Can you hear us? Okay. >> She said yes, sir. >> Yes, I can hear you. >> Okay, great. >> Follow the workers out to the order. The first item on the agenda is activities indicator report from Dale Christie.
>> Hi, thank you. Um, with us today we also have uh I'm Dale Christie Grand Schools activities director and with us we have Heather Loved Doll who is the big four director.
Um, first off, just as a heads up, this presentation, the data that I'm going to show you is not from this school year. It's from the 2425 school. So, we are we believe we're connected to the district mission.
um that uh Heather and I believe that activities are an integral part to the uh school school programming and not just an extra outside of the day. That uh what we do
we're able to do a lot of stuff that either can't be done in the classroom or maybe can be done um better under a team situation. We we believe in uh growth and development and preparing our students
for life. So these are the number of students both in Grand Rapids and Big Fork that are uh participate in activities in the 2425 school year. Um these are duplicated numbers. So we
do have we don't have a lot but we do have a few three sport athletes. Certainly some two sport athletes. Um but these are there's 782 uh high school opportunities and fine arts 516 that would include uh marching
band would include choir would include uh our spring musical our fall play our speech program uh 414 at the middle school level at for that school year that's the increase both at the high school and middle
school and then for big fork you see there's 81 students opportunities which is down for a few reasons that Heather and I will will go into. Um so 7893 is the total number of students if you count all
three seasons that uh participate. These are the programs that are offered. EG on the left hand side means boys and girls in each of those sports. Same with basketball and cross country and golf and track and field up in Big
Fort. >> Uh we do co-op and speech with Big Fort. Can you go back a slide? >> Yeah. >> So, um is volleyball starting this year for boys or is that last year? >> Uh volleyball is now a state high school
league sanctioned sport. Uh we do not offer it in Grand Rapids as part of our activities department. uh they can participate at a club level. >> There's a club that's >> which is what Bumiji and I think Proctor Hermantown and maybe some others do. Okay. >> I have not seen ours using our gym so I
don't know if they're still going but it is an it is an option for them. Okay. >> Uh this this picture's been around a while but always like to show it. U shows the cooperation between Big Fork and Grand Rapids.
These are some of our Grand Rapids teams that went to state last year. The track team on the left or at least some of the track team uh baseball team. One on the left is uh looks like swimming and wrestling together and one on the right is cross country cross
country running. We had 11 teams last school year that went to state between winter, spring, and uh fall winter and spring. Had to throw a couple pictures of the board members. on here.
Um, and also the fine arts. We have we have our marching band. Picture on the bottom left is our is our uh fall fall play last year. We can't we can't play without our officials and our game workers. And
these are some of the best. A lot of our swim officials or a lot of our officials overall are are quality officials who actually are picked officiate at the state level. All four of these gentlemen officiates state swimming for that we
kind of rely on around here. On the right, some of you know Lenny Brown. Those you may not. Lenny's kind of uh he's being inducted to our sports hall of fame this this fall. Um, Lenny, the ring he's showing is something that the state high school league gave him, and
he attended an event at a Vikings game to honor him and a couple other people. I believe that's 60 60 years of officiating. He hasn't for a few years now, but he still runs our softball games, announces, uh, does our volleyball and
basketball scorekeeping. >> He's also been the treasurer of the band. Yes, he is. Yep. Um, just wanted to show that our kids do good things, not just out, not just competing, but off the ice, off the courts. Picture on the right is picture
from not this fall, but the fall before at victory day, a program that our football team runs with community residents. And the one on the left is uh some of our hockey team from that year at an event at friendship club
uh group that meets meets on a monthly basis. So, we have uh in Grand Rapids, we have 72 teams that um sorry, we got 72 teams between the
middle school and high school that we schedule for, get game workers, officials, arrange busing, etc., etc. And then Big Fork also has 10 teams that Heather does the same for. Uh so that that's teams in athletic sense
but we also you know we have we have band choir speech drama and all those kind of things FFA BPA student council prom all those type of things as well. So down here we have 40 head coaches
between the middle school and high school and over 100 assistant coaches. uh big forecast, 10 head coaches, 10 assistant coaches, and a lot of game workers who've been there for a very long time as we do down in Grand Rapids. Uh and Heather uh look jump in anytime
that you that you want here. >> Okay. >> And then numerous activity and club advisors and game workers. So, the high we we follow the high school league's um beliefs and and uh
curriculum. We believe we're an extension of the classroom. I'm not going to read it all off to you, but so the goal of our athletic programs are to win. And this is our team that year, softball team that advanced to the
section championship. Um and our our teams have been very competitive. Winning is important to us. Like I said, we have 11 teams that went to state or individuals from those teams. So, it's our goal, but it's not our purpose. Um, here's the purpose. Trying to connect
kids to caring adults, providing them opportunities to grow and teamwork and grit and perseverance, all those kind of things. And again teaching and learning uh the skills that are and I know it's changed but used to be
the world's best workforce chamber of commerce goals all the kind of things that we do in our activities programs our coaches um we don't just hire them internal loose there are a lot of steps that they have to hoops they have to
jump through first off they either have to have a college coaching certificate which are pretty few and far between nowadays. I I have one but not many people younger than me do. Uh
so they have to um get approved by the they have to go through a course through the high school league that involves extensive amount of hours and and money that they pay for pay for the classes. In addition, all of those coaches, head coaches and assistants have to complete a number of
modules every year. They have to do a general high school league rules and sport specific rules for their sport and then every three years they have to complete a number of modules on different things like uh the purpose of high school athletics
protocols all those kind of things. Uh they all have a philosophy mission and vision statement on file with myself and the high school league. They're expected to communicate with parents. They have emergency action plans for all
our all our activities and all our venues, whether it be the school gym or whether it's football field, soccer field, swimming pool, tennis court, cross country running, golf, all the
whole works. Um, I observe them both in practice and games. uh every three years there's a survey and every three years there's a professional development plan. So year one of the of the cycle is um
survey, year two is creating goals based upon those surveys and and my observations and then year three is an evaluation coaches. Um here's information you might be interested in. We've presented this in the past and added on to it. Now, uh
these are the revenue and expenditures by year. Um you can see that like everything else, expenditures keep going up, cost of inflation and gas, possible officials, etc. Uh but revenues have
been steadily growing too. Obviously in the far left that was uh COVID time, so those numbers are smaller in both areas. uh breaking down those those incomes um fees, admission fees, so fees that
participants pay, fees that are generated by admission, donations from booster clubs, etc. And then um other revenues, some of those are things like entry fees, somebody comes to our
wrestling meet or track that they pay to get into it. Does this include uh advertising income as well? >> Under the um I believe under the yellow it would. Yep. That would go into what
we call our Thunderhawk account. Um expenditures, same type of thing. We have salaries and benefits are obviously the most. You can see that they've held pretty steady. Um even though there's percentage increases, we've also cut a few activities
or at least the coaches for those activities, the transportation, entry fees, and then supplies and capital. Uh here's the activity receipts. I think I just went backwards.
>> Yeah. Here's the salary breakdown. Um, overhead, which would be Heather and I and GG and others. Um, coaches, officials, and game staff, and then substitute teachers for when our coaches are out of uh out
of the building for games. Um, I think this one's an interesting one, the general fund subsidy. you see that certainly was greater during COVID and right after, but we've gradually been making that trend uh down the direction you guys like to see it. And I
I think I'd also add that uh see if I have that here. Uh there's a number of comparable schools that we look at. I think you guys look at it for different things as well. Uh we're the lowest of those comparable schools. I think there's like 18 of them or so that we
compare ourselves to. Yeah, real quick. Uh what would you say is the responsibility of um not each individual uh sport, but overall what would you say would be the responsibility financially for just sports in general to have to pay for
each club? Um there's there's a budget that everybody has to, you know, adhere to. Um, what is it that the district has now set aside like as a is there a one whole
total that the district has set aside for sports in general that then has to get broken down by each boosters club. Sorry, I'm trying to >> Yeah. So, the difference between I thought we had a graph for that too, but
maybe not. um the gap between the blue and the orange or red or whatever color that is is is what the district pays or what the district is contributing. >> Yes. And then so what would be the responsibility that is then put over to
the booster clubs themselves? >> Um quite a bit. >> Yes. >> As you well know. >> Yes. >> Um and it depends on the sport. Um certain sports have healthier booster clubs that we require. We kind of lean
on them to do a lot for us. Football, hockey, >> would you say would you say that those like football and hockey I'll just ask that of them. Would you say that those two sports are are
pretty much responsible, not fully obviously, but that they take responsibility for paying most of the expenditures I guess for for all of the sports across the district if that makes sense. I'm asking that question.
>> Not the boosters themselves. So some of it is the cost of the sport. Boosters will pick up um we pay a lot for football helmets. Boosters pay a lot too. >> Requirement that we have. >> Y
>> um some boosters spend more uh that's their choice to do it. Things that we wouldn't pay for. >> So for example, we don't pay for any charter buses. Um people see teams on charter buses. Um we only pay the portion of that that would cost for bus
driver. So, the booster clubs pay paid the difference. Um, trying to go back to your original question here. >> You I mean, you kind of answered it that I didn't really know how to ask that question. Didn't make sense. >> I was asking.
>> So, certain sports um hockey and football are the only sports that actually make make money and help pay for the others. um arguably healthy for the others. >> Y >> um
hockey makes the most, but then there's also the cost of the city. >> Um we keep track of a cost per sport and then cost per participant. We have those numbers available
and you know some cost more than others. Some some really don't cost as much of anything. I think we've looked recently that our middle school numbers are enough and the fact that they raised the fees to the same as the high school, they actually pretty much break even
middle school sports or close to um yeah uh wrestling and speech are most expensive sports per participant. others.
Golf are probably our cheapest kind of just depends. But so what the boosters put into it sometimes is stuff that's needed and sometimes is stuff that they choose to pay for that we we would never do even if we >> Yeah,
>> I do know this. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. So I was just I was just curious as to I mean I'm pretty I I only know swimming. That's the only sport that I know as far as what money is that they pay for it. So I was just wondering if
>> it's some of it's in equipment and capital expenses where you'll see the boosters put money into swimming we rely on them being there's a lot of that you wouldn't think swimming other than the pool. >> Yeah of the pool uh you think one of the
cheaper sports but there's a lot of lot of >> equipment needs upgraded. I guess that's part of the question too because yes, the district pays for the pool, the district pays for the the fields, the district pays for the arena, and then what if any is there ever a fee
that goes towards a team that has to pay for any of that, you know, facility fees or would there ever be a time where we would have to pay for facility fees as a boosters club portion of fees? to this point the
I think it's fair to say the school has picked up the >> those type of cost >> those additional things and things like equipment hockey hockey and football for example pick up most of their equipment costs
other than other than helmets >> yeah hockey pick the helmets baseball. We supply a percentage of the baseballs that are used during the year, but booster club has to pick up majority.
>> That makes sense. Yeah. >> So, even uh things that are basic that you need those groups pick that up. So, I don't know if I'm answering your question. >> You are. Yeah. It makes sense to me. I don't know if it makes sense to anybody else here, but it makes sense to me. I understand what I asked. So it makes
sense what you're giving us. Yep. Okay. Thank you. >> Heather, anything you'd like to add here? >> You know, we're really we're really different up here. A lot the same in a lot of ways of of the way, you know, Dale and I work with our coaches, but
you know, we have a booster club um and it has five people for all of our sports. And so they have really focused on our youth activities up here to try to get our numbers up. And so when when you talk about, you know, other funding
and things like that, we it's not really an option for us here. Uh our coaches are fundraising. I just met with a coach and talked about his summer plan. Um and and a lot of it is fundraising just for the the needs that he wants the kids to be able to have. And so um I wish we had
a great big booster club. It'd be wonderful, but we're just it's just a different scenario up here for us. So um regarding booster club that's what I have. >> Thank you. So um there's a slide about indicators of success and I think most of you know those things you know better
GPA and attendance records and classroom behavior etc. Not that it's all perfect but u certainly those percentages are higher. uh the because we have a weighted grading system. The average high school
grade is 3.0, but that's again that's because we have weighted grading system. Uh but for sports, our fall sports are at 3.275, winter 3.259, spring 3.385. So all of those are above
above what the the aggregate of the school population of the high school is doing. >> Um >> yeah, fall 3.275, winter 3.259, and spring 3.385.
What is the required GPA in order to participate? >> Um, generally 2.0. And I want to say that generally because students who are making progress or many of them are on a
planet >> they have to show that they are just sat one out all of last week they're not they're on that bubble not making it and
are you we're not going to let them go to school to they're not >> Yep. caught up. So, >> and in Big Fork, we have an academic policy um where if anyone is failing a class, they may not participate at all
um until that grade is above failing again. So, we have a a team that sits down and looks at that. Um and and then at the end of the quarter if they're failing anything they have two weeks to sit out to kind of refocus and and get on the right track so that we don't have
any kids failing in big park that are involved in sports. Are you able to back right? >> It's not uh Oh, there there we So, these were the indicators of success that I was mentioning. Um,
and there's also challenges that we have and I'll, as long as Heather, you want to keep going here, we have Big Forks up next. So, the challenges you're facing up there. Yeah, declining involvement from students. Um, and this rolls right into the second one. We have we have lost a
lot of kids to online school. And for whatever reason, even when our kids are going to PSO, it's like they I don't know if it's the travel time or what it is, but we see a huge decline in activity participation when they make that choice. And so, it's really been on
trend um the last few years for us. and we've had really low numbers. Uh especially like with our girls basketball team. Um we have a new coach hired I'm really excited about for next year. So I'm hoping that might help a little bit. But that has been that's
been a big thing um with our female athletes. And the other part is is it's really hard to find coaches. And I just talked about this with my coach a few minutes ago is everyone's wearing so many hats. We are a small community and
um everyone gives a lot and we're just always looking for people who are willing to be able to give the kind of time that it takes to do a really great job coaching. Many many of our coaches are not coming from within the walls of the school. They're coming from the community. And so, you know, they're
loggers and carpenters and hospital employees. And I'm just really thankful for partnerships with employers that will allow them to leave, you know, businesses early in the day to come and coach. And so just trying to broaden our
our scope of volunteers and helpers and people who want to be involved. And I think um this is my sixth year as AD and I think that that that amount of people or pool of people has really grown and um that's one thing we're really proud of because we have a lot of people who
are really invested in the kids and so um but that's been a definite struggle for us. Yeah, I'd agree. Trying, you know, the pool of people who are available at 3:30, you know, for practices and to get off work and then can get off work for either whole days or half days here and
there to attend out of town events. >> Yeah. >> Um that limits the limits the pool of people that are available to you. >> Same thing workers. I feel like we're bringing treats and all kinds of things to try to lure people in here to do the clock,
all of the different jobs that need to be filled. And so I a lot of relationship building and trying to keep a fun atmosphere um on game nights and things like that so that people come and and want to be here with us. Sorry, Dale. Didn't mean to interrupt you.
>> That's fine. Um we we have the same issue that um we're lucky we've had some longtime game workers, but a lot of those are starting to starting to age out. And yeah, we we to be honest, we have the
lowest siphon for any school up in this area for our for our game workers. And but most of them do it not for the pay, they do it for the socialization, to help the school out, etc. um officials are imagine the same thing
with with Heather, but um they're aging and retiring. It's getting more and more difficult to find people, especially for lower level games. Uh middle school softball, middle school football. Really difficult to find people. Uh the
people that I've had for those are now the need is so great at the JV and varsity level that I have nobody left for the middle school level. So, are they all certified at that level or >> at the at the varsity level? They have to be. >> Yeah. >> Yeah.
>> But are you able to at junior high like that or probably not? >> No. Um, some of them are. >> Yeah, >> some of them are, but they don't have to be. >> Yeah. >> We we try to make sure we're not destroying anybody out there,
>> but but yeah, they're not necessarily certified officials. Um, and some sports are, you know, we have over 700 different people that we use for officials. That's how big of a pool that we need. Um,
so officials are increasing. It used to be used to be uh inflationary, you know, a couple bucks a year or whatever it is, but now it's more exponential than that. And and you know, they certainly deserve it. That's not the question.
How about um how is mileage and things like that? I mean that's probably increasing quite a bit too. The federal rates have changed quite a bit, right, for compensation. >> And we've had a $90 limit on mileage,
but now that's you don't have to come too too far away to be more than that now. So it might be something we have to look at if we can't find people. Is that still in effect now? >> Yeah, that's been that for quite a
while. Gas has gone up quite a bit since that that number was put in place. We typically only pay for one official to get mileage and then if two are coming from different directions, they have to split that up. But there are certain sports where their associations require
cost, for example, we have to pay pay everybody. All three officials we have to pay mileage to um game workers which we mentioned transportation our transportation department is just great to work with Kristen there's
ps over backwards to try to try to help us but they are as you probably know short-handed themselves and don't always have people to they're trying to find people the regular routes let alone after school. So, um, we we're having to hire out
quite a bit. Shoe bots company that we use the most and then they've been very helpful as as well. But every once in a while you just we can't find transportation. We've a few games. We can't find uh whether
local or charter companies to drive us. And we're not unique in that. Other schools, Biji just had to cancel a couple games with us because they can't find anybody. Uh and Duth is um Duth runs into those well everybody
does. Clo is even they have a charter bus company in their town. So in conclusion that's that's who we believe we are. Uh are there any there was also a board narrative that I not reading off but I sent sent. Are there
any questions? >> Got a couple. Um if you were to mention we have some three sport or three three events let's say participants what percentage do you think of that is
because the numbers you were doing were opportunities right they weren't necessarily you know so if you had someone participating in three they'd be on there three times right or or they'd be counted three times >> I don't know the number but I can tell you for three sports There were six or
seven seniors that fell into that category. >> Okay. >> Um it's probably about that per grade level, maybe a little bit more. >> Yeah, I don't have the number. I don't have the individual numbers at the top
on here. There's there's a number that two or three, but there's a lot of single single sport athletes. >> Okay. So, if you were to try to guess how many were single a percentage-wise, would you say that's 80% maybe or something? Just And I I'm not looking
for a hard number. I'm just kind of curious. >> Probably closer to 60% maybe. >> 60. Okay. So, so >> I'm just guessing there. >> No. Well, you're going to guess a lot better than I am. So, I'm not. Um Okay. Um I guess one one other question, you
know. So, and this is probably directed to Heather. you know, we had went to a co- coach model on the girls last year. I know with with Greg retiring there. Um I think that was kind of part of it, right? And and the recent hire we did we
kept it as a co- coach. Is there a vision for that to go to just uh or is it is it why did we stay there? I guess it's kind of >> right. Thank you for asking. Um Kaia Otto who is um was kind of going to be
the successor for Greg um just had a baby and last week matter of fact a little girl named VA and she wasn't sure that she she wanted to see how motherhood went for her and so um Analise Schmidz who took on um the coal
position is under the understanding if Kaia does not want to do that she is willing to step up and be the head coach. They both are incredible. I think that, you know, it would be nice to just have one head coach and have a JV coach. Um, but they both, uh, I can see them
working so well together and creating a lot of energy and getting that program back on track. Um, the kids are very, very excited about both of them. So, I'm hoping Kyle will stay and rejoin us. And, um, so then what they do is they coach, you know, JV and varsity. Both
coaches do or they kind of tag team the that gym. So, it's worked out really well so far. Um, Greg really mentored Kaia this year a lot. She learned a lot from Greg and um and I think well I know he feels really good about making that decision.
>> No, that that helps. I mean, and that makes sense, I guess. Right. >> Yep. >> I can understand that concern about commitment at that point. >> Right. Right. Heather, I just wanted to um say really quickly uh last week uh Matt, Ashley and
I were able to come up to the uh senior night and I just wanted to commend you and the whole team for putting on I mean this is an activity as well. It was pretty incredible to watch. Um the amount of support those kids got um from scholarships was unbelievable and the
community coming in to celebrate it was uh pretty special to watch. So thank you for all the work that you and the team did up there. Oh, >> thank you for saying that. You know, when you sit up there like that, I can't tell you how many times I was choked up just with watching those kids since they
were little. And seeing them, it's just it's incredible. And we have a fair amount of kids who have pretty tough home life and a lot of those kids got a lot of money that night and it just it's was really rewarding. >> Right. Thank you very much for that.
>> Thank you. >> Any other questions for Dale or Head? >> Sure. Uh Dale, uh thank you. Very uh illuminating report. One of the things uh in my uh screening that I always think about is uh how are our students
doing academically and you've provided some numbers. It feels to me like the numbers are a little softer than it has been in the past. I don't know if that's true or not. Um, is there anything that you do from from your position to bump
academics with our students, our uh athletes? Uh, I I guess the main two things is we do grade checks to make sure kids are on track. Uh,
and we have an attendance policy that requires kids to be in school if they're going to practice or especially if they're going to play a game. >> And we're we're very strict on that. It's doctor's note or school related
activity and and we we include driver's training for example, but uh just having a note for mom doesn't count. uh and the principal and myself are able to give exceptions if we feel that something really legitimate. But uh I I
would say those are the two main things that we that we do. >> Well, I I I do review that uh on a regular basis and I thank you for that attention to that detail. >> Dale, you mentioned that you have the cost per participant and the cost per
sport. that something that you can send to the court? >> I could I could um I don't know that I I'm sure I don't have them for this year, but I would have them for past years >> of the last year that you have.
>> Yeah. And I I know that when we've looked at budget cuts, that's thing that gross and I taken a look at is good to understand. Any other questions? >> Thank you, Heather and Dale.
>> Well, thank you. We appreciate our coaches and our officials and game workers, booster clubs, parents, etc., but we also appreci appreciate the support that our board um gives all our programming. Just want to make sure you guys know that we're trying to be as
efficient as possible with it. >> Can I add Can I add one more? >> Yeah. I just wanted to say thank you for the investment of looking at junior high baseball. It has made an enormous impact in our community. Tomorrow night we have
a double header with Deer River. Um it's pulled our community together in a way that we haven't really had before. We have one golf meet here and that doesn't really draw in a real big crowd and we don't have a track and so in the springtime we don't really have
activities where people are gathering as a community to watch a sport and so we have you know a bank of bleachers there and a food truck that comes. Um my husband Chad is announcing it's really brought something that we have not had in a very long time in the spring uh
here to Big Fork and it it seems small a little junior high baseball team but it's just been a blast. It's been so much fun. So I want to say thank you for that and I also want to say thank you for um listening. When we had 13 junior high um I I reached out to Matt and Ken
and just said we need more help. We have 36 golfers, which is a record for us this year. Um, our coaches are just doing an incredible job. And so, we were able to add a one-year only junior high coach. And just purely for safety. We needed another body out there. But I
just like Dale said, we want to thank you for your investment and everything that you do for for athletics up in Big Fork, too. >> Thanks, Heather. Heather, um, one thing just for anybody, uh, listening out there as well and for our knowledge, what time uh, is the double header tomorrow? >> Four o'clock.
>> Four o'clock. All right. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> We're going to move on to the next item on the agenda in partnerships, and that is the superintendent evaluation process. I'm going to just walk through
the process. You should have a sheet on your packet that explains it. Um, so today in our May 11th session, we're about to review and discuss the superintendent's progress towards his
2526 goals. We also review and discuss Pat's commentary on the essential accountabilities. And after tonight's session, Julie will send us a link with a superintendent
evaluation Google form. From there, then between now and Thursday night, we'd like everyone on the board to respond to that evaluation via the Google form. So that again, that's between now and Thursday night. Is there any concern
with anybody about being able to get that completed by Thursday night? before I say no. That's a form that's coming from Julie and will be returned to this. Go online, fill it out. You're good, Tom. Okay.
>> And then at the next uh regular schoolboard meeting, which is a week from today, we will review the results of the evaluation in closed session. at the end of the regular meeting. Then the next board meeting after that
which is on June 8th will uh summarize the superintendent evaluation allow. Any questions about that process? >> All right. So then we'll turn it over to Matt to work through the superintendent
25. Um, so this this is kind of a response to uh I guess change over time and things that the board's found helpful. And so heading into that survey or the
the questionnaire or the form that you'll fill out for my evaluation, um the board has found it helpful to get some like a viewpoint into what uh the work has looked like relative to my goals and
also the essential accountabilities that MSBA has identified. Otherwise there I had to we we've had board members in the past go I didn't really know if this was happening or I didn't really wasn't aware of this going on. And so that's what the purpose of tonight is just to
sort of not it's not a bragging board. Um it's just sort of to make sure that if you have questions about anything that you might run across that you will hear about it tonight or get questions answered tonight. So that's the first thing I wanted to share. The second
thing is uh I'm not playing all the instruments in the band. Um when we talk about the goals here, I'm not the one, you know, ensuring that that I'm not the one doing the walkthrough in that classroom. I'm not the one doing that.
I'm not the one playing all the instruments. So my job is to to help establish a direction, set goals, hold people accountable, provide feedback, um and that kind of thing. accountability support and that kind of thing. So, um,
nothing that I'm saying I I don't want it to be construed as this is about, you know, all the great things Matt's doing. It's not a so um but the goals if we start with the superintendent goals for 2526
one of the things that I talked about a lot since coming here was reducing variability and I think we've made great gains on that and uh but that's still one of the goals in that top equitable access representation and outcomes that's being measured and accounted for
through walkthroughs. So, we've been making progress as a admin team in both the process of doing walkthroughs, the how we're gathering those and then how we're reporting them. This year on our strategy team, I developed a data sharing protocol. So, uh, and I shared a
link to one there you can look at later if you haven't already, but it was a way for principles to bring the data they have from walkthroughs to the strategy team to talk through that with the team. Uh, both from an accountability, yep, I did this, but really probably more
importantly, um, here's what I'm seeing and I'm curious and any feedback. So, walkthroughs that'll be something that we continue to lean into, get better at. We're actually looking at a a system. We've kind of outgrown
Google Forms. Um, and the new system that we're looking at will enable us to track when they happen, where they happen, and also create a dashboard of uh a complete dashboard. So, as superintendent next year at this time, I
can pull up a a dashboard that would show how many have happened, where they've happened, that kind of thing. And that'll be useful for reporting. Also, we began culturally responsive leadership work. That was a goal. We had
a number of trainings with um Renee Busucy from the Northeast Service Co-op. And we spent this year talking a lot about how it is that we've come to know the things we know, epistemology. How did we how do we come to think the things we think? Um and how do our grown
how do we when we grow up? How does that affect how we see the world? So, how does Matt growing up in a little farm town in southern Minnesota affect how he sees education? Um, among everything else. So, that's been really good work so far and we're going to continue to to
lean into that. Instructional strategies is something that we're continuing to work on. We landed on Anita Archer's work, explicit instruction, a couple years ago. if you read that book or saw the things she talks about in there, some of the things that you'd see, you'd probably recognize
from when when you were in school, um she just has been really good about articulating those things. So, they're baked into a lot of our literacy work or literacy curriculum secondary this year identified strategies through a survey and through working with their
uh leadership team and has some training in place. Did some of that already this year. So again, my role in that is meeting with Darren, talking about that work with his team, ensuring those follow-ups are happening. We scheduled and held a number of
principal trainings this year. Um, increasing instructional leadership capacity of principles. They are I really do believe principles are the pivot point for a lot of what we do. If uh our pro principles are highly
achieving that'll turn into schools that are highly achieving. So we've uh done a lot of investing in them. This year I brought in Ann Mitchell from Minnesota Department of Ed. She did a lot of work with them on to to build confidence and competence with having tough
conversations and building their instructional kind of lexicon. And so that's been good. and they've uh they valued that enough that uh she'll hopefully be back next year and she counts for 50 without any cost.
ask question. When you reach out to like the department of ed, do they do they do that kind of on their own and we it really just cost the district the time for our participants or >> Yeah, it it's there's been a shift too
because there was a time where MDE did not get outside of 612. They did not travel. >> And um Ann has been up here three or four times including spending a
whole a whole day visiting principles in their buildings. So she can get a feel like what's really going on here and she has a lot of credibility with them too because she was principal. So um yeah so so yeah there's no cost to us
just our time. So we scheduled some >> our effort internally whatever. >> Yep. So they typically, you know, one of the things about the principles, they don't like to be out of their buildings. Um it's a lot of it's hard for them to be out. So they predominantly happened
from 3:45 to 5:45 uh or on workshop days where the students aren't here. >> Thank you. Sorry. >> No, it's good. I'm glad you're Yep. Stop me anytime. Um it's but I guess back circling back
it's really nice to have MDE doing that kind of work again. I think that's partnering rather than >> Yeah. rather than just sort of like >> hope okay out there you know. Uh, so
I've appreciated that a lot to do still with literacy and so I talk and meet with Carol quite a bit to continue to support that roll out. It was a big investment making sure that happens and not only did not only is that affecting like our literacy and
literacy instruction but how that has gone is also creating a roadmap for how this math implementation is going to go. some of the things we learned about what worked really really well there. Uh we're going to do again some things that we learned didn't really work that well we're going
to not do the math roll out. So, um, that that's been one of the things that was not in place when I came here was a curric curricular review plan both in terms of a schedule and a process. And I feel like we've get we've got that dialed in more and more
every year. That process document is linked here. And then I also link the math curriculum selection timeline. Carol's been leading that work until the math person is on board. again sort of following some of that process step that we went through with language arts.
Although it's I'd say more complicated because with language arts the state narrow the list down to a handful of curriculums to look at and our team had to start with uh really a whole table to narrow it down. So that's
going to happen. Uh I think they're going to select curriculum here in the next month. partnerships and collaboration. Again, getting back to some of the work we've been doing with principles. Uh I did revamp their goal setting process again.
Uh and you know this is probably the third refinement to that process with them as we've grown together moving from a real I'd say um uh we're a traditional one trying to add some more layers update it with our operational plan
language or strategic goal language and also where the state went with principal uh development and evaluation. So, the principles to their credit um last I kind of dropped on them that I had
another update to the goal setting process I wanted them to consider and I dropped on them uh a school action plan process that I wanted them to uh dig into and it was a lot all at once. Not sure it was like really good
implementation strategy on my part but they recognized the importance of it. Um, and once they had some time to sort of digest it, jumped on board. And so, uh, I'm really proud of the school action plan we have in place now. Um,
they've really engaged with it. We've been meeting with their teams using that model all year. I meet with the that committee uh just about every Monday. Some Mondays I'm, you know, out or gone. And so we either reschedule or have one of the other
principles facilitate. Um but those are more check-in nuts and bolts type things. Um we usually invite our MTSS or tech age will come in there to give updates. uh work through that. And then
in buildings during the year, meeting with principles, checking in on their goal setting, checking in on their action plan, increasing opportunities for engagement with teachers. We uh have a number of committees that have been going on, but we've also added some additional
opportunities. the extended leave. That group um has a a bunch of teachers on it, some admin, um figuring out uh expectations for a teacher, for instance, what they need to have done before they go on leave, uh
what they need to do while they're on leave, what they should expect when they come back. Um so, I think that's going to be really, really helpful, really good work from there. We had a group that people could get engaged in to take a look at doing conferences differently. So, we're going to try some things next
year. That's been good. Those kind of came out of the directors, we did some tweaking to the work that they do. Um, monthly, we were meeting monthly and I think there was, we kind of ran out of steam. uh the
meetings were kind of dry and stale and so we did a little bit of a reset did some feedback you know what would be helpful that group this year read crucial conversations that book and so it's probably in the last year I'd
say we're up to about 20 people that have read that book it's really good and uh you can see an example agenda there so a meeting plan questions So, a time in there where directors can
lead out a a topic. So, last month, uh, Paulie shared a little mini lesson on something relevant to the group's interests to keep people engaged. Let's see some other examples of
collaboration there involvement. I I have been um I was asked to chair the executive development committee for the superintendent association next year. Uh, and I was invited to me and I
think three other soups statewide to be on this uh, kid kids rise steering committee uh, which is going to be a really cool public school public school campaign just to raise I don't know to change the narrative about
public schools. The next strategic direction there um the wellness survey we completed that that went to the actually the labor management committee today. So we start digging into digging into that data and looking at what changes one or two
changes we can make to improve how it feels to work here. We got feedback from staff on conferences feedback from staff process as well. some other communication
examples there forward events. Uh >> you got feedback on conferences that just conferences here or just >> No. So yeah, so we asked uh we sent out a survey to to staff and to families
asking questions like what's working about conferences, what's not working about conferences, what do you find valuable uh from the parent side like what do you want to talk about when you come? Um if there's a structure change, what
would you what would you be open to? What's barrier to you coming? Do you come? Um, and so we looked at that school by school, actually created I I pulled the data out
for each building's staff and families. So I disagregated for them, gave that to their building leadership team. I created a protocol for them to go through and say, "What did you notice here? What are your what are your families saying? What are your staff saying?" They turned around and gave that back to our meet and confer
committee. And then um we're going to make some tweaks next year. So we're going to try some things. We're going to try semester 2 conferences, but we're going to adjust the semester one conferences so we don't have to change the comp day schedule at all. Um
so but they'll be targeted. So uh all parents will be able to come, but we'll be inviting some specific might need. So we'll try that and see how that goes. There's been a interest in doing
something different for a while. I would say this is like earthshattering but it's a move forward and try some different things. >> The second semester thing has really puzzled people I think like we don't do that now we have a plan to do it without
it infringing on structural time and keeping our contract squared away and calendar squared away. Um, let's see. Presentations, published a newsletter two times again this year. Really good
feedback on that. Um, and then stewardship of resources. You're probably more aware of that kind of work than anything else. Working with our facilities planning committee looking ahead to some things.
Um, Any question on any of that? Guess I made a couple notes at the bottom too. Just some other things that maybe didn't fit into the goal categories, but mentioned that school action plan. I guess that was above legislative agenda
testifying mention well field trip guidance which is very very sensitive for So folks,
>> Matt, as you look at your goals for 2020, 2025, and 2026, and you think about the future for 26,27, um I think it would be good as you talk through them, set it up for 26 27 to
focus on your balance of what's achievable and what's aspirational. thinking about yes the things that are in front of us and the kids that are in our district today but then also the kids that things that Grand Rapids in 10 years
like that's really important not only for your legacy but also their legacy things today that are helping our kids but also setting up future generations of Any
other one more question I had is I know you're not playing all instruments in the band but if you were to play one >> um I think that the most important work that I've been doing is to lean into
um Sorry Matt I'm gonna stop I has a joke about the band. >> Oh, saxophone. >> Saxophone. >> Yeah. >> Think barone. >> Are you sure? >> I played a tuba for one concert. >> You're ridiculous.
>> Went so serious right away. >> Yeah. Sorry. That was kind of went right over. >> Well, I want to hear what you had to say, though. What would be the >> uh It's building. I think the most important thing if if I
if I were to leave tomorrow um I would want people to say that I had an impact on the principal's abilities to lead instruction here because I think that's the pivot and so there's a lot of
systems that have to get in place in order for them to be able to do that well. um they have to actually you know they have to build their own skills and confidence and confidence there but then you also have to have the infrastructure that enables them to to do that you know
you have to have curriculum that you can actually me measure it that's high quality and >> guaranteed and you have to have ways for them to get in there and see and do the work and got to create space for them to you know to do it so that if if I don't
do anything else here Um, from like a legacy standpoint, I hope that's one that our principles are really able to define and execute structural leadership. >> Any other questions, comments? >> Um, on the essential accountabilities
document, these these this really this document really flows with the survey you're going to see. So, when you go in and take that survey, you're going to see essential accountabilities, administrative, and that's where your ranking is going to be. So, this just sort of is like, hey, um, if you're
struggling to come up with does Matt do any of this, just some, and I don't, again, it's not about justifying my position or any of that stuff, but if you're not aware of some of the things that I've done in some of these areas, this is just a way to kind of u bring it
to your to your mind. So the first one is obviously about a lot of planning, goal planning, uh those kinds of things. You just approved a new operational plan. So I think you just saw that. Um instructional, I just talked quite a bit
about that in my goal setting piece. Um and this sort of spells out some of that both locally and then also stay connected to some other organizations and trying to keep my learning up. Financial again, we talk about that probably more
than just about anything else. I think the retiree shift that was completed in the last 12 months was uh a pretty huge deal, not only for our school district, you know, organization, but also for our taxpayers. That was a huge thing to get
done. um operational uh I regularly meet with um the directors in charge of these various areas keep on top of day-to-day and keep those
things moving along then a lot of day-to-day stakeholder communication meetings. I obviously try to empower directors and principles to to do that work as much as
possible. Sometimes situations come up that need needle. We develop in the research and development uh we developed AI procedures last summer. That was a great collaboration. We'll have to continue to
revise that. we uh implemented that online learning program. >> Yeah. >> Are we using you know one of the one of the discussions in that I thought that was a good workshop was about kind of embracing it a little
bit right um and and maybe looking at students to how to use it properly right in the right way. Do you see people embracing that a little more or teachers necessarily? You know, because if I remember right, some
of the things where if you use it, make sure you're >> Yeah. >> referencing it and saying how you use it. And are we seeing teachers necessarily embrace kind of having the students try to engage in it a little bit or
>> I think that you know so our model kind of goes through like red don't you dare use it on this assignment or thing yellow is like if you're going to use it you know you can use it in limited green like it's okay if you do it blue is sort of like I
expect you to use it on this right and I remember when I first started uh talking to someone about their model, a similar thing and they talked about how goal for this teacher for this year might be to go from all red to couple
yellows might be there. So I think we have probably that where you have some that are like >> start or recognize a scaling. >> Yep. Scaling trying to change a little bit as they get more comfortable. I still think it, you know, it's uh it's
uh I mean, you know this um all of you do. It's just really kind of a unknown. I've seen more like I've seen more turn in this assignment written by hand this year. Uh and that's happening in colleges too. They've gone
back in some cases to the old blue book uh where you have to do all your work in this blue book uh and write handwrite all your stuff in there. And I think there's a probably a time and place for that. Uh there's a time and a place for
use all the resources available to you. So I think it's a little bit out of time. Yeah. Um let's see. Uh staff public and community relationships. A lot of those tie back
to this. Um, we rolled out a new website this year. Julie and Melanie were key in that. Um, that had to get done due to the legacy software we were on. HR obviously you see the result of that when things come through the board and
um things you probably things you don't see the evaluation process on the back side of that the goal setting my direct reports association obviously network I think one of the things in the in that
evalu valuation piece and I've had opening dialogue with our labor management committee with our meet confer um is the need to dig into our teacher growth and development plan in the next two years. Ours is outdated. It
needs to be updated. It's a lot of it's a lot of work. It's also an incredible opportunity if you do a good job of it to have deep deep discussions about what quality instruction looks like. So that is a great opportunity.
So I'm looking forward to that. That will be a big um on top of all the other things that our last strategy meeting we mapped out our PD plan for next year.
what's going to happen on those PD days. Um, focusing on grading and how our grading practices align with what can actually what kids actually
know and can do grades accurately reflect that. So, that'll be fun. And then also uh another focus for next year in addition to training you know half the high school staff and readact stuff
talking about behave student behavior and uh just recognizing how students are acting out. they are communicating something when they do that and what our role is, what our mindsets are as adults
in that moment. Uh how to be intentional in that moment rather than react. So that'll be really really good. We have we have places right now where student behavior is getting in the way of
tier one instruction for a teacher to do their job. So we can't control. Yeah. So those are some things if you're in that survey and curious um you can refer back to the last thing that's
included in your in kind of was just your board aims for this year. And I won't walk through these but you can kind of see the things that in there that we've been up to and been working on. I think you can see progress in these too. So that's uh
that makes you all feel good too at this purpose. Right. Any other comments on any of those documents for Matt? >> Thank you for the review. >> Right. Is there any other visits to come
before the vote tonight? >> All right. Senator, thank you. >> All in all, pretty complex job. >> Yeah, >> that's what I like. Bu
recording.