##VIDEO ID:wVtRkZMEsnY## members of the board superintendent gross thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this evening my name is John arson and I am here on behalf of the r Arts Council and some of our members are here with me to discuss an exciting opportunity an event we hope will serve as a celebration of the Arts a chance to bring our community together and a fundraiser to benefit both the W and Grand Rapids area school students this spring the ri Arts council's external Affairs committee has set a goal to host a fundraising Gala on May May 31st 2025 using the r lobby as the venue this Galla would be a formal high-profile event aimed at generating critical funding to support the Arts and education in our district we envision a gathering of community members Business Leaders and patrons of the Arts coming together to celebrate the shared successes of the WRA and the district while raising funds that directly benefit our students one key element to ensuring the event success is the ability to serve alcohol as part the experience the reality is that offering alcoholic events of this type significantly increases attendance enhances the guest's experience and most importantly drives Revenue fundraising experts as well as our own experience from past events confirm that alcohol sales have a substantial impact on overall fundraising outcomes this is where we Face the challenge Grand Rapids area school's current policy prohibits alcohol and school property meaning that our Gala cannot include alcohol unless an exception is made while we completely respect the district's policy tonight we are asking you to consider amending it to allow for narrowly defined exceptions such as this event let me outline the reasoning behind our request address concerns that may arise and explain how this could be a mutually beneficial opportunity for both AR and Grand Rapids area schools let's address the elephant in the room right away why not just host the Gayla without alcohol or offer mocktails or something like that instead the answer is simple but important fundraising Galas that include alcohol consistently generate more Revenue this isn't just about offering beverages it's about creating an atmosphere that encourages community members to engage stay longer and contribute more generously when guests enjoy themselves they're more likely to participate in fundraising activities such as games auctions Raffles or pledges alcohol also helps attract a broader audience including Business Leaders and major donors who expect a polished Professional Event to put it plainly we are asking for this amendment because we need this fund fundraiser to be as successful as possible and the more successful we are the more resources we can pour back into the rfe into our Arts programs and into Grand Rapids area schools this is not just a benefit for us it's a meaningful opportunity for the district its students and the community as a whole our fundraising Gala isn't just about raising money for the r Arts Council we are committed to making this a partnership that benefits The District in very tangible ways specifically we are proposing that 10% of the proceeds from the event be noted be donated directly to Grand Rapids area schools Thunderhawk fund this fund provides financial assistance to all student programs and clubs from band and choir to sports teams and theater Productions these dollars would directly enhance opportunities for students across the district whether it's purchasing new equipment funding field trips or supporting underfunded programs by working together on this policy Amendment we can unlock new opportunities for students and create a lasting impact on the community let me Begin by addressing what I believe are the key concerns that may be on your minds these are valid concerns and I hope to provide Clarity and reassurance on each one the first concern is protecting students from harm or mixed messages a major concern with any event involving alcohol on school property is the message it might send to students the last thing we want to do is undermine the values or stand standards the district works so hard to uphold our solution is timing and location the proposed event would take place outside the school year no students would attend this event the event would also be carefully separated from the core purpose of the property as an educational institution additionally we envision we envision this as a professional fundraising event targeted at adults parents local Business Leaders and Community supporters of the Arts the event would focus on celebrating the R's Mission its impact on the community and the vital role of Arts education in our schools by carefully framing this event we believe we can avoid any perception of mixed messaging instead we can demonstrate a model of responsible community-driven collaboration that benefits students and the Arts alike next let's consider liability and risk the dis the district's responsibility to protect its resources and reputation is another critical concern understandably the idea of serving alcohol on school property raises questions about liability compliance with state law and how risks would be mitigated first and foremost let me assure you that the ripe Arts Council takes this issue extremely seriously we would meet or exceed all legal and licensing requirements this includes securing a temporary liqu license through the city of Grand Rapids hiring licensed and insured professional bartenders to serve alcohol and purchasing additional liability insurance to cover the event and protect both the r and the district Beyond this we are fully committed to working with District leadership to develop a detailed risk management plan this could include measures such as limiting alcohol consumption clearly designated in restricted areas and creating an oversight PR process to ensure compliance the third concern I will address is precedent for other groups another possible concern is that approving this amendment could set a precedent leading to an influx of similar requests from other organizations or groups how would the board ensure that this policy remains fair and consistent while upholding the district's values this is where the language of the policy becomes crucial we are asking for a narrowly defined Amendment that would allow exceptions under specific conditions for example the policy could limit such events to nonprofit organizations with a direct connection to the district's Mission and require board approval for each Exception by clearly defining the scope of the policy you retain control over how and when exceptions are granted preventing any potential misuse finally let's consider public perception the community's perception of this amendment is another critical Factor some might question whether allowing alcohol and school property aligns with the district's role as a trusted educational institution however we believe that the right with the right communication and transparency this policy amendment can be positioned as a positive step for the community the rarts council has a long history of working in partnership with Grand Rapids area schools to enhance Arts education and provide enriching opportunities for students by hosting this event at the r we are showcasing the district's support for the Arts while raising funds that directly benefit students in fact we've already spoken with key stakeholders including band choir and theater directors as well as the activities director at Grand Rapids High School they have expressed their support for this proposal especially in light of our commitment to contributing a portion of the proceeds to the Thunderhawk Fund in closing I want to emphasize that this isn't just about one event or one policy Amendment this is about creating a framework for collaboration that allows the r Arts Council and Grand Rapids area schools to work together more effectively in the future we are not just asking for per permission to serve alcohol at an event we are asking for a partnership one that strengthens the r as a Vibrant Community Resource supports the the Arts and provides direct benefits to Grand Rapids area school students I understand that this is a significant decision and I appreciate the careful thought and consideration you are giving to it I along with the ri Arts Council am here to answer any questions you may have and work with you to address any concerns thank you again for your time your support and your dedication to the students and families of Grand Rapids area schools thank you you know as as you know this is a workshop there's no votes taken and uh this was really put on the agenda as an information only fece for us okay so I I guess at this point unless somebody has a specific question um we'll take the information you gave us and and uh consider that but it it would be a significant lift for us to put an amendment in place you know do a policy to bring it to a board meeting before that date but uh I I guess we'll consider that okay point of clarification um uh you've obviously given extensive consideration to this fundraiser what kind of and you earmarked 10% of the funds uh for the Thunder fund what kind of funds are we talking about we're hoping in our first year to raise somewhere between 15 and $220,000 through the Gaya okay and the 10% is a starting point that can be negotiable for you know if we if we get to the point where we have a policy change in place that we can consider it thank you yep so with this you're hoping that this would be something that you would put on every year this would be an annual event ideally we would like to do that uh first of course we have to get through the hoop so that we can have it once and if and then if everything goes well that would be what we would hope for any other comments or questions thanks for coming today all right thank you thank you for your consideration next item on the agenda Melanie uh Community Ed extended your programming indicator of thanks for having me guys I'm gonna sit here and chat Julie's gonna I always get excited once a year I get to come visit you guys and share Co stuff that's going on in community ads so um it I hope it's not too long but I wanted to share some of the cool things that are happening in with Community ad here so first off I wanted to start with I put together an it's an org chart but it's like our community ad umbrella there's some new board members on here so I wanted to kind of go into a little detail with some of the programs and services we do provide in community ad and I also as we work on the Strategic direction for the district how Community Ed molds into our strategic Direction and um really is a piece of what we do with our community that revolves around our strategic Direction as a district so as you see up in the top Corner the colors of our strategic direction are up there for the district and I kind of highlighted on the community ed org chart how those colors match so as we looked down the First Column of our districts that we partner with through Community Education we have the four districts it shows five because I put big for because we have a programmer up in Big Fork for Community Ed specifically and that really is about Partnerships and resources because of our Partnerships we are able to save on resources as a district Community Ed does a leadership contract with each district and which brings in Revenue to provide the services that we're providing across the itaska area so I'll go into each of these areas a little bit where we're going to start with the districts and what we do across all four districts is we provide three cataloges that go across all all four districts all of itasa County three times a year we reach 23,000 residents each catalog that goes out and that is all of our tasa County residents we provide over 20,500 individual opportunities this past year so this is 23 24 data we offered 636 educational classes which was around 13 classes per week in our community across the county um Community ad really strives to connect create and explore so through those opportunities connecting people together and connecting people to our schools creating opportunities where they learn explore engage and then um exploring those uh Curiosities of our community and really trying to meet the needs of all individuals within our community and this is Grand Rapid specific data we offered 195 adult opportunities which participation was 400 4,542 participants and then 197 youth opportunities with 10,200 participants in the youth world so looking at I broke it down by age to so you can see our largest users are our K through five participants they are looking for stuff to do after school hours in the Summers and then our adults is about 31% of our total um participants are our adults in the community 19 plus participating in the program Melanie as you're out talking to other community directors what do you have any like feeling what their graphs would look like is this pretty typical or or don't you know that's okay I'm not 100% sure I know Proctor Hermantown is one I work closely with and theirs is completely different it's almost all Youth and their adults are not engaging and she thinks it's because there's other opportunities to do there we're in Grand Rapids we are kind of providing some of the Hub in our community and I would have to say as we move forward in referendum those 4542 participants have been in our buildings have had most of them positive experiences because most of our data is positive and so I think we have a mailing list and we have opportunities to connect with those people in our community and some of those are duplicated participants so some person takes a class 10 times they're counted 10 times but we have those people too so basically an opportunity as an enrolled enrolled participant yes yep so we use duplicated numbers so then our next column here is our services um Communications Community Ed has a Communications specialist that works on Communications with our community whether it be District Communications or cre ad Communications she is is our person helping us communicate to our community what's going on with our buildings and schools and Community Ed courses and offerings um and then the facility usage that falls under our community ad umbrella 2 as a steward of resources getting people into our buildings and using our res resources that we have here in our after school hours programming Early Childhood screening and then also scholarships I'm going to go into depth a few of these prr programs also so scholarships we offer um through the Community Foundation we get some money to offer scholarships to anyone who can afford community at Opportunity which has been a real nice success across atas County people can apply and gred funds based on the needs so as we jump into facility usage for the district last year we had 2117 different groups within our facilities after hours and four 49,000 hours were used so you say there's not that many hours in a year but that's counting like gym one gym two gym three they're all booked every night after school and so that's how many hours people have been in our facilities this past year so in fiscal year 24 as you know we started invoicing groups to come into our um spaces and use our spaces after hours we invoiced $ 44,4 24 for the district's um general fund and that usage is not going down um I don't know how much we can go up because we are using our spaces as much as possible so that's something that's probably a pretty consistent year after year Melly do we have a sense that uh um the amount that we invoice does that cover the expenses the out of- pocket expenses for the that after uh after school use I'm not sure exactly I don't know that we've put that together yet but that might be something I can talk to car about to see you know the custodian in the building the lights the toilet paper the all of those extra things that are happening um so I the one addition you know when we have groups in the building practicing um we don't have staff extra staff we already have staff there we'll bring in extra if somebody's br ice there would be some things like uh yeah like paper towels and stuff uh to some degree but if we do have a custodian when somebody runs on the weekend we do require custodial uh and the group pays for that so we don't incur any labor costs uh that we wouldn't normally incur and then our early childhood screening so the early childhood gradings are a requirement before they enter kindergarten and through Community ad we have this past year had 320 screenings which is our three to five year-olds entering kindergarten we use a dial for assessment tool tool so evidencebased tool that is required by the state of Minnesota and we ident are identifying early interventions for students so there's a our Early Childhood school nurse is present with screenings and then we train the screener we usually screen one time a month and we have about 25 kids coming in each month screening and then um able to identify needs whether it be speech or early interventions or special ed services those are identified early before the students are coming into school Melanie yeah do we partner with I ask on that early childood screening at all yes so all of our screeners that are trained are training or we train them and they go to all Sites okay yeah so that was a partnership that started two years ago yeah a lot of those in this building I mean that's just right we're doing that screening here now we would necessarily been able to do that before yes um we've we did bring it here over on the community aded wing and before we used to be in and out of different buildings wherever there was space and it just didn't it was where were we could fit so now it's this is where you there's one there's one location for families to remember and then down our third column is the programs that we offer we're offing offering adult opportunities youth opportunities Learning Academy and family engagement I just wanted to share some of the adult opportunities that have been going on in this building alone so this building has been a real blessing for Community ad we have an actual space that we can use during the daytime which makes programming for adults that are retired adults but still very active in our community much more easy because they some of them don't want to be out at nighttime so we're providing them a space to come to a class during the day we've offered some basket weaving we've offered um this is like a scarf weaving on the weaving tray or whatever you call that I obviously didn't take the class because I don't there you go you guys got was more than just I should take the class now so proper the pickle ball in the gym with the new floor surface that we were able to purchase this year through grant funding our Esser funds has been great we have that full well Dave do you want to come in I didn't that's pick a ball floor it's not just pick a ball floor but has been full with pickle Ballers from 9:00 a.m. till 9900 p.m. Monday through Friday so we have groups coming in they do pay a fee to come participate in pickle ball then we also have staff at our lunchtime have been going down and taking like a 15-minute lunch and blowing off some steam we then in the evenings have our Tech Hub kids going into the gymnasium and using it so it's been amazing seeing that space being used again we also the kitchen that is right here has been used for cooking classes and has been a great success and still we're still learning how to use everything properly and so but let me ask question is that facility to pickle ball available before they painted on our tennis courts or no but that net that's in there was the one they left on our PI so we so we got something not quite even but something and then the learning and exploration you know the Ukrainian Easter egg painting is happening down in our classes as well but a lot of opportunities for adults whether it be in this building we do partner with other organizations like we crossy the YMCA outside of the buildings that we have classes in and then we offer we have a classroom at the middle school too that we use for a lot of our art classes and exploration classes I just want you know Melanie called this out but you know if you go around that that those pictures we did not have a place to do those things before we repurposed this building so when we're talking about you know why did we end up with the buildings we have and why we decide to keep what we kept and why the admin buildings like this was a huge uh opportunity for our school district and the you know the people in it uh from you know really you to however old however old um so it's really neat and it is being used all Dayla and then to our youth programs we offer a lot of off after school opportunities for you the one I'm going to highlight tonight is our Learning Academy program this is our academic based programming that we hire licensed teachers to teach kids after school two nights a week for an hour and a half intervention and then Al in the summer we run a four-week long program so this is summer data from this past summer the outcomes um well the goals of the program are to provide academic and enrichment opportunities for students along with some of Social and emotional supports that students need in the summer months and food so we provide breakfast and lunch and snack for kids so last year we served 3,872 meals for students in the summer program we had 297 students enrolled in the program grades going into first grade so our kindergarteners going into 8th grade they received 105 hours of academic support these are students who are right at the bubble or below grade level in an academic area reading math or have other risk factors of being homeless or being home without meals so it's not just academics but our big focus in the summer program is academics it was reported that in all grades students were better prepared for the next year than their peers who choose not to attend summer Learning Academy this is a referral based program so we were able to look at students who were referred and did not attend compared to students who were referred and attended and so students who were referred and attended had less of a summer slide than those who were referred and did not attend the program so we're looking at summer because the goal of this really is you know in four weeks we're not going to get Leaps and Bounds with their academic scores but we can avoid some of that summer slide or and keep them interested in Reading interested in math and like just a love of learning that might be different than they're doing in the classroom we really focus on Hands-On exploration it's small group sizes so using Sesser funds we're able to get group sizes down to eight or 10 this year we'll probably have to go back up to 12 to 15 because of the targeted Services funds that that we use for the program but all Explorations small learning groups um interventions based on the students needs really working on an individual student's needs within the summer program 94% of the students self-reported that they thought they would do better in school next year 97% of the students reported that the people in summer Learning Academy understood and accepted them for who they were and this is all self-reported by the students who were in the program 20 5% of the participants were on an IEP and we work with specialite closely to provide services for students who may need additional supports um some students one to one many of them are self-sufficient and able to um be successful in a classroom however they might need additional supports at times during the program 70% of the participating students qualified for free or reduced meals and that's where we are able to serve them the free breakfast and free lunch and then also a snack um some comments from a parent you know it was a fantastic program and it made a big impact on my child's confidence going into first grade you know you think about those Kinders just keeping them engaged in the summer um a little students comment was I made new friends at had fent Learning Academy if you guys look at the um little flyer I sent there was a kid who um we used the all kids bike program and we had a kindergarten first grade student on a on a bikes so all kids got to be on the Strider bikes and I kid said I was really scared the first time but then I'm not anymore you know so just thinking of those kids trying new things in the summer months never been on a bike before and now they get an opportunity to get on a bike and with teachers that are caring and believe in them so our summer program is really important in our summer months in the district you talk I have a few things i' lovey to expand on yeah the first one is um can you talk a little bit about the opportunities that this has opened up for high school kids to oh to get some experience yeah so we hire Camp counselors for the program so we have licensed teachers we have Paras and then we also have Camp counsellors two years ago started with Esser funds but now we are continuing it with additional funds we started a program partnering with the educational career Pathways program where we look at students who are looking at a career in the education field we then do a weeklong Youth Development certification with them before the program starts they are paid for this training and then they become the cam counselors in the program who are then trained in pedagogy and um Youth Development and like get some really good skills about how to work with youth and group time and circle up time and strategies that will help them in the classroom be successful and then they work with our students for the four weeks of summmer learning academy and we do check-ins with them weekly so it's been super successful we've seen retention of our summer camp counselors coming back year after year we've had a few go off to college in the educational care Pathways so we'll see after four years if they come back to us as teachers we have had some before this program even teach do Camp counselors and then come back to us as teachers like Jana Rock was or Jana zenen was a camp counselor went to school to be a teacher and now she's in our district so it's really like a pathway program for our district how how many years could they actually be counselor potentially I mean how how young they can start at 16 as a camp counselor and they can work all through college as Camp counselors yep we really love the college ones coming back that have that Knowledge and Skills and we found that adding this certification for them gives them an opportunity to put something on their resume but also to explore education and to see is it something that they enjoy or we've had some do it one year and say nope it's not for me and we've had some that continue to come back and this year I think all of them from last year are coming back except for one and because she is a teacher now so she if we have room for her have teaching do you know did that when you see people kind of leave this program let's say do they choose different Majors potentially then do they get out of Education overall you know I'm not sure but the one that did leave she chose a different major she was a high school student and chose to go into a different career yes okay the 70% that qualify for for first off I love all of the data in the statistics that is amazing thanks the 70% though can you talk about how that applies to our general population in our districts yeah that's uh our generally we've been like 45 to 50 so we over index on kids attending this program on reduced but it is a referred program it's a referred program so um at risk factors could be the are so lot of just trying to connect thatp which it's really significant when you look at achievement gaps and how are built uh it's really Melanie talked about the summer slide it's not this like slow deficiency that exists what when you look at kind of like looking at you doing this um students that qualify for free or reduced lunch have a tendency to have this Gap that it builds over time so their they their their school year growth is similar but their their summer regression uh or their summer like maintenance or even maybe a little that doesn't happen as oftener to as greater degrees so you have this like similar uh slope then a drop and then a similar slope and that accumulation of those gaps is what ends up leading to achievement gaps it's not a you know a cognitive deal obviously it's really about an accumulation of those gaps um back to the statistics comment and the data Melanie one of the things that melan has done a good job is connecting with our school year data system so like this isn't a standalone program that's living in its isolation um it's the data that we're accessing is connected during the summer is connected to the school year data too I know if there's anything else you want to mention about that even the the systems we are using are the same yeah so in the summer we use the same data system Ed a climber um working closely with mtss coordinator J and you know students are referred based on that data and we're um when we run interventions in the summer they're also put into that data system as well so we can see track a student from spring summer to fall and see where that student needs are within our educational supports the the last thing then I'll let you move through your slides here but do you want to talk just a little bit and maybe later but how extended time or how that funding Works um yeah yeah so this this program is funded through targeted Services it's based on pupil units in the program so we get we can gain an additional point2 pupil units per students that is in the program year round so it's a year round program we have to provide it after school and summer and um not all students take advantage of it year round but it's a requirement of the state to offer euron programming so we're granted 02 for students up to 02 additional um funding points per student this funding has not changed for 15 years so legislatively um our group is looking to try to as everyone else in education looking how can we expand funding for after school academic programming for students um obviously with inflation we're not able to afford what we could we had Esser funds for a few years here and we're able to really amplify the program bring in a lot of great things that we don't want to see lost and so now it's seeking competitive grants and things to continue those things that we saw working over the past three years and um continuing to offer those for our students because we know they deserve the best so figuring out ways to partner with other organizations so we can still continue it or legislatively if we can advocate for additional dollars in our targeted Services fund and um that's down the road but that would be our fix to some of it Melanie I just would like to say that I have had one of my children in learning academy and it is a fantastic program and as a parent it helps me better understand how I can supplement them after Learning Academy is over to help help reduce that summer slide because it is a thing you know and so um this is very beneficial to our community and and I really do enjoy this program so thank you how does Big Fork get served by learning yes thank you um Bigfork has also a learning academy program up in Bigfork their numbers are included in this so this is Grand rapider Schools numbers but their program is held in Big Fork at their schools we have two licensed teachers and a parah in the summer they get breakfast and lunch they also transportation is provided for both sites and their numbers are about 30 kids so we have two teachers 30 kids we also partner with 4 in Big Fork and 4 brings this so in Grand Rapid it's a full day program in Bigfork since it's harder to find teachers that want to teach full days we partnered 4 still making a full day program but 4 provides the afternoon with hand on learning enrichment opportunities for kids so they have similar program to Grand Rapids theirs is only the month of June ours is June and July but four weeks of programming for both sites very similar programming same same opportunities and same academic supports are happening in both places I'm glad you and then our my final column here is our grants program Community Ed works a lot of um Grant systems trying to find grant opportunities for our community I didn't to say that accurately but we currently have um three grants that we have under us basically right now um there's every year I feel like we have in andout of different grant opportunities and different agencies we're working on to fund program but our two I I shouldn't say we only have three grants we have lots of grants that support these program so project Reed is supported by many different agencies not just one Foundation um safe R school is supported different many different pots of money and then our Tech Hub is also supported many different opportunities but these are the three programs under our umbrella that have grant funding supporting them um Project Read I guess I didn't do a slide for that one so I'll go back to that project readed is about Partnerships in our community it's about Distributing gently used books back into our community so we do book drives throughout our district to get kids and families to donate books and then we circulate them back out at family events whether it's children's fair or um red bookshelves around our community so people can grab and take a book with them the goal of it is to that every kid has an opportunity to read at their reading level and then um safe RS to school is a program that was funded we had a safe R to school Grant through um a Federal Grant and we were not granted that this past year which we then we said um we don't want to lose this opportunity because it has provided many neat things for our community and our schools around safe routes and just looking at things differently and how we can provide students with opportunities to be safe in our schools but also opportunities to learn to bike and walk safely in school so we partnered this this fiscal year we are partnering with the itasa County Public Health ship program they had some additional funding so they are funding our s FR school coordinator through their program and so every year we'll continue to look for funds for that program and how we keep it and sustain it because I'm assuming their funds will go away and well I just applied for another safe School grant that will be granted um coming up in June so if we get that then we'll be able to continue another year so continues to look for funds for this but some of the cool things that this program has brought in is if you're at East or West you may have seen a traffic Garden it's painted where the buses come in and it's just looks like our roads but it's for us to take kids on and learn to teaching them proper signs and signals for biking or walking or families just to go out there and do it on their own there's roundabouts to learn how to bike around a roundabout safely and there's stop signs and so it's just a great place didn't cost a lot of money but it C took time and effort to organize it that now we have in our parking lots now we also brought in um a program called all kids bike we presented on this at the Minnesota Community Ed conference and many people were excited about how do I do this for our district and what it is if you've seen the trailer sitting out here it's got 24 Strider bikes in it we have two trailers so we have a total of 48 Strider bikes they're these little bikes with no pedals on them there are pedal kits that come with it so some of them may have pedals now but we are going across laasa County into kindergarten and first grade classrooms and working with kids on basic B bike skills whether it be balancing or once they get that balancing adding the pedals on and so we've seen kids never be on a bike to now they are riding a bike and an Campbell is the coordinator for the program and you she's amazing I'm sure you all know her she's like yeah she's loving this program and she loves getting with the younger kids and getting them biking so it was just up in Big Fork that's a picture I believe in big work or maybe that's a Nash Katan one but it's been over Nash Katan it was in Big Fork Cohasset West it's going to Greenway next week so we are spreading these bikes out across itasa County so all kids will have an opportunity kindergarten you said kindergarten and first grade first grade and they do it right as part of the school classroom yep interaction like the gym teachers are offering it with with all of their kindergarten and first grade classes this year this our first year getting it to all buildings last year we just we had just got the trailer so I think last year we went to Cohasset and big for last year this year getting more opportunities we did it in the summer program as well and then we also partner with get fit itasa to bring the larger bikes into our Gym classes for our Middle School age kids and Elementary age kids so hopefully no kid and grown appid will ever say I've never got an opportunity to Ry a bike and the new Grant I applied for is all abilities bike and so if we get this grant it is Strider bikes but adult size so our students who are at a middle school level that maybe don't have the balance to be on one of our big bikes could do a Strider bike bike um we're working with special ed on that Grant so fingers crossed that would be really cool to bring some those bikes in for individuals with um not as good a balance to be on a regular bike and then we also do our national walk Bike to School events those happen three times a year where we're encouraging family's kids to get out bike together our PE teachers are also on that day really encouraging kids to go out and walk bike we've done some 5Ks and PP runs on these national days just trying to encourage that health and wellness Style for kids also an has worked with the city in both Kass and Grand Rapids to secure some infrastructure grants and one one more was recently written but an was um instrumental in helping the city with the infrastructure infrastructure grant for the middle school parking lot so that one has come from this position and um the new Grant they you're applying for is is sidewalks that would go from the middle school parking lot over to East so there would be like where that drop off the staff parking lot sidewalks going from that skating rink there all the way over to East so fingers cross for that Grant and the city applied for that Grant to be able to provide that they recently completed the one in cassin sidewalks in the school so that was SC too so at the Middle School we've got a rework our parking lot coming up right is that through the safe routs that that kind of happen and instigated that's right so this position has been very instrumental in our district even though it's um minimal hours it's the the position has made an impact on our district in many ways and it's it's important that we try and keep it around and as much as we can she's I mean an does a great job but the people the coordinators before have all play made things go in place that have helped with those safe routs and making sure that we can afford to because we all know we want these things but it's the money that comes behind it so that's hard to do and we do have kids that bike every day yeah regardless of snow right you know yeah they do bike every day and I don't know if anybody follows it but there's a I think they're out in Maine and they do a bike bus once a month and it's a gym teacher and it's a hoot and it's he goes through the community and they play like music on big speakers and they have like parents who drop off but the kids each join the bike thing it's super cool to watch and it's like Justin Bieber came like because he went viral but it was like it's like this and they all the people wear yellow vests and stuff and they're stopping traffic and the kids are just rolling through and it's super cool to watch because there's hundreds of kids that join that Flik bus in town I'll I'll that will be the next thing an J she's good bike bus yeah adults and everybody commenting on the bike School the day we started late few hours late but couple weeks ago there somebody went by biking to school at 10 o'clock to and we were just like wow that's dedication right Fat Tire they are students every day that um bike to the Middle School um on their fat tire bikes and they're head to toe they've got their big old helmets and big old ski goggles and their gloves on their hands and they're just cool yeah um the other program right now that is new to our district is the tech Hub and if you guys haven't stopped down there it's in this building Monday Wednesday Fridays after school until 8:00 p.m. and we've had currently 58 students who have registered with us and who are attending not regularly I would say we have about 20 to 22 a night down there a lot more of middle school age students which is great it's providing an opportunity for them to have something to do after school and you know the goal of the program we first came in I thought it'd be more high school students but I think that will come with our career exploration we are partnering with um career pathways on programming and opportunities for students to do career internships in the tech Hub so with that that would right now we have two students that are called ambassadors so they're two student workers come in a couple nights a week and work with our middle school students they're not in the Tech Career pathway program however our next goal would be some of the students that are in our um it career pathway would be coming in and the tech Hub will be able to connect them with internships of businesses who they're working with in the tech Hub so really looking at it as how can we help students for one explore technology and Carew Pathways within technology but also to then connecting students to Industry in our community that is looking to hire or allow students to explore technology within the workfor how how does this differentiate from like industrial arts in our high school let's say and up in big for you know you know from that standpoint of like 3D printers I know I've seen them up in big fort in the library was that actually techhub or was that industrial Arts so the I guess how are they intertwined and where's the separation I guess yeah the programs that are in the schools are directly school programs what we're trying to do here is allow students that are exploring those things in the schools to come here after hours and explore deeper and um maybe explore just supplementing it separ and giving them opportunities to do a little bit more with it too so like self- Exploration with like Adobe Photoshop we have it in our high school but they have an hour each day to explore it and learn but then they can come here and really self explore and try new things or like 3D printer is trying to design something on your own and then come here and print it um we have a stateof the-art sound booth where we don't have that anywhere else so allowing students to come in and explore um maybe singing but also explore then the creative side of it of putting it all together into a music or a commercial or how does that singing correlate with something that you do in a career with it so we're trying to keep the same platforms and the equipment similar let's say if F Photoshop and in classroom they're working with that's what you're working with yes trying to we partnered with the teachers at the high school trying to make programming similar but also different so they can explore more opportunities probably at the tech Hub than they could well and obviously they're not supervised for lack of a better term or it's not somebody right over their shoulder showing them yeah say at this in this atmosphere and what the tech Hub will do is we will offer um programs where students have to register and it's a specific like drone 101 so they'll learn all about the Drone but then when they come to the techhub at exploration time they can explore a drone or virtual reality or different things that they may have learned in a program that was taught for a week-long program and then they can step into it and explore on their own deeper and try to learn exploration ways um another thing that has come out of this is certifications so right now we are offering um cyber security certifications for 16 plus and they are taking a 12we course in this it's virtual but they're also getting paid to go through this course through the tech Hub they have a grant fund to pay students to go through the course and by the end of it the have a so that was a real cool opportunity for our students we identified them through um students who are interested in it at the high school and in the it CER pathway those students were identified and were so to when I saw that 3D printer up in the library in big for was that part of tech or was that part of indust part of industrial Arts so do we have a facility up in big for I mean we've got that this is our Tech Hub right they're they're just grants yeah so it's separate organizations they're run so smart North has spawned kind of two Tech hubs in rural yeah they started in the Twin Cities um but there they kind of piloted the first one in Deer River through Co and it was super successful and it's not really like the audience we have now is kids but it's not really just for kids it's hoping like if 's an adult that wants to dig in and learn about cyber security in order to get a better job right I mean that those things get to be explored so we're starting kind of with that group that we know like isn't afraid of Technology but the hope would be that you could build on that our goal is students first second is feminine or females so the program is a future is feminine so we're really targeting females and so Tuesdays and Thursdays are our adult exploration in the tech Hub we don't have it fully up and running yet how we want most of is virtual with the females that have um registered for the program and then our third audience is our adults and that's going to be more through Community ad programming like we're offering a s course we're offering a 3D printer course and these are all adult and adults would pay to explore with the tech and no so the goal is to get all three of our audiences in and exploring the technology and so from uh adults would pay so it would just be a uh a regular program in community ed Community Ed program yep um how about for the students is it a a paid or is it an it's a open or free program so smart North is our partner with this and through covid we were able to purchase all the equipment in there smart North is the what fiscal host of the Grant and they are the ones seeking funding through deed or um individual grants to continue to allow free programming in the techup we also do meals in there and those are through the food food pantry is that it's called here in town yes yes is providing some meals in there so it's all been free so far for our students and for the futur as feminine program is free also and some stiens for females looking to go explore career in technology stud it's been been basically through grants and fully subsidized through individual yes 100% subsidized through grants the chamber worked closely with this so that's and part of the future is female it's just there's very few females in Tech and Sabina who's kind of the driver of this comes out of Fortune 500 Tech and so this is kind of contribution she's fabulous if you haven't met her and she comes in you should meet her she's amazing yeah but we have been able to partner some businesses um who are providing some training along the way to for free I mean they they want to give back and he's excited about two suits and it's a way to fill like we we're dead last I mean it's hard to ignore that we're dead last in computers in Minnesota that's it's terrible it's a way to at least start to supplement what we don't have and not all kids have hours to take the classes in high school so it provides a little bit after school this is a transportation stop so that's how kids can get here it's just they up on the bus middle school and you can stop there may mobile will active yeah weed Marty as well so I feel like the tech Hub is really an exploration stages we opened in June this summer we probably had 20 to 30 kids come in and now this school year we've had 58 students attending um really looking at growing it into things we've talked about here but as a real Hub in our community for students and adults to explore technology and see if it's a for opportunity for them so always open to ideas if any of you have ideas share with us but I would love to introduce you guys to Sabina someday she's really the brains behind it the programming behind it um that's what I have from Community ad any questions you guys have um MDS program that really is not tied to this in any way is it the tech or Quest oh so Quest is not tied to the tech Hub we did so other things that we're doing in the tech Hub is bringing students in during the day so Quest is a program that come into the tech Hub during the day and those are students that are 18 to 22 in uh our programming not exactly sure if I'll say this right yeah request program that are really looking at building skills to be successful in our community so we brought them into the tech once a month to explore the technology careers and some of them do not like it so they also get to explore pickleball and basketball not say they don't like it they would just much rather be playing pickleball or basketball so there's opportunities for everyone within that site many of them are in there singing and producing music and some of them have built their own cribbage or not cribbage chess boards with the 3D printers and it's a exploration wave where they are also coming back after school hours and participating programming and we brought in Middle School GIF and talented program came in and explored so just bringing different groups in we're looking at doing a tech CW but doing it in the tech Hub where industry will come into the tech Hub and talk about what their industry does around technology and careers around technology instead of going out into so bringing them to us I really like your color diagram I'm a I love that anything else you guys have I appreciate the uh collaboration and cooperation with the uh neighboring schools as well uh I think that's really key to building a a stronger Community yeah and I feel in my job uh um that's been the biggest benefit is having all four districts collaborate to do Community Education because I don't feel it would be as successful if we were all trying to do our own things and working together is just resourceful and it feels all inclusive like we all meet so we're meeting district is wide we're meeting and collaborating and partnering and and really growing off each other's strengths you know what everyone has in their buildings to be successful do you have any sort of participation numbers by District in terms of I do yeah I'd love to see that at some point just to see what percentage um is from Grand green W River you know what I mean yeah to see the utilization of the one connect one one Community Ed program but how does that or if I missed it no you didn't miss I didn't break it down by District but Grand Rapids total is about if you 14,000 opportunities last year we had 20,500 okay okay total across is sure and Grand Rapids was about 14,000 that and it based we really Community Ed does it by percentage when we look at the district we look at total population of each district to um how it's funded so each so gr up is like 61% Greenway is 177% nashak is 9% of our total is population and if you break it down by that we're pretty participation pretty much looks the same Grand Rapids is the bigger percentage participation um each district has its ups and down years but pretty much we're pretty equal around like total population based on percentag across is but I do have exact numbers for each district I want to do coffee and coloring and yeah Cofe anding yeah so this was the total thank you thanks Melanie next item on the agenda draft thank you Mr chair every year we start by working with our is Partners And discussing the calendar we've been sharing a calendar for about 20 years you'll see a draft in your your packet uh it's not easy because every contract across the schools school districts is different in some way but we've tried to make it work by focusing on the student days and trying to line um and you know over those 20 years there have been times when there was more shared programming going on with students maybe we were running a running classes that three District had kids in and we had years where there was less um sometimes it's been synchronous where kids were traveling like right now we have kids in the morning from Greenway come to take a machining Machining or manufactur in class here they physically show up um and so some of you know having those things line up has been really important uh when we originally started lining up our calendars and Bell schedules 20 years ago um every District had been doing things a little different some had spring break some had winter break things some districts prioritize being done early some districts had you know lots so every District kind of had to give up a little bit when we came together uh one of the things that was talked about then was you know we're going to try to get spring breaks in there because some districts kind of had that all the time and I don't I think we've maybe had a spring break four or five times in 20 years um and so I mean at the end of the day you know people always like I don't want to be here till June 15 you know um this calendar uh is unique because September I mean looking ahead to this 26 27 school year or 25 26 2 here 25 26 school year right um September 1st is on a Monday it's like as early as it could be which means we get lots of school in September which means it's a more kind of efficient educational calendar which means we can have a Spring Break um and be creative and still be out in that first week of June not even completing that first week uh we are taking a conference comp day shoving it into that spring break week two so it's tightening that up we're going to take advantage of when Easter is to tighten that up so we're not losing too many days to that so anyway uh point being the calendar really um if you're a person that likes a long Christmas break and long and a spring break this is a really nice calendar um we we talked about at the is Administrative table about being in a position where people could make some have some predictability too where hey we once September 1st is a Monday we're going to have a spring break that year so people can kind of know like we're going to have this for sure every five or six five or six years depending on leap years all those work in there at least so I think that's important because there are people that waiting a long time for a break there's not a good time to do spring break I can tell you um we triy to shoot for in between Sport Seasons that's always a challenge it's tough to hit um some families will take a spring break whenever they want anyway so it's not like this perfectly that way um but uh yeah so this has gone to the uh superintendent committee at is been approved there went to the is board of directors last Tuesday night was approved there um the you'll see that conferences we still have a full conference day on November 14th uh the other conference there'll still be evening conferences around that time too but I really you know put that into the principles and their buildings space to say hey do what makes this makes sense for your un your buildings you your parents in the past we've had them like all crammed into the same week and there isn't really a there's not a compelling reason to do it that way in fact in first some from some parents they're like I can't get to three buildings in one night uh so if they could be spread out a little bit that would be nice so we're going to try that and uh Sean martinson's kind of been organizing the the that so we can get that going so uh stay tuned on that the other the other thing that we're going to do that's not reflected on this calendar for a number of years we've been running trimesters with our kindergarten in first grade um and that doesn't jive with any of the other 11 grades um and there were reasons why we did that at one point but because of our data systems and what we're doing now those reasons don't really hold up anymore and so we're going to be shifting to all quarters next year um and staff are are are are fine with that for the most part it'll be some adjustment but you know it it really gets goofy because like the end of the quarter day isn't the end of the you know it's not the end of the section of time day for those kindergarten teachers so they it's it's just wonky so it'll be good once we get on on that same calendar um as you'd expect there are some people that are going to look at this and go this is the greatest and there going to be some people going I hate this you know um and so you know that's part of kind of a part of it um how many student P we have we have 108 we have 171 student P right has 180 staff days uh I ask uh there's Northland has 183 staff days the river has 181 green has 180 so it's we kind of all over that way minimum that 100 that 100 you know in the state if we were to look at staff days you'd see some districts with staff days like under 90 uh and there's no the staff the student contact is driven by instructional hours now it used to be that you had to have the same number of student days as you had in some calendar 20 years ago or something and then number of years ago they changed it so that at the high school level you have to have a thousand and I can't remember number for sure th20 or something like that um so it's level by kindergarten has to have less Elementary a little bit more high school has to have the most instruct hours so it's not driven by days so much the the staff days are contractual correct that's right y so we could yeah there's no the how many student days TR to remember a teacher contract that's in there is the number of student contact days in the teacher contract no I don't remember um just the just just the 180 so we could do more um yeah so there's some some wiggle room in there on this topic of calendars uh the state did did change their their interpretation of law on 4 day week um so it used to be that they had put a moratorium on that they lifted that some districts are looking into that more we had talked about it uh quite a bit I'd say or some uh I've heard likea that M iron that right but you know um they have 183 square miles and 600 kids we have 4,000 kids and 2,000 square miles so that density issue at some point matters because it translates into ridetime on buses um so anyway not that that isn't something we'll continue to think about um we'll see some more districts do it this year they haven't solved the Friday care for families Working Families but they are I mean that's one thing that working community at um yeah they haven't solved that yet that's the biggest issue I think just so this will come to you on February 10th for approval of this calendar not this is always yeah sorry um no days yeah how many of those or hours I should say available in this calendar yeah so um it used to be that you'd hear districts talk about we have four snow days built into the calendar or we have three snow days built into the calendar or um some some places now we'll talk about it kind of on the other side like if we have three cancellations this day is identified as a makeup tape um with the current calendar uh I'm going off memory here I believe we have about uh 19 extra high school hours so like two and a half days three days maybe we we did have to make up time two years ago I think and so we kind of did some manipulation around Wednesdays and um and that kind of thing towards lap back half of the year so we didn't have to have kids come back a full day you know you can you I mean you can get creative you can say we're going to start school five minutes earlier check out five minutes later pick up 10 10 minutes you do that 20 times you made up a lot of time time so there's ways around that we never really need to worry about about instructional hours at the elementary level just because the the number is that much smaller than the high school time thank you okay anything else on that one no um this next part is a little bit more for I'd say for our new members uh it's been an ongoing issue since 2023 but also just an update for our returning members too um I mentioned in this handout in 2023 law was passed communication originally went out broadly like hey this law was passed be aware and then June more of a targeted con uh communication to a a list of school districts including us um you could kind of what the in that first bullet there what it specifically talked about uh I'll be honest and I've shared this before when I got the email in June that year I was like this you know this is not intended for us because I don't know what the problem is um as I dug into it became clear that it was intentionally said to us on purpose for a reason and it has to do with um you know a historical individual and the Sue tradition um let's see as per the law we submitted an application for an exemption with support of our Indian education parent advisory committee and director and uh organizations the 11 tribes and the tribal Nations Ed committee had till 15th of December to get back to us if they didn't say anything it was a stay put so it was you know it was a kind of a um yeah it was opt out kind of a situation um and we heard back from five three of them were denials I listed them there in that bullet um as more information became available became clear that the law was uh applied very very inconsistently and I shared some examples here on the sheet um the Thunderbirds is probably the most like clear inconsistency uh and I in talking in the last week I've had Communications with the the gfw soup and the Browns Valley Valley soup gfw is in the process of changing their name to the Firebirds and Browns Valley is in the process of changing their name as well Browns Valley Browns Valley Valley really NE District they're like right on South Dakota border like they probably have as many South Dakota students as most kids that attend their and the tribe they have the most kids from is in South Dakota so um that's an example where you have the exact same mass got two districts denied one approved really no rationale for a difference there um I shared another inconsistency there with Warriors you know um that was handled differently BR was not given the targeted email if you need to do something about this was ours is uh obviously uh you're aware there is another Thunderhawk I have no idea what's happening there when this first happened um they they really just missed it they missed the whole process and passed them by um and then now they're in the process of getting soup and it's kind of I don't know if nothing else it begs the question like what happens if you don't do anything and you identified because the amount of video is is less is like 25 or 30 miles from a tribe that we did get denied from um so I'm sure they did too and then obviously what I think is the most like obvious um clear violation of the law uh that that mascot was approved um the war Ro Warriors one was approved or it was not it was approved yeah it was not it was not denied an exemption so they were they originally got the same letter like you need to change they submitted their letters to the 11 tribes at tenek and they didn't get any denials back do we know what their letter said this was the target of Warriors um and I've you know I presented some of these inconsistencies with legislators that were involved in the process and there is a um depending on which one you speak to there's some acknowledgement that this is a mess and among some that's kind of like tough um there are some bills there's a number of bills right now that are jacketed that uh range from repeal the law which I don't think's very likely to fund all the districts that need to change because if you start adding up the cost to do this just uniform cost is a quarter of a million dollars um and if you what also is unique about our school district is our mascot isn't just the mascot for a school it's the mascot for all the schools in Grand Rapids and if you start if you go around and look for it it is everywhere so it's gym floors it's you know statues it's all kinds of stuff um one thing that I did find when I was down there uh talking to a particular legislator this legis particular legislator was not aware that school districts buy uniforms and in the course of that conversation it became clear why that in the cities I should I shouldn't speak so BR in many City Schools boosters are funding paying the cost of the uniform so that the rotation can be more frequent right so like we have a a uniform rotation rotation might be eight or 10 years B booster clubs jump in there more frequently and say new Unis every three years so the booster clubs have picked up the cost of uniforms from school districts this legislator thought that was the normal kind of way things going um obviously not here some sometimes here but not not here um so anyway reason a am bringing it to you today is uh to sort of bring everybody up to speed on where it's at uh and part of that is uh this in the 2024 session they extended the timeline out it had been that we needed a new we would need a new mascot by this upcoming September that pushed it out to the to September of 2026 um and during that same 2024 session they also required that we submit a report that talks about what we're doing I listed at the bottom there on my update um what we have to include and I guess the reason to bring it to you tonight is to get a sense from this board uh how you want me to handle this report in light of our par you know our our past position which has been we're going to wait until we see what the legislature does to see if there are changes to the process because there's a there's a line of thinking there that um you know like I said the probability of them repealing the laws the probability of them throwing all kinds of money at it is not that great either given the budget situation but that also might create an opportunity you know if you're not going to fund it then let's talk about the process so um I guess looking for some direction would you like you know me to continue as I fill out this report to you know maintain our kind of maintain our position which has been we're going to wait and see if anything changes before we move forward with you know an expensive process I'd like to uh kind of chime in here I sent a note to himad about this I feel pretty strongly about fighting this um I don't think that the law was applied correctly I think the law was written pretty poorly um and like I said with an email to Matt that what it says is that a school may not have or adopt a name symbol or image that depicts or refers to an American Indian tribe individual customer tradition and um based on that very vague language I would argue that we don't do any of those things and Matt shared uh a little bit of history about Chief Thunderhawk which is an incredible story um uh warrior with sitting B I think it was incredible history um but that's beside the point here I think the point here is that our logo is not Native American in design at least my understanding um I think the story of how it came to be should be part of the conversation that you have um and I think our community is um felt pretty strongly to share these things with me at least um that why of all things going on that we're spending our time and energy and resources on so that's and I I just go back to this community made the choice to make a change years ago to avoid this and we're right in it which is what Assurance do we have that the next decision we make on that doesn't put us three five 10 years down the road in the same same position again so I I feel we need to push back in the state as hard as we can on this and become them aware we've already done this as a district once I I I really have a hard time spending money to change the logo when we're cutting teachers that that's a really difficult step for me I don't know how you can honestly look the community or teachers in the eye and say we chosen to not fight this or this is our priority to spend money on not you absolutely yes and I guess I would add if there's anything that I can do as a board member if you me a list of who I need to email or what I'll send it out I don't think it's email so I've been downright for a week and every time I get a chance I talk about this and I talk about a few other board things and one thing that I've heard consistently is you need to show up and tell your story like that's the difference is to show up in committee when it shows up on an agenda and I've been watching right so I now watch the education committee meetings which are today was interesting but they're not always super exciting but if it shows up on the agenda having people down there to actually say like how this is impacting us today and what we look like like and to tell that story is going to be the difference yeah because otherwise they just hear the voices of this is about Justice this is about equity and it is but we've already been that like we've already tried to do the best we could with information we had and I'm I think we should push back I just think the the fact that that language says well how is it not an eagle then didn't get in or how did a bear clan you know because bears are there how did they not get tanked like what is it that actually were the criteria because they they were established somewhere y um but they weren't public or transparent So to that I think to that point this might be a good opportunity so Senator farnworth has been very like communicative about this this is really bothersome to him and he said uh told me last week that um at that time know they developed a power sharing agreement at the Senate that'll assuming that'll continue see uh so yeah it won't so I think that that might be why he was given assurances about a hearing but he feels like there it's likely that we could get a hearing or there will be a hearing on a bill related to this and that that would be an opportunity us uh to be there and to come down and and I feel the same way as Melissa last Wednesday um Senator Farnsworth asked me to come down and you can do it via Zoom now um which is great but uh it's clear it was clear to me again when I was in that room looking people in the eyeballs that that doesn't matter and so um if uh if there's interest um if that hearing comes to fruition I'll let you know and uh if one or more of you'd like to come down with me uh to do that we can work on testimony together and um and speak to that I think his bill will will be about funding and I think that's that's like this component of it but really I think the larger issue is what's the what's what's fair and clear and consistent and appropriate about what's happening so I think you have clear direction from the board on this that sounds like it that's what I needed to know yep I'll be in touch then as that uh the good news is is you'll need F yep you're gonna need we're gonna need all right uh at this point um looking for a motion in a second to go on close session according to Minnesota statute 15 .3 labor negotiation strategies have a motion by Dave second by ask um R uh any discussion before we do that Julie can we have a roll call yesid yes yes yes yes yes everybody's out you need a for