##VIDEO ID:MpD-fJeQOZM## good evening thank you for joining us today um this is the I'd like to call to order the January 28th uh regular meeting for ISD 622 uh first up is the Pledge of Allegiance stands indis all right first we have to uh approve the agenda um could I get a motion in a second to approve the agenda move to approve second okay uh moved by sore seconded by Livingston um any discussion before we um vote all right um all in favor say I I and then all oppose say n all right thank you um next up we have public comment um this is an opportunity for the public to comment on items speakers shall register by completing the public comment signup sheet State their name and we'll have between two and four minutes depending on the number of speakers to speak on a topic um the public comment section of the meeting shall last no longer than 30 minutes um we do have two speakers tonight um um two public comment speakers um the first one is um Justin Mida thank you all thanks for having me uh or letting me speak here and congratulations to everybody in your recent Victory election I uh I ran alongside with you guys um because I had a feeling that the administration that just uh W election was going to actually um win and if they did I had another feeling that um it's going to be a huge undertaking on some of the things that are going on with the school district so I want to let you all know that I'm actually here to help I don't want to take a side on on agreement or not agreement but I'm here to kind of let you guys know I've done a lot of research last week because I wanted to bring this to the table um is how the executive order uh Trump's new executive order of ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity um it's going to be a huge undertaking for this district and districts across the state as we know Dei is pretty much embedded in everything it's in the language it's in programs um and really I don't think it's going to be a threat to the district as far as the state goes but we're going to be looking at some federal funding problems so what I am here today is I I would like to be part of a study group I think that I would recommend that the board does set up a study group on this issue it sounds like the attorney general and the secretary of education is going to have about 120 days to provide guidance so there's not a lot anyone's going to really want to do until the guidance starts coming out but there are some things we can do in the meantime we can start looking at maybe some of the federal programs that have this language and maybe try to change language I know we we do that sometimes but mainly just make sure that if it's a federal funded program and it has some language in there maybe we can change it to make it a different type of a program maybe we got to tweak the program Maybe we have to do some things differently obviously if it's going to affect funding so I just did a quick not a quick I've done a lot of work but I know I have a quick moment here so I wanted to kind of just go over a couple bullet points on what um board members should be looking at at this point um I know it's early in the process and um let me see here quick okay so what should School boards prepare to implement these policies things that we should be looking at first of all we got to review the executive order and related documents again that's going to be a lot of guidance we be coming from the administration on what they're going to expect the school districts to do um we also have to um access current Dei programs and I think we can get ahead of the game just to look at these things to say are these going to fall into um any kind of funding issues because I know that that's all that's really going to make it matters is if it's a funding issue um some other things would be it's going to be a lot of undertaking there's there could be some staffing changes um if there if their uh actual job is absolutely to do with certain type of Dei um we're going to have to start the the unions and stuff we're going to have to start taking language out um with the teachers um trying to find teachers indigenous teachers and teachers of color those types of language will have to be out um it's going to be a big undertaking so I'm here today to say that I am actually for some reason been thrown into this stuff where I'm kind of becoming an expert on some of these things and how the languages matter and how um you know some of this stuff's just going to have to go through some of the C I mean it's in the curriculum um it's everywhere and so we just don't know right now what's going to actually have to be changed and I just seem concerned as a citizen about the federal funding that we could lose as a district and um if you want to set up a study group I would love to be part of that I would recommend maybe having two to four citizens involved with whoever else on the board that wants to be involved and we can just one by one go through some programs that might be something we have to change and um with that I guess that's all I had today and I just want to let you know that I'm here for that it is something that I've um dug into quite a bit so I understand language it's it's in social emotional learning language it's in everything and so this might be a really big undertaking for the district this year thank you thank you um um next up we have Miriam jenich hi everyone thank you for your time I'm Miriam Janet I'm a parent of ISD 622 students and a Community member I'm here today for two related but separate reasons first I ask you as the school board to set expectations for an away for the day bell-to-bell cell phone policy I've provided information that will be shared with you for nearly 20 school districts across the country our leadership could reach out to to get firsthand accounts of the benefits of such policies and how to establish them in our district cell phones distract from the purpose of school hours repeated monitoring of students is a waste of teachers instruction time and teachers should not be asked to be the responsible enforcers of screen-free classroom time at is as it is impossible with the pervasive use of cell phones by our kids cell phone use should not be able to sneak into classroom learning time and students should be experiencing organic social interaction not social media between classes and during lunch second the school board should have policies regarding the number of minutes students use individual Technologies during school hours these guidelines can and should address the diversity and types of Technologies different types of classroom environments and the developmental needs of students based on age and accessibility school is a place for Learning and more and more research personal experience and cultural knowledge show us that analog learning books games art play and social interaction is in Decline but that decline is having a negative impact on our children's development children of all ages are exposed to far more screen time than is recommended by any physical health and mental health guidelines or experts while much of this is due to the choices parents make in their homes school learning should be led not by what is easy or entertaining but by what is developmentally appropriate most advantageous to our students and in the best interest of the long-term health of our community I'm asking the school board to reduce to the point of eliminating elementary students use of tablets and YouTube and any other video services such a large number of students have screen Technologies in their home life and using school time to add to their screen time each day is contrary to the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Child Development researchers and experts while I personally understand and have experienced the benefits of child management using screen based learning apps and other things our classrooms need to focus on the best learning for all of our students which for elementary students is going to be Play Books Games social interaction it is true that there are many great learning applications available to Elementary age students but the fact is that screen time adds to an already oversaturated screen time experience which means that school time should not include screen time additionally it is next to impossible to ensure students are not exposed to something inappropriate for example my third grader was using a tablet app to write a story seems absolutely great very happy up to the point where she said that she discovered that in the image library of that app was included images for the definitely mature audience only television shows squid games because she was looking for a picture of a squid and it is likely that because the app developers purchased an image library from another source rather than curating their own that these kinds of situations are absolutely unavoidable while this is a tame example Le there are hundreds and thousands of examples far less tame from our own district and from across the country of kids exposed to digital content with mature content ratings the possibility of this kind of exposure should not even exist in our classrooms our children do not need personal technology in their classroom learning environments unless the learning is specific to using technology we have to take a stronger approach to preserving learning time for learning aligned developmental needs and we need to ensure learning time is not being infringed upon by Games social media texting any of that kind of distracting uh activity please consider and make clear to the school and our community public why technology policies exist and what the benefits of them are for our Learners thank you thank you um and then to our uh public commenters the school board appreciates um and are interested in your comments and someone will reach out to you if you've indicated on the form so thank you all right um next up we have the consent agenda um this consists of routine items that are acted on in a single Consolidated motion without board discussion board members have the option of pulling items off the consent agenda if they wish to discuss them or consider them individually um the consented agenda includes our minutes of December 17th um 2024 business meeting the minutes of the January 14th 2025 special session the minutes of the January 14th work study session routine Personnel bid award bid calendar change orders and dispersements does anyone want to pull anything out all right um then can I get a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda move all right moved by Livingston second seconded by Anderson um all in favor say I and all oppos say nay all right um the consent agenda passes um next up we have our reports from our student School Board Representatives all right hello everyone we have lots going on at North so if you guys don't know this week is spirit week we have our dance this weekend so yesterday was alphab versus Glenda for the wicked movie super fun I loved it uh this today was Jersey day lots of jerseys around school it's so fun to see everyone participating I'd have to look into what tomorrow is but Friday wack Wacky Wednesday thank you uh so that'll be fun I'm excited to see the fun hairstyles and clothes um pet we have pet Fest on Friday super excited for that we're having performances from our latinx Masa dance group and our show choir so full costume seeing their routines early so I'm really excited for that one they always bring so much energy and then our snow day stance is at the vness comments Saturday February 1st 7 to 10 yeah uh let's see what else we had in the past we had a student leadership event that I attended with some other student athletes where we just learned how to be better advocates for our teammates and how to be better teammates in general and then also how to respect other students and other schools in our Sports uh upcoming we have National Honor Society is doing a kindness week I'm really excited for that there's a lot of different random acts of kindness that we'll be doing throughout the week and we all have teachers that we can sign up to to either make cards for help them out in their classroom do random act of kindness for them because they do so much for us and then we have black history month which I would like to invite you all to it we have an event it's a Showcase of black excellence and it's held um at North February 13th at 5:00 p.m it'll be in our Auditorium I went last year it was amazing I love going every year and I hear they have amazing food I always have to leave before I wish I could say um what else oh our North show choir just had their All Conference or not show choir just our choir North choir had all um yeah and they said it went very well so that's great upcoming we have Valentine flower sales so we'll sell carnations latinx we'll sell candy it's a fun collab that we do super fans is planning senior nights and um yeah winter sports uh yeah for our winter sports are kind of winding down but our spring Sports will start up soon which is exciting I'm excited to start softball and my one personal update is that I got accepted at Purdue and I got into their honors college [Applause] all right good evening everyone sadly kayen couldn't make it here tonight but I'm glad to be here um he he had a basketball game against um South St Paul tonight and currently our basketball boys team is undefeated 1 15 I'm pretty sure um and yeah that's just very exciting um there's some fun things happening at tardan this week um here's a little incoming history lesson so when Tartan was being built um some student the students attended north um during shifts I think some kids went to school from 8 to 12 and then the others from 1 to five or six I have no idea um but then once tardan opened some the students migrated on to tardan and yeah that's just what incoming is and um yesterday we kicked off our incoming celebration with the fun dress up day it was what was it wait uh it was meme day yes it was meme day um I wanted to dress up as Victor from Despicable Me but um I woke up late last yesterday morning but today was twin day I I was matching with like my best friend and tomorrow is actually one of my favorite days it's soccer mom versus barbecue dad and I'm really excited um and this Friday we have our pet Fest with a performance from our dance team and we'll find out who won incoming royalty this s and that gets very competitive there's just like kids in my hour like in my classes they're like vote for me vote for me like oh if you vote for me like I'll give you money it's just a big thing um this Saturday we have our dance and this year's theme is honestly so adorable it's Enchanted Forest which is actually like one of like my favorite themes that like we've ever had at tardan and last week um sophomores had the opportunity to sign up for BPA and deca and some exciting news that some of my friends got accepted into BPA and yeah and um around two weeks ago or three weeks ago I enrolled into Beth's PSO and I got accepted three days later so yeah but I am not sure if I if I'll be going to bethl I'll apply to the U ofm and hopefully I get in but yeah that's just a report from tardan yeah first of all CCE congratulations for um getting into Purdue I think if I remember correctly that was where you wanted to go right yeah so kudos to you for working so hard to get in the honors program thank you and thank you guys all for being here um about uh two weeks ago a bunch of of us were at um the Minnesota school board association annual conference where we go to learn how to be uh school boards and uh I attended a session about having students on Representatives on the board and so I got to learn from other people that do it and also from people that don't have it and want to have it so we were all learning together and based on that mean meeting I really want to appreciate you guys for the dedication you put into our district and schools and learning everything that's happening and so thank you for your hard work and and your leadership to your fellow um schoolmates thank you yeah of course it's lots of fun seey it's a big commitment but have you decided what you're going to major in um um I am going to major in integrated business and Engineering no big deal right all right well thank you yeah um next up we have um superintendent tuio suo with your report I'm actually going to turn it over to our assistant superintendent Andy Beaton to introduce our next presenters uh chair Yang superintendent Tui ooro members of the board and here in the audience I'm pleased to introduce our high school principls are here tonight to provide some updates on their work um for fostering our uh strategic plan and share some highlights so I'd like to invite Kevin wolf from North High School Bethany desent from Tartan High School and Steph Goen from our 622 online program and Alternative High School they come up to the mic hello good evening we got a hot mic thank you so much Andy for um the introduction um and thank you so much for our students for being able to share a little bit about our wonderful schools and what's happening I can't believe that we are almost in February it's going so fast isn't it and it's just it's every year it's faster and faster so um we're excited to be here tonight to talk about some highlights from our school so let me see how we here we go um so you've seen this our strategic plan tonight we're going to be sharing a little bit of what that strategic plan looks like in action throughout each of our buildings and some exciting things that we're doing specific to this year and just some updates and an exciting exciting news from all of us so what we're going to be focusing on specifically is academic achievement we're going to talk a little bit about attendance um equity and inclusion social and emotional learning graduation and postsecondary and then our highlights so you're going to hear from Tartan first so to get us started um I'm going to talk a little bit about um attendance at Tartan High School this is one of our goals um for our school Improvement plan and this is very important as we all know that academic achievement and attendance go hand in hand for our kids and we want them to be in school we want them to be in their classes and to be learning um and have a really great experience so as you can see um we do have our goal which is the percentage of students who are absent for 10% or more school days will decrease from 37% from our school year 2024 to 35% for this school year and chronic absenteeism is measured by that 10% or more number and so you know we are only you know halfway through I think technically we are exactly halfway through the school year and so we were able to check in after trimester 1 to see what is our data looking like right now and how are we tracking towards that goal and so as you can see we have a chart here um currently for the school year we are on track we are at 28.4% of that chronic absenteeism and last year at that time um we were at 30.2% so we are making improvements um the middle column is both high schools together and then that other column that says districtwide is all the schools combined um and so it's really important for us to be in that growth mindset and that continuous Improvement mindset with all of our staff in order to figure out because not one thing fits the best or works the best for um each kid right and so we have a variety of things that we're trying to do to engage our students and to support them as they need it so we are having bonly team meetings at the grade level are set up by grade level at Tartan High School with our support teams with our counselors our admin um also our our support coaches and so they're meeting together with social workers to be able to talk about what are some of those supports for students who are experiencing um you know attendance issues and we also have an exciting new position where we have a promise fellow working with students who are exhibiting that chronic absenteeism and checking in and making plans for those students um number one we want to be engaged engaging with families and we want to be making sure that students have a connection to Tartan to our building um and that they know that we are wanting to work with them and collaborate with them in order to help them and and get them to success in their classes um as far as our staff and the conversations that we have with our staff we have been engaging in some data conversations where we're really looking at the attendance data we're looking at our grade data and we're really thinking about what some of those Solutions might be that we haven't maybe thought about before so we're all coming together and we're actually engaging in a process over this next month of really digging into what are some more solutions that we haven't thought of yet and how can we be engaging our community how can we be engaging more with our students and our families in order to continue to meet this goal um because that is the most important thing yes we're on track but we want to be able to continue um meeting that goal and and so that's what we're committed to doing um so that's just a little bit about what we are doing with our attendance school um and academic achievement at Tartan now I'm going to talk a little bit about Equity inclusion and how that's showing up this year at T in some exciting things that we're doing so last year we did have the first time that we were implementing wintime sessions which was exciting for our students it was brand new to us and North also has wind time and again wind time stands for what I need and so this happens once a week on Wednesdays the students know it well um it's set up it happens every single week and so students are able to sign up through um a program that we have where they go and select the teacher that they want to work with teachers can also select students that they want to be working with as well and so now we are in year two of this and we are continuing strong with our wintime sessions um but we've added some fun sessions with our link crew team so we have our link crew team which um consists of a variety of upper classmen who are dedicated to really supporting our incoming nth graders and our nth graders that we currently have and they actually engaged in creating some sessions to talk to nth graders during trimester one of hey how can we be successful when it comes to your finals and how do you find success and preparedness when we're looking at you know your high school trajectory and it was an exciting opportunity to have them showcase their leadership and get into those sessions and really work one-on-one with those nth graders so they did have curriculum that they were talking through with the with the nth grade students and that happened right before the end of trimester 1 and we're looking forward to doing more of that as we get further into trimester 2 another focus is implementing and engaging students so that there's more voice at Tartan High School and one of the ways that I'm doing this um this this year is I have engaged with a a principal's cabinet so during wintime sessions once a month I'm inviting students to come to the principal's cabinet and we sit down and we talk about hey what's going on at ton and it's very open-ended what's going well what are needs that you're seeing um you know tell me a little bit about what you want changed here um a couple things that have come out of it was that they needed the um the you know dressings and and and all of those things at the lunch lunch cafeteria area they needed that moved to a different side so they could access it because it was blocking the pathway you know that something like that easy we can make that change um they wanted hooks on the the bathroom door so that they could hang the signs uh for their passes easy let's get that taken care of um so simple things like that that seem oh yeah that's easy but it does make a difference to them um and those are some of the things that they've brought up that we've made changes to um and just some different ideas for different activ ities that we can do going throughout the school year so that's been a way that we've increased student voice um we've also done a cocoa and cram session after school for students where again we are working to really encourage students to stay after have an invite in have some tutoring happen from their peers um but also have staff engaged in this as well to really build up that community so we did that at the end of trimester 1 we're going to be doing something similar trimester 2 and trimester 3 um and then just a couple of upcoming events we have our napit event and we also have our Black History Month event um and last but not least we have also tried to en enhance the opportunity with um for myself with parents and so I've been inviting parents and to do pie with the principal and so we've had a couple of those events and it's been an opportunity for parents to come in and have a casual conversation with me about things that are happening in our school community and different things that maybe they're seeing um some of the parents have brought their students with them and so we get to talk a little bit about what is that Tartan experience like for you how is it going how are your classes and so we'll be continuing that um as we get through this year as well here are some pictures of those events I was talking about so we have our link crew um the ninth grade wi time session um and then we also I showcasing our football team we do a lot of volunteering as well our students are amazing at at the volunteer time that they put in and so our football um our football crew was there serving up for Veterans Day um and then we had our Coco and cram trimester event that you can see students are sitting down they're working one-on-one with students making sure they have what they need for their finals and they're able to get that help and support and now we're going to talk about some Tartan highlights and it would not be a full Tartan presentation if I did not bring up construction so we're going to talk about construction okay um my favorite top IC of course so if you have not yet been to Tartan this school year I don't know if any of you have not been to Tartan I want you to come so that I can give you a tour okay um because I want you to see what's happening in our building and just the beautiful spaces that our students have available to them it is a world of difference if you remember what the circles were like and seeing what the spaces are like for our kids right now it is a game Cher I mean our kids want to be there it's even the furniture is is just so nice it's beautiful um so just some highlights um at the end of last year we knew that the circles would be coming down so we did end up moving everybody over to the learning Tower and so the learning Tower is that thre story in the back of the building which is currently serving as our front entrance of the building um and so that is complete now um we also have our fax Suite complete beautiful and there's gorgeous tiling in there and then our lunchroom and the atrium is very open very spacious all of our students have an opportunity to either eat Below on the cafeteria tables or there's some soft seating and high top tables that are above in the upper Atrium and I think our students are really enjoying it so it's a very different feel than what it was before with that really lowlevel ceiling if you were ever in our old cafeteria very low hanging ceiling this is so open so bright and beautiful um but coming in 2025 because it's not done we have our new front entrance and the topic that everyone's been talking about this year we have our new parking lot coming next year thank goodness and our Bus Loop but I will say parking has been going really well very smooth um we also will get be getting a brand new Media Center we'll have our main office and our counseler office is complete every office that we have right now is temporary in the back of the building we also will be adding that auxiliary gym um we also will have some wonderful spaces for you to hold meetings at tartans so if you're looking for a meeting space um we do have an opportunity space that's being built that's Auditorium style seating for 100 and we also have a forum which has conference style seating for 40 so keep that in mind as you're thinking about some of your events going into next year and here are some photos we have our beautiful learning stair and we also have our Titan treats where our coffee um we have our little coffee shop which is housed out of there and then it's also our concessions booths for any activities after school this is a picture of our cafeteria with the upper Atrium you can see the really beautiful lighting there's a lot of air that's or um light that's filtering in there um and then we have our cafeteria lines we have I believe about three main lines there's a salad bar line and then um there's an additional line for some smaller items that students can access and so the lunch lines actually go very quickly and we do have um closed lunch this year and so you would think that it would go slow but they've got it down to a science it's going very smooth um this is just the hallway picture of our learning Tower each level looks very similar um and then we have our gym if you have not been to a game as was mentioned our basketball team is on fire so please make it to a Tartan basketball game we have a few more coming up um we did play North last Saturday and we won so there's that um and then just for fun our um our senior office I thought this was such a great a great idea our senior office staff ended up doing a senior selfy wall and so when you go into that um that office space There's an opportunity for seniors to take a selfie print it off um and then write something about you know where they're going to be going next year just different things that they have planned so just a really great opportunity to highlight some of our our kids and where they're going so that's a little bit about Tartan High School thank you so much for your time um I am going to hand it off to Kevin and then I'll come back up at the end when we're all done and you guys can um ask any questions that you have so thank you so much as you're transitioning I'm just going to clarify I had a question about what is facts that's family consumer family and consumer science so just for clarification what that means everything from baking and pastry to Child Development to fine cuisine uh good evening everybody thanks for having me and giving me an opportunity to brag a little bit about North and maybe talk a little smack about some other sports to principal descent back there I'm actually relieved for the first time in many years I will not be talking about um the challenges of construction uh so we are happily done with our our version of that project for now which is great um so Shi into the West a little bit we'll talk about North High School I will jump right into um a similar topic that principal descent just talked about in terms of what's going on in terms of the the academics and primarily attendance we too are struggling with the challenge of getting kids to school more and while they're there also getting to go to their classes and so you know uh I think CO's done done some damage that we're still feeling but I I think we're making some good progress but we have a long way to go um we two are connected connecting our attendance work to a sip goal in terms of chronic absentee is M and I'll talk a little bit about that in a second and I think um one thing I want to add before I share what we are doing at North is just the additional challenge especially at the high school level in terms of the county work that's going on or not and the the support or limited support and impact of what's going on at the county level it really it's good and it's bad they they got their capacity issues their funding issues for sure and they're tapped but it really kind of lets you know that you need to figure out which levers you're going to push inside your building in terms of Max maximizing what we can do for our students uh and their families and so I I will share a little bit about what we're doing um we have weekly meetings to review the data and kind of look at the threshold what that we align we draw in terms of the kids we're going to talk about uh in terms of how much they are missing school how many days and then how many class periods and then from there we we start to dig and so we identify the students according uh who's most at risk we look at Behavior we look at attendance um we look at their academics and their grades and then we prioritize from there and then we dig into the plan and the biggest difference that we've done towards the end of last year and into this year and we are seeing some progress is assigning of attendance mentors and so this is meant to be a a two- week burst of support and energy given to students in their families in terms of um connecting them with a mentor and the mentors come internally from our staff social workers counselors check and connect admin uh and we'll give 10 15 20 students for them to connect to they'll connect with their families they'll work the they'll connect with the students they'll find out if there's any underlying issues that we don't know about provide supports and then it's it's really meant to kind of jump start the support for the students and then get out and and focus on the next batch of kids so they get some additional supports rolling as you know there are many many kids that need support uh around the attendance conversation um so really it is meant to rotate students and and get to as many as quickly as possible instead of giving a case load and meet with them once a week for one or two or three months uh and then of course we have inre in school treny um um efforts you know some of the typical things but also are jumping into detentions and after school restrictions which you'd be amazed at how well that works for some of our students and we tell them they can't go watch uh North be ton in their next basketball game um and so a little bit about our results if you there's two graphs here the one on top is try one similar to what principal descent just shared try one last year to this year going from the pink to the purple the first columns one I'm thinking about you know close to a 3% said Improvement just in try 1 so we're making steps certainly a lot of work to do and then you look at the graph on the bottom it's broken down by Grade 9 10 11 12 and if you look I will point out nth and 10th grade we're seeing some significant improvements um I don't know what that is close to a 7% um decrease for nth grade 6 and a half% for 10th grade um we had did see an uptick of 4% or close to it for 11th graders we're digging to that I'm not sure why um and but we are trying to figure that out in a in a Improvement you know a couple percent for our 12th gr so overall um I'd say we're we're moving the right direction with plenty of work to go all right I will shift to the different part of our strategic plan equity and inclusion um and this is where I want to jump into talking about how kind of the anchors at North on how we truly try to create an environment where our students and our families have a voice feel comfortable um uh have a place to access um the things that they're in interested in in at North and while they're at north um and feel h of course and so uh a couple similar things that principal descent talked about on here but um these are a list of anchors if you will student voice in terms of giving all students and and families an opportunity to share their perspective to truly influence the North Community I can't uh go much further without talking about four of our our our anchor clubs if you will for student voice I got to talk about black student union I got to talk about our Asian student Alliance I got to talk about our Latin X our GSA clubs um just really becoming cornerstones for many of our students and it's not just exclusive clubs for kids that um have certain interests or looks it's a it's a strong collab going on between these groups we have 55 to 60 students showing up to weekly meetings for BSU we have probably 60 70 students involved in ASA we have 35 40 strong for latinx just really really powerful groups um that are doing really really well um and I'd say some of the the a lot of their energy goes into celebrating culture for sure so a good segue into that some of you may maybe um were able to enjoy a few months ago our Latin X put on for Hispanic Heritage Month a huge event with performances and food and then we did something similar but even bigger with our ASA and M New Year in December we I think we served a thousand people that night uh food and so we I don't know if we had 12 1300 people show up that night it was great event and then we are currently gearing up for um our BSU is putting on uh as CC mentioned our Black History Month a Showcase of black excellence and great event um it is a uh February 13th uh so please show up you can come for an hour come for a half hour come at the end like CC said and get some food um I also certainly need to mention some of the work and efforts going on with our students with receiving uh special education services and I'd say one of the best things we've done and seen some some real progress is looking at our Behavior processes and systems and how are we better aligning the conversations and actions between admin and behavior team which are always pretty strong but then what we haven't done as good a job is is engaging our case managers into the work in the in how immediate they're get involved in terms of how do we look at things differently are we giving uh enough interventions and supports for students while they're in school alternative to expulsion excuse me alternative to suspension um and keeping them in school and giving different interventions in school and we have seen some significant reductions from late last year to now in referrals for students receiving special ed services and suspension so um I didn't I'm not sharing that data as part of this presentation but we've made some from some great progress in those areas and then the last mention here for um anchors and for this conversation at North is the the family connections and one of the things we're doing similar uh to what Bethany's doing at tarton is uh a couple weeks I'm meeting with 've invited the the families of our Latin next students to come in and give their perspective on how well North is and we're meting at 5:00 on I can't remember the date but uh February something and give their perspective on how well we're serving their students how well we're serving them the communication channels the access um really to give some good perspective I'll certainly give some updates on what's going on north um and then I move on to we're going to Target the the families of of these groups I just mentioned in terms of our BSU and ASA and GSA and kind of kick things off and move forward with that um um and then I'm I I think the timing is right to Spotlight one of the groups I just mentioned our BSU um just becoming a Powerhouse and um I think the timing is right we just passed MLK day and we're jumping black history month and the momentum that this group has taking nothing away from our other student groups um in terms of their reach and their scope and the different things that they're doing to involve the students in the group and the whole school at large and these are just some of the things um you know I mentioned the opportunities and access for all of our students and it really does I mean the initial vision and and I have to mention our assistant principal Don Drummond and then our check and connect staff Walt Whitaker are the two co-advisors um they they sell themselves as facilitators it is a student run group and it is a powerful group um they're really their Vision started with just providing that space for students to to talk to students that look like them and and have similar interests or challenges and it's really just blown up into this this Powerhouse group and some of the things we mention on here that they're involved with and leading post-secondary exploration I'm guessing you've heard of our HBCU trips uh that we've we've taken 14 15 students for the last couple years down to um a number of HBCU um uh over mea two years ago last year and then we are doing another trip this year they're doing local College trips uh they're jumping to community service our most recent ones they're in a couple weeks I think Andy you might be going uh to Feed My Starving Children I know you got invited I think um putting you on the spot sorry um but yeah it's on there and uh so they're they're they're trying to give back to the community as well they're also part of the literacy work that's going on in elementary schools uh our BSU kids are going to I think Richardson and castle and reading with some of the students there uh coming up here in the next few weeks um yeah I think as the community connections I'd like to mention just um it's not just for black history month but but bringing um black business owners and community members and talking about their passion and finding your passion into our win sessions and invi students and we have one coming up we're inviting um I don't know if you guys know who chef ed Porter Jr is uh he's coming in he's going to be our keynote at the BSU night um just great opportuni for our kids and I think I will close with that and turn it over to my colleague and friend Miss Goen she's GNA talk a little online in ALC all right well thank you for having me it's a tough act to follow those big schools because I come from a much smaller program but I think it's just just as mighty and just as exciting so I get to brag about a little bit um I'm the principal of the online high school that we had last year and this year I'm super excited that we have our ALC back so we call it our Alternative High School right now so I get to brag about that a little bit as well um we are currently located upstairs right we are on the third floor um which kind of a fun fact is I am in the same spot that I was 19 years ago as a teacher up there same classroom same office spaces so it is home up there I'm used to it it's right by you guys feel free to come on up um we got a lot of visitors on the flamingo days that we never saw when they were the hiding the flamingos around the edge Center a lot of people come up to the third floor looking for them so come visit us when you want um as far as moving we're excited in 2627 we are slotted to move over to the Harmony Learning Center which the good part about that there's construction happening and unlike um Bethany and Kevin I don't have to deal with it it's just happening and we're going to get to move into a really cool building so we're excited about that um so both of our programs have some some things that are in common we have our teachers and staff uh serve both of our schools so it's a way to kind of maximize our resources that we have I'm really excited that we have alternative education options for our students because sometimes our students just need something different a little bit more personalized a little bit smaller um we have our proudly launched our AHS right so this year it is our 11th and 12th grade students with our goal to then bring 10th grade next year as well and then our online high school is continuing to serve our 10th 11th and 12th grade students um and right now we have a total of 86 students enrolled in our online high school and then I'll tell you a little bit more about our ALC all right our ALC students who's showing up right now we started at the beginning of the year with 14 students so it was small those 14 students will still tell you that now it is way too big for them they loved when it was just them um we are at 60 um actually 65 since I've written this um taking more students each week and so you can kind of see who's showing up 68% of them are seniors um 69% are district students but the main reasons that our students are attending are credit def deficiency mental health and then Behavior related needs that's keeping them from being successful from being in a building our Online High School like I said we have 86 students total um right now our 11th grade is our biggest class that we have um the main reasons for attending our online high schools students are saying it's for mental health reasons medical or health related reasons that's keeping them out of a a big building um and then a lot of work rated needs or issues that they're having so the thing with both of these programs they are choice schools so that's what's a benefit kind of to us as well these are options that students and families are choosing to attend so um they're kind of invested into what program works best for them all right how academics and attendance show up again it's a little bit different uh so we'll talk about what that looks like both of our schools use a digital curriculum called ad mum our instruction is differentiated by our teachers and that's what really sets this aside is we can be very personalized um and different differentiate what is works for that student need because we're smaller um it provides realtime data um to both staff and families there's a an app a family app that they can get that sees exactly like how much time they're on something how they've logged in how they're progressing there's a pretty cool little um icon that's a a person and it's red if the person's if the students off pace of their um curriculum or if it's green if they're ahead of pace or it's kind of a standing in the middle if it's um right on where they need to go so it's really telling you individualize real time data what's happening the other cool thing is we have flexibility and how um we can support our students both from the alternative um High School lens and also from our um our online lens and we have our interventions in place with our Dena students we have a bis that helps provide some of those interventions as well and when we're talking about attendance it's a little bit different right because we're new to the program for ALC and we're still working on online but right now currently our AHS average student attendance is about 81% and we do have in-person requirements for some of our alternative programming but it's it's also um some hybrid and virtual options as well for them but then online is completely online and their attendance is about 92% so what we're really excited about is our culture and our connections and how we can um kind of get to know everybody and you heard Kevin word use the word anchors I'd say our three anchors are of our heartwork is our inclusion belonging and dignity that's what we believe in that's what we promote that's what we talk about with our kids we truly want every single student that walks through our doors because they're choosing to be with us or show up online um to feel that they are welcomed and know that they truly belong so one way we do this is you heard about um both Bethany and and Kevin talk about wi well we took that to heart and that becomes our motto so what I need is truly our motto but we also use the the scheduling tool that you heard them talk about we use it though on a daily basis so our students are being either signed up or they are signing up themselves for week where they want to work with which teacher they want to work with and what they're going to work on and it's completely data driven our team works together every um week and we talk about student needs and they look at the data we look at who's progressing we look at who's behind and we talk about what some we call them seminars which seminars they're going to attend with which different teachers and then which students are on Pace and get a choice in that also to kind of switch up the day so it's not just all screen time based because we understand the importance of that as well there's breaks involved in there there's Hands-On things we have what's called workshops at the end of the day that's all student interest it's based on what they want to do we have some like college prep team building student voice creative arts culture connections those are the workshops that they again get to choose to be part of and embedded in those and are some of our social emotional learning lessons um and also our College preparation lessons within that the things that I get really excited about is every day we have a credit win celebration we call so if you're ever around at 2:30 2:30 2:25 come upstairs um if they've finished a credit or under a credit that day we say their name we all clap and then they ring a little bell whether they want to or not I just had a girl take a picture with the Bell so I could send it to her mom so those are some of the things that we have at AHS happening um online's a little trickier right what we focus on then is really that Outreach we are looking at trying to engage our students and our families um every student has an instructional coach which is one of their teachers so that's a point person that the family has and our teachers or our students have to reach out to they are doing weekly um contacts home they are emailing they're sending postcards they're checking in with students um our online students also use that win system but they sign up to do virtual then so every Wednesday you can see there is kind of an example of what our virtual support our virtual classes that's offered and then we also offer them the opportunity to come in in person if they they want up there and we have a few students we did that last year as well we have a few students that do take advantage of that um but we find that our students you have to give them more options to to see how they want to show up at any different point so it might be in person one day it might be a virtual time the other it might be just chatting with their teacher okay now I get to brag about the highlights that I think we're seeing the most success in for um for all of our students right now and it's Credit Recovery right so it is our pathway our graduation pathway with credit recovery um we've seen a lot of success with this it's open to all high school students the students at the Alternative High School are taking Credit Recovery courses as part of their day in addition to their trimester classes as well North and Tartan students get to take it after school in their buildings so that helps remove that barrier of Transportation um as you can see our AHS students have recovered 296 and actually it's more than that but I just had didn't update it yet but over 296 credits and Counting with four of our students that are back on track to graduate two of them which are going back to their buildings next trimester right guys they get to come back um and you can see after school credit recovery so happening in the buildings this is kind of an extra course for them right they're taking their full load there and then they're doing an extra kind of credit recovery after the after school um they are over 147 credits earn and I'm sure it's more than that but also 46 students back on track to graduate so they are going to be walking with their class and and moving on to their graduation so that's pretty exciting uh we are super proud of the hard work and dedication that these students have because it's it's harder to catch up right and go above and beyond and have that dedication and having these different Pathways for them is really important to seeing our students succeed okay and so here's just some upcoming events to continue to Showcase what's been going on I think we'd like to invite you to any of these things they already talked a little bit about it um but we've got you know black history month and and nap it as well and another thing for us is that's our students that are planning it so back in those workshops that I talked about that's that student Le that student voice piece that's coming up for them so that's what we have I thank you for your time if you have any questions for us I'm sure my colleagues would love to come up and answer them with me you handle it yeah thank you everybody there any questions I think we have lots of questions great I I'll start thank you all for coming and and presenting uh the information and and it was really great to see that uh the uh absen ism is making some improvements so I hope that we continue to improve but I was really uh impressed about the the range of of the uh programs and clubs that you have for the equity and inclusion and uh as someone who values uh equity and inclusion I really uh I'm thankful for those programs but so I have two questions one is um with uh with all the charter that's going federally about uh cutting uh uh Dei um programs and all that um how are are these also going to be cut in other words are we not going to have blacks student and then then this the second question as far for the online is um with those programs that are available for equity and inclusion what what's available for the online students how do you make them feel like they belong in 622 so those are my two questions I'm going to jump in real quick just on the federal Conversation Piece um you know in our school district funding the vast majority of it comes from state and local property State funding and and some from local property taxes and so um the the executive order that's out there about federal agencies we're not a federal agency um and our funding that we do get from the federal government is not tied to our Equity initiatives there are State funding that requires that we have those but for us you know equity and inclusion is about making sure all students feel welcomed in our schools and as you heard from our principles it's about making sure all of our student groups are feeling welcomed and whenever we have any of our student groups um that are not achieving as high as others are we always try to do more for that group and in multiple groups and provide opportunities for these initiatives around um belonging and clubs and inclusion and then also extra help when you need it you know um those kinds of things so as far as the funding from the federal government goes that's really not an issue because that's not really we're not a federal agency and you know um foundational to our our United States is that um school districts are under local control elect by a locally elected School boards and so um the funding stream that comes from the federal government is a very small portion of our budget anyway and that's um typically under title funds um and special education funding is basically the the bulk of Federal funding that we get um and all th those funds so special education funding I don't know if the federal government's going to cut special education funding um it all flows through the Minnesota Department of Education anyway and we get all of our allocations even Federal we get through our own Minnesota Department of Education so we don't ever we don't get any funding directly from the federal government it goes to the Minnesota Department of Education and so that's not a concern at all we're always going to focus on making sure all of our students feel welcomed in our schools and we're always going to um do these cool clubs and activities and and help make sure our students feel that and staff and and families feel like everyone has a place in 622 and we have no intention of stopping doing that we're always going to make sure we have inclusive and welcoming environments for everybody that's a high priority and as you heard from the great work that's happening a lot of it is student L stuff too which is really exciting so great question though thank you but if you want to answer the other questions yeah I can answer the online question um what's exciting about it for online and the alc is they still have access access to their high schools so the activities that are happening um both Uh Kevin and Bethany will send the things that are happening they're connected to those schools and I kind of see it as two things there's a big group and there's a small group option so they still can participate in those things they still are considered students of the high school right so they could be part of that they could go after school they could be in those groups they could entertain those things but what I find is sometimes our students once they're not in that setting they kind of like the smaller Homebase type feel and what becomes as that's that small group part where it's really student L it is really like we are just a group and a community within our own school we did a a survey not too long ago with the alc kids to just say what is it about this place why do you want to be here what's H how's it happening and the majority was saying because I feel better I feel like I belong because it's individualized because we're small we can do that right so kind of an example of those workshops that's comes from the kids so what do you want to do they say well we want to put stars on the wall we want to do all about me they went and did little positive sayings on all the lockers right it's things that they feel are important to them that are part of their school culture so it's kind of like one big school leadership team but it's all the students okay thank you okay thank you for the presentation and um I do have a question kind of a comment that the a couple couple months ago we had a presentation on academic achievement where so we rely on these standardized tests as you know to kind of rate our achievement in our schools and I don't like that we do this but it's you know we don't get to decide right so there's external folks who decide how we um how the public P perceives our schools and how parents perceive our schools and so on so our academic achievement is not where we want it to be right but a lot of your presentation was focused on the belongingness piece and I feel like our district absolutely excels at this and there's just example after example after example and we're really good at this but that I'm really concerned about our academic achievement and I know you had that on there and you framed it primarily as attendance um and and I know it's hard to talk about what you're doing because it's complicated but aside from attendance I was just kind of I would love to hear and I know it can't be this presentation perhaps but I guess I would love to hear more about what our district is doing around academic achievement um in the future I drew the Short Straw go first um and I think in terms of what we did present we certainly had to be selective and terms or what we spoke to but I think I'll start from a systemwide districtwide approach to you know you talk about the big three you got the the English and the math and the science I'd say the work that's been done and is being done right now around the curriculum development so you got them my perspectives piece of a major overhaul heavy lift with English right now 9 through 12 U I'm not sure everything that's going on the Middle School level but I think they're doing the same um I think they're maybe a year ahead of us and so that that just kicked off this year uh full curriculum review uh last year started implementation this year uh math is in year three of the new curriculum and hopefully we start seeing some and that was a major lift for all the math teachers and um and tnl in terms of the work shifting to a much more student to student interacting rigorous curriculum for the math science is going through all the changes with the new um National Standard so I think from a systems perspective that is the the Deep heavy work that every school is doing in terms of when you start talking about the MCAS I think you know and similar in other buildings um we're doing some things like we're Pila this year we're doing the uh the reading test during finals week and so we're gonna shift the time um there's there's some thinking out there on how do we get more students to participate in the MCA test and maybe they're more in testing mode will that help a little bit um so we're going to test that we're going to flip the reading test uh conversations that certainly happen are uh that we push in our collaborative team the teachers talking about what strategies they certainly talk about some test prep conversations on how we better readying our students for those tests uh what's working for you you know you have a CT of of three or four English n teachers that are talking about um you know we're going to focus on this for this this month what our results what's working best in your classroom those are conversation that we push from you know admin to our to our bills our building um instructional leaders for like Department chairs on the conversations that they're pushing down to the teacher groups to adjust her instruction throughout the year um those are a few that come to mind yeah and just in addition to that I'll say um that our teachers actually meet in their CTS plc's um they they're common um you know course alike groups um within their departments where they they talk about what's going on each and every week with the kids and really looking at how are they doing on these assessments that we're currently working on um looking at the data looking at what are some of those Trends we're seeing with some of these assessments um and how can we better support students and and so that's some of the work that happens on a weekly basis as well um when we're looking at just just our everyday assessments that are happening every single day in our classrooms and how are students understanding you know where they're at and how they can grow and how they can be better um I will also say two in in regards to like the MCAS for example specific speically with English um with this new curriculum students are able to engage with non-fiction texts they're able to engage with fiction texts some of the things that they will be seeing on those MCA reading assessments um and really practicing how do you answer questions specific to those passages um and so the the curriculum um in itself is is very um very rigorous for students and offers um a variety of of passages so that they have um a depth of knowledge as they kind of going into this season of of testing so just a piggyback on Michelle's question so um the three of you could have put anything together on that presentation um in light of everything people kind of stepping back from Dei work um why did the three of you you know white presenting administrators choose to present to us about Dei um well I will just say our our community is so important here in 622 um you know and and it's something that's so important to our students to our families um and it's what really makes this work so amazing and it's meaningful our students have to have a voice our students have to have opportunity um and that also makes the School experience so wonderful and exciting and that's what makes them want to come each and every day and so it's intertwined and interconnected to every single thing we do every day it's why we're in these roles because we are so passionate about that work about leading that work guiding that work and walking hand inand with our families each and every day I I would add you want to go go ahead I would add to I think if we aren't having that conversation on a regular basis or emphasizing those type of things you know at North we're 78% students of color and um and they're they're in terms of most of my families at North are have lived a different experience than I have and I think it's it's a priority the equity work is not a it's not an initiative it's not a it's the work we do it's the conversation we have the equity work certainly is our our student student groups and our our student voice but it's also getting down to the culture responsive uh teaching practices and the culture responsive leadership and and we just got done editing the the rubric for principles on how we're evaluated in terms of um are we being cultur responsive leaders and so it it just kind of is it is the work and so um and for me I mean we certainly talked a little bit about what should we present on and and what topics part of us thought about what you you know I think you'd rather hear about kid stuff than you know p stuff professional development so took a stab maybe it wasn't the right call so and I think for me it's um kind of like Christine said it's all about belonging right I'm a former special education teacher for students with high behaviors and I saw great reward when kids feel safe and they feel comfortable and they feel like they belong for me that's what it has to be that has to be established they have to be able to see themselves in a space they have to feel welcomed to take those risks and especially in the setting that I'm at it's really about trying to now play catchup and try to intervene and try to get them to a spot that they have a good experience so that's just non-negotiable right they have to be able to be part of our culture and our community and our and what we're doing that's just it's what I believe and that's how we kind of proceed if I could add to that if you think about achievement we know all the all the work we've done around curriculum and professional development and we also know that for students when they don't come to school when you know post pandemic we're hitting 30% of our students chronically absent from school um we know that kids who feel safe and feel like they belong and are seen as unique an individual are more likely to show up to school every day and by showing up to school every day you're more likely to achieve and so they all dovetail together um and and yet there's there's different ways to dissect that too but I do think that at the core of of all of that work is because if you look at our achievement data you know we have groups of students who historically year after year after year are underperforming and so we have to pay attention to that and figure out well how are we going to help engage students who need something different and I think that's part of the whole approach is to try to have something in our schools for everyone to feel a part of and and that's one of the other pieces that um you hear a lot about our goal is that our eventual goal is to get every student connected to a club a sport an activity a performing art because when kids feel connected and belonging they come to school they value school they show up more often and they stay in school so things like that all kind of connect together and oh and I really appreciate it it was the right call but I was just curious as a as a as a parent uh of students of a Community member it's part of the reason why I'm proud to be you know living in this community and also serving on this board so um I really appreciate it but thank you thank you um thanks uh just one comment about the MCAS we had a presentation at uh amsd um a couple weeks ago about uh their um you know the opting out that that's going on with with uh MCAS and uh just just the sort of um the problem of measuring a school just by those standardized tests uh I I know that you know obviously accountability is important we have to uh you know student achievement is our number one thing but um uh I think the ACT is looking at seems to be more what valid more weight more importance I don't know what do you think you know relative to is is that another presentation about how we're doing on the East yeah if I want to jump into it but uh the ACT certainly is a different conversation I think in terms of what how much weight a student or a family puts on the ACT compared to the MCA certainly at the high school level is it it's apples and oranges we're also dealing with the struggle that there's an awful lot of universities out there the shift in the last handful of years has been the ACT doesn't matter you know I have two daughters in college right now I have one that took the act and one didn't take it at all and they went to the same level college and it didn't matter at all for their situations and so we're fighting against that I think there's a there's there's a start of a shift back to more emphasis on the ACT and what it means or doesn't but um kids are getting into school middle level colleges uh without even taking the test so um you know is there some apathy towards the MCA test for sure I struggle with with you know I got three daughters and the last two care zero about it um despite my position and what I do for a living and so yeah is it real for sure I think our participation rates across the board here aren't terrible I me um the opting out isn't a huge thing here I think we had over at North I can't speak for Tartan um but I think we were well over 70% in terms of actually taking the tests last year um I don't know if that's great or not but I I know some schools around that that it's far less and kids are hanging out at home um and even if 30% of your kids are missing the test and that's what your school is judged on that's also not exactly a a great picture of accuracy for pain accurate picture for sure um but yeah so there's a I'll jump out because that's a different talk show right and of course our citizens expect us to be preparing their their their kids for um life after school and we could talk about how many go on to college and where they're going and uh or how many are taking CIS courses or or uh if you want that data we Cano or PSO courses you know I mean relative to Michelle's uh concerns about academic achievement yeah um and just one final comment um there's a reason why we're called isd622 right we're Independent School District right we're an independent school district so and what does that mean Christine where that were in Independent School District independent governed by an locally elected School Board that's what independent means I mean that's independ our governing body is you guys so right so intermediate oh Intermediate School Districts that's another kind those are generally school districts like our 9116 of which we're a member of is a Consortium of school districts and for us 9116 is the Consortium for the Northeast Metro and that's a school district that it sort of works as a co-op if you will for providing higher level special education services but also um Credit Recovery Services and CTE college and Technical class classes a lot of the trades programming we we share together those Resources with our member districts that are members of that Intermediate School District 9916 of which we're a member of so um the online uh program does Also Serve uh our children with behavior issues what determines who goes to 916 and who St special education programming um determines so for students who have a special education individ visualized education plan related to behavioral concerns and challenges um we have situations like those where if a student needs a higher level of service than what they get in the reg there's you know even within a regular High School you have different levels of service you might touch Bas with a special education teacher or some might spend more than half their day with a special education teacher um students who end up in our higher level programs like 916 are going there to spend the whole day in special education services now we do have inhouse our own program that also provides that and that's at our Webster education building um where where that's a full-time Federal for special education program meaning they spend their whole day in special education services some of the students that you heard Steph Goen talk about that are there for Behavior reasons we might have a student who um is not in their current North or Tartan High School because of some threats they made against students or or that are there because um it was deemed by either the family gener I mean by the family and or in conversations with this with the district leadership around um you know a student who might be getting in a lot of fights at one of the high schools we might say you know what this might be a better fit right now many times um and I was actually thinking as Steph was talking about one boy in particular who was failing most classes and is now getting all A's and B's and it's unbelievable what a difference it made to separate him from some of his peers that were negative influences for him and when he had the opportunity to be in a smaller setting and actually focus more on those academic without some of the peer relationships around him he's blossoming in fact I was you know we Andy and I have spoken with a few parents like that recently and so typically those students who are in that setting for that reason are not there for a special education reason typic Ally those that are in 916 are um under the special education umbrella although we do also have our own version of that program as well um through Webster education thank you for bringing that up that's a great point of clarification and and then if I could just one final thing I guess uh I I think um you know the individual clubs that you mentioned are are excellent and and obviously they're doing great work um I I really like also the the theater program and the music program s because it brings students together of all backgrounds um and I think students find um a lot of commonality in in those programs so um and I know you didn't have time to go into all of that but I just uh uh um you know I love the support that you give to those music and theater programs so sure and sports too of course yeah yeah one more thing um I haven't had a chance to meet you personally I'm Katie swore I'm new on the board um but I look forward to seeing and especially uh the construction at tarton yes please come I'm serious you guys come and see Tartan and I just heard today that I can enter into um with all the construction gear um into some of the new spaces to get a sneak peek at what they look like so but yeah seriously come that's awesome and I was blown away by the even the picture of the cafeteria that um yeah I'll come over for lunch it'll be good um but I want to say thank you um for presenting and also for your work on chronic absenteeism um I I know it's a it's a challenge throughout the state and I really appreciate you taking such an individual approach almost um basically trying all the things and figuring out what you haven't been trying and and what more can work um I I was speaking with our American Indian education staff and they you know same also trying to to and we asked and said like what what is it and they're like it it depends you know there's just so many issues and so I think I think throwing everything at it and um having those meetings I really like the idea of kind of that intensive um mentorship program and and the all of the um what do you call it um just all the meetings right and then saying okay we've done what we can for you like go forth and attend school and then let's find the next bch and so it's not a question it's just a thank you appreciate it thank Youk you um I I'm trying to remember if uh our district has a a district-wide policy for our students with regards to cell phones um but I was just curious if um if if we don't have a districtwide policy um I was curious what each policy is with regards to students and their phones during the school day at your programs I'll actually turn it to any if you want to speak to all three levels but yeah um well it's a good question and I think it's one of actually the things that um all the secondary principles worked on at the beginning of the year when that new legislation came out we actually already have language in District policy that actually talks about cell phones I think right now during the school year our secondary schools high schools and middle schools became very aligned and tight um our middle schools are almost completely away for the day um in terms of phone use um not in the cafeteria not in in the classroom anything like that elementary elementary is the same at the at the high school level um high school students are allowed to have their phone out at lunch and things like that um just not in instructional spaces um I think we have to decide whether we will put protocols and some of those things that we put in place into official District policy but we do have policy right now that addresses um electronics and cell phone use and I will add that the changes we all implemented this year are going absolutely amazingly um the classrooms are empty it I mean across the board I think tart's doing do really well same thing with with Steph's programs I just I got to share this today I'm talking to a sub uh substitute teacher who was leaving at the other day and I was just chatting with her and I recognized her name and I I um she actually was my German teacher at St Paul Central High School in 1987 uh in 88 and I bring it up because the one comment she made is I I and she's a repeat person she comes back a lot to sub and she says I don't see any cell phones and for a sub how important is that don't have the connections with the kids and the relationships with the kids and to not have to fight that battle all day in terms of that so uh huge success I know it's going well across the board in all our schools so it's going well I will say the the middle school principls have have talked about how uh the social interactions have changed in the lunchroom uh because of that instead of just having those those screens out in the lunchroom um students are having to talk to one another which is nice one of the interesting things across I hear from other superintendents is that they tend to they're hearing more from parents advocating that their children keep their cell phones available during classes so that they can text them we haven't gotten complaints from parents I can't even think of anyone complaining that we aren't allowing students to use their cell phones the nice thing about having the whole state focus on this at the same time is it sort of takes the pressure off of each individual district for sure from being the bad guy and saying we're going to we're going to change this so that's been interesting not that that's an invitation for all the parents to suddenly start start calling and complaining but I will just say that um that surprisingly that that's not been a major issue for us here I think you're off the hook now thank thank you so much thank you thank you next up is superintendent to second part of and an update thank you to our our amazing High School leaders we're very fortunate to have the level of um leadership we have in our school district so I wanted to just give a brief um preview of our budget and Staffing process um our school board already had a a preview of this conversation when we had our study session last so I wanted to just put this out here as well for you to just keep in mind of kind of what's up to come um it's no secret that special educ I mean general education funding allowance in the state hasn't kept up with the rate of inflation um this is a a graphic you see a lot of school districts sharing because we all share the same information but um you know uh the you can see from The Gap that the actual uh allotment that we're getting related to um student student allotment of allocation of funds over time has not kept up with the rate of inflation and there have been years where um the state's done better in that regard uh and and fortunately coming up there's some some accountability for that in the fact that the new funding formula is going to be tied to the rate of inflation however it's capped no higher than 3% and we all know the rate of inflation has been sub quite a bit higher than that in recent years so um it still doesn't make up for the gap of those years where we got no increase whatsoever even not even the rate of inflation but um I know our legislature our elected officials have worked really hard on this topic um but you know you're hearing in the news right now these last years of inflationary increase are hitting school districts really hard just like they're hitting families and whatnot very hard as well um I want to just remind everybody that part of the process of figur you know when I say FY 26 so that's funding year 26 fiscal year 26 the 25 26 school year which is next school year this is the time of year where we're getting ready for how we budget for next school year because as you remember by June 30th of this year our school board must adopt a balanced budget for the coming school year we're working right now on budget assumptions these are the things we have to kind of go through all of the different elements that we weigh into um factors we need to consider and sometimes we can get a really good number and sometimes it's sort of like taking a prediction based on historical Trends um our enrollment is projected to uh we're projecting our enrollment to be a slight increase we're actually um bouncing back quite a bit from that pandemic era um and in fact I was saying to some of you recently that in the 10 years I've been superintendent here our enrollment has very much remained in the same mid 10,000 range and so um it's amazing over all these years it dipped quite a bit in during the pandemic and we've kind of bounced back from that and and Counting so we're watching that we're always looking and these are drafts so you're going to see this again at the February business meeting but I wanted to just let you know of what we're kind of predicting um and we'll go through um these are kind of in progress at this point and a lot of this is factored by our finance department and our operations I know Sarah and her team are constantly looking at cost of electricity and energy and bus Fuel and all the things that increase with all these pieces we're still working through some of these and so they're in a draft form but I want to let you know that that's a big part of how we start to begin the budget process first of all is what do we think are going to be um Chang es in our current spending for next year and then how many students do we think we're going to have and all of these pieces that go into it so we're working through these right now we do have a timeline a staffing timeline and actually this is a link um that you can kind of see I won't get into the weeds of all of it but you know every year our human resources department goes through each one of our bargaining groups the contracts because you know all of our contracts have different timelines by which by when people need to be notified of things like that so um these are and you can look at this and see it online but it kind of gives you a sense of our uh enrollment groups oops sorry I bumped oh sorry we go of our uh different bargaining groups our teachers are the first ones they have the earliest timeline by which we need to notify staff of potential changes and so the teacher bargaining group um round one of the teacher bidding process begins February 28th and round two begins March 10th now it doesn't mean we aren't still working through the budget past that oh my gosh this thing is rolling on its own here um I don't know if this thing is on a slant or what but I wasn't even touching that one okay so um that's our first consideration um but obviously we're going to be working through these layers of this budget through this entire upcoming spring process I want to let you know we always you know as we look at the number of students we're going to have we also look at what our class siiz targets are these were our class- siiz targets for this year um we always look at um the local class- siiz study that is conducted by bright Works which is another kind of um Co-op that we belong to that does a study around the metro to kind of compare class sizes and so one thing we're very proud of is that our class sizes have been actually lower than most of our um counterparts and we're proud of that hoping to maintain um that range if we can although there's some potential for tweaking to this but this is basically what we try to aim for um and a big part of that process so that you know like our years that are transition years kindergarten sixth grade and Ninth Grade are the biggest question marks when we're looking at how many kids are we going to have we can fairly reasonably guess that our current third graders are going to move into fourth grade right for the most part what we don't always know is those transition years we know how many births we know how many 5-year-old children are in our school district boundaries but we don't always know with we have a lot of choices in our school district um we have um nine private schools a couple charter schools and of course Minnesota allows open enrollment so part of what we try to do through our kindergarten orientation meetings is to gauge how many students we're expecting to be coming in the door we work with our out our our fifth grade class to verify how many are still coming to our middle schools and there's lots of orientation nights and phone calls to try to G those numbers and so um and then the next part of that process of course in middle and high school in January we just completed this timeline where our our students register for their elective choices in middle and high school in January in fact all that data um has just been turned into our secondary assistant superintendent Andy Beaton because we know that before we can decide how to staff things we have to know how many kids are choosing this elective and this elective and this elective that helps us to know how many sections we need of everything so all that work is underway right now using um these class- siiz targets as a a barometer for how many staff we need in each of the content areas we are looking at a potential budget shortfall for um of 7 to n million um we have floated the number of 10 million we think it's going to be a little less than that we're still combing those numbers right now but um as you know we'll continue to talk about this um during our upcoming sessions together because uh we're before we can even get into the Weeds about that we got to see first of all we're looking through how many what the course registration choices are for kids and all those pieces um and then trying to just get really organized so that we can to the extent possible really spread um any cuts that we have to make across programs departments um you'll see in the news that school districts everywhere across Minnesota and I think even nationally are all facing situations like these um due to these infl AR impacts on school districts like all other businesses and organizations as well um we're watching the legislative session very very carefully as you know uh our school district fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30th but our legislative session runs January through May and so it's really tricky because Without Really without a crystal ball we don't always know how the legislative session is going to end and so we always have to we pay really close attention to committee hearings and all these things happening at the legislature because we're trying to gauge what direction this might be going and we we work together with many other I know Josh is constantly talking to finance directors from all the other districts like trying to get on the same page of what we think is going to happen there um but it's really tricky it's hard to get a sense of that by contrast if you think about our local municipalities like City governments their fiscal calendar is January to December and so they if they have any impact from the legislature they're not as in the dark when they're trying to put their budgets together so it's an interesting contrast so um we're keeping a real close eye on that and we'll certainly be um keeping everybody alert to any of the topics that are being discussed there as well um and so it's a moving it's a moving Target but we always kind of do what we can um we know that and I'm going to put this out there we've had some conversations about whether or not we want to consider going out for an operating referendum in the fall um as you all know we haven't ever we haven't discussed this much yet um it's a consideration um it's hard to see on this graphic but this graphic was just put together recently but if you look um we're we're down here towards the bottom the this is the amount we collect per pupil um with our local operating referenda and so I want to let you know that like if you compare other metro area school districts um we're very uh very much towards the bottom of that and so that'll be something we'll want to keep our eye on and have some conversations and and be thinking about in the months ahead um depending on how how this financial situation plays out for us but um more than anything uh we are engaging with many stakeholders and our our staff and our our leaders around this and um we are going to be putting on a memo to All District employees too just to say hey if anyone has suggestions for ways that we can find efficiencies we don't all have everyone else's lens into the system and so um we'll be looking at that closely as well so um we will be talking about this pretty much every month through the end of the school year so I'm going to invite questions and um obviously we'll be talking more at our Retreat about these topics and issues as well yes Nancy um so the two to 2 and a half% basic formula allowance increase that were expecting is that um that's just the inflationary in that's the and and that and we're fortunate to have that right isn't that the in the past we didn't we never knew if we were getting anything I thought we didn't get anything for inflation agreed and so this is something to uh right be happy about and it is it it really is because in the past we would sit with a zero plan until we knew what was coming and we would always try to take a guess at that but this is in law that we'll get that what the what's not in law is exactly when and what point in time they're going to measure because if you look at the you know the CPI index and you look at the rate of inflation you have to pick a point in time that you consider this is this is the rate we're going to go with um we haven't been made clear exactly what that amount is and I don't it still hasn't come out exactly there's predictions that it's going to be in this range but um we don't know yet what point in time they're going to pick that's why there's range but that does not account for um any potential additional Revenue that the legislature could give us right now we're not too optimistic about that but if anything were to happen that would help offset our our planned um shortfall so but right now we're we know that we can count on somewhere between two and two and a half% likely um and we're waiting to every day and we're like have we got the number yet nope they haven't announced it yet but watching for that we also just recently got um a reduction announcement there's been runs that have come out about compensatory revenue and just to remind everybody about what that issue is compensatory revenue is tied directly to the number of students um in your school district who are lwi Income traditionally that measurement has been taken based on those lunch forms those free and reduced price lunch forms that we nag everybody about turning in every year right one of the challenges so when we when we went away you remember during the pandemic there was there's free Universal meals for all and it gets harder and harder to get people to turn those forms in when you're already getting free meals um we work really hard on that and we've managed to continue to get our forms turned in at a pretty high rate um our last rate of inflation or our last rate of free and reduced was at 68% but with the new guidelines under under um the state legislature they're only going to consider those that are directly certified through County programs right food programs so if somebody isn't registering for those food programs they don't get counted in our system even if we've collected a form from the family that designates their income at a lower level part of the challenge with that and I know when we looked at this about a year couple year or Google of the 68% that qualified 75% of those came through direct certification but 25% came through those forms and there's a couple reasons if you think about um there are a lot of families who float below and above that line and so when you think about the paperwork factor of like okay we dip below it so now we qualify oh now we're above it we don't qualify there there can be families who maybe are currently qualifying but they're not submitting the paperwork because it's just an extra layer um we know that for some families perhaps undocumented families they might not be counted in that because they're not going to register for those services and what we're in the governor's proposal and again we never know if the governor's proposed budget is going to be adopted by the legislature usually there's a lot that changes in it but in his proposal it suggests that we um hold districts harmless for yet one more year in this regard and instead during this time put together a task force a Statewide task force that's going to take a look at how can we better um collect that poverty information that doesn't um harm the districts for whom they may have people who are not filling out the forms and doing what they need to through the county or for whatever reasons study it anyway and so if the governor's proposal comes through then the planned reduction that's currently in law like this is already in law that we're getting a reduction of 4 and a half million we sure hope that changes but that is a given for us and we don't believe our poverty rate has dropped in fact we actually think it might have gone up but uh according to those direct certification numbers we stand to lose and I will tell you right now among metro area superintendants anyway this is probably the number one issue people are really stressing out about because this number just came out this past week and it it blew everyone away like whoa are we seriously doing this now so we're going to keep a close eye on that situation as well other questions my question is around uh um class sizes um I I can't I I I should know but are are our our teachers do they have contracts on how many periods they can teach because I'm thinking that if I had 35 students I'm a teacher by the way and that's why I'm thinking about if I had 35 students and they're coming there I have period after period by the time I if the day is that I have about 150 students so do they have contracts on how many periods they can teach that where they can manage the grading and all that yep it's in their contract so our teachers um currently are are eligible for a 50-minute prep period per day and so they have that extra so our teachers work an 8 hour day and our students are in session six and a half hours of course minus lunch during that six and a half hours a teacher gets a 30 minute duty-free lunch and they get a prep period so of the total amount of hours that they teach in a day is four and a half help me out Tim 300 minutes 3 00 minutes I know the minutes I didn't know 300 minutes whatever that number is um so yes our teachers in an 8- hour workday teach 300 minutes contact with students and and how many how many minutes are in an8 hour that's a good question ah yeah how many seconds is that someone give me the math no I'm I'm I'm just trying to think about um how much time they have for grading and and pray so actually an 8 hour day is 400 and 60 minutes and they teach 300 of those minutes if that makes sense 160 now there students are there for 390 teachers are dutyfree for 50 minutes plus a 30-minute lunch so 80 minutes of that so roughly 310 minutes a day a teacher might teach if that makes sense yes way to test my math skills on the spot that's okay though I'm all for it but we do keep a real close eye on that and occasionally I'll give you an example um let's say we get a number of students who sign up for a class and we have one teacher but we really have more than five periods in a day that need that class we might have a sixth period in a day we we could try to hire a very tiny portion of a teacher sometimes that person comes from another building or sometimes if a teacher is willing we pay them an overage where they actually are paid to give up their prep time so that they actually make extra money and then um but that's always only if a teacher agrees to it and then they take an overage and then you know we um they essentially move their personal prep time to later in the day so um but when that happens they're paid at their actual hourly rate of pay so um some some folks are happy to get that because it's a higher salary then and some you know nope no thank you so it's always an interesting balance between these are our class siiz targets but then looking at all the course registrations it's a it's a master puzzle to put it all together and try to figure out how many sections you need of each um elective class you know we generally know how many sections we're going to need of the four core because all the kids are in them gen for the most part unless you're talking about maybe seniors but um so it's always trying to you know put our finger on that and try to predict how many students are going to do PSO next year and then we don't have to worry about scheduling for them and so it's always a it's always a numbers game and part of it too is we we know that when school starts in the fall um we call them hot spots we try to save a little extra funding because we might end up with too many kids kids Never Land in perfect packages of 150 they just never do and so it's always about like oh that one got a little big like for example you might have a kindergarten classroom and our Target is 20 to 22 students and let's say you have a kindergarten section that might have 26 students well that's not quite enough for a whole extra teacher but we might schedule a pair of professional to work in that classroom with that teacher because you until you can get a decent you know if you had 40 kids sure it's easy to have two sections but if you have like 28 kids it's you'd have very small sections um which also cost extra resources so we always try to look at solutions to those and you know we spend a lot of time those first weeks of school um with our teacher Union and others kind of looking at balancing and we always remind people we're we always look at those hotpots those first weeks of school other questions we'll be doing regular regular updates on this topic I think that's it thank you thank you all right I'm going to move us on to the action items of our agenda um first up is finance uh by director Nardi for the acknowledgement of contributions statute uh 123 b02 sorry Minesota statute 123b .02 permit School boards to receive the to the benefit of the district request donations or gifts for any proper purpose and apply the same same to the purpose designated in that behalf the board may act as a trustee of any trust created for the benefit of the district and for the benefit of pupils there thereof so the first donor is Daria gamble donated five pairs of snow pants for the purpose of warm clothes for students at recess at nor Paul Maplewood Oak rotary crb donated 500 for the NH NHS Northern Light North High School Northern Lights show choir I think they they talked about it tonight renew by greway restoration donated $275 for the dinner for teachers at John Glenn during the winter conferences Patricia V then donated 300 $ $100 each to Community Bridges Mills on Wheels and Castle ml team Katherine langes donated $500 for glassstone meals and wheels David Westman donated $100 for glass stor Mills and on Wheels Michael tester donated $50 for Gladstone Mills on wheels helenn Johns donated $10 for Gladstone meals and wheels Katherine toling donated $20 for Gladstone Mills and wheels The Cleaning Authority Maplewood donated 30 coats six pairs of snow pants hats and mittens to give to students a waver warm clothes for the winter Tor for this fiscal 202 24 2025 monetary contribution is 28,869 therefore the Director of Finance recommends the following resolution be it resolved by the school board of Independent School District number 622 that the school board accept with appreciation the following contribution and permit their use as designated by the donors a move that we accepted can I get a second second right uh move by n Hardy second by Anderson um any discussion all right um all in favor say I and all oppose say nay all right um those are approved um next up we have uh director of operations uh Sarah Gat to do the allocation of restrictive construction funds for the expansion and renovation of Cowern Elementary School good evening Madam chair members of the board superintendent just a little information for you um shared again since uh the work study session that you had a couple weeks ago um before you take up the resolution tonight so as you can recall already six years ago about 2019 um we had a voter approved bond for the ready for tomorrow voting our building Bond plan um that was $175 Million worth of General obligation School building bonds and that funded a wide variety of construction projects all over the district from new furniture to secure entries to building Renovations and additions uh to new buildings in whole um the good thing is this fall in 2025 we will complete all of that work and I will be back with a video and updates on all the work that we accomplished with the building plan um this fall as well but we've also um as you recall in 2023 had a Master Plan update where we allocated some of the fund savings to Webster and Harmony Renovations those will be done in Fall 2026 in and what this means is we've done really well on our construction projects and planning due to low Bond sale interest rates project cost savings over the last six years periods of low construction inflation and we've also really benefited from a a really active and competitive construction Market to get those bid numbers down over the years and plus when we sell those bonds we actually are allowed by the federal government to invest those bonds too so they earn a little bit of Interest not a lot just a little um to keep that that savings up as well this really means is we have a fund balance to spend on our restricted construction funds so utilization of these restricted funds can really not be used to cover any general fund shortages or general fund expenses they have to be used on construction and they have to be used for the same purpose that was indicated in the original ballot question which as you probably recall was a really long paragraph that voters had to answer but essentially it said the funds had to be used for the betterment of school facilities which indicated building planning construction and Furniture cost only so we're at that point where we've accumulated the funds and we must spend them down now to avoid penalties we've been we've had them for close to five years so we've got a great opportunity to do more than we originally planned and I have to say of the districts I worked with not many have said that so we're really fortunate so over last year we've been examining what to do with the funds and uh looked at a couple different sites for additions or Renovations of various scales and needs and the recommendation really is to look at cin and do an addition and renovation at cin for the following reason one it can handle in addition to its building the site allows that and with that also comes parking expansions as well because we have to accommodate for additional staff and parents that would would be there um it is situation situated with boundaries adjacent to Richardson and to Castle we have booming and very successful dual language emerging programs at those sites and in addition at cin would also help and balance the enrollment between those three schools um efficiency so right now cin and Weaver as well are three section schools which means they're planned to carry three class uh rooms of each grade level um what we found in is really there are smallest schools in cin is our smallest school that by operating even a four section school with an approximate 600 student design capacity is more efficient in Staffing in resources and even operating the building and transportation overall um so what we're looking at is coloring would support a smaller footprint Edition so because it's a two-story building already it's not on stories we can put a twostory on and really maximize construction and then we also know from all of the data we have from our facilities condition index and assessment that cin is in much need of infrastructure replac so heating cooling electrical um fire you know there's just so much carpeting casework that needs to um to be redone uh and it's really much more efficient to do it in a short term over a very compact construction versus doing it deferred maintenance wise you know over 10 years so carpet this year case wor it the following year and we know and looking at our buildings too that cin is in need of some updated Educational Learning areas that we've been putting in the rest of our schools that have been touched over the last couple years we did work with our Consultants at w and AP construction they're the ones that have been doing the majority of the work around the district to do a feasibility study what this may turn out to me now this is just a design concept we have not even moved into design yet we're still really finalizing you know how many classrooms what they would be the level of special education that would be in this building it would would change how many students but the initial uh concept is yes in addition in the renovation work at the site you can see where there's a potential to expand the parking um we're already replacing the playground this summer as part of our deferred maintenance work that's going to get moved over regardless near the hard surface play area because it's just easier to Monitor and to manage students when they're right next to each other and um part of it would possibly also include a kitchen expansion so we would need more seating space in that cafeteria and we need nor serving lines to handle to increase in students so just an example of maybe what could occur again this is just conceptual test fit only but the renovation that is not showing here would be you know centralized learning areas centralized mechanical heating and cooling and water piping all the all the fun stuff that you really don't notice in the building but it's really essential so what this would mean and I'm getting to how we fund this so as I said we do have the school building bonds on hand and we're estimating right now and again this is a conceptual estimate but and we've we've gone on the high side because we don't want to understate about 23 million of school building bonds that we have on on hand and then facility maintenance bonds they would just be planned in as you do every year we we've come to you with a 10-year plan that's submitted to the state and that would be planned into the renovation would work would be planned into the ltfm plan in fiscal year 27 and 28 to be funded so we're just about to start the planning seg so more to come on that but essentially If This Were to pass tonight we would jump into design and be out to bid at the end of this year and it's a two-year scheduled construction project so we would start next summer and it would go through two school years essentially much of like much of our other buildings and construction that we've done the addition goes on first so we can have swing space and then we start to work on the existing buildings so students always have a place to learn in the building so tonight's resolution in front of you is asking to allocate the school building bonds that we have in reserve to cover the balance of um the addition and Renovations at Cowan so School building bonds up to 24.6 million and then as I mentioned the same as our deferred maintenance construction work all the one for one Replacements the heating and cooling Etc would improve um using our future long-term facilities maintenance funding and our 10-year plan approved by the state annually to fund that as well and that is up to 16.5 million over two years and as I mentioned starting um as soon as as it's passed if it passes tonight and then would be done in 2027 with that I'll answer any questions um thanks Sarah and um thanks for you know your excellent administration of all these projects and the and this extraordinary outcome that we have money left over to do this um from a fund that's restricted and not going into the classroom or whatever it's not operational dollars anyway um but uh I got to thinking since you presented at the work study session is there anything we have done work at Cowern are are there things that we have to undo in order to accomplish this actually no oh good which is no no we're very lucky no we um we did put on on the secure entry at cin and we run so they add an expanded office there will be remodeling regardless because essentially we would be um would be opening up some of those areas uh but no it's due for new casework new carpeting throughout it's so we're lucky no because we've done what Roofing and we've done the roofing yep interior work and yep the roofing and windows are are good and yes and the parking that we installed last year as the will remain as is as well y okay thanks I think that's it for you tonight U I'll go ahead and um read the resolution um so be it resolved that the school board of Independent School District 622 approves the allocation of up to 24.6 million in unspent General obligation School building bonds and up to 16.5 million in future General obligation facilities M maintenance bonds for the expansion and renovation of cow Elementary School beginning in 2025 could I get a motion in a second that you Katie okay uh move by Livingston a second and by four um any discussion all right all in favor say I I and all opposed say nay all right um that resolution is approved thank you um next up we just have to set the next um School Board um meeting so the next one is um our February 8th um board retreat so we have to set the date and time for The Retreat um oh we already have the day in time but we need to set the agenda so um I recommend that the February 8th 2025 Retreat which takes place from 9:00 a.m. to 2: p.m. at the Carver Media Center um contain the following agenda items um team building and superintendent check-in could I get a motion and a second all right um moved by nard okay move moved by Inon seconded by Nardi um any discussion all right all in favor say I I and all oppos say nay all right um so that's all set um next up we just have board Communications Nancy well I just want to uh call your attention to that young man in the back there um Sam rosemark um uh he's a Tartan grad correct yeah and weren't you the student council president or something part of council part of the council okay uh anyway and he went on to University of Minnesota Morris where he was the student body president um Sam and I worked uh together at the Senate and he's uh the chairman of the Senate District 44 uh dfl Club so yeah does does a lot of volunteer work and he works for the University of Minnesota right yeah um so I've been trying to talk him into running for Schoolboard you know that's not [Laughter] whatever um uh uh otherwise the only other thing I want to bring up was um the uh um um the meeting that we went to the conference the January conference for for amsd was interesting I mean yeah yeah msba and Minnesota School Board Association conference and um uh yeah it was it was interesting and um and uh uh Charlotte was honored so that was fun to see one of our own up there in front of the hundreds of Schoolboard members from across the state and I'm running for oldest school schol board member in the state but you know I I'm I'm hoping for you 30 years 30 years on the board also I got a cast off my arm right which is great because I was without a right hand for six and a half weeks which it's almost impossible to operate your life without a right hand so no thanks to my dog and the bone guy at uh Health Partners said that there's two re reasons women my age come in with broken bones one is pickle ball and the other is dogs so so just a note of warning so vitam did you tell that to rafy yeah I told that to rafy my dog and um he feels really bad not um and also calcium and vitamin D that's what the bone guy recommended so now I'm on that so I was not a a vitamin taker but now I now I'm changed my tune so anyway thanks uh I also uh got to go to msba um and uh um I enjoyed being able to be with uh um many of you and um I'm looking forward to our board retreat coming [Music] up uh n mentioned the University of Minnesota and the newsletters recently you know we had CC's announcement about being accepted in Purdue and the newsletters recently from the district have been they've had so many really amazing things from our students and there was a note about the University of Minnesota dance team winning yes and that one of our staff members one of our Eagle Point teachers Eagle Point teachers is the coach for that or assistant coach or something like that so that was page I had to pull up that dance routine and watch it it was it was so good yes and I just in the newsletter recently it's just so nice to see all of the amazing things that are happening including the show choir had some um big success do you want to say what it was I don't I never remember all the details I just remember the big picture that there's lots of successes so super happy to hear about those and really appreciate that newsletter that go there's a variety of them but all those newsletters that go out so and all the great things that are happening in our district too well I'm going to continue the discussion about the U ofm I see yeah I'm a u ofm grad and gradate school graduate and I was glad when I finally paid off my student loans so yeah uh but I also attended the msba conference and I love attending that conference because I not only do we get to learn about how to be better school boards but I also get to network with uh fellow school board members from other school districts and I just want to say that I you know I know that when I when I network with them we all have the absentees issue we all have some of us have academic performance issues but one thing that I really like about our school district our board Y is that we don't get we get along we we're not dysfunctional like some other board so I I I'm very thankful for that ever since I started the board four years ago it's it's been it's been great so I'm very thankful for that and um and you you guys know that teams that work well together probably perform well so I I don't think that those plus who wants to be in a Schoolboard where there's dysfunction anyway so yeah so I'm I'm very thankful that our school board uh members uh get along [Music] well yeah thank you and I I glad to join your ranks welcome yeah thank make it a dysfunction no pressure no pressure k no pressure um I I also want to Echo um msba it was really nice to um so soon especially after I I got sworn in um I spent some time in training and I I spent some time following around uh Kathy Erikson from Department of Education Finance so uh bring on the budget let's have some fun I do love spreadsheets um I also want to say that the two keynote speakers from the conference were really really great um Mickey Smith Jr from Louisiana and heish Brewer um I think he's out east um but they both had a a similar thought um Mickey Smith junor was a Grammy winning music educator of the year um and his story was was just great and then heish Brewer has a reputation for kind of turning around low performing schools um and they both had the common theme of Love um making sure that kids know that they're loved and welcomed and finding that space for a belonging and so I'm really glad to see that kind of echoed here um and hope that all of our kids can can kind of feel that um we love them we want them to succeed and um with all of those the Affinity groups the music the sports they get a chance to kind of love each other and and help each other succeed so um hope we can keep that going thank you ke can I make one other introduction we have a really special student in the audience another current student in the audience his name is ued Orosco Garcia he's a student at North High School he's a a ninth grader and he very much wants to be a student Schoolboard representative for us so he has been um in contact already with principal wolf and with me and look at him here tonight to see how this all works so I just thought you guys should know that he's very active um he even attended you know a campaign event at the legion earlier this fall he's very active and aware of things going on and he's an upand coming Superstar so I just had to introduce him um I don't have anything except welcome and Austin welcome KD this is your first like business meeting I mean there's a special session but um but yeah first full business meeting so um but yeah that's all I I had so but all right um so future board meeting date will be February 18th uh business meeting um at 6 pm here in the boardroom um could I get a motion in a second to close out the meeting all right move byari second second by sore um any discussion all right all in favor say I and all oppose say n all right meeting adjourned thank you