um business meeting to order for ISD 622. First up is the uh pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Um, could I get a um motion and a second to approve the agenda? Second. All right. Moved by Livingston, seconded by Martins. Um, any discussion
of the agenda? Um, we're going to just switch around a little bit. Um, we're going to pull up the student um school board representative report uh right after this approval. Um, and then we'll move back to um the way it's set in the agenda. But any other
discussion? Okay. Um, all in favor say I. I. And all oppose say nay. All right. Um, that passes. Um, so first up we have um CC Gi, our student board representative. Hello. All right. This is my final board
meeting, so I'm sad, but I'm excited to present one last time. So, what we have going on at North is spring, so we got lots of stuff going on. First, we had a choir concert which was a great success. And I know that our middle schools also perform at our high school. So, I
actually work with some middle schoolers and they have lots of fun coming to North to do that. Then we had adaptive bowling brought home a state championship. So, that's awesome. Yeah. Uh, girls softball, which is I play for softball. We won our conference
with a record of 13-1. And now we're in sections. So section started yesterday and of course it's been rained out today but we're we're battling hoping to get a little bit of somewhere. Uh then we got our
Polar Drift uh did a performance at Max Diner on the 14th and then they also did a performance at the Doghouse a couple weeks ago. So good. They are just so talented. I love watching them perform. They they just look like they have so much fun up there. So I love it. Uh then
we had prom. So, we had North Prom, which was held at the Landmark Center with over 450 students in attendance. It was so fun. And the theme was um Met Gala, a tribute to Ralph Lauren. Loved it. It was so beautiful. We had like red carpet vibes. We had interviewers. So
much fun. I loved it. I also went to Tartan's prom, which was really fun. Theirs was at Mall of America and got to go on rides after. They were just both super fun. Loved it. and pretty dresses.
Yeah, maybe not like the best, but you know, uh spring sports are currently um competing in sections. Our boys volleyball team is ranked number five in the state and is gearing up for an exciting postseason run. So, that's pretty exciting. I know our boys
volleyball is is really good and they have been for a while. Our award of excellence ceremony takes place uh tomorrow night, Wednesday, and I'll be there. I'm getting a an award and then the senior award ceremony is Thursday
night which I will also be at. And then next week is the last week of senior year and yearbooks are being distributed on the 27th and we get our caps and gowns and everything, all the fun stuff. And then we finish it out on Friday with
our senior party. So yeah, that's all my updates. Yeah. So congratulations again on uh getting admitted in your um the new university that you you
wanted to attend. But um so I I usually attend like schoolboard conferences and all that and some school boards actually don't have student representative and we're lucky that we have uh you and
Kaden uh to tell us about what's going on at schools. But if you were to encourage other school boards to encourage student voices, what would you tell them and
what has been your experience because this is your last meeting. So give give us the feedback. What what motivates you to come and hang around all these adult old people? Oh, well, I think it's a great experience and I I think it's really
helped with public speaking and getting to talk and learn about what's going on in the schools. You learn so much. Um, but really my favorite thing was going to the schoolboard conferences like with the other um school board reps. Uh, you just learn so much and you really get to
bounce ideas and meet other people who are interested in the same things as you. So, that has been my favorite part and getting those opportunities. What if you had to give advice to school adult school boards who are trying to engage students?
I would say that having a school board like a student rep is super important and it really gives you an inside look at the school. So, a lot of times you don't know what's like going on, you know, right on inside the school. But when you have a student rep, you really get to see the little things and see
what the students think are important and see, you know, the fun stuff and the things that we want changed. Thank you. So, we have a um presentation of award for you. So, in honor of your senior
year, your graduation CC, as our student school board representative from North High, we have a lovely certificate for you and we're going to have you come on up. We're going to take a photo of you with the rest of the board. We also have one for Kaden from Tartan who's not here
this evening, but if you want to come, we'll kind of I'd like to gather our uh board together for a photo with Cece and uh we'll hold this up in Kaden's honor as well since it's her last meeting with us. Nope. I was just taking a test. Just
checking my leg. I'm going to take several as I usually do. work. Thank you. I'll save this here. We'll get that to Kayen. Oh, yes. You got to keep your name on.
Okay. Thank you, Cece. And also, I just want to say my son went to Corn with Cece long time ago. So, it's like this long connection to be able to see her. Um, so it's been great. But congratulations. So, all right. So, the um next thing we have
is our achievement awards for our bilingual seal. So, We're gonna turn it over. We're gonna turn it over to Dr. Amy Luckner to read off uh do her presentation and then I will help assist with uh calling up the names of all the amazing award
recipients this evening. Thank you. Good evening, Chair Yang, directors of the board, Superintendent Tutio Sorio, and cabinet members. It is my privilege and honor to be here tonight to share with you the results of our bilingual seals awards and to acknowledge um our
graduating seniors who've achieved an award. I wanted to give you a little bit of background about the bilingual seals awards in case you're not familiar. So all Minnesota schools may al award the Minnesota bilingual seals to students who demonstrated proficiency in a
language other than English. Uh and so across Minnesota, 83 school districts have taken advantage of sorry have taken advantage of this program including ourselves. So that's 83 uh districts out of about 400 districts if you include charters and private schools. Um so
we're proud to be one of the districts that offers this award. We do this because we really value um students of by by literacy and we have a lot of students who do um demonstrate by literacy and we're very proud of them and we want to acknowledge that.
Uh so students who demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English um and then also complete their ELA or English language arts credits earn a bilingual seal once they graduate. They demonstrate their proficiency on the non-English language
by taking a pretty intensive assessment. The assessment requires them to demonstrate uh their skills in listening, reading, speaking, and writing. And if they demonstrate a certain level of skill, then they may be eligible for um a bilingual seal.
There's three different levels. There's the world language proficiency certificate, the gold bilingual seal, and the platinum bilingual seal. And so the world language proficiency certificate um demonstrates a level for students who are able to participate in
short conversations in another language, ask and answer simple questions, um be able to uh use sentences in another language to handle simple transactions. For students who are at this gold or platinum level, they are able to participate in interactions that
cover both personal and public topics. They can narrate and describe in different tenses like present, past, and future tenses. And they can handle more complicated situations using paragraphs. So that's kind of the different levels that you'll see. Uh so with the program in our
district, students who do demonstrate um by literacy proficiency do earn uh a few elective credits during high school and then they are also become eligible for some college credits. Uh, Minscu or Minnesota State Colleges and Universities guarantee credits, but
other colleges and universities also acknowledge this um sometimes by giving credits, other times by um giving placement into certain levels of language and other acknowledgements. Um and so you can see here the different credits that um can
be earned through this program. Uh so this year uh for our 2025 graduates we have 114 students who've earned a bilingual seal and with that if they chose to um obtain the credits that they have earned it would have been 314
college credits. So we're very proud of all of them. The languages that we have this year range Spanish is our most our highest language. Um but of course you can see here we have other languages as well um including uh French M and then a
number of other languages Amharic uh Chinese German Oro Somali and Yoruba. Okay. So with that background we are here today to acknowledge our graduating seniors who've earned a seal. Um we have again the three different
levels. So, first we'll acknowledge as a group all of the world language proficiency uh awardees and then we will individually acknowledge the students who um achieved a gold or a platinum level some of whom are here today to be acknowledged. All the students who do
receive a seal um earn a certificate um looks like this and then they also get a pin to wear at graduation. Um and so we are actually going to hand the pins out with their cap and gown so they can keep it all together. Um, but here's uh here's what they will get when they pick
up their caps and gowns. Okay, so we have 52 students who earned a world language proficiency and are graduating. So I'll give you a moment to look at that list here. And it's so many it goes onto a
second slide. And so here is our second set here as well. So, congratulations to all the students who won won earned very with very hard work the world language proficiency certificate. And now I'm going to invite
Superintendent Tusioso to um read the names for our gold uh certificates. As your name as your name is read, please join us up here um for your certificate. And then a as your name is read, if you if you are here, we're
going to have you come forward and stay right here and wait till we get all the rest up so we can do a group photo together with those who are present this evening. For parents visiting, this is a really big deal. We're very proud of your students and we're excited to share their accomplishments. So um I'm going to read all the names of those who were
awarded the gold um first and then we'll do the platinum. So, for our Minnesota bilingual gold seals, again, if you hear your name, come on up and and join. I'll have this the waiting area.
Okay. Um, so we have Ferdosa, Ali, Selia, Amaya. We know that there's many students who can't be here this evening because of other obligations. So, no worries. We're going to read their names anyway. So, we'll just listen for yours.
Ein Aras, Anelles Kee, Cruz, Sebastian Karion, Sanchez, Stephanie Carvehal, Ashlin Castro, Juan Cervantes, Anna Chavez, Santenno,
Valeria, Contreras, Ryan Echo, Benna, Hudrey, Audrey, Flores, Carvajal, Eric Gabarante, Lopez, Daniela Garcia Quas, Katie
Gomez, Brian Ernnandez, Kimberly Ernnandez, Raul Era Maya, Siri Johnson, Amos, Lena Lee, Ricardo Lopez, Alexa Lopez, Garcia,
Jessica Maldonado, Gabriella Melles, Cornelo, Emerson, Minero, Ati Montesuma, Axel Orta, Katherine Polio,
Silva, Alberto Ramirez, Corona, Christopher Ramos, Sophia Rivera, Kenya Aeli Romero Romero Vargas Jacqueline Torres
Gurola Nielli oh no sorry Basquez Christian Basquez Lilana Suniga Flores and those are all of our gold
seals. I think I got all of those. I'm going to keep going. Hang tight. We're going to do a photo al together. The next group of students are those that earned the platinum seal. Raquel Arias Cisneros, Damaris, Bejo, Juliana
Caldas, Ner Ka, Ashley Cardardosa, Jamie Cardardosa, Esbetti Diaz Martinez, Ashley Duk, Jehovveness Flores, Diego
Galvan, Sonia Gutierrez, Juliet LCROY, Matteline Lacroy, Darium Lopez, Maria Mena, Sheila
Mendoza, Anna Montosa, Espinosa, Luis Muro, Solis, Kenzie Rodriguez, Litzy Romero, Lahin, Danna Sandoval, Alvin Simon
Lopez, Brian Basquez, and Derek Basquez. Did we miss anyone who's here tonight? Okay, come on up. Una Plauso. Congratulations. We're going to have our our student award winners come
straight right over here where you saw CC posing and we'll come together around you for a photo. Okay. Okay. And for parents, we'll be sure to share this photo with you as well.
Okay. School board members stand up. However, a little bit. All right, I'm gonna take several and I'm going to take a couple this way and then I'm going to put hold my camera up more.
Okay, sorry about that. Just a second. Sorry. I know. Sorry. All right. All right. I think I got everybody. This one. Wait, I'm g try one more here. That'll do it. Thank you.
Congratulations. Congratulations. Beautiful. So, congratulations again to all of our seniors who've earned a bilingual seal. I know you don't know us, but we're very proud of you. Yes, they are. Thank you.
And if you didn't hear, you will get your pin when you pick up your cap and gown. Perfect. Wait, do we have Okay. Thank you and congratulations. So, next up on our agenda is the consent agenda. Um, the
consent agenda 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, could I get a motion
and a does anyone want to pull anything off the agenda? Okay. All right. Um, could I get a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda to approve? Okay. Move by second. Second by Nardi.
Um, any discussion on any of the items? All right. All in favor say I. I. And all oppose say nay. All right. Uh, consent agenda is approved. Um, so we're moving on to reports. Uh, first up we have our community community education.
Oh. Um, May said we didn't have any public comment, so I Yeah. So I skipped over it. Is there someone here who wants to do public comment? Oh, okay. Okay. Oh, do you want I think I think
it's okay. Yeah. Um we'll have you um we'll have you register here quickly with me and then you can come up and chat. Yep. And while they're doing that, I'll go ahead and read the um Yeah. Apologize. Um May said there wasn't anybody here for public comment. So, um, public
comment is an opportunity for the public to comment on items. Speakers shall register by completing the public comment signup sheet, state their name, and will have between two and four minutes depending on the number of speakers to speak on a topic. The public
public comment section of the meeting shall last no longer than 30 minutes. And um, we'll just wait here a minute um for our speaker. Ka, can I make a comment on our bilingual? I'm really glad we have a superintendent who is
bilingual because uh if any of us had tried to read all the names, we would have had a difficult time for one thing. Thank you, May. All right, we have one public um comment speaker, uh Carla
Nelson. Well, thanks for slipping me in there. I know the rules now to sign up ahead. So, I'm just up here. I just got an email today regarding the third grade pronouns. So, I just wanted to voice my concern on that. Um, third grade is
quite early to be start talking about sex or what sex a third grader might feel they are. So, I think this doesn't align with a lot of um values that some families have and I
don't think it has a place in third grade. That's all I wanted to say. Thank you. Thank you. Um we don't usually make comments on these and so if you notated on here they'll they'll follow up with you. Um, so we will move to our reports. Um,
committee education. We're going to invite Kurt New to come on up and give a presentation this evening about our middle school flight program. Welcome, Kurt. Thank you. Thank you to the board for asking me to come present tonight. Um, really excited to talk a
little bit about flights. Uh the story of flight started a little more than a year ago uh when we received word that we had been selected for an afterchool community learning grant which was a state program um designed to support after school programs throughout the state. It was a
three-year grant uh for a total of 500,000 per year uh that we designed a program to support and greatly enhance what we were able to offer at both of our middle schools um John Glenn and Sky View. Um so flight um first of all the
name was created by students which I think is a kind of a good starting point of of the overall way we approach our programs of trying to have student voice and student input. Uh it was an acronym standing for future leaders inspiring growth honor and talent. Um and so the way the after school program is set up
it runs every Monday through Friday from 2 to 6. So it is I have a question. Yes. About the flight program. You said it was a three three-year grant. Is is it a 21st century? No, sim similar kind of grant program, but not 21st century. Oh,
okay. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, no problem. Uh runs Monday through Friday from 2 to 6. So, it's available every single day that we have school uh to meet whatever needs students and families have. They can come as little as many days as they want during the week. Uh and what we
decided to do was go with a club-based enrichment model. Meaning that uh the first two hours of each day from 2 to 4, students have a variety of clubs to choose from uh that they feel best meets their interests and um and things that they'd like to learn more about or get
more involved in. Um and they'll have those clubs twice a week. Um usually for an hour. Uh so they get two hours a week. We have a fall, winter, and spring session. So you're talking about 10 weeks per session. So, it's really a chance for them to really do a deep dive into whatever the the topic uh of their
club is and really get involved and and learn more and get more experiential learning um with what they're doing. Um at 4:00, we have an activity bus that uh takes uh students home that want to leave at that time, which is obviously a key piece because transportation can be
a pretty significant barrier to participation sometimes. So, every student has the opportunity to ride the uh activity bus home at 4:00. And then those that wish to stay, we continue to offer programming from 4 to 6, which at that point is more of a leisurely um still offer some activities, but a chance for kids to hang out, socialize,
unwind after a long day, and also a chance for our staff to really build those relationships um and and get to know the kids and help make sure that we're able to support them in the best way possible. And then one of the best features of the flight club, especially when you or the program when you talk about it from an equity standpoint, is
it's completely free to all students. uh the grant covers that and so we're able to offer it completely free to every student in our middle schools that wants to uh participate um which is obviously removes a huge barrier uh to participation for a lot of our families.
Uh so with that general overview out of the way I'll talk a little bit more about some of the specific pieces. Um, we really focused on having a wide variety of clubs and not really wanting to just specialize in one area, but wanting to cover as much as we could in order to really have something that any
student that wanted to participate could find that interests them and that they would enjoy doing. Um, so you see a small list, this is probably less than a third of our total clubs that we offer, but a small list to kind of give you a representation of some of the different clubs we offer. Um, never would have thought I'd see a fencing club and after
school program, but um, we had our our site manager had a contact there and uh, there you go. Uh, so really offering all kinds of different things. Um, art, physically active uh, type clubs. Um, clubs around studying different um,
types of things like chess or maker space. Um, but really providing a wide variety and kids could have up to five clubs per session that they're involved in. So they really got a chance to do a lot of different things if they wanted to do as much as possible. Uh and the other really nice thing about doing a club-based model is it gave us a chance
to really develop a lot of relationships with community partners um in a lot of different ways. And so just to go through a couple here um Junior Achievement uh which some of you might be familiar with is a financial literacy organization that has all kinds of different programs uh teaching financial literacy to youth and they were our
grant partner um for the application that we did. So, we had uh Junior Achievement running programs during all three sessions at both schools. Our kids got to go to Biztown. Our kids got to go to Finance Park. Um and they even got an experience starting up uh their own business with what Junior Achievement
calls the pop-up company program, which I'll talk a little bit more about later. But um really giving some important skills to our kids in terms of understanding how the world of money works uh in a lot of variety of ways. We also had partnerships with uh some people who are absolute experts in their
field. Children's Theater Company, East Side Arts Council, Girls Who Code, Skyhawks, which runs athletic programming, that we're really able to bring a higher level of programming um to our students as people who specialize in certain artistic um millus or um and
different sports training, all those kinds of things. But along with other organizations that we brought in, it also uh gave us the opportunity to develop some relationships just with community members. And as one example, we had um uh a woman from the community named Pang Vang who just applied saying,
"Hey, I I moved here a couple years ago. I want to get involved and this looked like something I could maybe do. I like art, you know, is there something?" So, we ended up hiring her to work at both schools. She was with us all five days a week running different arts clubs. Um and really did a great job. And I think that's a really great example of how
after school programs can open those doors to more community involvement is that that's not the kind of opportunity that's necessarily there during the school day, but she got the opportunity to come in after school, probably worked with 50 to 75 kids over the course of the year. Um, and so that really I think
is is a great thing to see developing those partnerships with community members. And along with that, we also hired several high school students to come and run clubs. And I know that makes people nervous sometimes. um you know, our high school students going to be mature enough or whatever, but really they run some of the best clubs we have a lot of the times and we had some great
ones this year. Uh Cece was actually one of our staff that we hired this year, so she helped out running some clubs and did some great jobs with it. We had a high school student running a book club. Uh we had a high school student running uh a coding club, um uh a painting club, all kinds of different things. Uh, and
so I think that's just uh really great partnerships to develop as well because it gives the high school students a chance to have a leadership type position and get the experience of what that's like. Um, while also benefiting our middle school students at the same time and it gives the middle school students something to look up to and
say, "Oh, that's that's what high school students can do. That could potentially be me in a couple years." Um, so that's a that's an overview of kind of what we offer from a club perspective. Uh, another piece of the grant um that we wrote into uh our grant saying we were going to do was offering identity
exploration activities, which is basically a fancy way for saying uh providing a safe space for students to explore their cultural identity in a variety of ways. And we really tried to come at that from a multiaceted way. So we had some groups that were just kind of based around conversation and
discussion uh like the Black Student Alliance, the gender and sexualities alliance and the Latinx club. And then we also had some that were more performance-based like monk dance and K-pop dance. Uh and I think definitely a lot of room to continue to grow that piece. U but for the first year of the program, we were really happy with what we were able to develop there. You see
the the picture of our our black student alliance in session there. Um and as as one of the other cool things that came out of this um that I think just encompasses a lot of what makes after school program so great. uh at Sky View towards the end of the year uh two uh Somali students approached our site
manager say, "Hey, could we maybe run a Muslim student club next year? We we we'd love to do that. We see the other ones that look really cool." So, we're now in in the beginning stages of planning how um how we can have a couple of our own very own middle school students actually run their own club. And you know, that's something if if the
program's not there, I'm sure they're great kids, but they probably never think of like, "Hey, let's start our own club, you know, let's go do." But getting to see that, getting to be involved in it, participating in it. Now, that gave them this vision uh that we hope to roll out next year. Um, and that will hopefully lead to even more students having that kind of idea. But
it it just kind of shows the power that after school programming can have in terms of getting kids to be involved in ways that they probably wouldn't have even thought of um on their own, but once they get exposed to it, it just kind of lights a fire with them uh to want to be more involved and and do more.
Um, we also as part of the the program have a couple of family nights each year. Um, and I mean they're pretty basic standard family nights, but they're they're really a great way to to build a sense of community within the within the program. We do performances. Kids who are involved in any kind of art clubs or maker space type clubs have
their stuff out for people to come look at and see what they've been doing. And so it really the parents who come and we actually had for our first year I think a really great turnout. Um, the second set of family nights is still to come. Uh it's kind of our closing, but our first set of family nights, the one at John Glenn and Sky View total to total
probably had over 50 parents uh that attended. Uh so they get to see firsthand what their students are doing. And it just obviously that makes it more real when you get to see like, oh, they're not just, you know, drawing. They're actually like drawing these complex things and using different forms of art and doing 3D art and all kinds of
different things. So that's great. Um, and it gives the students a chance to show off too what they've been doing in the program and in a way that they can really take pride in and feel good about. Uh, and I have a couple of quick clips that I want to show you from our family nights. A couple of performances that have what I think are some pretty
cool backstories to them that I I'll talk about after each one's finished. So, this first one was at Sky View. This is our K-pop uh, dance club. And again, this was put together in about eight weeks probably uh of meeting a couple times a week.
And so the reason I wanted to to show that clip, um, oops, that's not the button I want to press. There are a few students in that group who, let's just say, have a little bit of a complicated history with after school programs and and the school day itself. um and haven't necessarily had
um as many positive as experiences as we would like within the after school program. But in this program in the K-pop dance club, there were absolutely no behavior incidents at all. They did great. They showed up every time ready to go. And as you can see, they get to perform at the end and the sense of
pride they get from that and the sense of accomplishment and just the ability to have a positive experience in school uh can do so much. And there's a lot a lot of research that supports that as well. just in terms of school attendance and school performance when kids are able to have those kind of experiences
in the after school program. Uh it just can kind of alter their whole mindset towards school and just towards being in the building in general. And so that was one of my favorite performances to watch because I I know I've had the conversations with site managers over the years of like here's what happened yesterday with this kid. And so to see
them doing that was just so incredible and powerful to see. And it really does show it sounds cliche but it really shows the potential that every one of our kids has. um when you get them motivated and get them invested to do well. And then the second one is from John Glenn. It's the uh mung dance
group. We'll show that real quick. And so the reason I wanted to show that clip, um, so a couple days before we started, uh, the program in the fall, I was going through the with the John Gun site manager talking about club signups and registrations and we had three kids signed up for Mong dance club and so we
were like are we going to be able to run this club we've only got three kids but we started it and as you can see we ended up with way more than three I think probably just about all of it was word of mouth once kids started doing it they met the instructor who's like a professional dance instructor really had fun and the next thing you know we've got between 10 to 15 kids in the club
and they're and they're doing their own performance uh and again I think that's the power of after school programming is you know you'll certainly get some kids who are like oh we offer chess talk I love chess. I'm signed up for that right away. You also get kids who didn't necessarily know they had an interest. Maybe they're just doing it because a friend was in it. They heard something, whatever, or they're doing a club they
want first hour. They need to find something for second hour. And then they end up having this whole great experience uh with something that they wouldn't have sought out on their own, but then once it's there and they get a chance to try it, they end up loving it. And and our numbers for that club stayed strong throughout the year. Um and it
really ended up being a great successful club for us. Um, so just kind of a a quick little insight into to what the family nights look like and and what those presentations mean beyond just the performance itself that they they carry a lot of extra weight. Um, and so as I
mentioned, this was the first year. Okay, I'm not a tech wizard, obviously. Will this get me to the next slide? There we go. Um this is the first year uh of running the program and I just wanted to spend a couple minutes real quickly to talk about some of the highlights of it. We served over 573
students this first year. Um which for a first year was a number we were really happy about but at the same time um I also think there's plenty of room for growth. Uh we certainly expect this to be our smallest year and have bigger years each year after this um as more and more students become familiar with the program and we're able to offer more
and more. We offered over 50 clubs in total. Uh so when I talk about trying to have a wide range of clubs available um you know I think we really were able to successfully achieve that with the the um variety of things that we offered. Um as I mentioned earlier building up a lot
of community connections. We have quite a few people who are now connected to our middle school who wouldn't have been otherwise without this program. Um one other quick one that I'll mention actually I'll mention a little bit when I get down to model United Nations. Uh another piece was student leadership. Uh
both um John Glenn and Sky View uh had different student leadership components that they implemented. Um and each one looked a little different, but both of them in a nutshell gave the students a chance to have some real voice uh in the program. What kind of clubs are they interested in seeing? What should family
night look like? Um you know, what should the time after 4:00 look like? All those different kinds of things that go into the building the program. Uh we had students who were specifically part of leadership groups designed to help um us create the best overall program possible. Uh and then a couple of really
cool program highlights. Um we were able to take part in a statewide model United Nations conference. Uh we had over 20 kids that went to this three-day conference um that is run by the YMCA has I think about 700 or 800 kids who participate in it from all over the state. And for three days they ran their
own model United Nations. They were assigned to countries. They were placed in committees. They had to write position papers on different uh global issues uh and then debate those issues and and pass resolutions much like the real model UN. And then even they got to do fun stuff with bouncy houses and all
that kind of stuff. But um but um you see a couple pictures of it up here. You you have the one uh student who's raising her country placard um to to get put onto the speakers list so she can speak. And really just a great experience and also an example of community connections. We ended up the
teacher who was running this club um had a connection with a college student whose mother runs the whole United Nations conference on the statewide level. Her her name was Eleanor Anderson. So we ended up hiring her to come in and help run the club. And so she had all our kids ready to go and prepared and um and really strengthen
what we were able to offer by, you know, furthering developing those community connections. Uh so really a great experience for the kids. We had several eighth graders asking us at the end, how do we get this started in the high school? Um, so hopefully because it's a high school program as well. It's grades 7 through 12. So hopefully they'll be
able to continue that as well, but you could really see like the motivation starting to stir there from kids who probably didn't know a whole lot about United Nations before they started this. And now they're saying, "Hey, c can we start this at North? Can we start this at Tartan? We want to do this again." And the last one I just wanted to
mention real quickly, um, I mentioned that one of the things we did with Junior Achievement was the pop-up company program. And uh that entailed students starting their own company like a real company really selling things. And um at Sky View they decided to start something called the Hawk Shop um which
primarily was selling um drinks uh and snacks to staff or other students. Um and in doing that and it was only supposed to be for the winter but it was going so well they're like we're going to keep this going in the spring. um they um raised over $1,000
um and gave over $400 of that to charities um Habitat for Humanity and the Salvation Army. Um so a really powerful experience u for them and a really successful one. Um and not only that, one of the things that I thought was the coolest part about the Hawk
Shop, they came up with the idea of let's go to the different art clubs and tell them they can sell their art if they want to at the hawk shop. So now you have students who are in painting club not even thinking about like selling their art and they're like oh sure which provided some really cool
experiences for them and and some um deductive reasoning challenges of like well how much should I charge for this painting like and some kids learned that if everybody was charging one or two dollars and you charge 10 your painting might not move as quickly. Um but um but I thought that was just a great um
example of really something that ties everything together about what after school programs can be. We had these students taking initiative, learning about financial literacy, but then involving other clubs in it, giving these other students a chance to be involved. They raised money for charity in doing it. And it ended up enveloping the whole after school program. And a
lot of staff at at Sky View as well because most of their customers were the teachers who hadn't gone home yet. And like, yeah, I'll buy a drink. Sure. Um, so I thought that was just a really powerful success story that we were able to achieve as well. Um, and so just real quick to talk about the the future of
flight. Uh so we are guaranteed funding through the next two school years uh as part of the after school community learning grant. Um at this point the state of Minnesota has not announced any plans to continue that funding. It could happen but as of right now it's just a a one-time three-year
program. Obviously if they do offer more funding we will go for that. If not we will continue to look for other grant opportunities as well. Um but I just wanted to put a really really early kernel um out there of uh we think this is a really valuable program. this is impacting a lot of middle school students and uh obviously budgets are
are very tight but I think this is a program that's worthwhile to consider as well as something that uh we would definitely like to keep going beyond the three years uh because it really can have a very powerful impact on our students um exposing them to to new worlds and giving them chance to develop all kinds of skills uh that they
otherwise uh wouldn't get. Um so thank you for your time. That is my presentation on our our wonderful flight program. Um, oh, the one last thing I want to say too is I I'd be remiss if I didn't um mention our two site managers, uh, Alisa Johnson as Guy View and Russ Perie at John Glenn, who are the ones
who actually run this program. I I'm just there to help when they have an issue with a registration or or whatever, but they're the ones doing the work running it and their staff and um they've done a tremendous job this year. Um, CC is a perfect example, but we have a lot of staff just as bright and just
as sharp who are uh putting in their talents. uh after school when they could be going home to to help make this program great. And so they deserve a ton of credit, too. Um and I would encourage anybody if you happen to be at Sky View or John Glenn during after school hours sometime next time next year to check
out the program and and give them some thanks because they do a tremendous work without a lot of recognition a lot of times and it's it's really powerful to see what they do. And a shout out to you Kurt for your leadership in all of this. It's been amazing and all of the community ed world has really championed
this work and working with um Rebecca and getting that grant off the ground in the first place. It's it's not been a a small task but the the gift that we're giving to middle schoolers to broaden opportunities there is just so worthwhile. So thank you for your leadership as well. I mean the grant was a 10 to 12 person effort. So it was
definitely I know there were many people involved in it. I know there was a lot of people credit for that. Um, thank you for your presentation and thank you for the work you're doing. I think the afterchool engagement I is
really important to me personally and this is a really interesting Is it replacing TOPS? No. Um, Targeted Services is still a separate program. It is not. Do they still do those other because they had some similar clubs maybe? Yeah. I I
don't have a lot of detail about what Target services offered this year, but yes, they still exist at Sky View and John. Yeah. Well, anyway, it's really exciting to see all of these students participate and thank you for this work. I think it's important. I also think like extracurriculars, sports, and everything is important and I wish every
single kid were engaged in these kinds of activities. I love the model UN. Um, my own daughter is a freshman in college and she tried to get into the model UN program and she feels like she wishes North would have had the opportunity.
So, I would love to see it for kids as you, you know, as we move along and just thank you for your work. Thank you. I also want to thank you for your work. Uh my all my three children went to Sky
View Middle and I wish they had had this because I had some kids that were not interested in sports. It would have been nice for them to have a K-pop for instance is an option. And also it's you know like Michelle said it's really
important for all children to be involved in extracurricular activities. Uh and also we know that there's some children who are not necessarily interested in sports but they have to apply for you know uh college
applications and they can say hey I was in a K-pop that that counts for something. So thank you uh that uh for uh those uh programs availabilities. I have two questions.
uh one is uh when you have uh identify a club like you've for uh talked about Somali uh what steps do you go through to make sure that uh the individuals that you hire to come and mentor those
middle schoolers are actually c culturally competent in that area because we know that uh I I'm an immigrant myself and and Those of us that are immigrant have a hard time uh instilling those culture in our
children. So middle schoolers are not necessarily going to know you know uh their own culture. So how how do we make sure that those individuals coming in and being their advisers or mentors are
actually competent in the in the culture? And then the second question is about uh um accessibility. Um, so when there if if for instance we end up with five children at John Glenn that are
interested in Somali and 10 at Sky View that are interested, how do we do we have a a way of combining both so that we can still run that program, the two programs can collaborate and maybe uh
busing some children to one of you That's do we have that in place where we can s we can make sure that students that want to participate can have access uh rather than being limited because the
numbers are not there to run a program. So we we don't currently have uh access to transport kits from Sky View to John Glenn. Uh but I will say we really do everything we can to run every club that we want to run even if initial numbers are a little bit low and
and the mug dance was a good example of that. It started with just like three kids but we we said let's run it. Let's try to build it up. So we come much more from a mindset of like let's try to build these clubs up if we're not getting the initial numbers that we wanted. Um and and try to get more kids in rather than just saying no this this
club is less than five. We're going to cancel it and move on or whatever. Uh so we we try to make sure that we're running as much as possible. Um and we do uh not all of our club selection is based on student voice, but we do rely on that a decent amount of what students are interested in, what they're looking
for. Um with part of the reason for that being that we we want to have clubs that are going to have a lot of kids sign up for it. And so we try to get their input so that when we do put clubs out there that there is a lot of interest there. Um and then to your your first question, uh that you know that's definitely always a challenge. Um, I'm not going to
say we have a perfect answer to it, but I think depending on who the instructor is, there's there's a few different things we look at. Um, for our outside vendors, we we really try to uh focus on uh vendors with an established track record of working with diverse groups
and and working with diverse student groups in particular. Um, the East Side Arts Council is rooted in the east side of St. Paul. That's where most of their programming is done. Um, Children's Theater Company has a long history of of working all throughout the Twin Cities. Um, same with Junior Achievement. So,
um, it's always something we have to be mindful of, but, uh, we try to address that as much as possible through our selection process and knowing that we're, uh, selecting vendors that have a long-standing track record. Um, with with school staff that we hire, obviously, the hope is that since
they're already working for the district that they they bring a high degree of cultural competence with them to start with. Um, but we have some initial orientation and onboarding stuff as well that we do. and our site managers and program assistants work closely with all of them and especially with the high school students that we hire to run
clubs to make sure they're getting the support they need um along every aspect whether it's cultural competency or designing lesson plans or or what have you to make sure they're getting the support they need uh in order to effectively run the club. And and it's something that we definitely uh keep an
eye on with our registration numbers as well because ultimately the registration numbers are going to tell the tale for you, right? if if you have a much higher percentage of one group than another, that tells you that there might be something missing there. Uh so that's another thing we watch too and really try to focus on wanting to make sure
that our participation numbers are reflective of our student body as a whole. And if we're doing that successfully, um then, um I think that that shows we're pointing in the right direction in terms of developing a program that works for all of our
students um in some way, shape, or form. Just want to say thank you again for the work you did and for pulling out those two clips. I think you highlighted um two different but really important purposes and um benefits for the program. Um and as it's uh I budget
season I I I do appreciate also talking about the the future of flight and I was just wondering what the dollar amount that the initial grant was awarded for if you know. Yes, it's uh 1.5 million total so 500,000 per year. Um, you know, we could we could certainly manage with a little less than that,
but that's that's what we have to to work with uh for these three years. Yes. And that helps pay for I assume materials and it pays for the entirety of the program. So, get snacks. Yes. Now, the snacks are funded through different programs. Yeah. We don't we don't pay for the snacks, but um all of
our staffing, all of our vendors, all of our supplies, um the cost for participating in things like the model UN conference, it covers the cost of that. Um transportation. Yeah, it covers one day of bus transportation because we had four days previously already, but we didn't have the fifth day, so we're
paying for the fifth day out of the grant. Um so it it covers every penny that we spend for the program. Oh, that's great. And I know that our our legislators are really busy right now, but I'm just um planting the seed on things to talk to them about once this session is done and looking to the future and um highlighting the
importance of these programs and um that would be critical that they you know provide that additional funding or to keep these programs going. Uh so thank you again and thank you. Good luck for the rest of the year and next year. Thank we're almost done now. We we got it made now. Oh, Kurt. Uh, I just want
to comment on um one program that you mentioned and that's the the dance clubs. Um, uh, I've just been, uh, my own granddaughter's in a in a dance club and it's just she just lives for this dance opportunity and it's just growing,
isn't it? I mean, it's, you know, um, I think it brings kids together. gives kids uh like you said an opportunity for kids who maybe weren't uh you know doing so well in school to find that they had a talent for that and um uh uh so I'm
I'm really happy that that's that that uh you know they nurturing that. I I also think it's it's a interesting pipeline for the kids to um to go into the theater programs. Um the the Tartan um theater production last weekend at of
Mamma Mia was the dancing was just incredible. You know, they had, you know, two dozen kids on on the stage and um and I just think that's that's great. They can you can start at middle school and and flourish maybe uh later at the
at the high school. So, absolutely. Yeah, you mentioned the theater piece. Um last couple weeks ago, I was evaluating one of our clubs as part of our data collection. Yeah. Um, and it was the improv theater group and watching them just do improv. They were doing improv scenes basically the whole hour and watching these kids just running around doing all kinds of crazy
things, whatever, and having a blast with it. It was it was great to see, right? Um, you know, they they were laughing and giggling the whole time. Like everything was just they were having so much fun and it really is a great aspect of our programming. Yeah. But I think I think this is where kids find that they have common ground. They
have um, you know, they may look different. They're different sizes and shapes and ethnicities and whatever, but they they have something in common and they and um um and they uh you know develop friendships and so on and it's
it's it's really awesome. Um also the fact that it doesn't cost anything is just amazing. um the program that I mentioned that my granddaughter's in very expensive um very expensive and so this is just amazing you know that it's free yeah and
it makes a colossal difference we had an after school program previous to flight but it was fee based and it had much lower numbers because it is it is a barrier entry so it it probably a somewhere between 500 to a,000% difference in participation
absolutely so thanks for your Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. So, we're moving on to um we're staying in our reports. Moving on to operations um with a construction update. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of
the board, superintendent. Glad to be back to share another update on where we are with construction and give a highlight of what what we're going to be doing this summer. um going to talk briefly about um finishing up our uh 2019 bond projects
and what we're looking forward to here at the end of the fall. I'll finish out talking a little bit about our solar program. That's exciting news and we have some events coming up with that. But first, I want to start with Tartan. We're the finish line is in sight for our last project related to the
referendum from 2019. Um right now uh the work is as you know is focused on that east side of the building. So the new main entry, the addition of the auxiliary gym, um the multi-purpose space in the media center. So we are
rapidly coming to a close. That substantial completion is actually planned for August of this year. So a couple of months we'll we'll we'll see that finish line and be able to cross it. Um this four-year project is on budget. It's been the largest project of all of our bond um projects. We're
technically 89% complete and it it probably looks like, oh my gosh, is this really going to come together in time for school year next year? Yes, it will. Um things happen and they always seem to come together at the last moment. But um we're really excited about finishing up this this project uh this summer. Um and
along with that too, we're finishing up the replacements of that stadium as well. So we've had that in two separate phases. We're just waiting for the bleachers in the press box replacement. That'll happen this summer and we'll be fully done with that site as well. And that's also tracking on budget. And not
to mention, we did end up relocating and successfully relocating our osprey nest that was on top one of our light poles too at the stadium. We put a box up there and we have a friendly little box for them to nest in now, too. So, you never know what you're going to
run into when you do construction. Um, before I move on to Harmony, I'll just put a note in that we are planning to celebrate the end of the bond construction work this fall. End of September, October. Date hasn't been set yet, but we'll we'll put an open house
together and it highlight all the work that was accomplished over the last couple years, too. So, the public can come in and actually see. Um, Harmony Learning Center. We're halfway done through this renovation project. Uh we just are finishing up the twostory portion of that building which is going
to house the adult basic education program or testing center which is officially moved already. They're operating out of it and offices. And this summer we're going to flip over to the one-story building and finish that out for alternative programs. That has one more year of construction left. Um
and it's excitingly is tracking slightly under budget. So we like that when it's happening in time of inflation and construction unknowns. So um and then to mention too the last planning project is Cronin the additions and renovation work that we have that
we've actively been planning that with the with the school and representatives and uh right now we're looking in very schematic design. So nothing is is formalized yet but we're looking at about a 27,000 square foot twotory addition and then the renovation of that
building. So as we know that building um needs some deferred maintenance work. So, we're going to spend time doing that. Um, right now we're early cost estimate is on budget because we're planning this to actually go from 2026 to 2028. It's two-year project. And
we'll have an early design to share with the neighborhood in July. So, we'll do an open house with the neighborhood so they can come in and see what we're going to do. Um, everything from maybe talking about adding a bus loop and some more off- streetet parking to what that addition might house and what it might
look like. So there'll be an opportunity for you to come and see what we're doing too. And then of course we always have our fun other projects that we have to go around and keep maintenance on. Um we have uh tuck pointing and cocking projects happening both here in this
building and at Beaver Lake. Uh we're replacing the playground and hard surface play area at Cowin. Um doing some miscellaneous boiler and server cooling replacement things that we fund out of our long-term facilities maintenance levy. Um, Gladstone is getting new parking lot and lighting.
And then we also have some basketball hoops and bleacher replacements happening at North Tarton Arena is also under construction at the same time. Might as well have the whole site and the two buildings on it under construction. So that is had that is actually getting a whole new um
refrigeration system for the ice system. It was it was um the old system we had to get rid of. Um, in transportation, we are doing some garage uh overhead garage door replacements uh for the mechanic shop and some additional lighting. So, a
lot happening um this summer, which you know, we always seem we call it the summer slam for good reason, but we always seem to get around and a lot of these projects actually have started um already, so they're actively going. And of course, the exciting part
I wanted to just briefly touch on is the solar program. Um, so we're rolling out the first of three phases of powering up our district via solar. Um, Castle and Eagle Point are fully operational and we have what we're calling instead of ribbon cutting ceremonies, power up
ceremonies. Um, next week, the May 28th, the Wednesday, and May 29th, Thursday at 4:30 at each of those schools. So, we invite anybody out that to come want to celebrate and flip the light switch on for us to officially note that we've gone to solar power at these schools.
And I just wanted to share um we have these on our website now, too. See if I can bring this up. You can actually check the live data. Now, it's been it was rainy today, so the data is not going to be as great, but it actually shows the power and energy that these um
systems have been um producing and what the offsets have been and equivalent trees planted or carbon offsets. So, it's really kind of fun to see um the data. Do you want to mention where you're getting your big light switch? Yes. Well, yes, we were so fortunate we
had a STEM class at North actually make us a big light switch. So, they Yeah, exactly. So, they're going to actually join us for the power up ceremonies, too. I'll call them up and have them switch Switzer. Yeah, it's really It's not going to power anything, but it's it's
sentimentally powering, you know. Yeah. Um, but we're excited. Carver is just about done. The three solar for school grants um which we got from money from the state really was the thing that jumpst started our solar program. That's Carver, Justice Allen Page, and
Richardson. Carver is almost done. It's fully installed. We're just waiting for Excel to come out and do the witness test and power up. Justice Allen Page is almost done with installation and then Richardson will be starting here soon. And they um actually lifted all of the
array up onto the roof the other weekend. So, uh, we hope to have those power up ceremonies with with each of the schools this fall. So, with that, any questions? I know that's a really quick, there's more information in the website, but if there
are any questions, feel free to reach out. Okay, thanks again. And this is really exciting to see all of this work continue and um, see Tartan finish up pretty soon. Um, I was going to say that the Harmony,
you know, we had the graduation last week and during that I thought they deserve a nice building and so I'm glad that we're um working on that building. I feel like all of the district is looking really really nice and it's only fair that all the buildings. So, and I
also think about the solar that the solar is really cool and it's really, you know, kind of cutting edge futuristic, but it also has a really serious financial impact. Yeah, actually just the three buildings alone in the first year will save over
$85,000 in in our energy offsets our energy costs and that just compounds year after year and of course as we bring more buildings online that's just going to add to our savings. So it's really I like to say going green to save green is financially making sense for us
to put solar on the roof. Yeah, I'm also excited to see Tartan High School um construction uh done. I I I give updates to my kids because they went there and one of them came home
over the weekend and I say, "Yeah, turn has genderneutral bathrooms now." And uh the answer was, "Oh, it's about time." So, so that was um Yes, I you got it. Yeah,
you you had the but my question is about harmony and I know you said that ALC students are there already but I also know that we were constructing that business to be able to do our own in-house special education programming
for the other nonLC students that are going to 916. Uh where is is where is that at where the ALC and Trisha can fill in and Andy can probably fill in a little bit more. The ALC which is currently we've been bringing students
back is currently on the third floor here that will move over to uh Harbin and that first level um of the building as well. Were you wondering the special education? Yeah, this the rest of the special education that we're going to bring in house. Oh, that already
happened. That's at Webster. Um remember we remodeled Webster Elementary and that's now education center and so that program is fully functioning and already remodeled. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Pretty exciting.
Um thanks for your leadership on these giant pro projects. Um Sarah, um the I was at I don't get over to Tartan that often, but I was there for the for the the theater performance uh last weekend
and it just um took my breath away how how massive that project is and what a transformation. So um uh and of course outside of the theater in at Tartan, it's very crowded, isn't it, in that in
that hallway. Um, so that's going to open up, right? That is going to open up and so they'll be able to sell their star grams and and all that, you know, for the and have the concessions and all because right that because those evenings it was very crowded in in that
narrow space there. It'll be all open up to that that main area. It's it's hard with construction and being in different areas and having to limit the passage and the corridors, but yes, that will all open into that wonderful commons, right? And then just what the everyone
has had to put up with all year and the entrance to Tartan is just so weird right now, right? And that long narrow stairway and whatever. It's just very weird. But um that'll all be much much different once you're done. Yeah. So
thanks. I just also want to acknowledge the work you and your staff do to keep these projects um you know staggered so that they they happen they happen on time with a minimal disruption to the kids when it's possible and a shout out for them being on and under budget. That's a
huge deal. We appreciate that. We're very fortunate to have an architect. Yes. in our director of operations because some of the architects working in our on our building construction projects were literally trained by Sarah in a former life. So, she knows that
that world very very well and we're very very fortunate. Galaxy far away. And my my son is also excited to see all the excavators over at Tartan. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Um, we have um superintendent report.
Yep. I'm actually going to turn it over to our assistant superintendent, Trisha St. Michaels, since um she is also our Title N um point person for the district. I'll let her explain. This is the second of three readings for policy change. Great. Thank you. Good evening,
Chair Yang, Superintendent Soro, and dctors of the board. Um, as you're aware, just this past August, following the tit the 2024 Title 9 uh regulations that were put in place, we adopted what our current uh policy 522 is for the
district. Um, since then, there have been uh federal court decisions that have indicated, you can hear me, okay, that uh that the 2024 Title 9 regulations are invalid. Um, and as
such, the Department of Education has reiterated that the operative regulations that we are required to follow are those present in the 2020 Title 9 um, regulations. The 2020 regulations are those that were present
in the policy version that we had prior to the one we adopted this past August of 2024. So, with that, I can take any questions should you have some. So, as legislation changes, we'll continue to adapt our policies
accordingly. Yes. Yes. It's not adopted tonight. This is a second reading. And the next person I'm going to invite up is Courtney McCormack, who is our director of post-secondary readiness, and she's
going to share with you um a bit about the proposed uh social studies curriculum adoption. Yes. Good evening, Chair Yang, Superintendent Tutos Oro, members of the board, cabinet. Nice to see you all tonight. Um, so tonight I'm
here to recommend middle school curriculum adoption for social studies. When we were um came forward with this, it's to help us realize our strategic plan, right? We've got um making sure that all students meet academic standards and graduate prepared
for post-secary success. That's what a good solid core curriculum does. It gives the resources into the hands of our teachers and into our and our students that we know are reliable and can create the atmosphere for that to happen. When we came forward with our ELA recommendation last year, remember
we talked about the CRTF. That acronym lives in our teaching and learning world here, our curriculum review task force. So that model has continued for the social studies adoption. You can see in the bullet points on the slide that we
set some parameters for the work of this group, primarily teachers and then we ensure that other district level um voices are at the table from our ML department, student services and our American Indian education department. Teacher voice is at the center of the
resource selection. Prior to bringing these resources forward to our teachers, our content specialist team makes sure that any resource we bring forward first aligns to the new standards that are required by NDE and then aligned to our district 622 priorities and that's
evident in our 622 resource review rubric. It's linked in the slides and you can access that um at an at your convenience. Amber Gardner who is our middle school well we call her kind of our generalist. She was our jack of all
trades for the last couple years supporting middle schools. She led the social studies review along with Shannon McCarthy who is our district media specialist. She's a former middle school social studies teacher. So that that um team approach to this made sure that we were prioritizing what our social
studies teachers needed. Couple things about the um new social studies standards. to really create a shift in social studies instruction from knowing to evaluating and explaining. And if you remember when we talked about science a couple years ago, it's that similar thing. Instead of
our students absorbing knowledge and knowing it and being able to say it back to us, it's can they bring in information, evaluate, respond, and communicate about that information. So social studies standards are looking um very similar from that lens of creating
critical thinkers in our students. the timeline for our full 612 social studies curriculum review. This year, we really wanted to make sure middle school was settled with resources as they go into next school year. So, we went ahead and looked at the seventh and eighth
grade intently. Sixth grade, you'll notice, is missing. That's because they get to maintain the resources they have now. We have these beautiful Minnesota specific resources created by the Minnesota Historical Society. They will be updating those to reflect the new Minnesota State Standards. So they're
set. We will just have a new um version come school year 2627 when MDE demands the the standards are fully implemented. This year seventh and eighth grade sort of social studies adjacent is the personal finance uh conversation. It involves social studies because that
course as we've talked about before can be taught in social studies, math, business or facts. That work is happening as well. So those that course is being developed right now. It's almost done and ready to launch next year. It will be offered school year
2526 as a graduation requirement. Keeping in mind that it's this year's 9th graders that start with that's required for their graduation and they can't take it until 10th grade. So that's why it's not ready until next year. So that'll be ready to launch. That's been a great collaborative um
project involving all of those departments led by Dave Lion, our high school math content specialist. So that's this year. Then next year we'll implement these seventh and eighth grade resources. We will start our high school curriculum review task force to dig into what does it
mean? What do these shifts mean for our high school courses? That personal finance course will begin. Then school year 2627, we are looking at full implementation of those 2021 Minnesota State Social Studies standards. Keeping in mind it there's always that
dissonance of that number, right? Why did the 2021 standards get implemented in 2627? And it's because it takes that long, right? Um, from the inception of the new standards, getting them through the rulemaking process and then fully implemented. Alongside that, in school
year 2627, there is another social studies adjacent, not about the core, but we do need to make sure that we have um MDE ethnic studies framework aligned elective courses at each of our high school. We already have those courses in our schools. It's just a matter of
aligning them to that framework for that 26 27th school year and looking for other opportunities to align courses that we already offer to that framework. Potentially offer more um depending on how that the work of that group goes. I could talk extensively about
this but I realize it's the end of the night. So um so before you you have our recommendation from that seventh and eighth grade curriculum review task force to adopt the McGra Hill United States history voices and perspectives and exploring geography and global issues. On the screen you'll see some
strengths cited by our teachers. Really they dug deep and made sure they had a resource that would meet the needs of the students in front of them knowing that it's really difficult to find one core resource that will meet our very unique Minnesota standards. So, this curriculum adoption is the core, but
we've got more work to do in an ongoing continuous improvement mindset that we will keep working um with our teachers to make sure that we are meeting our students needs. Questions that you might have for me? Okay. Yes. Thank you. and thank you for
the the task force and all of the the good work that's being done. Um I just have a question about the the personal finance course. Sure. It sounds like uh well our schools already offer a personal finance course that just needs to be updated to meet the standards. Is
that right? Yes. And it's currently an elective offered in the business department at one school and in the fax department in the other school. we have this really unique opportunity to use that collective expertise to bring that together and align to the personal finance framework that MDE put out. So
MD did not give us standards for that personal finance requirement, but they did offer up a framework similar to what they're doing with the ethnic studies requirement. And then so uh it it also sounds like we're doing that work like in-house in 622. And so our personal
finance course might look different than other school districts. Um is there any um like collaboration? Is they do they do they chat? Does somebody want to borrow ours? Is Yes. Yes. And yes, all of those things are happening. Um for
sure that framework is what's giving our anchor, right? So that framework is the anchor in every high school that's developing their course right now. I can tell you not all schools are implementing next year. They're looking at it through the lens of we have it's required for next year's 10th graders, but we still have some time because
they're still be in our system. We really wanted to prioritize especially because some confusion could come through of well, we have these other classes, these other personal finance classes, but they weren't aligned to the framework. So, we really needed to simplify this for our students and make sure also worth noting there are 11th and 12th graders that will be in that
class next year taking it as an elective. They just don't need it for um a graduation requirement. So, we will continue to offer that for those two grade levels that aren't required for it. Um, and as far as the collaboration, it's happening in lots of places. This financial literacy piece is really
popping and everybody sees themselves in it, which is excellent. In fact, we just were having some conversations this week with our middle school fact teachers. They're really excited about how how financial literacy fits into our eighth grade elective. So, and then in addition, our eighth grade math teachers because the new math standards that
you're going to hear about from me next about have a financial literacy strand in them as well. So, we're really uh working hard to make sure that we're not going to have any overlap and we make sure that all of our personal finance touch points with students are complimentary to each other. That's
awesome. Uh one other question about the adopting a curricul Okay, two more questions. one is that it it's a 6th through 12 curriculum adoption, but we're only working talking about seventh and eighth grade right now. Yes. Because we still have all the way until
2627 for the full implementation. We wanted to get middle school settled because they are making that transition back to the sixth period day next year. So, it made a lot of sense to to do this in that timeline so they didn't have to make two transitions. um so middle school have
those reliable resources ready to go for their um moving to the sixth period day. And then my last question is a clarifying question. You said that there was input from the ML teachers and um special education and the American Indian um education group. um are those
um if I understand right, we take the McGraill curriculum, but then there are some pieces that um we take out and some other things that we add in in order to both align to the Minnesota standards and to kind of u meet the needs of teaching appropriate things to our kids.
Is that Absolutely. Well said. That's exactly it. simp um similar to what we heard about when we adopted Amplify CLA for our elementary schools that we're constantly making sure that what we are putting in front of our students aligns to our beliefs and the needs of our students. Um so yes, this will be an
ongoing project. There isn't a core resource for social studies aside from that sixth grade one that really is um what the Minnesota standards uh um demand of us. They're great standards. They're great. They're robust. Yep. It's a lot of work. So, thank you too. That's
great. We have a great team and that's what I I really wanted to make sure I give a shout out to Amber and Shannon because they really have done the heavy lift on this and um they've been great leaders for our department. Yes, Charlotte. So, my question is along the that
curriculum and the framework that uh MDE puts forward. Um I at I attended the NSBA conference in Atlanta this uh um this year and uh I was
curious about one of the session and I attended it and find out that some some school district out west that has developed pretty much a curriculum that's whitewashed that's following
along those um DEI sentiments that are um all over. And so I was wondering that I is that uh given that we're given um uh the framework standards by MDE, does
each school district then in Minnesota can they decide to implement something uh different or I wouldn't think MDE would agree with that. Um they especially in social studies, we have standards. We have frameworks for personal finance and
ethnic studies. So the frameworks are a little bit different. They aren't as robust, but MDE does put forward standards with the intent that you will implement them all. In fact, we used to talk about power standards and you used to hear that in the teaching and learning world about, well, we have to choose power standards. There's too
many, so we can't do them all. Now we talk about bundling standards. We don't get rid of any of them. We make sure that we make the connections intentionally for teachers so that they can create cohesive units while meeting all of the benchmarks. Um the financial literacy piece is
something that I hear about from parents. are really interested in having their students uh know how to make change and understand what a mortgage is and what interest is all about and what student loan debt is all about. And so
I'm I'm really happy to see this robust uh you know development of of that course and and it having it be a grad standard. Um uh so anyway, thank you for your leadership on this. I I it's important
it's complicated. There are some school boards I'm thinking about an NOA which um you know have a lot of trouble with um developing you know and approving curriculum but I I don't think that uh that we have that here. So uh um yeah so
I'm grateful for that. So thank thanks for your work. I'm grateful for that as well. Yeah to have a supportive board. So thank you. Yeah. Um, just really quick, thank you for all the work on this. And do you have an I have a 10th grader next year, so I'm delighted that he'll be taking personal will be taking
personal, but um, do you have any kind of expectation or is there like a guarantee that they're not going to just keep changing the standards? Like do they are they locked in? I mean, especially since there's such a long implementation period, do you have like 10 years or
they they are on a cycle? So, they MDE doesn't tend to revise all too often. It usually takes about six to seven years. Um, but then we have some that haven't been refined in a long time. Like math, we haven't had new standards since 2009 because they got skipped in the last
goound. So, I would say things aren't moving too rapidly in the standards world. we do get legislation that moves that's different than the standards. That's where things like personal finance have come in. Um those are the things that move a little bit more
rapidly. It is part of why when we come forward, we ask for a six-year commitment so that we can first of all stagger, right? If every year I come forward with a new content area and say we want a six-year plan, well then I know we're not going to all need to renew at the same time and that does
align with how MDE projects when they should have new standards coming out again. I just want to say thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much.
In a bit. Do you have any other um reports? That's all for now. You'll act on um this recommendation when we get to the action items. So, yeah. Thank you. Yep. Um so we're going to move down to the action items and our agenda. Uh first up
is finance. Um Charlotte will be um Charlotte and Ty will be reading it. Okay. Um acknowledgment of contribution uh Minister Minnesota
statute uh 133B.02 02 permit school boards to receive for the benefit of the district bequest donations or gifts for any proper purpose and apply the same to the
purpose designated in that behalf. The board may act as trustee of any trust created for the benefit of the district and for the benefit of the pupils thereof.
Uh we have one donation this month and it's from Karen gets gets marker uh for $500 and the purpose is for enrichment activities for adults with
disabilities and the total for uh this fiscal year of 2024 and 2025 monetary contribution is $84,62 $2.71. Therefore, the director of
finance recommends the following resolution. Be it resolved by the school board of independent school district number 62 that the school board accept with appreciation the following contributions and permit their use as
designate designated by the donors. So moved. All right. Uh moved by Natardi. Did I get a second? Second by Anderson. Um any discussion? All right. Um all in favor say I. I. And
all post say nay. All right. Um that is approved. Um next up is the adult meal price increase. Um so per the Minnesota Department of Education, the minimum pricing for adult meals must be a
minimum of $310 for breakfast. This is an increase of 10 and $5.50 for lunch, an increase of 25. These new meal prices must be in place prior to the start of summer programming. Therefore, the
director of operations recommends the following resolution. Be it resolved by the school board of independent school district number 622 that the following meal prices become effective. June 9th, 2025, $310 for breakfast and $5.50 50 cents
for lunch. Um, could I get a motion and a second? Right. Moved by Yanner. Second. Second by Martins. Um, any discussion? I just want clarification that these are meals that are offered at school. For
instance, if I went to visit a child and have to pay lunch, these are the meals that I'll be paying for. So, it's not um well, it is $5.50 is subsidized, but I just wanted to make sure that people know that this
is not meals on wheels. No, these are these are adult meals. Yep. Yep. Thank you. Um and and by adult meals, um is it larger in size than the kids?
I don't know. like do we know if it's technically it is yes okay thank you yes all right any other okay could all in favor say I and
all oppose say nay all right um so that resolution passes um next up is the resolution for the post uh the middle school studies curriculum adoption let me just pull that up
Um so just the bottom one. Okay. Um so therefore be it result that the teaching and learning department is permitted to purchase a multi-year six-year agreement for seventh and eighth grade um social studies curriculum in an amount of
approximately $50,000 per year for up to six years not to exceed $300,000 over a six-year period. and to take other actions with respect here too. Could I get a motion
and a second? So move. Second. Moved by Livingston, second by Anderson. Any discussion? All right. All in favor say I. I. And all oppose say nay. All right. Um that passes. Thank you. Um and then we just
have to set the school board um meeting for June 10th. Let me just get my wording for this. Um, so the date and time for the June 10th um is already set. Um, but we just need to set Oh,
well, we need to set the location and the agenda. So, I recommend that the June 10th, 2025 work study session begin at 6 PM. Um, is it still 6? Uh, 4:30. Okay, it's
4:30. Yep. um for this summer. Yeah. Yeah. 4:30 p.m. in conference room 202 of the district 622 education center and it will contain the following agenda items. Budget overview, activities and attendance committee updates, fiscical
year 27 LTFM tenure plan, proposed policy adoptions, and then the superintendent check-in and the board check-in. Could I get a motion and a second? Second. All right. Moved by Swore, seconded by Martins. Um, any
discussion. All right. Um, all in favor say I. I. And all oppose say nay. All right. Um, so that's that passes. Um, oh, and then we also have to set the um close session. Um, so I recommend that us close session to evaluate the
superintendent on June 24th um, 2025 at the district education center immediately following the adjournment of the 4:30 p.m. board business meeting. Could I get a motion and a second? All right. Moved by Yenner, seconded by
Martins. Um, any discussion? All right. All in favor say I. I and all oppose say nay. All right. Uh that passes and then we just have board communications. Julia, thank you. Just a quick um congratulations to the
um director and all the staff members at Tartan for that excellent uh musical that they put on last weekend. and Mama Mia. Um it was um it was just excellent and the the dancing was just over the
top great and the singing and um I was really impressed. Um also the audience was so responsive. They were just um on their feet ovations in the middle of songs. They were so enthusiastic. So, um
it was a it was a really u um fun evening and uh and the attendance um was um was full. The theater was full. Uh so the the kids looked like they were having a lot of fun and um uh yeah, glad
I went. Thanks. Um, I just wanted to congratulate the the graduates uh that were um at uh Gladstone. Um uh they had the GED graduation um and uh our our CNAs
graduated as well. They were all with um their patients uh though. Um but the the program um as as it is every year, it was uh uh just uh really inspiring. Um, and it's just uh it it's inspiring to
see these people that have uh overcome a lot. Um, and a lot of them are are working at other jobs and uh they're they're taking they're studying um to take this really hard test and uh they all they all did great. Um, and I'm
excited for the the remaining graduations that we have coming up. Just echoing what Caleb said, congratulations to all of our graduates and their families and thank you to all of the staff and teachers who got them there.
Yeah, I echo all the sentiments about uh all the students that are graduating uh from uh Gladstone and those that are upcoming at some of our high schools. And uh um I I work for Minnesota State Colleges
and Universities. And so these last couple weeks I've been attending several graduations. And so some graduation they don't print where students are from, but uh specifically Mano uh does Minnesota
State uh University Mano does. And it was really nice to go through the program and see so many turn high school uh nursing and Paul graduates that are uh have just gotten their four-year uh degrees. It it was it was really good to
see that our graduates are going on and completing colleges and and now they're looking for uh big kids jobs. sound like a broken record, but uh I was also at Mamma Mia and super impressed. And so again, a shout out to all of the
the kids and the uh the the cast, the crew, the pit, the director, um everyone there and everyone supporting them. Um also was really impressed. It was my first graduation as a school board member to go to see the the Harmony GED graduates and it was awesome. Um, I'm
I'm sad that the CNA graduates kind of missed the graduation, but I'm really like I think it's really inspiring and awesome that they were all working and with patients that night. Um, also looking forward to the rest of them. Um, and then I also wanted to give a shout out. Um, again, uh, I know I say this a
lot, but they're really great. The American Indian Education team. Um, they had they brought in someone to make hand drums. And this is it's it's really important for um to kind of bring in cultural things because it is uh I think as Charlotte was kind of mentioning it's
kind of hard um being uh urban and kind of away from a a huge center of um kind of population and people uh following the more traditional values um to have an avenue to uh things like hand drums which means now they can enter hand drum
contests at round dances and they have ribbon shirts and skirts to wear to them because of another program that the American Indian Education team did. Um, and so I just think it's really awesome and important and again the the work that they do um in all of the schools
for all of the students of 62 is really great. So shout out to them as well. Thanks everyone and have a good rest of the year. Um, I don't have much to say either. I was also at the graduation. It was um a great kickoff to the beginning of the graduation season. Um, I want to
thank um all the administration and staff and all the everybody that's supporting our students. Um, so I'm looking forward to the end of the the year. Um, I will have a ninth grader next year. Um, so I'm very excited about that. Um, but yeah, that's all I really had. But
um, um, I'm going to Oh, future board meetings are June 10th and June 24th, both at 4:30 p.m. Could I get a motion and a second to adjurnn? Second. Right. Moved by Martin, second by Livingston. Um, any
discussion? All right. All in favor say I. I. All post say nay. Meeting adjourn. Thank you.