, answer their questions. A lot of them are very good about answer asking questions about, you know, special education. Some of these individuals come in with zero background in education. So, it's kind of fun to be
able to sell what we're doing and the positives that are taking place. In the end of January, students at Del Public Schools took place in Hockey Day, Masiko, both playing and supporting. Um Megan Chatterton, the athletic director
here, had gathered a group of students, our hockey players, both from our girls and boys hockey team to come support. They were officials. They ran the scoreboard. They helped make that day possible for our student athletes who got to participate in hockey de Masiko. So that was a fun highlight we had at
the end of January. Another highlight coming up is the DAP extravaganza which will take place in Rockford at Rockford Public Schools. that is I want to say it's April 20th and we have our students from DIS who are going to take part in that. It's a morning of fun. They do a
bunch of different physical activities. Uh what else just kind of sticks out there? Just all these activities are designed to improve their motor skills, coordination, social skills. They get to meet and greet with a bunch of peers from different districts. A very fun event, something to look forward to. So I'm excited I get to take part in that
as well. just some self- assessment updates. One thing we're trying to work on just improving within the district. So, our transition programming and that's where from 9th grade on, what resources and capabilities do we have to best support our students when they graduate from
Delo Public Schools. This is an area where funding hasn't quite been there as much as in the past. We have to try and get unique with you know what can we do for our students to I guess give them that next step of where they can go. We have through Masiko there's a step
program where some students can go to. There's different college programs too for our students who might have a little more higher needs than others. Um, what we're working on is just giving our staff more of those resources and different things to share with families just to help our students have, I guess,
a more successful transition out of Delo Public Schools. One thing we're working on there for systems and procedures. I'm I'm a big collaborator with people, so I like to get teams together and we are trying to just make things more efficient. One of those things we've been working on lately is I've been
working with our school social workers on a checklist of when should a teacher go to you and for what. And you go through a checklist and I'm working with them and their expertise on, you know, if this happens, do I go to my social worker or do I go to this person first and just trying to make it more
efficient instead of teachers just saying, you know, let's just use our social worker. Well, maybe we don't have to yet, but different programs like that and different things we've been doing within the district with the groups I'm meeting with is kind of fun and it's just great to hear everyone's expertise too on their field and what they want it
to look like here working at Delano. Any questions with that or any questions for me? >> Maybe just a real quick understanding of finding ages to 22. >> Sure.
Defining that. Okay. >> It seems young and old, right? To >> require. >> Yes. >> Yes. So for in the state of Minnesota public education, so students who are ages 3 to 21 can receive special education services. They're on an IEP. Birth to three is also a group who can
receive special special ed services in M or in Delano. Our Masiko uh service cooperative takes care of providing services for that birth to three. So when they turn three, we have a meeting. They might be a student who or they're going to transition to the
district for their sped services. They might go into preschool and so on. So that's when we start them here within the district. And students can receive special ed services until they turn 22. So the day they turn 22, hopefully we have that transition programming talk
and they have a next step after special ed services through the state of Minnesota. Good question. Did I answer your question? Probably. You got that? Okay. Any other questions? Well, thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Welcome.
>> Thank you. >> I love it here so far. So, thank you. >> All right. Next. >> Uh the consent agenda is the next item on the agenda. This item includes a variety of different minutes, financial reports, um, from the prior month. Do I
have a resol or a motion to um, accept the, uh, consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion by Ryan, second by Jess. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries to accept
the consent agenda. Next item on the agenda is the resolution of gifts. I pull that. All right. This is a great list. The uh organizations below have generously donated for a variety of different
initiatives. The Charities Aid Foundation, $22 for Delma Elementary School. Zaylor Photography, $1,000 for Delano Intermediate School, DISIS PI, $1,200 for Powder Ridge tickets, and $1,248.28
for the bus and $300 for the spring conference meal. Delano Basketball Association, $400 for unified basketball, box tops for education, $15.20 for Delano High School. Ohio pile prints $4967
for Delano High School. High school pie $300 for conference meal and $62.92 for the bus transportation to Brandt Airfield. Dance Booster Club $2,1 for state dance tickets reimbursement.
Coburn's $250 for the community education archery program. And the following Orange Crush Robotics Team $326. Protolabs $1,000. Core Trust $500 and KLN Family Brands or Tuffy's $750. All of these organizations have
generously offered to donate to the public schools district for these items mentioned above this. Um, do I have a motion to approve the resolution of gifts? >> So move.
>> Motion by Ryan. >> Second. >> Second by Sarah. All uh this is a roll call vote. >> Board member Shouse. >> Hi. >> Board member Baker. I board member uh Deppa. >> Hi. >> Board member Gerky.
>> Hi. >> Board member Black. >> Hi. >> Board member Roser. >> I. >> Board member Mora. >> Hi. >> Motion carries to accept the resolution of gifts. The next item on the agenda is personnel matters. This report contains a variety of um resignations
uh recommendations for employment and also um some lane changes there um in the middle to the end of the um >> two that obtain their master's degree by this time period >> which is thank you for pointing that out
superintendent Shane um there are two yes uh Hu and Miss Johnson both um Is are those the two right? Yep. Obtaining their master's degree. So very exciting for them to continuing education with the district. Um and also
appreciate everyone else for their continuing education as they continually um pursue excellence for our students. We also have a couple of contracted hires which I know that uh Superintendent Shane will reference that we're excited related to. um the uh
principal and um director of operations and finance. Although we're sad and happy and for both of those occasions. So any questions or comments um on the personnel matters report?
>> I you know I'll make a comment. the that was a heavy lift getting a lot of um really important stuff done over the last month or two. So um I'm kind of patting myself on the back, but I'm really patting my teammates on the back.
The the um all the hiring, the admin committee, working with you, Matt, Mary, everyone. It was and everybody in the school district actually on the interview committee and stuff like that. There was a lot going on. So pretty cool. We'll see how these new people
turn out. But pressure >> approve it, would you? >> Keep moving. >> Keep moving. >> Moving. All right. Do we have a motion to approve the personnel? >> I'll make the motion. >> All right. Motion by Corey. >> Second by Jim. >> Second by Jim. Any discussion?
>> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? All right. Motion carries to accept the principal uh personnel matters. Next up are administrative reports. First up, Superintendent Shane. >> Thank you, ladies and gentlemen of the board. I have three items that I wanted to cover with you. Um and and really
actually two and a half because I'm not going to get too far into if you've noticed through the legislative session, your superintendent hasn't given you much of an update. And I know MSBA sends out uh updates on how things are going and deadlines of committee work. And the
reason why is is I've been doing this a long time and I knew well in advance before this session started, first of all, it's not a budget year. And second of all, it is so evenly divided, nothing's going to get done. And I hate
to be a pessimist and I hate to be uh but that's the reality of the folks. And if you if you paid attention to the opening sessions, obviously it was a very somber moment at the beginning because we had members of the legislative uh body that were uh tragically killed. Um but soon after
that the gloves went off and they were pointing about fraud and they were talking about this and the Republicans are blaming the Republic or the Democrats for that and vice versa. The Democrats are saying the Republicans won't do anything on gun laws and people are getting shot and killed. So, I knew
I didn't want to really burden your time up until this point. With that said, though, there are things that are moving through and um there are things that are somewhat on pace. Um but and I and I'll probably start giving some more. Uh
Valerie Doulstead is is uh the um the lobbyist for the uh MASA. She also does some work for MACE 2 as well, special ed component of the state organization. Um, so there's just a lot of stuff that's
going on, but it's really almost it's gotten ugly as as it's been a a kind of a mirror of how society is. If you've noticed anything on national television, they've been dragging that governor up to Washington DC to kick the tar out of him in front of all sorts of
organizations and groups and blaming him for fraud, not proper oversight of fraud, and and it's it's just it's just real nasty. So, I'd rather just not share as much until we have some more uh definitive things to come to shape. I
will tell you this that we are watching and I've mentioned this before the blue ribbon committee on special ed funding their task is to remove $250 million out um because they spent in 2023 the cross subsidy if you remember there was a tremendous amount um well in the next
bianium they're going to be looking at close to a deficit if not right there I think they're about I don't know what the the million dollar mark is on that but in the next two bianiums the state is going to be in some serious financial trouble problem um which affects public
schools and and affects the funding um of the dollars that are left um ads is looks to be on the block. That is a huge deal for this district. So I'll keep you posted as we go through that piece too. But I wanted to spare you the drama of
pointing fingers and blame and shame game because that's what it is. The other part of it is every single member of the state legislature is up for election. So they're voting based on constituentbased based on getting reelected if they are there is has been
over the last several years probably two three years high level of retirements. So people that have been long-standing members that we've worked with over the years on funding on policy mandates things like that are leaving and so they're retiring. So there's new faces
around but uh no shortage of blaming each other. So fun stuff there. Um I did share with the board uh uh a little bit more of u detailed information with regards to the process of our community community education building. Uh we laid
out a preliminary schedule over the next 12 to 16 months uh culminating with at least right now preliminarily a plan of a referendum in the spring of 2027. Um, so we went through that whole process um, in much more detail, but I just
wanted to make sure that the community knows that the district is going to be in earnest over the next 12 to 16 months planning engagement and going through the ga the data gathering and all the information and getting the reactions of our community and building consensus with options and eventually coming to
the board with a recommendation for review and comment that would go to the state and then eventually a referendum. And last, but most certainly not least, as Corey mentioned, two that I can sleep now. Uh, two very big uh, leadership
positions. Not to say anything of the other leadership positions that are here as part of my executive leadership team, but Kate Aggererman, you approved uh, her uh, notice of assignment for the high school principal position. Kate unfortunately was planning on coming
here, but she took ill and so she didn't want to give the board or any of us any of her stuff that's going on. So, uh she couldn't make the the meeting tonight. So, Kate is very very excited to join our team. Uh she will join uh officially July 1 of 2026. Um and we'll have
several transitional meetings uh between curtain administration and future administration and moving forward. The onboarding process will be extensive and the first 100 days will be critical for that. uh for Kate to really establish that foundation of good, positive, effective working relationships with her
staff and all the key components within the district and the team. Scott Lage is here. Come on forward, Scott. Scott is going to be the new director of finance and operations. She's he's going to be filling the big shoes. You can have a seat right there in front there.
>> Uh the big shoes of Mary Reer. Um, if you recall, this position reorged a bit with a little bit more oversight and and uh direct reports going to this position. Um, we're actually going to have Scott start May 4th. Um, this is a critical transition. Um, we're going to
frontload it instead of backloading it. So, Scott and Mary will have uh a couple of months to work together on transition, understand systems and things like that. Scott comes with 10 plus years of public school uh finance experience. Um I didn't want to go
through his whole resume, but he's very familiar with Delano. He worked at Mosiko as their financial person in our special ed cooperative. Um Scott ended up doing some time in Weisetta, worked for uh the Weisetta school districts, and he is recently in district 287. So,
he comes to us uh with a wealth of information, a wealth of experience, and um I think Scott's extremely excited to be here. So, I asked him just to take a few words and >> welcome him officially. >> Oh, absolutely. Thank you for the introduction, Superintendent Shane. Thank you, board members. So, um I'm
really excited for the opportunity. I always write things down, but my 19-year-old daughter at NDSU said, "Dad, no more paper. Do it on your phone." Um, so I'm trying to do things on my phone, but I'm extremely excited about this opportunity. Um, so thank you for that. It's I'm so excited to be joining a
talented team, great school district, great community. Um, and I think Mary would tell you and Matt mentioned MSCO. Um, since 2019, um, when I started at MSO, I have always thought Delano would be a fantastic place to be. and it was
um whether it's okay to say or not, it was always a place that if it ever was a real opportunity, I would leave where I was at to come here. So, um extremely excited about it and can't wait to get started. So, thank you so much. And um as Superintendent Shane said, he can
sleep now. Now, I don't really sleep. So, I know I've got extremely big shoes to fill. Um Mary and her team are incredible. So, I'm also very grateful to be coming into a well-run department. Um, that is a huge relief and she is so talented. So, thank you in advance for
your patience with me as I try to get up to speed. And I don't know that I can ever l uh match her level, but um Mary is incredible what she does, but I'll work hard to get there. >> Thank you, Scott. >> Thank you very much.
>> Concludes my report for this evening. >> Thank you, >> Matt. Next we have the uh principal reports. First up, Miss Thompson. >> Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Um thank you for having me here this evening to present to you on behalf of the intermediate school. Um this evening
I'll just share a few things that are happening this month. Um first of all with our sitebased team. Uh this month our sitebased team is working on handbook updates still. Um in May we'll be bringing to the work session our handbook updates. So there's just some things that we're looking at um in that area. Our team just kind of goes back
and forth. We talk as a sitebased. They bring it to their teams. They get feedback. We kind of do it that way. Um and look at some areas that we want to revise. Um the other piece that we'll look at at sitebase actually tomorrow morning is um like I shared in the work session. We recently did our take 20s. So I'll bring to them just some of the themes and feedback that I got from
teachers. some of the things that were reported as being positive, some areas for improvement, and then we'll just talk as a team if there's any areas that we would like to just take some action on as the year wraps up. We do still have a few months left. That was part of the reason for wanting to have those conversations in February instead of May is that we could still maybe take some
action steps. Um and so we'll look at if there's any areas that we can um strengthen as the year wraps up. So that's what we're working on in Sightbase. Uh for professional development, we have um an early release day. Uh this coming Wednesday, as usual, we have our phase one letters teachers
and they are going to be wrapping up their letters training. They've been working on that for two years now. It's about um it's a good number of my staff working on that fourth grade special education. Um and they're going to be finishing that up this year and I'm very proud of them because it's a two-year process and it's pretty intensive. Um as
they're wrapping up this year, our phase 2 teachers are starting. So that's the other half of my building. Um and they'll actually be doing their first training um with a program called Strive starting during the early release. So um we'll have some overlap here for the next couple months where almost my whole
building is doing some read act training of some sorts. So that'll keep us busy during this particular early release on Wednesday. Um additionally we do have some paraprofessional training that Mr. Hinker is facilitating. I just wanted to highlight because I think that it's important that we're doing this. Um, we
have four new parah professionals that we hired this year and they've just been really amazing and we want to cultivate that and keep them hopefully. So, we're doing a Q&A with some veteran paras. They're going to come and answer some questions for our new paras um just to hopefully support them and and answer some of their questions. We have some
excellent veteran paras with a lot of insight. So, um we're going to do a profession um professional development session for them as well on Wednesday for our um MTSS. Uh the next universal screening that we have coming up is our
Sabers screener. So Sabers, if you remember, is our social emotional screener. Um we do that two times a year. So that's happening in April. Usually we do that on an early release day. Um the kids do a version of it and then teachers do a version of it. Um
with our um ReadAct training, we don't have time for teachers to do that. So we're going to have to rethink how we get that done. Probably it's just going to be a task to work on throughout the month of April. But we do have that screening window coming up. We'll compare and contrast our results fall to
winter um in that area. And then I'll just share some events from the month of March. March went by really fast. A really short month. Um but we do have an author visit happening tomorrow. Author Lynn Kelly will be come to coming to visit us. That was arranged and
sponsored by our PI, our media center, Para, um some parents. So she'll be doing some presentations to some grades. We have our battle of the books wrapping up tomorrow. So, if you want to come and see some fierce competition tomorrow afternoon, that's happening. Um, it's always super fun and really intense. So,
if you haven't come, I would encourage you to come and check that out. Uh, our fifth grade attended Biztown. They've been doing that for the last couple years. They brought their fifth grade team. They go through a whole curriculum. They go and they participate in um I mean it's like a real life business world city kind of thing that
they do. So, it's really cool. They bring kids to do that. They did that the first week in March. Um, and then yeah, it's a short month. We're wrapping up. Spring break is next week and we are looking forward to it. So that's what's happening in the intermediate school. Um, are there any comments or questions?
Thank you. >> Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the board. It's a pleasure to represent Delano High School for you all today. Um, believe it or not, we are fully into spring. Um, just last week we started trimester 3 and almost all of our spring
sports are off and running. And I just want to it it's been a custom of mine to um recognize individuals or teams at the beginning of my board report and this month I just want to uh really extend a sincere gratitude to the Delano community as a whole. Um obviously the
community of Delano has been very supportive of our programs uh at the school um in all facets but particularly it's maybe very noticeable with respect to activities and now that we have just sort of wrapped up our winter season uh I wanted to extend that that heartfelt
appreciation because it's it's really obvious when we um attend our events whether it's section playoffs or state tournaments the Delo community shows up and supports. Um, I I maybe not should I maybe should not say this uh on the record, but uh it was told to us by some
member of the state high school league that they were really rooting for us to win our state hockey uh semi-final game because uh if you follow the state hockey tournament um we set attendance records for both uh the Friday and Saturday session. Um if you were present on sat on Saturday during the third
place game um obviously the fans were relatively sparse. We played a 9:30 game. um where we showed out on Friday and so they were really rooting for Delano to make it because they were looking forward to um an awesome you know attendance uh by the Delano community. So it's noticeable when
you're there in those venues and you see a lot of the black and the orange and you hear the cheering and stuff like that. So and again it's not it extends beyond hockey, right? But uh that was the most recent example. So, a sincere appreciation to the community of Delano for supporting all of our programs, not just the activities, um, but all of our
programs. As we move into spring, it is testing season. We have the ACT, um, being proctored here at the high school on Wednesday. Um, right around the corner, uh, when we get back from spring break is MCA season. And Miss Thompson referenced our universal screening uh, of Sabers. And so our students are
actually going to engage in savers tomorrow with the my savers assessment taken in advisory program. And then we're going to have some teachers use not some teachers, we're going to have all of our teachers utilize the early release time on Wednesday to do the teacher savers. Uh obviously we look at
those uh pieces of information. Those will go into our educ system as you saw during the work session and we will identify those students that need support. Historically, we've learned that um we do a really pretty good job of identifying which students need support and then providing supportive
strategies for those students. But this is just another uh layer of data that we can cross reference our efforts. Again, with respect to edge of climber, you did see that presentation in the work session and I'm going to share some of the data that I pulled with respect to the high school. um which I just to
put a plug in. Not that we need additional plugs, but the data to uh to sort of overall assess our effectiveness is really easy to pull because of Edge Climber. So, I do have some updated um information regarding our fast testing. Remember that our fast testing is grades
7 through 10 uh in both math and reading. And um this past semester or trimester in trimester 2, our fast proficiency sat at 82%. If you compare that to trimester 1, trimester 1 we were
87%. So this trimester we were 82%. The key thing to know there is especially with trimester 2 data uh and at the high school level is not all of our 9th and tth graders are taking that fast assessment during that trimester. So the number of students represented in that data is a little bit different. Um but
nevertheless I wanted to give you that update of our latest um status check. With respect to reading however we actually improved by about 5%. So, we went from 76.5% proficient in the fall to 81% proficient in the spring.
With respect to discipline, to give you a a perspective of what last year was like in terms of minor incidents, we had 1,284 minor incidents in all of 2425 school year. This year to date, so 2/ird of the
way through the year, we're at 595. So, that's a pretty significant reduction. And I should say of those 595, 223 of them are cell phone violations, um 111 are conduct violations and then insubordination and disruptive round out the top four. So um
pretty significant improvements in the areas of discipline. Um with respect to another data point that I wanted to reference because we celebrated this highly back in trimester 1 is our F report. Um, a little bit of a caveat with this information is that
technically our grade book doesn't close until uh, Wednesday night. We did have to adjust the grading window because of the state hockey tournament um, in the expected student absences during finals week. So, we adjusted that slightly. So, the numbers I'm about to give you are not final numbers, but we think that
they're probably pretty close. If you recall back on uh, trimester 1, we only had um, I'm going to forget the number now. nine students in grades uh 9 through 12 that received an F or an unsatisfactory grade which was by far a
record in trimester 2. That number is only still 27 students. So 27 students when I did the math and figured out how many grades uh out of all of them that were possible um to receive less than 1% of our students or I should say less
than 1% of the grades our students received are either an F or a U. So, uh, we're really proud of that number. Again, a testament to the work that our teachers are doing with students during the win times specifically. Um, and when it compared the seventh and eighth grade
numbers, they were similar to trimester 1. So, we had roughly 34 students uh in grades 7 through 8 that achieve or that received Fs or U's. So, that um kind of was all uh reviewed with you as part of our um data-driven decision-making
action card. As you know, uh, datadriven decision-m has been an emphasis of ours, um, a specific area of improvement. And so, we are starting now to be able to use utilize the edge of climber data to make assessments on the overall effectiveness of our programs. I want to provide an update on a couple more of
our action cards. One of which is the seventh and eighth grade class meetings. Those are all completed now. Um, if you have a seventh or eighth grader or you know seventh or eighth graders, uh, you've maybe heard that they've been pulled in during advisory slashwin times for seventh grade meetings and eighth
grade meetings. Throughout those four meetings, we've talked about the elements of the Tiger Way. So, teamwork, inclusion, grit, excellence, and respect. We've watched a variety of sort of instructional or informational videos. We've talked about how all of those skills are interrelated with each
other. And the real emphasis has been to get students to reflect on what small tangible things they can do that will lead to large positive impacts around the school. So each one of those sessions I've asked the students to sort of make a commitment. I've even asked those students to report to their
parents about what their commitments have been so that they can be supported along the way. But talking again about teamwork, inclusion, grit, excellence, and respect. So, we've wrapped up all of those class meetings with seventh and eighth graders. After each one of those meetings, I've sent communication out as
a way to share our story with parents to help them understand what efforts we're making with respect to those key areas. The overall uh theme has been also that, you know, not only do we want to improve school climate and culture, but we believe that it's really those elements
that are going to let uh that are going to lead to student success. It's not really our job as school staff to pick a student's pathway or to determine a potential career. Regardless of a career field that a student chooses, um ultimately it's going to be the the
degree to which students can demonstrate teamwork, inclusion, grit, excellence, and respect that are going to allow them to be successful. Um our staff has recognized the value of those presentations. So, actually, uh we're going to be integrating that similar type of a presentation to our 10th
graders after spring break. So, we'll kind of let the dust settle in the start of trimester 3 and then once we get back from spring break, we're going to include uh 10th graders in that conversation. And then I'm also happy to report with respect to our Tiger Tracks program. This has been something that's
sort of been in research and development for the past year and a half or so. A huge thank you to the Delano Education Foundation for their support uh of funding to support this program. Tiger Tracks is our induction and mentorship program. And so this is our mechanism to
try to um help integrate new seventh graders into the Tiger Way of Delano High School. Um and so they've been sort of doing a lot of planning over the course of the year and then they've been planning a pilot program. So last Friday
um the small group of um mentees and mentors actually met in this space to have a breakfast together and talk about sort of kick off that process of uh that mentor mentee program. And I also know that plans are in place to have our
mentors and mentees join the intermediate school over the summer months when they do their sort of big kickoff as part of their program. So with that, that concludes my update for this evening. I'd be happy to answer any questions regarding Delano High School.
>> Um, with our 34 Fs or roughly in the seventh and eighth grade, is that an age thing you think or is it um getting multiple Fs or it's a smaller group of kids with a high number? So, I'm wondering if that's more age related or if it's kids kind of
piling them on and noticiously. >> Yes, >> it's I think it's all of those things. um when looking at the report um there are more students that are acrewing multiple Fs or U's um than certainly are at the uh upper levels. Um so I do think
that it's very much an age thing. There's still sort of this um conventional wisdom that we're battling constantly that seventh and eighth grade doesn't matter, right? Because technically the high school transcript doesn't start until 9th grade. So that there that's kind of a pervasive um
attitude among some of our seventh and eighth graders that we've been battling um over the course of the years. Uh luckily and and I would venture to guess that if you look at our 9th through 12th graders now when they were seventh and eighth graders, they had similar results of you know grades and things like that.
So the good news is is even though that sort of conventional wisdom of seventh and eighth grade not mattering does they do grow out of that to some degree um it takes some longer than others. it would be our um you know um
our intention for students to make that realization sooner, right? So that they don't have to suffer through maybe a rough transition between 9th and 10th grade. But I think it's very much um endemic of the the age and development of those students at that grade levels for sure. >> And at the high school level, are any of
those um PSO grades that we're looking at or those not include? Because I know we talked about if a kid fails in PSO, we don't find out about it till it's too late really. Yeah. So, none of those are likely to be I shouldn't say none of those, but the the timing that we receive PSO grades
and transcripts doesn't always line up with our trimester breaks. So, I would actually have to go back and look at the the list of um Fs that were received and and dig into which classes specifically. I didn't go through it that fine tooth
uh or that fine detail. I kind of just counted students and counted FS to kind of assess the overall numbers. Um but yes, historically we have had sort of a predominance of um Fs coming from PSO classes. That's not to say, of course,
that a majority of our students in PSO courses are earning FS, but there is a larger proportion of Fs coming from PSO classes than our classes here. >> Thank you. Any other questions for Mr.
Voit? Thank you. Next, Miss Schultz. Good evening everyone. Happy to be here on behalf of the elementary school. Last month I shared a lot, so this feels a little bit lighter. Um, and there's no cute second graders with me this time
around, but um, thank you for allowing them to to join us last month and for allowing me to sort of find my way in how to present what we do um, during I love to read month. I know it was kind of Mr. Schuler's intention to share and
highlight kids reading and that is still really important. So tried the video that didn't land right, but then having the kids here was really great. So, thanks for being uh flexible while I kind of figured out what would work best for our school and our students. Um, as
far as this month goes, um, regards to sitebased, we are obviously reviewing our goals continually, handbook revision, similarly to the other um, schools as well. Um, there those seem a little bit lighter this year as far as handbook, which is always nice. It sort
of means we've we've kind of figured out um, kind of the pulse, the needs of the the staff and the community. Um we are kind of looking at our attendance piece in regards specifically to tardies. Um we have um several students that come tardy to school and they're missing uh a
portion of the the start to the day where a lot of times those foundational peer interactions or some of our morning meeting time has occurred. Um and some of it is when some instruction is occurring as well. And there really is no way to equate like the the minutes of
tardies that that acrue and how that can impact a student's attendance. So, we're just kind of looking at um surrounding districts to see some some districts have x amount of tardies is equal to one excused or unexcused absence. So, we're
just trying to figure that out, not to penalize, but just to kind of promote the importance of being at school on time and to offer support to families if they're having certain issues that are prohibiting them from getting their kids to school on time. So, that's just
something that um Mr. Lewig is heading up. He he handles most of our attendance um policies and concerns. So, just kind of doing some research there. So, there might be a change in regards to that. Um, we also booked our August retreat day for our sitebased um, teams and
that's last year we all got on the same page as far as each of the buildings to have our sitebased retreat on the same day which was helpful in planning for upcoming things in August when it gets pretty busy. Um, we're also discussing the staffing for GenEd special education
and paras right now and getting all of that sorted out. And then we also um recently shared out our desired daily experience surveys. Um as you recall, we all kind of worked on those as the strategic planning committee. So now we're getting some of that baseline
information on um how are we doing? Kind of getting that first check-in with our staff and our community and our families. And then the high school and the um intermediate school are talking with students about those desired daily experiences, too. So we're anxious to
get that feedback back so we have a place to start and know where we can grow. As far as the professional development areas, we are looking at planning that 25 or no 26 27. Um and the implementation of new math curriculum will be heavy at the elementary since
that will be a new um initiative for us. There's also um now that we're all going to be um letters trained at the elementary school, we're excited. It's been great training, but we're really excited to all get on the same page um as a collective unit kind of working on
some other common goals. Vertical team meetings, some data analysis and wind planning. And as you saw from um Lindsay and Monica and Cassid's presentation, there is a lot to learn with Educ Climber that we're excited to roll out to our staff um because there's a lot of
capabilities within that that can help align some of those other goals. So that's what we're looking at for next year's for professional development. And then um some events that we have had that and also that we are looking forward to. Mr. Elves had his second and third grade music concert. So those went
off very well and in May Mrs. Coots will have her concerts. We had our kindergarten open house and we had the new format and it was wonderful. It was great. Um, it was a huge success mostly because of just some planning with the kindergarten team members, the office
staff, just everybody came together and it was a really wonderful night. I know I saw some of you there as well. So, thanks for coming and visiting and bringing your incoming kindergarten gardener. Um, so it was great. Um, special thanks to transportation, food
service, social worker, community ed staff was there, so we were able to get some more appointments signed up for screening. It was really a nice night. So that will probably be what we do moving um forward in in upcoming years. So and then we had our tire fund fair
which was amazing as usual thanks to our PI group for organizing and planning and we had volunteers from all over the school, the community, high school, some local churches and various organizations. They just all come together and sign up and help and it's a
it's a great event. Um, we have MCA's coming up and we have our imagination fair um, in April as well and I'll report back on that in April. Any questions or comments? >> You say thank you now. Wait till she shows up. >> We love them all.
>> Volume level will go up about four. >> She's pretty good evening, too. I can't people ask me, "Hey, you got another grain kid coming in." Nope. They're all in there now. So, no more incoming kindergarteners yet. I was going to ask far as the tardiness,
is it um grade specific or is it pretty consistent K through third? >> Yeah, we haven't really tracked grade specific, but obviously there's the bus always shows up on the same time. So, it is for our parent drop off um families.
And so, you know, that's just part of the deal. If they're on their own timeline, then that makes it a little bit trickier to make sure that they're there at the same time every day. But yeah, >> yeah, >> thank you. Thank you.
>> I imagine that like spreads it out on its own because if they have two kids, >> you know, you could end up with a smattering in the same car. >> Next item, Miss Mary Reer This is manager report. >> I have just a few things to go through. if you want to go to page two. On this
page, if you notice under um the bottom, right in the middle, down towards the bottom, we have a negative $7,200 in the red, that is we're waiting for a reimbursement from our property and liability insurance company. They had a billing snapu. So, we're patiently
waiting. They came out, met with me last week because it's time to get ready for our renewal for FY21. I reminded them that we're still waiting and they said they would get back to me on that soon. So, just don't be afraid by seeing that we aren't in the red. We
are do have about $30,000. Yeah. So, we'll be good. >> But overall, >> interest is running, right? So, >> I know $30,000. >> Anyway, just wanted to point that out that yes, we're really not in the negative there. Otherwise, everything is
still consistent. If you look over the 5-year period, everything is still on track as we do. Um, I keep the expenditure and analysis from the past few years of audits just as a little
go-to for people to know that we are on track. But then we haven't really done much with the budget yet. We've had a little issues going on in my office have been kind of focused on a different area, but we'll get there. Um, but I did want to talk about compensatory revenue.
I talked about it last month saying that, you know, we've got our we're about $20,000, a little under $20,000 less. I know compared to what we're getting this year or what we're going to get next year, it will go up a little bit. I don't know how much yet. We had
another meeting on it just the other day. They still haven't released that. But they did say one thing I thought was very interesting that part of Trump's one big beautiful bill act that fewer people are going to qualify for Medicaid. And for us that could have an
impact down the road. Our compensatory triple number of students tripled once they brought the Medicaid in as direct certified because that's all they're looking at now. If they now those families would not qualify for medical assistance, it may decrease the number
of people that would qualify for compensatory revenue for our district. We don't know what that's going to look like. I don't really know how that's all going to roll out, but there is a um task force that is working on this. One of their items that they're looking at
is how do people qualify using direct certification? Is that really the way that they should continue to do it? So, they're bringing a lot of pieces into place, but that is just one thing that they realized after the new legislation came out from the feds that things could
significantly change. We aren't one of the losers at this point in time. There are districts that are losing millions. We're we're maybe going to see a a decrease of about $10,000, but some districts, your bigger ones with the higher poverties, they are seeing billions of dollars in loss for
compensatory. So, just something to keep in the future, but next year we're still on track. >> If less of our kids qualify for Medicaid, I don't know how much we bill for special ed into Medicaid, but will that transex? I know parents don't have
to allow us to build their um insurance. >> That's correct. We so we get about 50 to $60,000 in reimburse reimbursement back from medical assistance for this because we
don't we can bill for certain services you know your speech language some PCA type stuff we're looking at doing some nursing we haven't done we haven't ever done nursing in the past but that's just something that Masik was kind of starting to help us look at to
see if that's something we can build for, but for us that's about $50 to $60,000 a year. >> So if families aren't rec certified and it goes to their private, they may choose not to allow us to build that. >> Yeah. No, they're >> undisputed.
That is correct. >> Just for reference, Mary said some other things are going on. Mary's been doing payroll on top of her job right now. So little busy. >> Yeah. No, it's all good. But so yeah, we're we got a lot going on, but it's
all good. >> Gonna make it sting on your way out the door. Sorry. >> No, it's it's change is change is good and coming on is going to be awesome for you guys. So, I'm excited.
>> Thank you. >> He has to do my time sheet. >> We'll be reminding you of that coming up because I want it by the June 20th payroll. So, Good job for Scott. Right. >> Thanks, Mary. >> Next up, community ed.
>> Everyone, thanks for for having me. Um, we're going to take a little look backwards before we look forward. So, um, as Rachel just mentioned, uh, community dead was able to participate in the kindergarten open house a couple weeks ago, and kudos to Rachel and all her staff. It was absolutely fabulous.
We got to touch um touch base with so many families and and had the ability to bring some laptops and have families register for preschool screening right there or early childhood screening right there. Um we handed out so many Dad's Day flyers like, "Hey, mom, do you want
a break? Here's an opportunity." Um and we're seeing some numbers come in and and that was fun, too. It's really fun to see our preschool students see us not in the preschool building and kind of go, I think I know you, but this is weird. You're not where you normally are. So, it was a lot of
fun and we appreciate being being part of that. Um, as long as I'm talking about preschool in the state of Minnesota, the parent aware program is the quality rating program for early childhood programs. And in the community of Delano, Delano public school
preschool holds the highest rating, a fourstar rating. Um that goes from one star to four stars. One star is meeting basic needs. Every star above that has those same parameters and additional. So for for us to hold a four-star highest
award that means that we are demonstrating our excellence in preparing children for kindergarten and that at the same time we are very committed to continual improvement and professional development. Um some of the things that go handinhand with that four-star rating is um using
developmentally appropriate uh curriculum that's researchbased. Same thing with assessments, having licensed teachers, um having a really strong family engagement, aligning our curriculum with EIPS, which is the early childhood indicators of progress. I'm
very proud to say that this is the program um in Delano that holds a four-star rating. So, I think that's something to note and the accolades to all of the staff that that are dedicated to it. Um, at that same time, um, we are
we are looking at doing Sorry, I just lost my place. I'm at the point where I need it to see you guys, but I don't need it to see down here. So, it's it's a little bit of the the the back and forth. Last week, I had the ability to attend the annual meeting at Franklin Township, and I'm pleased to say that
the township uh is continuing to support community education and increase their support by 11% for the next two years. So, we appreciate um their support and the ability to go and um talk about community ed to to the township members.
So, that was kind of exciting. That was the first time that I had been to Franklin Township. So, um over the weekend, we upgraded our registration platform to ERICS, formerly known as LEO. Erics is our our new platform that we're excited to bring forward. It's
going to have the same look and feel. We kind of just transferred everything over until we're done with the branding process. We had the ability to do an update. We said we we'd rather wait until we have an established logo until we have established colors and fonts. And so we were able to bring it over as
is and we'll be doing some juing here in a in a couple months. So we're excited about that. Um looking ahead, uh we had talked briefly about our archery student. Kora Schmidt is considered number five for high school girls in um
in the state and she'll be representing Delano here on March 28th. So, please give her the the best wishes as she moves on in in that endeavor. Uh looking ahead a little bit farther, we are going to be opening summer registration here in a couple weeks. So,
we're excited about that. And I forgot my brochure sitting on my desk. One of the things we are super excited is that the front cover pictures a child in the swimming pool. We are going to be bringing back swimming lessons. Um this
that was my Here it is. Um we are partnering with Velocity Swim to kind of create that cycle. We want our our youngest and and everybody to learn how to swim safely. You cannot go a mile in any direction and not hit a body of water. You have to be able to be safe.
We want to bring our youngest ones in. We want to teach them to love swimming. We want to graduate them out of the program. Hopefully, they want to swim for velocity. Those swimmers then turn around and want to become lifeguards and swim teachers for us. And the cycle keeps repeating. So, we're excited about introducing a new program um this
summer. We are going to lightly roll it out, meaning that we will have some assessment days because it's been a while since we've had swimming lessons. Parents may not know where their swimmers should be. Get in the pool. will spend a few minutes with you. We'll help you figure out where that is. Then we're going to have some mini camps, which number one
is good for students in the water. Also good for our new swim teacher staff to have some of that hands-on training. We're anticipated to slowly roll out late August, September with probably Sunday afternoon swimming lessons, continue that through the year. Next
summer 27, we plan to hit the ground running. So, super excited about that. If you have someone that you know that may be interested in becoming a lifeguard or teaching swimming lessons, please send them my way. They do not have to know how to swim >> or
well, we'll teach them how to >> They do not have >> We're going Sorry. They do not have to be swimmers. They do not have to be on the swim team. We will teach you how to teach swimming lessons. >> They do have to get wet. There is there's that one precursor.
>> What age are you looking for for these teachers? Do they have to be 16? >> Swim teachers, I would like them to be 16. Um, lifeguards, they can be 15. Um, aids, we can look at 14. That's more of the opportunity to dip your toe, start
to start to learn. One of the things I'm excited about is I've been starting to connect with some of our TKC aids. Some of the best swim teachers I've ever had come out of school age child care because they know how to talk to kids. They know how to classroom management. and know how to keep them all going in
the same direction. So, I walk down the hallway. I'm like, "Swimming lessons? See if they see if they bite." Um, I've had a couple of them that say, "Yeah, maybe." So, we're excited. One way or another, this summer, we will start getting back in the pool.
Finally, >> the earthquake that I felt a couple of Did you make this decision like a couple of weeks ago? Because I felt a little tremor. >> Yes. Yes. >> Got it. Well, it was kind of the our brochure is coming out. Are we going to
be able to do this and putting it on the front cover? So, no, it's um it's a big pro it's a big process. We've decided to move away from Red Cross and develop our own curriculum. You're seeing that more and more in school districts and programs across the state. Red Cross is
fabulous. It's also really expensive and really hard to maintain. we can have an equally good curriculum and training program that meets our needs but also the needs of our of our swimmers. The biggest thing is that we're doing it
safely and effectively and it's sustainable. So that's what we're really trying to do is create that system that rotation through. Finally, before I leave, um looking ahead, Touch a Truck is the infamous ECF, um Touch a Truck event, um on May 2nd
from 10 until noon at Central Park, we are going to have a variety of vehicles, including a helicopter, weather pending, that families can show up free of charge. Kids of any ages can come out, see all the vehicles, experience, touch, climb, do the things. We also have a
noise free or hornfree sensory hour for those that get overwhelmed by by the amount of noise. Um that's from 10 to 11. So we're super excited about that. Hopefully the helicopter will will be able to touch down. I heard about that not being in Delano last year. So it's
big deal. And if you by chance happen to know somebody who owns a limousine or piece of farm equipment or a monster truck, we are looking for those. Shameless plug for Patty Loftas. >> Any questions for me tonight.
>> Very cool. >> Very cool. >> What day is that? >> What day is touch? >> May second from 10 until noon. >> Some stuff over there. >> Is that all ages or >> that is all ages? Yeah. >> You have to wait in line. They probably
won't let you. But if you want touch but >> I'll come. We hope to see you there and we'll keep our fingers crossed for good weather. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. Thank you, Abby. All right, next school board representatives. >> All right, with spring break coming up, we don't have that long of a board
report for you, but at the elementary school, they recently held the Tiger Fund Fair, which is just another great opportunity to bring students from NHS to help with at the elementary level. I know that um like Miss Schultz said that there was a ton of volunteers and I know
a good chunk of those were NHS members. So, it's just really cool to have that older student, younger student involvement. And I didn't get any pictures that I could share with you this month unfortunately. But at the intermediate school, students recently participated in regionals for
history day. Um they also so they did their locals and then their regionals. And at the locals um they presented their projects uh that they had been researching and preparing for months. Uh they all did wonderfully. This also gave the students the opportunity to share
their work and demonstrate their knowledge that they had occurred over the um over the months and months of that. And student council organized a treat cart for teachers to show their appreciation. So they wandered around the school with their treat cart and just showed teachers some love.
At the high school, as Mr. Void said, we have spring sports starting, so getting ready for practices and competitions for the season. As previously mentioned, the NHS members also had the opportunity to volunteer at the Tiger Fund Fair, helping support the elementary school.
And the 11th and 12th graders also participated in history day by being able to judge the competitions, which is just really cool way to give the little students some feedback on how they did. And it's kind of all we have. >> Any questions?
>> Thank you both. >> Thank you. >> Next up are our board reports. First up is Moso. >> First off, I did hear if you're over 30 and going to touch a truck, you'll also have to sign up to be a lifeguard. So,
>> she said, "I don't know how to." Yeah, you don't even need to know how to swim. >> Seen you swim. >> We don't want to. Jump in kids. See how you do. >> Okay. Sorry.
>> Okay. Miko, um we had a very typical meeting last month where we approved many of our um our at will contracts um and other position changes. Just a
couple items of note. Um part one of the ways that Masiko tries to reduce costs to member districts is to contract out sort of low incident services to other non-member school districts. So that is happening again this year and next year.
Um so contracting out some deaf and heart of hearing services um physical health disability teaching services things like that. So I just wanted to draw a note that that is always looking
for ways to you know share our staff to help students but it also helps to reduce costs for the member districts as well. Um we toured the step and trek programs which is uh and journeys which
is at the Howard Lake um maino building um and the the step program which is the transition. So that's the 18 to 22 year old services that we talked about earlier. Um that program is looking to
have some significant student changes next year. Staffing is always an issue with MASCO because staffing is driven by student need and student need changes every year. Um so they try to predict who will be coming. Um, and this year
with the STEP program, and we have talked about this before, but they're going to basically double their student count in STEP and STEP program helps with things like life like functioning skills, like life functioning skills as
well as like work readiness. So, those students are sometimes out in the community um, and getting coached by by Masiggo teachers. So, that will be a change next year. Um and they are looking at ways they are hiring a new
another physician for that to serve the needs of that growing um program next year. Any questions? Questions? Thanks. >> Thank you, Sarah. Next item is the right tech center update.
>> So that was me. Um I'm proud and bummed to say that it was I was part of the fastest meeting in Right Tech history. I've been informed. It was uh 24 minutes long, so it was very much business as usual. Bummed because it took me four
more minutes to drive their round trip than I actually spent in the meeting itself. So, pros and cons, I guess, but >> Oh, you're having a big impact. >> Yeah, mostly mostly business as usual. Um, couple of items interesting to note though. We talked about the LTFM
budgets. They also talked about their operating budget. um they are billing a couple of quarters ahead of time, meaning they're collecting Q4 payments in May and June to make sure that they're able to cover off on their operating budget. So, they're not in a deficit necessarily
yet, but they're certainly prepaying things. So, they're keeping an eye on that. Uh with that for the 26 27 school year, they do have a couple of uh position consolidations um as well as one program that is going to be going
away. Um, it's the auto careers program for transitional students 16 to 22. They previously had it staffed because it had been running at almost three of the four blocks of the day with enough students to cover it. They are down to one and barely one just due to student demand.
So, they've had to uh make the difficult decision to stop that program at least for now. Um, and then they consolidated a couple other areas. So, they're definitely trying to be very budget conscious and are making the necessary
decisions to, you know, try to continue to keep the ship floating well. And, you know, the LTFM dollars will go a long way because they do have a pretty substantial list of like small, not even small, but some of them cosmetic, some of them mechanical. Um,
having no bond payment will be will be great, but they still have some work to do, I think, in their operating budget to make sure things are running well. They did talk about also being uh at the capital attempting to position themselves to get additional funding as
you alluded to. We'll see what comes of that, but it uh feel like they've been beating the drum for a good 5 to 10 years trying to get additional funding. It's always kind of been a yeah, we get it and then it falls off the list because it's not top priority. We'll see what happens. But your point with it
being the only one left, uh they're either going to need to make a decision to fund it or it's going to continue to be an uphill battle for them. So they're doing well. They're getting payments on time. They're paying their bills on time, but they are they're making some tough choices to
tighten the belt operationally. So that was really it. Otherwise, normal principles report and superintendent uh director report, but that's it. Questions? Thank you, Ryan. Moving on to new
business. We have um in new business, there are five extended field trip requests that we reviewed in past work sessions. Um if there are any questions related to any of these requests, I'll entertain a
motion to approve the five extended field trips for volleyball, dance, football, soccer, and sixth grade class trip. move. >> I'll second. >> First by Ryan, second by Corey. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any
opposed? >> Motion carries to approve those extended trips. Next item uh under new business is to approve the resolution to limit enrollment to non-resident pupils during the 2026 2027 school year. Again, this was another thing we talked about in
work session last month. Anything else? just updated the numbers within the resolution that was shared with you. >> So move >> I'll entertain a motion. Jess first any second >> second by Sarah. Um any discussion? All
those in favor. >> Oh sorry. Thank you Mary. >> Board member Mora. >> Hi. >> Roser. Hi. >> Baker. Hi. Board member Gerky, board member Shouse, and board member Black.
>> All right, motion carries. Before we adjourn, um thank you Rachel for pinging me. One thing we missed on the personnel report as opposed to in addition to the hires is there were two um teachers who are retiring. Uh Mr. Steve Brown within uh the of high school and also Miss
Natalie Palmer from the intermediate school. And we as a school board I want to just say thank you for all of their service and effort that they put into um teaching all the students that they've taught. They've touched many lives and for that we appreciate we appreciate that. Um
there's nothing else. Next item is adjournment and I will entertain a motion to adjourn. >> So move first by Jim. >> Got a second. All right. All those in favor? >> I motion carries. We are adjourned.
Thank you everyone.