approval of agenda okay uh any questions or concerns about that. com have.
motion questions about that at all and I just want to Kim say that that pay Equity compliance is something to um anybody else got any questions on are those in
favor of approving the say I supp okay that takes us to 6.0 communication reports 61 Jim is here yeah so Jim was unable to join us um tonight but you should have a worksheet in front of you he had some updates since the last um information that he sent out um one is Roman numeral 4 the section dance took place in mon video this past Saturday on the 8th and Mr trock attended and the girls did a
great job qualify for the state competition um Roman numeral five was just added by Mr trulock the Quad County these are wrestlers they wrestled in Bull at 6 o' at minota and if they win they'll wrestle minota after a 30 minute break um if they Advance they will wrestle on Saturday um 2:15 in Paynesville one of the reasons for that 30 minute break you might ask but within um within wrestlers least in the state of Minnesota they can't compete in a match within a certain amount of time and so therefore they have to build that so that
every wrestler has the appropriate rest before they wrestle another contestant and then going up to the very i' would like to highlight that Miss peepers Miss peeper had 23 McCrae students participate at the regional BPA competition in Marshall and all 23 100% of the students qualified for the da competition and they'll be traveling down to Minneapolis Mar six seven eight to compete against other people across the state and then if you look to the very um back
there are some statistics go into great depth but you can look for yourself and some of the athletic participation how many total kids in each grade participated in our winter activities um you just kind of look those your own questions about Mr Trot yeah I talked Mr TR before the meeting here too just kind of a heads up there's two two students that do gymnastics through Von KMS area and the team has been having a really successful year um they got second in conference
on Thursday and then their section meet is this Saturday in uh New London Spicer so they're doing well one of those my kids some little bias the other one they having a really great year so I think it's worth acknowledging your efforts congratulations okay that's it for J okay yeah I gave you kind of a long list for this month I'll try to highlight some of the the big things that have
going on did that second round with fast Bridge testing that's that January testing I that's for math and reading and they expect some growth that goes with that so I give you an example four of 90 in the fall they have that same level you would need depending on which grade sometimes a 10 to a 15 Point jump just to be the same so uh we challenge our our staff and students to have 50% of their kids make that gain so not just make the stay the same but a gain
above that then we through it all and grades competed for prizes so uh in Reading every grade had at least 50% of their kids make that bump and in math all but one so good start for us to kind of look at that data and see where we're going that we we use that to kind of put our students in those mtss those intervention um groups for reading we did our Quarter Two celebration then on the 24th that was our 15
Wolverine winners we also uh announced which grades had met their goals for that and then they had uh different prizes that that grades did it was sometimes extra recess sometimes so that do as well and then just point that out we we really take pride in trying to recognize the good things that our students do so in that first semester we had 1,47 positive pride tickets so that's a lot and then we had 73
referrals um in the first three months and then down to 24 the next so about 97 total so 97 not so good, 1400 positive that's nice to see so we're still trying to build on that recognizing kids for making the right choices as we go through it and that's a big part of the Wolverine Way Li that we acknowledge those qu Evolutions um something that seems a little bit minor but we're kind of excited about it we tweaked our breakfast schedule so we went from a
set of time that kind extended breakfast for almost an hour in in the morning getting different grades through to more of an open Period so we have recess first and then we bring kids in in clusters four and five are eating at the same time but now I'm going to the middle school high school they're pretty excited they get their own section on the end they get uh more food choices including like a hot sandwich or eggs or things like like that so that's been really good and then it allows our second and third graders to come in early where fourth and fifth used to be so uh they come to breakfast
at 7:50 theyve got kind of a 15 minute window to eat and we line them up we get them to class so we're able to start our day by about 810 now compared to sometimes 8:30 so we're trying to build those minutes back in because eventually we're need to get some math interventions and then we got create some time for that but uh it's been a week and and a day and and so far so good little things that we are going to tweak with our kindergarten first grade how we dismiss them making sure we wash our hands after playing but small
things and the kitchen staff's been pretty happy with how things have done and then uh last week we started with our uh first ever MCA Academy so we invited um just about 80 kids a little less than that um and we've got about half of those kids that are attending so what the MCA Academy does is it gives students that were right on the edge of of a partial or doesn't meet gives them a chance to come in on Tuesdays
and Thursdays for 23 blocks some just once so be either reading or math and we'll do interventions in small groups to kind of just drilling those basic skills get them ready for the MCA test and kind of get them caught back up in the classroom so be a total of 15 academic dates the last date will be a pizza party a celebration and then we'll have the MCA test that follow that and that was generously sponsored by our uh 218 so really uh thankful for that and so follow
off to B in fact I had four more students that turned into slip since I printed this off last week so we got a few more kids that are joining us this week uh and then lastly I was able to attend the the Mesa the Minnesota Elementary School principal convention this last week on Wednesday Thursday and Friday and I'm just really thankful that you allow us to do that take advantage of those opportunities great keynote speakers really good breakout sessions and then just a great chance to network with people around the state to see what's working for them and also just
kind of um share the successes that we're having here and just hearing what's going on other schools I'm really prideful for what we're doing here a lot of really great things and it's just reminds you how special it is to be here at Dev thank you awesome thank you very much good evening everybody uh a few things I'd like to highlight for you out of the bullet points I shared we're going to go with bull Point number two we had our
last month but we did have our financial aid fast appearance night that was held on January 22nd uh we update on that as we did end up having families to take advantage of that opportunity and get their pass at least started if not completely filled out so that was good uh again to act what Mr Trac had said about the one act we did end up having the one act team for put on the performance for the student body which was fantastic love being able to have something especially with a message like
that U hashtag viral for them to sometimes we talk about bullying and that kind of stuff it's sensitive and we all have our own interactions with it but and we carry some of those things from from when we were younger with us and so to have it addressed in a manner that's accessible for the students uh it was it was very powerful and very well done and it's also last year was a bit of a comedy so it was a very drastic departure from last year to go to this year we being so serious so thank you to the one act team and the coaches for doing that it's great uh this last I
have this with them was last Friday on February 7th we had a tour of healthcare event sponsored by Miss River Valley Career and teched group and we were allowed up to 13 students and we had 11 10 so I I will share that uh the the nursing Avenue of careers is something that mcra students really really have attached to for a number of years now so for us to be able to keep providing those opportuni extremely important for us so that was a great thing uh and again just working with Miss brle to
care of and and make sure that we recognize them and make them available with students is super important for us and then the last thing I have for you out out of the calendar happening is there's a number of big things coming up you including blood dra and parent teacher conferences and stuff but I want to highlight February 12th so we've got that coming up on Wednesday this week where we've got our our current N9 10 and 11th grade students will be attending a registration prayer so that they can hear from the teachers what courses are going to be offered um teachers can do a little bit of a sales pitch to them and that includes bringing in our are
creating entrepreneur opportunities classes for class and U then Minnesota River Valley Antion to so bring them in let the kids hear about a a real quick sales pitch and then get out and talk to the teachers about what courses are going to be offer so they can start formulating an idea because when we have conferences then they start signing up and the exciting thing kind the mean thing maybe it's a little nerdy but you vote with your feet and so it's always interesting to see where the students choose to to vote and what classes
they want to go into because then miss bristley and I sit down and we go okay we hit a threshold for this we got to make sure we have this class oh we need to have two or three sections of this class and so it's exciting to think about next year getting ready for so Shar that with you other than that you have any question all um I want to thank you also for allowing me to do some professional development I attended the scho
Association in Winter conference which was called Inspire connect and leading with a purpose and two great keynote speakers one was U Mikey um Smith and uh he was a band director a junior high band director I think he was from the Atlanta area and a number of years ago let's just say a little over a decade ago he kind of forgot his why of why he was in education and he was about ready to walk away from from his profession but then one day there was a junior high girl I believe just kind of brought to his attention and just thanked him of things that that he did and they
were just small things they weren't huge they were just small things and he it it just it reignited him in his wife or why he was in education and so his his presentation was called keep on going and after thinking that or after almost walking away from education then he became a seven time teacher of the year and also a Grammy music educator award you know so he was he was truly ignited um because of that just that small gesture that Junior High student brought to his attention um also I got
Hamish Brewer Hamish Brewer grew up in New Zealand and um has been traveling across the United States just reigniting schools that have kind of Fallen apart and they've lost their positive climate he just comes in he's uh he's covered with tattoos he rides a skateboard um and he tells kids every single morning on the announcements that if somebody has not told you today that they love you I love you and so he's just been able to turn around some very difficult um schools and um very motivationally very
mtiv to hear myself I went to a handful of breakout sessions one on school climate one on networking budget insight and then a very interesting one that was called dancing with the ye and I only attended that just because of the name alone uh but in in northern Minnesota there was there was a group of schools and I think it's the EV evth Gilbert and also the the uh Virginia schools that Consolidated and build a built a brand new building and they did it with regenerative design which means
they took the landscape of the property that the school owned and then they built their school into that so many of the trees stayed many of the Rocks stayed many of the you know the natural things just stayed and really cool and very in tune with with that area of the state and I put a little just synopsis of what regenera what regenerative design is um on January the 17 uh one of our administrative assistants her name is Taylor D BR um she came to Mr
weat and Mr Bertram and I earlier this fall about the possibility of having like an an FYI or frequently asked questions session for those that may be interested in being a substitute whether a substitute teacher or a substitute parah and so that landed on January the 17th she did one afternoon session and one evening session just talking about you know what does it look like to sub at at McCrae and then allow them to ask some some questions and um I'm going to put Mr Wheatley on the spot do you
know how many attended each of those those sessions three okay three and one okay what what uh what was generated out of it was the realization that planning ahead let's make sure we have one come late summer so that we can s get it out there a little bit more make sure we advertise it for and and our goal is just to introduce our school to them and also allow them to introduce themselves to
to build that that connection to get people in the building to help us out on days that we need substitutes um we have had already um three out of the total four professional days allotted this school year to work on our read act and theou for that is in its final stages where there is compensation for those those teachers and also the possibility that put earn credit to um for that we have started the process of our flexible learning application looking at the four day
school week um Jesse Todd Jud Cam and myself have been working to put together some some statistics and a survey that has been sent out and I was just wondering Jesse can I put you on the spot by just sharing the survey has been out for about a week and Wednesday I think is when we shared it out okay and what has our feedback been so far just in numbers overwhelmingly positive um just focusing in on the parent one um think we've gotten 30
responses so far which is actually more than we got in the entire run three years ago when we did this last time we're in the mid 220s for that so it's not way over but in under a week um and I think last time the like the yes continues the approval was like 87% and we're actually sitting over 90% right now on approval of yes please continue with it this is a great thing lot of the comments are focused on
you know the kids ability to recover to focus to just be more positive be more excited to go to school um you know the acade the academic benefits of being able to have that Monday to do their homework to catch up on things but then also to do appointments and dance lessons or piano lessons or work like for a high for the high school kids that's a huge one for them is the ability to work um
one kid said it really really really clearly but there were a few others that said the same thing basically of it's the only day I can work eight hours like I can put in a full eight hours on Monday I think that's really that's really cool and huge to be able to have that opportunity for those kids to to do that to really go beyond the scope of what we can kind of do in school and get some of those experiences without having to miss an
appointment or the dentist or that person to reapply for the four day school we for a flexible learning um schedule you do have to have public meetings and so we have to have three two of them are going to be nights where there's conferences so we'll already have the full traffic of the families and our constituents that are coming into those days um and they can can attend um McCrae right now is very popular so there's many many surrounding schools uh superintendents that have reached out hey can I see your calend I
see this hey can I come out and visit um so so people are asking a lot of questions of how things are done here and many people it's um it's intriguing to them it's causing quite a bit of interest on January 21st Amy from msba did conduct a public meeting uh for the superintendent search and that video has been posted on the web page um the next one is is very exciting um the business education Network and thank you Debbie for your for your connection came in um
this last week to visit in Mr um zman's social studies class his e8th grade um classroom and Riley cin came in James Miller and then de came in to present um so it was great to have that connection and didn't take us too long to get to get you guys into the building so it was it was it was a great connection um as judge shared we had a very Su Jud and Todd shared very successful snow week um great pride and great spirit we had a great corination some combined activities with the elementary and the high school middle schol we had
a variety show for the very first time it was about 45 minutes to an hour or so in length and this was kind of interesting but the majority of the Acts were elementary kids and can you imagine being an elementary kid and performing in front of not only your own peers but everybody you know through 12th grade and we had singing and playing the violin and we had piano playing and it was just it was really remarkable to see those especially the younger kids you know perform in front of that such a large they they performed
in front of 800 people or more um so that was great and then we also had an unveiling of our mascot our mascot has a name now his name is William or Willie The Wolverine and uh that came out of I think there's close to like 80 Suggestions by staff and and students and then narrowed them down um Mr trulock thought that the Wolverine should have my name so he actually cast a vote for Jumbo Josh The Wolverine so uh but that did not get many
V we didn't go but it'll be nice to now have Willie The Wolverine um participate in some activities whether it is you know February is read Across America month um also to Willie you go down and visit visit the nurse to you know remind kids of how to wash their hands appr properly or stuff like that so we're hope to do some Social Media stuff with with really um Elementary celebration as Mr beram shared um very successful uh not only for the kids too but the amount of moms and dads that that came in you know to have their
to see their children recognize and I do want you know and this is a a hats off right now to to Mr beram but he makes a personal phone call to all those families that are going to to receive those certificates and that doesn't just happen in 20 minutes that takes that takes some time and you know the celebration is nice but also too the phone call from you know the principal or a Dean or whatever is is is remarkable especially when it's a positive thing so thank you to both principles for doing those things um to piggyback with the elementary celebra Mr
Wheatley Mr westrock and Miss mock are working on just a really great way to help with the middle school and high school be appreciated for the things that they do and so we've gathered some data on grades and tardies and attendance and behavior and uh we put together a list of students that meet that criteria and then that list is being sent out to all the teachers with the hope that we get at least five to 10 comments positive comments from those teachers that have those kids in class and those will be put together on a
document mail home to the moms and dads you know sometimes it's it's a little more difficult to recognize middle school and high school kids but it's it's important to do that um so so I I think there's going to be some great success with that it's nice to get something positive in the um virtual caling uh at the beginning of the year uh this was something that was introduced to me and I thought how this would really be cool if McCrae had this so I dug around and saw some other districts that had this and uh Miss doy one of our social workers at the middle school jumped she said I'll take this on
as a project so now right now McCrae has a virtual calming room um that has calming and supportive environment for all people um some stress reling releasing things some anxiety releasing things there's some videos that can be watched but uh it's on our web page and I would encourage any of you and all of you and anybody that's watching to to visit the virtual col pretty neat uh resource and also something we could even use if we had an e-learning day you know that kids are expected and look at
some of those things um be very nice we're we're ahead of schedule for 2025 our Paris do need to have a certain amount of PD um before they start the school year and we've got that in the hands of our professional excuse me in the hands of our Care Professionals so they can schedule that during this summer then policy updates misso school board has created a list of about 10 to 12 different policies that may be impacted because of executive orders from our executive branch so those things I'm doing quite a bit of
homework on and talking to other superintendents too um many of those items might end up going through the court system first before we as a public school Southwestern Minnesota have to do anything with it but just to be headed up to those things that I'm working on and then we also have to remind ourselves too that anything that the law even if we don't have a policy that matches it we have to abide by so if we think back you know even a year ago when we were talking about firm safe and sick time even if we wouldn't have amended our contract our Master agreement we still
had to follow that because it's so laws will always Trum policy questions that you folks might have I go online and check the virtual what did you call yeah virtual calling roomes and I didn't see any uh from
theing year but was that in Mr trock that got me some aniy any thank you okay any other questions 6.2 is committee reports um only thing I to say we at a negotiation seminar today a few of us getting ready for the negotiation season so
anybody else State hist I'm the elected board official on that grp so it was really interesting to kind of sit back listen and learn and we a bunch of talking about some of the executive orders that were coming out how we move ahead with the initiatives things like that um also did some looking at um the officiating what not and just the lack of officials because of not a popular position to
because of the and did up their andage an incentive to redeem some of those that are we've got a very aged or Aging shaing in our are they're looking at are going be dependent on what happens State all right I
guess that's it unless anybody said anything else is for discussion anybody I think just you know reminding folks that we're still going through the search process for superintendent the positions posted I think it ends the end of uh February think February 24th 25th okay perfect and then we'll be able to it's kind of that calm kind of you
know a lot of work up front then we wait and there'll be a lot of stuff coming on yeah the board the meetings coming up there'll be a lot but just some heard some grumblings in the community about what's the district going to do like well we're in the process where this is just as we're waiting for applicants to come we'll okay there's nothing else 7.0 business it I see is that that is all right 8.0
upcoming meetings just like you alluded to there mark this the T of special meetings and things happening say