e e e e e all right welcome everyone I'm going to call to order the February 2025 meeting of the Lakeville School Board um if everyone will stand up with me to recite
the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation God indivisible lice all right we're going to jump in with a roll call of the board members if
you'll start from my right Amber Cameron Brett Nicholson Paul Carbone I'm Matt Swanson Michael Balman Kim Baker Karly Anderson all right and if the executive cabinet would introduce themselves as
well Emily McDonald Brenda alre Bill hren Michelle Humphrey all right and our guest from teaching and learning El Kane director of secondary teaching and learning Sandy Georgie director of Elementary teaching and learning Nicole Adams director of integrated continuous
Improvement and kimson assist to the superintendent all right uh Mr superintendent I'll turn it over to you for the good news thank you Mr chair good news first start off with Lakeville North Jr to represent Team USA in
international figure skating competitions so Lakeville North High School junior Sophie sha Chow I think I pronounced that right uh is turning heads in the figure skating world as a member of the northern net synchronized skating junior team Sophie
and her team are representing Team USA on the international stage competing against Elite teams around the world most recently Sophie traveled to Austria for the Mozart Cup on January 17th and 18 where the northern Nets placed fifth
out of 18 teams next they head to Poland to compete in the hilus cup February 14th and 15th so that means three days ago they were doing their thing over there in congratulations uh Lakeville South earns
starred performance at the Minnesota State High School league one act play State Festival uh Lakeville South High Schools theater program once again made history at the 2025 Minnesota high school league one-act play State Festival earning a
starred performance rating for its production of Henry V directed by Cody Carlson and Maddie Market mat maty along with its starred performance recognition Lakeville South was also
named the 2025 section onea champion and a recipient of the True Stone Spotlight on the Arts award congratulations to the students and production team on this incredible achievement outstanding you can applaud if you want to do
that uh Lakeville students take char charge at Youth and governance conference last month 44 students from the Lakeville Youth and government delegation made their Mark at the State youth and government conference a Civic engagement program where 14400 students
from across the state of Minnesota come together to participate in model state government in the judicial branch Lakeville North senior Ellie RS led the Supreme Court as chief justice and was honored with the servant leadership award in the legis latest feere
Lakeville South Jr Maya wri's National issues Forum proposal was one of only 12 to pass out of 170 proposals additionally Century Middle School 8th grader an batia was recognized as an outstanding
delegate and Lakeville North Jr SJ Assad's media article landed on the front page of the student newspaper so congratulations to Lakeville youth and government delegation on their achievements go Lakeville 700 wins for Lakeville North
coach John Oxon on Friday January 31st Lakeville North High School head boys basketball coach John oxen won his 700 career game in a 7458 victory over our neighbors at Farmington Tigers he's one of of just
six coaches in the 109 years of Minnesota boys basketball coach to reach this Milestone since taking the Elm in 1990 coach Oxon has led Lakeville North and Lakeville South High School to 12 section championships and a 2014 State
title congratulations coach John Oxon yeah all right I'm going to transition into a another um opportunity here to celebrate uh one of Lakeville um staff members and I want
to introduce you to Lake Maran Elementary stem specialist Kim manard Kim can you come on up I just want to say a few words if that's okay first of all I want to say that I'm very pleased to have a special guest with us uh to care and good news
uh M Menard she has taught at Lake Marian Elementary for the past 11 years and was part of the founding team of Elementary stem Specialists here at Lakeville area schools nearly a decade ago recently
Miss Menard was awarded the presidential award for excellence in Mathematics and Science teaching let's applaud that this is the highest award that Science and Math teachers can receive and candidates for this award go through an
extensive and rigorous vetting process we are extremely proud of her and I ask Miss Menard to come speak to you all this evening briefly about elementary stem programming in Lakeville Area Schools is my honor to introduce
again our stem specialist from Lake Maran Elementary Kim manard thank you ma'am the floor is yours all right well greetings to the board and everybody else who's gathered here uh thanks for inviting me to celebrate good news happening at Lakeville area schools
now one of the teaching methods that you'll see in science classrooms today is phenomena based instruction where you start with a phenomena something kids can observe something they can ask questions about thank you for teaching us about that Sandy Georgie and uh then you can use as the basis for
investigation in your units so before we talk about pain uh let's begin with a shared phenomenon and I need to bring my assistant up here to help it's Isaac uh if the for the board members they've noticed when they sat down it doesn't look quite like usual there's some stuff in front of them so we're going to be using that for our shared phenomenon
today I will'll guide you through it and then I have some helpers that are going to come clear things up as we use them because when you work in an Elementary classroom you know that is a very good practice so uh first of all you're going to have a Pyon I'm going to have you pull that in front of you and then you're gonna have some milk we're going
to pour that milk right on into that pie tin as you do that our milk clearing helpers are going to come they're going to get rid of the uh the milk that you have or the pictures that you have and then you have some food coloring we're going to take uh you can pick one color
to start with and we're going to put four drops toward the center squeeze some of those in one two 3 four you'll cap them up and then you'll get to add the other colors we're going to kind of make a little square so we'll put them next to it and
it's okay if it overlaps a little bit we'll add all of our colors there okay milk collectors go collect their milk pictures we can't trust them up there with and then they'll come and get your can have one go one way one go the other
yep you can take ours too they come next what we're going to be doing once you get your colors all sorted you can put those back in in their little container and you're going to see some dish soap and you're going to have a little Q-tip we're going to swirl that around in there looks like
some people are still getting their colors just right beautiful beautiful this Cameron's ready to go and I'll show you what we're going to do with this we'll do a little test first oh still getting our colors beautiful fantastic okay ready you're going to swirl your Q-tip in there and then we're going to do a little practice what we're
going to do in a moment but not yet is touch that right to the center of all of our colors and we're going to be holding that down for 3 seconds so it's going to go like this you're going to put it to the bottom of your pie titin and you're going to twist one two three and then you're going to lift it up so let's do a practice first one two three twisting a
little bit and you'll just lift it up all right Isaac give it a go you want me to okay here we go ready one two three with some little twist and we'll lift it up now as you're doing this what are you
observing what are you seeing happening shout it out into your microphones what do you see colors Kaleidoscope What I Hear over here swirling swirling and sometimes it really gets swirling and keeps moving anyone else so colors are moving away
from where I had stuck the Q-tip yeah colors are moving away really cool things you can sit down thanks for helping our collectors can come and grab our colors and our soap now if this was stem class what we do is probably use is to teach the scientific method we would document what happened we would change
one variable we test it again and then see what we could learn from the data that we had but for today for us let us be more of a metaphor for stem in our stem class in our district we have our our nine pie tins around the
room and we have our nine buildings that have been provided by the community with our nice walls and then we've had a chance to have that filled up with all the things that we need to teach then we get to add our kids the colors and the different colors are cool because our kids have different skills they have different talents they have different
backgrounds and cultures even different languages and just looking at it just like that is kind of an interesting picture but we like to then add the teacher and we like to take that teacher and we like to swirl the teacher in professional learning communities our plc's we like to get our professional
development that's inside the school and out of the school we have our Community Partnerships and we like to just immerse ourselves in that and then we want to be the ones to bring the magic we want to see kids have a dynamic experience where they get to make connections with the content and with each
other now uh after moving back to Minnesota 16 years ago I had a chance to sub for a while and then I got to feel a last minute opening and gifted education and Hot Topic right then was stem and they started putting stem into the different discover curriculum that we had and it
was cool to be a part of that some of my best science memories are for working with those discover kids but it was just a te little dish the next year that I was here they added stem and I got to be as you said part of the founding stem team steam team as it was then and we got to see not just that little ditch
but we got to see these tins all around so every single kid wherever they are in Lakeville not just the ones that could be in a special club or have a PTO that can raise a lot of money but every kid in Lake valious Schools gets to have coding and Robotics and Star Lab they get to have the messy science standards
that we like to take in the stem room where you have your engineering and all of your things and our Community Partnerships every single building gets to have that we are so excited this program has uh continued to grow and it's going to keep emerging thanks for
collecting our mess over there and each School besides that they have that shared part they each have their own Nuance just like because each teacher is get to immerse yourselves and gets to absorb different things the pams program gets to celebrate some of the things that I got a chance to do because I've had a chance to do training with Jeffers
Institute and with Hamlin and St Thomas and with kidwind so for me I get excited about teaching the standards using solar energy or some of the teaching team teaching with Mother Nature pieces we've seen that go beyond our classroom into uh kids who want to come to the
Schoolboard and try to get the message across that solar could be good for our school it could be saving us money be a teaching tool and it could uh be good for the planet uh we've had a chance at our school to go beyond and do our some tree planting with tree trust and right
now we are working on getting 1,000 lbs of plastic please send it in everyone uh we want 1,000 lbs keeping on the landfill and we're going to be earning a bench for our school uh while asking bringing awareness and asking ourselves what is our next step with that so there's a woman named wangari maai she
is a Nobel Peace Prize winner from Kenya and she tells a story that has really touched me and it's about a forest fire this forest fire is burning and the animals are standing around unable to move they are petrified ified when a little hummingbird comes by looks at the fire goes to the nearest river gets a
beak full of water and spits it on the fire over and over the hummingbird is going back and doing this while the animals are saying what are you doing you are so little your beak is so small and the hummingbird just says I'm doing the best that I can my invitation asked
me to share what I am proud of with stem well I'm not the biggest and I'm not the best but I am proud to add my little drop to the Lakefield Community to try to make a difference in the world I'm proud of my very shy discover
student who stood before a different board and brought herself up to her big height to say I really believe that solar is right for a school that it can help the planet it can help our district that it can bring it can bring uh teaching opportunities I'm wearing the
shirt that she sent me that she designed as part of other work she was doing outside of high school and it came in the perfect day when I was working on finalist uh stuff for the the pames program and I was thinking about bowing out because of all the things I was not this is the same student that went on to
do a podcast in her first podcast she credited the stem program and discover was showing her that she had voice and could bring change and I part of the first field trip I organized for my kids at Lake Maring to go to see the AP cam demo show because some of them don't have rides to
get there and the next morning one of my students came up she grabbed my arm one of my English language Learners and she said there were kids up there who looked like me does that mean that I can do that too yes yes it does I'm proud of
the kids that have a hard time outside of school so they fallen behind in some of their skills but that little guy that he might not know how to make friends he might have trouble reading but he's the one that's helping his friends light their light bulbs or the little girl
that just struggled but she could read into a garbage can and she could take out something someone else threw away and make something beautiful and something I will never throw away I'm proud of all these kids and who they represent and being a small part of
what goes into them because they are going to go out and change the world teaching T is teaching stem is terrifying and it is exhausting and it is colorful and it is swirling and it is unpredictable and it is wonderful and I
live in the gratitude that I have the health and the opportunity to take what's been poured into me and take my little drop and put that back into Lakeville thanks for having me and thanks for having stem thank can we give it up one more [Music]
[Applause] time chair can I I just want to say thank you for coming and sharing that with us um I believe it's one of the things that makes leville great is the wonderful Educators that we have and the students that we have too so it was
really nice to hear you talk about what you're doing in the classroom and share the the love of learning that you're teaching your students for it was it just really made my day so thanks for thanks for sharing thank you being for creative and playing along with us I think they gave us a little insight
into uh why you won the presidential award and just congratulations once again just amazing I'm not sure how we follow that one but uh I guess we'll keep going um approval of the agenda uh if there are no requests for
additions to the agenda um I'd like to make a motion all right um director Cameron that normally we first and second though so I wanted to wait until or is it okay to go a motion to approve the agenda to amend sure no you want me to
go now yeah okay thanks um I'd like to make a motion to move public comment to the beginning of our meeting um I feel like last week we had a number of parents in our um audience one of which was um drawn to speak and wasn't able to do that because they had to go home
because of their their kid um I think our board wants to hear from parents especially stakeholders students and having this be the most accessible um place on our agenda I think is important um I looked at other districts our peers in the South Suburban Conference wisett
Edina all the names we've been throwing out if they have public comment as part of their agenda which all don't um it's at the beginning of the meeting our city council has it at the beginning of the meeting and so I think to be fair to stakeholders um and to um not make them sit through hours and hours of meeting
um I would like to make a motion to move public comment until right after our agenda approval uh we can discuss the we'll get into discussion is there is there a second I will second all
right um is there any discussion on the motion there being well first just for the minutes it was seconded by director Anderson any discussion on the motion can I say one other thing Ash um Brett and I have been attending the msba um trainings and I think something
not for this agenda necessarily but I think for next agenda it'd be helpful um to put it discussion of public comment on our agenda um we learned um through the the one training we've been to th far that public comment should be a discussion amongst the board on how we want as a board to operate with public
comment it's not um a decision made by the chair um we don't have a policy 206 which would govern how public comment Works um and so in lie of that um it was stated that uh public comment should be discussed and decided by the board uh director
Nicholson so um just thinking back to talking with a couple of the people from the previous board and why public comment like really hasn't been around since what 2022 I think um I think when they asking a few people
why public comment went away there was discussion around well everybody kind of got up um it in their words it kind of became a circus and a show and then people left so I think you're going to have to weigh both options but if we if
we're moving are we moving to 6 o' we are all of our all of our standard meetings will be at 6 o' starting at 6 o' correction on that we have had public comment the last two years we've just done it prior to the start of the
meeting so when we did it it wasn't televised as part of the meeting it was before we actually started the meeting so it wasn't so is there any record it wasn't part of the meeting no yeah okay yeah and I I will add we still do have the stakehold session once a month I mean if people want to come earlier and
talk um I do think that it may be a misuse of the your motion might not be proper um approval of the agenda I think is more so if you want to add something to the agenda not a rearrange the agenda item which under our policy you know is
actually the purview of the board is structuring the agenda I'm not opposed to the discussion obviously um and if the board wants to move it um I'm not opposed to that but again I do I do get concerned we have you know staff that wait here for the meeting to do their
presentations as well and provide us information um so I'd like to get them in and out if they want um I do also think there's a value for um the members of the community to actually listen to what they have to say um but yeah I'm director Carbone do you have a
comment I no I was just going to mention the stakeholder sessions too U which you just did so there is the opportunity to come early and do a stakeholder session with members of the board yeah uh direct Cameron um yeah I agree that there's a
stakeholder session um I think I mean I think there's two things here one do we move public comment for this evening and two how does our board want to handle stakeholder engagement period um we have not had that discussion as a board and that is something that the training has made clear is something that we should
discuss so I'm make I would like to make that recommendation for future agendas I don't think it's our decision to decide if if community members should sit through two and a half hours of meetings in order to address the board um that seems like a um big overstep for us um
and so I see parents here who I assume want to address the board tonight I don't think it's um I don't think sitting here for two hours to do that with kids with young kids is is what our goal is as a board hopefully and also um I guess uh I would just like to say with
stakeholder sessions that's not addressing the whole board so yes it's an opportunity for people who maybe don't want to be on camera but it's not an opportunity to address the whole board yeah yeah Anderson I will only just add I I support um I I think we're trying to
be mindful of um our stakeholders time and you know for me if they would like to um I do appreciate that our executives are here and and people who serve in our Administration um but I think for parents and other community
members to come to our meetings you know they have the opportunity to watch the video If at home if they want to to watch the whole meeting if they don't want to stay if they have to get their kids to bed that sort of thing so this was something I tried to email ahead of time and so you know I think we're
trying to get conversation about this going um and I would agree that perhaps a conversation with the whole board about our approach to stakeholder engagement would be helpful yeah I I do just want to reiterate I mean as Brett noted there hasn't been public comment
as part of the meetings since you know mid 2022 you know and you know we made the decision to put it back in to allow people to come and speak um once again an opportunity that they didn't have before January so I'm obviously not
opposed to public comment um yeah but there's other ways that the community can engage with us I mean obviously anyone can email us um which is probably even more interactive than and then just coming up and speaking for 3 minutes and us not having a response
to so uh again it will be interesting I think moving forward to see I mean how many people actually engage in public comment because I know historically it hasn't been very many um and I've even had emails asking me not to allow certain people to speak on certain topics in public comment over the past
couple weeks which again you know when is it appropriate when is it not um I'd rather leave it on the agenda and allow people to to share their thoughts Dr Cameron um thank you chair um yeah I agree with you I mean I'm not opposed to public comment either um I think it it
um warrants a discussion I think you just said that we made a decision to put public comment on the agenda and we as a board have not made that decision so I just want to make that clear um we have not had a conversation even about that um I think it's Unique that we have it where we have it every other school
district this the city council of Lakeville has it at the beginning and so there's probably a it's just like why it makes me wonder like people have asked me like why do we have public comment buried at the end of the meeting I don't have a good answer for them and so if we can answer that maybe that would be
helpful so I I just want to add that um I think one of the things about being on the board is also uh being flexible to the needs of our community and our district um typically when we have public commment it is adults that are addressing the board about things that
they're concerned about um knowing that they are students here or young children that are here with their parents based on the fact um of what they want to uh talk about I feel like it makes sense I I would agree to move public comment up for this meeting um I think that that
warrants a further discussion by the board on where they want it for further for other agendas but for this meeting I I think it's um it's important to be flexible to the needs of of our community and allow for it to happen earlier so that they can go home and take care of their children
any other discussion Dr carbon yeah I I do think it's important to some degree to have the folks who come to the meeting observe the meeting before they speak uh there may be comments made there may be discussions there may be a
lot of things that could occur that may affect what you have to say and I think that's part of why it should be a little later in the meeting also I'm I might also say that if we like for
instance when we had the public comment um on the meeting related to the posters that we moved that before our discussion on the posters to make sure that we had the public input so in my mind we also are um using the
information that we get from the public to inform our decision- making so that's where I would say it's actually helpful to get their input before we're discussing matters yeah well and I I will say just from a structural standpoint and planning so public comment in my view will always be before
we make a vote on something um so that's how it was structured before there is no um recommended action tonight so there's nothing we're voting on so that's why public comment is where it is otherwise it would be before the recommended action because as as you note what good
is it to hear the public comment after you've already voted on the issue so um but yeah I I I won't belabor the fact that I think this might be um against our current policies as far as allowing
the board to establish the agenda um but if there's no further discussion any further discussion on the matter I would disagree with you on that um a board member can ask to have an item added to the agenda they just need a motion in a second and then it's voted
on um yes the board we're not adding an item right now we're moving the moving it right but if we can add an item I think it you know when we when we go through like consent agenda we can pull items MH so why wouldn't we be able to move an item
because it's not it's not really changing what you put on the agenda it's moving it for an earlier discussion I think Robert's Rules would allow that that's just my opinion yeah quick question then is this are we
allowed to do that before any meeting then I mean is that that that's your your understanding then if if we decide we want to move it or push it back or whatever we could do that at any point in time then we've moved items before yeah I mean as Board number no I'm I'm I'm fine
with that I'm just if if that's kind of what everybody wants to do I mean I if like like you said we're not voting on anything today so if we want to move it to the front and let whoever wants to come speak I mean I I don't have an issue with it I mean if that's what we want to do today then do it I
yeah I would say that we should have some consistency in our in our agenda though um because you have people that will come later so whatever we do yeah so we're moving it today assuming everyone's here well and how does that work then seeing as we already posted the agenda and the agenda's been out
since Friday and all that kind of stuff I mean you're the people I mean I'm asking just from the standpoint of community members it's a draft of the agenda until the board approves it so right so when we when we posted when we post online it's a draft of the agenda
and then the board approves it and makes any changes during the meeting that it sees fit and again that comes down to the board being flexible to the needs of the community or the needs of the district during the meeting if we need to add something as an emergency item like people are aware of that that
that's a draft um so moving an item up for an earlier discussion I mean the the meetings are recorded so they could go back and watch it at a different date any further discussion are we good to vote um I think it sounds like we
might use some um training from msba on how to handle like this particular situation and how agendas are set I asked this question Point Blank at the training on Wednesday and they said we can bring it up to the chair um and or
you can raise this as a motion on the agenda um an attorney at msba advise this process so that's what I'm following all right it has been moved and seconded that we amend the agenda uh to move public
comment just so I'm clear where did we want to move public what was the motion to move public comment to where in the agenda um item number two uh so ahead of the consent agenda um so so being moved and seconded
all those in favor of amending the agenda uh to move public comment to item number two say I I I I all right all those oppos say nay all right the motion passes um with that is there a motion to
approve the agenda as amended motion to approve as amended all right motion has been made by director Nicholson is there a second I'll second uh seconded by director Baker uh it's been moved and seconded that we appr
approve the agenda as amended um all those in favor say I I all those opposed say nay right the motion passes can you go back to the vote I don't think I heard a vote from everybody aming
the yeah there's 42 we're good all right we will move on to public comment then uh the board is going to open up the floor for public comment uh to allow the public to address the board with comments and concerns to participate in public comment individuals must have registered
in advance using the form provided on the website by noon on the Monday before the scheduled P public comment session uh there will be no board response during the session public comments framed as complaints and or concerns about students or staff are not appropriate in the public forum due to
data privacy laws these comments should be addressed to the administration outside a public meeting likewise complaints about school board members should be privately directed to the school board chair and or the superintendent no formal action will be taken on a topic presented during public comment um as necessary the
administration will follow up with the appropriate personnel on any concerns that need to be individually addressed also if necessary the board will follow up during board Communications at the next gen regularly scheduled board meeting uh in individual remarks are limited to 3 minutes and the board will
provide a signal when the participant has 30 seconds remaining on their time uh please try to keep audience noise to a minimum to allow everyone the opportunity to speak uninterrupted uh the first individual to speak for public comment
today is Karin h Hello thank you um I'm current Henning um I'm just going to real quick I just want to read some concerns off about uh closing the Lakeville Online Academy closing the Lakeville online Elementary means ignoring District policy ignoring
the district's mission to looking slowly at costs without considering the financial impact loss funding we are also ignoring the precedent set by the closure of Crystal Lake Elementary School closing Lakeville Online Academy Elementary does not significantly
improve cost savings the teachers will be remain in the district the Administration staff already shared among Lakeville Online Academy and Pathways from all valuable information available information most expenses would retain would would be retained
with closing the school however the enrollment based funding based on the information from the year's budget means we would lose nearly half a million dollars in funding as the district is supporting and encouraging transitions to other districts for online schools
all this information is public public on the district's website District policies among others here are just a few of which multiple policies that this decision directly contradicts policy 209 code of ethics for Bo Board of Education in working
with the superintendent of schools and staff will number six insist the superintendent keeps the Board of Education adequately informed at all times seven offer the superintendent councel and advice policy 301 School District administration the school board and
School administration shall work together to share information and decisions that best serve all needs of the school district students within financial and facility constraints that may exist policy 302 superintendent superintendent is responsible for the
management of the schools the administration of all School District policies and is directly accountable to the school board where responsibilities are not specifically prescribed nor School Board policies applicable to superintendent shall use personal and personal professional judgment subject
to review by the school board policy 605 alternative programs it is the policy of the Board of Education that all that options shall be made available for some students to select education Alternatives that will enhance their opportunity to complete their education
programs reorganizing that some students may become successful Learners if given an opportunity to learn in a different environment and through a different learning style it seconds it shall be the responsibility of the superintendent to identify Alternative Program opportunities to be made available to
the students who may be at risk to recommend such alternative programs to the school board for approval to the familiarized students and the parents of the availability of such alternative programs the superintendent shall through Cooperative efforts with other schools agencies and
organizations periodically recommend additional modified Al alternative educational programs to the school board this decision goes directly against policy 605 that's time thank [Music] [Applause]
you B what was it Bill C there's no last name I'm assuming you're the only one no one else is standing up it's all you awesome well thanks for letting us come up and talk and I appreciate the spirited conversation about the public comment
and the emails because I did send you guys all an email and get one back so that doesn't actually work um so anyway I'm here to talk about the Lakeville Online Academy as well um I'm going to read you the email I sent in case you missed it maybe I went to spam um what
does home mean to you to me and my family my son jack right over there he's embarrassed now it's come to me in the following a home is something so special is Indescribable it's not about the structure right or the place or the house but about feelings and important
things like being with the people you love great experiences and memories a home should make you feel safe loved and special Jack found that home at Loa this year just this fall okay he has a long
history of cancer treatment he was very ill for a long time and I have four other kids three other they graduated from Lakeville love the school system it wasn't right for Jack Jack went to All Saints because they had smaller class sizes okay got a little bit more love
could maybe keep up but it was a struggle right he missed a lot of class and then he broke his leg and they said don't come back until he can walk again that's not going to work and then we found LOA at Loa Jack can learn at his
Pace he has doctor's appointments which I'm assuming a lot of kids do and things that allow him to miss cause great anxiety so he would sit in class quiet as can be opening he wouldn't be called on now he can work at night he can work in
the afternoon and he can catch up so it's been amazing we have an amazing teacher and an amazing staff and I thank God for that because it changed his life so obviously like the gentleman said earlier we were shocked and to our
knowledge it was arbitrarily cancelled for the coming year and my ask is that we don't give us a year we'd look look like a lot lot more but one year right it doesn't cost us any money I have an email today from Mr Balman thank you I
appreciate you sending an email back um and I guess May other comment on that is we would love another year we would love the opportunity to continue because it fits for our son and I'm not being selfish I have to imagine there's a bunch of other people in the program and
other places that need that so in the last 30 seconds he quoted a bunch of really good stuff this is your mission statement the mission statement says together every student the vision says every person belongs is valued and can can can
succeed most importantly our core values and our core goals four out of five say students first Excellence collaboration and integrity none of those existed here all we cared about to me because we didn't know about it was resources thank you
thank you Bill apprciate [Applause] Jessica H good evening thank you for hearing me tonight and for those who've been treated to my emails of late I promise I'll come in under three minutes I know I've timed it I really just want to
thank you our world flipped end over end in 2020 as families were thrown into the online void my district 196 was completely unprepared it was my mother-in-law who recommended Lakeville online her daughter flourished in it it had already been tried in a tested
environment see some may thrive in a brook in a brick and mortar building but not all some may need six to seven hours in the change of scenery but not all some have other needs some need an environment they can control when the world spins loose some need their
families close when trusted is shaken some need the freedom to study when their mind is sharpest and to step away when the strain is too much some need teachers who not only know that family comes first but who value encourage and Champion it the educators of this district has filled its halls with real
and virtual are pillars of strength and integrity when other districts scrambled panicked and apologized throwing up makeshift online agendas Lakeville never needed to they simply open their doors a little wider doors already set on solid
hinges and stress tested frames While others duck their heads and sought to make the best of a bad hopefully temporary situation Lakeville simply said come join us we know what we're doing if we didn't know this before it became obvious from the caliber of teachers you set to lead us when my
daughter wanted to graduate early they worked with her respected her right her need to carve her own path and they made it happen because it is crucial that if we as parents are to share our children with another that we speak the same
language one of trust respect and above all clear open and forthright communication I don't pretend to understand the hierarchy between educational Administration but if it's in your power please make sure that those who speak to us here in Lakeville
District speak for you as well for if they don't better to find this out and address it now than to allow Lakeville good and upright reputation as a friend of parents and students alike to something Lakeville cannot but shudder at becoming I don't know if Lakeville has a
slogan now I do or a mission statement they project to the world but as things have gone these last few weeks the only one we've been given is all children are valued but some children are more valued than others 30 it's catchy I'll Grant you but it's not something I'd be proud
to stand behind and Lakeville Schoolboard shouldn't be either thank you thank you Monica C Monica C Lisa M
hi my name is Lisa Martin 20y year uh Community member here in Lakeville four kids all went through the Lakeville school systems three traditional brick and mortar can you speak into the microphone just so people can hear you thank you uh and one uh my 7-year-old is enrolled in Lakeville Online
Academy um I could stand up here and tell you about my kid but I'm a business person I'm a vice president of sales for a 7 billion doll company Nationwide uh 9,000 employees last week we made the decision to terminate 200 of them because we were looking at a bottom line
budget constraints my CEO looked me in the eye and he said have we exhausted all possibilities and we had right we did the due diligence I ask you today to think about employing all resources behind getting enrollment up if the problem is
enrollment I look to the district to make sure that you're uh supporting Lakeville online schools in the same way that you support the other ones if you go on the Minnesota Department of Education website right now right this moment and you click on Lakeville outline schools it takes you to a broken
link a 404 error so people in the state of Minnesota that are trying to find access to the best they can't even find access to our program so no wonder enrollment is declining so my ask is use the resources that you have for the district to support the social media
efforts and the marketing efforts the teachers in this school should not be responsible for the marketing and the social media strategies for the school they should not be they're Educators and they're fantastic of what they do but this is not what they do great my second ask make us competitive if you look
around the school districts you look to Prior Lake they have a very robust uh uh Spanish imersion program if you look to Prior over to Farmington they have a great American Indian program this sets us apart it's a point of differentiation and it makes us different and unique I
ask you to think about uh how that could be viewed in the day and age that they're in right now and the second question that I have is around cost per child as a result of the change that is apparently happening now um we've had to go look for outside education my first
grader who turns seven on Friday reads at a third grade level and he does fourth grade math I promise you you don't want him in a brick and mortar school he's disruptive he uh when he gets bored he gets a little mean a little naughty and so we've had to look
for outside opportunities and that for us involves private online education the cost if I'm going to go pay is $4 to $8,000 if I'm going to pay for private education so I have a question around the cost of $11,000 275
$1,275 for an online child and I understand that's rly spread across a small base but I ask you to reconsider this decision and allow it to come before the school board as a vote as opposed to just an administrative decision thanks thank you thank
[Music] you all right that's the end of public comment um move on to the consider approval of the consent agenda um which is now item number three uh any items on the consent agenda that anyone wants to pull out or
discuss if there are none I'd entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda motion to approve all right the motion has been made by director Cameron is there a second second all right second by director Nicholson uh having been moved and seconded that we approve the
consent agenda as drafted um for section A and B um all in favor say I I all those opposed say nay all right the motion
passes uh on to the reports and discussion starting off with the data dashboard review Nicole Adams good evening chair Swanson members of the board superintendent Balman um it
is our great pleasure to be here tonight um to get provide you with a um overview of our district data um what I want to start by saying is that um Nicole is here she's leading our presentation tonight um we do also have um the other
teaching and learning directors in the Room Tracy broville director of technology and data services um Sandy Georgie Elementary director of teaching and learning and Ela Kain um secondary director of teaching and learning um this this is work that is important to
all of us as a team um and so we are here in case uh there are additional questions or things um more specific that um you are interested in learning tonight um I do want to start by saying that initially when the request came for this presentation um it was a focus on
probably one of the most well-known data metrics um CommunityWide parent wide student wide um and that was around the MCAS that will be a portion of our presentation tonight um but as we go on a learning journey together what we want
to do is sort of ground our work um not only um in our local Lakeville data but in our state data and in our national data so we're going to paint a picture for you tonight so you can see where the puzzle pieces fit together how they
align um and then what we are looking at specifically here in Lakeville the second thing I want to just say really quickly before I turn it over to Nicole is I can't think of a better way to start the meeting than with an incredible teacher Kim manard um who
spoke about teaching who spoke about um the whole child so when we talk about numbers we always want to keep in our Forefront that there behind every number is an individual child with an individual story with individual gifts
and with individual challenges and so I set that frame to say we are going to talk District level tonight um but really what we do in our work the core of it is about trying to make sure that we keep all of our students who they are
what they need in front of us at all times so um I'm going to turn it over to Nicole and uh we will be on standby as needed thank you Nicole good evening everyone um thank you so much for having us tonight we're really excited to share this
presentation with you um as Dr McDonald expressed we are going to provide you with kind of a a an overarching view um as she mentioned my name is Nicole Adams and I am the director of integrated continuous Improvement in my role I lead
and support systems alignment and integration across all of our sites prek through 12 we are truly fortunate to have such incredible students staff and families in our district and we actually got to hear from some of them tonight which was
fantastic we are continually growing and evolving my responsibility is to develop the systemic capacity that ensures that we can respond quickly and effectively to the needs of our students delivering exactly what they need exactly what each
one requires when they need it sounds really simple right but the reality is much more complex and that is where our work begins my team's role is to create alignment consistency and efficiency across our systems so that our staff has
the support that they need to meet the diverse and changing needs of our students one of the most powerful Tools in this work is data we are in fact a very data district and tonight we're pleased to be able to share some of this with you and the
public it is important to note that when we share data stories we transform them into actionable information guiding our strategic decisions in our future Direction it is also important to approach this work through an equity lens ensuring that each student
regardless of their background has access to the opportunities and support they need in order to succeed and with that in mind my goal tonight is to provide you with a highlevel yet comprehensive picture of our District's performance and systems you'll also be provided with tools to allow you to dig
deeper into the data at your own convenience there 's going to be a lot of slides and a lot of graphs so I will provide you with an overview of each slide I've tried to anticipate questions that you may have but I will pause at the end of each slide so that you can
ask all of those clarifying questions if I don't know the answer and one of my colleagues over here does I might um tap them in or it might actually be something that we share with you at a later date so we will Begin by analyzing the
academic per performance of Lakeville area schools viewed through the lens of national and state educational Trends will highlight key data Trends and some of the factors that compound effective instruction lastly we will take a closer look at how this data translate into a
classroom experience offering a deeper understanding of the complexities that our teachers administrators and staff navigate every day in support of our students before we dive into this data like Dr McDonald said I want to take a moment to emphasize the purpose this
presentation is intended to inform and shed light on the complexities of our organization as we work toward improving student outcomes both the successes and challenges that we Face are shared responsibilities and we are so glad to partner with you in the cycle of continuous Improvement I also would be
remiss if I didn't note that those challenges are not our students they are never the challenge the challenge is aligning our systems to better support them tonight you'll see some data that highlights some areas where students are not yet meeting these expected outcomes
and while we are deeply concerned it is also an important opportunity for us to reflect and take action I along with every educator that I have encountered so far in this District share a SE deep sense of responsibility to support our students teachers and administrators
this is a continuous effort and together we will strive to make the necessary improvements to ensure students receive the support they need okay so here we go into the data so we are going to start by looking at some Criterion referenced assessment
data and just you're going to hear this a few times tonight but just as a reminder a a Criterion referenced assessment is an assessment that uh measures performance against a pred determin standard or specific learning goal so our MCAS which Dr McDonald
referenced are a classic example of our Criterion referenced uh assessment we will also be looking at some Norm referenced assessment data and that is uh where uh performance is evaluated against uh the performance of peers a
good analogy might be Criterion reference is like if you get your driver's license you have succeeded um because you have demonstrated that you are a ble to drive uh a race um is more like a norm referen assessment where uh
a a runner is their performance is compared to the performance of other Runners both have value and we'll talk about where that value Lies We are going to look at some national assessment and some MCA assessment data we are going to start by
looking at the national assessment educational progress data and comparing it to our MCA and our local data nape is administered an even number years every 2 years so the last Administration was in the spring of
2024 the results were released via the nation's report card on January 28th 2025 perhaps you've heard about this it's been very heavily in the news students and sites are selected through nape since this is not a practicality to test every single
student in the nation every two years nape selects a sample set that represents characteristics of the students in the nation along with Dimensions including ethnicity school size socioeconomic factors gender and more when a school is selected for the
nape assessment it is because it is statistically representative of a state schools sometimes individual students are asked to participate if that occurs it is because that student was chosen at random to represent the state's total
students is important to note we do not get individual results students do not get individual results the public gets the totality of the results via What's called the nation's report card for the purposes of this presentation we're going to be focusing on math and reading
results at grades four and eight the following four slides are going to show you National Data next to State data as measured by nape you will be able to see trends at both the state and National level up through 2024 and then on the right hand side of
the slides you will see our uh State MCA data and our Lakeville area school's MCA data this of course measures our students proficiency against our state standards is important to note these standards the state standards while similar are not identical to the
national standards so it's not exactly an Apples to Apples comparison but they are similar Minnesota typically retains about 80% of national standards and changes about 20% of those standards that's said they are similar enough that you can see some parallels between the
two I'll pause there if you have questions about nape or MCA director Nicholson uh I don't have a question about either of those but I do have a question about our curriculum is our curriculum standardized across all our schools all our grades are we
running the same type of curriculum to educate the kids and I'll I'll get to why I think that's important but let's I'm just curious to know how different are every school in terms of what we're teaching them okay it's not up behind
you thank you for the question um so what I can say is that we have a very robust curriculum review process in this District the purpose of that process is twofold it's first of all to help our Educators understand at a deep level the standards and what they're required to
teach part of that process then once that happens is the selection of resources um so the resources number first and foremost have to align to our state standards um secondarily to that when we do purchase curriculum we do so
across grade level program um specific content area Etc so the the educators are really involved deeply in making that process that said because the re the curriculum review process only happens about once every decade um what
you'll see is in a system our size is that over time you'll have some variation across the system part of what Nicole talked about is consistency I know Sandy and Ela and tresy also T we talk about consistency all the time um so part of our role is to make sure that
when we're providing resources that we are providing them across the system that we're providing the professional development across the system um so that all is to say there we will find VAR some variation across the system but for the most part as we are going through
those processes we are aligning to make sure that we have consistency um within those grade level schools um programs and content areas so just to clarify so is it the goal of the district to have you know for instance all third graders are
dealing with the same curriculum across all schools yes absolutely and I think you know one of the things that you'll see is um we tend to we have over time tended to see a higher level of consistency across our elementary because you have all teachers teaching
all of the same subject areas using all the same materials so we do have a higher level of consistency there um we see a little bit more variation at the secondary level but as we go through that process and as the standards come up for review um what we do is try to create that consistency around selection
of resources and implementation how does it how does it happen where you where it becomes not or inconsistent you know you're saying sometimes we see where it's not some people are doing something else I mean is that something at the district level where we just say like hey this is the
policy we're all doing this curriculum for algebra in 9th grade and and I guess with that as well is there like a pacing schedule for each set of curriculum too so if you know we have to move to a different school because we switch homes
that you go into a different third grade class and they're pretty much where you were at the other third grade class in the old school yeah I think you know one of the things that um speaking to your example is yes there is a pacing sort of a pacing guide in terms of um implementation and what needs to be
taught when that said um you there are also variations among um and in in individual classrooms so you might see that that at some time some classrooms might be a little head some might be a little bit behind um but essentially
they should be covering the same curriculum over the course of a year okay uh director Nicholson okay so that that was going to be a question I had to on pacing um given the fact that these are administered like once in a given year
do we have any issues where certain buildings certain groups may be ahead of pace and thus their scores represent that others are behind pace and maybe that's why their scores don't necessarily reflect uh as well um is
that is that something you've looked at have you considered have you I mean I'm just curious cuz I'm I've looked at a lot of the CA data so I've I've seen the presentation I've gone through it I'm curious to know if that is a a known anomally problem not well when you're
talking about um when you're talking specifically about MCAS um that are really testing um standards and benchmarks benchmarks in particular um we do we do look at the data um down to
sometimes classroom level depending but building level for sure um because the standards if you if for whatever reason they're not taught or maybe they aren't taught in a way that students are receiving it or learning it um that
that will show up and so what we like to do is when we look at the MCAS we're really looking at it from the lens of making decisions about about pacing and also about resourcing so if we see across the board that in fourth grade students aren't
performing ing well on a specific benchmark then that tells us that we have a resource problem or we have a pacing problem meaning maybe the resource we're using didn't really stress that particular Benchmark or maybe um that wasn't a focus area for
what we were implementing over the course of the year so it it can impact um but we really in the MCA in particular it's really more about when we're looking at our system where are we seeing areas that we need
to look at from the system standpoint to either resource differently or Pace differently or provide professional development um in a different way uh so that our students have access to those specific benchmarks director carbon yeah thank
you curriculum is one of the tools that Shepherds students into academic success that absolutely true um but are there academic stress points in that process and let me explain what I mean um are
there metrics that are followed for instance when a in the growth and process so like coming from elementary school to to Middle School 90% of of pupils are excelling and then all of a
sudden from middle school to high school maybe that drops to 60% of students excelling what are there there have to be stress points in there that that you're focusing on and and have metrics on that you're you're
analyzing that I'm I'm sorry doctor but will that be coming later yes okay so you're gon yeah so I think what I'll do is I'll hand it back to Nicole um and she'll provide um uh more detail and U more of an overview of where we are because I think we're going to get to
your question and maybe get to some some of those other questions as well um I also think you know we of course after the presentation our intent was really to provide you with the tools and resources and time to be able to dig in
a little bit deeper if you so choose um and then see what kind of questions those bring um for perhaps a a deeper dive into some other areas as well so great thank you for those questions sorry bear with me just a moment I just want to get my kind of blew up your presentation there to
that's okay it's perfect because a lot of your questions are in the presentation okay so we are going to move on to taking a look at where our local instate data is situated um
with National Data so in this graph there's two graphs on on the left we see the comparison between National and state data the mustard color represents Minnesota's trend line and the black line represents the national trend line as you can see
Minnesota has consistently outperformed the national average for many years I should also mention this is fourth grade math however it is important to note that Minnesota's trend line has not been above the national average it's also been running parallel so that means both
are following a similar path over time looking at the data you'll notice that there's a two-point increase in fourth grade math scores from 2022 to 2024 at both the state and the national levels however the peak for fourth grade math scores actually occurred way back in
2013 and after that there was a pretty uh steady decline in math scores even before the covid-19 pandemic hit sometimes we think a lot of our um scores are the result of covid-19 and certainly that has had a tremendous impact but it also is situated within a
larger Trend that said there's a positive sign we are seeing a rebound over the past 2 years and this could signal a slow recovery um in the area of math especially considering that these fourth
graders that have um shown this increase were actually kindergarteners during covid-19 there are some important things on this le- hand side graph that it doesn't tell you though that um is the fact that the majority of the the growth that you're seeing is actually coming
from students in the top 75th and 90th percentiles and in fact students in the lower 20th 25th and 20th percentiles have actually experienced greater declin since 2022 which means that the achievement Gap is in fact
widening on the right hand side of the slide we will see math uh MCA proficiency data for fourth grade from the past four years the Blue Line represents the state average and the green line shows Lakeville area schools average you can see Lakeville area
schools has been above the state average since 2021 and in 2024 while the state average declined Lakeville area schools saw an increase of 3.6 points this is again an indicator that Lakeville area schools has some continued progress even uh amid some broader state level
declines I had a question on the nap data do we know why we hit that High Mark in 2013 and why it's declined I mean is there any there's speculation speculation um probably the most significant speculation that jumps to my
mind is that 2013 was the year that cell phones and social media became broadly accessible to high school and middle school students that's that's sad yeah other questions yes um maybe you're going to get to this but um if at some point
talking about how the achievement Gap looks in 194 would be of interest I have that for you I I have a piece of it for you I have a little glimpse of it it it is definitely something you could do another whole presentation
on okay so now we're going to look at oops uh look at eighth grade math um so same structure on the left you see Minnesota again represented by that yellow line continues to outperform the national average however in 2022 we see
the sharpest deine National scores in history in 2024 the scores remain largely flat at the national level but interestingly Minnesota saw a slight uptick which does deviate from the national trend on the right we have the
MCA data for both state and Lakeville area schools and as you can see Lakeville does continue to outperform the average however while the state saw a slight increase Lakeville experienced a slight decrease and this is largely uh a stagnant trend
um for the state and also for our district and while there are variations from year to year um there hasn't been a significant uptick um for Lakeville area schools in 8th grade math and what this tells us at the middle level is that we're seeing little movement or
improvement in our math performance um we will have information a little bit later on about what's kind of happening at um the middle level and secondary level and some of the compounding factors that are associated with this and some of the steps that we're trying
to take to address that questions on that okay now we're going to move on to reading okay so this is fourth grade reading um you what you need to know here is that nationally reading scores have declined for students in both grades 4 and 8 in fact no state in the
Union made gains in fourth grade reading the only District that did uh was actually a a trial Urban district and that was uh the city of Atlanta otherwise no state or jurisdiction made any uh Improvement in Reading as for Minnesota again represented by that
yellow line Minnesota has historically been above the national average however the state average dropped to meet the national average from uh 2022 into 2024 then next door we look at the MCA
data we see another stagnant Trend both at our state and local levels Lakeville area schools represented by the green line does continue to remain above the state um but did see a slight increase in 2024 of course this is not a
significant increase and certainly not satisfactory um and we'll talk a little bit more about some of those steps um especially with the focus on the react um this year and next year I did have a question um so on the right hand side when we're looking at
the MCA data uh I mean we're still down you know it looks like 3.7% from 2021 on reading correct uh we fourth grade we increased 1.2% um oh from from 2021 yes yes that
we have not yeah we had a slight um we have not bounced back yeah cuz where were we preo just for comparisons I would need to pull that up we were higher um but I would say Sandy do you know off the top of your head or
elaa okay so we came out a little bit stronger and it's been a slow decline and these fourth graders are they were Kinder kindergarteners during Co the first year of Co would you say and maybe we discussed this would you say the MCAS are a little
bit more reliable with um Elementary School students as opposed to older students you could possibly um I would say the opt outs have increased I would say definitely they've increased more in the
past couple of years versus you just point out 2021 we weren't seeing as many opt outs um we're actually going to get into absenteeism and um you'll see that there has been uh a challenge with that and I think as people realize that there are
more options they're taking they're taking those options and you could extrapolate and say that could be true for MCA participation as well can you explain how the opt out impacts the scores because I I thought I I mean I could be remembering wrong but I thought
the um legislature addressed that and they changed some of the requirements as far as like how districts were um I guess I want to say dinged for students that when they did I believe that you still get that negative accounting when a student does not participate but candy
you can or change two years ago or like a year ago I think it did I think I saw something that said it's not held against you but then again it's not going to show on recent it'll show for like from this year on if it was changed like a year ago just based on on that um
but I think that's important to note too um the MCAS I guess like I I have a hard time with um the accuracy of that based on like I I feel like our curriculum based standards are a little bit more sound as far as uh reliability goes but you know
the MCAS have changed over time um that's something to think about um we used to have different testing options for students with disabilities that's no longer an option or at least one of them was taken out there was a like an M toss too um that was kind of in between the MCA and the m to um that one was
discontinued um there so then there are there are parents that opt out because it's not really a test that for example like I I had a child that I opted out um because he was in special education and without that additional option in there I mean he's he's like two grade levels
behind at least so what benefit is it going to be for him to be frustrated right so that that's just an just a caveat that I threw out there so that people are interpreting this data with caution and um it is very concerning I'm I'm very concerned about the reading data but I'm curious to hear what you
say next so yeah the I would agree there is there is absolutely no perfect metric and the MCA certainly is not one and so that's why we try we're trying to embed it into the context of some other metrics we'll be getting into some of our Norm reference criteria as well and
you will likely see some parallels there Brett so in running through this are you going to show like our fast bridge data and stuff like that that you okay I'll wait for that okay yeah if if the MCAS are soft as far
as analytics are you going to show some statistics or metrics that you're tracking that that become a little more solid in regards to looking at progress yes okay good thank
you and and again I just want to say we're talking about a variety of metrics um MCAS are just one they are really For Better or Worse that is the Criterion referenced um assessment that we have that doesn't
mean that we don't use other things to try to build out that full data picture and I think you're going to see some of the other metrics that we are using parallel what you're seeing with the MCA data so even though it is not perfect and for all of the reasons that
director Baker mentioned um there are reasons why families and students do opt out of it and they're perfectly valid reasons um we have to take that into account and we also have to look at it within the context of some other metrics that we'll
consider and we'll finish up with eighth grade reading at the national level reading scores remain flat from 2022 to 2024 while miss Minnesota saw a decline overall and on the right our eighth grade data does mirror this trend
showing a 2.5 decrease in performance and this is another area where we need to dig deeper to understand the factors Behind These Trends to make necessary improvements as mentioned earlier some of the progress that has been seen at the national level has been attributed
to proficiency levels among our highest performing students particularly those in the 75th and 100th percentiles so the good news is those students are showing Improvement and we're very glad to see that however the students particularly
those in the 25th and 10th percentile they have experienced a decline which indicates that the national the achievement Gap is growing and what that means is that the disparity in academic performance between students from varying backgrounds is in fact widening
that is occurring at the national level the state level and the local level we'll dip a very little bit into the local level tonight but they do impact our metrics Minnesota unfortunately has some of the largest achievement gaps in the nation particularly when we look at
outcome measures based on race and socioeconomic status it is important to note that these disparities are not limited um to students of color lowincome white students significantly Trail higher income white students across the state these gaps are not
combined to a specific area either whether you're considering the metro area the rural areas whether district schools or charter schools these disparities are evident Statewide and they are evident in standardized test scores graduation rates and college
readiness indicators while graduation rate gaps have decreased over time racial and income gaps um in college readiness have also continued to grow and later on we're going to see a slide exactly where this shows up in Lakeville
okay we are going to consider correlating factors you've asked a lot of really good questions and I think all of us are trying to understand so why why are we seeing this occur what are some of the things that are happening um and there are a lot of reasons remember
we're in human development and so when you're dealing with imperfectly perfect humans um there are a lot of considerations so these factors uh correlating factors uh help explain why Trends or disparities exist in test
scores understanding these correlating factors is really important for interpreting test data and identifying where targeted support can improve student outcomes one critical factor is chronic absenteeism which has been a persistent concern Nationwide as is
noted by nape chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10% or more of school days during an academic year regardless of whether the absences are excused or unexcused this includes both extended absences such as for illness or family
emergencies and it includes frequent short-term absences chronic absenteeism is a key indicator that can negatively impact a student's academic performance Social Development and overall success in school there are a variety of reasons
why students might experience chronic absenteeism things such as Transportation barriers the school environment academic struggles parental involvement socioeconomic factors and even school policies or practices additionally it is worth
noting that just as many workplaces have struggled with absenteeism postco 19 uh employers are sometime employees are sometimes hesitant to return to the workplace and are increasingly seeking remote work it is clear that a similar pattern is emerging in schools the
reason why chronic absenteeism is so concerning in education is to fold one it has a learning impact on the student naturally it stands to reason if the student isn't present it's pretty hard to learn we all get that the other reason is that chronic absenteeism
actually places additional strain on the teacher and academic resources and impacts the total classroom environment teachers must work harder with students who are frequently absent which can impact the classroom Dynamic these students are less able to contribute to the learning environment which can lead
to feelings of disengagement and perpetuates the cycle moreover they struggle to maintain positive peer relationships which are key to school engagement and success so with that we are going to look at some national and then we'll look at our
local data on this I had a question on that absenteeism do we have are we able to track data down to the student where we can show that hey look this percentage of students these 462 students in elementary are performing to
signicantly less yep um on this slide I'm sorry any other questions I don't want to okay so on this slide we're just taking another look at nape data they do track absenteeism their process is a little bit different and on the left you
can um I'm sorry this is fourth grade and eighth grade data um in fourth grade 29% of students indicate that they were absent three or more days in the past month over time that equates to a 10% rate of chronic absenteeism and on the
right 30% of eighth graders Federal data from 2021 school year shows that at least 14.7 million students Nationwide were chronically absent that is nearly double the preo 19 number of 8 million
students it's also important to note that as school systems we analyze both our average daily attendance or Ada and the percentage of students who meet the definition of chronic absenteeism it's important to know average daily membership you can have a rate of n over
90% average daily membership but still have a chronic absenteeism issue we look at both schools with Ada rates above 97% rarely have issues with chronic absence schools with Ada rates between 93 and
97% should be further analyzed um to assess the extent of the problem and schools with an ADA rate below 93% likely face a high level of absentee ISM and is generally a predictor for decreased student outcomes all of that
being said there has been an increase in chronic absenteeism since 2021 and it has not really slowed down just as private organizations and businesses are struggling with employees returning to the workplace that trend is mirrored here and we're going to take a look at some of our
data so to answer your question director Swanson our chair Swanson we closely track attendance data and we do have a significant number of students across our sites who are struggling with some chronic absenteeism this is data from our first
semester so these are the percentage of students who are missing 10 or more days of instruction as of January 23rd you can see that the elementary has the lowest number at 8.84% that's a total of 462 students
that increases um the percentage increas inrees at the middle school though the number of students decreases because we're talking fewer students to 15.09% and then at the high school level um
we're looking at 575 students again that number of total students increases though the percentage decreases so over the course of this year so far 1,77 students are struggling being with being chronically absent and we're only halfway through the year is it full day
sorry um it these are full day absences yes Dr Cameron um two questions and one you might well you might not know either right now one is have you been able to track um so for these student the individual students in these categories
what their academic performances to see like in Lakeville what is our correlation um I love that question so that's one question the other one is um related to it's like related to mtss and um the behavioral Matrix um are we consider
suspensions and do we do suspensions are they considered absentee or is that a different um label those are great questions I'm going to answer your second one first and then go back to your first one your second one um yes out of school suspensions are factored into this because they are absent and so
yes they're losing out on learning even though it is the school that may be asking them not to be there yes we do and you're going to actually see some Behavior data and the most common responses um in adherence with non-exclusionary
guidelines OSS is a possibility in in some major behaviors um yes is that something and this might be a whole another thing but is that um the behavioral issues something that our District's thinking about in terms of absenteeism I know some other districts
are moving towards no suspension it creates challenges and that like if you don't have a consequence at times like you can't correct Behavior so I understand understand that um anded Educators administrators want kids in school so it's like how are we how
are we thinking about this well some of that in two in 2023 there was statute that came out that requires more non-exclusionary practices um so that in of itself has kind of changed the face of things um I would say we're being mindful of it I think it is you know
generally well understood that a suspension out of school can have a very negative impact on that student and in some ways contributes to the overall environment and there are times where that might be appropriate and we do have it we have some uh guidelines and
procedures around when that's appropriate how much is appropriate and what are the procedures that need to take place um to come to that determination and then support the student upon their return your other question um as we were pulling putting
this together this is uh our system is not fully automated so a lot of what you're seeing tonight was very much like handbuilt and that would be a metric that we need and want and that's going to be a hand handbuilt item but yes that
is uh information that we need to know because that would give us a very important sense of where do we need to focus feeding out from what what amber asked um you talked about um out of school suspension do we have in school suspension available at each level of
our our schools I think it varies um you won't you will see some lunch detention but um the in school suspension is limited um it comes down to resources and also there's uh a lot of discrepancy about whether or not that is truly an effective form of
accountability okay what were the sorry you had mentioned some changes in 2023 regarding non-exclusionary requirements can you expand on that a little bit more sure um it just means that um prior to to requiring that you are going to
remove a student from their Educational Services that there needs to be uh a good reason why and you have to document what has been done um to intervene to ensure that um everything that could possibly be done to improve that
student's Behavior has happened and we're going to talk a little bit more in depth about behavior and responses to behavior in about 10 more slides okay okay okay so now we're going to get into our Lakeville area schools data
dashboard our data dashboard offers an overview of key metrics across the district over the past three years so we have three historical data dashboards we have our current year and then two historical I apologize this dashboard was developed to visually represent important District in data and provide
transparency to the public this is currently available on our website um the public is able to view it both our current dashboard and our previous year's dashboard in addition to all of this all of the mde uh required reports are also available for Public Access
that includes our comprehensive achievement and Civic Readiness report local literacy plan achievement and and integration plan and American Indian Ed plan um also for your convenience tomorrow morning you will be receiving a login and you will be able to go to your
own website as board directors and you can review all of this and you can go down the data Rabbit Hole as much as you like and you'll probably have more questions and um that'll actually be great so just so you know when you get
in there um this is set up um with five components first on the first page you'll see our self- evaluation data that's the dials you saw back on January 28th you'll see an overview of our demographic data I'm going to share that with you tonight um um you're going to
see attendance so you're going to get a another look at that um you're going to see more in-depth Behavior data um and you're also going to see some academic data mind you I'm kind of I've curated a lot of this for you tonight so you're going to be able to see more than what
we're getting into here um and I just for the sake of time and um efficiency I didn't want to go through the entire data dashboard but I want you to have access to that also I just want to point out this data Dash board is not live it
doesn't sync with our student information system at this time that is a manual update so as data becomes available we update it so it is possible that you might see slightly different numbers in certain situations because
it's fluid yes can you explain why is this a powerbi dashboard or is it something else our student information system we don't have we just don't have that programming available to us so right now I have my team builds this out
based on our student information system it's not powerbi we don't have that um the student information system doesn't talk to the database that we have um we're trying to figure out if there's a way to do that and if there's not a way to do that what are our other options I'll give you a call
tomorrow well um hopefully you'll bring a check with you can I yeah we used to have someone who did a lot of data analys data analysis in the district who I know left the district and so are we have we we
have not replaced that person or like I know you're were saying you and your team but I just I'm I'm just think it was Andrew Baron I'm just thinking about your and I'm I guess I'm just asking the question if we can provide more support at that LEL yes thank you for that
question Carly um since that time um there's been quite a bit of sort of re restructuring and realignment plus we've gone through um some budget reductions over time and you know had to shift some positions or eliminate some positions um so right now in terms of the data
analysis piece um Nicole has a person on her team um uh she is our uh data coordinator mtss coordinator and so she's the one that essentially H every time there's a significant iteration of
our data she is basically creating the dashboards updating the dashboards to do that so that is one portion of her job um but really all this uh to your point director Nicholson that it's a it's a hand
created um document that we have done over the past couple of years to try to get as much data as we can in one place not only for ourselves at the district level um but for the community as well so the position has shifted we used to have a director of data analytics that
position hasn't existed since Dr Baron was here and we have had to sort of re readjust so part of Nicole's team we have someone again just part of her position to help facilitate this work all
right so with that we will jump into a brief overview of enrollment and demographic demographic data um next Tuesday um Tracy bold our director of Information Technology will be presenting in-depth enrollment information um and so you may have questions and to
be honest with you I if I can answer them I will um or we might table those for next Tuesday because she has a lot of uh information I've already seen the slide deck it looks really good so I wanted to provide uh just a brief overview of our student population um
because it's important to know who's in our schools please note that the data you're about to see especially in the bar graft is subject to change these figures are not static they are fluid and they may fluctuate as time goes on so we're going to begin across the top
let's look at our total enrollment in the navy blue box on the left that represents our total student enrollment for grades K through 12 the red box in the middle reflects our total enrollment including students who receive special education services
through our early Elementary programming Early Childhood programming and then the Box on the right in green shows our total enrollment including all Early Childhood programs students prek through 12 the reason that you see varying
numbers is due to the fact that early childhood programming is funded differently other than special education these are typically fee for service programs and this distinction is important in understanding the breakdown of these figures also we want to make sure that you understand on the right
hand side in green it gives you an idea of how very busy our um Crystal like education center is with with those students and they don't normally appear in your typical K through 12 or EC through 12
just want to add at capacity capacity at capacity next we are going to look at our enrollment data on the left that is our federal and race breakdown as you can see the majority of our students are
white making up 67.1% of the population however it is important to note that number has shifted over time in the 2022 23 school year uh students represented 71.1% and last year it was 69% the increases in demographic
populations that we are noticing is in our Hispanic Asian and black students which is a sign of the growing diversity within our district this uh the next chart you see is our student group breakdown um we have a bar graph that represents the
percentage of numbers of various students student groups um these numbers do fluctuate um speaking of special education during Bill hrm's financial report last week a question came up regarding our special education
enrollment currently K through 12 it is 16.3% um director Baker had mentioned that a typical enrollment in a district is 19% uh had we included the ecse numbers we'd probably be right there at
about 16.9% but our due to funding mechanisms it's all organized K through 12 so I just want to call out that um 504 plans um that is our next bar graph uh a 504 plan is
designed to help students with disabilities access the general education curriculum this is different from special education which provides specialized instruction under Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 schools must ensure that students are
not discriminated against based on their disability in our district we currently have 328 students with a 504 plan we have an increase in our English language Learners or El students these students come from a variety of language backgrounds with different academic and
social emotional needs it is important to note that we have 673 El students in our district and this number has remained pretty consistent over the past few years that said the level of support that students require depending on um what their language skill are or how
long they have been um exposed to academic English can really vary and that does shift within that number and we have seen u a little bit of an uptake in our new to Country students we have
2566 students that receive educational benefits uh these families qualify based on income um and this helps ensure that these students have the same educational opportunities as those from more financially stable backgrounds there are just under 2,000
students in our district who are State identified gifted it is very important to recognize that these students just like all of the others have unique needs that we must also address through specific programming and strategies open enrollment we have 758
students who open enroll into our district from outside the Lakeville area school's boundaries additionally internally we have 587 students who live within Lakeville area schools and may be going to a school other than their designated
home school many times this might be due because um they are part of a specific program that is only offered at a particular site um Tracy will have a lot more information on that next week right Tracy okay and then lastly um I think it's
important to note that we actually do have 93 students who are housing in secure these students are currently homeless and they are facing challenges that we also must address um they are covered uh or through mckin vento which is State Statute um we are required to make sure
that we are um holding space and trying to provide resources for students who are exp experiencing housing or food insecurity Amber um two two questions one um around the free and reduced I know there was a conversation when the
state um went to free lunch for all that it might affect um District's ability to enroll students um who could qualify for services because they wouldn't need to enroll for lunch so curious like have have we seen that Trend here at all and then for the um the 93 students who are
um experiencing um housing insecurity um I know with the budget cuts I believe um Kim and Carly correct me if I'm wrong but we cut a lot of support in our school with the 360 community's positions so how how are we handling that and um are are our sites
over social workers or whoever overloaded trying to um fulfill what 360s was doing um I'm going again I'm going to answer your second question first um so we do have a staff member a district-wide staff member um who is our
mckenny vento coordinator um along with many other roles and responsibility she's also um helps oversee our e programming um which is a task in and of itself and so she is the person who is really doing a lot of that due diligence
with identifying students making sure that um she's helping coordinate Transportation um and other necessities that those students might need um as far as our free and reduced lunch and our title $1 I might let Dr McDonald do you
want to speak to that because that predates my time here what's your question about the forms well yeah it's kind of like I think people were concerned that students wouldn't enroll in this anymore because food being the primary need for
those kids um but obviously there's a whole other Suite of services that that have they have access to so have you seen the numers stay relatively stable which might not be a good thing necessarily but like this is definitely an area of challenge so it obviously it
is such a wonderful thing um for our all of our students to be able to access free meals um in add addition to that um the sort of second and third order effects um again uh is that in order to access
free or reduced meals um students and families would have to complete the form so you have to qualify and so they would complete the form and submit it so there was a growing concern o um because uh those forms also get us funding in other
areas so there were concerns for districts Statewide saying well what's the motivation because it asks some personal financial information Etc what's a motivation for people to fill out the forms because they're receiving free lunch so we have
been um we have been running sort of campaigns so to speak um and Outreach to make sure that our families understand um number one not only the importance of the forms for our district but also that they can receive other benefits if they
complete the form and if they qualify so so um it's it essentially it's taken more resources for us internally to try to come with a similar outcome but we have seen a reduction in the number of
forms submitted um just because it's not required for the lunch portion anymore so we're trying to address that any way we can I know Tracy and her team we have also our liaison and others that do significant Outreach in the community to help them um to help us because that number matters not only for lunch but
for other funding as well like title one thank you director Cameron I just wanted to uh I appreciate you bringing up 360 communities because it was something um that was cut within our within our school buildings um and there's a significant need for that um we received
emails last year um especially over the summer because they're fed during the school year for free but over the summer students don't have access to that and 360 communities has been filling that Gap um there's so much of a need in Lakeville that they run out of food almost daily when they're trying to do
that in the summer um so I just want to just for the community to keep in mind you know we look at Lakeville we look at the we got a dome you know we have all these wonderful things there's robust you know resources but there are people in our community that are really struggling to to meet to have ends meet
there and um 360 communities has helped to fill that need during the summer yeah well thank and yeah I feel like part of my question was I was able to visit um kind Wood Middle School um in December and principal McDermot show me around and I mean essentially that principal is running a food shelf herself in that
building I mean with other staff and so you know I think our staff are stepping up in the absence of these resources but um they have a lot on their plate already so it's it's um a lot to handle yeah it is thank you uh and then lastly on this slide I just want to point out that sometimes
folks are surprised to learn that in addition to English there are 84 languages that are spoken in uh homes throughout our Lakeville area communities um as you can see the top three are English Spanish and Somali but I have included the top 10 and the
numbers of students that speak those languages and in the interest of full transparency if you want to know what any of those are I wrote them all down so otherwise a quick Google search works really well okay we mentioned uh a little when
we were talking about chronic attendance we also hit a little bit on behavior and I said that it would uh show attendance would show up again in behavior um and around uh there questions around suspension so here we are back to behavior um another important factor
that as Educators we always need to pay attention to is is student Behavior over the past few years nationally we have seen a pretty significant increase in disregulated behaviors since students have returned to to in school learning uh it's crucial to understand that
behavior is a form of communication it is often uh serves as a strong indicator of a student's overall experience it can signal when things are going well and just as importantly it can signal when things are not going so well and this going back to that Statute
in 2023 this is why a lot of that non-exclusionary guidance was implemented was because they want to ensure that as Educators we are really trying to problem solve Behavior um and not just uh correcting behaviors Without Really Trying to get into a root
cause analysis in short when we consider student Behavior it is essential to look at it from the perspect not from the perspective of they are giving us a hard time but rather they are having a hard time regardless of their age this mindset allows us to respond with empathy and understanding coupled with
accountability when needed so our staff uh our staff responds to student Behavior with a detective like mindset seeking to uncover root causes of that behavior we're going to look at some of our minor and our ba major behaviors on the left
you can see our minor behaviors um these are typically classroom or teacher managed behaviors if unaddressed they can become chronic or they could potentially escalate into uh major behaviors that of course
interferes not just with the students ability to learn but also with others ability to learn when we notice that these behaviors are more we notice these behaviors are more common at the elementary level and on the left the examples the most the top five most
common minor behaviors we're seeing are things like uh Defiance or non-compliance physical interaction just to be clear physical interaction doesn't mean fighting it means like pushing shoving tripping rough housing that kind
of thing um more impulse control related behaviors that you might see more typically at an elementary age sometimes with middle schoolers um distracting behaviors uh inappropriate communication um which can be things
like inappropriate verbalization WR uh that could be written uh could be vulgar language um name calling that sort of thing um and of course attendance makes an appearance again with inconsistent presence in class that one is probably a
little more common at the middle and high school levels where students have the ability to uh go back and forth between classes Elementary they're a little more contained so um it's more common to see students maybe struggling with going from one class to another at
the secondary level than the elementary level and then you can see the top five minor responses on the right so again all non-exclusionary um responses there when you look at Major behaviors on the right
side these are behaviors that significantly disrupt the learning environment and or jeopardize the safety of the student or others so this year we've documented a total of 340 major behaviors grades K through 12 with the majority of those occurring at the
middle and high school and of those 340 major behaviors 98 students have exhibit have uh exhibited more than one so there's multiple it's not 340 students doing this it's some students have multiple behaviors
do we do you have statistical numbers going back like five years to say like this is how many major behavioral issues we had five years ago four years ago three years ago yeah you'll be able to see that when you log into the data dashboard if you kind of want to look
um these data dashboards started 3 years ago um we'd have to pull like old sis reports to and actually manually pull but we really started doing a lot of data tracking about three years ago and is it broken down by by grade or is it
just classified elementary middle and high school I believe it's broken down by grade on the dashboard okay um some examples of major behaviors are disruptive or disorderly conduct insubordination physical contact threats
or intimidation um fighting and again attendance does make an appearance there um and the top five major responses are listed there you can see out of school syst suspension is one of those um lunch detention I should point out that is
considered an exclusionary response um that is uh only occurring at the middle school and high school levels it is not at the elementary levels and that is in accordance with non-exclusionary requirements from the state so in conclusion it's vital to remember that student Behavior often
tells us something about the students experience whether things are going well or not so well and by responding with thoughtful proactive apprach we can better support our students and address the root cause of course that takes a lot of time and it takes resources to do
that and it does impact our student environment questions Carly um with PBIS when was that implemented I'm just curious if we have any I know you're saying the dashboard only goes back three years I said just be curious if there's any
anecdotal or information about whether PBIS has had an impact on I would say we do have some data on PBIS that was a little bit um some buildings used it some buildings didn't and the buildings that were using it definitely um were tracking that data
and definitely saw an improvement we've seen a lot of our principles taking that data using that with their staff and really breaking it down um in fact I believe on the data dashboard it'll even break it down by like what day it's most common um what time what month you see
the most Behavior um spoiler alert it was October this year um so they have been using that and I would say a lot of what we were seeing at the site level has kind of been adapted to be more district-wide but we
do drill down to the site as well Paul yeah please Nicole i' I've spoken to a few principles uh recently and they speak very highly of of counselors and and the impact counselors make Y how much do you think counselors
diffuse this type of slide well I'm going to speak from my own prior experience I was a high school principal in another District um and we had uh there's myself two assistant principles and four counselors
population was about 1,500 um I don't if you had asked me do you want want another assistant principal or a counselor I would have picked a counselor every time um they are essential because they have the skill set and the qualifications to
engage in that root cause analysis piece to get to the point where we understand what is that behavior trying to communicate and they also have the ability to help problem solve that when you have that expertise and you can build that into a student intervention
system that is incredibly powerful so I am really thrilled that we do have counselors at our high schools and some of our other sites um and and we could certainly use more if possible okay so now we're going to get
a little bit into okay so we you've had a lot of data what should this look like um how should this how should our systems operate and you've seen some of this before but just as a reminder we've shared a wide variety of unique stud
student data needs that work that our staff works very diligently to respond but as we all know one person alone cannot address all of these needs and you're going to see towards the end here what do all these needs look like in a classroom how do they present um while
teachers play an absolutely critical role in this it is not solely their responsibility we must build systems that are responsive to student needs the wide variety of student needs just as a reminder this framework that we use to
develop those is the systems of uh is systems of student support the bottom layer of the pyramid is that foundational piece um that is necessary for implementing effective evidence-based tiered interventions so we actually have a good amount of that foundational piece in
place we've been working very hard at that we have Universal screeners we have um benchmarking systems we have intervention processes um there are some things that we are still looking to build upon though and you're going to
see some of that the importance of tier one instruction Research indicates that when 80% of a total student population is demonstrating proficiency that is the sign of a healthy educational system if
more than 20% of your students are not proficient it will overwhelm your system of intervention there's a saying in educa in education you cannot intervene your way out of a tier one problem in essence we must first ensure
that our tier one instruction is as effective as possible when it's working well for the majority of our students we have a solid foundation to build upon from there we can begin to provide the more targeted interventions for those who need it that being said that doesn't
mean we're focusing solely on tier one we do have tier 2 and tier three systems that are up and running um in at various places es those tier two interventions are supplemental they should be rapidly accessible and match to student needs and then tier three those are intensive
and individualized doesn't necessarily mean oneon-one but very personalized for the student needs Brett do you have a question yes uh I do so it looking at the MCA scores and the stuff that we talked about before um let's let's talk about
the tier one instruction then are we doing what we should be doing what you just said is 80% proficiency and you look at the MCA scores across the board I mean you look at all of Lakesville and we're at 58.3 in math 61.2 in Reading 42
in science and you just said we're overwhelming the system already so do we need to re-evaluate our tier one approach well we are in process of that is our district priority this year as we talked about on January 28th our two priorities are um systems of instruction
and um parental engagement and our own self-evaluation reveals exactly what you're saying is our tier one instruction is an area of high concern and so when we are working on that that is kind of been where we have spending
all of our time and attention this year with a little bit of extra on that tier two and tier three um at the same time so all of our um PD uh read act um the math uh curriculum review that's happening that is all to improve that
tier one instruction how long does all that take I mean I I we've talked a little bit about like curriculum review and stuff like that and I've had a chance to talk to other people I've talked to my wife and people who teach so how why does it always seem to take a
really really long time to make a decision on curriculum I mean I thought curriculum you know we got case studies you got other schools that use the material you know you have individual teachers review it within your group right like people are are looking at this saying it either meets the needs it
doesn't meet the need I mean does the state sanction curriculum ahead of time do they get certified by the state at all I mean is there any sort of guidance from the state hey this curriculum these meet our standards or don't meet our standards our our teachers are the ones they need to know the new standards so
that's part of what takes a long time and especially these new standards and at any point if Sandy and if you want cuz this is really their bread and butter here um they are incredibly different and so it does and as you heard from our speaker earlier um
they're requiring new pedagogical approach approaches so it requires a lot of PD on the front end you have to understand the standards first before you can choose a resource that's going to be appropriate for that I would say on average it takes about two years to fully Implement and then you have to
evaluate following implementation but I'll let you guys jump in kind of nailed it good job Nicole that is exactly what I was going to come and say it does take anywhere between 1 to three years as Nicole said we have to deeply understand the shifts to the standards um not only the standards but what we teach in the
classroom at each individual grade level are benchmarks so for example there might be 10 anchor standards um across the K12 reading but that might mean then at the eighth grade level there are 50 benchmarks that that teacher is responsible then for teachers to under for kids kids to understand be able to
do and master so we have to understand what that means um when we look at a single Benchmark then we unpack them that means we read it and what does it mean there are often anywhere between one to four learning Targets in that Benchmark which means your 50 benchmarks
have now become over up to 200 benchmarks so we then have to prioritize those benchmarks which ones are going to provide leverage Readiness and endurance in order for students to be successful at that grade level and Beyond and then what curriculum resources and tools do
we have and then what do we need to match that so it is not a quick easy simple process and someone asked if the state provides curriculum to us they do not that is up to us yeah the yeah if I may uh if I remember Bill's presentation
a week or so ago uh one of the lines I believe was curriculum and it was it was reasonably expensive very it's very expensive not reasonably very expensive that being said who tracks the return on investment on that I mean you
know we're we're spending uh Millions I think and that being said again who's analyzing that making sure that we are getting a return on the investment and it is equaling academic outcomes you
know going upward yeah yeah I'll just interject for just a moment um what Elida said is a process that we have um across our system K12 um she is correct the state of Minnesota does not identify
curriculum however with a little thing called read act um that has changed slightly in the area of literacy um at the elementary level as it relates to core resources and for interventions currently the state um identifies and looks at resources um and they
identified as um highly aligned partially aligned or not aligned um the state is still in that process right now they only have one resource that they have identified as highly aligned for a comprehensive they still have um up to I
think 12 um that are being in reconsideration um they are overwhelmed um so as you can imagine as a district um and we're looking at elementary we're waiting for that research to come in um but to your point to director Carbone
one of the pieces that we look at when we think about a return on investment is we look at the data for example um um Nicole will be visiting a little bit more what that looks like for fast Bridge one thing we did particularly at the elementary level as it relates to the science of reading is we looked at
our data at early literacy and we noticed that there was some gaps in that data as a result we redirected our resources and identified what curriculum should we put in place to help support things such as phonics pheic awareness um all of those pieces that come into
place for early literacy and we made those adjustments so that's the hegerty piece right yeah you correct you got it director Nicholson so one of the things that we just recently did is we updated our hegerty resources we had an older one from 2020 we updated those
pieces and we're currently doing training some of you might even see some of the homeschool connections that we just recently published to support our families with that as well so that was one question that I got into a lengthy discussion about was hegerty and why doesn't it seem to carry p like second
grade or something like why why is that like we we seem to you know especially looking at like our stuff you know we see sort of this drop as they you know yeah very good question they're very good but then all of a sudden it's like we drop off as we get to like middle school and Stu like so very good
um when we look at hegr it's particularly around phic awareness which is really when we're thinking about our K1 Learners um with the new hegerty resource that we just recently adopted this year we did make that shift where it is is fully implemented in a tier one
structure for K1 and then hegr is used as an intervention Beyond first grade um so we do utilize that Resource as an intervention moving with um second grade moving forward and this is this is not really it's a question comment um you know I
think as I hearing what you said about tier one I had the same kind of thought as you Brett about you know we're not at 80% % right for a lot of the metrics not just MCAS but me I'm interested in the fast bridge I feel like that's more summi of assessment um and and I think
what I'm learning a lot tonight is that we can have the best curriculum that money can buy but if kids aren't showing up and if behavior is a challenge which 15% of our kids already are um at the secondary level are are um gone 10 or
more days it's only been half the school year you know that we need to couple our curriculum and instruction with these other supports right and so they're not these things don't operate in silos and I mean you've taught me that so I'm trying to trying to reate back to you
what I'm what I've learned right quick question on like the MCA scores because I found some interesting State targets or whatever they say they have on there which um for whatever reason as I click through all the individual demographics that you
could select they're all at 85% but then when you select the actual School the goal is 90% has anybody reached out to the state and said how are we supposed to do that like even if you hit goal if all of your individual Dynamics based on all the you know race
ethnicity and whatnot all of those are at 85% how are we supposed to get to 90 like if that's the goal that's an impossible goal like I I I'm looking at it going like well how how is like why would they even do that ask the student okay fair enough
I'm I mean I think it goes back to that idea of why wouldn't we want our goal to be 90% why wouldn't we want our goal to be 100% to that end we would want 100% of our kids to be proficient in everything so I'm then why in the demographic group why would we only shoot for 85 like that doesn't make
sense to me and then you know my hunch around that is it's around the achievement Gap in the state of Minnesota since it is so large um that start something that might be more attainable first yeah I think what you're speaking to is the Essa goals that came out a number of years ago that
replaced No Child Left Behind and they established that 90% goal I think I'd like to go back to what um director Adams had mentioned when we're really think a tier one we're really thinking about a healthy system of having 80%
once you have an upside down triangle it really puts stress on your system and so best practice will say shoot for that 80% um but what I think you're mentioning is that shift from No Child Left Behind to Essa and then they decided maybe arbitrarily 90% not really
sure on that one do we have any sites that currently hit that 80% goal it's funny that you say that um so our the individual that we had mentioned earlier um Cheryl gangler who is our data person she was working diligently this morning and finishing some of our
um fall to winter data um I was on a call with her this morning and looking at it and um particularly and I can only speak to Elementary because that's where I was focused in on we have a number of areas in our schools particularly in math that is reaching that 80% um and of
course I was zoning in on the areas that we're working with at elementary with our new resource with Bridges and 45 and a number of our sites um are hitting that metric Kim sorry I you're going to have to deal with a little educator tangent here um
as I sit and listen to this um I hear all the data I love data too and it's one thing I think we're missing is the biggest correlation that no one's even F that no one's mentioned yet which is um how how teachers um the decline of um
teach people entering the teacher education program um and when I look at that uh for the past 10 years it's 45% decrease um in in most of the states uh it kind of leveled off in about about
2021 um except for the state of Minnesota which was one of 11 states that continued to see the decline and people entering that teacher education program if you go back and you look at when that decline started and you look at our scores it's directly related you can see the go the line just go down
when we stopped getting teachers into our programs our scores in our schools started to go down too and I kind of relate that back to curriculum is important it's great I love all the things that you guys have said about curriculum I could talk curriculum with you all day long um curriculum is our
road map but our teachers are the ones that are the master Navigators they're the ones that we're completely lost without they're that that little thing on the compass that tells us where to go that's who's doing it you can give a teacher any curriculum if they're a master instructor the class is going to
meet Benchmark by the end of the year our teachers are everything um and we're losing them at drastic rates and if you look at like special education that number is 80% Decline and and teachers that are actually entering a special education program I can give you just a little bit of data cuz like I said I
love data in 2011 Nationwide we had 684 th000 people entering the teacher education program in 2020 we were about 400,000 it's a huge decline um and one of the reasons that people aren't entering that program is respect for our
profession um it's the fact that the job is harder um interventions and trying to meet all those those needs without the supports that are in place um not having enough counselors to support the work and the behaviors um it's all of those things like even when we have discussed this several times we could use so many
more teaching and learning coaches that are in the classroom supporting teachers work um the mentorship program to support new teachers so that we continue to come back um so I look at this and I say yeah this is important and I'm concerned about the data too but our number one priority has got to be um
attracting and retaining our Master Teachers and their staff I had a question I oh oh I was just going to say to I thank you for your perspective um I also think you know when we're looking at how Lakeville area
schools district is changing and how um demographics are changing in our schools that's another thing that we should always be thinking of as we're comparing ourselves to um kind of landlock districts that really aren't changing in demographic to um and so that's one
thing that I think can overwhelm our system is just the there's just constantly a shift in what our teachers are having to think about and who they're having to support in different ways so question just feeding up from Kim's
comment um I was wondering how do we identify and assess our teachers to know like which are our Allstar teachers you know which ones especially when we're hiring new teachers every year you know how do you identify whether or not you know these are teachers that we want to
invest in and continue on you beyond we um we're consistent with State statue and we follow the teacher development and evaluation process um also a robust hiring process that involves um uh panel interviews reference checking and then of course our site principles are
absolute Lynch pins in all of this because they're the ones that are in the classrooms they're seeing what's happening um and they're working with those teachers and their primary role um in an ideal world is that they are instructional leaders and able to provide that support um and development
for those teachers and um really try to make sure that we are growing our teachers to be all stars as you said and providing that that's part of what this data is too is where do we need to offer professional development to be able to
better support additionally I should point out that we're focusing a little bit on instruction but systems of Support also applies to behavior and social emotional learning as well and there are tiered interventions for that as well um we would love to see that get more robust to take you know share some
of that burden with our classroom teachers um but to go back to your question um it is a process of constant classroom visits evaluation reflective practice is incredibly important in developing your craft and skill as a
teacher and I think coaching like our instructional coaches are just vital to that process um I don't know how many times that I had reached out to an instructional coach and said hey I noticed this I need some support they come in and they observe in the classroom they make sure that your curriculum is being implemented with
Fidelity they provide suggestions you know they're looking at your teaching and trying to figure out you know what's the missing piece I mean they're they're just vital and I wish we had about you know 50 more of them so that we could support more of our teachers in the classroom but um you know I think just
going back to coaching um you know our principal should be the master coaches in the building any our instructional coaches should also be there but as a as a teaching team we we need to learn to coach each other too and the process like sometimes I would go observe one of the other teachers in my building just to get ideas because you walk down the
hallway and you're like hey that's that's really cool why didn't I think of that you the milk in the little tray there let's I mean those are great things that we learn from each other it's just a constant learning process do the principles in administrators have access to classroom data as far as you know how the interim assessments are
going yes you know for each grade level so they can identify and maybe Provide support where needed yes they do okay is that on the data dashboard as well it is not this you'll see all um District level data at this point okay
fastbridge so um we saw some Criterion referenced assessments before and we are um getting into our Norm reference assessments um so just a few notes on this um it is important to know that um
the norm reference assessment that we use as fastbridge is a general indicator we used fastbridge as our Universal screener this data shows us that our students how our students are performing compared to their peers across the same
a at the same age Across the Nation as you know um fast Bridge is a general outcomes measure meaning it is predictive and gives us important insight into the types of skills that a student may need to develop in order to succeed in future Criterion reference
tests like the MCA however it is important to note that fastbridge does not measure standards directly it measures skills and gives our teachers a sense of where their students might need further development
so when we're talking about 80% proficiency um if you look at this Universal scen scener for reading um that tells us we are striving for 80% proficiency at Benchmark and it's probably a better term at
Benchmark yes yeah please Nicole when I look at those 10 bars eight of them dip in Winter or plateau in Winter M why wouldn't you if you're learning from fall to winter actually get better good
question and I'm going to point out just two two things first of all kindergarten and first grade I want to point those out um kindergarten and first grade it's it looks like it's growth I think that's a little misleading because all of the other grades they give the same probes
at increasingly level at increasing levels of rigor from fall to winter to spring so they get tougher as the year goes it's not the same probe every single time versus kindergarten and first grade their new sets of skills
because for those kids their foundational literacy skills it's the first time they're seeing that so they start the test they take the universal screener in the fall it measures what they already know they learn the thing and then they move on and it measures
the next skill set versus 2 through N9 it's more comprehensive so what this might suggest when you see this decrease from fall to winter is that it might indicate that our rigor is not keeping Pace with the assessment
so this is something that we are currently addressing through our standards based review cycle the new standards that have come out are actually at a much higher level of rigor um and they are requiring a depth of knowledge of three it's on a scale of
one to four um it used to be the MCAS would kind of accept a a level two which is um more like recall versus depth of knowledge three requires application and connection to other Concepts and so fastbridge also basically is assessing
at a higher level of rigor and so that's an area of improved performance uh Improvement for us Sandy I know you spend a lot of time on fastbridge anything else you want to say about that I think um what Nicole mentioned um is correct
when we think about K1 so they might in the fall be being assessed on letter names and then when it comes time for winter it might be onset sounds or it might be segmenting and blending so it's really hard to show growth from K and one because the probes are not the same
from fall winter and spring they change based on the developmental needs of those K1 Learners so that's really the significant difference between K1 and then starting with second grade so in the and I'll I'll just take the K through five group because I might have
a little bit more insight into some of that but is it is most of it timed um so when we think about the assessments that you have here you are correct director Nicholson when we're talking about the K1 probes they're usually one minute probes um that the
student has when we look at starting with the a reading or a math starting in grade two it's not timed most students take about an hour to complete those assessments so we do we get more information than just you know like say
K1 do we get more than just uh the kid knows five letters or do is that really all we get because I've had a long discussion about that one I'm like if this is a computerized test they should tell you which five letters the kid was able to recognize okay and it does it'll
tell you which letters those are in addition um when we think about um the norm reference test of the fast which is a general outcome measure um we look at that assessment to support us as a universal screener to give us a sense of
where that student is at We also use this assessment because it's extremely sensitive and we can do progress monitoring so when we do an intervention we can then based on your return on investment be able to determine based on progress monitoring whether that intervention is working or not after
around six rounds of that you'd want to change that intervention and then rethink of what that looks like the other piece too is we have assessments that are diagnostic so if a child is having challenges we can utilize other assessments that we have um within our tools to help support
Drive instruction and do we have oh sorry okay I I was just going to say is there kind of a you know is there a weekly data day or something like that or every month or like when do you guys sort through it and say Hey you know we get we've been pulling six kids now we only need to
pull four of them let's get two different ones who are you know maybe low in certain areas or whatever you do that frequently weekly monthly y so one of the things that we have across our system our professional learning communities our plc's they do meet on a weekly basis at the elementary level it
tends to be Wednesdays I'll be quite honest with the react it's um coming into some of our time because some of those Wednesdays we do need for that training but you can expect that without react it's happening on a weekly basis with read act the teachers have two times per month to be able to
collaborate as a PLC look at their data dat um as a collective whole and then make decisions in addition after each assessment cycle with our fast bridge at the elementary level we do have data digs they work directly with um our learning Specialists which um leads some
of those conversations with those plc's our learning Specialists are also working with vertically aligned plc's um I was just recently at oills that learning specialist was working with the kindergarten and the first grade PLC looking at what those gaps are when we're thinking about that progression of
learning across those early literacy skills so the plcs can happen horizontally they happen vertically and there's special times throughout the year where there's a full data dig many schools may spend a half a day can I ask a question yeah um for
fast bridge if a student is I think it's I forget how that's categorized but like some risk or high risk in the assessment um that that signals right that you could offer targeted services to that particular student you need parent permission for that is that correct and
what what happens if you don't get parent permission yes so we do have a process with parent notification if a child is not meeting benchmarks and they are receiving intervention certainly a parent can opt out um of that service and that does happen at times um but we
really do have those conversations with those families to really help them inform what that opportunity would look like for students so we just took a look at reading same fast Bridge SCH I should also point out too this is the first year that uh 9th grade has used Fast Bridge so that's new
to the high school this year so new tool for them and here are our math Universal screening data showing uh Fall 2 winter growth so everything that Sandy just shared would really apply to this as
well uh we also just like we look at uh proficiency we also use rates of growth just like Benchmark is a key factor in assessing student progress um growth is growth metrics refer to a student's progress over time measured by comparing
their scores on assessments taken at different points throughout the year represented by a growth percentile which shows how their growth compares to the growth of other students within their grade level nationally so growth is measured um and nationally
normed uh 60% is saying that 60% is our growth goal um sorry to answer uh director Cameron's question we um look at growth um at uh
flat modest um or typical or aggressive um and Research indicates that if we have if students are achieving growth at 60% rate that's a generally pretty good indicator that they are going to be um
On Target to be proficient by the end of the year so here you see that red line across it in dashes um that that is average growth that is the target um and if we are under 60% um that may indicate
an area of intervention for those students and you can see reading on the left and math on the right so just one question so when I look at the the math screener um it looks like we're making pretty good growth in most of the things
but on the previous slide um it it I kind of see this downward Trend with with our math scores um is that like is that something that you're seeing from year to year like I I guess when I'm seeing the growth like I
would expect to see more from those those screener numbers as far as the skills so it makes me wonder if the curriculum doesn't quite have the rigor that is needed does that I mean does that make sense no it does make sense and I think you know as as director Georgie pointed out earlier you know
there has been a shift particularly at fourth and fifth grade um we have seen uh Bridges is the new curriculum that's been implemented this year so that there is some evidence that that might actually be making some impact there why
it is not quite showing up here I mean there is a in fourth grade there is a 1% increase and then it's pretty stagnant so um I don't have an answer for that question specifically yeah I mean I'd like to
think that that might be a pretty positive highlight yeah I think we have some outliers too when we look um at that data are we operating off of this one no oh okay thank you um I think sometimes when
you look at this there might be some outliers too from different sites that might you know that might be showing what this data looks like for example um due to the size of Orchard Lake um that particular building the whole entire building is in read act training this
year whereas our other buildings we have K3 in read act and 45 working with us specifically as it relates to um our MTH standards and Alignment to Bridges um Orchard Lake hasn't had any of that PD because in that particular case you
might have two fifth grade teachers it didn't really make sense to have one fifth grade teacher working on math and the other fifth grade teacher working on literacy they weren't able to collaborate then within their plc's so when you're looking here that's an overall average with P um proficiency so
you might have a few outliers um in that piece is the bridges curriculum is that just for fourth and fifth grade in the math no thank you for that question so it is a curriculum that we will have K5 um but again this little thing called read act we took advantage of it this um
year we were required um by the Minnesota state statute to have read act training in place it was also required for phase one teachers which are K3 teachers so I took advantage of that as it relates to our calendar so our K3
teachers were in um 60 to 65 hours of react training and then our four five teachers were in training as it relates to the implementation of bridges next year we'll flip slop our 45 teachers will be in the read act training and then our K3 teachers will be in the
bridge training so then we'll have full implementation K5 so is the current like K the three on a different curriculum versus yes they're in our existing curriculum um which is an older addition of math expressions um and then they will transition into um our bridges
curriculum Paul yeah please um Nicole could you go one slide forward please yeah that one at point of clarification am I am I reading that properly it looks I think this is what I'm saying 6 through 9 in uh reading and 6 through n
in math uh are they're not hitting the 60% threshold that you're looking for is that am I reading that correctly correct y okay that is correct can I ask a question about Middle School just
generally because it it seems to be lagging under both indicators um and I don't know if this is just from my son's experience um but is it a policy where uh like across all of our middle schools where you don't have to turn in your homework until the end of the the quarter or the semester and you can
retake tests multiple times uh I do believe there are policies in place around having some flexible deadlines to ensure that um students do have the opportunity to complete um assignments and I do believe there is flexibility in
retaking tests as well to ensure that the test are assessing what students know and are those new policies I believe they've been in effect for about three years is that right five I mean have we seen similar results I mean because we're talking
about rigor as being you know a good indicator of maybe Improvement in other areas I mean it seems to me just a lay person looking at that if you don't have to turn in your assignments on time or you can retake your test multiple times I mean isn't that the opposite of
establishing rigor uh research would well rigor is really demonstrating what students can know and do at high levels and when a student does that um the idea is that time can be the variable knowing uh student demonstrating it should not
be the variable um that so evidence there's a lot of research around this that could definitely be another whole presentation um and there are a lot of schools for a lot of reasons to make sure that we are holding student accountable for knowing things not being
compliant with deadlines is the rationale behind it correct okay right then I I kind of want to just ask the glaring question then I mean do they actually know it like when we look at the composite
data here we look at all the different stuff I mean we're hovering in the' 60s 7s y bad best I mean well this would indicate no well okay that's and that's so that's what I'm asking and like so to the rigger question I mean if you look at I mean at
just High you know real broad stroke I mean we're trending downward more than we're trending upward so if we've had this policy in place for four or five years I mean is this actually working I would just point out that this is not measuring academic dispositions
this is measuring skills we are going to look at some grading data which I think gets more more to what you are suggesting and that might be a better spot to engage in that conversation if that's okay with you okay and I would like to add particularly for both math and reading
at the secondary level we have just we have just started this curriculum reviewbased process because the state has not changed the standards so we are just engaging right now starting this year with both groups we have grades 6 through eight and 912 both Ela and math who are starting that process um they
are digging deeply into the standards the pedagogy the instruction and the shifts so we will see changes coming it's just going to take time now that we have the opportunity in front of us okay so um just looking back thinking back to the tier one two three slides that you
have do you have um those robust interventions in place in the middle school yet we do not okay so that would that is a big challenge for us at the secondary level we do not have um the capacity we do not have the schedule we don't have the people for for that and
it is something that is uh greatly need when you think about a single math teacher who sees 150 to 175 kids a day 50 minutes at a pot um I might notice that students in my class are struggling but again we don't have any time carved
out um for myself as a teacher than to work with Kim one I one to do something we don't even have a schedule that allows flexibility for our students to get that additional time to so that is something as a district I think we need to to really look at to support um our students and our teachers with that work
so I I want to ask a question about assess assessing because we we do a lot of assessing and I think at one point in time it was stated that we basically assess right up to the maximum hours allocated by the state so like we assess a lot are we assessing too
much I think almost every educator would say that we feel like we assess too much but part of that is because we're required to do assessments that um like the MCA kind of is green light red light but it really doesn't give anything to really help us um but then we need assessments like this and we need our
classrooms assessments because that is the actual data that I have in front of me to make movements in my classroom Amber you have a question can I just follow up on director Nicholson's question um also classroom assessments are really probably the most usable form
of data that teachers need in order to inform their next instructional move to ensure that students are they need to know what are students able to do and then either retach that in a different way um or move them into an intervention and through the standards-based review
process that is something that needs to be developed so that it is consistent so that they do we have evidence that they know the standards and that would probably be the most useful form of assessment for us um we don't have to go on this tonight necessarily but at least at the
high school level would a block schedule better allow for what you're talking about Ala um I'm aware of lots of high schools right that do block and there's a lot of benefits I'm sure and so we have a six period day um for those of you who don't know which is probably the
most smallest schedule you can possibly have so for our students um they can only take six classes a day which is limiting in of itself long term in terms of electives that you can take choices that you can have and then heav forbid you do fail a class um because you're going to have to make that up which will
then um chip into elective time um I don't know what the best answer would be for our our staff our community and our students I have my own opinions um but yes we could do a seven period day we could do a BL day we could do tries we could I would like to do modified
schedule two days a week um where then we could really build in that time and that space for kids to get what they need and teachers to be able to grab those students that they wanted um and not be set to a rigid schedule and expand opportunities for kids too
just on that note there are very few uh comprehensive high schools in the state that still have a four like a four block a four period day or a block schedule um they were really popular in the '90s and the early 2000s and schools have typically migrated away from them the
big barrier on those being that um for instance you take an entire Year's worth of content and you have it in semester 1 so for example if you have you're taking math semester 1 and then you don't have math scheduled the next year until spring semester you've gone essentially
a whole year without math so that's one of the big challenges with a block schedule there's no perfect delivery system but um that's one of the considerations with a four period day I I have one more question for light now that she walked all the way over there and sat down um
sorry so what do you think's going on with with middle school and the test scores here I think a lot of things are happening I think that we need to do curriculum review process it's evident we haven't had new curriculum we haven't had professional development in over 10 years it's a real thing it's a real
honest thing um please know that our teachers are highly engaged right now they are showing up to our meetings they are actively engaged they're excited about the new uh new instruction and the new pedagogy and they are crying for this they have been for a long time I'm going to go back to what I said a few moments ago is that we also do not have
any intervention supports in our buildings and that's not on our individual teacher we don't have the time the space the people to do what um those kids give those kids what they need when they need it so that is a real big thing too and then I think there's a lot of other factors with middle schools um I'd love
to do deep research on the fact that kids come from a community home school for six years where they know a few people who who nurture them and love them and care care for them and now we're in a middle school where I have six different teachers who have six different expectations and I have to
remember my schedule and all of my things and I've got hormones happening now too so there's also a lot that happens to middle schoolers um that we don't get to control as well and then as Nicole mentioned earlier um you know attendance starts to really uh become an issue starting in middle school as well
so if you're not in class you can't learn um and like I said you're missing a lot one day one section of math you're missing a ton right there so there's a lot can I just ask um just from your experience is this consistent with what
you see in Middle School like for Lakeville for Lakeville yeah yeah okay I would say it matches mhm did you have a question yeah I was just going to ask um I know you mentioned some of the things that create impediments but what do you
think the solutions are to to get that up I think the number one thing we're doing right now is starting that process um getting the teams together getting the teachers together in the room to make uh new decisions together collectively on the teaching and learning in the classroom looking at creating the new assessments aligned to
the updated Ben Ben marks so we can PLC it at a higher function um a functionality excuse me and then I do think again as an entire system we need to evaluate um our finances our support so that we can get interventions in the program because as Nicole said you can't
intervene your way out of anything but when kids come to first grade behind second grade behind third grade behind fourth grade behind fifth grade behind and then to us where there are no interventions um our students AR getting the supports that they need car you have a question yeah I I just want to point
something out and I'm interested to see if you agree with me I just think um we've been talking a lot about cell phones and how they are not happening in the elementary school for the most part or the principles aren't really concerned I'm interested I'm interested to see um kind of the Crackdown that
we've been hearing about that's happening in the middle schools this year if that leads to Improvement because we know mental health and cell phones and what is happening is an epidemic itself and how that impacts these scores and how our students are
doing and I mean I just have lots of thoughts about that but I hope that we see improvement with kind of the changes that our principles have talked about this year and I know that Dr a um and uh principal Woody spoke on that I believe last week or the week before and I I would agree that when I visit the middle
schools I really don't see the cell phones out ever anywhere um so they are doing a really wonderful job mitigating that um when I'm visiting classrooms at the high school I'm not seeing them in the classrooms where students are very respectful there they are in the halls of course I mean it's a cult it's their
culture so I think relatedly and again this is not for tonight this is like education in general um I think the amount of iPads the screen time to what extent at the national scale at the Lakeville
scale is that impacting students learning ability like we know at Young ages the more screen time the less brain activity is happening right so I get that parents want one toone devices and it's like a exciting thing to offer but at the same time I'm interested in like
longitudinal research to say like is this actually H the best way for kids to learn um and I think there's probably differing opinions on that yeah there's research on both sides right it's one of those things I'll I'll second that motion to uh cut out iPads for certain grades yeah is that our decision or is
that a okay so with that now we're going to look at uh intervention data which you guys have already started to venture there so this probably will not come as a surprise to you so as you've seen on the previous slides there is a clear
need for stronger focus on developing robust tier one instruction remember our goal is 80% proficiency and while we are not yet there it is important to recognize that that doesn't mean that we're not going to work on also developing our tier 2 and tier three
systems um we still have an obligation to do everything we possibly can to try to assist students so this slide illustrates where interventions are taking place as well as the types of interventions that are being implemented you'll notice that we have the highest number of interventions occurring in
grades K and one this is because early intervention is key to getting more students proficient and the sooner we can address the learning gaps the better the long-term outcomes early intervention is a major reason for these elevated intervention numbers in K and one focusing on a
establishing foundational skills these are crucial developmental skills in literacy and numeracy when we support these skills early they help prevent the need for more intensive interventions later building a strong Foundation now
reduces um resources down the road however as you can see the uh at the middle in the high school levels um the percentage of students participating in interventions is much much smaller um and for the
reasons that Ela just stated we simply do not have resources to offer those interventions at the middle school um or the high school and so that is an area of of great need for this District I have a question I don't know
if you can answer it but um for the students that received interventions at the elementary level what's the percentage of those students then qualif find for special education oh that's a really good question that I do not have the answer to well because then I was just thinking like if if that keeps our
special ed numbers down and then we don't offer those interventions in middle school then statistically you would think that our numbers would be higher in the secondary level and we want to keep those special ed numbers down right yeah I mean that is one of the mo that is an important facet of
multi-tiered systems of support is finding interventions that are going to support a student need um that are not special education so it's really designed in part in its Origins um to decrease the number of referrals into special
education and I don't know but I think I can find out for you I promised you some middle and high school grade data uh one area where we can see the impact of our lack of intervention in academics and uh needing continued focus on tier one instruction
is in our middle and high school grades um but there's some good news as well so our average weighted GPA at the high school level is a 3.29 which is a positive indicator of student achievement now if we were to strip away the waiting meaning our AP classes are
are weighted at a higher rate um that would be a bit lower this year we have 1,735 individual students taking one or more AP classes which could be either year-long or a semester long course to
put this in perspective we currently have 396 students enrolled in high school meaning that about 44% of our high school students are uh currently enrolled or will or took uh an AP course this year we offer 23 AP courses
additionally we also have uh 252 students that are um taking our post-secondary enrollment options and some of these students are also enrolled in AP courses um so there is some overlap there and this shows a strong interest in advanced
coursework of course there are challenges on the flip side to the right you can see that we are also experiencing an increase in the number of students failing in grades 9 through 12 it is important to note that for grades 6 through 8 these grades are
still rolling so when you see the green they have year-long grades so those grades are not final and those could definitely Shi the grades that the numbers that you see in navy blue those are semester 1 grades they are final and
transcripted Paul yeah Nicole what percentage on the failing graph what percentage of the percentage are repeat offenders oh that would be another hand calculation we would have to pull okay
so a repeat offender I think it's on the the next slide is it on the next slide yeah number of students failing more than uh well what I'm trying to you're asking something different but is it the same pupil that's failing failing failing or is it I failed in ninth grade
but I never failed again that's what I'm trying to ask I think it's a bit of both but taking our data out of it there is research that indicates the probability once you fail one high school level
course it increases a students chances of failing another High School course sub substantially so there is probably quite a bit of recidivism there we're also going to look at our graduation rates in a little bit um so you'll see some but is it possible to get that
number Nicole the percentage okay thank you is anybody failing an AP class on that list there we did not pull it that way I'm sure some of those might be AP courses but I could not tell you with specificity
how many so now this doesn't quite get to your point director Carbone but is kind of adjacent to it um you can see the most commonly failed courses across our middle and high schools and as you can tell the majority of these courses are
math related um this is a critical point to highlight because math continues to be one of our most challenging areas um we've already talked about the work that's being done around the math standards um going through standards based review um and the work that's
being done around tier one so as you can see on the left that is the number of middle school students that are failing courses as of January 31st 2025 again those are not final grades that is very much subject to change but it does give you a
snapshot on the right you can see the high school classes the most commonly failed classes um and you can see the number of students that failed multiple classes um and that's over just one semester so those are final so and as
you can see on the bottom those um courses those are all graduation requirements so that is going to impact progress towards graduation yes oh sorry um sorry I'm gonna take it from you um a question and this might not be for the
kids who are failing ultimately but something I've noticed at the elementary level is that for kids who are testing very high in math as far as I understand it we don't have math gifted programming it's language arts based um I think
that's a huge area we could think about like for kids who are really have a high aptitude for math how can we support them and even for the if if you don't fit the gifted threshold how are we kind of encouraging the love of math and doing differentiation in the classroom um I
don't know if that I think teachers try their best right but we're trying to get some kids to even be at grade level and so there's only so much differentiating that's possible and so I yeah it's a concern of mine well here's director Geor talk that thank you for that question um one of the reasons why um we
as a district with teacher leaders chose Bridges mathematics is that um not only is it a quality robust tier one instruction it also provides intervention for students who are not making benchmarks um and it also provides something that's called concept
quest for those students who are meeting it um for advanced learning one of the things um that we have done this year is our gifted education Specialists um they have been participating in PD with Bridges alongside our four five teachers and we are investigating um adding a
math or a stem portion to our Discover program right now it is a humanities-based program one of the pieces that um we've tasked our GES um and they are doing some fantastic work looking at how do we onboard that moving forward for next year um and we're
looking at putting that in place and using um some of the pieces that we have within our bridges Resources with the concept Quest so thank you for that question Carly did you have a question yeah I was just goingon to ask if do we know how this relates to the
absenteeism yeah and that was a question I think that was asked earlier um and that is data that we would like to also evaluate as we were putting this together um we realized that we would need to tally or basically crosswalk um
how does this all connect so we can get that it might take us a little bit but we can get that and I apologize for doing this I made this adjustment and it uh did not take but I do want to show you how this relates to graduation rate data so I'm
going to go way back here there it is so one place that you see an example of how the academic data that you just saw and how it's showing up for our students
and an example of our local achievement Gap is um is in our graduation data um it is important to note that this graduation data is lagging we are always a year behind in graduation data because the state refines and tallies um so we
never get um the previous year's graduation dat data until the spring so that's why you're seeing uh 2023 and 2022 data so although Lakeville area schools generally performs higher than the state average across various uh
demographic backgrounds smaller more diverse populations are not achieving at the same level as their peers you may notice some improvements in some groups and declines in others from 22 to 23 this fluctuation is partly due to the
cohort size of each group for example the graduation rate for black students in 2022 was 95% but in 2023 it dropped to 76.7% in 2023 there were 43 seniors across all three sites 33 graduated
seven continued on and three dropped out versus in 2022 there were 41 seniors so only two less but 40 of those graduated and one continued on with none dropping out um so those Co since the cohorts are
relatively small even minor changes can have a pretty dramatic uh impact on the percentages and this is why you'll see graduate rates fluctuating for those smaller groups from year to year nevertheless um this is an area of significant concern and focus for us as
well what what is uh ctst that means the sample size was too small to be able to make a determination so it's uh usually if it's less than 20 students okay it's can you hear can you hear me it's sell to small to
report thank you thank you and as we approach the end um I just want to take a moment because we've looked at a lot of really big data we've looked at some small data um as Dr McDonald started our presentation tonight I want to bring it back around
to humanizing the data um and I love this quote unfortunately I don't know who said this data should be the servant of human progress not the master when we treat data as human beings we can use it to Foster engagement guide decisions and improve outcomes for our students and
that is the process that we've been engaging in for at least my time here and for time before that so next you are going to see two classrooms in our district these are real classrooms that we pulled I'm not telling you what classrooms or what school I actually don't even know I didn't want to know um
but we wanted to be able to show you we've looked at all of these numbers but how does it really show up for a teacher on a Tuesday afternoon how does it show up for those kids what is their reality like you got a little taste of that um
tonight but it's important to know that all of this is incredibly a classroom is a incredibly complex web in which our teachers are trying to um meet a lot of needs um and don't always have the support that they need to do
that so this is a pie chart and a couple of graphs so you can see this is a second grade classroom in our district um you can see our demographic representation on the left you can see um the percent of
students that are on Benchmark in reading math and Sabers Sabers is um a tool that we use to identify um social emotional and behavioral skills um or academic predispositions and then you can see um the percent of
students um uh at uh proficiency or at risk of meeting proficiency or not reading Proficiency in reading and math and then at the bottom you'll see that this is a classroom with 24 students one of those students has an IEP six of them
are English language Learners five of them have health plans that means things like allergies or things that the teacher needs to make sure that they are attending to um two are participating in enrichment Cate uh enrichment uh enrichment
activities nine of them are currently in Reading intervention and four are participating in behavior intervention there have been 43 minor behaviors throughout the year this year I should point out that those intervention numbers will probably be increasing because this was pulled just before um
winter data was finalized and so to put that in a graphic representation this is is 24 students in a second grade classroom you'll also notice that we included that two of these uh if we apply our percentages are chronically absent 12 are reading below
Benchmark eight are below math um nine are in Reading intervention and there's a whole host of needs and this teacher is working really hard to build relationships develop Rapport um and to bring all of their
skills and expertise and to um Direct Baker's Point um they are the Lynch pin in making this happen for all of these students um and there are it is an incredibly complex challenging job and really speaks to the need for recruiting
and retaining highly qualified teachers with growth mindset and now we're going to just take a quick peek at what it looks like at 8th grade so you're going to see a little bit of a difference here it's going to be a much bigger class of 36 um the demographics are are slightly
different um now we have two students on IEPs two students on a 504 just one El student eight health plans um eight students participating in enrichment five major behaviors and five minor behaviors that came out of this
classroom and this one teacher is managing 36 students for an hour a day and does this five times um and these are all of the different um relationships and um skills that this teacher would need to
be able to make sure that students are learning at high levels and so they need to have very diverse skill sets to be able to do that and more importantly we need to continue to build our systems so that when they have implemented
everything that is in their toolbox and they have done all of that we have a next step for them just to point out there's 14 below reading benchmark and 11 below math benchmark and there's no no interventions in place to support those students so
correct how how long has that been the case where we've had no intervention services available in Middle School um as long as I know we had it one what oh you know something one had it one year they had some floating FTE that they
used so always okay then this is the first year that secondary have had counselors in decades right or or a long time I've been here 10 years um this is the first time we have had counselors at the high school level we do not have them at the middle school level and um
we are well below the um I believe it's ASA is that correct yep um it's supposed they they recommend 250 to1 and I believe we're close to 700 to one so when you think about this on a secondary level and all of that teacher
has to maintain every day multiple times a day I guess you can see why our enrollment in teacher education programs continues to decline um and the thing is like you if you look at this this is not just a Minnesota problem this is a nationwide problem and the sooner that
we uh look at this and realize that it's a crisis the better off we're going to be because we need to start focusing on that Kim when you're say your enrollment and uh teacher education what are you referring to like at colleges around the state yeah just just just uh when
someone graduates high school and they decide what their major is um we're seeing a decline of like I said average wise 45% Nationwide some states are seeing 80% and above special ed is anywhere from 60 to 80% um just to age
myself a little bit here when I graduated in 2001 and I took um my first teaching assignment um when I was before I graduated they said okay when you're going to graduate you're going to have at least 300 people competing against you you need to make yourself stand out
and so in Iowa they were telling us about you know add-on endorsements do these things to make yourself stand out and the first job I applied for was an elementary uh first grade position and there were 350 applicants um now when I apply for a job granted I'm applying for
a special ed I might be the only applicant sure um which you know when you're thinking about we really need high quality people in our classrooms what what's your option there then right and and so it's not just like thinking about uh retaining and
recruiting but it's also what are we doing at our secondary level to encourage students to go into education what are we doing with the people that we already have within our system kind of like grow your own um the par apprenticeship program where you're trying to you know help people go into
the education system and and like I said there is there is some um something to say about what's the reason that we're not going into education and a lot of people say like I like I said when I was in college myself um there was a big push on that this is a very respected
profession like we're going to be professionals we're held to a different standard than everybody else um and now like I think there was just a shift during covid and and a lot of teachers don't feel that um that encouragement from society there are Ed programs at
the University level that are being sunsetted yep Across the Nation because they don't have any enrollment at the universities for it MH do we as a district have relationships with certain universities and um colleges around the state where we that kind of feed into our district we have
we do have student teachers do we have a formal partnership with anybody no okay my foral district did I couldn't um so there are some universities um that uh have reached out to us or vice versa and we sort of make
a pledge commitment that we will help support their students when they get to their there's usually an observation stage and then a student teaching stage um and so we have so it's you know it's a loose collaboration we're not the only one in that pool um and so you know we do try to accommodate as many student
teachers as we can um as you know that's also it's um we're asking teachers on top of that to Mentor um and help another teacher they happily do it though I will say um and then hopefully we can retain those those teachers over time um so yes a little bit but you're
right the demand is High um and so the teachers really when I went into for my student teaching they just placed me I didn't I didn't have it they just said they we'll find the right place for you now student teachers they pretty much can go where they choose to go so
there's different reasons why people make choices there is do you find that it's a benefit to our teachers or is it more work to have a student teacher in your classroom I will say that's an interesting question thank you um chair Swanson I so over the course of my
teaching career um I had a handful of student teachers um what I will say is that if to do it right you're giving a whole another part of yourself and your time and your energy on top of this now people say well they do take over some
of your classroom duties and whatever so oh you're just must be sitting in the lounge all day the reality is no you are essentially a one-on-one coach to that teacher to help and support them um so that they can grow into um you know an
effective and excellent educator which is which is what we want so it really is a it really is a significant contribution there's a lot of night phone calls and after school meetings and those types of things to really help them get where they need to be
so right so looking at this list this is a massive undertak um one might even say you know if you could decouple some of these things it might be beneficial to the teachers um maybe if they didn't they weren't
responsible for all of this now you always have to prioritize so with you being up here I think it's perfect that I get to ask you this yes what is what are our priorities for teaching and learning for the rest of this year
looking ahead to next year like what are our what are your goals what are you what are you pushing down to the principles who are pushing down to the teachers and like what what's the focus from your chair at this point in time uh you know our core work is really around
our mtss framework it's really around tier one and it's really around getting the right systems in place because I'll tell you what you know we have incredibly passionate teachers in our district we have incredibly passionate directors and coordinators at the
district level everybody is doing at the absolute most they can sometimes more than they should to try to help the students right so what we have to figure out is how can we get the right systems and supports in place so that our
teachers can teach and they can do their job um and and then there are things that if if there are things that that students need beyond what the teacher um can do or has expertise in um that's we need counselors we need intervention
time we need a schedule we have over the time I've been here um we had a whole grp oh where's Ela we had a whole group that um looked at a every possible schedule out there like trying to figure out how can we how can we do things
differently because it's about it's about time it's about expertise like our counselors um and our teachers and it's about getting the right systems in place because when you have 150 kids or
sometimes 185 kids a day you have one that's really struggling you have to know what to do next to help that child right so I would say it's really about mtss it's about core instruction in the classroom and
getting the systems when the core instruction is not effective because a student has different needs what is the next step so um we do have uh some of those processes as you saw in place at the elementary um we need to replicate
those at our secondary um and certainly at our middle school has come up a lot tonight they are the group as Ela said they don't have they don't have any counselors they really don't have any other supports they don't have any interventions um at least we've we've
made some steps we've been able to make some steps at the at the high school um but I would say that's an area we're significantly behind in terms of serving our students well in those areas do the student Liaisons fill some of that role on the Middle School level um the student Liaisons are really
more about um they are building relationships with students and families um alongside of helping them navigate the through our system um they uh I don't believe and Nicole could speak to this um none of our liaison um are
licensed teachers um so they don't have that teaching background their expertise really lies in supporting students and then working with our collaboratively with our um student support administrative team sometimes teachers um to help them
sort of navigate uh supports and try to help them find supports as needed so that's really their role they're not intended to be teachers or interventionists well we at the end [Music] unless you have any final questions I do
have some resources for you I am actually going to reare this slide Deck with you I'll ask Kim if she can do that because I did make some adjustments to it um but there are some additional resources and tomorrow morning you will get um a video from one of our comm's
teams explaining to you how to log in so that you can look at all of our data dashboard information yeah Carly I was going to say send emails but I just want to publicly commend you guys on all the questions you have answered today in a wonderful presentation and um this has
been a lot of time um standing up there and just really appreciate all the work you have put in today well thank you we appreciate your engagement yeah thank you so much it's been great to just you know hear about our students and and get this information so thank you so much our
pleasure and just to the board I'll say um just wait till the next one when we talk in enrollment cuz uh that's going to be a lot of fun too mhm all right uh any board reports moving on none great how about uh
superintendent report yeah i' just like to address um there's a lot of questions come my way about uh extreme cold weather and what the decision criteria is with that so my report uh to the board and to the community is
uh the standard is the uh national weather service so if you're looking at your phone and you have say Yahoo or you have apple or whatever you have um I'm using the National Weather Service as are all the superintendents across the
state of Minnesota so that might help a little bit um when it's extreme cold weather uh the the distinction that we uh as superintendent uh collaborate on is uh whether we get a warning or an
advisory uh you will note that today was uh we got a warning uh the temperatures are extreme in the sense that uh I think skin exposure uh 10 minutes or less can create frostbite and other things like that now I understand we're in Minnesota
and um I came to Minnesota in 11th grade and um yeah we had days like that and we just went to school I I get all that um that was 197 um and in in
2025 it's a little different um and the other thing too transportation is another major consideration and um you can understand that uh in snowy weather you could it's kind of like obvious right um I can tell you the diesel
engines will gel um and I know that uh again we live in Minnesota I don't know I remember plugging in a car with a extension cord uh so that the core would stay warm uh putting blankets on cars uh that's gasoline Diesel's a little more
difficult um I just happen to know that from professional experience um so there are issues that occur uh in extreme cold weather that also are limiting factors on a school system but uh I never take that decision lightly um and I just want
everybody to know there's a a process we go through those are some of the key things that uh that we that we um collectively as superintendant discuss um and try to come to the best decision that we can and of course I do keep the
board chair uh informed along the way so um I just wanted to address that thank you uh I will let you know my children were very grateful first not having school today I was going to say the choice cards really played out well in my household they had I let them do that and they had their fun and those were
great all right um yeah it's a little after nine I will entertain a motion to adjourn at this point a motion to adjourn motion by director Carbone to adjourn is there a second I'll second all right and a
second by Carly Anderson being a first and a second uh I will call it for a vote on a motion to adjourn all in favor say I I all oppos say nay headed passes we adjourned e e