I'm going to call to order the July 22nd, 2025 school board meeting for ISD 194. Uh it is 6 pm. Um everyone please stand with me. Say the pledge of >> allegiance. To the flag of the United States of
America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right, we'll do roll call. Starting with my farthest on my right, >> Amber Cameron, >> Brett Nicholson,
>> Paul Carbone. I'm Matt Swanson, >> Emily McDonald, >> Carly Anderson, >> Brian Thompson. >> All right. Any modifications or additions to the agenda? >> All right. Oh, >> if it
>> Sorry, it was too slow on my button. >> Can I make a motion to remove number um 5B uh from the agenda? Um just um to allow more time to um revise the policy before coming for first reading.
>> Is there a second? >> A second. >> Uh any discussion there being a first and a second? Director Thompson. Uh I think we should keep it on the agenda so that we can have a conversation with the rest of the board and get their point of view. Uh it is a state statute with the
recommendations that they have on 620. Uh but again it is just a first reading and not a whole lot of changes uh on the content is really done other than what number do we want to allocate to to get a few things. And it might be good to get some feedback from the board
members if we need to bring it back and make revisions versus just bringing it back. >> So, you're saying just you would like to make um the rest of the board aware of what the issue is before we >> I think it would be good to hear what the rest of the board's point of view is
and if there is a desire to send it back then we can. But I think it would make sense to bring them up to speed. Uh, Director Cameron, >> I think that's fine to have a conversation about it. Um, Director Thompson, I think my only concern is that I don't feel like we've um it
appears we haven't consulted like the content experts and how the revisions and the policy would affect both this next academic year um but in general. And so I know we've heard from all of our secondary um principles that they're highly concerned with our first draft
reading. Um and so I want to make opportunity for conversation with content experts, not just the board. Any other discussion? Director Anderson, >> I would just add that I think it would be helpful to prior for prior to us having a first reading, which feels like
a more formal presentation, not that we can't um make updates, but if there are pretty significant updates, it would be better in my mind to consult before a first reading comes to the broader board. I think the board is generally or
we all receive the email about this. So, Director Thompson. >> So, this policy was, I believe, reviewed last year and uh it was approved. The there there isn't significant content changes. There is a
number um allocation that needs to be discussed and reviewed as important. And so, uh again, maybe to bring it up to the to the rest of the board members, you've got advanced placement courses. You get a 1.2, to uh multiplied factor.
>> Do you want to reserve that for discussion? >> Well, I mean, I don't know if this will help other board members to decide if you want to have this conversation or not, but my recommendation is to move it forward so that we can have dialogue and get your point of view before if there's anything else that needs to be done. There isn't significant content changes.
There is a numerical allocation change that but that might have some ramifications downstream that we can that we don't know yet. And so and those are things that we can discuss at the following meeting meeting. But an allocation might be uh worth getting
your point of view as as if we need to move it forward uh if we need to move it forward to to a committee discussion >> or even bring back some of those content experts. >> Correct. >> Questions of the board. >> All right. Any other discussion?
>> All right. The vote is um being first by director Cameron, second by director Anderson to remove 6B from uh the reports discussion. Um all those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. >> Nope. >> No.
>> No. All right. It is remains any other revisions or additions to the agenda? If there are none, I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda as drafted. >> Uh I'll make a motion to approve. >> All right. There's a first by Director Carbone. Is there a second?
I'll second it. Uh being a first and a second, all those in favor of approval of the agenda as drafted say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? >> No. >> All right. It is approved. Um uh assistant superintendent, we'll move
on to you for the good news. >> Excellent. Thank you so much, Chair Swanson. I'm really excited to share um a brief piece of good news with you all this evening. Um talking about how our Cougars have earned some national and state honors in
our clay target competitions. Many may not know that we have that activity um at Lakeville South High School. So, um, we want to say a big congratulations to the Lakeville South Clay Target team for placing seventh in the nation at the USA
High School Clay Target League National Championships. They were held on July 11th through the 13th in Ma Mason, Michigan. The Cougars delivered an absolutely standout performance throughout that tournament, including nearperfect scores
of 99 out of a hundred by our senior Mitchell Kelvy and our junior Wyatt Bonnerup. They went to the individual finals as well. Earlier this season, the team also excelled as a group at the 2025 Minnesota State High School League
state championship, which occurred on June 20th. In the individual competition, Kelvy shot a perfect 100, which is incredible, tying the top spot in the state of Minnesota. The Cougars placed third overall in the team competition. And certainly, if you want
to read more amazing things that are happening in our district, you can go to isd194.orgnews. Thank you. >> Give a hand for Mitchell and and Wyatt. And just so we're clear, I mean, that's 99 out of 100 clays that are tossed up.
They're hitting um and 100 for the state tournament. Amazing. >> Yeah. >> Um All right. On to the There is no public comment today. No one signed up. Um consideration for approval of the consent agenda. Is there anything that anyone would like to remove from the
consent agenda? >> Director Thompson. >> I'd like to pull out schedule C coaches and adviserss. When you say schedule C, you're talking about that is part of part of uh 4B, but that's a subsection of 4B. So, >> okay.
>> I don't know if you want to pull out all all of B or just that that part is up to you guys. >> We'll just pull 4B and then you can chat about anything else. >> All right. With the exception of 4B, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> I'll make a motion.
>> All right. There's a motion by Director Carbone. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Seconded by Director Nicholson. There being a first and a second. Motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of 4B. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. It is approved.
Um, Director Thompson. >> Yeah. So, you know, I want to talk about uh the schedule C, which is the coaches that are being recommended to be hired for this upcoming school year. And so, I um let me go ahead and find my notes.
Apologize. And so, we we do this three times a year for fall, winter, spring, and we hire a variety of different coaches and for all of our sports as well as co-curricular activities. And over the past three
years of being on the board, I I get emails and I get text messages of like, "Hey, I like this coach. I don't like this coach XYZ. I like this program. I don't like this program." And and so forth. And so one of the things that I think is super interesting uh is I'm
sorry, not interesting, but there there doesn't seem to be a mechanism for how we validate the stat the the coaching and the adviserss that we have for these co-curricular activities. And when parents are investing uh roughly $300 in
registration fees and if they happen to be in in uh let's say varsity sports there are booster fees there there are bond fees and trial fees. I mean a parent is investing almost close to $700 or $1,000 just to participate in the
sport in these sports. But yet from what I'm hearing is that there is a lack of parental input, a lack of parental um uh survey or feedback loop to validate is the program being success is a program uh helping my student perform helping my
uh uh student ac uh you know get better is is a good team culture is a uh whatever it may be. And so the feedback that I've heard and and that I've received h doesn't have that structure in place. And so what I what I realized
is that for these state statutes is that if a coach is um or an adviser or whoever may be uh is is maybe time to course correct or pivot, you have to make that change within 60 days when a program activity ends. And so something
that you can't wait until the end of the year or the wait the at the end of the school year. And so all of these individuals that are being recommended have are being recommended by by the district, which is fine. Uh but there is no student feed. There isn't a parent
feedback loop in in some programs and maybe there are in others, but there's no consistency. And so what I'd like to do is I'd like to add a motion here uh for the the approval of this uh to ensure that uh let me go ahead and get this.
like to make a motion uh that we establish a formal process for collecting and reviewing a structured feedback uh from both student participants and their parents or guardians for all district sponsored activities or corecurricular activities
that include both fall, winter and spring. Um and with that feedback it gets brought back to the administration brought uh and then the data is then shared with the uh the school board around okay here's how our programs are going uh here's the uh coach evaluations
uh for for us to validate coach coach retention uh reassignment andor removal. So that is my recommendation. That's the motion that I'd like to make as part of hiring over 150 coaches and and
co-curricular adviserss. >> Brian, can you restate that just so I'm clear? >> So, I I am making a motion that we establish a formal process for collecting and reviewing structured feedback from both both student
participants and their parents uh for all district sponsored activities. Now, there's more detail, but I will defer to the administration to figure out what threshold is reasonable. For example, do you want 51% of student participants to reply back so that
you've got a a valid data set or is 10% efficient or or enough? But the bottom line is that we need a structure in place because if there's anything that uh that can or will need to be done has to be done within a 60-day window after the program activity concludes.
Uh, is there a second to the motion? >> I I would rather see us I don't want to second it because I feel like this deserves more conversation just with uh Brenda and others who would implement such a system. So like I feel we can't
discuss it unless we have a second. >> I mean if there's no second um >> going once going twice. >> All right then the motion fails. Um I will say I'm not opposed to bringing that issue up. I guess my question would be what currently exists right now. You
know how do you make sure it's consistent across all sports? >> There there isn't any >> Okay. >> Well, not not just sports. I mean we're talking about all district activities. I don't I I think um what you're suggesting is is great. I just think we
don't have it would be great for us to look into this to understand what other districts are doing to know what Brenda's thoughts or director Alrech's thoughts might be. um >> which is fine and again they can come forward with those things but I think as
a as a board as a district I mean there's minimal or there are some programs that have minimal parental input uh minimal student input and so uh there's no voice in that and and so if they want to come back at another
meeting and share here's what other districts are doing this is how we're going to implement the survey this is to validate as a board Yes, we want parent and student participation feedback. Either it's it's not a very complicated request. Either we have it or we don't. Yeah. >> And so,
>> yeah, Brian, >> director, hold on, Director Cameron. >> I apologize. >> Um, I'd like to make a motion um to add a discussion about parent and athlete feedback for a future board meeting. >> I'll second that.
>> I mean, technically, that motion would be improper. I mean to to add something to a future meeting at this point >> or I make a recommendation that we could discuss this at a future meeting. >> I mean I can make a promise that I can put it on for a future meeting. How about that? >> Right. >> I just don't think we need to discuss it at length right now.
>> Yeah. But otherwise, yeah, in order to amend even our current agenda, we'd have to go back and and undo that. But uh no, I again I do agree that it's worthwhile having that discussion and making sure that we we do have something. It could
even be part of an HR initiative. Um though maybe we have plenty of other things to discuss tonight on that. So So we're back to 4B. Any further discussion on 4B? >> If there's none, I'd entertain a motion
to approve the employment recommendation leave requests and resignations under 4B. >> Motion. >> Motion. >> I'll second it. All right. being moved by Director Nicholson, seconded by Director Carbone. Um, all those in favor
of approval of the consent agenda item 4B for the employment recommendations, leave request and resignation, say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> I oppose. Nay. >> Right. >> And they are approved. Uh, on to
the reports. Summer programming update. Gonna ask up Janet McBride and Margaret Garation. Okay. Well, >> there we go. >> Oh, went back. There we go. Um, thank you for having us
here this evening. Um, I'm Margaret A. I'm the principal of alternative programs. This is Janet McBride. She is the alternative programs coordinator. Um we're here to give you some of our highlights for summer this year, which is currently in session. Um most people think summer is a slow time of the year
for educators, but for alternative educators, we're moving at full speed. Uh Lakeville Area Schools has a SAP, which is a schoolyear approved program, alternative program. And as such, we can have year- round school. We have to have
year- round school. That's part of our statute. This allows us to do out of school programming time to support our students in academic need. Our agenda for this evening is why summer learning, how is it possible, our program schedule, and the highlight of
three of our academic programs, targeted services, credit recovery, and our online tuitionbased program. And our school year goals. Why summer learning? Um, this provides a system of supports for the whole child. gives us access to tiered instruction
and support and it creates schools and classrooms that are safe and welcoming. We reteach and pre-teach specific skills for our students in grades 1 through 8. Um Hayden, we have a s summer learning video that's two minutes to give you an
idea of a structure and why we support our summer learning. We don't have sound, Hayden. I'd sing and dance for you. Two children, one from a middle-income family, the other from one of the millions of lowincome American families.
As the two kids head off to kindergarten, look what happens. The middleincome child starts out with a six-month lead. The low-income child is already falling behind because of a lack of access to early reading and preschool
education. During their year in kindergarten, in the same school and classroom, the two children will learn at about the same rate. So, we'll move them both forward 9 months. But look what happens in that first summer between kindergarten and
first grade. Our middle-income child moves ahead about a month in reading because learning of one kind or another continues over the summer. The lowincome child falls back about 2 months. So when school begins again, when they go back
for first grade, the gap between them has already widened. During first grade again, they move ahead at about the same rate, another nine months. that next summer, the activities and lifestyle of the middle-income family keep that child
moving forward, but the lowincome child has fewer opportunities to reinforce good habits like reading and that child falls farther behind. Then we come to second grade and again our two children learn at the same rate. But the summer
after second grade sets our lowincome child back again and our middle inome child moves forward again and the gap widens again. By just the third grade, the two children are already far apart.
By the end of fifth grade, the gap between the children is two and a half to three years. It will keep growing through middle school. So you see, without addressing what's happening during the summer, it is impossible to
ever catch up. It's impossible to close the gap. No matter how much highquality learning goes on from September to June, every year the gap widens. As you can see, summer learning is incredibly important for our students.
Though they talk about lowincome families, these are for families that are even our working families that don't have the time in the summer to provide those extra learning opportunities. How is it possible? Because we have a SAP with our with our state approved uh
pathways program is our SAP program. We can provide some state funding for our targeted services and credit recovery programs. Our students qualify under the Minnesota state statute for graduation incentives and we report all of our learning with attendance and membership
and what we are doing for our targeted services so that we can hopefully break even and pay for our summer schools. I'm going to switch spots with you. >> Okay. Um, so one of the things I am going to challenge you after we leave
here today to take a couple minutes and go back to the slideshow. Um, all the pictures in the slideshow are from our current summer programming and it's just a really small snapshot of the really incredible things that are going on in our buildings. So our programming
schedule um is taking place in the mornings of June and July. We will be closing out next week at the on July 31st. Our days of the week and the length of the day depends on their age of the child. We do developmentntally
appropriate for our students. And then of course we have to take into account our families. So we do not have any programming on Fridays to allow our families the long weekends for summer plans. The three programs that we are going to
talk about tonight are targeted services, um credit recovery, and online um our remote learning. So, this is just a snapshot of them, and I'm going to go into um depth on each one of them.
So, our first program um is our largest program. It's our targeted services program. It is a inviteonly program. Um we qualify students based on their fastbridge screener scores in the winter
and spring. So for this year we use um 2025 scores. And then we also go back to the teachers and and get some input about their level of independence um and their ability to work in a small
group station rotation setting. Um the numbers that you see at the top are our numbers coming right out of COVID. So we had our highest numbers coming right out of CO and then you can see on the bottom one is our current numbers and we've
almost reached um our our coming out of COVID numbers. We are packed this year. We are out of space. We're out of staff. Um, so this year we're running about 454 for our first through 8. And right now
we are at four elementaryaries and one middle school. And then our second program that we're currently running is our credit recovery. Credit recovery is for our students at our three high schools, well actually our four high schools including
Pathways and our online program that have failed a core class during the school year and they are making a choice to come during the summer and recover that class to stay on um pace for graduation. This slide is a little bit misleading
because um we have 173 students enrolled, but as of this morning, we have recovered 194 credits this summer. So, that's a big celebration. And last summer, we
recovered uh 217. So, we still have a week and a half. >> Yeah, we still have Yeah, a week and a half left to go. We don't have this system down yet. >> This one's a quick one. We have one um online tuition based uh program that we
run. We do have health and fied and then we charge a tuition to our students to take this. This is usually students who are trying to keep foreign language and fed or those classes foreign language band music in their schedule. So they come in the summertime and make these
classes up. Um we usually fill them. We have a capacity of 40 per group and we us we're at 77 this year and not the full 80. And as you can see by our numbers, it just it stays pretty consistent. You're up again. Am I?
All right. Funding another way to is this possible? These are approximates because alternative programming is about 18 months behind as it's received through the district. It's just a little bit different funding than the straightup ADM mechanisms. So you can see kind of our revenue and our expenses
in the three program areas. Our goal is always to break even. Um I will tell you I've been doing this for 35 36 years. These numbers look really good. I mean we are very conscious about our expenses and how we do this and our capacity to
serve our students. All right. And as we close out our summer, we're always looking ahead. what do we want to do with what's come out of the summer and move it into our school year? So, at the end of all of our programming, we will um gather feedback
from our staff and families and we use that not only to improve for next summer, but our current school year programming as well. And then we look at our summer attendance rates. So, our students that did come, what percentage
of the days did they come and what impact did that have on their fall FA fast score? And then how did that continue in the winter and the spring? And then what does that look like for next summer? Are we seeing the same
students or are we seeing different students? And then for targeted services for the school year, targeted services moves back to the nine elementaryaries. So it is taught by our home teachers at that
time. And I collaborate with our um principles and our learning specialists at that time to identify the students that would continue on and it might be different students um during the school year. And then credit recovery is the same thing that goes back to the home
buildings. I run a program at Lakeville North, Lakeville South, and then our online uh students have the opportunity to go to North or South um to whatever best um works for them. And then a
couple bigger goals that we have for next year is one of the things that we want to continue is our partnership with Lakeville South and Lakeville North. And what does that look like for early interventions for our atrisisk students? and that's mainly on the cover credit
recovery um field. So we do monthly meetings with our counselors at both north and south and we talk about our at risk students and we want to expand that to be involved in their intervention support teams and then we as a group
also alternative programs we do a once a month meeting to more look at the processes and the procedures and then as I stated before we continue our partnership with the elementary and one of our other goals is we do have middle school programming during the
school year, but we want to really continue to grow that. >> And look at those cuties. As you can see by the highlights here, you're not seeing any technology in these pictures. Um, for our grades one through eight, we have purposely not had
their iPads as access for the students and we have gone to handson and station rotations for the students. We are finding a lot of engagement. We're finding excellent SEAL's goals being met. Um, and so far this year in credit recovery, we've also had six graduates.
They have come back and completed their diploma and finished this summer. All right, we can't do this without staff. Um, over in the lefthand corner, you'll see the kind of navy blue color. Those are all of our high school teachers and staff that are supporting
right now. At the time of this slide was made, it was 170 students. we are probably up to 176 because we do bring them in as they finish. We bring in a new student to try and get as many as possible. Um the red are our two online teachers and currently those two teachers are s providing service for 77
students. And then for our targeted services this year we have 41 staff members of licensed and support staff. And I just have to share, I just received an email um right before the board meeting from a parent that said, "Thank you to all the teachers who
dedicate their time and summer vacation to support our students who need a little extra help." And I personally um coming from the elementary world, I cannot give a shout out to all these staff for what they have done this
summer. It's just been it's really a celebration. And those teachers, what do you have? 41 there. Yep. >> Are providing a service for 454 students in our different sites. >> Uh we have developed some partnerships
over the um years. One of the big ones that we use um we partner with Open Door out of Egan. They provide mobile lunches in our neighborhoods. And then for our programming students, they provide snacks for inschool programming. We also
have partnerships with within our district. We have community education, ECFE, and um special ed. So, all of those are running programs in our buildings at the same time we are. So, we have to work together and share our spaces.
And this is where we are at this summer. Our top ones are four elementaryaries and then we have one program at the middle school. Our credit recovery this year is at Lakeville South. And I think I invited all of you. You can come check us out tomorrow at JFK and High View on
uh Thursday and if another one works better. Um we'll be there till next Thursday. So, so thank you. Thank you for this uh opportunity to share with what we've been doing this summer and we'll do it again next summer.
>> Any questions? >> Director Thompson. >> Hey, th this is fantastic. Thank Thank you for doing this. Uh, I I've had the opportunity to participate in some of these programs and well, not me, but my family has. So, I appreciate that. The online health and physical education, I
think that's super fascinating. You've got over 80 kids that are doing this separately, willing to pay money out of their pocket to do these summer programs because they can't bake it into their normal school day. And because we've got six periods in high school, which if we
had seven, this might give them an opportunity to embed that into that respective uh school year and and not have to give up band or give up engineering or drama or whatever it may be. And so again, we've talked about this before about trying to have seven
periods in in high school, but that that's just an observation that I saw. Um the second thing that um the second thing that I saw was the um uh below reading proficiency. Uh the video that you shared was, you know, the the low-inccome student or the student not as far
>> ahead. They're not where they need to be, but then the middle income is maybe further ahead. Is is is our baseline of reading and math proficiency at the end of first grade, second grade, third grade, not at the middle income level,
but at the lower at the the baseline. So, are we are we uh have we increased the bar for our district saying we want your reading and we want your math levels to be at a higher level and so we are bringing those kids in further to our program so
that we can get them uh caught up or are we you know what I mean? I'm not I I don't know if I'm explaining this right. >> We're trying to fill the gap. That's kind of what you're asking is yes. So that providing that extra in the summertime gives them those um learning experiences that they may not have for
that extra learning piece. So but is that gap above and beyond what our standard is for kindergarten and first grade and sec and third grade. You know what I mean? Just because other students may be further ahead but at the
end of first grade we want people at this level. Are they at that level? But we're asking them to come in because everyone else is at a higher level. No. Okay. We're using this level and if they're below this level, then we're bringing them in for >> So, we use our fast bridge scores and when I pull those scores, I'm looking at
some risk and high risk. >> Perfect. The yellow Well, there's there's a dashboard that that we see that's kind of the yellow and the red. Okay. And then so the my last question is that when you s showed the the revenue screen it we are above break even on all three programs which is
>> maybe those are approximates >> okay >> because of the l the lag time and some of it the way the funding mechanism works it doesn't calculate out the same way as a general ed student that starts here and starts there >> and it is based on attendance >> and membership
>> and membership so it will like when I did the targeted services and the credit recovery. I went on everyone's attending every day the whole day and we know that that isn't true, but I won't have those
final numbers until time has passed. >> Do you have previous records or previous years that have shown you have you you you have broken even or andor you've made a net positive revenue? Targeted services and credit recovery are pretty
even. >> Our goal is break even. >> Break even. Okay. >> Bill's looking he's got it. >> We've had Yeah, I've spent a lot of time in Bill's office, >> which is fine. >> Very break even. >> I was looking at the the financial side and I was just wondering, all right, if there's extra revenue there, what are
you doing with that? and can we refundel that back into your program to accelerate it to expand it to make sure that for any parent or student who wants to engage in accelerating their their reading and math over the summer we have that flexibility I can answer some of
that um it is earmarked money so the targeted services money the grades one through eight can only be funneled back into that I can't use it for the high school piece the high school piece I actually can use some of that funding for targeted services if I needed it >> um And all of that money only 10% can go
back for administrative funds and that type of thing that they use for district office funds. >> Good. >> I'm good. >> I had a question on the on the growth. So you look at the spring fast bridge, then you look at the October fast bridge uh in comparison. I mean what kind of growth are you seeing or is it just even
maintaining throughout the summer? >> So I would say our our goal is to maintain and not to take the summer slide. Sure. Um, I also am we want to dive into that more and look at how does attendance
factoring in because not everyone attends every day. And we notice like I've noticed like this week we're kind of hitting that uh runway where we're seeing a few more absences. So stay tuned.
Uh but yeah, that is something we definitely want to see what correlation that is and what does that look like in the winter and spring. >> Sure. >> Director Cameron, >> um I have two questions. The first is um both related to targeted service
services but also credit recovery. Um we see the numbers especially for credit recovery increasing, right? Um, and um, I'm married to someone who runs credit recovery, so I feel like I know a little bit about this, but I know part of it is about marketing and making sure kids who
need this are finding the opportunity and enrolling and coming, right? >> Y >> how with our numbers going up as they are, are we seeing an increased need? Are we seeing better marketing? Are we seeing a combination of both? Like why are our numbers going up? >> Yes.
>> All of the above. >> Okay. Um, one of the things that I feel we have done a great job on is our platform that we are using for recovery. It we are we have more capacity to take
more students. Um, and yes, with Margaret and myself, we go to the high schools a lot and we're really involved in the high schools to see how we can catch them earlier to get them back on track for graduation. Great.
>> Does admit answer your question? >> Yeah, that's helpful. And are we having to turn any students away right now who would qualify in either targeted or um credit recovery? >> In credit recovery, we run a waiting list. Okay. >> So, we don't turn them away. We put it on there. Um it sounds bad, but we
triage. We start with seniors first. That's our priority going into their senior year so that we can make sure they're on track for graduation. And we work our way backwards. Um but we have a rolling enrollment all summer. So, if I have a student that only had one class and he finished it, I can move somebody in right away. Um, we look at their
grade percentages. We do a deep dive into every individual student's grade books to take a look on how we can customize it for them. >> Great. And then my other question, and this is not summer, I don't believe, but it could be, and that is, um, I feel like I've heard from some administrators
that targeted services funding is getting decreased for next academic year. um is that is that happening and if so how are we mitigating that? >> So it's not decreased. It hasn't changed in probably 25 years from the state.
>> Um but what has changed is what we pay our teachers and our overall costs running through the district. So as our teacher pay rates have gone up, we our we've had stagnant funding from the state. So it makes it a little bit harder to make that balance of break even. >> Got it. Okay. Last thing I'll say is last night I was at a Dakota County
Extension meeting and we were talking about um the programming that they do especially with credit recovery and targeted services and they mentioned that I think starting next year they're going to be working with Lakeville schools in some capacity. So I don't know if that's you or someone else but I was excited to hear that we'll have
increased support from other partners. We try to partner with as many um people as we can. Um and even our our own teachers have a lot of expertise especially at that elementary level. So yeah,
>> Director Anderson, >> sorry, just just want to follow up on Amber's question. Um so is the limited funding why we're not able to take more people into the credit recovery? Is there a way for us to >> It's one of the things. Um and then the capacity of teachers. How many teachers
can we get to come in? So, right now, if you noticed, I I think I had six on there, and they aren't all full-time. So, they split. Some of them split the summer, and they'll do the first three weeks, and the other one will do the other three weeks, so they have their break time, too. Um,
could we grow it? Having the staff is kind of one of the key components with our new platform that has built the capacity that way. So, they don't have all the extra prep time. They don't have to correct every packet. We don't have to photocopy things and do all of that with our
electronic format. >> Well, it might be helpful for us to see I mean see what that weight list looks looks like just because if it's >> I mean if it's something you're addressing in a briefer amount of time versus this is an ongoing problem then how do we kind of allocate more funding?
>> And we do address that same list all throughout the school year because we run credit recovery after school um during the school year. >> But but if we get funded for that, right? I mean, if there's funding for that, it's just I want to say it's just as simple as like you could add more teachers, right, that are dedicated.
>> You have to they have to volunteer to do it, you know? Yeah. >> So, like our my targeted services staff, I hired every support staff and every licensed staff that applied and in our district. Um, would we have loved to
take more, but it's also a capacity like at the elementary, we're in every nook and cranny of an open building right now. >> And with the facilities working the way they are, they have to go offline certain years. So, we can't use those buildings. >> Sure. >> You um with the credit recovery, we had
a lot of like math classes that were all top failed classes for us. >> Uh I think was reported earlier. So, are they primarily are we doing a lot of math or what do like what's the what's kind of the breakdown in terms of credit recovery for high school kids?
>> Well, we focus on the core. So, of course, our math, science, English, and social studies. Um, I would say algebra 2, chemistry. We're seeing an uptick in earth space science. It's a brand new curriculum. They're
brand new to high school. So, you're going to see a little bit of change there with kids struggling in that one. Um, but that's implementation and the next year I assume it'll be better um because it so brand new. But I would tell you, you're right. Those are the hardcore courses. >> Do do you know roughly what the
distribution of students are for credit recovery between the grades 9 through 12? >> Well, yes. um our ninth grade this year, um we had at the two high schools almost
100 students fail at least one core class. >> Um and then that number decreases as we get to our senior year. I don't have those off the top of my head. Um, but I would also say, Matt, those are a little
bit misleading because we've triaged all year long um to get to the summer. Our goal is to be able to get in more sophomores and juniors in our programs now this upcoming school year. Um, so
our we can take some weight off of that summer. Director Thompson, C, >> can we go back to the financial component of this? Like like does a teacher volunteer or do they get paid a stipen or like how do they like help me understand how how are we generating revenue for this?
>> We post the position according to our HR guidelines and then we do interview. >> Yep. >> Um >> so it's a full-time FTE. >> Nope. It's hourly pay rate which is also uh their hourly pay rate is guided by the contract.
>> Got it. Okay. But if we had a scenario where we hired dedicated teachers that focused in this space, can you break even in this model or is the is the I'm just wondering if you had if you hired teachers I mean not let me
rephrase it not because you we have teachers but if you hired full-time resources knowing that the volume is there and knowing that it's a break even model right now but I don't know if the model would still be break even with paying them full-time.
>> I'd be hesitant to give you an a real answer to that. What I can tell you also is we're also dealing with at risk kids because just because their name is on a list doesn't mean they're going to show up. >> Sure. >> Uh so that's the other thing with that. >> Thank you both for coming in. Really appreciate that.
>> Thank you. >> All right, moving on. Policy report. Brian, do you want to briefly lay out the issue for everyone so we have an understanding and if any of the other board members have questions they want us to take back to the >> committee and experts before we come?
>> So policy 620 is the learning credit policy. Uh this is where we allocate um uh you know how many credits or a GPA is worth for non-standard classes. And so that would include AP classes, concurrent classes, PSO classes, uh,
XYZ. I believe the current state that we are in today is that if you take an AP class in high school, you get a um a multiplier multiplier factor of 1.2. So if you get an A in an AP English class,
instead of it being worth 4.0 credits, it's worth 5.0 credits. And so we've got uh our district offers a variety of different uh programs. We got a couple chemistry concurrent classes. Uh we also have students that are taking PSCO classes, but none of them are weighted
the same as AP classes. Right now, I believe in our school district, only AP classes are weighted. Uh there is a new state statute that got passed that said that a school board must adopt a policy regarding weighted uh grade point averages. And it has to be a school
board must adopt an identical policy regarding weighted gradepoint averages for credits earned via PSCO or post-secary course coursework uh as it gives uh to credits uh earned via concurrent enrollment coursework. And so I guess uh I wanted to bring this up
just to get the board's point of view where if you take an AP class, which is supposed to be college focused or college, you know, uh content and you're getting an extra weighted GPA for that. If you've got a student who's taking a
PSCO class or a concurrent chemistry class, should that be weighted as well the same? So that that's that's the issue. uh there are a lot a lot of other mechanics involved in how and when this gets implemented but from a board's point of
view if a student takes a PSO English class uh at Normanddale or wherever they don't get that weighted benefit whereas a student who takes a AP class in high school which is a college English class let's
say then they get the weighted benefit meaning that they get the 5.0 know uh if they get an A in that class. So I'll pause here. >> Emily, do you know um concurrent enrollment is that on the normal grading weighted grading scale? >> Yes, it is.
>> Okay. Because the statute I mean says whatever we do for concurrent enrollment, we have to do that for postsecary. So just for the rest of the board. So if we're going to shift postsecary, not postsecondary. So yeah, postsecondary. We'd have to do the same for any concurrent enrollment
courses that we have here. >> And I apologize, is concurrent weighted or is it not weighted? It is not weighted. >> So if you're taking a college level chemistry class, it's not weighted. But if you take an AP placement, an AP
college chemistry class, it is weighted. So then the question is what we can discover and we'll discuss it more with uh the principles. Do we wait at all? What do we wait? >> Dr. Kerbone. >> Well, I that's what I was just going to
ask Brian. Everything should be anything that is relevant for college or extra relevant for college should be weighted. I think that's what you were asking. And Matt, you just said the same. I think that I think as a board and I'd love to get everyone's point of view like if you're going to take a college class and
if we are going to give it an extra credit then does it matter if you're taking a college class via AP or via concurrent or via PSO an English at college as an English at college I would assume now some colleges may have varying degrees and rigorous content or
whatever it may be but if they're accredited in their respective subject I I I I don't I don't know why one person gets it and one why why one would not if those credits are still transferable at the collegiic level.
>> I mean that makes sense, but do do colleges and universities look at it that way? Do they do they put more weight on on AP classes versus a college chemistry class? I mean, I wouldn't that be part of the
>> Go ahead. Thank you for that question. We um when this statute came to be, we um did some preliminary research. The principles led that work along with Elida um to really take a look at first of all what other
districts were doing um as well as what colleges do and how they look at GPA because certainly our goal is never to harm students, right? Um uh and I I know that you plan on talking more with the principal and they certainly can provide you with um more depth and nuance around
this. Um but what we did find is um our intent was to reach out to the top 10 colleges that our students attend to ask them about how they approach it because all schools do it a little bit differently. And so you don't obviously we we wouldn't want our kids to be
penalized because this school is waiting and this school is not waiting. So, we just wanted to gather some information and again the principles can provide you some more specifics on that. But at my last count, um we had heard back from um
six of our top 10 schools. Um, and five of those colleges reported to us that they actually strip away the weighted and they look at it on a four-point scale because when they're looking student to student to student, they need a consistent metric across the all the
students that apply. And so, so that's what we learned which wasn't interesting. And then on the the sixth one that replied um I believe what they commented was that that at times they will look at a weighted but they prefer to look at it from an unweighted
standpoint. So that's sort of where the conversation started. And so I think from a from a day-to-day standpoint and from um a kids's experience standpoint I think that's where the principles can really weigh in with some more depth around the implications of either we're
doing it or we're not doing it. And so then what does that mean for our students and for our system moving forward? >> Sure, Director Cameron. >> Um, thanks. Yeah, I I mean I think this warrants discussion for sure about I think I think you make a good point,
Director Thompson, that if you're taking a college level course content that maybe they should all be treated the same way in terms of of um our GPA. I think I know I I apologize that I had to miss the this policy meeting where this was discussed. I do think I' I'd like to
make a recommendation that for policies that involve content um that that we are not the experts. I know I kind of I'm saying the same thing as I said earlier. I think it's really important that we bring in those content experts at the beginning. We have a perspective of course that I think can
interrogate um the policies and ask good questions. But I think without that that on the ground experience to answer in the moment, I I'm uncomfortable putting forward first drafts without I I think we just need to be in better alignment with our district um administration
um before we edit policies because I think that the secondary administrators brought up a lot of good points um that that we should consider. Um I think one is um what um uh Dr. McDonald just spoke of like should we even have weighted grades? I know I work at a university
and we unweight. Um but to your um question, Director Crobone, I believe many um hired institutions look at students transcript. So if they're taking AP, they're seeing that they're taking AP even though they unweight. Um and then of course if if they take the
test, then that comes into um the equation too in terms of AP tests. But I also think something that was brought up that I was unaware of um is that we have we have a number of students who are enrolling in PSO who are failing. So
they're not getting credit. They're not progressing in their high school um uh experience with Lakeville schools and we're paying we're paying additional money. Um and so I think that is something that we need to think about and I think that's a that's a whole issue but I think part of um the
conversation is if PSO is given weighted given more credit or more um a higher uh credit then will we see an influx and and perpetuate the cost to our district and having more students failing um at the secondary level without the support.
Director Nicholson, >> what's the advantage to the waiting? Like why why would we why do we do it now? Like you're waiting the grades and it's okay. You're in an AP class um versus a PSO versus whatever. So
>> it's the risk. I'm assuming you're taking a risk of taking a harder class. >> I understand, but you're also you're also taking the opportunity to get college credit. So, we're getting kind of double the benefit, right? I'm I'm just I'm I'm kind of asking the
question like where did waiting come up in the history of grading? Like, you know, did did we like how did that become the way that we wait a harder class because they're taking a risk, but they're also they're doing it not because it's a harder class. They're
doing it so that they get college credit or opportunity for college credit. So, I'm curious more. This is back to your point. I think um probably need a little bit more information on all this, but >> Director Anderson. >> Yeah. I I think um what this email would
suggest to me is there's a more robust consideration here in terms of what we're going to do overall with the all of these classes. So, that's where I feel like this feels premature when we don't have all of that background to really understand. you know, it makes
sense that we approach all of them in a similar fashion that they're all advanced classes. So, do we give that weight or do we not? Perhaps perhaps we take a more consistent approach um or second part to the question though
is the principles also presented that one of the goals was to enhance or build out the concurrent enrollment uh effort. So, where are we at with that? Do we have, you know, did the district decide to move forward with that as a a plan?
Do we have a structure or anything in place to enhance or build upon concurrent enrollment to keep the kids here? >> Uh we do not at this time. Um we know that it is uh certainly of interest.
There are some fairly significant there are two significant issues related to um concurrent enrollment. number one cost to the district. Um, number two, certification of staff because in order to teach, as you know, our teachers
teach those courses through the university. So, we pay um for each student that takes a concurrent enrollment class just like we do with PSO. Um, we pay a fee for each student. Um, in terms of certification, in order
for teachers to be eligible to teach concurrent enrollment classes, they have to first and foremost have a degree in their a master's degree in their area of expertise. So, I heard that wasn't quite
the case, but I'm I I don't know the details, but like 20 years of experience kind of supplemented against the masters kind of is sort of the new potential policy that I might have heard
was uh at least at the school that we're currently working through. >> So, there there can be a slight variation. In some cases, the universities require a master's in the field and 18 credits um on top of that. So, we do see a slight variation. The
the the initial requirement of the masters in the field and then the additional credits came from the universities. It didn't come out of K12 public education as a requirement. universities wanted to ensure that teachers that were associated with their
university were by their terms qualified to be able to teach those courses. So, um but so again, when we're looking at that from a teacher standpoint, um the benefit to the teacher to go
potentially back to school, how do you pay for that? Who's going to incur the cost? are we? So, there's a there are a lot there are a number of things that we would have to sort out as a district and commit to um both financially as well as in terms of uh staff support. I think I
don't want to speak for the principles, but I know in previous conversations with them, they definitely um support um concurrent enrollment options for students because we our kids get to be here. They get to be in our schools.
They get to have an experience here. um and you know and a lot of times be with their their peers and other things. So there are definitely benefits to expanding that program. I think what we'd have to talk about and I know that it was mentioned on one of the goal
sheets as a pos possible action item. um we'd really want to investigate what's the cost to the district and then um and then how would we what incent how would we incentivize for the teachers to be able to get credentialed um in the way that's necessary for them to be able to teach the courses. I would say those are
probably the two things that stand out to me. >> Are we back on 620 or are we hopping over on boards? >> 620. >> Okay. >> Yep. You know, Director Nicholson, you you are right. And I think the more we can offer programs and those
alternatives in our district, the better uh to give our students more choices. But that but again, we still need to go back to >> the the policy itself. I mean, do you want to wait uh an extra 1.2 for these students or not who are taking not
honors classes but a college level, you know, uh content? And so I I feel like if they are taking that tougher class and I think you what I heard was that you know they're getting a free class, they're getting college credit, so you know they take on that risk. Uh and so
if you've got a student that may not do so well, it does impact their GPA and then it does impact scholarships and it does may it may impact XYZ for those institutions that don't unweighted. So you're our our students may then be
competing against other students where when it's when they're just looking at GPA versus GPA, it puts our Lakeville students in a disadvantage as well if we don't weight any of these any of these. And so yes, these students are taking more advanced classes. Would they have gotten in an
easier A if they take a non-advanced class and then you compete that competing against scholarships for XYZ? Another thing for consideration is that uh I saw I think I saw it on Facebook and I don't know if anyone else watches reads Facebook, maybe Instagram, but on Facebook they were posting at Eden
Prairie almost 2,000 of their students uh took an AP class this year. And of those 2,000 students, 80% of them got a score of three or better. Now, when you look at an AP rating, the a student takes this AP class and at the end of
the school year, they take this final exam and you got to get a score of of a three or more on a scale up to five. So, you got to get a three, four or five to get credit for that class. And so, Eden Prairie is promoting 80% of our students
get at least a three or better. And so when you take a a program like that, you're going to have outliers that succeed and and some that uh may not get to the level that they want to. So you've got 400 students in Eden Prairie
that did not get a three in their program. And so when we look at PSO where we've got some students that are falling behind or did not earn that credit or get a degree, totally makes sense. Love to see the data to see how many. But when you take a PSO class, you
can get an A, you can get a B, you can get a C, and technically you can get a D and still pass that class. And so I don't know uh how many get an Fs, but I just want to make sure you know level set. Just because you take an AP class
doesn't mean that credit recovery may not be an option for folks that that that don't do well. I don't know. So, >> Director Anderson, >> yeah, I just want to say I I think it's hard for us to judge how all of these courses um the level of difficulty. Are
they all the same or are they different? And that's what I'm just coming back to. I think we need the experts to let us know >> the path forward. Um I I don't I don't feel like our board necessarily has good understanding of, you know, how does a AP class compare to
a concurrent class or a PSO class. And so, um, >> I mean, they're all not they're reg they're not all the same potentially. I don't think we know. So, it's more, um, to me, I feel like we're spinning wheels when we don't have the content.
>> Just I guess a point of clarification then in terms of AP classes that we offer here, core classes, right? Math, >> um, science, English, that those are the AP classes that we offer, right?
There's psychology and >> we offer AP psychology. >> Yes. And things like um AP art history and other things. So we do have um the the most uh the highest number of AP classes that we have I would say are in the core. Um but then we do have some
other AP classes in other areas. >> Okay. And are there restrictions on PSE PSO PSO classes? Like are they allowed to take how like how wide can they go? I mean college qualify through the university
or college in order to access PSO and then they have to provide their own transportation and so sometimes that a student can be full-time PSO or could be um you know take a class or two. So it's just sort of dependent on a number of
factors schedule. Uh >> I was more wondering the restrictions on what classes they can take at PS. >> There is not none. >> Well, let me back up a little bit. We are still they are still required by the state to um meet the graduation requirements. Um they can take a more
rigorous course in that area which qualifies. So for example, it we have they have to take world history. say they go to a college and take a a history a history of the world that is more rigorous and it's not exactly the high school world history, they can do
that under a rigorous course waiver situation. Um but they do still have to meet the the requirements. Yes. >> Uh given the weight of this and we can chat about it, no pun intended. Um chat
with maybe the policy members or policy committee members. Maybe we just want the to have a principal come back and speak to the entire board so we're not, you know, trying to remember or answer those questions on their behalf. So, because there are bigger implications. Um, just my thought.
>> Maybe a district recommendation. >> What's that? Maybe a district recommendation. What would be, >> you know, from our our team here, what do they think we should do or what would be >> what does everybody think is in the best interest of our kids? >> Yeah.
Are we good to move on? All right. Uh, board member reports. Anyone? Anyone? >> All right. Report from the superintendent. >> I have nothing at this time. Thank you, Chair Swanson.
>> Wasting your wasting your opportunity, Emily. Wasting your opportunity. All right. Um, back on the board goals. Does everyone need to stretch before we do this or um No, I think we can go for a little while longer. Um so we we made it through the
discussion on a whopping three board goals last time. Um I I do want to just start off by I appreciate everyone who sent things to me and different um structures of goals. I received several of them. Um different
ideas. Uh Paul and I or Director Carbone and I discussed it with uh Superintendent Bowman this week. Um just from a timing perspective, uh he was encouraging us to actually vote on some priorities um just
so they have something to focus on moving forward into the school year. I know I'd sent out an email to everyone about that and more more specifically regarding the academic goals and initiative priorities um because there's 14 of them and again I think they're
everyone who sent me goals you know I think they're all great the question is you know which ones do we focus on uh you know at least for this next year or this next phase financial goals HR goals and the additional items are a
little bit more limited even the board board goals are a little bit more limited. Um where I think those might be easier to come to a quick consensus on. Um but academic goals I don't know that we I think we could probably spend months
going over all 14 and more would come out of that. Um I do want to give people an opportunity obviously to share what their their priorities are or what where what they're thinking about different goals. um but would like to come to some sort
of consensus or you know be ready to vote on what we want our priorities to be um at least in this initial phase and then we can refine them as we go forward. Director Carbone. >> Yeah. Um Matt, I think one of the things
that's really important is the discussion that uh Superintendent Bowman had with us and that is to focus starting out with academics. Um, you know, last year, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there were a total of
five goals, uh, 22 23 goals. I I thought I saw five core goals. Um, 14, 15, 16 goals. I I I think that's too much to give as um as a directive, if you will.
I I think we need to look at the academic side, give Superintendent Bowman um five, six goals on the academic side, give or take, and try and get them to him by the middle of August
so that he can get back with his principles and anyone else in the administration that he needs to um cascade these down to so they can start creating initiatives to successfully complete them. I'd prefer to get to them faster than
that just as far as their priorities just because they are going to be moving forward with things pretty quickly here. Um or they're just going to do them on their own. So if we want to send some priorities their way. Um again, if anyone wants to highlight any ideas or priorities before we press any type of
vote, I would appreciate that. Director Anderson. Um, yeah, I'm not I guess I I expressed concern about um kind of our approach here. I know I shared that with you via email. Um, you know, even when uh Dr. McDonald sent
out the SCOP for SCOP the school improvement plan, thank you for sharing that. That was something I was interested in seeing. Um, really I feel like we've kind of our cadence is very off. So, I guess I share this for us for consideration for
future. you know, if the district principles are coming together in June or earlier than that um to make a plan for the upcoming school year in June and get their scops in place in June so that they can be
planning over the summer and launch in the fall. We have missed the boat by a long time at this point. And so I guess my concern is that we we haven't done a board evaluation. We haven't done a
superintendent evaluation. Um we haven't really put goals forward in a very timely manner. So that is one thing that I think we should be thinking about as we move forward is really how do we better plan in a way that the district leadership can execute more efficiently
in terms of passing goals tonight. I just um I I don't know. I wish we had done this differently. We haven't reviewed everything to really understand what the the I know what Superintendent Bowman is saying and I do appreciate
that, but I would rather we have a broader discussion about our priorities and have I actually really appreciated what um Director Baker shared out with the group. That is more how I see our um
the the broader goals, what the board's role is in that, what the superintendent's role in is that in what the superintendent's role is in that, how does that align with the strategic plan, which um all those things I think are really
important. So I would say as we're moving into fall there are a number of things that as a board we have to get together I think to be more effective in this process next year. Um one we have a new strategic plan to develop which
should be a big goal for us. Um, so I would say it's very difficult at this time to set we can we can focus on one category but to me if we just focus on academics and we're not thinking about the path to
you know how does the board support that from a financial perspective from a student support perspective from a how do we support our teachers and staff to retain them all of those kinds of things. So it's multi-layered to get to better academic outcomes.
>> Director Carbone. >> Uh yeah, please. Um I think there are probably three areas that we've been speaking about as a board um to the public since I think maybe February. Um the 90%
profic proficiency in um in math and reading and growth. Um data analytics and a data dashboard. um curric curriculum mapping and pacing so that all schools are are teaching the
same sort of uh subjects and and levels so everybody's getting the same education as close as possible no matter which middle school you're in, high school you're in or elementary school you're in. So, I I think I think at
least those three topics that we've been talking about turning into goals since February, I I'm not sure those are new to the discussion. And I I think that even last week, uh, three of them that
were sort of I don't know if I'd call them approved, but we were agreed upon were the 90% proficiency, the growth, and um the curriculum mapping and pacing. So, you know, two out of the three, the only
other one left that we've been talking about since February is the data analytics and the data dashboard, which I don't see really why we can't come up with something that creates a direction with some metrics. Um, I know that's
something that uh director Thompson has been um talking about for a long time too. So I think under academics at least those three areas uh since February could be turned into goals.
>> Director Cameron, >> it's up to you. Um I think where I'm at um is that and and this is no critique um Matt to
you or this process necessarily, but what is presented in the board packet is is the document we we worked off last week with some um edits of course, but it is a very elementary, in my opinion,
way to set board goals for a professional school district. Um, there are rants in here about like kids going to Starbucks, for example. I I just don't think this rises to the level
of a board packet document. Um, and I think that warrants discussion. I think it is a brainstorm list and that is how I'm approaching this. When we talked last week, yes, we started with one, two, three, but both you and and director Carbone made it clear that just
because we started with one, two, three wasn't we weren't going to automatically adopt one, two, three. That was said to me in that meeting. And so then to be presented this week with those are the three we're going to proceed with is totally blindsiding and misleading from
our conversation last week. I I don't disagree with some of these things. Um, in fact, I agree with some. I don't feel like number three we actually we kind of ended. We didn't really formalize the 1.2 factor because I think nobody knew what that meant in terms of
how you actually measure fast bridge scores. But I'm not interested in approving board goals, district goals that are not comprehensive. And I appreciate what Superintendent Bowman may have said to you all in a closed meeting. I think our
financial goals have to align in a way that supports our academic goals. I don't think they do at all with this document. Um, and I think it's irresponsible as a board not to have a conversation about we're asking we're really asking miracles to happen with with raising our test scores to 90% in
the next 5 years. I want all kids to succeed. There's no discussion of what will happen if we don't meet those goals. And those are questions that are being asked in our district. And so if there's no meat behind this, behind the goals or resources behind the goals, um,
which we haven't discussed, I just don't feel like there they mean much to anyone. >> Director Nicholson, >> there's a lot to unpack with that one, but I think it's at some point we have to set a general target. We have to say
that we want to get better. Okay, we had declining scores on all of our MCA stuff. I mean the MCAs are a badl looking metric for our district. So we need to say that has to turn around period. That has to go upwards not downwards another year. Um fastbridge I
mean if you look at just the uh the presentation we got from teaching and learning back in February. It showed 80% in kindergarten drops down every year all the way to 9th grade. That trend has to go the other direction. Um, at this point in time, we can't pass a levy in
time to impact 2025,26, even if you wanted to. So, I get that. I get where you're going about resourcing and trying to find money to do all this stuff and everything else, but we don't even know where our gaps are yet. We don't know if we can accomplish it or can't accomplish it. We have to turn it over to the
district. They have to start working on a plan. I would love it if they would take some of our highle goals and say, "Okay, this is what we want to accomplish. this is what it's going to take to get there. We can start putting these things in motion. This we can't get to yet and have them come back to us
and say exactly what it is they need to make it happen to make 90% happen or if that's just too lofty and just unattainable due to the population of everybody that's included in that number and certain population should be sorted out of it. I don't know how sped gets
factored in. I mean do we have >> third grade reading at you know for special ed? Are they supposed to read at a third grade level for special, you know, for is that equal? How do they get compared? Does that does MDE somehow weed that out for us? I don't know that answer, but they already set a goal at
90% in 5 years. So, they rolled out a goal without talking to us, without going through us. They've already done it now. So, I think we should lean into that and say, "You guys did it. Let's start working towards it. Now, what do
we need to do to get there? And until we know that, we can guess. We can say we need 25 more teachers. We need, you know, tons more money here, there, whatever else. >> You know, we haven't talked about augmenting anything with technology, AI, nothing. None of those
conversations have come up. So, we haven't looked at how we can improve our internal efficiencies with what we have before we start making up. And again, you're you're talking about fact-free planning. This is exactly the issue though is like going through it right now trying to say well we got to put all
this resourcing plan together we should consider all those things. Yeah. But they put a goal out for academics. Let's say let's agree that they set a great goal. Lofty but a great target.
Why shouldn't we try to see if we can start moving in that direction and then start building the list of priorities that we need to make it happen? Yeah, I support I mean I support the fact that we need to increase our performance and we need our kids to be
better prepared. I think what what I'm trying to say is that as a we're we're doing a good job of telling the district what their goals should be. I also want to know as a board and as a board member, how are we going to organize ourselves to support these goals? Maybe
it's through levies, maybe it's through other um initiatives or trainings, but I think we are a we're doing our best as a board. We are a very elementary board. Most of us haven't had robust training on how to run a board. And I think when
we look at how how achievable goals can be met, that's fine that Superintendent Bowman and has set this 90% goal. we can rally behind that. I'm ready. I'm prepared to have the conversation about what does our
district need to get there. Um, not having the board name the tactics because this this list that is here is a is a brainstorm. Half of them I would say are a brainstorm list of ideas and tactics for delivering education in our
district. That is not our expertise. Um, we can listen to the superintendent and others say we want to hit 90% for MCAs, for example, but then it's up to them, and I think you're saying this too, Brett, that how they want to get there
is up to them and asking us what support they need to get there >> 100%. And that's kind of my point. They already set that goal. >> But I am concerned. >> I'm leaning into it saying, "I like it." >> Yeah. But I am concerned that we are not talking about our financial goals simultaneously because we're talking
about increasing our fund balance which I I don't oppose that right in theor like all these things in isolation are wonderful but also I I feel like in order to have a an effective goal um goal approach these things have
to they're relational and unless we're willing to pass a goal package I'm not interested and ad hocing this and saying we're going to pass one and number three and maybe number seven without with with without an understanding of
how those support or don't support one another. >> How how are we going to make that up though? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Let me just I just want to address a couple things Amber with all due respect and I don't take offense to you calling elementary because I didn't
draft all these right. I asked the board to send me their proposed goals. They sent me the proposed goals. I put them together. Um, if you're not happy with the goals on this list and you don't want to approve them, you should have sent me more goals, right? I mean, is there a goal that you sent me that I did
not list? >> Well, can I respond to that? >> Yeah, I I'm happy with some of these goals. >> What I'm not happy with is >> what I'm not happy with is that we're just rant there are so many things on this list, right? And it was a great brainstorming exercise. I think we need
a facilitated approach to look at the whole picture to narrow these down into buckets so that we're not just saying okay one two three happened to been published first which is interesting I think and we're going to pass one two three
>> well we can we can complain about the process and not actually discuss the goals or we can discuss the goals I think two and three actually get to metrics which what we is what we want right there are other things that have more labeled initiatives which get into
like you said telling the district we want to see them do things. Um I will say some of the initiatives are more so to fill gaps that we see in the system. Um I mean I know I I know there's been statements that have been made to me like trust the district, right? Well I
don't think that's the board's purview necessarily, right? We're not a rubber stamp for the district. So if we see holes, we can address that and raise those. Um ask for opportunities and other things to be addressed. Um >> I think, you know, I don't I don't subscribe to the rubber stamp. I think
there are serious things to improve, right? >> But we can talk about language like all day long, but if we don't provide some sort of direction that we can measure and track, then then we're just spinning our wheels. >> So >> Director Thompson.
>> Yeah. So, so I I think as a u a stakeholder looking at our list of goals and a list of initiative list of goals that we want uh in the in the board packet or in the meeting packet, it it does it could come off where there are uh
randomly placed things from academics to finance to XYZ. And so I I I I am trying to get us all on board on if you are running a business, how do you know that your business is being successful? What is the health of
your business? Um if you're selling widgets for your business, I don't want to arbitrarily say we need to sell 10,000 widgets when we've only sold 500. And so when I think about the MCA metrics of trying to get to 90, there
may be some some reason that we can't get there because maybe our baseline is only at 67. And so I I think the first step we've got to get to is what do you want to know as a business owner to see if the state of your business or the
state of your schools are doing well? And so, Superintendent Bowman last week shared there were four categories of things that that you would want to um identify metrics to see if that's enough for you to tell you that your district
is doing well. And once we identify those metrics, then we have to establish the baseline and then decide, do we think that baseline can be better at the end of the school year? And if we adjust that baseline and now you form a target slashgoal
that really becomes the directive for the district to say this is what we want you to go after and they can come back and say we can get there we can't get there the resources that might be associated to that. Now, in this in this uh meeting packet, there are a bunch of
um there are a bunch of I would say initiatives, things that would contribute to improving those metrics. Uh and and I think those initiatives could be at the discretion of the district. Uh that's more of like how they get there. We as a board need to
say this is what I want you to get to and tell me what's the level of effort for you to get there. So, here's an example. One of the goals uh on that do on the the meeting board um is establishing a mentorship program. And so I would not
list that as a metric if I was running a business. I would list employee satisfaction per score. So let's say my employee satisfaction score is an 85. Part of part of the ways that we can improve that to get it to 95. Maybe the
past feedback that says I don't have good mentorship, I don't have good support. I would look to the district to say, okay, we want to implement a mentorship program because we feel that will move the needle of the employee satisfaction scores from 85 to 89%. And
so they would come back and say, here's the level of effort. Here's the money that we need. Here's the lever that we would pull to get there. But I think as a board we got to take a step back and ask ourselves first what metrics do you want to see within those four buckets that superintendent
Bowman suggested the uh academics finance HR and operations. Now I would add a fifth one called student engagement but that that's that's separately. Uh and and from there do we feel that those metrics within those four buckets make you feel comfortable
by knowing that score? Yes. My business is doing well. Yes, my my school is doing well. Now, I've got nine metrics within academics that I can propose and let's just go through them and say, do you like that metric? Will that metric make you feel comfortable that whatever
score that is helps you understand your school is doing well? So, so I'll pause here. I >> I assume I mean this all presupposes that we are approving uh initiative to establish a dashboard that shows all these metrics. Well, a dashboard should have been approved or should have been
established 10 years ago and here we are asking ourselves, how are we spending $300 million effectively? >> I move to approve a dashboard that displays all of our goals and tracking for the district services. >> I second that. We need to have something.
>> Yeah. [Music] >> Now, >> is not is not Superintendent Bowman working on that? Um, Tracy, I I thought when we had conver I'm sorry, I thought when we had conversations a couple months ago, whenever it was, I lose
track of time. Um, and we were talking about data analytics, um, I thought, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought you and Superintendent Bowman said you were going to start, you know, looking at data analytics, looking at putting a dashboard together,
etc., etc. and and Brian I know we when those discussions were going on we were asking for specific things for proficiency and you know yada yada so is is that not happening? Yeah, that's that's correct. We are um creating data
visualizations to start and some of the board members have come in to have a training to see those visualizations and understand the data that they're looking at and then we will um extend that. We are looking at a dashboard that would exactly what you're talking about as you
develop your goals. there'll be smaller snapshots of each metric that you're looking at that will be able to be seen on one um smaller dashboard rather than going into the full visualizations. >> Okay, that being said, I'm I'm glad
that's in motion, but I I'm sorry. >> I made it kind of ingest, but go ahead. Sorry. >> Oh, all right. I >> I was just pointing that >> there is >> we Well, are we having discussion about the motion? That's where we would be next because there's a motion and a second. We're discussing the motion,
aren't we? Or a point of clarification. Are we not doing that? >> Okay. And there any discussion? Yes. >> Is there any discussion on the motion being a first and a second? >> All right. Thank you, Tracy, for the for that answer. But that being said, um, one more comment and I'll yield the floor. That being said, the motion that
um, Matt and Brian just pushed forward, I do not think I I think that's a good idea. Even though this project is in motion, I think as a board we need to state this is what we officially want. I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> Any other discussion on the motion?
>> I guess one Yeah, I do have something else to say, but with within this discussion, I just Yeah, I'm wondering if that's redundant because I think we all have clarified that we do want the data dashboard and so if it's happening, then what are we doing? We're putting
>> I mean so maybe the >> I did kind of jokingly say it because it's on our list but uh >> but I mean maybe like maybe the point is that the board be clear about the metrics we want to be visualizing on the data dashboard. That would be a different
>> that's where the goal comes in. >> Literally what I said last week you guys >> well but >> I mean >> so the dashboard it's in progress it's on campus infinite and then there but there's a variety of different tabs that you can select. What I'm asking for is
one unified simple look and feel, one page or one tab or whatever you want to call it that tracks all of the key metrics that we think that are associated to academics, finance, HR and operations. What we as a board need to decide is within academics, what metric
do you want to see that makes you feel comfortable our school is doing well? So I'm going to give one example fast bridge data. All right. I want to see the number of I want to see a percentage of students that are at or above benchmark between grade three and
eight between and between reading and math. That is one metric that I would like to see. And if I saw that metric, I would be like, "Oh, here's where we are for reading and math with between grades three and eight." Now, once we get the baseline, whatever the score is, we should come back together as a group and
say, "Do we like that number? Do we think that number can be better? And if so, do we arbitrarily make a number up or do we ask the district to come back and say we think we can get that number from 75% to 80%. And then if we agree with that 80% within that one metric
that has now given the district the the directive of figure out how to get to 80%. Now that's one metric out of nine that I'd like to propose to be on that dashboard. I'll pause here because I have another one I'd like to share. I think director Anderson is owed a
minute. >> Oh, I if we're on a motion, my my uh comment is more general. Like I feel like if we're on an emotion in a second, the only thing I would say is I don't know that we're going to get to what we want on the metric tonight, unless we
spend two hours doing that and we have no goal finished. But so maybe a different discussion for what we want on the metric. I just do wonder if that needs to be a a that could be a broader goal to work with Tracy on that and
she's doing it. >> We just part of that is just communication about what we're expecting as a board. discussion on the motion if >> um I I do align with um Director
Thompson in I like the idea of setting clear metrics with our baseline with our goal um and maybe like a you know a like a really um I can't think of the words
right now but an immediate goal and a long-term goal. Maybe that's a good way to say it. I feel like there are district goals out there in other districts that look that way. I feel like it's very straightforward, clear, and it's very metrics and timebound. Um,
I'm I'm not as in favor to be honest with like narrative approach. Um I think there are a there are 20 or so metrics that could probably go on a document that um Brian you're talking about or you know some number that's measuring
all I want to measure all of those things simultaneously not just picking MCA or FastBridge or and I feel like that's the approach that I'm being led with this document and maybe I'm misunderstanding. Um so I support that. I think the other
thing I'll say with the dashboard is I'm less I'm less concerned about like a super attractive formatted dashboard that everyone in the world can come see, but I want to know the data that day or that week. Like it should all exist. I'm
concerned about like spending all this resources and staff time and making making this pretty because I've seen I've seen how much effort can go into that rather than just making sure we have the data. Um and I I don't support
the the number eight in the document how it's currently written about the data dashboard. So, if that's what we're approving, um, I don't approve that one. The sense that I don't think all of those stakeholders, so administrators, board, teachers, and parents should have access
to all of the same data at all of the levels. Um, so that's a conversation I would want to have if that if that's what we're looking at. >> I can I just say, >> yeah, I don't think it was to approve eight specifically. It was just a
general idea. I don't know that we've ever as a group given voice of approval of let's move forward with the data dashboard. >> But Director Nicholson, did you have something? >> Well, >> okay. So, that's a legitimate motion
that we we're now going with. >> Sounds like it. Let's do it. >> Okay. So, so we're talking about an actual data dashboard. We're not talking about what's on it yet. We're just all agreeing that >> yeah, we want to have that. Do we put a time stamp on it? like we want to start seeing like can it be done or do we need
to wait? >> I mean we we have a version of it right now technically. >> Okay. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. What do we want different? >> So include whatever the goals are that we're setting the measurable goals.
>> So since there's a motion on the table for that then I think if we're going to if we want to make changes an amendment to the motion might need to be done. >> Right. All right. So then I'll make an amendment to the motion. So let's let's go ahead and get this out there that the dashboard includes fastbridge data from
grade three through eight reading and math that shows the percentage of students at benchmark or above capturing both both fall, winter, and spring metrics. There's your first one. >> Is there a second?
>> I'll second that. >> You want to amend each individual point? Let's let's go through it. Like let's do something. >> Why at or above? Why not just all FastBridge data? >> Well, it's not because I don't need to see all of the data. What I want to see is how many students are at or above
benchmark. And then if it's 75% or 85%, then that's the number that we want to go after. We want to know how many students are at or above benchmark at grade level 3 through 8 for now. Now, we can set the targets later, but for now,
this report or this dashboard that tells me if our school district is doing well, do my kids in grades three 3 through 8, can they read? Do they know math? >> And I love that. I agree with that. I think that if we are going to go forward
and start putting down what metrics we want to track, and this is going to be back to I think what you guys are saying is hard to put a goal down right now. Okay. Well, can we all agree that these are the metrics we need to start building? And then when we come back and
look at this after they've built it and we establish a benchmark, then we're going to set goals for probably 26 27 is really what we're looking at. Then >> can I just clarify what we're doing? >> Are you disagree with what you're
saying? I just want to know are you going to make an amendment for everything you want on the dashboard right now? Yes, if that's what it takes to get this rolling or I can share all of the metrics and you guys blanket approve it or not. >> Well, I I want to be thoughtful about
just giving people time to consider. >> I mean, in the past when we talked about kind of no surprises at the table. Some people need time to consider or consult about how they want what they want on the dashboard. >> This first metric is on is on the the
goals list. So, it's not like it's a a new one. No, but that's why I'm trying to clarify. Are you going to go through every single thing that and make an amendment for every single thing you have on your dashboard? >> I will go through and do an amendment for all the ones that is on that goals
list and then I will uh tee up um the other ones as one big bulk package where you guys decide if it makes sense to add them or not. As an example, I want to know the course failure rate. I want to know gradu graduation rate and I want to know AP placement scores. How many
percentages are above three or greater? So those are just a few examples. But for the core, if I looked at a dashboard and that says what's your fastbridge reading metric for your grade through through eight, is is that metric enough right now to tell you? You may not need
GPA distribution. You may not care about uh let me rephrase it. Course failure rate may not be an option right now. But let's walk through this and get there. >> But I what I want to just say is that we got this document from you today. >> And so you in the past have talked about
the Brian Thompson plan. Yep. >> Right. >> Which is present. >> So let's do this. Here's let's do this. Let me present a metric and you tell me yes. I think that's good enough for me to know that actually tells me if my school is doing well or not. I mean it's not a complicated thing. But if we're if
we're thoroughly reviewing this in this moment, that's not giving this is we're reviewing what you think you you think should be on the metric and it's not giving everyone else an opportunity >> or what should be on the dashboard. It's not giving everybody else an opportunity to do the same. Let's ask these three.
>> Can I just ask a question? Um Carly, what's the detriment to having any metric that we have available that could measure, you know, improvements in student outcomes? What's the detriment to having that available on the dashboard? >> I'm only saying that if this is a goal that we're passing as like this is what
the board is saying we want the district to do. I don't mind us saying let's let's do something comprehensive with the dashboard and let's come back together and decide exactly what we want that to be. This right now is going through what Brian wants to be on the
dashboard which we just got his and it's not that I I haven't had time to review it. What I did was I took the goals document and I transferred it over into what's considered a metric, what's considered in an initiative. So for example, establishing a mentorship
program is an initiative. It's not a metric that I would look at a dashboard that tells me my school is doing well. >> It's a compliance issue also. >> Yes, it's a compliance issue. Another component could be update student management handbook. That's not a metric on a dashboard. It is an initiative. Now
what is an what is a metric would be ACT scores. It would be the average salary of an FTE uh at at our district. A metric could be staff satisfaction percentage score or employee satis um uh student satisfaction. Uh chronic
absenteeism rate could be a metric. So that's that's what I want to be want us to align on so that we can actually get get somewhere. But for for right now, we're focused on just the first bucket, which is academics, and let's just find
what metrics we think are comfortable to help us understand where we're at. That's all. >> I just think there could also be something like when we think about the culture of our schools and what we've seen with the with the safety stuff. >> But that's that's what I mean. That's a
something I'm thinking of in the moment and it hasn't given everyone an opportunity. we haven't had the opportunity to say what we would want to see as an indicator of how our school is improve or our district is improving >> and and part of this might be we don't know the indicator but we know what we
want. So as an example, I have the fifth category called student engagement, behavioral incident reports, bullying, P3, like we want to know what what what metrics should we be monitoring or or viewing so that we feel comfortable that
uh you know that that has a spotlight to it. Now again that that that's an area that I don't know what metric we should be capturing but I do want something to this extent of how do we understand the the incident the number of incidents has declined and so if we agree we want
something like that the district will have to come forward and say hey here's the metric we think you should that we think you should monitor but that's that's on the student engagement side we can't even get past academics like let's let's start there >> director Carbone yeah I I have never in
um being in business for decades in corporations seen a dashboard that is frozen in time forever. >> Yeah. What >> every day and and we're having a conversation like this dashboard will
never change. Nothing, no variable will ever be added or subtracted. And that's not the real world. That's not what happens. I do think and I'm going to come back to what Brian or Matt just said. We've got to start something and get something in motion somewhere
somehow. If we establish a dashboard tonight, because there is a motion on the table and Brian, if we take your nine things in in in a package and say we're okay with them, that doesn't mean in a month there won't be 12 things or
in a month there won't be seven things. So, I think we need to to not think this is frozen in time, but it's something that moves and es and flows. So, we've got to get started somewhere. And I'm going to go back to the motion. And I
don't think it's a bad motion. >> We're back at the amendment to the motion. Why don't you start with your Why don't you Can I just propose you start with the academic? >> Yeah, I I can metrics. >> Let me do the first three and see if there's alignment on the first three and then we can figure out the remaining.
So, so the first one was um seeing on the dashboard fast bridge data uh the the percentage of students that are at metrics or at at benchmark or above uh for reading and math grades three
through eight fall, winter, spring. That that's the first metric. The second metric would be on the dashboard. what is the MCA score or percentage whatever the score is that we get annually for grade three through 11 because then for
me that would help me understand if that correlates with the fastbridge percentage and then the third metric that I'd like to see is from the MCA um uh results that we get annually uh the number of benchmarks that each grade is
hitting. And so for example in reading in third grade there are about 20 benchmarks for that for reading in third grade. I want to know how many uh of those benchmarks are we at or above and so I want to count. So because when you
look at the MCA score percentage of 56% or 70% it doesn't get down to that weeds. I want to know how many benchmarks are we meeting and how much are we uh or exceeding. Now if I saw that and I saw you know you know 15 out
of 20 benchmarks are being met then I would like oh that's a 75% score that seems reasonable I don't know uh but when we come back together as a board and and and we review that benchmark score we could say no I don't want 15 I want 18 or something of that nature. So
those are the the core three in my mind that will get us started with how we are how we are how we are doing as a school district. >> All right. Is there a second to the amendment? >> Second. >> There's seconded by director Carbone.
Any discussion on the amendment? >> Director Cameron. >> First I want to like hear the amendment again because I feel like there's a lot of words. >> Yeah. So I think you need to restate it. >> Second before you say it. >> I'm sorry. Go ahead. And that is the reason is because
with fastbridge 2 there are subcategories. So you get a reading score or you get a math score but there are I mean I only know from my personal child's experience. So I don't an expert in this room should jump in probably with more detail but I know when I look at my
kindergarteners fastbridge score there are subs subcategories. So, if we're going to look at MCA subs, why wouldn't we look at the subs in all assessments? >> Yeah, I think that's for maybe if there was someone who's more knowledgeable of this topic could come forward and have a discussion or share their point of view,
but uh if if uh as I'm looking somewhere else, sorry. Well, um yes, I I think for me because of the fastbridge data from my understanding, uh they may have subc scores and and I don't I don't think I've gotten that that level of detail.
Uh but in grade three uh you can see of all the third graders um how many of them are are meeting Fast Bridg's benchmark? >> Yep. And so I don't know how many benchmarks there are, but a percentage
is where I think I landed on because we're getting that three times a year. And does that percentage increase throughout the course of the year? Now the hope is that as our students are meeting the fastbridge benchmark that
ought to translate maybe to improved MCA scores and but the MCA scores that we get is just a percentage uh at at the at the district level I believe and but the data might be available at the grade level.
Yes. And so uh but but the score might come at like 56% or or 65 or 70 or 16%. I I don't know whatever number it is. Uh I would like the more tactical um subcategory of of the benchmarks of the
MCAs because that's what we get tested on. We don't get tested on from the state of Minnesota on our FastBridge data. We get tested on what the benchmarks are at the MCA. And so I I I don't mind if you want to expand the FastBridge um benchmarks, but the
ultimate goal is to make sure that our students know what the state of Minnesota's benchmarks are and uh understanding the the list of benchmarks for for them is is the path that I'd like us to go.
>> George Cameron has another question about the dash. I feel like dashboards like become one of those like jargon kind of words, right? And it can mean a lot of different things to different people. I just want to know the data. I don't care how it looks if I can. So
what are what exactly are we talking about with a dashboard? I know I know Tracy what your team's working on, but are we asking for something different and who can access this information and at what level? That I think that is really important for me to be able to understand. If if this is
a board dashboard then I think the board should have access to it. We can have a iterative conversation later if we want to expand who has access to it. For now this is an executive dashboard where we see to see if our schools are doing well
>> at what grade level you're talking >> uh for the fast bridge data. Yeah. Grade level and >> like we're not going to student level. >> Oh no we don't. No, not at the student level. >> That's what our goals say. So I'm just we're going >> I apologize. Yeah, we don't we don't need to go down to the student level. Uh
and we don't even I I don't believe at this time for this iteration we need to go down to the classroom level. But I do want to know at at the grade level for third graders, how many of them are meeting benchmark or above? Director Anderson,
>> can I also just clarify that um because I think a lot of things when we talk about grade three through eight, a lot of things could impact how any one student is performing. >> Totally agree. >> So >> we at this point are not defining how we
would disagregate the data. >> Correct. >> We don't have to do that as part of this goal. >> We I don't think we need to. I I think we just want to know >> we want more so we can later define to Tracy others let's let's make sure we're separating out certain populations or certain groups to better understand how
we're doing in certain groups. >> Correct. And and I think that could be part of the how the district would go down that route. So for example, if grade three reading is at 65% and we as a district say we want that at 75%. Then I would look to the administration in
the district to say all right uh they would dissect the data further to various subgroups to say how and what can we do to elevate that number back to 85%. Or to get it to 85%. I don't think we need need that subgroup data. uh
because I don't need to tell you tell the district go teach these kids more or those kids less. I want to know can my third graders read at grade level and with proficiency and that's it. >> Yeah. I just I want to make sure that we're being thoughtful about how we're consuming the data too. >> Agreed.
>> Yes. >> Yep. So those are the core three out of nine that I'm going to suggest for academics. if we're in alignment. Uh do those metrics help you understand if your district is meeting reading and
math expectations and maybe science for the MCA but whatever. So >> all right >> for at least core two >> uh there's a first and a second if there's no further discussion. >> So you said fast bridge and MCA scores MCA scores and MCA benchmarks >> per grade.
>> Yes. >> All right. >> Yep. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. All right. Who's approved? >> And go ahead. >> Thank you, Brian. I just want to make
one comment to Tracy. And Tracy, I know you know this. Superintendent Bowman has has said this too, but it's okay if you come up with more things that will make this clearer for us as far as looking at students
achievements. So, I just wanted to say that publicly. >> This is Superintendent McDonald. >> Thank you. And thank you for that um comment, Vice Chair Cabone. I I would just add that um as part of the ongoing
discussion related to the dashboard um which of of course the intent is to be inclusive of of whatever goals the board determines that they would like to see. Um alongside of that I know that Superintendent Balman has talked um a a little bit around also the quarterly
business review. Um and so uh as we have been having those conversations, our intention is to build out data in the dashboard that would be representative of both of those things so that when we come to the board um three times a year
during the school year, um we would have a more comprehensive metrics package than just what the board goals represent. So, back to um what director Thompson was saying, when we internally really are assessing the health of our
system, we have our core goals like what you saw in the Scott plan, but then we have other metrics that we look at in a wide variety of areas that are disagregated um to really sort of try to get that comprehensive picture. So I just I I offer that to say that um yes,
we are in alignment in terms of we want to make sure that whatever the goals are decided upon by the board that those are part of that dashboard and are accessible um in a way that makes sense. And then as we continue to build that
out and we look at our quarterly business review and we come to you, we will have additional metrics that you may at some point want to adopt as a goal area, may not. It just depends. But um just so you have an awareness of that. Our our intent is really to
provide you with with more data than just what um what is representative as a goal because as stated, you can't h you can't make a goal in every single area. That doesn't mean we don't want to look at those areas when we're determining where we need to put in some effort or
some finances or whatever. So, >> uh, can I just knock I mean, so >> technically we didn't just approved >> a goal, right? Yeah. So, your amendments for the first three. >> Yeah. >> Do you want to keep going on four, five,
and six? >> Can can I? All right. Here's my next one. So, I'll do another group of three. And just we're clear, I mean, this isn't really, these aren't really goals. I mean, setting the >> These are metrics for me to know, do I think our school is doing well? And that's it. And then we'll come back and say, all right,
>> whatever the baseline number is as a board, do you want to improve it or not? >> Can you before you make an amendment, just rattle off the the remaining six? >> Yeah. So the remaining six that that I'd like to add in the academics section that I think again if you are looking at your business or looking at this would
these goals help you feel um uh comfortable with what you know how your school is doing. So the first one is GPA distribution. So what's the average GPA score for 9th grade 10th 11th and 12th? I don't know if whatever
number it's supposed to be. I don't know if it's a number that if if it's less than 2.0 zero. It does that does that that on average that that's not a great score, but that that's the first metric. The second metric would be course failure rate. I would like to know the
number of students or the number of students that have failed a course by quarter. I mean, and again, there's a lot of factors involved why a student has failed, but if I saw a number that drastically went to 500 for one particular quarter, I think that's now I
don't know if if we want to do a percentage, but I would like to know the number of courses that are failed each quarter within our district. The the third metric is graduation rate. I I like to know how many folks are graduating. Uh the fourth metric is
what's our average ACT score uh for those who end up taking it. Uh the fifth metric would be what's our AP placement score and so how many students are getting three or above and then the last one would be a curriculum audit result.
And so I know there are some conversations around having um some consistency around the curriculum. Whatever audit gets done, there has to be some sort of score that's associated with it. I would like to know if 80% is
a score that we get in regards to our curriculum audit. And if we do that annually, ideally, we'd want that number to be higher. And part of that curriculum audit might be uh more consistency or or um uh uh yeah, curriculum that's consistent across
across all the grades. So, those are the six that I'd like to add. And so if I looked at this dashboard, I've got academics, I've got GPA distribution, how many kids are failing classes, how many kids are graduating, what's my average ACT score, what's my AP uh
placement scores, and what is my curriculum audit score? So, those are the >> Is there a motion to amend? Are you making a motion? >> I make a motion to approve those six. >> I'll second it. >> Right. All right, just so I'm clear, the motion is to amend further amend the
initial motion to add um GPA distribution, course failure rate, graduation rate, average ACT score, AP placement score, curriculum, audit results um to the dashboard, the board's executive dashboard.
Any discussion? >> Director Cameron. um at kind of going to director Anderson's comment um earlier will like would I have the opportunity to come to to a future board meeting potentially with another list of six for
>> my point being I I don't I agree Brian with many of these things right I think there are probably hundreds of metrics that we could identify um across the district in lots of areas >> I know we just passed the the two that I
I think align with the two of the goals um that were highlighted in the document tonight. You know, I'm interested in like early childhood participation. Are we what percent of students are on track to graduate? Like to to Carly's point, I
would love the time to sit with this at least for a day to think what else could I add to your list that we might want to think about. Not that yours are wrong or bad, just I don't I haven't had the opportunity to digest what we're even passing. >> Director Carbone.
>> Yeah. Um Amber, I want to go back to a comment I made earlier because I I you know, the fact that um the dashboard isn't set in stone for forever. It is it's a it's a moving target. So to answer your question, yes, if you if if
two months from now you had four things that you thought were tremendous metrics that we should be looking at, yes, we would entertain that. >> I I appreciate that. And I'm cognizant of resources within the district. There are only x amount of things that we can
reasonably measure in a quality way, especially right away. And so are the six that have been proposed right now the ones? >> I don't think so. Are two of them? Yeah,
maybe. So it's just one board member's opinion. And again, I respect your opinion, Brian. I think you're you've been thoughtful about this, but I don't think it's comprehensive this conversation. Director Nicholson,
>> I think a lot of these are they're already tracking all this stuff if I'm not mistaken. So Brian's actually saying, "Let's put this on a single executive dashboard >> on academics. Let's say we're going to look at it. We're going to pay attention
to it and use it as a baseline for whenever we decide to come back. But we need to put it all out there so we can start kind of seeing it in aggregate." Um, I guess under that context I sure like why would we not like I guess I I
none of this is I mean if I if you got other things you'd propose. I mean I'm pretty sure Brian likes data. So um throw them out there. He might even say that was something better than he thought. >> Uh we will entertain any further amendments to add things right now if
you have ideas. Again, a lot of the stuff the data is there, right? And so we're just asking >> consolidate >> consolidate it, make it accessible. >> Director Anderson. >> Yeah. I just I um I think we just have to be thoughtful about because like you
said, Emily or Dr. McDonald, like bringing it to the board in a more comprehensive way at certain time periods. So some of this data is going to be collected in an ongoing basis. Some of it's more at certain time points. graduation rates we get updated every year but I agree it would be kind of nice to see and we do have we have
been presented that data what what's been happening to our graduation rates over past so or over time um so I think if we are open to this being flexible and adjustable and also how are we going to consume it in a way that is clear to
them how we're going to be or taking it analyzing it what's more regular updates what's more quarterly updates yearly updates, etc. >> That makes sense. >> There was a second. Yeah, I seconded it. >> Okay.
>> Any further discussion on the second amendment to the motion? >> So, these are all all these things are currently being tracked on the dashboard what Brian mentioned. Is that true? >> I don't I don't think that's what they said. No, sorry. The data is available, right?
>> We look at it at some point. >> Yeah, the data is available for hundreds of things. So my point is >> what do we prioritize in terms of our staff time? >> So right now we're focusing on just academics, >> right? >> Yeah. I the things I mentioned are also academics. So
>> I'm fine adding those on. >> But that my point is like we can come up and name things off the seat of my pants, but until I see all of I mean I know Brian, you sent the document. I too was working today,
right? Haven't had a time to look at it. I would love to look at it and come back next week and say these are great. Here's two more ideas to think about board. And I get what you're saying, Paul, about that this not is not static. I I don't think it's static at all. But
that also doesn't mean we just tack on metric after metric after metric after metric without int without intention. Director Nicholson, >> I think the only reason we'd look at more metrics though is if we don't feel
like we're getting a complete picture. And right now we don't have a baseline. We don't have it. You know, like we can't pull it up and say let's look at last year. Let's look at all these metrics right now for last year snapshot. How do we do we can't do it?
So the way I'm looking at this is this. This establishes the framework to work within, right? This gives us a dashboard. We think these are all important things that if we look at all of this and this is trending in the right direction again dashboard so at any point in time we should be able to pull it up see real time data that's
what it is and then we can sort of help the district progress and meet whatever we decide for the goal to be once we know what the benchmark is. But we haven't set the goal within any of these categories. We've just said these will
help us start to get a clear picture of student success at least on some level academically. And I'll be clear about that. Academically only. That's all we're looking at right now. >> Director Anderson. >> Director Cameron, how do you feel about just kind of a regular review of the
data we're collecting and how we feel that is working and would we add we subtract in terms of the data that is actually presented to the board. I think part of this is implementing a new process where we're taking in different kinds of information. Some over time we
might perceive to be very helpful. Some of it we might not perceive to be very helpful. Some it might be that the administration comes to us and says you you guys forgot about these five things. And so I don't know that we want to do that on a monthly basis. But like maybe in these quarterly reports it's like how
do we feel about the information that is coming to us and would we add or subtract anything? And I also think that if I think you and I have both expressed we haven't had much time to consume this and so in our next board meeting if we
felt we could wanted to add more things in the moment we could bring it up in the next board meeting. >> Any other discussion before we vote on the second amendment? All right. There being none, um there being a first and a second on the motion
to add to the original motion um these additional six items to the data dashboard. Um all those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. It is the amendment passes.
>> Can I make a motion? >> You can uh you can make an amendment to the motion because I think we're still on the motion. >> I can make an amendment to the motion. I'd like to add some more metrics >> um >> to to academics or to other >> Yeah, to academics. >> I mean, we haven't even defined what
that really means, right? So, that's a whole conversation, but >> um I want to know our early childhood programming involvement rate with entering kindergarteners. I would like to know
um in subgroups for MCA and FastBridge, what are our measurements? Um because we're already tracking that, right? So, we might as well look at subgroup data and make sure that we're supporting all groups evenly and equally. Um and I'd like to know if our
graduation rate is on target. >> I I apolog I I didn't hear this. >> No, graduation rate. >> The second one or >> the third one? graduation rate. Are we on target to what percent of students are on target to graduate based on credits?
>> So that so that would be data we could get within a school year to understand how that informs the end of the school year result. >> Yeah. >> And and really the second one you're just asking for full information on FastBridge and MCA to be available on the dashboard. Right. >> I'm asking for the data to be
disagregated by subgroups. >> I second that motion. any discussion on it? >> Can I get clarification on what do you mean by subgroups as in like diversity populations? So looking at EL, looking at um free and reduced lunch, looking at
um you know I mean there's a there's many subgroups in the MCA, right, that you can sort on the MCA page. So I want to make sure we're tracking that, not just um comprehensive. >> Yeah. Can I drop down?
>> Sure. Can I can I suggest um well not to suggest um is that something that that one would ask at a subsequent meeting if that is presented? Um because if you're if you're looking at the district as a whole and you see a metric
and a score is that is that going to make you feel not you but does that tell the story that your district's doing well? uh if we add additional metrics like the subgroups uh while you can we can get into the weeds is that really kind of like hey this number doesn't
look right we need to get we need a deep dive show me show me the next layer down um I don't know if we want to show all of those filtering options on the primary page of an executive dashboard that that that hesitation >> it shows it on the MCA page anyway so
why wouldn't we be straightforward and if and also yeah you sort by all these subgroups by group. >> When I go to the MCA page, I just see kind of like a a math recon. >> You can sort by 20 different subgroups. Agree. Or I don't know, some number. A lot. >> Yeah. If we're going to track I mean, if
we're going to track what the district goes on the esser requirements, too. You know, they do specifically address subgroups and making sure that no subgroup is below 85%. So, I mean, that's why I'd be supportive of that metric as well. >> Okay, that's fine. >> Any further discussion on that
amendment? All right. All in favor of adding early childhood and correct me if I'm misstating this, Amber, early childhood involvement rate entering kindergarten. Um, further MCA and FastBridge data desegregating the information by
subgroups. Um, and metrics on progress toward graduation meeting project meeting pro graduation requirements. >> I like that one because then you start to see the trend. If it goes down like or or up or down, >> right? >> All those in favor say I.
>> I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Is approved. >> Okay. Um, >> can we hold on a second? >> Let's Can we go >> Let's finish. Can we knock out
academics? um we've rolled this we've rolled around and we didn't approve it last week. Uh so I would move to um come into alignment with the district's goals that have already been distributed concerning MCA reading and math assessment goals
under the MCA's um consistent with the ESSA ESSA requirements. >> You want to adjust the time? >> Sorry. Do we have a motion? Is that so? I'm making the motion to come into alignment essentially number two on our
list that we discussed last week, but we never formally approved it. >> So, this is an amendment. >> This is another We have a motion on the table. >> Yeah. All right. Motion to approve the the data dashboard with the now 12 items is still on the table. Is there any
further discussion on that or are we ready to vote? Director Thompson, >> I I would like to add additional metrics for finance, HR, operations, but I'll pause if we want if there's consensus on the board to wrap up this category
first, but it's up to you guys. >> I would love to wrap up the category. >> Let's wrap up. Yeah, I agree. Let's wrap up this category. >> Okay. >> All right. Uh, all in favor of the motion. >> Can I just to clarify again because Brian answered the question, but
>> the data dashboard is for whom? the board. >> Only the board or the board. >> It's an executive. >> Only the board. >> Yep. >> Is that I'm looking to you? >> Yeah. I mean, it's We haven't given access to anybody. I mean, we don't even have access to all this information yet. So,
>> careful we're not >> Yeah. I think there would have to be a further vote of the board to release the information. >> Okay. >> So, which I'm not opposed to, but that that's not on the table right now. >> All right. Back to the original motion as three
times amended. All in favor of approving the um implementation of the data dashboard to include the 12 enumerated categories and metrics or information say I >> any opposed.
>> All right, it's approved. >> Now jumping back to goals. >> Um >> can we can we can we finish the rest of the dashboard? I mean there are some other metrics that I think we should capture and then we'll come back to the goals because >> sorry the I think it's important to know
the rest of the metrics on the dashboard so that we then have a holistic picture of what we view as a priority. While I agree there's a high probability that academics is going to be the the top three component but uh there there are
other metrics that I I think there's value in in in obtain obtaining as well as reviewing as a board. >> I mean I'm not opposed to it but I' I'd like to knock off a category if we can tonight. I I would well the challenge
that I have is that what there are we have yet to receive the baseline score of those nine academic metrics and while I uh while I don't have any issues approving uh what you want to say within with the
90% because it's it's a state mandating or a state law anyways but it would be good to know okay is that reasonable at the end of this year uh because I I would like to Where are we today with all the other metrics first? >> But but
>> that isn't the >> it's not 90%. It's coming in alignment with the district's goals that they've already distributed which would be over the next five years >> that's required. >> No I I district I haven't seen their metrics yet because their metrics may not be may not be um uh high enough from
what I feel we ought to be >> now with with my lens. >> What do you mean? So if if the MCA so if the fast bridge data is grade three is 75 and let's say their their metric is 70 76 I'm like no I I don't want one
extra point like let's go higher and so without >> growth target >> but without seeing their targets >> so what you're saying is next we need to now get copies of the Scott plans for every building >> I wanted to see where our current
baseline is >> break it up by grade Let me ask it differently then, Brian. Are you are you going to come up with numbers that are different than what the district has already distributed? >> Uh, but if they come back with a number of like 0.5 or a one, is that is that enough? I mean, we have an opportunity to set the stages here. We here's where
we want you to go. >> Well, they're already going to 90. They're just showing interim steps to get to 90. >> To get to 90. >> Yeah. So 90 is the end goal >> by 2030, but they they've broken it down by school to based on where the baseline is at the school and interim steps to
get to 90. >> So you want them to share that data, >> which was they would >> that was established with that essence didn't come out of thin air. This was >> all I'm asking is us to come into alignment with the district and what
they're pushing. And I and all I'm asking is that is that alignment the level that we want to expect as a board or do we think it can be better? >> Well, because everyone if you're creating your own metric for yourself, you're not going to give yourself a stretch goal. No one does that.
>> It's 90%. It is a stretch goal. >> Well, I I know it's 90% but you're not going to get there overnight. So, >> what is the stretch goal for year one? >> It it depends at each school. It's different at each school level, >> but with the goal of getting to 90. I understand, excuse me, I understand what
Brian's saying. If you if you set your own goal, you're going to set a goal that's very achievable as opposed to somebody setting a goal for you. >> I'm sorry, but I'm I'm understanding what Brian said. You set your own goal, you're going to set something that's
very achievable and maybe not another 10% of what you could have done as opposed to someone else setting the goal for you. I I understand what you're saying. Yeah. Director Cameron and then >> thanks. One way I'm thinking about this
to to like align all of our conversations perhaps and also align with our strategic plan as it currently exists is we have those fi we have five current district goals as articulated by the strategic plan.
Right? One is improve teaching and learning to increase student achievement. The next one is improve systems of support to better meet academic, behavioral, and social emotional needs of our students. And then it goes there's three other, right? And some relate more to Brian to what you're saying about finances and HR
stuff, right? I'm wondering like could those be the category and then these metrics that we just identified with the dashboard ex be exist under right be like underneath these broader goals and
in that for example like the MCA one that we're talking about we say in the by 2030 90%. That's a fiveyear goal, right? But then between now and then, there are there are smaller increments to get us up to
that 90%. Like I feel like that's how my brain wants to organize this to say like we already we already have district goals. So we either we're adding more or we're or we're supporting the ones that we have. And I think we are. But
that would be my suggestion like map these metrics with targets to our goals. >> Well, I just want to correct something. So technically the goals and I spoke with um Director Baker about this. The 2022 to 2023 goals were just for that year um
according to Director Baker and maybe you guys can correct me if I'm wrong. Um, but yeah, I I mean I think everything that we, as you said, everything on this list falls under one of those one of those goals, right? So the goals we have on our website are not
they're not the like so normally when you do a strategic plan, you have goals, right, that are part of the plan. Are we saying that's not true? >> We haven't updated it since >> they haven't been updated, >> but we're not we're not due for an update until this fall. >> We'll update those annually. But it says,
>> but those goals don't have any metrics associated like how do you know you're doing >> that's what I want to do Brian that's I want to map these metrics with targets to the goals >> and I think we >> so so what I'm hearing is >> hold on second hold on I I I think what what you're I think 100% alignment with
kind of what you're saying that our goals once we kind of establish them will map to all of these types of broad statements but we haven't put anything in terms of specific targets it's time bound, you know, anything that's going
to make it measurable so that we can actually say we achieved improving tier one instruction. Like we haven't done any of that yet. We're we're saying these are metrics we want to look at and one we don't have the baseline. Um two, we haven't actually set a goal for
anything. The question that I think Matt was bringing up about getting us in alignment with the district's goals was that the district already rolled them out to the buildings. So, kind of two separate things here. They already kind of took a step and said, "Here's your
baseline. Here's where you guys were. We want you to make a two-point impre improvement or whatever." And I get you're saying you don't know if that's stretch or not or is that reasonable or too easy or whatever. But I will say if they made a goal to make improvements at every
building and they already rolled that out and we don't have a baseline anyway at this point in time, that's where I agree with getting on board with what they've done and saying we support it and help figure out what are our gaps
now for them to make this improvement over the course of 2526. And if they miss it, then we can start to look at root cause analysis. Why? what did we miss? Was it, you know, we didn't have the resources? We didn't have this or we didn't have X, Y, or Z or whatever. And
we can say this building made it, this building didn't. What's the difference? But until we actually have some kind of a baseline to go off of, I mean, we're shooting in the dark. I mean, it it's >> we do have >> So, that's what I like about aligning with what where they're at.
>> But don't we have the baseline? At least for the MCA goal, we know exactly how every school is performing. Yeah, but we don't we don't know our baseline for all the other metrics that we just agreed to. >> Okay, >> Dr. Anderson. Well, so that's I agree that I think a lot of these I've been a little bit confused this whole time
about what the board goals and the superintendent goals and the district like I think I feel like generally the district has or district administration has been in charge of working with buildings to create those goals to move
toward the broader targets that are more established by the board. And so that's led to me me to be a little confused about all this. And I do think all of these things should align. The board goals, the superintendent goals, the district goals should all align with our strategic plan. And so perhaps one of
the goals for our board is that we are moving into more metricbased analysis of how the broader goals are like that's that's a goal that we don't feel like we have been getting comprehensive data
presented to us. We don't maybe data has been pres presented to us but we're wanting it presented in a different format like that's part of this is moving toward a metricbased analysis that we're then telling the
superintendent like then that leads to a superintendent goal of how he can fulfill that direction. Um, so that's just one example, but I agree a lot of the nitty-gritty has already been launched. And this is
what I mean of like we kind of missed the boat here. And so how do we get consistent with the district about where we're going and make sure we're asking for the metrics we need to analyze and be and feel like they're moving in the
right direction or we as a district are moving in the right direction. I I sorry to I I do think part of goal setting is not necessarily to mesh into what's occurring because it appears that
what's occurring isn't as successful as it could be. So I think what we need to do as a board is to create goals that create directions that hopefully increase >> that's the metric >> student
>> achievement. what these are. >> And and I and I think that's >> and and when we're establishing goals here for metrics and and dashboards and and we're talking about hitting 90% by 2030.
Carly, it it's true these goals come down to the superintendent and then they cascade down into the into the schools, i.e. the principles who are coming up with how do I do this? how do I get to that number? And that's their job.
That's what they get paid for. So, go ahead, Brian. >> I don't think we disagree. >> Go ahead. >> Yeah. >> I I think instead of and I agree. I don't want to like um work on language, right? And like what words sound best. I feel like
what I've heard from many of the board members and I feel similarly is I want to create a target. We want to create a target of N% MCA. Done. We want to create a target of whatever the pass I don't know what the number is for fastbridge. Someone have to tell me that
like right but that goes the baseline question but also how what is the correct metric we name? That's how I want to think about this. Like I don't need to have a beautiful sentence. I just think you go we want 80% of our entering kindergarteners to have early
childhood. We want you know whatever it is. And so I would love to see that. And I think that's a format you've proposed before, Brian. I think that resonates. Um, and I think we can call it like under this category of academic excellence or
whatever, but like are people opposed just to naming targets for and I'm not saying we can go through all of them right now because we may not know for but like I'm I'm comfortable with the 90% to align with the district. I just think I I think
creating this more in an Excel document format where we have the line item with the with the baseline, the target, and the five-year goal would be like amazing. >> That's what I want. >> And I think it's I think that'd be way more straightforward than a written document in my opinion.
>> And and I don't think anybody's saying that's not appropriate. I think what we're saying is that every goal needs a metric. Every goal needs a deadline. Every >> That's exactly what I just said. Well, well, that's what we've been saying for months. >> Yeah. >> Ever since we started the data analytics
discussions, >> I guess I've proposed a very similar system to what Tom Director Thompson has proposed with exactly what you're saying, Paul. And it hasn't been people haven't wanted to take that. So, I'm like confused. >> I'm just what you're saying. What you're
saying is exactly what what what this executive dashboard or executive report ought to be. It should be the metric. It should be a baseline. It should be your 25 26 target. And then what what might be a three or a fiveyear, you know, future state target. And then maybe you
add another column that says what strategic pillar does this align to which could be one of those four core whatever thing whatever's on our strategic dashboard so that we know that it's align it's aligned to that. Um so that that we're 100% online. I think uh
we're just different definitions and different wording but that's that's what we want to get to. Show me the metrics. Show me the baseline. Show me what we're going to do this year. What is the long-term target? And what pillar or core value does it belong to? But that to answer your to to respond to your
question, I'm fine if the district has already created their goals or let me rephrase has already created their targets for the year. I don't mind having them listed as our targets for this year because I'm assuming those targets already have a baseline that
they're using to get to those targets. Uh, but I would like to do a quick spot check to say, "Hey, I think we can do better." And and again, I'm not going to have any credibility to say you need to increase this three more percent. But it would be interesting to know if we're
really if the goal is to increase our a particular metric by like I don't know like 3% or like we're I'm just making it like half a percent. I I don't know. I just feel like >> none of the goals are at half. I feel like in previous meetings we've had conversations about QC comp and and then the the metrics for Q comp is is not as
um of a stretch to to obtain then because they're setting their own goals now again you've got district leadership sharing this is the goal that we want before so I'm I'm I'm in alignment to adopt them but then as a board we should have the right to adjust them.
>> Okay. I have to comment. I feel like we should not be talking about Q comp in the way, you know, like teachers should be setting goals that are reasonable, attainable, good. I don't I think the
way we're talk or what you just said suggests that they're not creating good goals. I have something else to say, but that caught me a little bit like our teachers are working their butts off and of course they want to get better and so I want to be really careful while we kind of talk about that if that makes
sense. Um, but I also just want to say um, you know, I don't I don't think any one of us at this table doesn't want to see more data and doesn't agree with the data dashboard. I think the where we have struggled to kind of come in alignment here is when we talk about
putting resources toward this that then create challenges for other priorities in the district. So if we're not if what we're saying is this is all data that's attainable and it's um something that um
Tracy and her team can put together and we don't have to add positions. That's never been a problem, I don't think, with anybody at this table. I think when we were talking about adding positions that then take away possibilities for other things like that's right. I I want
to just be careful how we talk about everybody has been in favor of getting more data. It's just kind of the path to that which we have needed this conversation and to clarify that we're not putting more money toward this at this point. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. I think that's where the disagreement about the dashboards was.
When we're creating positions, that takes away from other things. >> I want to speak on that. I believe the district brought a resource on already to do that work. And so I'm assuming that resource would be readily available
to say this is the priority list from the board. Go get these metrics, bring it back to the board, let us review it and and go from there. Okay. All right. I think >> can we go into one one point? Let's just
get a point of consensus here so we can bury this thing once and for all. Please move to agree that our goal for the MCAs by 2030 is in alignment with the districts that they recently distributed and we can
check the numbers later but to hit 90% you know with inim interim assessment evaluations every year. >> Is that the motion? >> That is the motion. >> I'll second it. >> All right. There's a second. Any discussion?
How soon can we have this like at least this iterative draft? Um are we looking at two months? Are we looking at one month? Like how >> probably a day because I think it's already been distributed. >> Yeah. So this whole academic list of nine metrics that we are wanting plus the baseline.
>> Hold on. Hold on. I'm talking about the the ESSA goals >> for the pending motion. >> For the pending. Got it. >> Any other discussion on the pending motion? If there is none, >> I I I do have I have one more. I mean, I
know it's the district's goals, but I don't have anything to see. Uh I don't have anything that I'm I'm just arbitrarily approving. Yes. Go out go after this >> 90% in five years. >> Can we do 95% in three years, in four years? I mean, what's the level of
effort to get there? Because, you know, 5 years from now, you've got, hey, we've got a thousand kids graduating every year. You've now missed out on 5,000 kids. But we've been taking a a percent the wrong way for a while. So if they're going to put the horsepower into going
positive, even if it's 3%, I'm happy. I want to see I want the number to bump back up, not >> yet to come forward saying we need these resources to get to this extra 3%. If we can say, all right, if they come back and say I can do it in three years, but I need this level of investment, isn't
that something we should consider? >> There's a first and a second. Any more discussion on the motion? I think oh yeah sorry >> director Cameron >> if we move forward with this 90 we would be the highest performing district in the state no other no other school district is anywhere near 90%.
touchdown. >> I think that's touchdown and I think it's a moment of reflection when Oro Minnetonka are not hitting anywhere near these numbers. This is going to be a huge effort and that's where I'm okay passing this goal if this
is what the superintendent is asking. However, I want to resource this because I know we can't do this the way we're currently resourced. um it will and we only have finite resources, right? So, in order to
accomplish 90%, >> we need as a board to be ready to support whatever is asked to get to that number. So, I just want to put that out there. >> Yeah. I I don't think anybody has said we wouldn't do everything we could to help. I mean, I I think we need to be
really clear about that >> other than rob a bank. Any other discussion on the motion? All right. Uh, all in favor, there being a first and a second, all in favor of aligning our district goals set by the
board with the ESSA goals and interim steps that have been set by the district say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right, it's approved. Can we add finance metrics? I only have three. >> I would have one to add there.
>> Awesome. >> Go ahead. >> Can I I would like some time to think about that, especially in light of what I just said. I think I would like to be thoughtful on how our board, how the district finances can be designed in a
way to support the 90% goals. I don't have enough information from the school district to do that. And maybe that is the goal that we put the resources where the district says we need them. I mean, but I don't think we build our reserves
and not talk about how we're going to also allocate resources. >> Yeah. I'm not I don't want to put a mo uh put a motion in to say those reserves need to be at a certain number. What I would like to put a motion is to say I want to capture the percent of our
unassigned fund balance on the executive dashboard. I want to put the number of students that we have on the executive dashboard. And so when we get that dashboard and those baselines, we will have further conversation on if we want to increase that and how does that
increase then impact the existing allocation of resources and funding that we have. But for now, we don't have anything else that says how we're doing as a as a school, how we're doing as a business other than those nine academic metrics right now. That's that's where
I'm at. >> I guess I would like to push back a little bit. I mean, we know that the fund balance is growing, right? So, we we get this quarterly update, if not monthly, on how our budget is doing. So, it's not like we have no clue how we're doing financially.
>> Yeah. And technically we have a we have a board policy. I mean that says we're shooting for 10. >> Um I think we're at 7.3 or something like that, >> right? But if you didn't know the board policy, >> the next board that comes in or the next
board member that comes in again, how do they see that the school district is doing well? They're not going to go ask the finance guy because they may not know what's our unassigned fund balance at. I mean, so again, how do we create a a an executive dashboard so that anyone
can come in and say, "You guys are doing well. Your fund balance looks healthy. Your academic scores look great. Your HR staff satisfaction survey seems to be top-notch at 92%." Like that's the that's the mindset we've got to think about because if you're the board,
that's your job. Like that's how we govern if our business or our organization is doing well. And so I'm I'm great. It's great that we got the first nine academic metrics done, but finance, HR, operations, and student
engagement are the next bulk of things to consider. But I'll I'll pause here if there's if there's a desire from the board that we use the next board session to add finance and HR and operations. >> Are we point of clarification? Are we
still in academics? >> There's passed. >> There's no no pending. There's no pending motion. So, we're done with that motion. >> All right. >> For the MCA, >> but were there other academic goals that we were looking at? >> No, we added some we got Amber's >> and everybody's everybody's good with
>> we added the metrics. So, we added the metrics. There's no added specific to those metrics. >> I would like to make goals based on the baseline metrics. I just don't think we like can we expect that next month the ne month after
>> we should do that at our next board meeting if the dashboard's available because I think the faster we get that dashboard and that baseline the faster we can then decide where do we want these targets to be and that becomes the goal for 2526 >> but I at this point we do not know how long it
will take to get this dashboard fully developed and so that is I know like oh my god but this this is where I'm a little confused about like what is our plan for tonight? I feel like it's a little bit of a too big of a plan to say we're going to approve all this and
we're going to make any decisions on board goals, which I still agree with Amber that we haven't I we haven't fully reviewed everything to kind of and we can establish the goals, but so if we if we
ground the go so perhaps a plan would be to establish tonight what's going to be on the dashboard at a preliminary ary plan for that that we can edit and then come back after we
have gotten the data which we'll um put to the team to see how long and then come back and center our targets around that and that would be our goals but >> so so point of clarification again >> yes >> are we now and I'm sorry I'm I'm trying
to track this are we now talking about finance did we just move to finance >> decided that and Brian >> I I am in alignment with director Anderson's u approach where let's focus on what do you want on your executive report
>> and then we'll come back and establish goals and there will be instances where there will be initiatives that are not part of goals as an example plan for seventh period in high school that's not a metric that is an is that is a that is
an initiative right uh the middle school wheel model is it effective that is an initiative that is a that's not a metric so I would like us to go through the four buckets of work or work streams the
the academics the finance HR operations so that we as a board feel comfortable that we have some sort of draft right now so that we can move forward ahead >> what about a metric we don't have >> that that's what I was going to say >> so for instance um and I know this has
come at board meetings before MCAs and Fastbridge MCA specifically is very much a lagging indicator. I mean, by the time you get the MCA results, I mean, it's what, August, and they take the test in May, you know? Um, so it's not like
they're actionable, right? FastBridge is better, but it's not I mean, it's three times a year. It's not every grade. Um, and this I think this would be more of an initiative. I think some of the data is there, and I I discussed this with um
Emily a little bit um at least at the elementary level, like how are the kids doing? How are our students doing on the curriculum that we're teaching them? Like we don't have that data available because think about fast bridge and MCA.
MCAs are not aligned completely with our curriculum. I mean they're just not we can see that through the MCA data and the benchmarks that we're missing across the board. Um so if we're trying to show or establish like okay how well are our students performing but we're not really
tracking how they're doing on the curriculum. Well, I mean there's a consistency of curriculum question, too. You know, I think we're missing out on the truly actionable data. >> There is the I mean, you do get on the elementary report card things like whether they're
meeting benchmarks or below benchmark. What is the various meet >> on fast you mean? >> No, on like a you know like elementary they get report cards that are teacher ratings of how they're doing. That could be something we can monitor.
>> Elementary is something where that data is available. I'm not so sure about secondary. >> That'd be more GPA, which we're >> Yeah. or performance, you know, a common assessment, for instance, if if curriculum is consistent across the grade levels, we could have common
assessments that we're pulling out of that curriculum to show how the students are performing. I mean, for instance, we have math is the number one failed class um in middle school and high school. It's like, well, why? Right? We can't really tell by looking at the fast bridge and MCA data right now or even
tracking those students in order to do interventions. >> You have a course failure rate now. >> What's that? >> You have a course failure rate in your academic dashboard right now or that you just approved. So, that could get you that number or what class and what courses. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Director Cameron.
>> Um, I'm wondering, Emily, and you you may not be the right person, so just say that if you're not. I'm wondering if there's any work happening in MTSS that might inform kind of what you're asking for Matt. I know um that that it could
be designed in a way and I feel like I've had discussions with Nicole Adams about this where you're tracking students who are um having a rough time um for intervention support. So would that could that correlate with what you're asking, Matt?
>> Yeah, I mean definitely. Sorry, you can go ahead and I'll jump in. >> Yeah, I think we've had a lot of conversations as we've moved the MTSS work forward over the past year um around
h how do we track specifically so it's a as you know very different environment in the elementary than in the secondary. at the elementary we have standardsbased grading. Um as um director Anderson said you can see based on standard how students are performing. Um we're doing
some focus around that this year to clean some of that up and improve our reporting structures around that. We don't have those mechanisms at the high school. So we'd really um have to figure out at what is it that we want to build? what what kind of data do we want to be
able to access and then how do we build those systems and then what do we have currently that we could look at while we're doing that um so that we have some sort of mechanism and we can look at things like somebody mentioned um like course failures or or are they on track
to for graduation those types of things would inform that a little bit um but I think that we there's definitely more work to do to get to the level of specificity we I think we need and we want in order to >> create and implement the proper
intervention structure. So, it's a yes and >> yeah, I feel like in my discussions with Nicole Adams about this too, like I don't know if and this goes back to your comment, Carly, if we have the staffing at the high school level and maybe
middle, but for sure high school who is able to track robust data. So like I know there are some high schools in our conference who if a kid miss is misses two two classes in a week so not not the day but a class they're getting flagged
for intervention. We don't and but they have a 1.0 working on this for their high school for example and we just don't have that kind of resource right. So, I'm wondering like if we had better data support, could we could we could we
catch challenging situations earlier rather than waiting for a pass or a failing grade right at the end of a course? >> Brett, do you have a question? Well, to your point on common assessment across the board, if our curriculum's
consistent, and we have similar quizzes, similar tests being taken, you know, at least K through five, I mean, that information ends up Well, I don't know if K through five. Do you see test scores for the kids?
>> Do you? >> I see the report card, but I'm trying to think of like I'm I'm trying to remember that. No, not not that. I'm talking like like if they if we took a math test in class, right? I mean, that information ends up in schooly or I forget what we
use. >> They get like a meets or they get like a meets or exceeds or they don't get a grade or anything. They get a letter in in the elementary, >> right? But in terms of tracking like whether or not they're meeting expectation periodically throughout the
year, if that's in a digital system, don't we have some of that that we just need to figure out how to visualize a little bit better? I mean, that's it. If again, if curriculum is consistent and everybody's getting a similar quiz, a similar test at the same grade for
whatever subject, I mean, we just need to get that information. >> Yeah. And I think >> but I think that's what Fastbridge does. That gives you >> FBR is a universal screener. It's not the same >> screener. And Emily, correct me if I'm wrong. I mean, because we I have two middle schoolers and I can see their
quiz scores. Um the challenge is if if all teachers across seventh grade or eighth grade are not using the same, you know, formative assessments, then the data is going to be hard to interpret and compare to one another. Correct. >> Yes, that's correct. if there it's hard
to compare if they're not um being assessed on the on a similar assessment. Um we do however that said that what you're talking about is really we're talking about down to the teacher classroom course level and that's the work that
that is and should be occurring in the PLC's. So like for example when I was teaching and my colleague and I who taught the same course we would give the same assessment and then when we'd have our PLC time we'd look at that and say I
would say wow your kids did really really well on in this particular area mine maybe didn't or vice versa. And then we would talk about strategies and share ideas and what kind of what do we need to retach? Did did most kids get it? Is it just a few kids? So that's
really sort of the daytoday work that the teachers are doing in the classroom at all levels. It's just it's documented a little bit differently. So when we're talking about getting to that level, we're talking about literally
going into every single teacher's grade book and looking at every single assessment that we say, okay, if these are the common assessments, we're we would be pulling that data. And somehow we're not set up to do that, I guess, is the is the point. We'd have to figure
out what is it that we want to accomplish. What what's the what what do we want to glean from the data and then what's the best data to be able to answer the questions we want to answer? >> Matt, what are you trying to what are you trying to solve or what are you trying to what do you want to know?
>> Yeah, let me petition you guys for this and and I don't have it worded as a goal, you know, specifically. I want to be able to show how our students are doing, right? I don't think MCAs and FastBridge are necessarily a great representation on how they're doing based on what the teachers are teaching them because it assumes complete
alignment, you know, with the state standards and those tests. Um, if we can see more in live fashion how our students are doing on the curriculum that we're teaching them, uh, we can better track interventions. Um, we talk about wanting to go back to the to the
public and ask for more funding on levies. I mean, what better of an opportunity if you can say, "Hey, we've used this resource in these instances and it's allowed kids to improve their performance by x percentage." >> Does does GPA dist does does the GPA
distribution and course failure rate get you to that metric >> or to get you that to that answer? >> Not if the data not if the baseline data is not consistent, right? Not if the assessments that you're using because again, it may be in elementary school, right? But secondary where the the
courses are different you know they might be using different resources or curriculum alto together um then how do you compare it right so if there's no common you know standardsbased assessment at the grade level or at the classroom level I mean there there's also other benefits too because it it
helps us allocate resources and it sounds like we're doing this at the PLC >> level already you know amongst classrooms maybe one teacher is just crushing it right and has amazing test scores Well, let's replicate what she's doing, you know, across the grade level, right?
Or across buildings. You know, if she has a special way of teaching something, why wouldn't we want to replicate it? You can only do that though if you have consistency in curriculum and pacing is similar. Um, but yeah, again, it's getting down to, you know, a lot of the detail of the
data. But again, I think if we're going to be going back to, you know, our stakeholders asking for more money, which I think people are proposing, we've got to prove that we deserve it and that we're going to use it to actually improve academic outcomes.
And I if we have the data, you know, we can justify it. >> This might be a longer discussion, but just >> I mean, I I appreciate what you're saying. I think I would be interested in learning from district staff how that
might look different than FastBridge because and and I I hear what you said about Fastbridge, but and this is a very anecdotal thing and I realize that, but from my family's experience, um
I know that intervention was identified immediately with FastBridge and then intervention happened and and um regular like every other day assessments happened to assess if the intervention
was working right and then fast bridges use again next time to see if we're on track. So I do feel like that's a great tool that our district is using. Um whether or not we need additional I don't I don't know but
I've seen that work really well. Mhm. >> So, Matt, what I what I think I'm hearing you say is curriculum consistency across the grade, curriculum mapping, whatever you want to
phrase it, pacing, so people are staying pretty close to the same speed in in learning the different sub the different subject matter. And then the third thing I think I'm hearing you mention is is
there a way to get more of a a a finger on the pulse so that we can learn if it's it's dipping or level or going up as opposed to waiting until the end of the year or quarter or whatever when
it's it's already done and we've lost we've lost this amount of time. I I think that's what you're asking for. And are you asking that that's wrapped into a goal? >> Yeah, it's just articulating it. I'm I'm not exactly sure what our capabilities are right now. Um again, it's different
at the elementary level than I think at the secondary. Um >> maybe it's a metric. Maybe it's a metric that's specifically reading and specifically math. So, forget about all the other classes for a moment. like if if you are looking for
how students are doing in their current curriculum for of reading uh and maybe GPA then is an is an appropriate metric for sixth grade through through 12 because then I'm assuming obviously there's some honors classes and and some
that take AP classes that get an extra 1.2 two weighted GPA, but it's it's one of those where you could do reading, math, a GPA score from grades 6 through 12. Yeah, I I would say also, you know, having that classroom level
data will help us assess, as Michael would say, the fidelity of our curriculum as well, because if our kids are doing great on the curriculum and then not doing so hot on the MCAs and the fast bridge, >> I mean, that would be an indication that, hey, maybe they're not in
alignment or maybe it's not rigorous enough because they could be acing their class. Yep. But maybe it's just a >> unusually easy class and not aligned with >> that data is in campus infinite. I mean I get reports every time a homework assignment is completed for for my son. And so it's one of those where at the
end of every month you can see what's the average GPA in reading for south and north and all the other various grades. And you you'll be able to differentiate what's which building has a higher GPA than everybody else
because the homework assignments that that that they are turning in are either getting 90s or 100. But then you see their fast bridge and MCA data that might be skewed or not not in par with their GPA that they're getting. I I don't want to know how many classes how
many homework assignments are being completed, but to get to where you're where you're getting to, that might be the the path. I don't know. You're looking at kind of a leading indicator though. So we're talking about MCA being a significant lagging indicator. FastBridge being being, you know, three
times a year is kind of a lagging indicator. And then you need a leading indicator being how are we doing daytoday, which again drives to the classroom level metric that you're kind of talking about, but you're you're
trying to figure out are we on pace. So again, I don't I don't know what that metric should be or how we should build that or who should build it, but I think that's what you're asking for. >> Dr. Anderson, >> I do agree with trying to understand how students are doing as they go along
because if we get to the the metrics that are more test based um that are quarterly or end of year, it's it feels too late sometimes. I also just I do think this should be kind of driven by our district in terms of how we look at like going to the experts to understand
how we should look at this because one thing I'm just thinking of is um I think we can all think about teachers we've had who are harder graders or easier graders and I don't what I don't want to do is shift anything in the district to have teachers feel pressured that they
have to be grading in a certain way to show that they're you know what I mean like I I I would look to our administration to try to help us understand what would be the best way to kind of look at performance across the year, not just with these. Does that
make sense? >> I guess I'm missing it because wouldn't it be per you'd see performance across the year? >> I'm just thinking like um for instance when obviously certain tests you don't you can't fudge, right? And not that not that I think teachers want to see
progress in students. That that's what they want. But I don't want to create a culture of so much pressure that teachers are feeling they're being compared to one another or um really evaluated to that level that it makes any sort of cultural shift. So overall what I'm saying is it is is probably the
case that our principles or administration other administration would have some ideas about what's the best way to look at progress across the year um as opposed to us coming up with them >> and it sounds like they are right but we're just not we don't have access to
that >> right so that's what I mean like let them tell us what they think would be a reasonable thing to bring to us >> but again I think that would be a metric on the dashboard Right. Cuz >> so so you want a leading you want a leading indicator >> that can be tracked monthly and we are
looking for the district to come back with a proposal >> or maybe not even month maybe it would be I think they should come with a proposal. What is a what is a reasonable amount of time quarterly or monthly or >> it depends on the curriculum right it's going to be different. Um, but if you're going math and math and reading or
literacy. Yeah. Yeah. Because the other what I don't want to get to is all right, we've hit another year, past another year, and we've missed our mark on MCAs. And then we're like, what happened? And we're like, I don't know. Well, let's try this. >> But it would be good to know if they're like, they're killing reading and math
GPA and they're getting 4.0, know, but yet it doesn't reflect in the other >> you know the assessments >> because you I mean you could advertise that like look the MCAs may say one thing but this is how our students are actually performing >> right >> and we can work if we want to you know
adjust and tweak and supplement the curriculum to align better with the MCAs. Um but otherwise everyone's thinking that our our students are hitting only 60% of them are passing their math courses you know based on the MCA scores. Sorry, Amber. >> Um, I think this is kind of related to
this and it's a question for Emily. I I passed the 90% rate proficiency on the assessment for MCAs. I'm still, and I mentioned this at last meeting, concerned that in order to hit that, we will switch to a teach
model. Um, because I don't know of any other districts that's able to do this, right? So, how are we going to ensure that our curriculum just doesn't become testing methods, MCA testing success, which like you can do and you can get
good scores, right? So, but that doesn't mean a student is able to think and learn. Um, how do we balance that? >> Yeah, thank you so much for that question. Um, I I think we do recognize and acknowledge that our kids are gifted
in many different ways. >> Um, and that that one metric in and of itself doesn't tell a complete story of a district or of a student for that matter. Um, and so we want to make sure that we are preserving
um, opportunities for students to engage in learning in a wide variety of ways. I think that's always been a priority for us that's in our actually in our MTSS framework. Um, and so I think we would really need to lean on that. I think the
other thing is is getting focused on we the the focus should not be on the test. The focus should be around the standards. And so what are the best ways for us to be able to engage students in the standards at the appropriate level
of rigor that then then because no matter how much you can't you can't cram a student for three weeks or two months or three months and then expect them to even perform well on a test. You know it just doesn't actually work that way. Um, so I think clarity
for the teachers around what that looks like, sounds like, and feels like in terms of their instruction. Um, and we've been focusing our district goals for the past, um, year last year was really around tier one and how do we strengthen our our
day-to-day instruction. Um and I think that would that is a will remain a focus for us for next year. And that gives us an opportunity to help and support people in engaging with um teaching the standards and not teaching the wrote
memorization just here's here's a lot of test prep. I mean we we wouldn't support that as a learning strategy because that doesn't actually help students learn and grow. It might it might help them produce better on certain aspects of a test.
>> Um, but that isn't we want them to be learning. We want them to be growing. We want them to be able to to take the knowledge and skills that they have learned and actually do something with them other than fill out a bubble sheet. Right? So, it's making sure that we we
remain standards focused and that there's clarity around the level of rigor that's expected of those standards in terms of our instruction and our assessment. And this is where maybe I I feel strongly that when we get this dashboard,
I want to compare MCA with fastbridge to make sure that that our MCA I think there's a lot going to be a lot of pressure on our schools and our administrators and our teachers to get to this 90% right. I mean there it just is. and Fastbridge should model
the success. And if it's not, I think the board has a and this school district should have a conversation about is our curriculum about doing well on one test or is it a curriculum that is about learning? >> Uh, director Carbone.
>> Yeah. Let come from a left field on on this about, you know, how do we get to 90% in five years? I some of you may be familiar with alpha schools. They're private schools. I think there are eight of them across the
nation. Um I called the one in in uh Austin, Texas. And their model is to for two hours a day have AI tutorials in classrooms so
that each kid is met exactly the level they're at and then incrementally taught from there and they have like one teacher for 40 students that are that are doing this AI modeling. Um I you
know to me that's innovative. Yeah I know it costs money but my point is my whole point in in saying this is are we thinking innovatively on how to get there and and that's not necessarily our
job. It's the job of the people out in these buildings to come up with innovation and strategies to get there. So, I I guess what I'm saying is I I just think we've got to I just think
we've got to open up our Pandora's box and see if there are different things we can do and and if we want to run one more comment, if we want to run a a test model of AI tutorials in one of the middle schools, which if I remember
correctly back in February when I saw Fastbridge um math and and reading were like 59 to 62%. Um, is that a bad idea? I'm just asking a rhetorical question. Um, I I I know that
there are some parents who privately tie into AI tutorials so their kids can advance themselves or move past areas that they're really struggling with. And from what I'm told from from some of
these parents, it works really well. So if we're trying to get to 90% and everybody's saying, "Oh my gosh, that might be impossible." There are places around the country that are doing it and they're in the top 1 or 2% of the nation as far as testing.
>> Yeah. I mean, I I think I would agree as I agree that it's definitely one of those additional resources because the answer isn't just try harder or work harder, right? you know for the teachers it's going to be yeah >> sorry Brian >> hey director Carbone I think I think you
are you are right that um while we are literally seeing the advancement of AI I mean there I've get um I've got notes where there's like this is a high school senior who's who's doing some social media project for her um for a company
that she's at and she's putting down uh putting together videos using AI putting into Canva using chat GP PD to kind of create a social media campaign. Like there are things that these kids are are doing right now that they're not learning in the classroom. And so this
is a much larger conversation we need to have uh where we've got to ask ourselves how do we position our kids to be prepared for the future. And that might be in an initiative. But when we set these targets, we need to be looking to the administration to come back to us and say we only have so much money.
here's alternative paths that we can consider while we can provide guidance and say have you looked at the AI path we need all we also need to let them come back to the table like this is how we get to the 90 and and and this is how much money that that we're going to need and and I echo director Cameron's um
comment around are we testing to the benchmark I mean are we going to have non-thinkers and and they're going to be like this is this is how you test this exam um I I get that and and I think we're going to run into that scenario in in any exams that you take or any programs that you take. I mean, I'm
looking at the benchmarks right now for third grade uh math 3 benchmark 3.1.2.1. Like this is the the the description. Adam and subtract multi-digit numbers use efficient and general uh
generalizable procedures based on knowledge of place value including standard algorithms. So that's the benchmark. Now, there might be a lot more to it, which I don't know how a teacher would um decipher that and figure out what what the lesson plan
needs to be so that a a third grade math student would know how to solve that. Um because because it might be hard to teach to the benchmark, I mean to test to the benchmark because the benchmark might be so ambiguous. We don't really know. I don't know. So, I'll I'll defer to them. But I do echo your comment
around are we going to set um uh a path where our students are just figuring out how to take take the exam or our teachers to test teach this is how you take the exam. I I don't know. Uh and then the last thing go >> just related to what you said um for
both you and Carly actually you know in your past two and a half years on the board >> on what >> two and a half years on the board right >> yeah more than that. Um, >> has the district come to you and said like, "Hey, we want to do this academic initiative. We need more money." >> No. Well, outside of the levies saying
that we need this levy for XYZ, but in regards to we want to launch this new initiative and it's going to cost XYZ money, like here's a uh propo proposal. I I don't believe I've seen anything like that. Well, I I mean I think um I would
support any sort of I I think there's chances there are many going to be many chances for people in our district to be innovative and creative and how we get there and I think as um director Cameron pointed out earlier like we as a board need to be ready for a proposal that is going to come to us that is going to ask
for more resources um and that can be I think the board also with regard to these this metric and what we are looking at this has to be multi multiaceted in terms of how we get to 90%. Like it's not just about curriculum, it's also about the school
culture and it's also about you know so it's it's many things that I think we have to be thinking of. So levies have come to us with not necessarily that exact >> directive but but like adding counselors in our schools is helping improve right
our um direction in terms of graduation rate and getting you know those kinds of things. So I or that's the aim is that creating these positions are helping our students make good decisions next step >> hopefully >> type things hopefully that's the goal right
>> so it hasn't come I also I trust that people will be we'll have teachers who come forward or the union comes forward with in innovative ideas and we need to be ready to support that >> Brian >> um so I want to just make sure we uh tie
up your leading indicator question so I I think another metric we want to add to the academic executive report is what leading indicator uh metric will the can the district come forward with as a as a proposal uh and and and then share with us the
cadence of when that report or when that data gets refreshed or how real real time that is and so I think that closes that section out or the academic workstream or the academic section of the executive dashboard. Good. Are we good with that? Do I do we need to make
a motion is is what I'm asking >> or do you want to make a motion >> a motion to add it to the data dashboard >> figuring out what the leading indicator would be or proposing a leading indicator >> levels. Yeah. Yeah. For each grade
>> each >> elementary and secondary or primary secondary >> levels. Do we do we want to set a working session for the remaining sections from finance, HR, operations and potentially student
government or I mean not government but student engagement because again that ought to lead to your executive dashboard report where we can be able to glance and say we think our school is doing well. that will allow us to get to targets faster and that will allow us to
then get to what additional initiatives or initiatives we want to do beyond what's on the dashboard. >> Yeah. I mean, we're obviously going to have to come back because we have to get to some other matters tonight, but um so
let's wrap this last indicator up. And I would move to add to the data dashboard um a recommended leading indicator that will be provided by the district in the next couple of months >> next week.
>> I'll second it. >> Any discussion on the motion there being a second? >> I I don't think it needs to be in the next couple of months. It should be part of the proposal that gets brought forward, but that would be my additional comment. Yeah, I guess my my concern is for
secondary it might not exist right now, right? So there might be some leg work that would need to go into that. So and they can notify us of that >> because again >> is one thing about the metric versus actually being able to execute on the
metric >> execute on the metric right now. All right. >> Being able to execute on the metric is one thing, but having a metric that says, you know, we're going to this is what we're going to look at >> is one thing. Whether or not we have the
data, can have the data or if that's something even readily available or completely different between primary, secondary might be separate discussion. But I mean, I think they could come up with something in the next
month. All right. If there's no further discussion, um there being a first and a second, all those in favor of adding the um the >> leading development >> leading indicator indicator
>> aspect to the data dashboard um with the district coming back to us with a proposal for what that would be. >> Uh say I I any opposed. >> All right, it is approved. Are we good for tonight?
All right. Um, we have a couple more things just open session business before we go into close session. Uh, earlier today, five hours ago, four hours ago. Uh the
board participated in the close session um and were presented with settlement proposals by our uh district council um to resolve two lawsuits. Uh so I'm going to bring I would entertain a motion
uh to approve the actions discussed in close session which was held at 5:00 p.m. today. Those are MDHR file number 73690 and MDAHR file number 73424. Uh 73690 just for the public's knowledge
um is a resolution of a claim. Um it's a three-party settlement um with a student and the MDHR. Uh the cash payment is going to be funded by insurance. It's covered by insurance. No admission of wrongdoing. Uh the district's out of pocket cost is $2,000 dollars for a
payment of a fine. Um, and then the second one, MDR, MDHR file number 73424, uh, is a, uh, just a settlement between the district and the MDHR. Again, no admission of wrongdoing, and the
district is paying a $1,000 fine. So, I'd entertain a motion to approve both of those settlements. >> All right, there's a motion by Director Cameron. Is there a second? >> A second by Director Nicholson. Can I Can I just clarify something? >> You can. >> Or are you voting for discussion?
>> Go for it. >> Do we have to approve these separately? We can approve them in a like. >> Sure. >> I'm wondering if we have to vote on them separately. Yeah, >> we don't. >> I don't know that we necessarily need to. Yeah, unless unless somebody wants to. >> She said no.
>> Okay. >> All right. If there's nothing any further discussion on those? There's none. All in favor of approval of the settlements um both for MDHR file number 73690 and MDHR file number 73424 say I.
>> I. Any opposed? >> All right, those settlements are approved. All right. Um one sec. Uh the board is going to go into closed session. Uh and so I'll I'll just move I'm going to move to
move into closed session pursuant to state statute 13D.05 subdivision 3B to engage in negotiation discussions. Um I just want to note for the public that we will ask everyone to leave the room. We will come back into open session
afterwards to adjourn the meeting. Um but the discussions will be um just with the board members and and specific staff. So the motion is to go into close session under Minnesota statute state section state statute section 13D.05. Is there a second? >> I'll second it.
>> And