We're ready. for share. You're share. Um just calls for service effect as far as labels
that would be from just really establish this year especially so much things I started in 2021 school resource officer
leaving school especially our starting the right Um that being said we're starting to see that more I think we're start
but overall as far as you know the visaries have, you know, work to do. Something's happening. Um, definitely busy with again certain
not as much. Um two things that happen school should take credit for this but school bus buildings
updated as far as there's no federal mapping So we got more updated response to all school. um upcoming to stay on top of things hopefully
working for a couple days. Um the year and the school year officers what's going on. Um so we have some tours too. Um most of our self.
So um outside just make sure there not each school have keys go through that show already. We'll go through all that.
Uh we get to the high school this spring we had spring our police department. Um and then last thing I have is my supervisor see at least
one day next year. So that's what I'll do. You guys have questions. Thank you. Nice report. Um looking forward I appreciate uh especially
mapping u exercise uh to keep uh all of us up as you go forward. What will be something that will help you better
serve our students? Not a whole lot whether it's technology or just a couple days ago and my office and so I did the office there anyway.
Um, you know, just somewhere little things like that, you know, at this time. I don't have question. Um, one of one of the things was a
suicide concern, right? And it was at the elementary level just surprising we see I didn't see that I was Hey, what you got to do?
I see we see that a lot. Yes, we have a high school elementary school. That's not being elementary. Thank you.
Any other questions? possible next time we're still next year of each year for reports. I should say too like these are just as far as like
what I feel like might not in fact I would say percent documented Um last year show yes she comes I'll be in the fall early sometime
and uh I'll get more from I would say let's say that it's kind of a line where basically
you're looking for resource charges involved or you're taking another resource for him or something. So things like
those um like crashes, but we don't really but
um things that I'm helping either one of the principal mental health control Thank you. All right. >> All right.
Hey everybody, thank you for having me today. Um, my name is Rasley, principal acid. And, uh, I just, you know, we we finished off school year this last Wednesday and so, um, lots to celebrate. This is a great time to be able to
present because we have kind of end of the year outcomes and some data to share and, uh, and really some experiences that highlighted or gave an explanation to to the phenomenal year that we had. Um they read on Wednesday as students were being dispersed, they just stay in
the hallway and kind of help kids get user when they're getting picked up. My parents are going off to the buses and I had a fifth grade boy come up to me and he said, "I got to talk to you just for one second and he gave me a high five and he gave me a hug and he said, "I just want you to know that this is the
best school year I've ever had." And I I was blown away. I thought it was really really cool that this this kid is turned into a middle schooler comes up and he's wanting to share what his experiences were like. And uh I that's what I hope
all of our kids felt like as they they left their school. Um I know that we have a a staff that is striving for excellence every day. They work hard. They're committed and they love their kids. Love students that are in our in our school. And my hope is that they
they feel that um our enrollments at the end of the year we had about 302 students approximately 27% of those were receiving tier 2 reading interventions either from AIS or Americanore. Um of
the 302 students about 14% were in special education services and that's not including our speech and language care. Um really I'm I'm very encouraged by what uh we were able to see across our school by the end of the year in
several key areas. Uh our data was as strong as it's been in the last five to six years. Um our data really is showing that our tier one literacy instruction is strong. Our students are receiving really high quality interventions
and there is growth happening in the We set off with with some goals at the beginning of the school year. I know I've shared with you a few of those and you probably heard those goals over and over again whether it's from me or some of our ele elementary principles but
really our goal uh that we were focusing on was executing high fidelity implementation of Whitten Wisdom across all of our classrooms and of UFly across our K3 classrooms and the student outcomes uh academic outcomes really
show that that implementation was uh and we've seen a lot of good things. So, I'm going to share a few highlights. These are a few highlights that came uh as I was putting together some data and presenting the state of the building to for our staff to kind of things to
celebrate. Uh right now, if we took our kindergarteners and we started first grade today, we have zero of those students that are considered high risk and reading. So that is unbelievable. Uh we had in first grade our early
reading outcomes they were the second highest proficiency outcomes in the last six years and that was only one other that was one percentage point ahead of where we ended up this year. So super proud there. In our third grade,
we we uh made a little pivot throughout the school year because we were noticing that we had students that really were kind of past the fly kind of things that we were working on and we decided I want to start working on fluency, reading fluency. Um our third grade teacher
teachers dug in the second half of the year were fluency. We ended up uh second highest proficiency outcome in fluency in the last five years. So again, ton of ton of growth. uh in third through fifth grade this spring uh all collectively
about 66% of our students were projected to score at or above the state benchmark. That's up from 60% where we were last year at this time. That's a 10% improvement from this fall. Here's something that's pretty crazy, notably our fourth grade proficiency outcomes.
This is through star reading, by the way. This is kind of our universal screening that we do at the end of the year. um MCA did it all come out and obviously later on lip late summer and fall but our fourth grade proficiency outcomes landed at 80% with 88.2% 2% of
our students making typical or better growth. And that's that's quite a bit. Um this is this is nearly half of all of our third through fifth grade students show high growth this year in remaining and uh Renaissance suggests that most
schools have about 34% of students in the high growth category. So we're certainly outpacing kind of that average high growth category of about 50% compared to the to the north 34%. Pretty cool. Uh so a few math outcomes that
really stood out this year. We had in our second grade math it's considered a math through fast is where we do our universal screening. Um only 2% of those students are second graders going into third consider right now. Third through
fifth, same thing. About 71.4% of our students schoolwide show typical or better math growth from fall to spring. And that's up through 16% the prior year. And again, our fourth grade knocked it out of the park this year.
Um, it showed the highest percentage of students making typical or better growth at 88.2%. So, what's what I think we talked about is the staff was really cool. You look at the proficiency numbers and that's something that we take really seriously
and we want those to to um to be strong. But then we also want to look at growth. So, having students that are making high growth, they may not be at the proficiency mark yet, but if they're making high growth, it means they're on their way to getting there. uh some of
the students in our school that had the highest growth didn't show up on the proficiency numbers. So, however, their growth may have been the highest comparatively to their classes or their grades. So, growth is a big deal as well
as those proficiency outcomes. Here's a couple others that I thought were pretty cool. Uh we had a reduction in chronic absenteeism this year. the lowest rate of our chronic absenteeism in the last five years at 2.19%. So very um very
much supportive of our families getting their kids to school and consistently getting their kids to school. We're really proud of that. Um dramatic increase in the number of students attending school 98% of the time or more. Last year we had 38 students attending school 98% of the time or
more. This year we are at 100. So incredible incredible increase. And then lastly, we had a reduction in office disciplinary referrals over the last five years. Our trend is going down and a lot of proactive approaches that are happening through our staff and through
our office and also through our families. Um kind of finally we have some really fun things happening at the end of the year. Uh our spring concert is always a hit. It is an outdoor show that Mr. Alto puts on and the the
families showed up in abundance. Uh we had our our kids kind of lined up uh kind of by the gym and the close off parking lot. Everybody brings their lawn chairs in and it feels like we're at some, you know, outdoor music fest and
it is just fun and I sound more head nods and fist pounds in the air during the songs that I think I have ever seen during an elementary music concert before. Um, when you've got an audience all singing sweet Caroline and you know
you're having a good time. Uh, we also had a spring fun day. That was the last day of the school year. It's always a fun way to end with bouncy houses and some activities and kids having a great time. We also had our PBIS end of the year celebration uh where we gave out
some awards including our golden ticket award winners. It's kind of our exemplary character students of the quarter. Uh we gave out some costume awards and uh I got a pie in the face and so that was a lot of fun too. We did a little fundraiser and the pie tasted
great with the smell of that afterwards. So that's all I've got for you today. Any questions? When you mention what? That's quite one of those areas that we've really kind of thought about and
focused on over the last few years. And it's really those kids and there are certain numbers that you follow per semester. I think it's like 10 or something that you're gone over the course of of school. you miss that many days over the course of a semester, you become chronically absent. And really
what that is, you know, there's that number is really tied to where we start seeing a reduction in outcomes if the students missing school that much. And so yeah, so our goal really is to get them to school as consistently as possible.
>> So semester Yeah, tremendous support. I hope you appreciate your staff. Incredible job. And
congratulations. Thank you. I'm very proud of the staff. sometimes I would say they're very humble. They they just uh they work really hard. They're not um worried about you know um having some of that
that data display and uh they have a belief in kids and they believe all kids can learn. It's uh it's showing up. So really proud. Thank you. Is >> no
very All righty. >> Yep. accept to the flag of the United States of America. discussion. In >> favor, the agenda is approved.
The next item is to approve the K12 math curriculum adoption and purchase. Good evening everyone. Thank you for being here. My name is Carol. I am the district literacy lead and it was my pleasure over the last 12 months to be
able to lead our K12 math committee through the work to where we get to tonight to come to you with the recommendations and adoption. I would also like to introduce Christy Bachmann um who hopefully after board approval tonight will be our district map lead
and Katie Fchelle who is a community member and also a high school teacher. So, um, to kick us off, I do want to say this. For the first time ever in any of our memories, Grand Rapids is adopting a curriculum from kindergarten to 12th grade. And so,
for the first time that we know, there may be someone out there that can tell us differently, but we're really excited about that. So, we have a presentation for you interrupt at any time with questions. Um, we'll go from there. Okay. Okay. So, we formed a um it was open up
to um pretty much the representatives there were and we formed this a K12 math committee and with that K12 math committee then we So, so the first thing we did is we just basically immediately talked about the
fact that we really wanted this vision statement. We started things with that and so that kind of was the driving force at first. Once we got through the mission statement, then we
started speaking of the fact. Oh, okay. So the mission statement, Grand Rapids School of Mathematics will develop confident, capable, and collaborative students who embrace rigorous mathematical thinking as a lifelong tool
for independent problem solving, responsible decision making, and positive impact in the real world. Awesome. Okay. So, with this committee and we started work back in May, last spring, we kind of ticked it off and we had we
met all of those dates. We really did our work throughout the year um looking at saying just to different levels. We kind of put like a little thing we did in those meetings. Um and
with that then so the reason why we got to the point of where we began this process go to that beginning process. >> Hi. Um yeah we began this process as a
teacher at the high school. I know what we were lacking. Um, I've been teaching here in Earn for the past 16 my 22 years and um, we were given a new curriculum ideas I don't know probably about 10
years ago and it's it sat wildly unused because we were not given any scripting on it. Um, getting into the online settings um, there was just a lot of things we felt like we didn't know how to use as well as we should. So with this new process, we have some plans in
place for implementation and training. Um but our existing materials also are updated. We got new Minnesota state standards and with those comes new mathematical practices and expectations. Um so we just felt like it was time to
start looking for something new that would meet the needs of our our students today. Um we wanted a curriculum with stronger supports and this conceptual understanding. Um, one big push is the apply before the how and getting kids to
be more communicative problem solvers. Um, so this is some of those key findings. Um, students learn more deeply with conceptual understanding for procedural fluency. Yes, they still need to know their math, but having something
to do that in the dimensions. Um, math discourse increases achievement. a little bit here. We'll talk about um some building classrooms work that you could do. Um probably learning to develop transferable skills and applying math in those situations or
crosscurricular dimensions. Um so thinking of math as more of a a deep thinking puzzle versus just memorizing facts that are components that are just standalone. Um those were better for students. So when we were
looking for those were some of the big things we were looking for. Okay. So we're looking at principles that mathematics and so practices that they had it remind me of
when I was younger and I just my but I never I about it just kind of goes from that memorization to these
standards more and this is that very bottom line here it is critical that standard practice are embedded So you have your way.
So that was one of the big things that we were looking for as well with the Oh, absolutely. So, like also we had PLC's throughout the years where um the math you had to
educate our teachers in the building on the math practices. So we designated what was kind of tied into. So that was
there and then really know that we as a committee we actually come back because of those practices of what we would be looking for in a
curriculum. We wanted to make sure that the stands were in there. Um that would help us to educating our children. Um and so we as a committee you can see on the right hand side
it came in able to go through those So one thing I want to add about the rubric was that it was also created completely by the committee and we broke into groups and each group was kind of
responsible for one section of the rubric for all the for all the presentations. So they got really good at whatever those areas were. When we came to the final presentations everybody had all aspects of that. We shared the rubrics with the uh vendors. So the vendors had them ahead of time
knowing what we were looking for and then if we had questions after the presentations then I emailed them and said hey we need some answers on XYZ or how this ties in or what can you do what can you do for us and then on the left you'll see all the things that we're looking for
>> go ahead >> so is what I kind of heard you actually gave the vendors an opportunity to look at your kind of if they felt that you missing a chance to come back and explain how
there's something >> absolutely we did. Um I don't know if we have the top where we so we did start with seven members and we narrowed down to two um and we narrowed down because the committee got to a spot where they said we want a K12 curriculum. We don't
want just a K5 and we don't just want a 612. So that threw some out. Um, and then we did give this to the vendors and then when we got to the end when I talk about finances later, we had some good negotiating. My negotiating skills came in handy. Um, anyway, and so yeah, but
Tom, to answer your question, they had this, they knew exactly what we were looking for and that we wanted to see it to them. So with that, part of our adoption process and part of what the state of Minnesota says we should do is we should have a continuity stakeholder engagement
in whatever we're adopting. And we haven't done that before. And so we did that with math. And so these are some pictures from our math night. We invited all students, families, etc. from the community. We had math stations. the
co-op, the Northeast Service Co-op in Mount Vern and paid for all the materials from the for the stations. They helped us set it all up and then the vendors had stations and parents and families could ask questions and talk to the vendors and I was shocked. Katie
Katie was there. I was shocked and surprised at how many families were asking vendors questions and really asking questions about what math looked like, etc., do you have anything? >> Yeah. So that's the real
picture we had inside. We had 10 different stations. Um so outside you can see our kids kind of following the music based on you know the same color the same shape. Um mine had one you know
dot in each that the kids were doing like games. These are like puzzles. Um, it was a huge, but the amount of kids coming out and doing the math games and the math problem solving was pretty cool. Um, I didn't even get to step
inside all my fun. I was pretty busy outside. Um, yeah, my parents had great questions. They fill out feedback forms for two vendors. Um there's more questions um off the top of my head. Did they feel
that there were rigor interest but there was supports for families at home? Um and so parents were able to give us feedback on the top two as well. Um what was really nice is that parents had majority
feelings which we were as well. So I feel like there was a community, you know, teachers, administrators, community members. So yeah, no, it was really some of you were able to stop by. It was good. I also weaved in literacy.
So there were math books, there were books about math that they were able to get if they filled out that evaluation form. This is what some of the feedback that we got. So I am which is the the vendor the curriculum that we are recommending tonight but that was
selected most overall from the community because it was the easiest to understand. It was the best at supporting student learning and strongest for helping families support. >> Yeah. Okay. I was like what does that sound or >> Oh
purple? >> They were purple. Um underneath that both IM um and Envision were our finalists. Many parents view them both as being engaging for students. If we had picked either, we would have made a
good choice. So I feel confident in our two finalists and I think Katie and Christie would say the same thing. What seemed to matter most to parents and we were really listening to parents was that family home support. So the exp the explanations were clear. the homework resources that were are going to come
home were easy to understand materials that seemed realistic to you at home. Um inclusivity, student thinking, and focusing on understanding. And then parent suggestions, having access to support, clear communication, differentiated
supports, supporting conceptual understanding, helping students explain their thinking, and then accessibility, accessibility for a wide range of learn. So I was really proud of that. And then we got a lot of feedback from that. >> We also surveyed our teachers that were
not on the math committee. So we had about 25 teachers. You saw that picture in the beginning. We had about um 25 teachers, 25 staff members on the committee. We did send a survey out to every math teacher. We have 67 teachers. I won't do it. Uh we have 67 math
teachers in the district. And so for the most part um most of the teachers were like let's go let's get this and let's go. There was some concern from some teachers that you know we just adopted a new language arts program. We adopted science four years ago. Now here we go.
We have one more thing but we can't couldn't continue to kick this down the road. Specific timeline. They just had questions for how that was going to happen. Teacher autonomy then piloting and decision making. and Katie and Christie can talk about how we did all of that. Any questions
about any of those things? Okay. So, most of you know that I'm the literacy person in the district. So, dealing with numbers, I've become more of a number person in this role than I ever wanted to be. Um, and I do want you
to know that it was a lot of data was collected and I'm happy to share all of this with you. This is our final dashboard. So what happened was those rubrics that you saw earlier were put into a spreadsheet not by me and a
number was created and so with that we had our four winners or front runners as we went along. The nicest day in the spring April whatever day it was the whole math committee was outside on the grass um finalizing our choices to the
top to the top two and just about all of them were there. And so from there, if you look at the column that says hexagon percent, we worked that night on researching ed reports. We researched that night what districts are using this curriculum. We researched what the MCA
data looked like in schools that are using this curriculum. We dug and dug and dug and dug and you'll see Envision was at an 87 and IM math was at 89. And again, I'm happy to share all the data what the specifics were with that with you. And then the rubric percent was
from their final presentation on May 13th I think. And so what you can see there is IM math is at 96.3 based on the rubric and invision was at a 71.3. So following that across you can see the
recommendation was to adopt I am we could have adopted envision with conditions and you'll see even further uh IM math high quality strong fit and that's back this all comes from our help from the northeast service co-op. So
this was all of our help from our regional math leaders questions on the numbers. So this shower rather standard everything
that was to look at what the support was research as just pointed out by Carol was K12 that was as well first ever school. What was great about this, what I appreciated
was even if you were in a role, you wouldn't be able to look at trying to find the fact that members
as well. Um, I put this up to you guys. You're going to be asked to explain how to participate. Uh, your job is to pick one number up there. Tell us why it doesn't. >> All right. Who's our first brave?
>> Why? >> 16. >> All right. got a different answer or a different reason why they chose 43. I chose nine. >> Oh, interesting. I would other
Mr. Anybody have a good room full of students and I gave you a do you think you could come on this? Do you think that you would? So between our new curriculum I got most new curriculum and
of high school has been tackling for the past three years with pure adults thinking classrooms. Um things like this would be part of the student experience um to get kids thinking about math in different ways. Um multiple right
answers, multiple reasons for the same answer. Um things that get kids communicating. So we know that as kids are going into the workforce or moving on in life, being a communicator about anything is really important. Um so getting kids feeling
comfortable sharing their ideas um you know collaborating with classmates. And when you start with something like this where there's so many great answers, kids began to feel comfortable. They began to feel good working in groups and you know tackling more content specific
more challenging things. Um so this just something wanted to share. Um so this building classrooms that we've been you know we feel that all really well um with our proposed item the increase in mathematical reasoning stronger problem
solving skills student engagement um improved alignment and consistent expectations K12 um would be our expected outcomes for students. We really feel like this proposed new curriculum I was a good fit for what we
needed and we have support students. Okay. So as Katie student more so besides just the last year the last month of it but just going to that
just seems like it's teacher friendly. It seems like it's been easy to find things like I've just been making standards and they stay there because you know a lot of them
standards and so that was one thing as well. So these next three slides talk about the district's adoption process and this was revised a couple of years ago and it
really models what MDE wants us to do. So again, with the help of the co-op, I don't know where we'd be with all of their help, without all their help, they created this for us. So this is now um clickable. And so this just as a screenshot, like I said, this was YouTube. So you can see where we're at
the process. We're never going to be done. So we're always going to come back. You can see in this first one, you can see all the steps that are complete. Um so select the curriculum should have been clicked to complete. You'll see in the middle all those are in progress. Those are just going to keep going every year. We're going to continue going back
to standards. We're going to continue to go back and talk about our common understanding. That's never going away. So that will never be marked complete. And then installation is where we are now. And so I should have clicked identify order materials. Um but we're
waiting for board approval. So hopefully tomorrow that can happen. Planning for material distribution. Um the budget, we've been working with Alex Casey on that. The scope and sequence pacing guides. Christiey's already been digging into that teacher expectations will the
committee will work on that in July based on what is we're following what we did with the language arts adoption at the K8 it'll be clearly laid out and so on um I do have a slide in a little bit talking about professional development and then initial implementation
obviously distributing those materials communicating all of the things so there's work it's there's a lot of work going on so professional learning one of the concerns was um this feels late because we made the decision on May 27th
with just a week left of school, but we had already had a year's worth of work. So, we knew what was going on behind the scenes. So, on July 21st, we have a training for all school and district leaders for three hours um to learn about what IM is. We have trainers
coming in for that. And then the teachers have a training on July 28th. It's a full day and it's broken up into grade math. So K2 35 and then 612. If teachers can't make that, their training then will be August 26th during our
workshop week. The teachers that do come in the summer do get paid for their time for coming in. And then we as you know we switch from the early outs to the PD days next year and so during those days they will be have trainings as well. So in September they're going to work on
elevating instruction. December the strategic unit planning. February surfacing that student thinking that Katie was talking about. And then in April they'll kind of have a menu of options to pick from based on what they need. And so and then we'll continue also working with the co-op on trainings
etc. So they aren't just getting materials and then we're just saying good luck. We're with them every step of the way which is why we needed Christy as an athlete. All right. Um, I really wanted to this slide to talk about as a high school teacher. I feel like especially that
first bullet point is important on my end. When you get kids in 11th grade classroom who have had, you know, all these different elementary and middle school teachers, there is different lingo, there's different tricks that they learn. um there is a whole
difference in experiences they've had content they've spent a lot of time on little time on. So one thing that we're hoping to see what success would look like down the road would be that every student gets a K12 m program that
there's this nice consistency cohesiveness through the district. um regardless of which path they take up to us at the high school, they're all coming in with a consistent set of skills. Um also that every teacher has access to common resources and
assessments. Um with our current, some are using it little, some are using it not at all. We've been doing a lot of hot pods regular things. Um, we have shared Google Drive, but you know, if you're teaching advanced eighth graders,
intermediate algebra, that's a different experience than us. Um, so we want to make sure that we all have access to the same thing. Um, we just talked about teaching students as opposed to teaching students at high
school. um with this particular I know the answer to this but I'm just asking for clarification but with this particular curriculum when you have that um opportunity with students who let's say aren't in the eighth grade because those advanced classes don't necessarily
start for students until until about the eighth grade I guess is when we can actually call it advancement give or take but when they're in the elementary level and we're studying kids that are in perhaps or even not in date but they qualify and
have that they move forward a little bit more than their peers in their classrooms. This particular curriculum allows them to do that. Is that correct? Like it allows the teacher to to tweak what they're doing in order for those particular students to continue forward.
Yes, for sure. Um, and we're going to get to the financial piece. Um, some editable aspects like school did not order books which saved us money. Um, but there's a lot of things that are editable, customizable. Um, so rather than having a workbook at the high
school, we opted to download the word version of everything. So, we can kind of keep those based on student needs if we need to add in or take out certain things. I know And gonna talk a little bit more about
the differentiation piece. >> Y for sure. >> Yeah. And I mean really the piece I was speaking to more more common source expectation and different piece. Um but yes
a little um mass discourse as you guys just experienced for yourself as Christie walks room to room building to building in the district that kids are getting the engaging active math experience. Um
and we're just continuing to align across the district. So that's part of our as we move forward instead of which textbook are mine which was done to go what kind of math experience do we want for our students and making sure that we're seeing math across the board.
>> So before I jump to the next slide I talk about tier two and tier three like with this program. So for our students who are receiving interventions so this program has a math program that goes alongside it. So also for the first time ever our intervention program materials
are going to vary what's happening in the core class. Not only that also for the first time uh for our new administrator for the ALC and IC what we're purchasing for everyone else we're purchasing for the ALC and for the RDC. So they're going to have they're also
going to have access and what that Imagine Math has is like custom pathways. So if I were teaching at the ALC and I were teaching math, I would give my students the assessment right away and Melissa might have a pathway. David might have another pathway which serves what's happening at the ALC. So
does that answer your question actually? Yes. So thank you. Okay. Financial impact. Again, I have become more of a bean counter than I ever wanted to in my life and I know my husband's watching from Wisconsin. So, um, so this purchase
will include, um, all the teacher editions, the student workbooks through 8th grade. I'll talk about why it's not 912 in a minute. Center kits for K5. So, I don't know how much you know about K5 classrooms, but they have a lot of centers and all a lot of times the
teachers are copying, laminating, cutting, doing all of that themselves. This comes with it already done. when they go to their training, they'll have their box of stuff. We want to make sure this is good, but we also want to ensure teachers aren't up here till 10:00 at night cutting out their stuff for class
the next day. It also comes with manipulatives, so chips and counters and things like that. And we made the decision that we are giving those for everyone to make sure we have equity across the district. If you've taught here for a lot of years, you might have all the things you need. If you're a brand new teacher, you might not. And
so, we're starting to make sure that everybody has what they need. They have digital teacher access and I was told that we have that now kind of working behind the scenes to get that done. Digital student access in 612 because we don't have one to one and K5 and then
professional development over the lifespan of the six-year adoption. So on the right, I want you to know that we came in significantly under budget. And so I was trying to negotiate a deal because, you know, in
the uh construction world, if you do that, like there's apparently that doesn't work this week. So um we did come in significantly under budget, which helped the district because, you know, we got some not so great news from the state recently. So I was proud of
that. Um, and I kind of learned the art of negotiating between the two vendors and we actually had we knew who was 21 to go with and I was still kind of bantering back and forth. So, it was good. Um, the committee was mindful of our finances. The committee knows and
wanted to be really mindful of the finances. So, our high school folks, thank you Katie and everyone else, um, they said, you know, we're not going to use those workbooks. Do not order. the workbooks would have been for the lifetime of the adoption about $100,000. So they said we'd rather print what we
need as we need it rather than having those workbooks just sit there. So I was really proud of that and again just kind of some tough negotiating sessions with the vendor after. So kind of went through every any of everything that we're going to do so and made sure that we were paying for what we actually
needed. >> Um when we're talking about tanks and you know all the work that teachers might I will give a little plug to the high school teachers and what we've already done with the new standards out there's a huge emphasis on data
scientists and while we don't need to do teachers you have grandfather we found hey this is a great dig and see what it has if you have ever tried to insert tables and graphs and
all sorts of things even for adopt tab one thing over and the whole thing goes whoosh. I have spent hours and hours and hours in the evenings. It's like a simple match. And with our new
existed, god knows how long and I had great things that not only the kids do I could pull it back later and then they can start putting into their calculators
and steps. So I mean from experience I've already used it and it was fantastic so much time already It was again their
That was just a lot of things that may very And just know just take your time, take a moment to look at some of those that
process. These are some comments from the 2012. My favorite is the bottom right. One of the most validating parts of the process to know that your opinions genuinely mattered. And so that was really important.
any of you anything resonated with you top right difficult conversations we did have some difficult conversations that's why we're here >> I I can't say enough about this
committee um when I first got this position and knew I had to leave the plan adoption Um, I'm not going to Katie. Um, anyway, I was a little nervous, but um, I'm very proud of the team and the team has done everything
that the district has asked of it. So, I'm very proud. So, with that being said, um, we are asking tonight for approval to purchase this curriculum and it will go into place fall 26. I also want to say if any of you want to
come to the trainings in July when the teachers are there if you want to come so that you can be hearing and seeing too if you get your phone calls you have to see that questions I just wanted to not
to put in a lot of effort and not just passion for our students and it doesn't question. discuss. >> So when we discuss
like a lot of younger students didn't really use any high school students any of these or did we find any involvements that are ages or or was that focused on that
intent or I guess >> no it was every family every student was invited um and and unfortunately what happens as you get through is that okay usually more engaged we did have a few
middle schools we couple high school couple high school and so our goal and the committee did ask if we were going to continue to do that again and that would be our goal is just to continue and continue that. >> Um, so one of the one of the highest items
that I saw and this came up a number of times in, you know, probably different context, right? Support, right? I saw parents talking about it. I saw teachers talking about it. Um,
and I'm struggling a little bit with what that means, right? I mean, did you get it from parents? Did you get feeling for what they feel support is? >> I think from I think from some Katie talk about
teacher support, but as far as families, how do I help my child with this when they get home because I don't know how to do that. everything that they have. So they actually explain And there's also videos too
explaining how to do the things that are happening. >> Okay. And then when we talk about parental support when we talk about teacher support the same way material
start basically every unit every lesson making sure that standards and just go through and it's also something
that um I do also think that this Um, not only that question answer you know very little
to ensure he's covering what they need to be covering. There is flexibility. Um, so I just want to say that teachers questions
I just put my laptop out. So, so I understand it pretty broad and then we started so the work started last May. We put the committee together that was
all laid out on that slide. And all the work until January was digging into the standards, reading, building thinking classrooms, creating the math vision for the district, talking about what we want, creating the rubric. All of that took time. And what we've done in the past is we get committees together. We
throw the curriculum on the tables and we say, "Hey, let's pick something." Well, that's not the best way to do that. And we also we did have teachers in the district who were like, "Well, why aren't we taking curriculum right away?" Well, because we have to do all that background that the leg work first and I think the committee also would
agree but in the beginning it was like why are we doing this and then they realized starting in January into January we started bringing vendors in and they gave one hour presentations we had January February March and then in April no April we narrowed that's when
we narrowed down to the two when we were sitting outside but it was nice and then in May the super vendors came back for a three-hour presentation and they did a model lesson teachers. They walked them through how to get the resources. Um, yeah. So, we did all of that and
then two weeks after that we got back together. We looked at the data and then it was every person on the committee but one wanted. We didn't take a vote. We went with the data but that's what they and
I guess when we looked at contract I think I saw six years or a portion of it. And um was that did you request that or is >> I requested it because that's what we did with our literacy adoption and so to
keep that in line with that so you know like things have been trying to get in line. >> Okay. I just wanted to understand and so both both were presented with that. Um
let's let's say things go out right you know the first right I mean we have exit strategy we have not contracts you know any
plan the best Right. >> Yeah. Those are the things that our staff spend a lot of time investing. So I'm not worried about you know the concept the I think the purposefulness of the
process starting with standards um review was really really important understanding what the national council of teachers principal state and finding materials that line up with all those things that we know work the the place
where I think the proof is in the pudding is you know the PD or get out of the materials. So concern about that with that said um I do think it's um it's it's interesting and also going to
add value that this is the same company that um so they have a lot invested in us too. a lot of this to them, but we also are a significant customer of those of
theirs now. And I think this isn't a curriculum that um you know, there are a lot of districts making decisions and they want proof that their materials work. So, I feel really good about the relationship we had with them so far and
I'm not concerned about materials because that's where we spend the most time. our two now and I just wanted to say to you Tom any research that's out there on curriculum where curriculum falls is when you when it gets here in our hands and so what
we're doing with it and so the fact that we have professional development plan we have an athlete that's going to be in place we'll have coaching we'll have walkthroughs we're going to have all those things to help support teachers um I think it's important >> um when we look at a contract
this and we're committed to stretch over structure of a contract. We we have to be taking delivery of all the materials right now. This is like a subscription
and for the most part we're taking delivery of all the materials. We have to split into our budget to pay for all of what we're >> and that's for the duration of the a sixyear adoption. The only thing we're not paying for for the whole six years is all the professional build. We're
kind of right now just for this next year kind of see how it goes from there and then the trainings >> and that would be what our inhouse I mean we're getting support from them right that's already
occur we have some consumables that are literally cost and this is part of our you know we've developed our longterm budget planning where we have um sort of years or big curricular purchases alternating
with years for technology purch tech purchases and big purchase happening the same year so that uh currently both like I One of my biggest concerns comes
into sport. Sport was a big concern for right. Obviously at the time they're bringing on a new curriculum the teacher needs for and you know it was clear from the parent that support
was something that they um saying we do this personal experience. Yeah, I see. Yeah,
>> I think the other thing to your point and I think if we circle back to what again we're trying to take the best that we learned from our literacy implementation which I think has probably been you know one of the most successful implementations here in a
long time. Not perfect by any means and this will be perfect either. Um but I think one of the things that you did right was absolutely available to support the teachers and sometimes that meant well this article doesn't work or sometimes that meant I need 30 copies of
this that's teachers in that moment and I think what you were considering is seven you know CI adding this mapation specialist that's a huge part of that staff is having someone on staff whose
job exclusively it is to make sure that teachers have what they need every day. I think Carol's right that getting getting to here is a big step teachers with the next piece of it is
equally greater STEM individual They're really helpful. And so that's just one of those so many notable my head. I'll go back to my notes.
Um I don't think so. Um we did look at um I think you guys went with that, but I I'll find out for you. Um a lot of schools in the Twin Cities area, bigger school districts, etc. Um they've been
out here for others. We interestingly or not. Yes, Liver Community School. Um, you know, they're small and they were looking again curriculum. So, they came on May 13th to hear the presentations and they're actually going to go in.
We're going to allow them to just jump into our trainings with us just because they're a smaller district and I don't know what you know about curriculum companies, but if you're not if you're a tiny district, they don't want to pay you all the attention. They need to. So, they're going to jump on with us and have them work together with their
teachers and then You're right that there is actually how that's going to roll out your look just yet or don't know I know we're working on communication pieces too um but that will be rolled out to families as
Thank you. Thank you for all of it. going and moving it and then the exclusion of it and super important when I first got here everybody had the same teaching so
um for a few that staff from that and I'm hoping that kids >> and many times to tell the community just trust the process trust the process that other questions. Mr.
>> Sure. Uh thank great presentation. Uh I found myself with two wonders. Uh one was uh that we have um additional help you say uh given to uh
tier two and tier three which in my mind will the other wonder that I have is you know we're all starting in the same place right now uh years from now or two years
from now teachers coming in from where background >> yeah I'm glad you ask that question so I do that right now literacy so the teachers that come in we have trainings that they have to do and so there's a plan I work with them on a plan on getting them trained we have a lot of
teachers they bring someone in otherwise there's virtual trainings but all the trainings that the teachers will go through Google for this next school year teachers hired next to what would have the same thing. >> Thank you, Mr. I know they uh you saw the size of the
group of people that was involved and I think that says a lot both in terms of the quantity of people that were a part of this. I think that matters. Um, and I think the commitment to I don't know how many times I think at some point I
walked by everybody's meeting and see this group of people just getting after you know literally the one day it was the nicest day of the year working. It was super impressive to me.
So I'm grateful for that. Second thing is I I came in here meetings and said look um I don't know if this is realistic to get done for this call and because this is a lot and um and
nobody's making this fall and so you just know that that's an option and so there wasn't like a pressure from me or anybody else to have this happen next fall. That was a decision the committee came to uh after looking at
alternatives. So as far as timing goes again tough decision um there consequences waiting there consequences choosing and you know they weigh those and so super impressed by that. Um, one of the things too that that we've really
leaned into hard with literacy is this tension between autonomy and variability. And um, one of the things that I told or that interviewed me was that I was going to try to work on variability.
Um, so that kids experiences from school to school or classroom to classroom system. And sometimes that that means that autonomy dynamic changes and that can be difficult and especially when we're
working on a new curriculum, we have to roll things out tight and we learn what the problem is. there's a problem. We learned some things this year about our literacy implementation uh that for our pas
we don't know if the problems while we're using and so that's all part of the the next classes too when we talk about implementation using it is learning learning what will work with this
here. And part of our job on the district side and the principal side is um the walkthroughs that we talked about. And so just like with our literacy curriculum, we have walkers that our principles are doing looking for particular teacher actions. They're
looking for particular teacher actions too. Not from a you know punitive standpoint, but like okay, how is this working? What do we need to do? We make sure here all that. So that's a big part of
this too is making sure that this stays on track. So one question my understanding during actually said
this very and I think our leading the process statewide of reviewing masks right now. Is there is there a risk right now of you know >> I can speak right now? No, there's not.
And so with literacy um the state narrowed it down to two and so we picked Wind Wisdom which was one of the two that didn't mean we had to pick it meant that we could only use that state money for that. And so for math no there's anything like that. It
would have made our job a lot easier if they had said here's these two. In fact, some of our K5 teachers said literacy was a lot easier because all you had to look at. >> Honestly, I'm glad I don't want someone coming back.
We just wasted that. And what's exciting about this is that this will come and be implemented a full year before the new standards will be on the MCA test. So not this the spring of 27 but spring of 28 the MCA test will be over all these
new standards. So we will adjend the curriculum for a full year. >> Thank you. comments. >> I have two. Um first none of them today. We hope that
is there any data that shows what it takes to get our kids from you know this is >> I will reach out to them uh Dave but I will say that the company is probably going to say that's where their professional development is like all of
the things that they will have us do along the way is implementation science. The other thing I want to tell you that didn't happen with language arts, which was weird, um, is generally there's always a dip in implementation science because you're just learning it. We didn't see it with language arts though,
but um, I will check on that for you. So I heard you guys for 12 years or 13 years and I don't like you just kind of follow what they have as far as the standards. Generally the standards come on a 10 year cycle.
So these standards are new as of 2022. So we will have new standards in 2032 depending on how much they change. It may not impact our materials that much. Um I know as a secondary teacher by trade, we as a district have really not put a lot of money, effort, etc. into
materials in secondary. So >> sorry any further discussion hearing none say I All right. >> I might as well just say um now that math was exciting because it
is super exciting but I am very excited to be able to to share this next part with you and I know the math part will be long. So, kids, I'm sorry. It's nice outside. Um, I want to share with you that on May
26th, we took um 110 fourth through 8th graders to Buffalo University um through I'll get to this in a minute, but we have some of them here. Thank you to them and their parents. We have some of them here. They're going to talk to you. Um I did force them, but they do want somebody to get to my card and let you
hear from them. Um, but we took them to Beverly. It was an early morning. It was the day after Memorial Day and we were up and riding the bus at 5:30 a.m. uh from the middle school. And so that's commitment uh to be able to do that. But
we went to um school was out down there. So there were college kids on the campus. They were navigating the campus which I was very excited about. Here they are. Um so fourth through eighth graders from the area schools. Uh thank you to our chaperons. Mr. Lockin is
here. Miss Saxine is here. Mrs. Coette couldn't be here tonight. Miss Lindberg, Miss Debo, Miss D, and Miss Hel. So, we have parents that came. Um, and then those are all the students. Um, halfway home, I think is what this one was. So,
what is the Young Authors Conference? So, it's a one-day field trip for students grades four through eight. Takes place at the university's main campus. Hundreds of students spend learning from and writing from professional Minnesota authors. These are published authors that these
students were able to let me ask, did any of you buy a book? So, they bought some books right from the authors that were there. Um, and then they learned new strategies, ideas, and skills to become stronger writers. I did hear from Paulie Olsen, who's a fourth grade teacher at East, and she
said she went to this when she was younger. So, this has been around for 35 years. So expect if it's up to me, we're going to continue to do this because this is what our students need to be able to do that. And all the pictures in here are pictures of our kids um at the
conference. So how are students selected? You can see the picture. It's a college classroom. Um how are students selected? So all four through eighth grade literacy teachers were provided the information. Teachers selected students based on the achievement. So they looked
the student would benefit. Um there might have been students that would have was a that maybe they were a good writer but maybe they weren't performing well in other ways and then the teacher said you know this would be really good for them and that they were able to come. We took all interested students 110 no
student was turned away um and we took three buses to make sure that all students could attend. How was this trip funded? 100% through the achievement and integration grant funding. Thanks to Mr. um tickets, transportation, and
substitute teachers. And then over there on the right, I think that's one student. Is that one of your students? >> Was it difficult to navigate a campus? I'm going to um go through this then. Do any of you want to share? Any young
ladies want to share? >> So, they were given maps. I know there were some nerves with teachers and with parents, you know, oh my gosh, these students are going to be on their own. How are they going to navigate? Everything was going to look. There were bright signs everywhere. You couldn't
turn somewhere and not know where you were. So that's an example of four floors. There was two buildings next to each other. Everything was colored. So let's hear >> um the colorcoded
um floors and M definitely made it a lot easier nowadays. Um Oh, I'm in sixth grade. I'm in sixth grade and the colored maps and
the independence of it. >> Yes. And it was very to talk to you. Um that independence piece is huge. Um foster independent things. I think Mr. Watkins, did you say by the end of the day your students were shi
helping everywhere and then at the end of do you need help? No. No. >> You can go now. You're welcome. >> So, how does this align to the Minnesota standards? Again, part of my job is making sure we're doing this. And so, this activity
standards that so hit all of our writing standards, all of our speaking listening standards, two reading standards really hard working with reading. Um, and this is this came from all the students um from
the conference that was shared with me. something that students said, "What did you was one thing to learn?" They were able to write what they want to read, how to create crazy unique characters, how to map out a story. World building is so important. So, the setting, how to
write a play, um how to make diary comics and books aren't simple to create. They're works of art. So, again, this this day gave me lots of joy and I did some super. It's hard not to be in front of students every day when you see them doing this.
So, I'm going to get to their stories. I do want you to see this picture in the upper left. Of course, I gave them homework when they left. I said, "You need to say what did you enjoy about it? What did you There they were. They were right. They did their thing." And then on the bottom right, um, and maybe they'll talk about it, but there was a
DJ at lunch. And so, they they were dancing. It was a beautiful day. And so, it was kind of that. So, now for Stevie Story. So, um, these were from some of our students. So, I like the bus ride. Everyone was welcoming. People made it
as easy as possible to find our classes. Teachers care about us and friends and teachers listening. So, those are all great. Those are all good things. Those are all fillers. So, with that, Anna, introduce yourself.
>> Here I am again. Um, giggle. experience. I like to um just to start I had an amazing time there. Um like you saw on the last slide. Um I could really resonate with
what other people wrote. Um the teachers were very welcoming, very kind. Um the math was very easy to follow. Um, so I'm going to talk about what benefited me as a author. This experience benefited me
because I got to take a look at the amazing minds of real authors. They showed me how to become a better author through the various important elements of writing. It was a very fun trip and I would absolutely love to go again. Um,
I'm so happy I was this opportunity to go. Uh yes, I thought it was amazing how I could look into the um minds of these authors that have published books that
you could buy. Um it was amazing to see how they worked to make um the thing you could read um at a library or you could buy and read it at home. I just
Um I am Francesi and I am going into fifth grade at East Elementary. I'm going to talk about about how this um the young author conference benefited me. First, it showed me how creative I can be with my writing.
especially there are no rules only guidelines. Second, it taught me new writing skills and techniques. Third, I learned how you can use your child to write stories and build characters. Thank you for making this trip available to us. It has been a great opportunity
and experience and I would love to go again. Hi, I'm just um making stories, making characters. It was really fun because I did art and I already have
an artist. I um thank you for everyone who made this trip possible. It was a really amazing experience um for all students and I'm going to talk about how it benefited me. I am a huge reader not
only but I love to read and when I was reading I kept on asking how the authors created what they did. So being able to go to this trip and then giving have um
having the authors give some examples on how to restart really um answered those wondering. So not only did it help me um become a very good writer but it also um answer
those questions I have. So that was very helpful. Thank you for all those who made possible. I do have I have a student show, but then I have one more that could come. Julie, I might need your help with this because there's an audio file for this. >> Okay. >> So, um I want to compare you ahead of
time because I listen to it and start talking. Um, so this is a sixth grade student at the middle school who was not on the trip is not able to join us. She said, so I have permission from her and her mother to share this and
her writing and read it for you. She does figure out why. >> Let me see if I can turn this up. It's hard to hear, isn't it? >> Awkward sense. Yeah, we'll try this. I'm not sure. >> Since we have an international do
outside, it would now be a good time to ask for an outdoor learning space. >> Just kind of think about it. Just let it >> Let's try playing it and see if we can hear. >> The backtory
includes that sister Sure. >> Yes. I sorry I don't know if doesn't >> Okay. >> So this is for um her backtory. My little sister has had spinal cancer for the past three years. Her tumor was
removed a while back. So not only has become a hardship but reality she is five and has one of the rarest diseases in the world about one in 30 million kids. Ganglio neuroblastoma cancer set off her immune system. So she
now has obsessonus with an one antibi antibbody. Basically her body is attacking itself. So this is Willow's who lives in a black house right next to a park where you can hear all the
cheerful kids playing and screaming from afar. Where a big brown dog and his friend Tatsu stand outside through a lit up cage staring directly into you. A crying woman and her little girl who struggles to walk and an arm that stays closed. The bricks of the home starting
to mold after having been gone. A father who works non-stop, no sleep. An older daughter with big dreams and eyes with big beams. No team in an eye for variety. Who lives in a house that reeks of tiredness with boldness that never
chose to be there even when the doctors don't follow through. Oh, to be naive again. With a head that doesn't think in dark ways again. I wonder who truly lives in that house. So, thank you. I told you about the tears. So, um that
was Willow, sixth grade student um at the middle school. Julia think. So, um, again, thank you to the ANI grant for being able to do that. Um, that's an amazing opportunity. And when we talk about all students, it's all
students in this district. Um, and I want to make sure that we're getting them the opportunities that they deserve, too. And not uh because because we know we talk about funding from the state. Um, we were the what did they say to us? We were the furiest that they've ever gotten to that conference, but that
mostly was just cities uh city kids. So, um so we won that, too. Any questions or comments? I >> I also think that it's incredibly rewarding and fulfilling to hear from
our students all of our kids, principles and teachers and share their experiences. That's why it's incredibly nice too. Oh yeah.
>> Anyone else? Thank you. >> All right. I'm sorry. Forward community. However, um I can't
Please support me. Here you are. I know. highlight. Did they end There's probably And that's the other thing. Well, that's what I realiz They don't pay driver.
So if you're going from What are you doing? Yes, Thursday. just around. >> But we have 23 We have 23 people on the live stream, which is more than we normally do. So, pretty good.
Yeah. >> Oh my god. ready to report members. >> Evening evening now. Um I'm here with a few hats from
here tonight. So um a couple things. Um I'm a graduate from home school. So I feel a lot in our school district and other schools. So um when this opportunity certainly was become involved in kind of
grow and kind of like s through like what the community wanted was I know I want to be a part of additionally I'm a parent have an upcoming third grader at elementary and my son will be in school. So all of this work, you know, I'm
hoping that they're going to see as they get older and also as a general district. So even though that is work at I would say that this is a passion for community to be a part of and help
facilitate some of this you'll hear about a little bit. >> Hi everyone, I am Jane and I am a parent. We have a graduate who recently completed second grade at West and then East
community and then a school there and kids now and um just really here I was excited was very committed to um doing this work
driving around um and moving my kids with their grandparents so that I can be part of the conversation and really because I'm committed to making sure that my kids have a an educational experience school
that maybe that's not happening. Really proud of the school I went to where today so yeah I work with the districts district we live in the district and our daughter graduated from office high school and I care very very much about this district
and I also um led the charge in the 2023 fail referendum. So I want to see us move forward and so that's why >> so I can share a little bit about the fact now. So, as a parent, like I said,
I saw firsthand um what happened after the 2023 referendum as we continue to face really hard and important financial and program challenges that the district realized recently and this whole time that it's about communication and
transparency and that before we move forward with other region decisions that they need to pause, listen, be more intentional and have a more engaged approach. really build understanding and opportunities so that we can have conversations around
school finances. So, the district made a committed um decision to engage the community to gather input um learn diverse perspectives, really understand what people are saying, what they're doing, what they're thinking about the
district and their finances and to build up foundation going forward all students. And so that's literally the background answers and rather than decision conversations and really giving them a
question to listen and learn and then ultimately work forward. For me, this was about building understanding and through a community engagement that voices needed to be heard that the
community wants their voice to be heard. And then by giving them a time and a place to share their concerns, share their feedback, that will help build more understanding and build more consistency and more familiarity with
why he build that understanding for investment and ownership of solutions going forward. So when people's voices are heard that you're inviting them to the table, there's ownership in that solution and that will really move
things forward. So there'll be less research to see along the way. And so that's why this work was really important to me is that ensuring future decisions are not only for data but also about the perspectives, priorities and
feedback from community members. So that's been what kicked across this forward um community advisory group. that this was the background setting the stage why this committee was moving forward. So, uh this is what we were tasked with.
Uh we were going to look at look at where we are. Um learn from each other's perspectives, learn a lot. um discuss the options for ensuring we can um really distill down what the priorities are and that they can be delivered in a
positive way to benefit students. Um, this was uh I think very it was very exciting to see that the group that showed up for this that was really invested in this, the diversity of the
room, all the different roles that people were representing and advocating for the geographic diversity all the different ways that people related to um students at district. So
very exciting. So the process, this wasn't just like one thing that people came together. This is actually a very comprehensive process that took place to make sure that everyone in our community had the opportunity to engage in some ways to
um so there was last fall I believe there was a community survey engagement for completions which led to yes we need to move forward with this. Um with that they we hosted a series of
four facilitated meetings. Um so at these different meetings everyone was invited to attend. I think that's one of the big parts about this is it wasn't like the first 25 was this group of people
truly there was such a great concept to be community like not only geographically but there was people that were parents staff and it was just community me authenticity um authentic voice of participants
because um we you know there was no way to show up each time and what would that look like? What would people say? Um so you'll hear about each of these meetings a little bit. Um we used um some different
hosting and technology participation um strategies come together. It's my hopes with some of the workshops and why we have this process to make sure that you know what the group
consensus is what people are feeling coming outcatters you response. So, not only did we have these meetings that we, you know, started with participants, you know, what do you want to see about
this? It went to the staff. After that, it members again. Um, and there was another story that kind of went through that. kind of that. So throughout there was lots of different opportunities for um you know people to continue to
participate and so in a little bit I'll talk about the student engagement piece but it was so cool to see students here in the room but then also to hear from them like what are they and it was just a really great
experience to know that the solutions really are in our community and I think that this process really helps the recommendations I think they'll really benefit.
All right. Okay. So, just to walk you through um our earlier meetings that we went through, what came out and my class was in session. It was presentation. There was a lot of information, graphs, photographs, um
background, how school finance works. It was really um well put together, well thought through. We all learned a lot in that um work I think was essential for big robust conversations and to talk about
our priorities are where we're coming from. But that was that was the first session and I just that it's up on the website. It's great to everybody walking through it because there's so much great information there to learn about school
districts and the history of it. After some reflection, the first a lot of listening is there to understand community members. are in the community. schools.
So then we really spent a lot of time talking about school finance. We also talked about trends and budget realities. So feedback from the large school that
went through 81 now 82. What stood out to them about school of finance is really the how it is and then that they learned that while district revenue is decreasing over time expenditures keep raising and going
higher and higher that this is creating pressure that members that are concerned that state funding is not and that rising and fun unfunded mandates along with our rural district needs continue
to add to that. So I think it's a really eye opening experience for people that haven't gone through school finance and don't live it every day to understand how strong that is. One committee member asked because it was experience to them.
They asked how can we educate the community and so that they can better understand and help shape future district so that there's more transparency and more longterm sustainability
very important this group. Um, one thing for me and why this topic is so important is like I said, I am a parent community member, but I also came into this process with a very unique perspective. I work with federal programs grant career and technical
education. I'm employed by college. So, it's federal funds that support career and technical education CT. So, I live in the world of school finance. I work with 22 districts in northeastern Minnesota and what stood
out to me is the challenges that graduates is facing and ISD 18 and that area schools is not unique to us across the region. Other districts are all seeing enrollment rising costs staffing
pressures and really difficult decisions. In fact, nearly every single district that I work with is making reductions program adjustments in recent years and up years. So my biggest takeaway is this issue is larger than
one district issue. Um that is a system issue across the across the state. It really reinforces that important conversations around transparency that we need to work together to face these realities that it is one district having
these and it is very important to every district but it's how the district is moving forward how they're how are they funding and how can they move forward. So meeting three was in March and we did a budget
activity and priorities workshop. So um we recaped meetings one and two and then we worked on a budgeting activity for XYZ school. Um and so we worked through that with with a budget. Um, and that
was interesting to be able to do. I' I've been working on various sides of this for the last several years, and it was interesting to do that. Um, and then from there, we talked about our future priorities. You can see on the wall, um, where we
had a consensus workshop. Okay. So, we all wrote what what is it we want here and we were able to put it on this gigantic sticky wall. Um, and then those things were grouped into categories and then work in between. So then that information also went back to
the staff. Um so it we recapped and then we moved into consensus with brainstorming ideas clustered into themes. Um and the group was highly engaged with a lot of rich conversation. And I do want to piggyback
I think from what Kayla said. Um the room was very diverse there. A lot of people care about this school district and that was really nice to see uh people digging into that. What was the most interesting about this evening was thrown I don't know if you all called it
a curve wall or whatever it was but we wild card that's what it was every group got a wild card um we had made our budget and then all of a sudden special ed funding was cut you know which happens and so that was really interesting because then we had to go
back to the drawing board and we had to figure out where do we then make those additional cuts which is a reality so that was really interesting and I think eye opening. Um I did have one community member when we talked about unfunded mandates um just say well then just
don't do it. Why are you doing the thing? And I said and I live in the literacy world um and I just finished my literacy plan for the state and if we don't do that we don't get the funding that goes with it. And so there are some of those things that the money is tied
to that. So I think it was for a lot of community. >> Um yeah like Carol I had lots of conversations with folks where we learned a lot of things that person didn't know every time I every time every time I talked to people they
didn't they just didn't know about school and what was happening there. It was really eye opening for them and for me just to illustrate that because they just they just awkwardness of some of the the challenges that we faced in our
building but we got to do it's called facilitation styles around the world where you station talk about the questions and again this whole process to trying to concentrate
to get to where we can bring our recommendation to you. So, we did three rounds of collaborative discussion. We talked a lot about equity. We talked a lot about barriers. We talked a lot about the student experience heard um
counterparts talked about the finance challenges. We also themes related to students are doing what they are offered depending on what building they're in challenges. Dive into a lot of that as well. Um and
then just identify these ones and kept coming back to the series, coming back to information we already put together and um leading towards that recognition of what our priorities are.
So here's the list and you may have already read about some of this in the report that you seen in your report packet tonight but um the top one was class size and staff and we learned about this we talked staff students um and all the the buildings in
the district um and then I just also class offerings and classes that are available um because without the staff you don't have classes you So this came up again and again way too many some have too few and so
they don't have that opportunity to learn from each other because they're not able to engage their students in in a in a way that isn't educational experience. Two is related um instructional quality and
teacher retention. This is talking about you know we need to really good teaching students, great teachers make a difference in dollars and it's
through this financial stability and operating costs came up again and again also student support services and this bucket called mental health trying to be really deliberate in my group asking what does that mean to you as a
I think there's a lot of there yet and what the role of the district is in this health services. So, we had some great conversations about that. And then five was expanded student opportunities again
to their um are the opportunities the same for each student in each building depending on where they're at and their educational and just their, you know, physical location or which class they're in or
what is in front of them. The student what they are It's still me. One of our group members is here. Um just a little bit more um about behind these priorities and I talked about
teachers need sustainable workflow is we need more student support and stable class offerings learning environments. Um and the instructional quality we want to retain are really strong grade teachers which is tricky in a rural area right this is retention is a big deal.
It's not for everyone but it makes a difference to students to keep teachers really their educational experience. Same with programs and opportunities and having an opportunity
part of this after it is approved of these priorities going forward. How is it going to be communicated out and how is this not just want done? We now know that people want to know aboutility and want this transparency. How are we
going to listen and be heard all of these survey results? This whole group was part of hearing and listening and forming these. And then the biggest question will be then how are we going to continue acknowledge that their voice is heard
and communicating back to the community so that there is that commitment and reassurance that yes we took a survey. Yes, we now feedback. kind of digging in more student support.
You know, I think families, you know, and a lot of first response to like a child is I mean most people are professionals totally normal. We're educators that
what came out was um you know mental support you know access and so I just kind of especally students really talked about community, you know, I think
many different how can we be make sure that the students are ready and ready for the next also like how can we make sure that they're being to a variety of activities arts to protect them and really um you
know we have a long history of you know promoting arts in your district like how do we not lose lose that um in all of these challenges that we're facing um and just continuing to try to ensure that like all achievement levels
of students have access to the appropriate coursework. So you know some students like right they want to um challenge themselves and other students or maybe some students that
making sure that students at whatever level they're at here but also you know talking to the students at the forward meetings it was very opportunities important to our
community. We want to make sure that even more. So overall, what I anticipated from these conversations was that people care deeply about maintaining a high quality educational experience for students while ensuring the district remains
sustainable for years to come. Although individuals came from different backgrounds and perspectives, there was remarkable consistency about what was valued most. >> So it was really fun in one of the meetings and we just made it the fourth meeting. Um we you know put up this
slide on like here are the priorities and like these are what the community said heard you say and the students how 13 students have responded to this survey and we said okay maybe circle back right so I think you know we had a
couple students come but really and so um I talked about how can you do something similar to what we did before we kind of catch everyone catch the students to know that like this probably isn't talking to like the cafeteria choices,
but like you know more about like here's what your community is thinking and talking about how can um how can you in your daily experience like kind of speak to these things to help us figure you know where are some gaps and where
so we did a similar interview we had um at the school we had teachers nominate strings and weed a diverse group of student. We really wanted older students that were responsibility
their experiences. Um not every that was that was present too. Um so we ended up with fourth hour. We were able to talk to them. Um, and so
we went through the adult like things like what are those things that are happening when they learning say they're welcome
to like pull that out of them. So amazing to hear like just the energy of the students talk about their days and like what was so important to them. Next, we kind of shifted to areas that are concerning and deeper. So, when things when you're not having a good day
as far as like you're feeling like you're not feeling part of school or there's something happening, what are those things that are not learning like are there certain things or things? And then for the third, what are
some future possibilities? What are some areas that you think either buildings or what could intermations um that kind of came out of what the student said. So you really we talked a
lot about this is more of like science learning they want to learn they want to think about things like themselves in the content of the most important thing to them is how their teachers
every single student in some way or form talked about a teacher or a group of teachers or activities that happened at school that made them feel like they belonged and also help them um feel like they were seen as um they want to experience hands-on life
skills like they also want to know like what am I going to do after this? Can I take classes that I want to take? Can I learn about school? Can I take a music class? experiences
community that I can engage in that I can be credited for. So I make sure that I'm making the right decision when I'm leaving here to go on a student. Um they also really spoke a lot about protecting us in extracurriculars and
just like what a difference that made um in their school and also um you know we spoke about they really want people to normalize and reduce that people
ask for whateveraching. So it was amazing that you think these students did like okay I will just share I got
a response from that it's a little longer but She said that the word values and the process of getting together was unified. What surprised me most
was that many students. I really enjoyed this because I thought my voice was hurt because students could go more in depth or I would like to know that I believe that it would be beneficial because each
of the students has had different experiences ideas that are main students I represent. I am most excited ultimately to hear that the board is wanting to hear our feedback knowing that our wants and
needs are being acknowledgedly appreciated and encouraged and I think you know throughout this time that's what we heard from students at the end was just like someone is hearing me and listening to me and I think like with recommendations but also from students
is like we need you to do something you know they don't want to just talk they want us to talk so that we can like start and the great kids that are already district and maybe course on a few things that we didn't realize. Um
also if you get a chance from students the how the students voices like there's a lot of people different
groups as a reflection of I think one of the most important things we accomplished was creating space for people to listen, learn, and engage with one another. We brought together individuals with different experiences, perspectives, and
priorities. Yet throughout the process, we continued to find common ground. This process did not solve every challenge facing the district, and it was never intended to. What it did was create something equally important, informed
dialogue, stronger understanding, and clearly. Through surveys, discussions, workshops, and reflection, we move assions and focus on what matters most to people who care deeply about their serious.
For me personally, first off, this experience will reinforce the value of community engagement. Strong decisions are not made by voices in isolation. They are strengthened when people are willing to listen, ask questions, consider different
perspectives, and work towards shared goals. As we move forward, I hope the work of this committee serves as a foundation for future conversations and decisions. The priorities identified through this process represent more than
they represent the values, concerns and hopes of the communities that we serve. And thank you for this opportunity to be a part of this work and to help contribute to the future of this process. some final recommendations for your
consideration. Um would recommend to continue to be a transparent community. This was a process that was you know time intensive. a lot of work. We thought care
facilitation was great. Tools that we used were great. The poweroints were fantastic. Um chances we had to exchange ideas and perspectives and really work toward what we're offering here and now. um was I'm
sure took a big lift uh was very valuable and I was very part of it and experiences with with others in the community um that kind of transparent and engaged action to continue prioritize staff and
instructional quality that top priorities the committee staff between the committee staff and students maintain long-term financial stability. That was our goal going in. That's still a
foundational and then um communicate clearly about these tradeoffs. So related to that transparency, how the decisions that are being made and um the
advanced Yeah. different invested that could cost a lot of money or might not work on the classroom and making it real. So
those are things that we can continue to do going forward and that really do make a difference by providing opportunities like FFA opportunities like students spoke to today that are money changing for our students and so there was a lot of
excitement in these court meetings and like we're the ones speaking here but it is because the work that they put in for the whole entire year going through this process for the staff meeting but really that there was no predetermined
solutions that these were conversations and not because of that because we heard differently opinions together from students, staff and like community through the process
and then also through that survey. Um, I think the last thing I just want to say is having been in the district for a while and education even longer, the worst thing we could do with this is not do anything with it after all of the time and money. I mean just the time
that was spent on asking teachers as a former classroom teacher um get surveys and think okay I'm going to fill a survey out what's going to happen to it so please do send information the community and the
students put so much time we're at the end of our sharing I don't know questions >> um first applications of the follow and the board across quantity as another
against so I appreciate that question why are we here and I finally asked great and so now this question sits with me too how is this going to be >> operationalized
so in sort of discussing this this group and others. I think we as a as a board need to take not only these recommendations alongside the report and go through those one
because I think there are going to be some things that um I think alluded to this like this thing require resources
allocation but there some things that we look at this is this is a really tough to do without resources so I think it's going to require like a deep dive work session >> so I'm asking because I used to ask this
a lot but we always ask kind of current students have always like the social and wondering if some of these
world conversations might be worth it because I've heard it all as in the last three years I was literally I don't know.
I got so And so I feel like it's still this of knowledge that to help build some of these decisions we have to make. um that
we don't and so I'm just as we go because I think this is amazing what they said is amazing and I believe I think the reason
I don't care and so I think that's that's a driver for them but they do think that We have to adhere um and we do that and I want to make this I think possible outcomes of our
deep things we need to know right in the work hasn't has always been about we're going to take as long as it takes to understand
I think we did um we did have some success that maybe circle back to uh getting feedback for recent grads That's when we gathered feedback four years ago, five years ago with Pandora
to recent. So we we had some success with that. So it might be circling back to the strategy. How did we go about getting information from them? >> Any other questions? I guess could we pull that
final experience with this process process is that right and that like you know the reporting is probably draft and maybe there are some areas for spots that we see in the moment a more than I think we
should and then communicate that back to the people that sitting just not being like I did that thing now. It's like I do that thing. Here's all the things that are coming out of that and seeing this happen. One thing I wanted to share when I look
at this list is I immediately start to categorize where those go and I look at this list and go okay um transparent community engagement. We have our camper committee. We've been doing community conversations like what are the things that we can do better? But then really on that instructional quality and I
zoned in on what the students said about compliance versus deep thinking and you know that is something that's important to take to teachers. This is what students are saying. So I just take it kind of to your point and start to figure out where do those go.
So, so and the reason I asked was to be brought up again. Um, you know, I appreciate the wording on all this, right? Um, it's it's forward thinking, right? It's positive. Let me
just ask a question. Was there anything that came justly said we are failing? You know, this is something we need to we need to turn this kind of a concern. I mean, one of the ones that comes to
mind for me is a role, right? It's a struggle for us. Every student we lose is a big deal for us, right? Um, was there any from the parents? Was there any feedback of you know, any kind of
consistent that they just said. Okay. And again, I appreciate the forward and positive thinking of this, but but I I would really like to know if there's something that people are coming back and saying, geez, this sucks,
you know, is did you get that feeling I'd love to say no, but I also hope that somebody was open and said a couple things come to my mind. One of the things is communication, you know,
and it's something we talk about a ton. It's like the the more we try to do the more we realize that we're doing it. um you know one of the items was about mental health and we had a a significant conversation or a number of them were um
and I can't remember how the exact comment was worded was but was sort of like mental health's only available for kids that are in Christ or like in really significant crisis and it's like we have we have mental health practitioners in every single one of our
buildings all day every day. So there was like a complete gap of awareness about what actually exists in our schools and how kids access services and what those services are for. Huge gap
there. So our parents don't know. So communication was a part of it. One of the earlier sessions there was a lot looking at our student data. There was part of it was like we need to get better on reading math science. It definitely was part of that but it was
also part of discussion about MC telling us more about these benchmarking data that you gather. So what happens from a kid with kid beginning of their you see some of that right but
discovered facing facing so they were very interested in knowing more about that. Those are two things that I would talk about. It's not just you can see right
there's a lot there was really like because we're so busy from day to day to day to day hour to hour to hour.
What do I do if I need help? Where do I go? When do I do that? How do I access my teacher, you know, other than their prep time? Because I might not be able to get help during their prep time. That might not work because I'm in another class. We
heard that bunch. Um so that's an area back to all right how do we schedule how do we create opportunity how do we recharge or whatever the case may be but that was another thing I think one of
the things that was the first one because people were just um Um, why don't you know about how one of the big comments that struck us
was when we say um that didn't mean that struck me for a lot that score doesn't benchmark.
I think to the point kids telling us that they want to learn deep level. I think you want teachers over measured and I think
understand sometimes these behaviors that any other questions or comments are Hearing none. All those in favor of accepting recommendations say >> I opposed.
All right. Thank you. Thank you. >> Yeah. Just want to work with our stuff put in there out of you know hours put this together
and that's what they gave to the committee. So thank you. Yes. Newport school. We remember facilitate
process. We decided doing that was a foundational um issue lead and um the lens. So right now we're very fortunate to be working one of the communications
consultant talked a lot about this year about fragmented communication ways people are giving information and as we talk about enrollment engagement
and really um trying to families and students consultant soon. >> Thank you. You know, three of us have 21 kids in
All right. >> Mr. Chair, >> thank you. >> School representative for 2627 school year. David none. All those in favor say I. I
oppose. Next discussion next to all of that Jackson is retiring education. >> Second by
>> I just like to say she is fantastic and I see her excited for her. All right. None. >> Approved. The next is to approve an agenda.
Ashley >> second leadership across nearly all evaluated areas. Superintendent girls ratings either accomplished met school board expectations or distinguished exceeded
schoolboard expectations. Board members highlighted several strengths throughout the evaluation process, including strong financial leadership during a challenging fiscal environment, clear consistent communication with the
school board and the community, strategic planning and organizational leadership, commitment to student opportunities and instructional improvement, transparency and engagement efforts through initiatives such as the forward
community advisory committee and a focus on long-term district stability. The board also acknowledged the complexity of leading a large diverse rural school district during a time of increasing educational, financial, and
community challenges. As part of the evaluation process, the board identified the continued opportunities to strengthen community trust and engagement while recognizing the progress that has been made in these areas over the past years.
During the evaluation, several board members commented on how fortunate our district is to have a highly qualified superintendent like Mr. Gross in the district. The ISD school board appreciates Superintendent Gross's
leadership, professionalism, and commitment to the students, staff, and communities of Grand Are >> Tonight revised the original
approved last June budgeting and some clear but probably the biggest change in this budget is the switching
the biggest looking question. Any discussion? Questions. All right. Thank you. Motion to approve the other side. Next item is to approve the 2026
association membership approval to approve by second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Next item is
high school. >> No. Sir, any discussion? Um, yes. or anyone wishing to get involved. Uh I also the opportunity I was surprised
candidates but uh mostly the students had never done it ever before. It was incredibly instructive. Uh the students came extremely well
prepared, but they simply didn't have the experience of having somebody ask them questions. So um all of us know
your year 57 is a lot Uh so thanks to the counseling before graduation and uh Minnesota association
had in the permanent school fund last week and I encourage people to get you know the legislature passed a bill was established in 1858
sections of land and put resources from that into a a permanent fund and that fund has been built over the years I don't even know what it is now millions
and the legislature passed um the res to change the constitution. This is a constitutional amendment that
passes and I encourage people to get to know about this. This is one of those rare things in this legislation. It was supported by Republicans, by Democrats, supported
uh side and it will cost nothing. There's no additional fees, but it will essentially double the amount of funding to schools out of this
current uh fund and At the same time it will maintain the purpose of that. So do vote for the federal election and it's important to vote on this. If you don't
educate yourself on it, understand what it is, ask questions. >> Um I didn't ask able to high school district. They are able to
work on their own. They have all of their seniors All of the parents, family members, community members are supporting and they all
everybody had the same same support that was showing. They showed us a student. And what's really interesting about these children have been together
since they were they graduated, you know, in their school plays and it's all everyis And they
had a capital as well. So they also celebrated you know their love for that particular student and that was really nice to see as well. High school graduation was really just for
a big job to see um we had some amazing seniors from just the same community support also very
as well. I negotiations like to wish the best to our graduates and like to recognize
all the staff to this point. Finally, I'd like to wish baseball. >> Thank you. groceries this morning. All right.
Just a couple things a lot of activities, concerts and graduations and trips, things like that. time of the task force meeting last Monday and so we're continuing progress towards
the October report. We're finalizing recommendations and working towards finalizing some recommendations one by one and so that's taking shape. Um also attended a meeting
and uh mentioned a little bit. We had a whole lot of a lot happening this summer. I know people are thinking tomorrow. All right. Thank you.
Julie, >> no one understands. Thank you.