Welcome to the August 18th, 2025 Independent School District number 152, school board meeting. It is 6 PM. I'm calling this meeting order. Starting on my left, please. Vin present. Mark present. Stephus present. Burgard present. Bjorkland present.
Vote present. Thank you. Item B, pledge of allegiance. Would you please stand for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance 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. Preview of agenda. Dr. Lun. There are no additions or corrections. Recommend approval. Thank you, Dave. I'll move to approve the agenda as presented. Cassidy, I'll second. I have a motion by Dave, second by
Cassidy. Move to approve the agenda as presented. Any further discussion from the board? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed, same sign. That motion carries. Item E, we are proud.
This is the time during the meeting we get to recognize outstanding achievements of students, staff, and community members. After your honor's name has been called, please come up to the front and we'll accept a certificate and a photo will be taken afterwards. Dr. Lunik and I will have the
certificates and Melissa's going to read off the we are prouds. We are proud of the Morehead High School speech team who won their ninth consecutive Minnesota class doubleA team championship. 18 total Spuds were all state competitors, meaning they made the
top eight in the min high school competition, including Eleanor Cullinin, Evan Frostley, Alli Scowgi, Sammy Jama, Manila Krua, Tim Gabbard, Ashlin Canu, Tristan
Sullivan, Elise Frostley, Narri Ka, Janu Lee, Jack Simon, Isaac Lysath, Miriam Cullatin, Ashton Baker, Maggie Burns, Sophia Pascowitz, Sam Schaefer, and Elise Halverson. Individual state
champions were Eleanor Cullinin in informative speaking, Evan Frostley in storytelling, and Ally Scouty in humorous interpretation. The team went on to compete at the 2025 National Speech and Debate Association tournament in De Moines, Iowa. In total,
eight Spuds reached at least the quarterfinal round in their disciplines. Three Spuds out of the entire country made the top six in their events, including Jack Simon in informative speaking, Sam Schaefer, and our national champion, Ally Scowgi in humorous interpretation. The Spud Speech team is
coached by Rebecca Myer Larson, Andrew Ticki, Kobe Schwarz, Walter, Joe Kelka, and Tina Christensen. [Applause] Thank you so much. [Music] Item F, public form. We have no public
form. That is correct. Thank you. Item two, consent agenda. All items on the consent agenda are considered to be routine and will be m will have been made available to the school board at least two days prior to the meeting. The items will be enacted by one resolution. There will be no
separate discussion of these items unless a schoolboard member so requires in which event that item will be removed from the from this agenda and considered under separate resolution to the extent possible. Schoolboard member inquiries on consent agenda items are to be made directly to the district prior to the
time of the meeting. Item A, superintendent. We have number one, approval, approval of the July 21st, 2025 schoolboard meeting minutes and the July 21st, 2025 close session minutes. Item B, business and administrative
services. We have number one, August claims, number two, medical leave. Number three, retirement. Number four, resignations. Number five, we have new employees. Number six, we have memorandum agreement with the Minnesota State Colleges and
Universities. Item E under special services, we have number one, memorandum of understanding between Lakeland Mental Health Center and Morehead Area. Cassidy, I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Keith,
I second. I have a motion by Cassidy, seconded by Keith. Move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Any further discussion from the Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Those opposed, same sign. And that
motion carries. Item three, new business. New business. We have item A, electric school bus grant. Steve Moore. I'm guessing this will be very electric. It It will be electrifying. Yes. Um, I'd like to introduce my transportation director, Sean Schneider. He'll be
giving the briefing. um makes uh really exciting opportunity for the school district and we'll have uh two resolutions that I'll suggest at the end of his briefing. Thank you for coming tonight. Uh you want to hit the green the button
there for the green light. Thank you. I think I'm Yeah, you can hear me now. Yep. Excellent. Thank you, Steve, for the introduction. Uh good evening, members of the board. I do have a great privilege to be able to talk to you about very something that's very exciting um and very proud of electric bus grant that we were awarded by the
state of Minnesota department of commerce. They awarded us 1.2 million uh toward to fund the purchase of three electric three electric school buses and associated charging infrastructure. Uh this first slide I'll just briefly
point that is an electric bus there that you see on that front slide. That is one of the types of buses that we are hoping to purchase with this grant. It's a Thomas bus and it's called a Julie Julie 2 specifically. A Julie is a play on words. Jewel is a measure of power and
then two means the second generation of this type of bus. They're in the first generation actually got to drive at a conference a couple years ago. So that's that's what we hope to purchase uh with the grant. Just my overview slides here. electric
bus grant will cover our plan to execute it once once we have the grant and the project timeline. So what we're looking at when getting the procurement of the buses and everything in place. Um really probably my my presentation could probably be summed up is basically we're
going to build build a stool three-leg stool. One the first leg is the funding and that's coming from the state. The second leg will be a contract with Highland Fleets that they're going to actually help us basically make this turnkey. So, there's a little uncertainty obviously with electric
school buses. They're going to try to minimize and take a lot of that uncertainty out from us. That's really the value that they're going to provide is as some additional things that we'll get into in the execution phase. And then we're the third piece third third piece of the the puzzle, the third the third leg of the stool, if you will. Our
drivers will need to be trained to operate the the bus. We have the garage that is is key to our successful implementation of running these electric buses as well as we're centrally located so we can go around the block and be on route.
So again the first piece first first leg of the stool is uh the grant and 1.2 million that grant covers 90% of the bus cost and 95% of the charger infrastructure costs. Um it goes a long way to you know student health, right?
So, these are very clean clean vehicles. Um, they're they're very sustainable and will help us in our cost savings, our budget initiatives that we're working on. They're quiet uh not not as loud and noisy as a diesel bus and uh we estimate
that they'll save us about $150,000 uh a year annually on on our operating costs. Those are uh associated with converting contractor routes, three additional contractor routes with the new electric buses, as well as no oil
changes, right? No engine upkeep. Um, and they also have a significant decrease that we're expecting in our cost of our fuel. So, the the electric buses, I'm told, are I don't have the district's actuals yet, but they estimate that they're probably
a dollar a gallon to to converse to $2 or $3 a gallon for diesel. So, we're expecting about half the the fuel cost. Typical fuel cost for us on a diesel bus is about $5,000 for 9 months. Um,
again, just also a big piece here is it uh it's a a key time for us to have these three electric buses when we're doing a pause on our on our capital funding for for for buses in general. And so to be able to have this come from from the state, it has no scrapping
requirement like some other grant programs do have. So we don't have to scrap any any additional buses. Um, again, cheaper to maintain, cheaper to operate. So, our execution plan, this is where Highland Fleets comes in.
We, again, there's a little uncertainty with them. So, they take away some of that. They've done these before. They've they've worked with some other districts in Minnesota. They've worked with a lot of districts around the country. Um, but they're going to really make it turnkey for us. So, they will, if there's maintenance, they're going to help us
maintain it. They'll they have a plan to set that up. That's part of the agreement with them. They're going to install all the infrastructure that's needed and then help us get the chargers and and the buses uh here on site. Fixed cost for their contract. It's $24,000
per bus per year. So what? $72,000 if I did the correct math there. Over 10 years support agreement with them. And then also a part of this is we're going to want to train our drivers to operate them. They're a little bit different to run. They they run different than diesel bus. So, we'll we'll teach our drivers for that as well as coordinate with some
of the agencies here locally so that they know what they ever have to do if they have to respond to something with an electric bus. All right. One key thing we think a big item with this, we're probably not going to put this, we can't put this out on a long
distance route or a field trip or anything, but we are centrally located with the garage. We can go right around the block and be on routes. And that's what makes us unique, I would say, in a way. Probably not unique around the whole country, but makes this very highly probability of being successful.
And we also have the heated garage, which electric buses like like a a good temperature. They don't like to be outside the cold. So, we have a good place for them to store. And then that brings me here, did I miss a slide? Nope. To my project timeline. Question. Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely. So when you mentioned 95% of the cost was covered um because it was 90% of the buses were covered and then 95% of the cost. Is this part of the cost the 24,000 or that's that $24,000 with the agreement with Highland? We won't see a bill for
this remainder that's covered through the Highland contract. Okay. Does that make sense? Did I answer that question? So the there the the states covering 90% of the so the grant from the state will cover 90% of the bus cost and 95% of the charger infrastructure costs. The remaining amount of money
will be covered through our contract with Highland and that's 24,000 fixed per a year for 10 years 24,000 per bus per year for 10 years. That's correct. Um and then that 24,000 includes the
150,000 savings as well. That is correct. Built in there too. Yep. Yep. And I if you want I can get into those numbers a little bit but yes that'd be the 150,000 will be after the cost of the contract with Highland. Y okay thank you. Yep. You're welcome.
So project timeline. This is a a Gant chart and it's a little bit wordy and a little but I give you some good data. I'll pull out some some important pieces. We're targeting full implementation for the 20 the start of the 2627 school year. That's when we expect to have the buses online everybody trained and ready to roll.
have them out on routes. Um, in the shorter term, we're hoping to have the grant finalized and approved. Part of your action tonight would be that here, quarter 4, 2025. Then the bus purchase will happen immediately after that. We want to get the bus, as you can see, that's the long pole in the tent there on the on the GAN
chart. That will take the longest. So, we'll try to get that underway as soon as possible. And then infrastructure install will happen quarter 1, quarter two of 2026 with bus delivery and route assignment with driver and agency safety training to happen quarter three with
school implementation or sorry full implementation buses in service and on routes shortly thereafter. This shows to go into quarter 4. We think that that timeline for bus purchases we hope is shorter than that than what it's projected to be and we'd be able to have those out before the start of school. We
think that's doable with that. That is what I have to present. Unless there's any other questions. Dave, how many do you plan to train at more than just the three, I assume, in case someone quits or what's the So, we'll train the We've already kind
of identified who would be interested in doing that. So, we kind of let them self self- select in a way. Um, we will train them and then we will train our spares as well. And so we'll have enough backup in the event that there's a vacancy. Cassidy. Yeah.
Um so forgive me, I know nothing about electric cars. Um so sorry about this. Or electric vehicles in this case. Um I have read about cold though and that engines and stuff can stop. Are is that a concern? No, we don't think so. It it could be.
That's part of the reason we want Highland just to take away some of the uncertainty. Um, we think that them being in a in a warm garage, I don't know all of the techn technicalities or the the specifications, but I've been told that the battery is like 70°.
There's an electric electric ran heater on the actual battery that keeps it that temperature. Being outside, if it's parked outside and charged outside, you really don't stand a chance. With it being inside in a heated garage, we think we won't have that problem. And we've been told that that that battery then will be able to maintain its
temperature once it's out and running. We will lose on colder days, you will lose some of your battery usage, we've been told. But this the the length of our routes from what they've done an analysis on, they think that we can run these buses and and run the whole day
and still have charge left over. So we would not have to charge in the middle of the day. We could charge at night. And then how long do the batteries last? I've been told the buses can last expected to last 7 to 10 years. So before the batteries start to go down,
I'll just back up on that. If one goes bad, then I would guess the maintenance cost covers that. Like if yes, the batteries go bad. Guaranteed service. So if it goes, they don't want it to go down. If it goes down, we're they're under contract insured it operates. Awesome.
Since this is a grant, is there an obligation to provide specific info back related to this operation, how it meets the timeline and all of that? And is that an extra burden on anybody? I mean, I know it's really good. This is
awesome, but I'm just curious the extra um reporting back that has to be done if is it extensive or medium from So, we met with the state and discussed some of that. They want some of the charging um and run times that's that's gathered through the chargers.
There's a software in the chargers that gathers some of that and that'll actually be reported by Highland back to the state for us. um they asked that we do something like within our curriculum some marketing maybe have kids um do a little bit of research on them or use them as a research project just just to
do a little bit with that but not extensive not extensive reporting to the state. Great. It sounds like it's simple and then I was then my second part of that was a learning o um because we have the career academy and other things that that the students might be interested in. So that's great that you mentioned
that because I think that's an awesome um possibility. Absolutely. Keith, um, can you talk a little bit about like how how you found the grant or how the grant became into being an option? I would probably have Steve elaborate just a little bit on that.
So, every year we receive uh in or email from the Department of Commerce uh for this electric bus program. It's been going on for for several years, but uh they always, as Sean mentioned, you had to give one diesel bus up for one
electric bus. So, um, I wrote, not saying that this was the case, I would like to believe it, but I wrote to the Department of Commerce and said, "Hey, look, you know, this is a really cool program, but this, um, one for one swap just makes it a non-starter for Morhead
public schools." And then so this year they sent a notice out said they scrapped that requirement and we said, "Giddy up, let's go." And then, you know, we're there. So, nice. No, that's that's fantastic. And I know with with the solar and you know the electric buses that appreciate
everything everybody's been doing in that regard. Um I think you talked about the range. So then my other question would be is if this if this is successful do we think that maybe after 5 years 10 years maybe more electric buses would be an option.
I would like to say yes. Anything is open of course. Um yeah, it depends on these opportunities. Now, you know, the market the way these buses are are $400,000 a piece. So, yeah, um it's only affordable with a grant program,
but if there's another round, uh we will definitely consider it. Now, there's power requirements that we would have to work with, um Morehead Public Service on that might make us, but we we want to have a long-term plan for the future of electric transportation.
Awesome. And then a regular diesel bus is how much it costs? Typically they're about 150,000. Okay. So it's 2x 2 and a half. Two and a half. Yeah. Thank you. That's quite a cost difference between a diesel and a Oh yes. Electric bus.
Yeah. Yep. But I think you know it's free market and you get a lot of grants and then all of a sudden the prices are reflective of that. So the savings too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. Once these buses would happen to go out
of service, is there costs in getting rid of the batteries and the buses themselves? Good question. So, part of the Highland contract is they will dispose of them for us. So, if we decide that we don't want them and they've used we've used them for their service life,
they'll dispose of them for us. My last question is on in the garage, how much concrete we're going to be ripping up in order to get that power into the garage because those are those are that's pretty good power station you're putting in for these three buses.
Yeah, I think we're still working the details on where we're going to run that line from. So, we may have to cut into the concrete um on the north side of the building. Uh the feed the main feed into the building is is on the south side. So, we're we're working through that right now. So, we're trying to minimize
that uh impact, but we don't have that mapped out yet because that is a floor heat in that garage. Correct. Isn't it? No, it's not. I'm sorry. I thought it was I thought there was floor heat. Well, that makes it easier then. I was
thinking with the floor heat. Yeah, we're we're going to take a look at that and then also look at, you know, future expansion if we need to do anything while we're doing it to program for the future. But it all depends on cost. Well, it helps a lot that you're getting a a nice grant from the state of
Minnesota for it to purchase these buses. And I I think that makes it a lot easier to swallow as a as a board and as a school district. Yeah. Yep. And and just with zero impact on the capital on the front side and then operational savings, it's
uh it's hard to pass up. And I think we're one of seven schools in the state of school school districts in the state of Minnesota that got grants. So nice. Because were we were we looking to add any buses without I mean we we had a pause on
Yeah. So interestingly with our you know continuing uh to achieve uh savings in our operational costs u the more in-house routes we can but we are tapped out. So um this allows us to do that uh without procuring any
spending any capital on buses. So yeah so if the just to clarify the buses are 400,000 so that's the entire grant amount but the cost of the electric is above and beyond that grant then or how does that work? Cost of the you're talking the chargers
the chargers. So so it's not so the grant covers 90% of the bus cost. So, I'll try not to do public math, but there's there's left some money that is not covered by the grant on the buses. And then the charger is covered 95%. So,
those two totals equal the number that's on that memo to you. Yes. Okay. So, the actual cost of the charger and the buses, if I remember correctly, was closer to like 1.5 if I remember correctly, but funded was 1.2 out of the grant
for the 90 and the 95. So where's the 15% coming from then? Highland Highland will will there won't be a capital outlay from the district. They pick it up and then through our contract with them per bus. Okay.
It's similar to our solar grant process with Ideal Energy Solutions. So it's paidense paid. Y I'm ready for a motion. I go ahead. Sorry. Sorry. Okay. I move to approve the two contracts as
presented. Um, first contract approval is between Morhead Area Public Schools and Minnesota Department of Commerce for the electric bus grant. The second contract, did we hear about the second contract? Um, approval is between Ward Area Public Schools and Highland. Yes, we did.
Sorry. Fleets to provide procurement, services, infrastructure, and operations and maintenance of the three electric buses. Thank you, Keith. I'll second. Thank you. We have a motion by Cassidy, second by Keith. Move to approve the two
contract contracts as presented. The first contract approval is between Morhead Area Public Schools and the Minnesota Department of Commerce for the electric bus grant. The second contract approval is between Morehead Area Public Schools and Highland Fleets to provide procurement, services, infrastructure,
and operations and maintenance of three electric buses. Any further discussion or comments? Did you have anything else, Steve? Thank you. Okay, seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Those opposed, same sign. That motion
carries. I'm excited to hear how these electric buses do in the middle of January when it's or February when it's very cold. Item B, emergency operations plan update. Steve Moore. All right. Thank you. This should not take too long, but this is the annual
requirement to brief the school board on any changes to our emergency uh operations plan. So, I'll talk about remind you about the intent and purpose of the emergency operations plan, accomplishments over the past year in terms of emergency management, summary of updates to the emergency
operations plan, and then uh a little bit about school and safety security and some next steps. So uh just to recap, you've all seen this before. It's been in emergency operations plan has been in place since 2012. And it's to
provide that uh overview of the approach to our emergency operations and how we identif how we respond to incidents when they occur and how we prepare in hopes that they don't occur. But we will be ready if they do.
Accomplishments. Uh over the last uh year, we uh completely redid our first responder maps for the fire department, the police department, and we coordinated with them directly. So, we all have the same maps. And so, if we do have to respond uh to an incident, we're
all uh operate, we have a common operating picture, which is very important when during a response. Um the we have that emergency management Google page has been updated. Uh all the BERT building emergency response team rosters
have been updated for each building. So those are all current for the start of the school year. Any checklists that we have are revamped uh over the course of the year have been updated. And then uh the training uh the training has been updated that's available on the Google
page for our BERS to use. And then one thing that uh we did over in the spring, late in the spring I think it was, um Dr. Damer helped on this one uh was that we we finalized and published our new
crisis response procedures and added that to as as its own tab in the BERT binder. So now we all have the same resources and that was developed with the help of of uh Kristen's area health services counselors Dwayne's area and so
um and unfortunately we've had to use those response procedures uh in the last uh several months for different incidents but they have uh have worked well and we continue to tweak those. It's always going to be at a 95%
solution in my opinion. As we go through um crisis response, we'll we'll tweak those where we find shortfalls and u benchmark off of things that work well. Summary of updates is very mostly administrative in the emergency
operations plan. Remove some signature blocks um listed there. Uh this is is sent out to Klay County Emergency Management and Klay County Sheriff's Office. Uh so that'll be distributed to these agencies through those agencies.
Um updated the record of the distribution table. Uh enrollment numbers are updated as best as they could be uh where they were at at the time. And then uh an alternate emergency operations center location was moved from the boardroom to the media center
and that was over at uh uh Propes Field. So and then um last year Brenda and her had spent some time updating a communications toolkit for emergency management that has come in handy and helped us standardize how we communicate
when we have an incident, a threat assessment or anything like that. So that's all standardized and linked into the Google emergency management page. And then we have added Orlander bus service u because they were added as one of our contractors and that's um listed
in the where those are located. The pages are listed in the in the emergency operations plan attached in your packet. So mostly administrative. So, I want to talk a little bit about um the uh district safety and security
audit. Um I briefed that as part of our capital LTFM program for this fiscal year. Uh but we actually had the team come in and do a site assessment and and interview our administrators, administrative assistants and head custodians that basically the staff that
was here. Uh we went to every building. We spent a week I spent a week with the team. I walked through the building and they asked tons of questions. Got lots of inputs, very candid inputs from our administrators and staff. And so the continuation of this audit will be uh
custom surveys that will go out and we're going to probably do it. We're not going to do it right now because everybody's focused and getting ready for school, but sometime later in September, early October, we'll be sending surveys out to teachers and staff to get their input on what they
feel are concerns or recommendations or things inputs for how we operate safely in our schools. And then some key stakeholder interviews. and you will be asked uh we'll be getting a hold of you at some time uh to to ask if you'd like to be part of those interviews and
provide input as well. And then we'll have a final report and then uh we'll be using that to build they say about 67 68% of the findings in these audits are have no cost associated with it. So it'll be like procedural things, process
changes, uh those kinds of things. then and we'll also have some improvements that we can make to our facilities to provide safer facilities. So, that'll be happening over the next six months or so. Um, and I think and then any questions on that audit? Not a lot of
details yet, but we're collecting a lot of information, but they were very impressed with the with our facilities and um what we got going right now. So, but I'm sure they'll have some really good suggestions for us to just improve our program. Next steps uh will be our BERS will be
doing refresher and new team member training in their buildings once school starts back up. Um they've been tasked to update their sight specific procedures and classroom checklists. Those have been updated. They just have to print them out and put them in their classrooms. So their teachers have all the updated classroom checklists. And
then of course everybody's favorite NIMS training um for uh emergency management. and every BERT member should at least complete ICS 100 and 700. So we'll be tracking that throughout the year and then be conducting I'm going to stand
try to standardize quarterly uh BERT meetings and and conduct some tabletop exercises uh at some of the some of the buildings. So that's what's our next steps. Any questions on our emergency management program? It does not look like it.
Okay, but Keith Oh, go ahead. Move to approve the emergency operations plan as presented. Dave, I'll second. I have a motion by Keith, second by Dave. Move to approve the emergency operations plan as presented. Any
further discussion from the board or uh I'm sorry, Matt. I would just like to say I sleep better at night knowing that you're on the tiller in this situation. So, thank you. This is a great report. Anything else
from the board? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed, same sign. And this motion carries. Moving on. Item C. I believe it's pronounced MOSA. You tell me, Jeremy. M OA.
Yeah. Morehead online secondary academy. Thank you. So, we have uh Dave Lawrence here to kind of go through a short presentation. um on where we are. Um we have uh we had
the Morhead online secondary academy uh created um I'm actually you want to just jump to slide three? Yeah. So kind of an a history here uh back in 2021 was uh when we had COVID and we had
to have Spuds Academy. Uh that was kind of the first year where every school had to create an online program. Um after that year we did go through the process to become an approved online vendor. Um and so we were an online vendor for the
2122 school year. At that time we had a K12 program. So we had Morhead online secondary academy and we had more online entry academy. uh we funded that with ESSER dollars that we still had. So we we got the approval uh to become a
full-time online school. Um after that year, the 2122 school year, uh the ESR dollars um ran out and so we paused the programming. So we did not have uh MOSA programming for 2223 or 2324.
We did have some in-house credit recovery programming that we did. Um, but we did not need, and I'll go through the law on that. We did not need to have an online school for that. Uh, because they changed some laws. Last year, as
you know, we did a partnership with Owatana. Um, and so we had, uh, I think second semester, we had in the 40s, uh, like 45 46 kids, uh, that were part of that partnership. uh we paid Oatana
uh 6,000 and about $6,50 per kid to have that programming. Um and so then this year we worked it out with high school administration to bring back and we are bringing back MOSA for just the 9 through 12 students. So we're we're kind
of this first phase. Uh we really wanted to go slow uh to make sure we have it. So this is kind of step one. We're only doing grades 9 through 12. So I think we had mid4s in Owatana and Dave's going to go we got about upper 20s right now. So our goal with this year was really to
try to bring back those Oatana kids um on that. So if you want to go to the next slide Dave as I said this is kind of what pushed it. They changed a new law called the online instruction act. And so what this allowed us to do is we have a credit recovery program that we
run that we ran the last couple years. Um, and what it is is now districts can offer online classes to any of their students as long as it's not full-time online without becoming an online academy or an online approved vendor.
So, for those couple years that we paused, we still had some online instruction strictly for credit recovery. So, if there was a junior that needed to take algebra one over, they did it online. we didn't have to have um the approved school. Once a student
flips to full-time online, then you have to be an approved vendor. So, last year, that's why we had the contract with Owatana. Uh we weren't ready. Uh we spent last year working with the union uh to kind of create the programming, how the staffing would look. Uh we got
theou sign. So, this year we're ready to have our own program. And again, we're running it through 9 through 12. So, just those grades. So Dave is going to kind of take it from here just to talk a little bit about uh where we're at uh kind of what the programming will look like um as we move forward for the
school year. Yeah. Well, thanks for having me and I'll try to make this as succinct as I can with where we're at in the process. We still have quite a bit of work behind the behind the scenes to get everything up and running. Like Jeremy mentioned, I think on the ne the next slide has we
have in the neighborhood of 24 25 kids and I'm guessing we'll probably have another 10 to 12 the way information's been coming in before the uh this school year starts. So we're uh getting things in place, but for the most part it is the same credit requirements as the high
school 26 credits to graduate. So it is in line and a Morehead High School graduation uh expectation requirements will be met. Right now we have the ability to have up to 35 teachers the way theou worked out and how the
teachers are available ver uh due to various uh assignments that they currently have. We won't necessarily have that many teachers starting the school year with the number of students that we have enrolled. Uh so we'll have that might look different as the year
goes by. So we have the training set up for those people and I think it's on the 26th which is uh during our workshop week of uh uh next week here. Um uh like we said this is what we had I think it was when we put this together
for the to meet the timeline last Wednesday and I it's about that but like I said we've been forwarding the the registration link to to additional students. We did receive our NCA accreditation last Friday. So, that was nice to get that process done. And we
have some kids who are potentially college uh bound athletes that that was fairly important to them to make sure that we had that accreditation in place before the start of the school year. So, that's that's where things are at as far as as far as the the process and and
getting kids get getting kids lined up and getting teachers and classes lined up. We are using the imagine learning uh platform which we have been using in the past which is you guys might know as egeneuity. So that's the platform that we're we've partnered with for the programming. Just kind of point of
reference. So last year those 25 kids with Otana would have cost us about $153,000. This year those same 20 kids is going to cost us 20. So, it was really important to get our staff to do it because that was the big cost was farming out staff
and hiring other staff. Whether it was Egeneuity actually did our credit recovery, we hired their teachers or we did Owatana. Um, we're we're, you know, just on 25 kids, we're going to bring in an extra $230,000.
Um, and that as we add them, it's just the the cost is only $50 per credit. So, it's not that big a cost since it's our teachers. Uh, so doing it ourselves is really a a financial gain for us moving forward. And I just add like Jeremy mentioned, we
were planning on capping this a little bit higher, you know, to set aside certain amount of FTEEs in the core areas to make sure we we could meet the number of kids we had. So we really were fairly purposeful in trying to start this small this first year to make sure that we can get the programming in place
and and kind of fix things as we go along without having a major impact on a large number of students. So we we are set to go to 80 if we had to. Uh but we're we're like you like I mentioned earlier our numbers are we're probably expecting 35 to 40 by the time the
school year starts. Um, like I mentioned before, it's uh the the Imagine Learning platform and basically uh it is without getting too far into the weeds on the on the actual platform, it is
very gives you very good uh monitors as far as uh following either your students progress as a as a parent or a teacher. You have uh updates that are done daily. It these weren't the best two we had. We had another one, but we didn't have a
good picture of it. I'll just full disclosure, but they have a a good progress a monitor bar, too, that will tell you exactly how far a student is into a class. Uh that you can get reports on exactly how many minutes a student was working, not just logged in, but actually working on a particular
class and assignment on a daily basis. So, those are the type of the reports that we'll be um forwarding and talking to and making sure parents are aware of how students are doing in their classes. And we we've been using Egeneuity for probably 10 years now. Um even before CO
um all the courses are approved by the state of Minnesota. And so what we did this for this first year the 68 electives is we went in and matched up a course we had in person and we tried to find a very light course online so it' be similar experiences for our kids. So,
um, we went through their entire catalog and health, Spanish, some manufacturing courses. We really tried to find if we had it in person, we wanted to have it online because our goal is not really to have kids move from in person to online, but right now we have 200 kids that are
online. You know, that's 200 million, you know, two $2 million we're losing. So, the more we can try to get some of them back, that was our goal. So, the courses are very in line with what we're doing in person. It's just that online option. But Egeneuity is approved by the state of Minnesota. Owatana actually use
this platform. So the kids that were in Owatana last year, it's the exact same platform that they use that we're using this year. Do you guys have any questions? Go ahead, Keith. Um, three questions. I think they're somewhat related, somewhat brief, but
um, is this for Morehead residents only or is it open enrollment or this year? They're just more residents. Okay. And then what's the like the the target student who's being targeted or what what what's the what are we looking for in a student to to for the online
academy? Yeah. I mean, we opened it up trying to just get the Oatana kids back. Um and we kind of said we could take up to 80 this year. That was kind of our max. Uh right now we're roughly at 30. So now it's kind of if we're hearing counselors, some some families are looking online.
Of course, we want them to come to us. So, uh, now it's kind of open. Uh, we do have some special ed students and Mr. Borgensson has found a case manager that will work with them. Um, so, so right now it's just Morehead students though. Um, and we've had some counselors say
they had families interested in leaving while we to stay here with us uh, rather than going somewhere else so we don't lose that funding. Okay. And last question. You had said it's 9 through 12 only. Can you talk me I I think it's geared online. It's always geared a little bit more towards
older, but can you talk to me behind the decision for 9 through 12 only at this time? Yeah. So, we we first looked at we had maybe two kids in elementary that were in Owano last year. Uh we just did not have elementary. Um I'll be honest, we
don't want elementary kids online. We want them in person. So, we really didn't look at the elementary at that time. We then looked at the staffing, what we could get this year, and 9th through 12 was kind of what we started at. So, we do have room. If we had some
case by case situations for middle school kids that we we had to work through something, we could probably get them in there. But for this first year and the staffing we had, we really wanted to focus on 912 first with the idea to build it in the coming years. Okay. Thank you.
I have three questions also. Um, so right now the teachers who currently have are what the teachers that are teaching the classes, correct? Yes. And so what number would we need to potentially break away and have our own staff for? We we are using our own staff this year,
right? So what point will we need to break away and have a separate like you're only teaching online classes and you need an administrator and those kind of things. What number? So the you you can have a 40 to1 ratio. So when we looked at that, an English teacher is six sections, 240 kids. I
mean, you're looking at 200 kids probably to have a full core because you can have a 40 to1 online ratio. Okay. So they teach six of eight. So that's kind of the number that we would look at if they got that big. Okay. And that'd be for support staff as
well, like counselors. Yep. Right now counselors are going to just take Alphabet. They've worked through that. Um, and then Dave's going to be the the MOSA principal. Sure. Okay. And then if kids are fully online, are they allowed in the school during the school day?
Right now, we've said if they want to take a performance ensemble, orchestra, band, choir, or human performance, that's it. Okay. And then could they come in for lunch if they want lunch or is that they have to do a thing of their own? We We've never had that option, I guess. So, okay. Just wondering.
All right. I guess we've never had that request, I should say. Sure. Okay. And my last question is um with the career academy. So if they're strictly online and our goal is obviously the pathways to you know early on, how does that connect when you're online compared when you're with work with academy?
Yeah, that's a good question. Um you know I think there's different reasons why people take online courses and why they don't. Uh I I would think we're going to have some kids that are going to possibly come back in the next year or so. there. I guess there wouldn't
necessarily be a tiein, per se, except we do have all of our people that are teaching in the career academy. All of them are responsible for a section of teaching a course on online if kids sign up for it. Uh, and just a a side
fact, all the teacher requirements and licensers are uh the same as any class that we teach in person. So teachers teaching a business class have to be licensed in business and for for our courses online as well. So there there is a tie that way. So whether there's an
impact in getting kids to, you know, come in person to experience more of the academy model in person, I don't know that that's something or not that those kids are overly concerned about at this point. Okay. All right. Thank you,
Cassidy. All these students are still eligible for outside activities. Sports. Yeah. Yeah. We had we had quite a few that were on the Oatana program that played sports and activities for us. Yeah. Anything else? Do you have anything else?
No. We're like I said, we're still have a lot of work going on here as the start of the school year approaches to get things up and running. We're building the classes and putting the kids in. And I know we have some parents that are kind of a little uh getting a little chomping at the bit here to to get some
uh information for their kids. So, we're trying to get that done as quickly as we can. We we just found out Friday though, that was the big step that we did get the NCA approval. Um we weren't sure we were going to have that and without that then anyone that wanted to do activities
would have probably went somewhere else. Uh, so that was we were excited that we just found that out last Friday that we got the formal approval from the NCAA. So just for my clarification, my understanding is if you're online, you're only online. You can't come in
and say do a shop class or a or something like that. Correct. Right now we've said orchestra, band, choir, or human performance because there there's nothing like that online. But just those courses, everything else is your full online. Okay.
And again, that's kind of our that's our process right now as we're growing it um to have that. I I guess I would I would like to see and I don't know about the rest of the board, but if the possibility would come that if somebody wanted and I'm just going to throw this out here, a welding
class. I mean, welding class is pretty specific. You got to get in there and you got to do the welds and stuff. Yep. I would like to see that we maybe flex a little bit more for the career academy. Yeah. Or the trades, but like you said, it's new and it's new to us. So, let's just
keep working on it and see what happens. Cassie, um I'd also really like to see what Dave said about lunch. If we could um offer lunch, that would be I mean, if they can come in and get lunch, there's reasons they can't be at school, but if they can
come in and have lunch, that'd be good. Okay. Sounds exciting. I can't wait to hear back how it's doing. All right. Thanks, Dave. Thank you. Item D, student or school handbook
updates. Dr. Orson. So, I have um kind of the changes already marked and we're just going to kind of run through the handbooks this year. There hasn't been a whole lot of changes. Uh so, I I kind of said I would take them uh for tonight. Um and Dan's
gonna kind of drive for me uh through the agenda. So um the first ones really I'm I'm probably not going to really cover early learning is just dates changes and even the elementary there's no changes except for um they added
wearable technology to the cell phone law. So that's the only change in the entire elementary handbook was uh we had to use the language of wearable technology will also now be prohibited. Um, otherwise those two handbooks for the early learning and the elementary,
there was no changes from the previous school year. So if we're okay, I was going to jump right to Horizon. Good with that, Bordon. Okay, it's 192. Yep. So Horizon starts the beginning is just some admin changes. Um,
uh, some dates changes. Uh, the big changes start on page seven. Um, so, um, there was added language on the top of page seven. I missed just that this has kind of always been the practice. Um, if a student's leaves
school, um, and just takes off, uh, we always ask them that they come back the next day. It's never actually been listed in there, right, on that one, but, um, very rarely we have kids that just take off and leave for the day. um we get a hold of parents, they've called
them, it's just written in there now, so families can kind of know that. So that's always been the practice, but it hasn't been in there. Um the new procedure for both Horizon and the high school, high school has it in there. Um they're calling it hallway sweeps. Um,
it's essentially uh kind of a process to between classes, once classes start, there's a support team that will sweep the halls, grab the kids that are um skipping or late, whatever reason, kind of grab them into an area and kind of work through the process, first offense,
second offense, third offense, but really trying to just get it a little bit more streamline on figuring out why those kids are not in class. Um, and then kind of build some processes to work through to get them into class. So the high school is also going to do this. Uh so they're calling them kind of
hallway sweep procedures. Uh so that's a new process that they're going to be doing and that will be 712. So you'll see it again in the high school handbook is the hallway sweeps. Um next change is um cell phones. Again
um just get the device out during the day uh put away wearable technology. Um, East just kind of put it more of get it at the end of the day and it'll be a case- by case basis. So, uh, not necessarily first, second, third, fourth offenses on how that would work through,
uh, but really working with the kids in the family. Get the cell phone, bring it down to the office and work with them at the end. So, that's kind of the changes. Again, this too though is that state law. Cell phones have to be put away during the instructional day. So, that did not change. just kind of how the
process of working with them if there is uh a student that is is found to be using it. Next change is on page uh 19 and that is just language uh for Horizon on the clinic. So our new clinic just getting
some language in there uh about the Morhead based health clinic. So just an addition there. 23 um is just changes in meals. So 23 on there. Um for for um lunch milk, there
was just an increase in some prices. So that was the changes on 23. And then the only other change for Horizon East is on page 37. So this one is um it looks like uh it was all struck out, but uh it's still in
there. U Mr. Holton has created a pretty comprehensive activities handbook that he uh visits with all families at the beginning of activities and they get that activity handbook. So we took kind of that activities out of the horizon handbook and there's a link to the new
activities handbook. So the information is presented uh it's presented in in now that he'll have those at the beginning of each activity k those families will get that uh so it'll be more directed at the families that are in activities but then if you look page 37 through 45 is
all omitted because there's a link now in here that brings you to the actual activity handbook. So the information is all still um available. it's just more directed to the families that are in activities and it saves a little bit on
the actual handbook for Horizon. So that was um really the big additions here was that new hallway sweeps that process that they're going to try here really to try to work with the students to get to class and then the activity hand activities coming out to the
addition of an activities handbook. Otherwise, there were no changes to Horizon. Any questions on that one? Keith, you had mentioned the breakfast and lunch. Um, I just noticed when I was scrolling through some of them had the
changes and some of them didn't. Did it was changed throughout. Yep. We might we might have just missed them in the other one. So, we'll get we'll get all those prices updated. I talked to you about that. So, appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Uh the Morhead Alternative Learning Center uh starts on 261.
Um and so the changes here are really um we created aou last year that was uh ressigned for this year. Uh our ALC runs a modified schedule um two extended days uh with a half day on Friday. So
starting on page four and five is just the new schedule. So, it's um the same process as last year for that schedule that they implemented and they've used. It's just updated times and an updated calendar. Uh so, page four and five is just that.
Page 10. Um just an update on the Opus campus. Just put it in there. Um the doors at the career academy are not open all day. uh in between shifts you can see where uh door one would be locked. So if they
come in during those times they have to come into our main office and get buzzed in. And so this is uh been added uh so that if students come late they know exactly the times. If they come between let's say 8:30 to 9:55 they have to go to the main office to get checked in uh
like the other buildings then go to class. between those is the shifts for the career academy uh where they're transporting from the high school. So that's why door one would be unlocked. So it was just kind of the o the add it
in regards to uh when we will have those doors secure and where the students have to go if they're late. Again between like on this one between 9:55 to 10:10 that's our transition time for the high schools. So that's when door one is unlocked. Once that transition time is
closed um for the ALC as well, then they have to check it. And then the only other thing on this one is just the updated calendar. So page 11 again, um with their different schedule a little bit, um just the
updated calendar for their time. Any questions on the ALC? Doesn't look like it. We can move on. All right. Uh next is Morat High School starting on 286. Uh so the first uh pages um really one
through seven any changes there uh is in regards to staffing changes uh with the switches of some assistant principles. Um we added Mr. Goodwin uh Spencer Sters and Mr. Triggs of course uh moved on. So
we just updated uh the the contact information and a little bit about them. So, the first change comes on page um 10, the bell schedules. Uh we actually modified these bell schedules last year in regards to where you're having issues
getting kids back and forth between shuttles. Um so I think semester time we met and we kind of worked through some different times to try to uh get it a little easier for kids not becoming late between those classes. So these are just
updated um to what we ended up second semester using but of course we didn't update the handbook. So um all the bell schedules for 10 through 16 are just that updates to some of the changes we made last year to help with some of the shuttles going back and forth.
He has a question with the travel dismissal time. That's so during class time five minutes before they're dismissed. Is that correct? Yep. the the last five minutes, anyone that has to go to the career academy would leave class and get on the bus to help with some of that time. The 15
minutes just was not enough time and no instruction will take place in that last time. Correct. Yep. That I'm sure you figured out last year that will really expedite them getting to where they need to be with not having Yep. the whole everybody else Yep. to navigate. Yeah. Thank you.
Yep. So that one Yeah. So we we put that in there. I think they started at semester 2. Um, we just now have got it into the handbook. Yep. So, page 17 is just those updated meal prices. Um, we'll make sure we get them
on all of them. 24 and 25 again is uh that process for hallway sweeps. Um, so you can kind of see um what it'll be as well as in that section is kind of of the travel time and when we'll be
locking the doors again uh between the high school uh and the Kurr Academy. But the hallway sweeps again is something new to try to really um number one get kids to class, but also number two figure out why they're not going to class. Um and so that's kind of a new process. Yep.
And who are the sweepers? It'll be uh admin, uh behavior interventionists, deans of students, all hands on deck. Yeah. Yeah. Whoever is probably not teaching a class, maybe counselors. Um and it'll be kind of a team that sweeps them through.
So again, also right there is travel time and bell schedules. Um and then also just detail again with the doors, right? We we we're really looking at uh once class starts. We do have hard lock times. So if kids are late um coming in there, it kind of details where they
would go to check in just like we did at the ALC. If they miss those 20-minute windows, we don't want the doors open all day. Uh so it's kind of that process of what happens uh if they're in between those shuttle times and they come late.
and doors have cameras in case if somebody props him open or somebody lets somebody in or something. Okay, thank you. Back to the sweepers so the people sweeping will know that they were sweeping that Yeah. Okay, cool. Thanks.
It it'll be a set set time of when they're doing it. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. So you see at the bottom 25 the hard lock times again um just for uh detail on when those doors will be set. U 44
and 45 is um the next one and that was just some update on um language for registration. Uh many times in the past, uh we would they would have if if kids registered and say they hadn't been in school for a
couple weeks, um the recommendation was always just register right at the ALC. That's not our process anymore. They almost always start at the high school. Uh so in 45, it's more of a case-byase basis. There's not a set if you haven't been in school for two weeks, you're going to the ALC, right? We work with
kids and they register. I would say the majority of the time they always register with the high school. we want to give that a try and then if it's not working then we'd look at transitioning to the ALC. So that has not been the process they've used. So we just took that out uh of the language for
registration community release on the bottom um just on what seniors need to have in order to have a community release. That changed as we went back to now the graduation requirements. So graduation requirements now back up to 26. Um, so before when it
was lower, if you had 18 credits, you only needed six credits to graduate. You could afford to maybe have a community release. Now you have to have 20 credits in order to have uh a chance to be available to have a community release. So that's just in regards to the graduation requirements, which is also
on the bottom um page 45, the updated requirements. Uh we are back to 26 uh for all students. Um, the other addition is personal finance. So, personal finance is now a required class uh for
this year's sophomores when they graduate. So, it was put in last year. Um, we didn't put it in the handbook because again, it's this year's sophomores. The law is also written they have to take it in their sophomore, junior, senior year. They cannot sign up
for personal finance as a freshman. So when we had kids register this year that money marketing and finance was no longer available to 9th grade because we didn't want to have students take the class and have to retake the class as a requirement for 10th 11th and 12th grade. So it was dropped as an elective
for our ninth graders and it's now added as a required elective that all kids have to take um before they graduate. And again it's this year's sophomores. So this year, sophomores and below will be that first group, which means then we had to adjust the elective credits, one
less half credit because now they're required to take personal finance. So that's just a new um law the state put in. Again, this year sophomores will be the first. Um and then again, the change at the start of page 46 is we are back
to 26 credits for all all graduating classes. 49 and 50. Um well, first um page starting at 48 uh we went through kind of a new um grading policy uh back when we were starting the
process with True North. One of the recommendations uh was to analyze and look at the grading practices at the high school. That was a recommendation from one of the task forces. Uh so um they spent about a year and a half looking at
grading and some practices. Um and so this is the new uh grading system. Um it really looks at homework is about 20% and your assessments are 80. Uh the big part here is that students will have the
opportunity to reassess on all um assign on all assessments for learning quizzes um summit of the tests projects um and so they'll have that ability to reassess. Um we really looked at trying to give multiple opportunities for kids
to improve that grade. Um in the past we've had kids if they bomb first quarter they're done for the year and we we know that they had to redo the whole class. Uh we really wanted to build in multiple multiple opportunities for kids to have that ability to get caught up.
Um and this is in line. Horizon East started this already. So now this 712 has the same grading practices. So this was just added um again they've been talking about it getting feedback for about a year but it's added into the handbook this year.
I'd asked about this earlier. Where are the teachers at on this? I would say um there's a lot of them that are doing it all the time. Um I think grading is one of those things that you're never going to get everybody to agree on. Um Mr. Heg shared this plan with the department chairs last school
year about mid year. Uh we had he had then had meetings where they had a Q&A and kind of what some questions um and they went back and forth. Um and so I think it's is it 100% agreed on? No. I would say majority are doing this
already. There has been some misinformation where we can't give homework. We never said you couldn't get homework. We said we don't want extra credit. So, we'll be honest. We had some classes where if you baked a cake and you brought it in, you got extra credit. Like, that should not be part of a grade. It doesn't measure your learning.
So, we wanted to get rid of extra credit. Uh we had some where if you went to something at night, you got extra credit. Well, that's not equitable for the kids that couldn't. What we said is if that was really important for your content, you can still have that as an assignment as long as you had an
alternative assignment for families that couldn't drive themselves. So, um it's still a work in progress. U part of this year will be at the workshop week next week is really looking at what is the reassessment procedure. Um like we said,
if a student is not turning in on homework, yes, you got to do your homework before you get the opportunity to reassess. But um again, we put that back on the kid and we give them that opportunity to reassess. So I would say it's it's a work in progress right now as it's this is the first year that we're rolling it out.
In the past, what what is the percentage been between testing and homework? I don't know if there's been a set one and that's the thing is it's been different in every content area. And so we're really trying to tighten that up um to have it consistent across all grades 9 through 12. And if a
student isn't uh if a student really struggles with testing, uh we're dealing with that by allowing that person to retest. Yep. Yep. And they have so the high schools built in um after school homework help and times to kind of do
this. Um so part of our again like our staff development next year is really trying to build in when is those appropriate times for students to have that opportunity, but at the same time, what do we do to try to retach it to try to help them? maybe they just didn't get it that first time. So, um this is for
our high school, this is really a big part of our MTSS system to try to adapt and and give those opportunities. Um as well as um those ninth grade, 10th grade that we have a lot that come over and um I'll be honest, they were done the first
semester and they had to sit in their whole second semester. Those are when you have your behavior problems because they already know that they're done for the quarter or the semester. We wanted to give them another chance. However, if they don't turn in their homework or do the reassessment like that's on the kid, right? There are some things they have
to do before you just get to reassess. And how many reassessments can one have? That has not been set. It's not there won't be an open limit. We know there's going to be we've talked about you have until the next unit and then it's done. Uh they want to work with PLC's and departments to help shape some of those.
Okay. So that there would be a time limit. Yes. uh it wouldn't be open for all the time, but they want to get some they wanted to be aligned with departments and PLC's on what that looks like. Okay. Uh the next one, this came out, this was a big one, the pass fail on
4950. Um this we we found last year um at times we we would have uh reasons for students to request a P for a pass. Um, and then when we calculated it, we calculated it as a zero. Uh, so it
actually inflated some GPA. So when we did our research, um, last year we brought for you, we're part of direct admissions with the state of Minnesota, they actually use a P. If if a family requests a P, which they can, it counts as a two. So it would count as
a C. So we just made that change. Uh, there there's a variety of reasons they may want to pass fail, right? A P. uh but then it would count as a two on the GPA. It wouldn't be waved as just no GPA at all. So we we actually found this and
made the change at the end of last school year. Now we just had to put in there so that it would count as a C again. For whatever reason, it counts as a two instead of just omitting it completely. So I Oh, go ahead. No, go ahead.
So the pass fail option then really isn't going to be available for kids that are straight A students or B students really. I mean you it could but but it shouldn't it shouldn't help the kid move from a a GPA
of a 4.0 to a pass. And that's what was happening right like we you could have a 85 and request a pass and it your GPA went up because then that 85 didn't count against you. So, like instead of having a B+, they requested a pass and it didn't hurt
their GPA. So, now they're still up at a 4.0 even though they got an 85. We were kind of seeing that. We also some that really needed the pass. So, this was the way to just make it consistent for everything is if you need a pass for whatever reason, it just
counts as a 2.0 like a C. Yep. Is is there a limit to the number of pass fil classes you can take? As of now, there's none. We don't have many. We have a handful that request it. Okay.
So, that is just Oh, wait. Yep. But so, a pass fail is a C is a two, but you can still pass with a D. Yes. Okay. Yes. Yep. Yep. It just when you count your GPA um it'll count where it's it would be the
similar as you got a C in that class. Yes. Y and again we went with that the state of Minnesota is using that for their direct admissions uh that we use um if you had a senior last year you got that letter that based on your GPA you
automatically get into colleges. That's what they use and that's why we chose it because they're using that GPA across the state of Minnesota for a P. Got it. uh testing out options. Um kind of the same thing. We just made a note to the P. Uh so there's really no different in
regards to that one. Page 52 uh was just a little bit language on dropping a class. Um on what it what it looks like, the timelines about it. Um, also just kind of if if there's a class that's on the edge of not running, um,
sometimes we have an 18, we don't want a whole lot of kids to drop that class and now we're down to a 12. And so just to try to tighten it a little bit, um, make sure we have some parent um, approval on any of those drops. And so it's just some added language uh, for that purpose
of dropping a class. Um, independent study. This has really changed when online started. So, you've always had the option to uh if if a student wants to take an online class, just one online class, they always could. Uh it used to be called an independent study. Now, it's they just
take a class online. So, currently any student if they wanted to go online and register uh with a school that is an approved online school for one or two classes, they have that opportunity to do that. So, it was just kind of rewarding the independent studies um to
more of it's really choosing an online class is what it is. So, it's the same idea, but it's just updated language to reflect uh that it's really for online. And then the last one um is an updated
eligibility process. Um so eligibility um has trying to work through what that looks like in the state of Minnesota. It's very vague. What they say is a student has to be making progress towards graduation. Um, and so this year, Kristen really worked closely with
uh, Dean Hogo and Josh Hey uh, to create this new eligibility process that we will uh, start this school year um, on tracking to just make sure that kids that are in extracurricular activities, they are also passing classes and on
progress to graduate. So, this is going to be brand new that will be started this school year as well. And who will keep track of that? Well, it's really a partnership to keep track of it. Um, activities can run grades at any time, but it's a semester to semester based um academic
eligibility with I think in line with or alignment with the new grading practices. So, we've got support after school. We've got peer support. So in partnership between academics and you know activities can hold people accountable for not making progress meaning they didn't make progress but
academics has to help support them. Um it it really has to be both sides. So uh the intent is um if someone isn't making progress that there's an expectation that they're attending those after school or so many after school depending on where they are. So, um, it doesn't
become about the gotcha poll, which is kind of what has happened, right? If I pull grades on a Friday and and you know, a student isn't doing well or something isn't graded, which happens occasionally, that grade isn't necessarily accurate as to where the student is. So, um, the the hope is that
semester grades are um more indicative of people being on track for graduation. And, um, and that's that's how the state high school league defines it. So, okay. That's I was just going by when Dean was here and he said that they weren't really keeping track of it as
well as they should be and I just wanted to make sure somebody was actually looking at it at whenever we think we need to. Yep. So, again, it'll be semester grades which will be helpful, right? As opposed to pulling grades um at different times.
And then Dan and his technology department have created some reporting that will make it easier to pull those grades in review by um by activity or athletic. Good. Anything else? Okay. So that is um the last change for
Morhead High School. And then the last one is just it's brand new. It's the Morhead online secondary academy. So again, uh part of the NCAA regulations is um really having your own
handbook and and processes for a school. So this is the handbook that we submitted. Again, very in line with the high school. Um and that was what we really wanted to do with Morhead on with MOSA was have it in line with our offerings at the high school. Uh so
that's just a brand new handbook that we will use moving forward. Okay. Any questions from the board? Dave, can you go back to the the grading thing again? So, if you end your sophomore year with a 2.0 or higher,
there won't be a grade check until end of semester. So, in January, by semester, we'll look at are you on track to graduate. Um, so it's not necessarily that there won't be a grade check. It's just previously there were
kind of formal identified grade checks. I the the intent will be that there'll be followup but that the the intention is are they on track to graduate because we didn't see consistency across the board in looking at those grades and that's not just activities in academics
and as a whole but it's how things are put into the system for example um so yes they they will be reviewed but do I need more assistance will be based on am I on track to graduate so before like I think You could have
like I don't know a D or an F maybe even still. So you could be potentially failing all your classes the whole semester and still be participating in activities. Not necessarily. But I think the question is about um what
where's the supports and the academics versus the activities and where it's participating. So I there'll be checks and balances but that it's not just about the grade poll which is where we were at before which was a snapshot that then you know you would have a week to
get out of intentionally. So um I this this was in line with some other districts that we looked at in the state high school league. There will be grade polls, but I think it again it it takes more than just that activities poll and pulling them out once because this is more long-term review as opposed to just
you know I have an F in this class and we're looking at you know can you participate. Um we have I would say depending on the activity you have people assigned to look at grades more frequently and that's part of what we talked about for this year as well. So, one team may have
one coach specifically who's looking at grades more frequently and identifying if someone is is struggling. Yeah. And then again, for for 9th and 10th grade, all of our kids are cohorted in bar bar programs, bar adviserss, uh where we have one teacher as an adviser
for about 20 kids. And one of those things is reaching out on grades. How are they doing, where they're at? Um so, by no means is that the only touch because those bar adviserss are meeting weekly talking about kids all the time. Yeah, and I don't necessarily agree with
random poll grades and you're done, but I'm highly concerned the fact that they could be in any activities if their grades are that low and participating. Not even that, just I I think the academics are more important than than them going on several games or
activities, whatever else. So, I'm I'm concerned with the fact that it's a semester. Um I think there's plenty of times, hey, we did a grade check. You're not doing well. we'll give you, you know, two weeks to get this finished and up to, you know, where you should be and those kind of things. But, um, I
personally have concern with the whole semester part, I guess, myself. But, anything else from the board? Okay. Action item. I'm prepared to make a motion. Thanks, Keith. Move to approve the Early Learning Center, Elementary School,
Horizon Middle School, Morehead Alternative Learning Center, Morehead High School, and Morehead Online Secondary Academy Family and Student Handbooks as presented. Thank you, Cassidy. I'll second. Thank you, Cassidy. I have a motion by Keith, second by Cassidy. Move to
approve the Early Learning Center, Elementary School, Horizon Middle School, Morehead Alternative Learning Center, Morehead High School, and Morehead Online Secondary Academy Family and Student Handbooks as presented. Any further discussion of this
clarification? Sure. When do these come into effect? No. Tomorrow. Today. Tomorrow. Okay. We'll start making the changes, you know, the strikeouts, getting rid of those and that and then try to get them updated as soon as possible for families
so they're ready to go next week at back to school nights. Yep. Anything else? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Those oppos same sign I.
Motion carries 5 to one. Item E, Morehead High School Hall of Honor. Brenda. All right. So, one of my favorite parts of uh fall among many other fun back to
school things is um the Hall of Honor. And as as you know, that is a a tradition that we do every year where we recognize alumni, faculty, staff, or other community members who've demonstrated notable accomplishments or provided uh significant contributions um to the community or to society. And so
we have a hall of honor committee that has received and in numerous um nominations and conducted research of records to select our outstanding candidates and we're very thankful for that committee. Um this year the committee has chosen five inductees um
who will be honored um in induction ceremony scheduled for Friday, September 19th. So we've got Dave Lawrence back with us now to introduce them and share details about the event. Um, I'm back. Hall of Honor, you guys kind of know the
drill here a little bit. It's that time of year. We have a little bit earlier a homecoming uh weekend this year. September 19th is the Friday of homecoming and we've changed our event a little bit and we'll kind of go through that at the
end. But um this is our kind of our information on how we the information that we use to try to give our committee the best opportunity to pick the people that meet those that criteria to be selected. And we have five exceptional
candidates once again this year that will be inducted into our our hall of honor. Um I'm not going to go through and read that verbatim for you. So if you guys want to I'll leave it there for another second if you want to look at that. And if not, we will just hold on.
You guys can have access to that. Our inductees this year are uh the the first three are Jeff Bangsburg from the class of 75, uh Minnesota uh home care association government relations director and also a legislative advocate for Minnesota motans with disabilities.
Um had several people nominate. Jeff is a very worthy inductee this year. Nancy Everert, uh, Health Partners general counsel and law practice advertising nonprofit health system since 1988. We have a local Matt Gilmer Gilbertson.
Some of you may know Matt, class of 1989, I believe. My eyes are getting old. Uh, chiropractor in town and the CEO of the Downtown Wellness Health and Wellness. Also a former Morehead City Councilman. And he, uh, was a big part
of getting lacrosse going at Morehead High School. So, um, that was a great addition to our activities. And the final two, uh, some of you may know Mark Manny. He's a head boys hockey coach down in Andover, and he was also
the pilot for Air Force One for, uh, 1999 to 2004. So, another worthy candidate. And once again, another name that you're going to recognize, Grant Whan from the class of 60 68, I think. Yes. Thank you. uh Morehead
Police Department. He was the chief from 97 to06 as well as a Klay County Commissioner. And those are the abbreviated bios we have on those those five inductees this year. Uh this is our 21st year. First year we started in 2004. And these are these five make the
inductees number 97 to number 101. So we have a quite a quite a a group in that in that hall of honor. So, I don't know when the last time you looked, but it's always interesting to go back in and look at some of those names from from the early years when we we started doing that.
Like I mentioned, we do are doing the ceremony a little bit different. It's going to be Friday afternoon here at the the boardroom. We'll have 11:00 social, 11:30 lunch, and then a noon banquet. We'll follow that up with a tour of the high school for those that are
interested. And then we have offered the inductees also an opportunity to be in the homecoming parade. Um so that's up to them if they want to be in the parade or not. And then we will have them be part of our f halftime festivities at the football game like we have in the past. We'll we'll introduce them at
halftime. And uh you know tickets are I believe we're will they're live now. They're live. So uh people can buy the tickets. They're $20 a a ticket like they have been in the past. and believe
we fill this room up again. So yeah, any any questions, comments? Matt, great work always and I realize that we that we have u excellent nominees every year. Um and and we are somewhat at at
the mercy of those who who nominate. But I would I would really like to see a a better balance between male and female as we go on. Yes, that is something that we've talked about as soon as we got our voting done this year as well. So, we're we're aware
that we we need to uh um spurn some more nominations, right? It's probably incumbent on all of us to be doing that. If you know of any worthy nominations, please put them in. Y we had I think we had with you know, we
kind of roll them over so just if they're not selected one year, they don't automatically leave. So I think our pool of this year was about 40 40ome candidates that the committee member goes through and they select and then we go through a couple different rounds and the six committee
committee members are the only voting people on to determine who is selected. So Cassidy who's on the committee again? Um Jane Cedarquist, Kathy Coyle, uh Russ Hener,
um Larry Salvold, Mark Street, and Jeremy Blake. Have we ever considered having a board member? Um we I've no I guess not since I've been doing this. I've only been there a few person.
We're always looking for people though. In fact, I know we'll have an opening this year. we're replacing somebody. So, if you happen to know of somebody that's interested, you can pass that name to uh Mr. Luna or myself. [Laughter]
Go ahead, Matt. And please don't see my comment as being critical because you you've done such a fine job, but just just advice. It's not me, it's the group, and I'm just speaking to whatever. But it is it is something that we are aware of. Uh and we do need some more nominations in
there. Our nominations are heavy from a certain point in time and so yeah we we are aware that we need to to address that as well. Thank you Dave for coming today on that. Got it. Anything else from the board? That looks good.
Always a pleasure. Thanks Dave. Item four, superintendent updates. Dr. Lynn. Okay. like uh was stated uh in in your transmitter earlier tonight, upon conclusion of uh this board meeting, uh we will meet over at the high school and
Steve uh will lead you on a quick tour of uh what is and what has been completed. Um because the weather got us a little bit behind, uh we're not going to do the full tour of the music and air
that area because that is not done. Uh we will do that sometime uh closer to uh December. Uh I I don't uh the only way you can access that part of the building right now is to walk in an area where they're getting ready to pave and I don't think you want to walk through
rebar or anything of that nature to get there. So not a good idea. So we will stick to the tour but we will make it a little bit more abbreviated. Uh tonight we would like you to uh park along the west side of the bus lot and enter in through door
number four and then Steve will take you through a quick tour if you're interested. There is by no means any requirement that you have to uh but there is the opportunity to take that tour tonight to show you what would be ready for uh day one of school here in the next couple weeks. So if you're
interested uh door four uh upon completion of the meeting. Thank you Dr. Winnick. Nothing else. Move on to item five, adjournment. It's usually Keith's job, but Dave, why don't you try? Shake it up. I'll move to approve the adjournment of
the August 18th, 2025 board member meeting at 7:29. Thank you, Dave. Do I have a second, Keith? I'll second. Thank you. I have a mo motion by Dave, second by Keith. Move to approve the adjournment of the August 8 school board
meeting at 7:29 p.m. Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those oppose, same sign. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone.