All right. Good evening everyone. As I call to order the regular school board meeting of Independent School District number 882, it is 6:00 p.m. on Monday, May 18th. I'd like to note that board members Jeff Hegley and Mary Bartell are
not here this evening. Please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. >> Thank you. Now we're looking for approval of tonight's tenative agenda. >> So moved. >> Second >> by Melissa Curtis, seconded by Casey Root. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed, please say no. And passes. 4 Z.
Now we are moving on to citizen comments. We do have one citizen comment this evening. So if you want to start making your way up to the podium. The next item is our citizen comments. Our policies govern citizen comments as we are also described the process with
the video and guidance on our website. We welcome citizens to address the board at each regular meeting. School board meetings are conducted under Minnesota open meeting law statutes. Open meetings are different from a public hearing or open forum. There is no back and forth
questions and answer period or discussion with board members of the content of citizen comments during the open meeting. No board action will be taken at the meeting on the speaker comments. However, comments from our citizens are very important to the board. Speakers are contacted before and
after the meeting to provide follow-up opportunities to continue to work on concerns or provide closure for any issues brought to us. I'd like to welcome Janet Garcia to come on up to the podium. Janet,
no Janet. Okay, we will keep moving right along on our agenda then. Now we're looking for approval of our consent agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Moved by Melissa Curtis, seconded by Casey Root. All those in favor, please say I.
>> I. I. Please say no. Motion passes 40. Moving on to item number six. Probably the the funnest thing we have this evening is the Monaceella High School student recognition. So, I'd like to bring up to the podium our high school principles, Lori Hansen and Matt Cowell,
to go over and recognize some students that have displayed excellence. Good evening, everyone. Tonight, we're going to recognize three different groups of students, specific specifically seniors at our high school. Tonight, our first group is students that are going into
the military. It is my distinct pleasure to introduce a group of seniors whose next step after graduation represents commitment to service and to leadership. We are grateful for their dedication and courage as they prepare to serve. I would like to invite the following students to the podium to
share with the school board the military branch they will be entering and where they will be stationed as they begin this journey. Can I have Laya Bigalow, Brody Dong, Josh Hendel, Cameron Hog, Devin Lingan, Payton Rosisca, Noah
Sherber, and Tyler Young come up to the podium with me, please. Currently, these are students that we're aware of that will be entering in the military. Cameron, hello. Would you and I >> would you tell them your plans your
branch and if you know where you'll be stationed after graduation? >> Um so I am going in the Army National Guard because I want to go to school after I get back from basic training. I'm going to basic training at Fort Jackson. Uh followed by my AIT at Fort
Rucker. Since we have a little bit of time, what are you going to AIT for? >> Uh, uh, for air traffic control. >> Awesome. >> So, what I do know is that Ila is going into the Air Force. Brody is going into the National Guard. Joshua is going into
the National Guard, National Guard for Cameron. Devon is going into the uh, I'm sorry, Army National Guard. Devon's going to the National Guard. Payton to the Army. Noah to the Army, and Tyler into the Army. These students will also be recognized during our graduation ceremony where we will ask anyone who is
planning on or enlisted to stand as well. So we'll recognize our seniors at our graduation ceremony as well. >> Awesome. Let's give another round of applause. So just want to congratulate you. I served for 13 and a half years in the Army National Guard and it takes a large
commitment. It takes courage and it's very selfless of you to do that. So, thank you. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. You want to stay up here by me or you want to sit down? >> We also have four students who are recogni recognized as students of
excellence. Can I have Jordi Gers, Tisiana Hill, uh Aubrey Johnson, and Mia Morris come up and stand by me. These students are outstanding group of leaders who embody the very best of what Monaceel High School has to offer through their academic achievements,
their positive role modeling, their leadership, and their dedication to making a difference across the high school, the district, and the community. At the end of April, these students were celebrated alongside his peers alongside peers from across the central re region for their impact on our school and
greater greater community. I'd like to have Jordy, Tisiana, Mia, and Aubrey share what their plans are after graduation. >> Um, I'll be attending Marquette University and majoring in mechanical engineering. >> I'm going to Florida Tech for biomedical
engineering. >> I will be attending Winona State University and majoring in special education. >> We have a lot of great things and great students happening um at Monaceel High School. These two are or these four are just a snapshot of what um our senior
class has done and how they've led us this year. So on behalf of Mr. Kola and myself and these four students, we just really are grateful for the leadership and who they are across our building. I just want to say a shout out too. I got to be at the the ceremony where they
were awarded their awards and all four of them do encompass just really well-rounded leaders that represent our community well. So, congratulations, >> Mr. Roll. We're going to get pictures when we're all done here. Okay. So, yep. If you could just hang tight. Lastly, I have uh one more group. So, it's my
pleasure to recognize our pinnacle of academic excellence within the class of 2026. Um they are validictorians. So, if our 16 valadictorians could start making their way forward, that would be great. We'll we'll hear from you in just a bit. We'll get them moving.
I will read their names here and then they'll introduce themselves in just a minute. Alexandra Andress, Hannah Chiefs, Kelvin Chang, Julia Dashaine, Nick Green, Alicia Gru, Lauren Hansen, Coulson
Ketchum, Ellie Copri, Ruby Minder, Mia Morris, Eve Nyiggard, Claire Powman, Abby Ruda, Addison Ruda, and Samantha V. As we all know, achieving an A in any class uh takes work. Um but doing this
for all four years um in all classes requires relentless discipline, curiosity, many late nights and of course some real grit. Uh this group this group took the most rigorous classes we offer. It was fun for me. I spent most of my afternoon after school
just looking at their course load over the four years and it um especially the last two years was very full of uh CIS classes, a lot of PSO AP courses. Um and all of these students here got A's across the board. Um they're rock stars.
They're extremely talented. Um outside the classroom of fine arts, they've performed at the highest levels in athletics throughout uh their varsity careers and they've been very involved. Um they're amazing people beyond the grades obviously and they have contributed to our greater good at the
high school and within the Monosel community. So as a group I'm going to um we're asking them to deliver a message. Are we prepared for that message at graduation? >> Okay. It's a it's a work in progress. We'll call it devel developmental phase. Um, and I'm going to ask you guys if you
would just say your name again and then give us a little glimpse into what you're doing next year andor your future. So, Nick, we'll start down here. >> But, uh, do this. >> You got this. >> I'm Nick. I'm going to Iowa State University for aerospace engineering.
>> Um, I'm Julia and I plan on attending University of Colorado Boulder where I'll major in psychology and minor in Spanish. I'm Coulson Ketchum. I'm going to North Dakota State University to get a degree in mechanical engineering. >> I'm Eve. I'm going to Anoka Tech to
become a biomedical equipment technician. >> I'm Hannah. I'll be attending the University of Minnesota Twin Cities to study psychology and social work. >> I'm Ellie. I'm going to West Texas A&M to play volleyball and then I'm going to major in psychology or elementary
education. >> I'm Addison Ruda. Uh I'm going to Concordia St. Paul to play basketball and major in sports psychology. >> I'm Samantha V. I'm going to the University of St. Thomas to play basketball and I'm planning to go into business.
>> Hi, I'm Alicia Gru. I'm going to the University of North Dakota on the prea track. I'm Lauren Hansen. I'm going to W lacrosse to do track and field and major in food and nutrition sciences. I'm Abby Ruda. I'm going to Concordia
St. Paul University to play basketball and major in business management. I'm Alex Andress. I'll be going to the University of St. Thomas to double major in biology and business. Round two. I'm >> attending Marquette University and
majoring in biome or sorry mechanical engineering, minoring in biomedical engineering. And as you're lining up to get a picture, I just want to say congratulations. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline um to be a validictorian. Um, for you,
I'm sure it was a lot of late nights and trying to figure out how you're going to get all your schoolwork done. I know a lot of you are in extracurricular activities as well, and >> it's truly incredible. want to bring the other groups up for pictures
>> right now too. So if we could >> cam up here and then the students back slides. >> Yeah. ing kids going places, doing things all over the country. Um, it's our pleasure to work with them. They make us all look really good. So, we appreciate obviously
what you've done there and producing the the real uh genuine and smart people that you have. So, thank you to the parents as well. Thank you. >> Board members, do you have anything else you'd like to say to this group of individuals before they head out?
>> Oh, no. >> I think it's great to see all the talent in the room and just want to second all the efforts from the parents and families helping the kids succeed in everything they do and everyone up here has a very bright future ahead of them. So, >> very bright. We look forward to seeing what you guys do with the future. We
have high expectations for all of you. Um we're excited to see you come back after you're done too to pour into our community even more. So unless you want to stay for the rest of the board meeting, you are very welcome to. But if you do not, you can um leave right now
if you'd like to. It's up to you. All right, we will move right along to item number seven, collaborative connections. I will pass it over to Superintendent Olsen to go over the resolution and acceptance of gifts. >> All right, here we go. We have five uh
donations being brought forward here to accept as a gift. Um the first two are from the Andover Football Association um for $5,000 uh for Monosel High School course development and the healthcare pathway and then also $5,000 to the
baseball field work. Um and I'm going to just pause there because it looks, you know, weird. Why Andover. So I think there's a little explanation. um this association has been awarded one of the um pull um pull tab boxes in the community. So they have no problem
giving back to the community where their pull tab box is. So um that is what I've been told. Um all right. So the next up is uh play for Patrick Foundation. Um an AED and AED stand valued at $5,000 to be placed at the Monosella High School
tennis courts. Headstrong Monosel, $2,000 to help with the installation of new AED stand located at the Monosel High School tennis courts. And then H2 Outfitters, $500 for our Monosella fishing team sponsorship. Um once again
um these are amazing gifts for uh student programming and we saw last week at the scholarship uh night um the generosity of our community at work and once again we're seeing it at this board meeting as well. So, thank you to the community for these amazing gifts.
>> Therefore, be it resolved by the Monaceel School Board District 882 to gratefully accept the following donations. Andover Football Association, 5,000 for the Monosel High School course development in the healthc care pathway. Andover Football Association, another
5,000 for baseball fieldwork, field and batter eyeline improvements. Play for Patrick Foundation AED and AED stand valued at 5,000 to be placed at the Monosel High School tennis courts. Heartstrong Monoselo 2000 to help with
the installation of the new AED stand located at the Monaceelo High School tennis courts and H2 outfitters for 500 the Monaceel fishing team sponsorship. >> Second. >> Moved by Melissa Curtis, seconded by
Mark Branson. All those in favor, please say I. I. >> Opposed, please say no. Motion passes. 4 zero. All right. On to item B, our student representatives report. I want to start off with thanking you
for having us back. Uh, a lot has happened since we were last here in March and we have eight days left as seniors and so we just want to uh tell you guys what is going on in our school. So testing season is now over. Uh, our underassmen uh took the MCAs. Our
juniors took the ACT and juniors and seniors took their AP tests. And so, you know, there's been a lot of studying, a lot of hard work by our students. And that testing phase is over. So now we're in the final stretch. And these students have definitely been busy outside of the classroom as well.
Uh this week alone, I believe all three of our fine performing arts programs have concerts. Um on top of that, our activities, we still have a lot of our clubs wrapping up. And then our athletics, we still have lacrosse and tennis going on. I think there might be
another one. But a big part is uh for all of these different groups. Um, it's a hard time seeing our seniors walk out the door that are really big leaders in all of these activities. And, uh, it's even more heartwarming to watch some of the juniors and sophomores step up and be new leaders. Um, on top of that, we
had prom. That was pretty cool. Lots of juniors and seniors. And, uh, as far as I heard, it went pretty good. Uh, in the remaining time of our school year, we have a lot going on. Uh I just want to say that we have our balorate service coming up on uh May 27th. We
invite our seniors and their families to attend. >> All right. And then also next week, next week is quite busy for us. We have the day after our balorate we have our senior sunset the evening after our last day of classes. The senior's last day of classes meaning just sort of in the
beginning of the year we had our senior sunrise. So this is sort of just I guess setting the sun on our high school career. And then the day after we have our senior walkthroughs at every building in the district. So we have a little pep fest at the high school for the class and then we go to every
building in the district and just walk through our last goodbye to the buildings and the staff inside of them that have helped us so much throughout our years. And then we of course have graduation on June 5th which is just the official ceremony where we celebrate all
the achievements throughout high school. And uh lastly to the board um I speak on behalf of the other two as well. Thank you sincerely for having us throughout the school year. Um it means a lot for us to be able to be not only trusted to sit here and to be a part of this but
also it means so much to see really the faces and the people who are making the decisions that affect my education and the education of the people around me. see what morals, what reasoning, how you guys work through every task, every objective thrown at you. Um, sincerely,
thank you. >> That is all. If >> you want to stay up there for one second, we'll move right along to see where we're going to recognize you guys. So, we're going to bring a couple things up.
Of >> course, the one time I don't look ahead. basket to send you all. >> So, we're going to put you on the spot again and have you talk to everyone and tell them where you're going to go to school and what your next steps are. Um, but you guys, this group of individuals
are incredible. They are gifted at I mean it takes a lot of courage to come here to a board meeting and stand up and speak on behalf of your student body and I've seen you guys not just do it here but in other areas too and they are just
incredible human beings. I am you guys I'm so excited for your guys' future. You're so gifted. Um you guys are courageous. It takes a lot of discipline to make time for this because you guys are involved in other activities as
well. You show up, they've participated in discussions, which isn't always easy. You know, I think the first time we asked for feedback, everyone was like, "Oh my gosh, they're actually asking us what we think." And so they participate in discussions, which is great. Um, and I'm really I mean, they have bright
futures ahead of them. So, let's give them a round of applause. All right. Before you go and sit back down, will you please tell us what your plans are afterwards? >> Uh, I'm Dawson. I'm going out to Biji State University to pursue a degree in
nursing. >> Going to Florida Tech for biomedical engineering. >> I'm Natasha. I'm going to Gustavis Adulus for elementary education. Awesome. If I could, I just want to add just a
little bit more um to chair Seban's thoughts, but uh these three individuals have been able to um watch for many years and the leadership they've provided um all throughout um their student career here has been absolutely phenomenal. um their voice is is both um
you know strong in leadership but also humble in um making sure that people um are seeing value and heard by you and others see that of you as well. So, uh, we couldn't be more fortunate to have, um, the three of you, um, as part of our
school district and leading our, um, school board student reps in this, um, arena here. And we're just very pleased that you were able to dedicate as much time as you did to us, um, not only here, but in all the different, um, realms of our district. So, you are very
seen and you're very felt. Your leadership impact is very felt. So, thank you so much. All right. Item D, June 15th donor and volunteer reception. I'll pass it over to Superintendent Wilson. >> All right. Just uh this is our our third
annual of this type of reception, but uh we like to um give uh donors the opportunity to come forward and just celebrate with us so we can say thank you in just a small way. Um and so um on the June 15th date before the
schoolboard meeting from 5:00 to 5:45, we'll just have little treats in the activity room um for uh volunteers. So all buildings, we look across um anybody who has been part of any of our buildings and then we look at all of our donations both for the scholarship uh
committee and just uh donations that come forward through the um regular schoolboard meeting and we invite them. um sometimes, you know, we have 30 40 people and and sometimes we have 15. So hopefully we continue to have um a showing at that just because it's a way
for us to be able to say thanks. So anybody's welcome. Um we like to uh make sure that uh we thank our volunteers and if you have a direct connection to a volunteer or a donor um feel free to come and and give them thanks on that night. We the more the merrier. We always have a lot of food. So, yeah,
>> that we do. Uh, and it's a fun evening to to mingle and get to know everyone in our community that's donating, too. So, if you know of anyone that's been on the list that's donated to our district, please encourage them to come. Item number eight, teaching and learning. I'd like to welcome up to the podium director of teaching and learning, Laura
Stener, to go over the Monosell Middle School social studies selection. Do I get to go somewhere? >> You're right here. Good evening, Chair Seven, Superintendent Olsen, and members of the board. I'm here tonight with uh middle school social studies teacher Luke Furbin. We'll be co-presenting our
presentation on the Minnesota Middle School social studies curriculum selection, and we'll also give you a little bit of input on what's been going on with social studies broadly across the K12 as we um implement new standards. >> You want me to be the controller or you? >> I got it. Well, you got the top billing
as you saw. >> I did. I did get the top billing. >> We'll get you on there. We'll we'll edit it. >> Okay. >> So, we're going to start off with just doing a quick update on the Minnesota State Standards timeline just to refresh your memory on where we're at with that. So, the Minnesota Department of Education, as you know, sets the
standards for public education. We are currently looking at the 2021 standards, which you may be thinking, why 2021? So, just as a refresher, the date on the standards is when they first come up for revision and editing. So these standards were revised and edited. That process
began in began in 2021. They were adopted in 2024 and set for full implementation across K12 in the 2627 school year which is coming up. So that's what we're preparing for. We are going to mainly focus on middle school tonight, but I did want to briefly touch on what's been happening at elementary
and high school with this process. So, at the elementary, um, we have been looking at different curriculums that were published by national publishers, um, and just really were not feeling like those were a great fit for our students for two primary reasons. One,
they are written for the national standards. And the Minnesota standards at at the elementary are quite different. Actually, throughout this whole process of implementing the standards, it really depends on the grade level you're looking at. Some grade levels are pretty highly aligned to the national standards, while others are very different. Uh the other piece
that was a challenge for us at elementary was just time constraints. So as you know there's a big lift in elementary um we have seal we have literacy we have math and so we didn't want to invest district resources into a curriculum that we felt was not highly
aligned to the standards and also was challenging to implement in the time constraints we had available. Um so just very recently seven members of our elementary social studies committee some of them here tonight um did attend a training on uh option from the Minnesota Humanities Center which is highly
written specifically for Minnesota. We were able to spend a whole day looking at the resources that they're developing um some of the activities for elementary students and our next step as a team is to think about the viability of these resources um because of that purchase curriculum really will offer those
minimal standards at the high school level. teachers have been mapping the standards to new course or to our current courses and any future courses. So we do have some new legislation that requires a civics course be taught in 12th grade for students who are in um the class of 2029 and beyond. And so we
needed to map to our current courses for the students on that pathway. We needed to map to future courses for students who are on different pathways. Um because there is quite a bit of alignment in our current uh courses, we were able to look at modification. So, our high school teachers, for the most
part, did not feel like a new resource was something we needed to invest in. Rather, they needed some curriculum time to look at some supplemental units and lessons to make sure that we're highly aligned to those new standards. And our teachers began that work, some of them this spring, some of that will continue into the fall as we continue to uh
develop those supplemental pieces to cover the standards. But for middle school, we did engage in a curriculum review process. And tonight we are recommending a new curriculum for grades seven and eight um to help us implement those new standards. So I'm going to turn it over to Luke to give you a little history of what middle school has
looked like um in grades six, seven, and eight these past few years. >> So traditionally, as far back as I can remember, sixth grade has been Minnesota history is the class that has been offered. Uh for seventh grade, it's been US history. And for eighth grade, that's
where I really have my roots, where I started in 2003. um we had geography and in 2011 we switched that to global studies. Um sixth grade has been using this curriculum known as northern lights for
quite some time that is produced by the Minnesota Historical Society and uh there's a new edition that will be ready to launch this summer that will address the newest of these standards. 85% of all the Minnesota school districts use
Northern Lights for their sixth grade curriculum. So that's going to stay put. Seventh and eighth grade is a little bit different. Um the summer of 2008 was the last purchase of an entire curriculum for both those grade levels. In 2011,
when the stand the new standards were passed, we had um decided to purchase classroom sets of iPads for each social studies educator. Um and that was with the intent to support the department with our own uh material that we would
develop. Uh, as I look back at that, I think that decision was uh wasn't sustainable and was a little bit of a long-term mistake because we were trying to create so much of our own content.
So, that takes us to the next thing, which is what? Oh, there it is. The process. >> That's right. So, we want to talk to you a little bit about the process we undertook as a team to bring forward our recommendation today. So, a curriculum review is always a multi-year process. So last year um Cindy Foching was able
to work with the team as a whole to look at the social studies standards and one of the biggest shifts in the standards is a new framework that is called the C3 framework which stands for college career and civic life. This comes from the National Council of Social Studies.
It's what the Minnesota standards are based on and it really takes an inquiry approach to the standard. So when you were in school, many of us were in school, we probably memorized lots of facts and dates and people. Um, this approach really has students asking questions, investigating, looking at
evidence, and really trying to learn how to take informed action as a citizen. And so that work happened last year to set the stage. This year, the middle school, seventh, and eighth grade teachers and I met five different times. Uh, the first four times we looked at vendor presentation. So, we wanted to hear from the vendors. We selected four
to bring forward. Um, but we know when we work with vendors, we really have to do our due diligence to dig deeply into those resources. And so we focused on a a very um thorough comparison process. One of the main pieces that we did is we selected Minnesota benchmarks, high
impact benchmarks, and we looked at each benchmark and how it was taught across all four of those resources. And we also scored materials against our rubric. Yeah, I just would like to add that Laura's perspective in this particular
review process was very very helpful as we hadn't reviewed uh standards and curriculum uh for most of the people in the room ever. And uh what she brought to the table were there just these random benchmarks and then she said just
go find this in the material. So we sat down and combed through like okay this work here. It only took a matter of minutes. Uh but that was uh really really helpful for the process >> and it was great for the teachers to be able to see how was that same benchmark taught in four different resources. Um
and by using some of those high impact benchmarks, it gave us a good sense of how aligned they were. Um our rubric was also multiaceted. So of course we were looking for alignment to the state standards. That's always one of our number one pieces. That C3 model that I mentioned before is embedded in the
standards. But we wanted to take a deep look at how well were these curriculums really having kids develop their own questions, evaluate evidence, take action. Um, and then we can look at curriculum all day long, but if it doesn't work for our teachers and our students, it's probably not going to give us the best educational experience.
So, part of our rubric was supports for students and teacher usability. All told, we had 75 possible points that each curriculum could score on the rubric. Uh what we wanted as teachers was a curriculum that was engaging, hands-on,
interactive for middle school uh students. As the middle school teachers that are here might understand, it's important to have them up and moving around. Sitting at a desk for uh a long duration of time can be uh quite bothersome to the educator. Um,
we also wanted to have an ability to adjust our text to meet meet the Lexiles of our diverse learners. A variety of options of learning. Um, aesthetically pleasing visuals is always something that might inspire curiosity and we felt
and feel that a physical textbook is going to help us practice liter literacy skills that have been missing since uh COVID pandemic. Honestly, um, in addition, uh, we think that a curriculum
that integrates smoothly with schooly is important. Our social studies teachers have been using Schoolagy very well um and fully ingrained it in the classroom for many years. Um and we also wanted to make sure that we found a curriculum
that would just easily align with the state standards. And we noticed that throughout some of those curriculums, it was kind of bogged and it didn't always work to the uh level that we had hoped. So here you're able to see the four curriculums that we looked at and you
can clearly see that one of them was quite the runaway in the scoring. So with only 75 uh points possible, the uh McGraill resource that we'll bring forward today scored 73.5. You see average score on the top that was the average score of seventh grade and eighth grade. Um for each resource,
sometimes a resource did something a little bit better for seventh grade, maybe a little worse for eighth grade. So we looked at them um in isolation and then we combined those to get our total score. So, we had a clear um a clear winner, so to speak, for our recommendation. So, just a little bit of
rationale. You've heard some of this already, but one, it was the highest ranking. Um we also know because Minnesota has its own unique standards that we weren't going to find a perfectly aligned curriculum. That wasn't going to be in the cards for us other than sixth grade that has the resource from the Minnesota Humanities
Center Elementary who's getting some of those resources. Um but what we felt was this McGra Hill resource did provide the strongest foundation for our teachers to be able to have something um that was closely aligned that they could then modify and adapt for those pieces of the standards that are unique. Um one of the
other things that was really a sell for us was that um we know that current events are something that our students um hear about and talk about and when they come into that social studies classroom, our educators want to support students um in being able to have a space for that. This resource actually
gives teachers an online tool that um let's say there's an earthquake the night before that will pull uh news stories and then we'll vet them, make sure that they're age appropriate, um presented in a neutral manner and so our teachers aren't having to pull from
trade newspapers and kind of vet that. There's a expert panel that vets for them and then it's uploaded for the teachers. So they've got that peace of mind that they've got a resource that can help to support those conversations. Um, and this will help our students not only learn about social studies but
engage in the discipline of social studies doing things economists do, geographers do, historians do. >> And as I think many educators know, McGraill is very wellestablished. Um, they have a very strong customer
service program that will help us move along and into the future. Uh, there's an endless variety of educational tools. It's all set up on a website that the students can have a um an account set up with so they can go through the
materials as they see fit. It's going to be a smooth integration with Schooly. I think it's the most time-tested um with that platform and it is uh far and beyond the the best aligned with the
newest of the state standards which is kind of an intimidating component of it all when you're looking at the hump teenth uh amount of standards um trying to figure out where they all can fit in
is a very large challenge and so with McGraill prov providing that for us that uh or at least some of it that's very helpful. >> So, we wanted to talk to you all about estimated costs for this adoption as well. So, we're looking at a seven-year adoption. Seven years helps us to align
with the state standards um and helps us to expense things over time. And so, as Luke mentioned, one of the pieces that we did want to put into our budget was a hardcover textbook set for each classroom teacher. And that did increase our budget. um it's not fiscally um
viable for us to buy a hardcover copy for each student within the budget parameters. Um but by having a classroom set, it does allow teachers to use that hands-on resource in the classroom. Um so our year one expense, we'd be looking at a $55,000 expense on this year's
curriculum budget. That would cover those textbook sets and then three years of licenses. And then we would need to continue to um renew those licenses over that seven-year duration. over the seven years. If we think about all the students who would access this curriculum over the seven-year time,
that works out to be about $56 per student that we would be spending on their social studies um resource for the students and the teachers. This uh cost is accounted for in our curriculum budget. So each year Tina allocates a curriculum budget. So this would be falling into that budget. So this is
going to be an action item for us tonight. Um but we did want to answer any questions you might have about our process or the resource itself. What questions do we have? >> I just had a quick question on the summary results, a summary of the
results. Uh, was any category weighted more than a separate category or was everything linear across when you did the >> Yeah, that's a good question. So, there were some that were weighted more. So, a few of the components. So, if we go back to the things that were on the rubric, um, so alignment to the state standards
and alignment to the C3 inquiry model, we did that on a three-point scale. For supports for teachers and usability, we did more of a yes no. So, it was either a one or a zero. They either had it or they didn't. Well, I'll give them an opportunity to think if they have anything else to ask,
but I think it's absolutely fantastic that um we'll have a classroom set of hands-on books for students. I think that's huge um specifically for some students and even in class learning and uh something to look at besides the computer screen I think will be
fantastic. I can see you guys have put a lot of work into it. How how long did you did you test out any of the products within the classroom >> speak to this? Um there's been throughout the last couple of months uh
my partner Will Face and I have taken several different lessons from the uh the curriculums that we had on hand. Um, there was one that was very engaging, but we realized that it the duration of
the lessons were like way too long and we kind of lost some kids and in some of the uh components of it. Um, there was one that was very paperheavy and we didn't really feel like that was a really good match. Um, as far as the seventh grade history teachers go, I
can't necessarily speak to that, but I just know that they did try some of those lessons in their classrooms. Um and we all felt like well McGra Hill seems to be the way to go. It's very professional, very well um uh how would
you say like >> laid out >> laid out assembled in a meaningful way. And in fact, one thing that's kind of interesting when it comes to uh global studies is the focus is no longer on regional uh global studies like
geography like your geography class would be. It's more of a thematic uh course. So you start with um governments from around the world. Um we do mapmaking stuff in there. Uh economics
on and on. So it's really going to be an entirely different way of looking at what it is we're teaching and change is is inevitable and I think it that it should be embraced. It sounds like one of the challenges
that was encountered was finding curriculum that met what our new state standards have been that pushed out. Is there anything that still you have to kind of create in order to meet those standards and that's part of
what happens in the next process. So like I said, we really wanted to give teachers that foundation. And so now as we teach it in that first implementation year, the teachers are working through uh that same process we do for any classroom where we do a curriculum map that shows what's each different
standard. How is that taught? Is that taught through a McGraill lesson? Is it taught through a modified lesson? Do we need to bring in a completely different supplemental resource or unit? So as the teachers work through it that first year we we have to give a lot of flexibility and grace as we try things out and then
the following summer we really clean up that curriculum map and get that really tight because we want to make sure that we're meeting all those standards. Um there are very several Minnesota specific things in the standards which we're not going to find in a national curriculum. That's where the humanity center also really helps us out. They've
created the sixth grade which is all about Minnesota. Um but they do have resources for across K12 and they've been working really hard to help schools understand that those resources are available and it is interesting because
you know each school would then have to create their own thing and that's a lot of work. So when we have resources like the humanity center who have historians and and people who are pulling those together it really helps us as educators to be able to draw from something. So, some we may still have to create on our own, but that's going to be our our
biggest go-to is that humanity center for that help and support for those Minnesota specific ones. And if I can just add that the four of us that were involved with this process from the teachers perspective uh we have agreed that we would put uh we would use as much content as we could
next year just to figure out what is going to work and what isn't going to work and then to see where our gaps may may lie when it comes to the state standards. >> It's good to hear the textbook idea. Um
did you make that decision partially based on the results of the district advisory council res um the results you came up from that and also second part of the question is what's our confidence level that we're going to be able to implement the
excuse me the textbook approach. >> So yes I think that we heard from our community that we're looking for more opportunities to have hands-on resources. Um, one of the things that I shared with the teachers is this curriculum review opportunity doesn't come up very often. You know, it's a once every seven years kind of an
opportunity. So, we really have to think critically about what it is that we might need for students. Um, another thing to add that we didn't get into in the presentation is in addition to the textbook, there is also um there is a student consumable workbook that we opted not to get because it was kind of
a big expense and we knew we wouldn't be using all of those and then they come every year. So you just have they just start to stack up. But each of those um physical activities is printable and downloadable for kids as well. So the the more graphic organizers, writing
components. Um we know that our students are used to digital, but I just spent some time in a math classroom and had students telling me, "I learn better on paper. I like to do work on paper." So we know that our students are telling us that too. And there might be a learning curve, but kids are flexible and
adaptable. And putting a variety of resources in front of kids is always a great approach. There are things that do frankly work better digitally in social studies. Interactive maps that you can't open up a textbook and click into and zoom into and have audio and video right on a map. But there are times where that
physical resource is really the best way for our students to be able to dig into those literacy pieces. And if I could add also, sorry I keep wanting to add you a lot to say apparently. >> You could come to all my board presentations. >> Sure. Here we go. Uh, you know, as a
parent and if I take my my parent hat, put that on and then I I see these students out in our classrooms, there's just so many distractions that can come along with the devices that you have in front of you. Um, and I haven't seen a
lot of uh advertisements popping up out of the middle of the textbooks with snake games that you can follow around. Maybe that's coming because it's been a while since we chose a textbook. Um, but you know, I've been in the districts for 23 years. This is the second textbook
that I've been a part of uh in this process. And um I think you know certainly there was a point over the last 15 years where we're like hey Chromebooks are really cool. They bring so much to offer very customizable so
much uh it's it was easy for the classroom to push out to kids and everybody can do their own stuff. But at the same time practicing those literacy skills. Um reading aloud in class. um being courageous just to to feel what
it's like and have everyone looking at you and sharing a book with somebody else. Physical maps, those are the ones that spark curiosity. In fact, we just got a globe today and the kids were just like, "Wow, this is amazing."
It was uh and I did not expect that. But it was constantly being manipulated because it's so tactile. So, it's nice to have this. Mhm. Side note, >> I think uh Jacob Wilts and Luke Verbin
now are up for energy plus presentation. So, I almost brought it, too. >> All right, board. Any other questions before we go to a vote? This is an action item this evening. >> So, moved.
>> Second. Moved by Casey Root, seconded by Melissa Curtis. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. >> Opposed, please say no. Motion passes. 4 Z. Thank you for presenting. Thank you so much. >> Nice job. >> All right. Next, we're moving on to item
number nine, safe and healthy culture. I will be passing it over to Superintendent Olsen to go over some appreciation days we have coming up with school nurses and speech language pathologists. >> All right. Uh just trying to find um all
the schoolboard dates uh that coincide or are close to um is uh fun and uh so we're behind on one and then uh we'll be right on the day on another one. But tonight I would like to take a moment to recognize a couple special recognition days. Uh we want to celebrate both our
school nurses and our speech uh language teachers. First, I would like to thank the incredible school nurses and health support staff who serve students and families across all five buildings and throughout every program in Monaceel Public Schools. Their work goes far beyond treating bumps, bruises, and
everyday illnesses. They are often the calm presence students need during difficult times, the reassuring voice for families and trusted partners for our staff. Every single day they help ensure that students are healthy, safe, cared for, and ready to learn. What makes their work especially meaningful
in Monaceel is the unique and diverse programming we provide for students. Unique student programming also means that we serve diverse health needs across the district and co-op. Regardless of what program or what the student needs are, our nurses meet our students with care, compassion, and a
level of expertise that is second to none. Their impact is woven into the daily success of all of our schools and programming. Because of them, students are able to be encouraged to stay in school when appropriate. Families feel supported and children know there's
always someone looking out for them. This evening, I would also like to recognize the tremendous work of speech language pathologists serving students throughout Monaceel Public Schools. Communication is one of the most important foundations for learning, relationships, confidence, and
independence. Every day, our speech pathologists help students strengthen those skills in ways that are life-changing. Through their expertise and dedication, students gain the tools to express themselves, connect with others, participate in learning, and
grow academically and socially. What stands out most about our speech language teachers is their wa unwavering belief in students. They meet children where they are, celebrate progress both big and small, and create opportunities for students to succeed in environments
that can sometimes feel challenging or overwhelming. Their work requires patience, creativity, specialized knowledge, and an incredible amount of heart. To our speech language teachers, thank you for being advocates, problem solvers, encouraers, and champions for
students across Monos public schools. Your work changes lives and our students are stronger because of your care and commitment to children. On behalf of students, families, staff, administration, and our school board. Thank you to our outstanding school nurses, health support staff, and our speech language teachers for the care,
dedication, and compassion you bring to Monosolo Public Schools each and every day. We are deeply grateful for all you do. >> I just want to second that. uh a lot of behind the-scenes work there with those two professions and um direct contact
with students and it can be really challenging at times. So I know it's not always seen um but we really appreciate all the hard work you do. All right, on to item B, nutrition services year and review. I'd like to welcome up to the podium, Director of Nutrition Services,
Laura Wacker. Hi. Thank you guys for having me. Here we are at the end of year two of our nutrition program. Excited to give you guys a little um look into what our year has been like. So um I started this year
I like to have a theme for the year for our department that we get posters printed and it's what we start all our meetings with and what we kind of concentrate on for the year as a team. So uh we had two themes this year. The first one um these are the words of Barb
Makira who is sort of a legend in the Minnesota school nutrition world. She's one of my mentors. Um, and the words that she lived by and that I try to live by and brought to our department this year was that the only way to change what children eat is to change what we
offer them. Uh, and that's sounds simple but is a big ask. And so our second theme was we can do hard things. Um, we can change the way that children eat and we can face it bravely. So that was the theme that we used this year um as we
worked on feeding our kids. So, I wanted to do a quick uh by the numbers. We'll just kind of break down what the year looked like through a few uh figures here. So, uh 36 team members um across all of our buildings on our nutrition uh
services team. I have the best staff ever. Um they are so fun. They love our students in a way that just inspires me every single day. I cannot say enough about my amazing staff. Uh seven meal service locations across the district. So, seven different places that we're
feeding kids um every school day. 638 hours of training and continuing education that was collectively completed by members of our department. And here come the really fun numbers. Um 164,700
breakfasts served this year as of May 13th. 530,714 lunches served as of May 13th. And then just for fun, 76,380 individual chicken tenders were cooked
and served to students across the district. This is our students favorite lunch at all three levels. So, lots of chicken tenders served in our kitchens. To add that up, that is 695,414 meals served in our district as of May
13th. And I'd just like to remind everyone that we have 36 team members on our team. That's a lot of meals uh served to the students in Monaceel schools. So year two uh from strong foundation to solid framework. So uh building our
program from scratch. Last year we looked at it as we were laying our foundation, right? We have to build that firm foundation for the house that is our department to sit on. The hard thing about building a foundation is when you drive by, you can't see anything, right? It's a lot of hard work, but you don't really get to see all of that hard work
yet. This year, uh, we kind of started to build our framework, which was really exciting because you can start to see the vision of what the department is going to look like, what we're building for the future. Um, so while all of the pretty finishings and everything aren't up yet, we can really start to see the future of the department, which is
exciting. So our framework focuses for this year um that I will take us through, we uh wanted to develop a mission and vision for our department. Uh make some start the process of making equipment upgrades throughout the district uh which is going to be a long process, but we
started that this year. um recipe and menu developments and then a focus on student choice and experience. So mission and vision. Um after meeting with uh my team members uh at the beginning of the year talking about what
they wanted to bring into a mission and vision um I had I sat down with Devonyie in the communications department and we um came up with a mission and vision for our department that um is rooted in the mission and vision of our district as a whole but really gives our department
specifically something to um really rally around. So our mission uh Monaceel Public Schools Nutrition Services is committed to fueling student success by providing nutritious, balanced, and appealing meals in a welcoming environment. We support the health, well-being, and learning of every
student by serving meet high standards of quality, nutrition, and inclusivity, one student, one meal at a time. Our vision is to be a trusted partner in student wellness and education by creating a dining experience that nourishes the body, inspires healthy
choices, and fosters a lifelong foundation for learning and growth. Uh we came up with the tagline fueling success. Uh no matter what success looks like for every student, it's our job to fuel those students. And we came up with our wonderful little um uh logo uh for
our department. Uh Stephanie Jude made this for us. Um it incorporates the district star um but gives us our our apple um and just something that'll be fun to have on our uniforms on our delivery tracks. Something that really makes the department our own. So uh we
are excited to have this. We have up in all of our kitchens and this is what we um we rally around. Equipment upgrades. So this is a long process uh that we will be doing over the next several years. But um really taking a look at what's the direction we want to go in? How do we want to cook
food? what is the food we want to cook? What do we need in terms of equipment to do that? Uh so we had uh three big upgrades this year. At Monaceel High School, we got a brand new dish machine, which is a very, very big deal. Um the dish the high school was original to the
high school. Um and so by getting this upgraded one, we are saving energy, we are saving water, and it is incredibly more efficient and fast for our staff. Um, we also added two additional ovens at the high school and two additional ovens at Pinewood. Uh, this was allowing
us to just bring our capacity up so that we're able to do more batch cooking and that our labor model can be a little bit more effective because we can cook more at one time. So, that was the start of that process. Several of our schools will be getting additional equipment and equipment upgrades um in the coming year
as well. Recipe and menu development. Um, so we really focused this year on increasing our scratch cooking. Um, utilizing local ingredients, both hyper local and state of Minnesota local. Um, adding new and
familiar flavors and leveraging the skills of our staff. So, just a few examples of some of the um, recipes that we developed this year with a focus on that scratch cooking. Um, homemade granola was something that we piloted this year and our amazing
team at Eastview really took off with this. Um, they make homemade granola every single week. It makes the entire school smell unbelievable. The students love it. It's served with the yogurt parfait that comes with our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Um, it's five ingredients. Uh, it was super easy
for our staff. They, uh, loved doing it. The students loved it. Um, we're going to continue forward with that recipe next year. And we're actually going to be sourcing Minnesota local honey and oats to go into the recipe next year. uh high school we started doing a homemade
stromboli. Uh this is a threemeat stromboli made with a whole grain crust. This is just the coolest thing to watch our staff makes. It's like make it's like the definition of assembly line rolling all of those strombolies. The students really really like that one. Um so we'll be bringing that again.
Signature sauces is something that we do um across all of our grade levels. This is a really great way to add new flavors to increase the nutrition profile of some of those more uh like ready to eat items that our students really like. We add a homemade sauce. Um so our 882
sauce and our magic sauce. Um our homemade sauces that are served with a lot of our chicken items. We did a hot honey sauce this year and then a homemade um stewed mango chutney that went with a specialty item that I'll show you a little bit later. But just being able to add those sort of home-cooked flavors to some of our
students favorite ready to eat items. And then customizable bowls were very big for us. Um, and our students really enjoy those. Anything the students can customize um make their own are very very popular and it gives us a chance to um have scratchcooked elements or
scratch cook uh the the item completely. So some examples are your our build your own mac and cheese bowl. We did a homemade ramen bowl this year. our homemade fruit and yogurt smoothie bowls, uh, build your own breakfast bowls, and of course, our famous burrito bowls.
Um, some of our menu innovations. One of the things I focused on this year with our kids was there's more than one way to eat chicken. Um, which sounds kind of silly, but in the world of what little kids like to eat, breaded chicken is a favorite. My daughter likes chicken nuggets. That's her favorite thing to
eat. Um, school nutrition tends to serve lots of breaded chicken items. Um, and I sort of took it as my personal goal as the menu writer this year to start bringing in some non-breeded items and items that represent different parts of the animal, let kids know that, hey,
there's bones in meat. It actually comes from an animal. A chicken leg has a bone in it. Um, so just some examples of ways that we uh brought that into items that students really like. So we had our grilled chicken nuggets um that have became a favorite at all three levels
this year. Um we have a uh mosquite uh barbecue chicken leg uh that was popular especially with our little kids. And then we did a grilled teriyak stir fry. Um the kids really love our like breaded orange chicken, but the grilled teriyaki stirfry was another um way to kind of
introduce that flavor to them and they really liked it. So this was our more than one way to eat chicken innovation this year. Um and then global comfort foods. So uh global flavors are very popular. our students, especially our older students.
Um, global flavors are all over social media. Um, and they're things that are exciting for kids and they are it's fun to come through the lunch line and see when I pick some of those newer um items that are maybe from different countries or bring in different flavors. I always try to use the lens of home cooking is
good no matter where it's from. So, if it's an item that um, you know, someone's mom would make or is a really traditional item, generally it's going to be really good. So, some of the things that we tried this year, we did a homemade ramen bowl. I mentioned that already. We did the broth homemade and
then students were able to customize the bowls. Um, we did enchiladas. Um, we have our pork bulgogi and Korean cheese corn. Um, so a menu from Korea that was popular at our high school. We have our chicken and vegetable dumplings. And then down at the bottom, uh, this one
was a huge hit across all of our grade levels. This is a Somalian beef sambusa. Um, and that's where that mango chutney that I mentioned was served. Um, this was a huge hit. All of our grade levels loved it. I'm excited to bring it back next year. And my favorite part about
this product is it is hyper local. They're made in Bloomington. So, um, it's a very local product. Um, lots of new exciting flavors for our kids. So, then lastly, focus on student choice and experience. Um, so we know that we
feed kids every day. It's not just about the food, right? If we get very focused on how much and what do we serve and are we meeting those nutrition standards, um we know a hungry child can't learn, right? That's why school nutrition exists. That's why our programs exist. We feed kids. We make sure that they are
not hungry when they go to class. That's one of the things that we can control, right? A lot happens outside of the classroom that we can't control, but we can make sure that all kids go into that classroom full. Just having the food available isn't necessarily, you know, that doesn't mean that you're going to
achieve that goal. So looking at other things that we can do as a department to make sure that our students are eating, enjoying eating, getting enough and going back to their classroom nourished is a big focus for us. So student choice is something that we have really really
focused on um this year. Allowing students to make age appropriate choices about what they eat provides them with bodily autonomy which ultimately helps improve behavior in the classroom. Student choice also drastically decreases food waste and food costs. And allowing students to choose items that
they actually want to eat means that students won't be hungry. Um, age appropriate is really important here. So, uh, example the picture I have there, uh, this year we started offering a larger variety of raw fruits and vegetables to students. Um, they still
have, you know, just a smaller amount of hot items they can choose from, but allowing them to take time in the line to stop and say, "Hey, I really like this vegetable." and having a variety so that all of the students have an option that they want to take and eat um has been really really popular for us and
really really positive. Um that bodily autonomy in the line kids spend all day being told what to do. Sit here, learn this, go here, go there, getting to come through the lunch line and make that decision about what they choose and what they want to eat. Really helps with behavior. Um, and we have actually seen,
so this is a picture from Pinewood Elementary School. Since we implemented, um, this larger choice variety we started this last fall, we saw 50% increase in raw vegetable consumption in our elementary students. Uh, we offer unlimited fruits and vegetables, so
students are allowed to come back and take as many portions as they would like so that we can make sure they go back to the classroom full. So, it's just been a really really positive um, positive change for us all around. Uh, I focused a lot on our elementary level here, but we also offer, like I said, age appropriate choice at middle school and
high school. Just offering them more and more options um so that they can get what they want and get all they need. And then student experience, uh, everyone is equal in the lunchroom. That's the best part about what we do as
a department is that how kids did on their test, whether they're fighting with their friends, what's going on at home, none of that matters when they come through the lunch line. Um, they get a big smile from the lunch staff. Our staff knows our kids' names. They care about them. They know what's going
on. We focus on creating that positive lunchroom experience and creating really, really happy memory for our students. This is our wonderful staff at Pinewood on Dr. Seuss day. Um, but just making sure that when students come through the line, they get their food
first, they see us, and we send them to sit down and eat with their food with that positive experience. Right now, it's time for a break. You can sit, you can relax, you can feel good. So, student experience. Um, and then I just wanted to end with some hungry
highlights, as I'm calling them. Just a look at some of our favorite food memories from this year. Um, so we celebrated National School Lunch Week this week. this or this year. This was back in October. It was over MEA um week. So, that was fun for us. We got to
send kids on break um onto break have some fun meals. This is sponsored by the um school nutrition association. Um the theme this year was your school lunch passport. So, we visited three different countries in the cafeteria. Uh what was fun about this was we didn't just get to
do special menus. We had um educational materials that we sent out to classrooms for all of the different levels. We had coloring sheets for the elementary students. Um morning announcements. Students got to learn a little bit about the countries and the foods that they were eating. Um we visited Ireland. We
had um roast mashed potatoes. Uh you've seen some of these pictures already. Uh Mexico, we had cheese enchiladas. And then China, we had vegetable and chicken dumplings. um our fall harvest celebration. This was my favorite thing that we did this
year. Um this is right before our Thanksgiving holiday. We called it our fall harvest because we wanted to focus on building some local partnerships. That's a goal for our department is continuing to um work with more local vendors and build those relationships. And so uh we served as much local
product as we could. Uh we had our roasted turkey which was from Ferndale Farms in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. Our mashed potatoes and gravy. Our gravy is made by Carl'sburg which is uh right down the road here in Monaceel. Um we had delicotta squash and steamed
edamame. Uh we started this year working with the good acre which is a food hub in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. They work with micro farms, so farms that are run by small groups of people that don't have the ability to distribute to some place like a school district. The good acre picks up their product and then
they distribute it to us. So um our squash and our edetamame came from various farms across the state. Um edetomame soybeans, we served that. Minnesota is the number three producer of soybeans in the United States. So important crop for our Minnesota farmers. Uh fresh apples from Gilchrist
Farm, which is just 10 minutes west of us right now. Um a really great partnership that we've developed. And then our dinner rolls from Pana Gold. And we also had cranberry sauce and a wonderful homemade pumpkin pudding. Uh we had guest servers this day. Um so our our district office staff got to hang
out with our kids and it was just an absolutely wonderful day. My favorite food day of the year. Uh we had a really fun staff training this year. My goal was to stop having so many trainings where we sit in classrooms and watch videos. Uh that's not fun for my staff
uh or me because I have to stand there and play the videos all day. Um, so we did a lot of hands-on kitchen work this year. You can see those are those strombolies I was talking about. So we got our whole team in the kitchen. We got everyone from our different buildings who don't normally get to work together in the kitchen together sharing
tips and tricks, trying out new recipes, and it was just a really, really fun day for us. Um, and then most recently, we had our middle school lunchroom takeover. This was a reward for the readathon. Um, we met with some student leaders and they actually got to design
the uh the lunch for that day. We got to talk about what goes into a school lunch, learn about the regulations, and then they got to uh design the menu and serve it to um and we served it to all of our students. Very, very fun day. That's what I have for you. Thank you.
Can answer any questions you might have and apparently knock the microphone up. >> This is awesome. Thank you for your presentation, board. What questions do you have for Laura? >> I I can't come up with a question, but I can't sit here silent either. You have
so much passion and energy for this. Um I thank you. It's It's fun to watch what the students get to enjoy at meal time. Um, I don't think that lunchtime when I was growing up was nearly this exciting
or the variety and I'm happy for them. So, thank you for making that part of their day wonderful. >> I kind of chuckled inside because today I served unbreaded chicken at lunch for my littles and the looks I got was, "This is different.
>> There's more than one way to eat chicken." >> Yep. Yep. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah, I was just going to second the comments on highlighting the passion and lucky to have you in the district and then it's nice to see all the student choices that you're introducing as well. So, there's some good data that
you can take and make updates with the food program from there as well. So, thank you. >> Mike students, come on. >> They are there for a reason. Um, as a very very avid school lunch eater for the past five years at
Monaceel, I will say it is a lot better than some other places I've been. Um, also the mango, how do you say? Chutney. >> Mango chutney. Yeah. >> So good. >> Uh, like Mark said, um, just your
passion is awesome and it's not just you, it's your whole team. uh every day going through the lunch line, you know, uh like you said, all your staff knows uh our names. uh we we just feel welcome and lunch isn't just good because of the food but because of the experience and
the people >> and I just want to recognize director wacker for her hard work and maybe you can explain this to our audience because maybe they don't quite understand but when you joined us it was kind of a a big role she was jumping into because we
were um gearing away from sourcing through just one place for our food which created a lot of work. Um, like she said, she had to first lay the foundation. It's been a lot of work for her to build to where she is now. She has even loftier goals, which is
exciting. But maybe you can talk about how it's different than a lot of other local schools where you actually have a little bit more play for where we get our food from and the menu selections. It's not like a cut and paste type situation.
>> Absolutely. Yeah. So um previous to uh my coming on in 2024, Monaceel utilized um contract management food service. So a large national vendor ran the food service department. Um lots of school districts around the state and around
the country utilize that model. Um but it does mean that you get kind of a plugandplay program. So, it's uh someone at a national level that's uh negotiating contracts, writing menus, putting those things in place, and there's not as much um control for the
school district in terms of what do our students like to eat? What does our community want our product to look like? We want to serve local products. We live in a very agriculturalheavy community. We want to be able to use local products. Um and so when it was time for that contract to come up for renewal,
the um the district decided they wanted to go what we call self op. So self operation. Um and basically saying goodbye to contract management meant that we had the best team in the world. First of all, we had the people and we had the physical kitchens. And on July
1st of 2024, I came in and said, "Okay, let's let's build a food service program." And it's meant that we have control over where our food comes from, what we serve. We write our own recipes. Um, you know, I get to have that live feedback from students. If something
isn't popular, it goes off the menu. If they want something, I can bring it on the menu. We can do fun things like, hey, let's have a special meal or a special celebration. So, just really having the program be able to reflect who we are as a community and what our community wants our food service to look
like and then be able to take care of our students, which you guys can tell is what I care the most about. Um, being able to make sure that the program reflects um what our students want and what they need to take care of them. So, >> I love that and I really love the hands-on learning um as well for the
cooks. there. I can only imagine how excited they are about that and how excited they are to continue that and bring more um home-cooked things to the students. And so I'm I'm excited and I'm really proud of where you've brought our
food service so far. So, thank you for all your hard work. >> Thanks. >> All right. Now, we're going to move on to item number C where I'm going to pass it back to Director Wacker to go over the vendor joint purchasing agreement. >> Great. So, speaking of getting to make
all of our own decisions about where our food comes from, several of our vendor contracts are in two-year cycle. So, we're up for um new contracts this year. We have four that we um we needed to uh get new contracts for vendors for. It was our um where am I here? It was our
bread and our milk, which are independent contracts that we uh host ourselves. So, we sent out requests for quotes for those um reviewed them um and uh chose two vendors that had the best quotes. And then two other contracts um
our paper supply and our produce we utilize a joint powers agreement. Um several school districts throughout the Minnesota kind of metro area will band together to be able to get um larger purchasing power. Um Eastern Carver County hosts those bids for a large
number of school districts. So we um they would like we've utilized joint powers for those. So um I am asking the board uh today to approve Pana Gold as our bakery uh Panagle Bakery for our bread vendor and Kemps for our milk
vendor for the upcoming school year and to approve um renewal of joint powers agreements with Eastern Carver County Schools for cooperative purchasing of paper supplies and produce. >> All right, board. This is an action item. >> So moved. Second
>> moved by Melissa Curtis, seconded by Casey Root. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> I. Opposed, please say no. >> Motion passes 40. Thank you. All right, we'll move on to item D, which is the second reading of policy.
I'd like to bring up to the podium director of human resources Rob Daner. Chair Steven, members of the board, Superintendent Olsen. Unfortunately, no mango chutney tonight, but we'll try to keep it exciting otherwise. Uh so this
is uh second read of policies for the month of May. Um the policy committee meets monthly. We did have as a committee uh seven policy drafts that we reviewed earlier this month. uh one is uh still a work in progress that we continue to refine. We'll bring that one
back to the board uh committee in June. Um and then we also had policy 419 which required no uh amendments. So that was a simple process. So the five for tonight we start with policy 411 employment procedures. This is a local policy.
There is no MSBA model policy um uh that that dictates this one. Uh so this is something that's completely local and and um so the amendments for this policy stating uh the language of the policy to reflect current practices. Any questions
on 411 at all? And I I'm sorry I forgot to mention the purpose. The purpose of this policy is to outline the school district's employment procedures including recruiting, posting, selecting, and the hiring of employees. All right, moving on to policy 412. Uh this is expense reimbursement.
Uh this was brought forward in our review cycle. Uh this policy had not been reviewed in a significant significant amount of time since 2013. Um there were some uh inter in the intervening years. There were some amendments made to the MSBA model draft.
No significant changes. However, um the purpose of this policy is to identify school district business expenses that in involved initial payment by an employee and qualify for reimbursement from the school district and to specify the manner by which the employee seeks reimbursement. Any questions on 412?
Okay. Uh the next up is uh 416, drug, alcohol, and cannabis testing. Uh we uh the board had actually reviewed this relatively recently um and adopted uh this language in December of 24. However, MSBA uh made partnered
districts aware of a typo on page 18. There was one number missing and that's why it comes back for uh review and amendment uh this month. The purpose of this policy uh the school board recognized the significant problems created by drug, alcohol and cannabis use in society in general and the public
schools in particular. The school board further recognizes the important contribution that public schools have in shaping the youth of today into the adults of tomorrow. Any questions on 416? Okay, just a reminder, there's more than one way to eat chicken, right? Uh that's
what I learned from the previous presentation. Next up is 417, uh chemical use and abuse. The purpose of this policy, the scoreboard recognizes that that chemical use and abuse constitutes a grave threat to the physical and mental well-being of students and employees and significantly impedes the learning process. Chemical
use and abuse also creates significant problems for society in general. The school board believes that the public school has a role in education, intervention, and prevention of chemical use and abuse. The purpose of this policy is to assist the school district in its goal to prevent chemical use and abuse by providing procedures for
education and intervention. Uh again, this one brought forward by our review cycle. Uh the board last revised this policy in 2016. Um similar to uh 412, there have been significant um changes in the language in the MSBA model in the
intervening years. However, no substantive uh substantial changes. That is any questions on 417. Okay. And finally tonight is number 418, drug-free workplace, drug-free school. The purpose of this policy is to maintain a safe and healthful environment for employees and students
by prohibiting the use of alcohol toxic substances, medical cannabis, non- intoxicating cannabonoids, edible cannabonoid products, and controlled substances without a physician's prescription. Uh, a lot of times we get questions on this one. Why isn't tobacco mentioned? That's because it's mentioned
in a completely separate policy. Um, the um that there is one modification brought forward by MSBA recommendation. and it's under the exception section. Um, and it has to do with um, a violation of this policy does not occur when a person possessed an alcoholic beverage in a school location when the
possession is within the exceptions of Minnesota statutes and is pursuant to procedure established under paragraph VG as outlined in this policy. So, just a minor clarification, but any other questions on 418 at all? All right, Sher Steven, this is an
action item for this evening. So moved. >> Second. >> Moved by Mark Branson, seconded by Casey Rude. All those in favor, please say I. I. >> I. Oppose. Please say no. Motion passes 40. Thank you, Director Daner. >> You.
>> As always, these policies of Bren read many, many, many times and discussed at the policy level and then brought to the board one time before the second read before they're voted on. All right. This was a longer meeting than what we've had here lately. So, this brings us to
adjournment at 7:22 p.m. Our next regular schoolboard meeting and work session will be on June 1st starting at 5:00 p.m. Thank you everyone who joined us and the little that joined us here who was awesome the entire meeting. Just very impressed. Good job.
Have a great evening.