All right. Good evening. Uh, this work session of the school board of oile schools is being held in the forum room of the educational service center on Tuesday, June 9th, 2026. The work session is being audio recorded. The recording will be made available on the district website within two business
days after the work session is ended. With regard to the audio recording, our communication staff has asked that we share a friendly reminder that side conversations during the work session are picked up by the recorder and can affect sound quality. Also, conversations during transitions between agenda items are on the recording as
well. The intent of the schoolboard work session is to allow for schoolboard discussion of topics. Work sessions do not include an opportunity for audience members to address the board. To acknowledge attendance this evening, I'll ask that all present at the table state their name. Starting with the person to the left,
>> Tanya Prince, school board member. Eric Foster, school board member. Amy Tson, incoming assistant superintendent. Brian Severson Hall, executive director of community engagement. >> Steve Fisk, assistant superintendent for elementary and middle school. >> Kala, executive director of community
relations. >> Brian Ba, assistant superintendent for equity in the high schools. >> John Morstead, executive director of finance and operations. >> Valerie Delman lobbyist. >> Ivon Church Land, executive director of HR. >> Anthony Paris, executive director of
technology. >> Amy Moore, general counsel. >> Kim Hy, superintendent. and I, Thomas Brooks, schoolboard member and present. Uh, the purpose of schoolboard work sessions is to build trust and teamwork, to exchange information, and when applicable, to provide direction in
order to facilitate efficient and effective decision-making at regular board meetings. Dr. Hy, will you please share your checking? >> Thank you, Vice Chair Brooks, uh, Chair Prince, and school board members. We're excited today, and we have a full agenda, so we're going to get started right away, and we will be succinct. So,
uh, starting out with legislative update. Uh, John, if you want to introduce Valerie, please. >> And just a quick introduction of Valerie Dosland, the district's lobbyist who is always working hard on our behalf. Um, constantly down at the capital. It's fun to actually see her uh, occasionally
going, running, keeping us uh, informed, keep bringing us in to do lobbying wherever um, she sees fit that matches our goals. So, we appreciate you coming out and we'll let her kind of walk through what happened with the session. Uh thank you school board members. Uh the just setting uh kind of the stage of
the 2026 legislative session, the context of how the session started, you know, continued to be a volatile political climate. There was, you know, a DFL one seat majority in the Senate and the tide house. Two of the members were running for governor. Uh we
starting a session after the wake of the uh tra tragedies, the murder of Melissa Hortman and her husband and the shooting of Senator John Hoffman and his wife and of course the tra tragedy at Annunciation. And then just hanging over everything too was uh ongoing um
challenges with state fraud and state programs. Uh Operation Metro Surge kind of unfolded right before the legislative session began and then a difficult budget forecast. And when the session was beginning and all the different conversations that we had with legislators, they said don't expect
much. I would add that more passed than I was anticipating based on uh the comments from legislators. So the supplemental um so there wasn't one education budget bill like we're used to. There was uh
many different bills and provisions put in different pots here and there. And to be honest, it was quite hard to track. I don't know how anyone from the public would have followed along. There was a supplemental budget bill uh that did provide $10 million in one-time funding
for a hold harmless on compensatory revenue to try to prevent a you know stop gap while the compensatory work group does its work. Uh really what was needed was more like $55 million. What ended up passing was $10 million. Then
there was uh funding one-time grants for uh anonymous threat reporting systems and I'll talk a little bit more about that. Uh there was also another bill that we call a forecast adjustment bill which just basically aligns the education budget numbers with what is in
the forecast. There were a few provisions in there also related to education. One was uh highly qualified pair professionals in title one allowed more flexibility for those pairs in title one programs to meet requirements to be federally federal requirements for
highly qualified and it just aligns those uh mostly with what is in special ed pairs now. Um school districts are also allowed to use operating capital revenue for utility costs. And then there was a education policy
bill that popped up on the last day of session. Uh there are some redact changes. I'm not going to go into all of the details, but the kind of two items of note that I think would be of interest to the district is uh this school districts are extends the option
for school districts to reduce instruction by 5 and a half hours for teachers to receive read training through the 26 27 school year. You've had this extension the last several years. just extends it for one more. And then there's a provision that would exclude
teaching candidates who are enrolled in a teacher prep program as of June 1st from additional training requirements once they begin employment at the school district. So that means when you hire new teachers who met this requirement, you do not have to give them additional
red training. uh standalone bill passed uh we're address to address we're calling it the anti-grooming bill. I don't know if you paid attention to any of the news about this student Hannah L presto who was groomed and assaulted by a teacher. She was a very strong advocate and move
forward with changes. Uh a couple of the key items of that bill were it allows Pelby to suspend or revoke a teacher's license for someone convicted of grooming. uh requires law enforcement uh requires local law enforcement to notify
a statewide licensing agency MDE and Pelby when a licensed educator is charged with certain crimes including grooming and then there's uh added to the mandatory reporter training and that they have to update that training to reflect education on what grooming is.
Uh, a big issue this session was whether or not school districts would receive school safety aid. Uh, because of a disagreement with the governor and the house and senate, the Democrats and the Republicans on aid for non-public schools, no agreement was reached. They
did end up providing uh 12.25 25 million in school in mental health grants is one time and that's on top of an ongoing appropriation, but that is how they resolve their differences on um trying to get at some school safety
uh measures. There will be a ballot question on the November ballot this year on the permanent school fund. And what the permanent school fund is, it's a trust that revenue from land all across Minnesota uh from proceeds that are
gained from either timber harvesting, mineral leases on land all across Minnesota that goes into this permanent school trust. There's a the constitution dictates how much of that funding goes to schools. The there will be a question on the ballot to amend the constitution
to change how that funding is distributed. What that means is it would mean about right now districts get about $68 per pupil. The same districts get the same everywhere. This means districts would get about $40 to $50
more per pupil. So it would bring in some general revenue and it's not doesn't result in a tax increase. It's just taking the funds that are in this trust and take allowing more of the distribution to be allocated to school districts on a per pupil basis.
And then lastly, just a couple provisions were passed in a pensions bill. Uh I think the one two of note um if a district or if an employer across all the public pension plans, whether
it's TRA or PRA or MSRS, if they employ reemployed teacher, this employer would now be required to make a pension contribution to that pension system. And then also it extends the earning the suspension of
the earnings limitations for a teacher who returns to teaching service through 2030. So they can earn more um within those three years without having a penalty on their retirement. So even though session just ended, you
know, we're already preparing for the 2027 legislative session. It's an election year. Uh the district has two notable members who are not uh running for reelection. One is Senator Warren Limer and the other is Representative Kristen Robbins. Uh there are a very
large number of legislators departing from the legislature this year about 20 or so percent. And then it's a election for the governor's office and we don't yet know who our candidates are on the Republican side but Senator Clolobachar
is the candidate on the DFL side. So regardless of what happens, there will be a new administration, new staff working at the upper levels of the administration. Um, so there will be some change. And then also issues that we're watching are one, the blue ribbon
commission on special ed. There's a pending $250 million cut if that commission cannot find the savings. The legislature, the House Education Finance Committee did pass a bill to repeal that budget reduction. It didn't go anywhere after that, though. So the the weight of
a $250 million cut weighs on everyone really heavily. So we're watching that closely. They have to have a report due to the legislature by October 1st. The legislature has to act on those recommendations. And if they don't, then that $250 million will be cut. And I
think it's accurate to say that that cut is the n top priority for all of the different education organizations who are following and working to try to to repeal that cut. Uh the other one I talked about the compensatory revenue
task force. Uh their report is due on the 15th of October and that they are responsible with coming up with a new formula for how compensatory revenue is distributed. And then uh unemployment insurance funding that the legislature appropriated money last year. It was
only for two years. So that money will eventually run out. So we will have to be advocating for some kind of either repeal of that proposal or ongoing funding for that uh requirement. This session, uh Education Minnesota moved forward on a bill to establish a
statewide mandatory health insurance pool. It did get a number of hearings, but it didn't adv it did advance. Um, but that is something depending on what happens with the election that's highly likely to continue to move forward. And one item tied to that that I forgot to
mention that did pass is uh every year Education Minnesota does a data request on requesting information on health insurance data. Uh that was put into a passed into a law that directs the legislative budget office to survey every school district. So, school
districts will be getting a survey in September from the legislative budget office asking for detailed information on their health insurance. Then another proposal that came up and did receive a hearing that could come back next year depending on what happens with the election is minimum compensation
requirements for teachers and non-licensed staff. And so those are a couple of the issues that we're watching. I think a lot depends on what happens with the election. And then just real quickly regarding the AIO area schools legislative priorities, I think
a lot of the items on the I have more details in the platform, but I just wanted in the my update, but I just wanted to note while a lot of the provisions didn't necessarily pass, they still still did receive attention. You know, school safety received attention. We did not have to deal even with the
budget deficit. We didn't have to deal with a repeal of inflation on the per pupil formula. uh summer unemployment did not pass, but we know that co many conversations were had with legislators about the co impact on districts if that's not funded and such, but I wanted
to just note those as well. Sometimes it's success is getting the bill introduced. Sometimes it's having the conversation to set up for future discussions. And then one item I forgot to mention is uh there was legislation to prohibit screen time in in grades K
through two. Uh, and so that is also an issue I think will come back and I've had numerous conversations with Anthony about that and it's something we'll be working on in the term. >> Any questions? >> I just had a really specific question about that grooming law that you
mentioned. Um, so I don't know you have the answer to it, but do you know if it applies to if the incident occurred in a non-educational environment, like if it occurred outside the school, would the would would that still be reported to the school district or pel?
>> I believe so. I have to look at the bill. >> It's a crime, right? They've made it a crime. So it would be the responsibility uh for the police to report it to a school district. >> Okay.
>> Thank you. >> Oh, very thorough. Thank you. >> Can you add a little more context to the cell phone prohibition? >> Um that's something we're watching. It continues to be an issue of the Senate
did have a provision in a policy bill that didn't advance that would have banned it would have directed school districts to have a policy to ban cell phones. >> Uh but it didn't advance. It's something that keeps popping up and I think it's tied to will be tied to conversation on
screen time which I I think that's going to have probably a little more traction than this cell phone issue but I think it will be tied to it. with the ban before high school as well. Would he was it all? >> The proposal was to ban cell phones
period unless there's exceptions if the student uh needed it for a medical um medical issue or to accommodate IEP or 504 plan. >> I hope that was succinct enough. >> Thank you.
>> I know. I have a lot of pressure. I was like, "Oh, no. Vice Chair Brooks is rubbing off. >> Oh, thank you. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> And I did appreciate the updates you sent out through John. That was really helpful to see as time went on through
the year. So, thank you for doing that. >> All right. So, we're going to move on. We're going to have a presentation around vision vision cards A and B. And uh does your team get settled or Oh, there's more of them.
>> Dr. Dass will introduce our team here then. >> Keep scooching, John. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Ohio. uh chair Prince, Vice Chair Brooks, members of the board. Um we are uh excited about
sharing with you our data from strategic directions A and B. Um joining me this evening are uh the dream team, the directors from uh student services, Sunny Burken Educational Equity, Dr. Michael Walker, uh director of learning
achievement, Dr. kind. And then we also have two guests that are sharing about their site experience with within the continuous improvement magnifier from uh early child uh early childhood and family education coordinator Kari Sawyer and assistant principal at Northview
Middle School Randy Henderson. So they will be joining and sharing a little about their experience with with that work. Okay. So our presentation outcomes are to learn about and discuss the data measures for the high priority initiatives for strategic directions A and B and explore um the alignment
between our priorities, our system strategies to try to achieve those priorities and the measures that show the implementation fidelity um of those uh strategies as well as the impact that they're having in our system.
Um again this is a slide you've seen many times. vision cards serve as a critical data point toward the realization of our mission. And so you see that um that relationship between the road map that the board has provided as our overview, our strategic directions, our vision card to measure
our progress towards those strategic directions. The alignment across the system takes place within our um improvement plans or our operational plans for schools and departments. And then um we come back to you all and share in our monitoring report that that detailed data here in this presentation.
We're sharing the high level data from the monitoring report. So again tonight um strategic part strategic directions A and B. Um and so those are the those are the pieces of data that we'll be sharing in alignment with those two strategic directions.
Then I shared uh that we have two uh folks uh representing sites that uh have really leaned into the intentionality behind continuous improvement magnifier. uh what are the ineffective procedures which create disparities, barriers and inequities? And a second question, how do our continuous improvement cycles and
processes help address and eliminate disparities and inequities in achievement? This is another visual representation of that alignment across the system uh that that starts from our strategic plan um adopted by the board um the
superintendent and cabinet, our departments, our site leaders, teachers all the way scholars showing how our initiatives uh drive all the way throughout the organization into the the scholar experience. So last year we started really being
intentional uh about showing how the the work um that's happening that's trying to influence our outcome measures um that shows the impact that we're having. How do we make all of that visible? And so we borrow the framework from uh education resource strategy system
strategy return on investment and this is the aioise Dr. Dr. How likes to say that's aising. So this is the AIOIS version uh courtesy of the the brilliance of Dr. K uh in these formats. So um and we'll walk through uh strategic direction A of this talk and
strategic direction A is about creating the type of learning environment that fosters curiosity, belonging, innovation and engagement. As Dr. Bass said, this is that 10,000 foot overview of one goal within strategic direction A and that is around increasing students sense of safety, belonging, and inclusion. And
the primary strategy is positive behavior intervention supports our process measures and our outcome measures are there. And then also connecting the strategic direction work to our operational plan. And so this is a a slice of the district's operational plan that lists our strategies. And uh the primary one is the Minnesota
multi-tered systems of support that and underneath that there are two additional more maybe specific strategies. One is about improving that tier one cultural system. So, SEAL, PBIS, uh to model and reinforce belonging, but also how are we providing uh students who need
additional support, tier 2 and tier three, uh supports so that we can maybe do some preventative work before students escalate. Uh the process measures are the tier one fidelity checks and completed each fall and spring with the TIP, which is in the monitoring report. And then uh our new
and upcoming intervention tracking system and using that consistently across the system. And lastly, our outcomes, which are both survey outcomes. One is the Minnesota student survey and the other one is our internal survey. And we'll talk about the continuous improvement magnifier on its own a little bit. So, as I said before,
PBIS stands for positive behavior intervention supports. It's lived in our standard work in OSU area schools for a number of years. uh beginning with the 2627 school year, we're going to really bring back a more intentional focus to that by really braiding it with our M andMTSS work
around academics so that we're having one conversation about social and emotional learning and academics and really paying attention to that. We know there's a strong relationship between the two and we want to make sure that we're communicating that by modeling that for our sites. This is the Minnesota STR student survey
data. It's given every three years to students in grades 5, 8, 9, and 11. Uh the following survey question has been used on previous vision cards and was included in the 2025 survey. That question is, during the last 30 days, how many days have other students at
school pushed, shoved, slapped, hit, or kicked you when they weren't kidding around or spread mean rumors or lies about you? And we are still at that 7.6. And that's baseline range. And so what that 7.6 six means is it's out of a scale of eight. Eight would mean that no
students experienced bullying in the past that behavior in the past 30 days. And so we're at 7.6. We're just shy of that eight threshold. That data hasn't changed since the previous administration. You'll see that there's not a score for safety. And that's because they tweaked the questions in
that category. So we couldn't compare between the 2022 survey and the 2025 survey. The OIO student survey. This is the last year for this version of the U student survey to be used. This shows that the data remains in the baseline yellow range for the last three
administrations. This year we had 12,833 uh third through 12th graders complete the survey and that's 72% of all eligible students. And so when we think about survey responses and that's a really good uh number that we want and so we're happy with that number. Uh the
student focus groups have wrapped for the year on the revisions for the uh student survey. Now, over the summer, survey survey items will be developed and grouped into scales. And because we want to make sure that uh the questions continue to give us valid and reliable data, we'll do some piloting in the
winter with select grades in classrooms and then go back and make revisions and then we'll do a full launch in spring 2027 and bring those results to you next year. Just looking at the last sort of uh this la last of this version, uh there are
three scales on the vision card. Belonging, health, and trust. Our data our data either remained consistent from 2025 results or had a 1 to 2% decrease with the largest decrease being the school rules are fair and the largest increase in the question about being
comfortable sharing your thoughts and ideas at school. This next slide represents positive responses uh grouped by race. The green dotted line represents the benchmark which is the median across all grade all groups. American Indian, Asian, black,
Hispanic, and multi-racial students were all below benchmark. This year we had 2005 families complete the family survey. Again, with this administration, we use a random quota sampling to ensure that responses mirrored the demographics of the district. On the vision card for SA the
safe, welcoming and inclusive learning environment scales, we've reached progress level. This scale has eight questions. Responses to the question, "My scholars cultural history is represented accurately in the curriculum had a 5% increase since the last survey
administration. My scholar feels safe at school and my scholar sees how their learning connects to the real real world." Both saw 4% increases. This slide examines the scale as a whole and shows that all racial groups are above the benchmark, which is about
75.5%. Students receiving free and reduced price meals, multilingual services, and special education services, as well as uh male and females are also reporting positive responses on the safe, welcoming, inclusive learning environment scale, and all are above
benchmark. Lastly, if we look at the family survey by level, early childhood in elementary had the highest positive responses, while middle school had the highest increase in positive responses. Now, we'll turn it over to Dr. Walker, director of educational equity to talk
about the continuous improvement occurring. >> Good evening everyone. Appreciate being here. Um and before I I turn over to the school sites to share their story, I just want to take a moment to really reflect on the year-long process that our um equity teams engaged in uh throughout the year. And it's really
about how do we eliminate and uh really identify the disparities in equities that we see within our system. And so obviously we're doing that through the um trans equity transformation cycle that we have. And so throughout the school year, our teams came together and participated in these seminars that we had. We had four seminars throughout the
year. We partnered with um Shane Safir and uh Joe Truss to really work on our our work and their work around street data. And so we look at these four components, listening, uncover, reimagine, and then move. And so as we think about the year-long process, we
kind of met in August, November, February, and then in May. And so in August, we really focus on listening and trying to build trust, you know, establishing a shared purpose, uh, and sharing the experiences of students, families, and staff members to better understand how we can serve in the best in our schools and in their communities.
Uh so then in November we came together and then the team started working on how do we uncover what is beneath all this information right the surface by examining data and really trying to get into that street level data right around interviewing students doing empathy interviews trying to understand what their experiences was so we can make
some adjustments to how we are showing up in our system and then in uh February we came together and obviously we know that there was a issue with metro surge and so while that was happening taking place we still uh wanted to stay focused on the equity work. And so teams came
together and we really uh started to say how can we uh remain focused on the equity goals while still trying to develop actionable strategies um to address the barriers expanded and expand opportunities for our students. So again that search did show up but then we stayed focusing what we were trying to
accomplish and didn't let it take us off our um path. And then finally in May uh we did a public learning experience where all the sites came together at one of our dates and kind of shared where they were in that journey. Right? Obviously with Metro and things kind of didn't go as planned. We had to make
some adjustments and so not everybody made it all the way through the cycle. However, we still was able to come together, learn from each other, share our stories, and then get feedback from other school sites to learn what we can do better for uh next year, next time. And so, you know, again, that just uh
really is powerful to see our our leaders learn in the moment and then trying to apply that uh information to how they're going to move forward. And so, tonight we're going to hear directly from a couple sites. We have Randy from North Middle and Sawyer from Early Childhood. And so, I'll let you all take it away and share your experiences of
the equity transformation cycle. >> Um, do I still see it? >> Yeah. >> Perfect. All right. Um, so I'm Randy. I'm the assistant principal over at Northview. Um, and a couple things to know um, about Northview before we dig in. Um, Northview is a really special place. I really think that when you like
step through the doors, it just feels different. And with that, I think one of the biggest strengths is our diversity. With that, it's diversity in culture, languages spoken, skills the kids have, some of knowledge that they bring, family brings, the community brings. Um, with that, that means that meeting everybody where they are looks
differently. And so trying to figure out how do we support all kiddos? What does that look like? How do we support all families? So with that, um, our, uh, our transformational cycle was grounded in the idea of being focused on the disproportionality in student outcomes
for students who identify as black and receive special education services. So again, a little bit with that, we are the only uh, title one middle school in the district. And we also compared to the district average for students who receive services at about 13%. We're at
about 18 and a half%, sometimes a little bit higher than that. And so it was really important to us to focus in on these kids and how to best serve them and their families. And so looking at the satellite data, the MCAs, um looking at uh map data and again so many other data points, right? But map data,
looking at growth scores down to that street data, the conversations, the experience, the um the re-entry meetings with families, right? Um it was clear that there is disproportionality and we needed to hear from them. With that, um we went to listening. That's the first step. And so we conducted empathy
interviews and something that we really appreciated is we started this work two years ago and instead of just up and moving and disrupting and starting something new again, we got to dive deeper in this last year. And so with that, we stayed with that same focus area. We know that social, emotional,
behavioral, academic, they all do intertwine. And so we have to hear hear about their experiences as a whole to start to um reimagine and make moves. So with that, with the empathy interviews, we continued. We u met with every student who identified as black and received special education services and
we were intentional in our approach of even who was doing the interviews. They didn't have to be on our equity team. It should be someone who would really get those uh real answers from them. Um we expanded that to families and caregivers this past year. Um and then we moved on to the uncover stage and with that we
had three key themes that came through that really stuck out to our equity team and our greater school um school community. with that one was peer culture. Now, I think middle school's the best with that. Um, one thing that's developmentally expected is that peer
perception is number one, right? We can think about what and families can think about what they would love for their child, right, at the end of the day, but it's really but what what is, you know, um, the student sitting next to me think, right? It's that pure perception. So, what does it mean to be a Northview student and how do we change that
culture of it's a place that we learn, it's a place that we grow, that we support each other, that we belong, right? Um the second piece was discipline perception. We talk so much and we provide PD on restorative practices. We really focus on it. We have a passion in it and with that what
we heard is we still is that families and students feel like discipline is being done to them versus really partnering with families in those supports. Right? So coming back okay we are covering that. What else? We also noticed now again with middle school a lot of times they get to sixth grade they know they have this thing called an
IEP but all of a sudden it becomes this other right it's I'm different than my peer I might go to a class that my peer does not go to so how do we change the perception around that not only for the student but for the community and again in that acceptance we are such a diverse place with so many different strengths
and how do we show the kiddos and their families that too it's not a negative to have an IEP receive services and the strengths and the beautiful things that come from it so from that we started to reimagine. Um when we reimagine again, just like it's easy to disrupt and change course and fall into those tropes
of doing something different again because our data is still not great. What what can we do better? Right? But we continued and we wanted to notice a couple things that we did not want to stray from. One of which is AVID. Not just the elective class, but when it comes to our student outcome data, AVID is one of the best things for our kiddos
and um and their growth across the board. just um historically and looking at last year and this year specifically, it is a huge um a huge area of impact and so we wanted to continue it and how can we again play into that culture piece where ABD is not just an elective
class. How does it look to be an AVID school to have that culture to be college and career going? Um composition of our equity team. Last year we added a um education support professional again for another lens. If we're serving our kiddos who receive services, they sometimes work closest with those kiddos. So, we added one to our team and
then going into next year, again, focused on discipline, we're adding a student management specialist. He'll be our seventh grade SMS will be joining our equity team to again build on that lens. And then again, partnering with our caregivers just like we do with our kiddos, making sure that our families, it's not a Yeah, we engage our families.
It's reciprocal, right? We're engaging them, they're engaging us, we're teaming, we're partnering, we're doing with, and they're doing with us. Um, with that, I just want to highlight um Dr. Walker noted uh we did a public learning experience in May and I would say across the board we are partnered with 279 online. I don't think they'll
mind me sharing um but we said time and time again how valuable that time was to hear from one another to hear the work being done to be able to challenge others thinkings thinking and then it again allowed them then to challenge ours and to be able to get excited about next year and some of the opportunities
that we'll be able to uh continue to learn from each other and from our kiddos. One of which we heard about shadowing for students. Again, us as staff shadowing kiddo experiences. We heard them do it. We've talked about it. Now we have some ways to actually do so. So, a little bit from North View. Thank you,
>> A lot of times. >> I'm never going to say that again. >> Um well, I have a script so I don't um but my name is Ki Sawyer. I'm the coordinator for our early childhood and family education program. So that includes um our ECF birth and five
parent child classes, um ECF home visits, preschool screening, and our school readiness, preschool and prek. Um and our equity team is pictured here um includes a representation from each of our program areas, teaching staff, ESPs, leadership, and then multilingual and
department of equity staff members. Um so our overall focus this year has been on the concept of holism from street data. So focusing on the whole family, the whole child. And that's really what we do. We're always working with the family and early childhood. And then I worked really closely with Cleang um
from the multilingual department and we created a road map for the year for our equity meetings and that included some off-site experiences. So you can see a picture of our team. We went to M Village for one of our meetings and she can show us around. um but our main goal
that we were looking at this year was supporting our multilingual students and particularly those that are new to the country uh with a focus on fostering that sense of belonging and really just keeping that holism at the center. Um in our preschool prek program alone we have over 40 languages represented in about
our 450 students. Um so an area that we found could use some improvement was supporting transitions for our multilingual families. for example, the transition to starting preschool. Um they may not know what that looks like and how can we be there to really talk them through, support them, be there,
and know that they can just always reach out with any questions. Um so based on this area of need, one of our teachers, uh parent educator began offering home visits to families who had requested some additional support to help get their child ready for preschool. And then in addition to offering home
visits, um classroom support was offered by some of our parent educators so they could support uh sometimes can be hard if you have not dropped off your child before. So just supporting that separation process. And then we also offered some virtual sessions on things like toilet learning because that's one of the things like how do you support
that at home and in the classroom. Um so this summer we're also adding what we're calling a preschool basics um ECIP class where parents can come with their children and they'll be new to starting preschool this fall. So I'll give them kind of a four-week taste of what that looks like and help them kind of
practice separation and learn about some of the things that they'll be encountering when they drop them off that first day of school the fall. Um let's see. And then in addition to supporting uh transitions um our work with Bang uh she also offered an all
staff professional development session um at the end of April on building trust with multil families. Um, so staff were able to share what they're already doing in their classes to build relationships and trust with families and then to highlight and elevate our students in our classroom spaces just to make sure
they have that sense of belonging. Um, our equity team this year also completed empathy interviews uh which were done with some family staff and then some of our young learners. So that was kind of fun to see what they had overall. also used a lot of smiley faces
and um but overall they shared that they just enjoyed school and and felt valued. Um staff that were interviewed felt included and valued. Um and then one of the goals that we found with just starting that process of empathy interviews is we really want to continue that with parents too like just continuing our focus of including and
having more parent voice at the table because our parents especially early childhood are so involved. Um and I always think of early childhood too like we're kind of the gateway into the school district. So, I think we have a really uh great opportunity there to just start out by showing families that we're there to support them and walk
alongside them with their students. So, um those are the things that we worked on this year with that sense of holism and then we're just really kind of excited to continue the next year. And before I give it back to Dr. Paul and process, if you all just hear the
stories that were shared with these two sites, um we have about how powerful this opportunity is. It's like you don't have to come in and know all the answers, but how do we leverage our relationships with our communities with our students to gather insight from them and then how do we apply that to make sure that we are serving our students
and our families better in the ways that they say is better, not the ways that we think is better. And so this is really powerful that we get the opportunity to do this and I'm really appreciative of the uh building leaders and sites and departments who are all engaging in this work because it shows our commitment to wanting to serve our students and
families the best that we can. So I I appreciate you all. Thank you for doing that. >> Thank you. >> So this is that uh moment in the vision card process where we pause um and have some discussion as a board. I'm not sure if you have any specific questions of of
our two guests or just jump right into the reflections and pause parts. >> No, you you guys have questions you want to jump into. >> Um I had a question for um North View. Um, you know, definitely that
realization of like with the IEP you're feeling different. Um, it just kind of made me more aware how do we continue to have that strength-based perspective and opportunities so that it's not like always um it feels like
there's more support for when there's like a a gap versus kind of focusing on those opportunities where students have strengths. Um, so it's is I guess just a reflection or connect how how do you guys think about that strength-based kind of perspective at North View?
>> Yeah, it's a really good question. I think there's two pieces of it, right? It's the connecting with that kiddo and processing through with them and their family too. Um, families as well, right? A lot of times you're along for the ride, especially if there's language barriers and things like that. Um, and so with that kiddo, it's processing
through, letting them ask questions and then having them identify, right? We don't need to tell them all the things that they're amazing at. they know if we give them the space to do so, right? And we ask those questions where they can share and they can come to their own and like find them find areas for them to participate, right? Um in those strength
areas. And so I think there's that individual piece and then we've tried a couple different things this year since I'm covering um that perception. And so we've tried some mini lessons in classrooms. Um a word that has become an insult now is a student calling other students fed. And it's usually from a
student who receives services themselves. And so talking through and having conversations, it's opportunity for restorative, for reflection, and for teaching about what it means, right, and what it doesn't mean. And so I think there's kind of those two different pieces. And again, it plays into the culture, right? If we want to use kind
words, if we're using powerful words that uplift each other, right? What what can we use instead, right? And all those pieces that go with it. So I think there's just there's so much and we're still learning about it, too. And we're still learning from the kids and the families as well. Um, and what what they need to move forward. um what would help
them to feel accepted and help them to kind of come into their own like middle school is it's like such an ident it's such a fun time because they're building that identity and it's really important that they're noticing their strengths and building that identity and so we're just trying to partner with them in doing so I don't think we have it
figured out yet >> the only comment I had just to give to reflect back with you guys um was just I appreciated how you're putting yourselves in their shoes and even just what you shared tonight I was able to step into two very unique scenarios and
the ages are so wide and the kids we um provide services for in general and so I think that's just such a great focus to have and like to be centered around. So, thank you so much for that both of you. >> Yeah, it's uh it's cool to finally see some examples of the equity
transformation cycles that we keep hearing about as a board. Um what I appreciated about both is they were both very student and family centered. U which I know is always our goal. Um and I wish that there was some creative way
to tell our families what we're doing. Um especially I mean empathy interviews of preschoolers. Like that's that's awesome. I mean preschoolers sometimes talk more than high schoolers. So,
you know, I So yeah, I just thank you both for for what you're doing and um you know, please tell our families what you're doing, too. Okay. So, um transitioning to our pausing process, I think, um in light of time, I wonder if um when we think about
this particular vision card, um we have perception data. We have Minnesota student survey. We have our student stakeholders survey that's under construction. You saw that under construction signs in the slides. Um I think what what might be helpful um selfishly uh
that first question around the alignment check. How well do you feel like that perception data measures when we say safe, welcoming and inclusive? How well do you feel like that perception data is helpful in giving you and the public um some transparency around those things.
So I think that's something if we could give you five minutes to to talk about in discussion like together and then come back and share some of your thoughts. Is that does that work? Please take five minutes for a little discussion. >> Sure. >> Okay. All right. Thank you.
>> We all won't just stare at you. >> Okay. So, my first thought is that student and family stakeholder perception data. >> Yeah. Student perception versus the family. >> Oh yeah.
So, >> I don't know. I mean, it's valuable to have both, but I just feel like in terms of discussions around student experience for me, like it's more valuable to know more about more from our students in those
situations. Um, I can complete a family stakeholder survey, but do I really know the experience of high school? >> Yeah. >> Pretty big jump on the family survey. So
that may reflect like communication, but >> but it may not reality. >> Yes. Exactly. And that's what it fills in. It might be a good anchor data point. Does that make sense? Like kids can
always have ups and downs emotionally experiences. So maybe they're an anchor and then a question behind having that what are they shar not sharing with their parents? >> Yes. >> I think the these questions are really
helpful to me good alignment with what we're trying to measure. The summary measures are still kind of I don't know how many presentation questions brings it up at the end of the
the gaps in the students of color. Well, I'm always curious. My question on that is what follow-up questions are we asking to validate those responses and like understand the why behind them? Because it can't just be asking the question and getting
how do we know why? Why are they responding that low? What is driving that answer? >> Because it was mostly the students. >> Yeah. The parent jumped up. >> Yeah. and in particular was black and Hispanic students that were down.
>> Yes. >> Well, can you add a question of like circle the circle the top two issues that you lower like? >> Oh. Ready?
>> It's easier when there's just three. >> Okay. And we're back. >> So, we were noticing kind of the gap in the student perception and the family perception. Um, it was great to see the families jump up, but we had wonderings about that. Um, you know, that that may
indicate that we're doing a better job communicating. Um, but is it actually like reflecting the students experiences since they're reporting differentially? Um, and then as well as kind of the lower student survey results for black
and Hispanic students um and kind of um how are we understanding more about that which was kind of our general you know under having seeing the survey results for students but then kind of wondering about what's beneath that like why and kind of curious about the next revisions
to the student survey like are we going to get more um uh qualitative with the quantitative like why are they answering that way >> so like for the trusting adults if they don't respond positively can we find what what's driving that? So, it's not
just we want to change that. So, how how can we improve it? >> And then as far as the metrics kind of the alignment like um you know the survey data is rich and good um but I think like the scales probably wouldn't be meaningful to the community. Um, so
to and I think yeah, so I don't I don't know as far as like kind of our like somebody picking up the the vision card and looking at the 7.6 probably isn't going to be meaningful to them, but >> it's helpful at the board level.
>> So, so I guess like what action gets taken on the student survey like what happens with that data at the sites? So we share it with the school counseling group, the school social workers and the psychologists and they use it to do programming and things like that because
it is it's not every grade. It's only at transition points. Uh so then uh we also use it in some of our curriculum reviews to make sure that we're covering the topics that students uh maybe need some more learning in. Um and then what happens at the sites is really depends
on what that site specific data is. So, some sites use it to do group lessons with their counselor. Some sites use it uh in their tier 2 interventions. So, it there's some variety. >> I think this would have been a good
topic for like our student reps. >> Um, with what you just said, it would be nice as a future followup to have some of that data from students. I don't Dr. I don't know if you're doing holding space
or if the counselors are doing interviews with students, but um it would be much more helpful for us to have additional context into what students are experiencing versus just seeing this number on the scale. Um and
so yeah, I don't know what that looks like as a followup, but >> um maybe as an ongoing practice, some additional context would be helpful. One of our high schools did um center the student stakeholder survey in their
student management goal and did hold um several listening sessions and the interviews with their high school students. But we didn't do that like all the high school because they they got to choose which focus for their site. Um but we do have an example of what that
would look like. All right. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you both. >> Thank you for >> rolling into strategic direction B which is build and nurture culture of achievement. Understand here is that
10,000 ft uh view of the culture of achievement priority and the goal of students meeting expected growth on a reading and strategies of professional learning teams, high quality core instruction, process measure, learning walks and our outcome measure of our A reading screening data. Again, a
snapshot of the district operational plan with the strategy of the M andMTSS framework implementing that tier one core instruction and building leader capacity to observe, coach, and grow readers instructional practices. We have two outcome measures. I'll describe
those in more detail later. One piece of data that's not in our operational plan or on the vision card or the monitoring report is around early literacy. Uh the readact has provided us with some additional screening information and additional screeners on specific skills that students are growing.
>> The slide is >> it? >> Oh >> yeah. >> No, we slow down those emails. No, I'm just kidding. >> Uh the measure uh on the screen is kindergarten growth in the skill of word
segmenting. So, it may not seem like a a big skill, but it's about breaking apart words in order to hear their individual sounds, which helps with two important skills that we want to uh build, which is decoding or reading, and encoding, which is spelling. So, what we see on
the screen is that 18% of our kindergarteners made typical growth. So, that 50th to 74th percentile, but 57% of our kindergarters made aggressive growth. Uh this really points to that strong it's a strong leading indicator for us as we move into first grade and
it points to some uh really strong work with our tier one instruction in phonics. Uh this graph looks at students scoring in the low risk and very low risk categories. So on a reading student scores are put into four categories. Low
risk, very low risk, high risk and some risk. When we add the low risk and very low risk together, we want those numbers to be as close to 80% as possible. That's our goal. Uh that 80% represents a benchmark of uh being uh what we say
meeting grade level expectations. What we see here is that we still have uh some growth to do to get to that 80%. But we also see that students are growing when they're in the lowrisk and very low risk categories. Once we're there, we're keeping them there. Uh we
so between 2425 and 2526 uh all grade levels made progress. 11th and 12th grade were just added to screening for the first time per the readact. Um this is some promising data for us to look at.
A piece of data that is not in the monitoring quarter division card is our fall to winter growth data. So I'm going to make sure that we have an understanding of our our terms here. So growth by start score takes all students nationally who have
the same start score and compares them. And then we have typical growth. That's students who grow between the 50th and 74th percentile. And then aggressive growth if we're growing above the se 75th percentile or above. And one of the things that uh we can think about is
this is a two through 12th grade comparison. It's a ruler, right? And so you may get one score as a second grader uh that represents where you're at. You can still grow if you're a 12th grader when you get that score. It means something different because the test is
adaptive. So this data says that in fall to winter, which would be September to the January screener, we have 25% of students grew had typical growth and 19% of students had aggressive
growth. So if we think about that, that's 44% of our students are making expected growth at that time. That's fall to winter and then winter hit. The fall to spring growth, which is what is reported on our vision cards in monitoring report, saw only 21% of
students have typical growth and 10% of students have aggressive growth, which is 31% of expected growth. So one of the things that's very fascinating about this data is that typically we see less growth fall to winter than we do from fall to spring. And so this is some
curious data for us and I think one factor to acknowledge is the factor of metro metro surge. Uh the move to temporary online learning provided students with connection and instruction but not in the same way as being in their classroom with their peers, their teachers who they have connections with
and routines established. the emotional to toll it took on students, families and staff. The other factor is the people who support the teachers in doing teaching and providing the feedback. The staff development assessment specialists
across the departments, they were the ones doing the teaching during temporary online learning. So, they weren't able to support the teachers as much in making those adjustments and the differentiation. So, all of those are some compounding factors. Um, one of the things that we're working on right now
as we transition data personnel is taking the students who were in temporary online learning and teasing out what their actual in their achievement data was on these tests. So we are that is some work that we're is ongoing for our department.
So this graph represents the decrease by 10% in typical growth from the 2425 to the 2526 school year. This graph shows typical growth broken down by race. Multi-racial black and white students had increases in the
percentage of students who had typical growth, while Hispanic and American Indian students had decreases in their typical growth. This graph shows typical growth by grade level. Fifth grade, which is light gray, and 10th grade, the green line, both had
increases. Second grade, seventh grade, sixth grade all held steady and other grades experienced declines. If we look at growth between elementary school, middle school and high school, uh the typical growth is the purple. Uh
the aggressive growth is the marold. Um our data looks remarkably similar with middle school and high school having less aggressive growth than elementary school. Then if we look at aggressive growth, our aggressive growth data remained the same. 10% of our students experienced
growth at the 75 75th percentile or above. And this graph shows aggressive growth broken down by rich, white, black, Asian students had the same amount of aggressive growth as previous years, while multi-racial, Hispanic, and American Indians had less aggressive
growth. So the department of learning achievement has spent a lot of time thinking about this data and trying to figure out what's next. Uh we've talked a lot about it. We talked about the metro surge impact and I've talked previously about that implementation
dip. Uh you know we're in it right now for sure and we can't ignore it. So what is what are the adult actions and adult moves that we're going to do next? So oops there are six I think here. Uh curriculum pacing verification. We know
that we had uh some differences in where we're at with curriculum. So, in week 28 of the school year, we shouldn't be on week 11 in the curriculum, right? We've just now done a disservice to that student. So, how do we get into classrooms to make sure that we're on pace with that? Uh getting back in to do
those learning walks to determine professional learning needs. Do we have sites that are accelerating here? We heard from the two leaders who were here earlier the power in learning from each other. how can we get them to share across those sites about what they're doing? Uh making sure that all students are screened so we know what additional
supports they may need. Uh ensuring that we have our professional our core plans graded so that we're aligning our teacher goals to our student learning outcomes and monitoring that uh achievement growth measures. uh we'll this fall at data digs we'll establish
some achievement goals based off of the fall screening data and work with leaders and the instructional leadership teams to uh say okay by winter this is the number of students that we need to move so what are those instru intentional instructional moves that we're going to make and monitor to get
there uh working with uh and we're switching uh screeners at the sixth grade through 12th grade level to cappy which gives us more of that kindergarten-l like data like What skill exactly is it? Can we pinpoint to provide more direct support on working
with instructional leadership teams to ensure that we're using high level high leverage moves to monitor tier one instruction and just really continuing to provide high quality professional learning that's aligned to student learning outcomes and teacher learning needs.
Switching gears, we now return to the family survey and the culture of achievement scale. This these six questions make up this scale with staff know my school scholars interest having the greatest increase by 5%. And staff believe my scholar can
succeed at respon 90% of families responded positively to that question. This graph breaks down the family survey by race and shows that families of American Indian students, black students, and Hispanic students all responded more positively than in previous surveys.
And this graph shows the same scale by service group and gender. All groups either responded more positively or had no change than previous array. For the continuous improvement magnifier strategic direction B, we look at the relationship between ineffective
procedures and continuous improvement. And Sunonny Berskin, director of student services, testimony is there. Thank you, Dr. Kind. Um, so when it comes to reviewing the data that was just shared in relation to our students on IEPs,
sometimes it doesn't tell the full story. And so we need to be diving in a little bit deeper and looking at uh outcomes for our students and whether or not they're fully represented in the data that was previously shared. And so one way that we do that is looking at
progress reports. Um we are required to share student progress three times per year in writing and that progress um brings students as either meeting their goals um making progress towards their goals um or their goals haven't progress
is not on track. And so we pull that data at the end of each trimester uh and do kind of a snapshot of of where are we at. When we did that at the end of this last mark reporting period, it was clear that we were slightly below where we are we were where we were at at this time last year um but in that same range. So
86% of the goals that we have uh data on for this try are students that are making progress are meeting their goals. Goals are written to be met within one year's time. And so we are looking for that 88 to 90% range. uh and we'll
continue um making changes and striving towards that. Another data point that seems unrelated but actually isn't is the number of evaluations that we are bypassing. Uh we believe that when students are in front of their educators, they are benefiting.
And the more time that our educators can spend providing that direct instruction versus uh completing due process or other types of paperwork is going to result in benefit to our students. So uh we mitigate some of those due process
requirements whenever possible. We are allowed through the state of Minnesota to bypass evaluations. They used to be required every 3 years. Now, at that three-year mark, a team can determine if the evaluation is in the best interest of um the student. A team includes the
parent. Um they provide input on that as well. And when it's not in the best interest of the student, we bypass and use other data sources, saving the uh team a lot of time that would have been spent on paperwork. This year, we bypassed about 7.2% of evaluations that
were due, which is roughly, and I kid you not, 279. So, I mean, I'm just saying. I mean, I could have pulled that egg again today and it might have been 280, but that wouldn't have been as cool. So, um, but that is a good number for us. That is a
a nice target range for us. If we were exceeding, you know, 10%, that would be, um, we'd have some questions about, well, are we really truly evaluating as many students as we should? If we were um, at a number less than 4%, we would be questioning, are we utilizing this
opportunity? So, falling in a nice range there. Uh strategic direction B goal two relates to pathway to college and career readiness to enrich student agency and this relates to our accelerated coursework 12x 12 enrollment so that it mirrors our district demographics.
Again this is the snapshot of the district operational plan with uh the strategies uh and the process and outcome measures. And so I'm just going to jump right into the college and career readiness index. This is formerly the achievement index.
It consists of four measures. The first measure is to uh students are earning at least one semester or trimester credit in a post-secary college course. A concurrent or articulated course, an AP, IB or HP course saw a 7% increase from
last year. So our numbers are up in that area. Professional certifications increased by 1% overall. Internships, apprenticeships increased by 4% and we experienced a 1% decrease in the bilingual seal earning. This graph shows the college and career
readiness index by race and we can see an increase in students earning these credits or certificate certificates increased across the board. Our goal was 80% in each group and we fell short uh in each group as well. This graph shows the college and preiness index by service group. All
groups saw increases including students receiving special education services where we saw a 25% increase in students receiving uh one of the uh four things in the previous measure. And lastly, the 12 by 12 uh is the
measure which shows students who are on track to earn 12 credits that could lead to college credit by the time they graduate from high school. at the end of nth grade they should receive three six by end of 10th grade nine at the end of 11th grade and 12 by the end of 12th grade. Uh we see again this is broken
down by race. We see significant gains in each of our student groups. This graph breaks down the same data by service group and gender. Each group and gender saw increases in the 12 x 12 earning.
While the rest of the data for the entire presentation was about 2526 school year, our graduation data is about the class of 2025. So even though we celebrated graduation on Sunday, we're still looking at the class of 2025's graduation. As of 2025, Asian,
black, white, and multi-racial students had achieved the 80% bench benchmark. Each of these groups improved over the last year or remained above 90%. However, graduation and continuation rates for our American Indian and Hispanic students have been below the benchmark for most of the past five
years. And with that, Dr. Bass. All right. Thank you. So, this is a time to pause and process for strategic direction B. And so, there are several questions here. I
think um when we think about uh we've received feedback from the board before about um trying to uh not have the data be so wide and so broad that we don't get to have the deeper conversation. So, we've tried to
narrow it to to give you um uh some transparency around some of the different aspects of a culture of achievement, the acceleration opportunity, the uh our literacy uh trend data, and our graduation rates. And so, that that question uh under
alignment check, given the amount of data that we've shared, do you have suggestions? Uh should we narrow this even further? Did we get it about right? Um should we expand a little bit and go back out and get a few more pieces of data? So, I think that's something that um we want to really be responsive to as
you've you've asked for that uh for that uh narrowing. Did we hit it or is it too narrow? So, um is is 5 to seven minutes okay to have some time to have some conversation around that question? Okay. Could I ask one question about the um
when we were talking about the aggressive growth and that sort of thing is that >> because when you get to higher levels for like a second grader >> if they they probably don't see much progress by the end of the year. Correct. Because they're already so high up there's not much.
>> So since the test is computer adapted they would start getting third or fourth grade >> question there is opportunity for them to continue to have aggressive work. >> Thank you. That was it. >> Stand up. >> Either way, I'm stand
>> I think is focusing on the right data in your course results. >> Well, the good news is even if it's not the results you want, it's a wea you catch it, you understand. >> It's definitely the right data. >> It's just not the results that we want.
>> Yeah. relaxing in the fall and winter action. >> I think one of the questions I had is a way to measure loss from spring to fall.
um starting from ground zero, >> I'm sure. Yeah. >> Oh, that's a great question to ask. >> I felt like >> so I kept saying that a big cause of it was operation metro surge,
>> but the data was very similar last year >> and it wasn't great in the prior year. So, I kind of felt like that wasn't an excuse. >> I think you think Yeah. I am curious because there's like that cuz I understand
>> a valid point but the data was similar in your so >> um I don't know I guess I feel like they need to they need to do some more digging >> to figure out what happened there invested
I think one of the items I would even just say is given the amount of data shared. So for naring the scope even saying just be adaptable if you see >> areas to look into further come with
>> doesn't have to be an exact but if there's something that see as a trend brand it's an interest um I like it. Um, I guess my question is, do students know about it? >> Like, do they know that?
>> We're trying to check out these different boxes and is there a way that we can motivate them to participate? Um, >> that's a good question. I know this is kind of a newer initiative for us but >> well and if the if it's expansion of the
high quality or high value pathways um >> so participation mirrors district demographics is that so are we ensuring that the availability of all of our schools too is that reflected in the data >> um
>> questions around that I guess is what I would cuz this is more about the pathway and these are more about the results like the percentage of kids that get it versus do we have enough in place >> y access it
>> are those all in the right pathways >> so like if a student's business or a nonprofit >> should that count um to your point at the market like is
amazing similar Seriously, >> I'm sure. >> Yeah. I just I would be curious about that. I think I think it wouldn't be negative information. I think it'd be really positive. I think it would just be valuable to have it captured.
>> Great. And we're back. >> Okay. Um All right. So, I guess I'll start. Um but both of you jump in at any point. Uh we felt like for the most part, um the data
was spoton. Um I I think one of the things that would be nice in the future is to have some additional context to have actually have some research done um on why the reasons for the results. So for
example, it was mentioned that um operation metro surge was a reason for um a dip in the ringing scores, but the scores were very similar in the prior year um and have been low for quite some time. So like are there what are the
reasons for uh why haven't we met our our goals um in those areas? Um, and so I think just a little more um, information in the future would be helpful there. Um, versus kind of anecdotal information that doesn't add
up. Um, sorry I'm jumping around. Uh, so right now I'm at the college and career readiness index. Um I think we were looking at we were wondering if there is more information
um that needs to go into the index. Um so like are these the right boxes that we should be um checking out for students? Are students even aware that we're trying to meet these goals for each of these areas? Um are there other measures
that would be helpful? Um so maybe instead of PSO um you know API IB professional certifications you know if students are working or starting businesses nonprofits all the crazy things that our
students are doing now um how can we measure that um um in a in the same index? Um, what else? Working my way back.
>> Do you all want to add more on the A- reading aggressive growth scores? >> Yeah. Well, um, I guess I just more like a question. We were curious about um, we well, we like that it's fall to winter and then we see the fall to spring. That's really helpful, good information.
And we were just curious like were different actions taken um when we saw like the growth maybe wasn't where we wanted it to be from fall to winter. Did did anything change between winter and spring to try to achieve a different trajectory?
>> So I think one of the big challenges is that the people who would have supported the changes were teaching and temporary online learning. So right so how do we find that balance and we know that the the stress that that put on buildings as well and so
>> uh there was there's small actions taken yes where we didn't have any professional learning during that time >> so >> that connects the dots for metro surge exploration too in some ways >> is that a is spring or like winter spring a traditional time where there is
learning loss as motans like culturally is that something that happens from winter to spring. No, >> winter to spring. It typically >> typically goes up. Our typical learning uh decrease in learning is fall to winter. >> Understand? >> It's about winter screening because it's
January right after break >> is when we do our screening. >> Yeah. >> And so, you know, a lot can happen for students over the break. >> Interesting. >> Okay. Was it a similar decrease to previous years? >> I don't know the answer to that. I can
find out. Yeah, I'd be curious about that. >> Um, just trying to assess out if there's other factors that impact students and you know, Minnesota is unique and so how do we factor that into what we're looking at and so my only comment on the amount of data shared and how I thought
it was really good field of data. Um, and it's more like something about that like having flexibility when and I appreciated that you gave us the info on ICE and the SE metro surge and how you know the supports weren't available. Um, just having information like that is
super helpful and understanding because we don't I don't understand how it always translates for the classroom and so just having that translation is really helpful. So I appreciate that. >> Yeah. I mean ultimately we're like we think the data was right and um maybe
there's times we're in situ like depending on the data it's like follow the data when we need more or less right. So we we leave that flexibility and judgment to you guys. >> Um I like that the family stakeholder survey showed like good conditions for learning. It's just for us it was hard
to focus on are these the right measures when it's like the measures themselves were not what we want them to be. Um it was really no and because earlier in the year we saw um all of the the uh examples of what the curriculum looked like, what was being in place like the
blocks and the time and the hours. >> Um and I know director Dawson had sent us some questions too to add into the discussion and um just you know what can we do differently like from you know we'll have the funding discussion and the budget discussion but what what's
working or not working here? like we we saw that the dip there. Yes, there's a dip, but um yeah, it's it's a we were pretty shocked that it's not where we wanted it to be or expected to be given all all that we saw going into it. >> Uh so just from the Department of
Learning Achievement, we would agree we were horrified, I think is the word that came out when we first looked at it on on my birthday. In fact, it was a great birthday present. But I think you know when we dug into the data a little bit deeper and we see the classrooms where we have growth, we know what's working
there and that led to some of the actions that we developed that you saw on the slides. We know that in classrooms where we saw >> lots of growth um >> it is following the curriculum and the pacing guide. It is using that 30 minute of uh extra literacy. So there's 120
minutes and 90 30 phonics 60 CLA and there's 30 for differentiating time. is using that differentiation time really intentionally where we saw the highest increase in fifth grade and second grade the school or reorganized the classrooms to say okay Dr. Walker, he's really
excelling. He's going to go here for enrichment, right? So, thinking about those things and sharing those, again, going back to having opportunities for principles to talk with each other and share those stories. We see that. We know that works. And now it's just about talking about it more and not ignoring the dip. >> Yeah. Well, and that was a question I
had during the think was thinking about during the presentation was do we have one classroom with kids all over the place of growth or are we are we thinking about how best to organize the classes so that we have maybe kids in similar growth areas to really kind of
focus. >> Yeah. So, we still use the whole school cluster model where we look at students growth and then they're clustered into different groups uh based up what their growth is. So we don't have someone who has the highest growth with someone necessarily who has no growth. So we've
done that and have principles do that. >> Yeah, we'll be taking a deep I spoke to you a little bit about it already, a deep dive into where are the barriers occurring at and um just talking with the team. Um it could almost be foundational. It
could be how are the uh PLTs or professional learning teams being used because normally you don't have to break your um classroom down by that if you got the appropriate and I'm not saying it's not occurring by the way but uh getting a little bit deeper into data
how are PTS working then of course academics is not just academics is academics and student management so how do those two play a part so our goal is uh we'll be going very deep into where those barriers are happening ing it at and why things are not occurring. So,
>> yeah. >> Yeah. And I like what you said earlier about like putting the whole um system together, thinking about the academic and the social motion. Like that's that sounds like a game changer. >> Um I had a question about why why was
student data not part of the culture of achievement and how they're perceiving it? So since the student uh survey is uh under construction, we just focused on those key metrics and I think as we revised that and develop your questions better scales, we'll bring that back.
>> Sure. >> Oh, and going back to the data around that, it'd be interesting how and I'm sure you're already looking at it, but being a data nerd a little bit, how how it looks across the district and you know in the different classrooms. So, I'm just curious how that's all
impacted. >> I'm sure you are too lost. She's looking at me because she just gave me a big three ring ring, but I asked the same question. >> But yeah, I think right questions for sure. Thank you. Okay, that concludes
>> Oh, I am sorry I didn't bring up my college and career readiness question. My only comment here was do we measure like we measure the outcome? So, we're measuring how many kids are participating in getting those certificates. do we have a way to measure um how well our schools are
doing in providing and probably marketing to our students as well um so that there's awareness of the pathways and then just ensuring that each school has the best pathways for their students.
I did love when I went to the um I think it was the high school or I went I think high school orientation maybe >> um and they had like the booklet and it's for the whole district like so you can see the like so you can see across and now the consistency that we're bringing and the access across the
district that was >> right >> that was great I noticed that yeah >> I'll just add that's like one of the pieces that We when we're marketing we do try to pull out a lot. Um so we'll continue to do that because it is one of
the things and it's an advantage of coming in and here make sure people know about it. >> Totally 100% agree with that. >> Okay. No more extra questions. >> Thank you all so much. >> Thank you.
>> All right. Mr. Moore said we're going to go in and we're going to have a revealed 2026 27 budget. >> Oh, bring up your team. Come on. >> I know. I told them. >> Come on.
>> We're on a time. is the only. >> All right. Oh, you want me to wait? >> Ready? >> Okay. We already gave this to Kim, but just tonight um we're going to be
talking about the recommendation for the school board to adopt the proposed 2027 budget for all funds. The proposed budget reflects the board's prior direction, key budget decisions um for all, excuse me, key budget decisions made throughout the year and
the adjustments approved earlier in the spring. The general fund is projected to end fiscal 27 with a fund balance of 23.7% of expenditures are about 12.3 weeks of operation. So just over three months we can run um in if for some reason state,
federal, and everyone cut cut off all funding, we can last about 3 months. That level remains above the district's 5% fund balance policy and continues to reflect the transition from a stable to what we would call a watchful overall financial position.
Uh as Kelly Bonusa, director of business services, walks through the budget this evening, she will highlight the major assumptions, the key changes for both the prior year and our February projections and imple excuse me, implications of the 5-year financial forecast. So, we'll introduce Kelly.
>> Thanks, John. Good evening. Uh before I begin, I want to thank uh the business services leadership team and our budget managers across the district for all their work in preparing those materials that we're going to be looking at tonight. So in your materials tonight,
we have two budget documents. The first is item two, the budget summary and fiveyear financial projections by that's the document we're going to be focusing on this evening. The second is item three and that's your fiscal year 27 annual budget. So, we're not going to
review that document tonight. That's included and will be posted to the district's website after board approval on June 23rd. So, that annual budget is organized into five sections. There's the introductory, organizational, financial,formational,
and then our benchmark comparison. So, together those sections provide the full budget picture. And tonight though, our focus is the budget summary and the five-year projections by fun. So like prior years, this budget was developed in a challenging financial and
funding environment and the fiscal year 27 budget reflects that reality. With that, let's turn to item two, the budget summary and five-year financial projections by fund and begin with the fiscical year 27 budget memo to the board. And that's on page 125 of your
packet. So the timeline shows the fiscal year 27 budget planning process. It's designed to give the board multiple opportunities to provide direction or take action as John just mentioned. Moving on to page 126 of your packet and
page two of that memo. The proposed fiscal year 27 general fund budget includes revenue of 349.6 million and expenditures of 367.8 million. That results in an anticipated operating deficit of 18.2 million and a
projected year in fund balance of 87.2 million. Comparing that with our 26 revised budget, revenue is increasing 6.8% and expenditures are increasing 6.9%.
At the same time, the projected hearing fund balance declines from 30.6% 6% to 23.7%. While this is a planned use of fund balance, the district remains above policy minimums and within a range that
supports operational stability. Overall, the budget reflects a deliberate balance between meeting current needs, investing in strategic priorities, and maintaining appropriate financial reserves. So, below that table are the major 27
expenditure adjustments. So we have several major expenditure adjustments that are reflected in this 27 proposed budget. The board approved adjustments from February 24th total a net increase of 2 million.25
and they included the enrollment alignment the additional custodial staffing for increased high school square footage revenue related reductions for student support personnel aid and school library. Minnesota paid leave, payroll tax, and
remaining operating capacity for Aspen Ridge Elementary. In addition, the board approved a one-year strategic investment in special education staffing totaling 2.75 million. While that investment increases fiscal year 27 expenditures, it is
expected to generate partial revenue in fiscal year's 28. The budget also includes the delayed crest view rebuild startup costs that shift from fiscal year 26 into fiscal year 27. The planned elimination of the
compensatory maximum hold harmless and then savings from our fiscal year fiscal year 26 major revision. So now we're moving on to page 127 or page three of that memo. So taken together, these factors contribute to
expenditure growth of 6.9%. Which is above the district's 3% expenditure target. That higher growth is primarily being driven by strategic investments, compensation and benefit changes, transportation and utility
increases, and timing shifts between fiscal years. So I'm going to turn it back to John for a few comments. Yeah, I just wanted to touch on uh that the district is really hitting a crossroads. Um for the first time in our budget history, we spend more than a
million dollars a day on just the basic general fund, not including any grants, any of those pieces. Well, like compensatories, we consider a grant, but we spend over a million dollars a day to operate the district. Um and while that we've had to make some very specific
strategic approaches and to address specific needs in the recent future and those are included in the financial projections. Um we're really going to be needing to ask the board to provide some guidance um and thoughtful decision- making on what the future looks like. So
we're going to present here shortly a couple different call them general direction options um for consideration. And really that's really what we're looking for is is the district's going to need direction on on where the board wants us to go and then obviously we'll present options to you to make
decisions. So it's it's thinking about that as we move forward um because we have moved into fiscal 26 was the first year of us deficit spending and uh that now is our foreseeable future and so we have to decide how we want to address that.
So you're providing information tonight and you are not asking the board to just information decision. Not all board members are here. Correct. >> This is just information. >> Okay. >> The fiscal year 27 budget reflects a deliberate multi-step planning process over the past year. Throughout that
process, the school board has had multiple opportunities to provide direction, review assumptions, and approve key adjustments. The budget before you tonight is the direct result of those decisions in the community of health network. As part of that process, assumptions related to both revenues and
expenditures have been refined to reflect current legislation, cost trends, and updated information. While revenue growth continues to be constrained by factors such as formula limit limitations and levy capacity expenditure pressures particularly in
areas such as compensation which is has a compounding impact since most of our costs are in the staff area transportation costs and utility inflationary increases continue to exceed our long-term trend targets. So
looking ahead, the five-year financial projection is a planning tool that helps show the impact of those assumptions over time. It highlights increasing tension between program needs and long-term financial stability as expenditures are expected to continue to outpace those return leggings as John
just mentioned. As a result, future decisions will require thoughtful consideration of both immediate student and program needs and the long-term sustainability of the district's financial position. Maintaining that balance will require continued monitoring, refinement of
assumptions, and over time consideration of operational adjustments to ensure the district remains aligned with his fund balance policy and preserves his long-term financial stability and flexibility. So, continuing on that page three of
that memo, um, compared with the February 24th, 26 projections, the fiscal year adopted budget reflects now a more detailed line item based development process rather than that broader percentage assumption used earlier in the year. Revenue is now
projected to be higher by approximately 5.1 million, while expenditures are higher by approximately 9.3 million. As a result, the projected year ending balance fund balance is about $2.3 million lower than estimated in February. It's important to frame these
differences as refinements in assumptions and calculations, not as changes in the district's overall fiscal direction. As the budget moves from forecast to detailed development, these updates are expected and provide a more accurate picture of the district's financial
wellbe. So moving to page 128 and 129 of the packet and then page four and five of the memo. The updated budget is driven by several important revenue and expenditure changes. On the revenue side, the most significant increases come from special education revenue,
including additional federal tuition adjustment, desegregation transportation revenue, abatement revenue, general education aid, third party medical billing, operating our random revenue and English learner revenue. These gains
are partially offset by lower projected interest income. On the expenditure side, the largest pressures include in salaries the one-year special education, staffing investment, staffing contract settlements, and in benefits, increases
in medical insurance and HSA costs, and purchase services, higher transportation contract costs, utility increases, tuition adjustments, and other detailed line item refinements that became clear during budget development.
In some cases, expenditures such as in salaries were also shifted from funding sources to maximize allowable revenue as was the case with special education expenditures shifted from federal grants as part of the federal tuition adjustment component to the revenue formula
um that was then detailed out in this memo. So that reflects a strategic approach to our funding alignment and helps strengthen our overall financial picture for state and federal rules permit. So we're trying um whatever we can to
maximize our revenues. And with that I move to page 131 of your packets for the first um fiveyear financial projection by fund. So starting with the fiscal year 28 5-year financial projection for the
general fund. This projection is a highle visual summary of the financial forecast with supporting detail provided on the following pages. This gives you multiple ways to review that information. There are three sections to this projection and that same structure
is used for all of the funds presented tonight. However, the assumptions and parameters for each of those funds is different. The five-year projection provides important context for the district's financial planning beyond fiscal year 27. In the general fund, the forecast shows continued pressure on
fund balance over time. Even with the planned operational adjustments starting fiscal year 28, the projected fund balance declines to 5.2% by fiscal year 2031. Currently, we're planning for operational reductions of 2 million in
28, 3 million in 219, 5 million in 2030, and a 6 million in 2031. And those reductions right now total 16 million. So that trend highlights the need for ongoing monitoring and future decisions around expenditure reductions or revenue
opportunities or both. to preserve that long-term flexibility, we may need to consider other options to break financial future financial stability, which one John's going to speak to um after we review all the funds tonight. And with that, I'll hand it back to John
to go over the nutrition. >> Uh yeah, the uh part of Jeff Answer will be played by me because he had a conflict this evening. So, I will jump in and go over food service really quickly. Um the general fund for food service generates its own revenue and pays for its own
expenditures um completely separate of the um of the district's general fund. The only time those would merge together it was if food service was in a deficit and the general fund act was required to step in and help cover.
Revenue sources here um come from breakfast, lunch, after school snacks, allocart sales and summer programming. revenue is projected to outpace expenditures for the next three years and in 2030 and 31 expenditure projections um would show them slightly outpacing
revenue in the out years. At the beginning of the 2526 school year, we were trending to a 10% increase in breakfast and a 6% increase in lunch over the prior year's participation. Um at about that time the metro surge
occurred and we saw a significant turn um in the in reduction in the participation of over versus prior years numbers from December through about March and in April we went flat and May started to see a little increase again. Um the fund balance has been
consistently healthy in the past and projections show it will continue in the foreseeable future. In 2025, fund balance was increased by just shy of $700,000. Um the dis the the fund does operate
under USGA rule, USDA rule, excuse me, that allows a maximum of three months of average expenditures on hand in fund balance. We today exceed that three-month amount. However, there is a waiver in place again for the 2627
school year that allows six months because of either changes coming out of COVID or with the meal um the free meals plan and they're seeing school districts are are uh pretty consistently seeing an increase in fund balance across the state. Over the past few years, we've focused
on increasing our capital expenditures to be intentional and spend down that fund balance by reinvesting in our district's kitchens and frontline staff. For example, this summer we are uh ripping out and removing the OIO Senior High dishroom and office space and
upgrading it to make it more user friendly as well as bringing in a state-of-the-art wearashing um equipment for about $550,000. We continue to focus on improving our kitchen facilities and bringing outdated equipment up to date in the years to
come. Any questions on the food service? and I'll hand it to Brian Severson Hall to talk about community. Great. >> Thanks, John. So, um I'll go over the fund for community service fund. And
similar to food nutrition services, we're a self-funding fund area. Um and I know this has 25 through 31, but kind of by era, just without going too far back. Uh in 2020, we fell off the cliff on revenue from 19
million to 11 million. And then from 21 to 24, we had kind of this rapid back in action where we jumped up, if you count our 1.7 million in and grant state aid, that doesn't show up on here, we made it all the way back up to 20 million in
revenue. So, we had a three-year uh window where we uh grew 10 million in revenue. And as you can see now that we're back to this chart, you can see we're in the middle of a 25 26 27 where our expenditures are have been outpacing our revenue. We foreshadowed that and
talked about that a little bit last year. And then you can see we're about to uh we're planning for 28 through 31 to get a stabilization where you pretty much have um flat uh revenue and expenditures uh with some operational
adjustments in there. So we're kind of in this three different segments that we we've had in these in these three four year uh segments. Uh our goal you can see um when you start on the upper left uh this expenditures outpacing revenue is
significant to the point where our fund balance goes from 23% to 5%. So that's pretty it's a significant decline in our fund balance. I typically try to have our fund balance between 7 and 15%. I've shared it with this board before. I don't like it to go below 7% because
we're self-funding and uh we want to be able to have dollars in there to do creative programming. And I don't like it to go over 15% because 70% of our revenue is participation fees. So in my opinion, if we get much higher than
that, we're probably charging people too much, right? So I want the programs to be reasonably priced. But you can see, as I already mentioned, 2028 will begin some larger operational adjustments, but we'll also that will prevent us from
going into a negative fund balance where we might need to make a request from fund one to cover our negative fund balance, but it'll also get us to uh that 7% uh threshold that I prefer. And as is typical in community ed, we adjust
as we go along both by adding and subtracting based on participation. Right? So even this upcoming year, we have additional revenue and expenditures that we're expecting because we're bringing as we're bringing community programs to Aspen Ridge and we're also
going back online with community ed programs at Fernbrook that we took away because of school capacity for the last two years. So even uh even while we're doing this work, there's still some variation in our programming and there are already some adjustments
that start on July 1st of this year that are reflected in this budget. Um we Ki was here earlier. We've we've uh cut three FTEEs out of her program already starting on July 1st. Our budget doesn't
always line up exactly the same year that the school has. Sometimes we've had years where the school has been fund one has been making cuts and we've been doing really well and in this case we just happen to be a little bit ahead of the curve of where the fund one is and we're
making our adjustments now. Um, so we've done some of those already for this upcoming year as well as um some increases in uh fees for some of our programs to have the revenue catch up. So, we've already done um some of those
adjustments and yeah, cut spending. We always adjust it midyear. Mike's here. And some fee increases. Did I miss anything, Mike? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And I did inform the school board through Dr. Kyle about some of the adjustments we made in our AB program
with um that doesn't show up on here all the time because that's technically we consider that a grant money even though we tend to get it from year to year. Um and that's about $1.7 million but our expenditures in AB have been
outpacing our revenue and because of it the way it's funded that gets covered by community fund balance. Uh, and as you can see, we can't we can we can't do that, right? It's not going to work. So, those are um
roller coaster is the wrong word, but a little more variation in this little six-year period that we're currently in uh than we've had uh in recent years, but going to be stabilized pretty quickly. Did I get everything, Mike? Yeah. And
thanks to Mike. Mike helps our our team out a lot, so appreciate him. We'll move on to the last fund. So on page 138 of your packet in the capital fund, but this was your 27th position remains above that 10% minimum, but
future years are going to rely on operational adjustments and levy related planning to sustain fund balance and support our ongoing capital priorities. Included in the projection is the payoff of the asset age assessment of 3.5
million. This creates a significant constraint on available expenditures over the next several years. So John and I are exploring other potential options to help alleviate that pressure such as including those costs in future bond. This makes the capital fund another area
where longrange financial planning remains important. Overall, the fiscal year 27 budgets, both immediate operational realities, and a longer range financial planning. The district continues to balance both our student needs, strategic investments, and sound financial
stewardship. The plan balance needs an important planning tool because it gives the district flexibility to manage variability, respond to changing needs, and adjustments over time. At the same time, the five-year forecast makes clear that continued monitoring and future
operational decisions will be necessary, particularly in the general community service and capital funds. The actions already taken by the board have positioned the district to adopt a budget that is manageable in the near term while also identifying the pressure
points that will need to be addressed in future budget cycles. So in closing, we'll recommend that the school board approve the fiscal year 27 budget for all funds of the June 23rd coordinator. The budget reflects the district's operational needs, the
strategic investments approved by the board, and continued commitment to financial stability. So following that adoption, our next major steps will be preparing for the fiscal year 26 audit in July and returning to the board in November for acceptance of the fiscal
year 26 audit results. And with that, I'll open it back to John. >> Thanks, Kelly. The uh so the last thing I want to really talk about and kind of touch on what I mentioned before are um I think Brian really kind of walked us in the
door just a little bit because you know how you described you're you're a step ahead of us. Um I I think is fair. It's um the district's at a situation where we just need to start thinking about options for the future. We're not in a
rush. As as Kelly stated, our finances are stable today. We are in a good spot. Um, but we need to start planning mindfully. Our district has a great habit of of really giving ourselves a long runway so we can really take lots of different variables and perspectives
to make a good decision. And I think that's really where we're um we want to say just just as a heads up, the the budget as a whole now kind of needs that lens. Um, and what I just showed here is just two very simple, just call them rough directions. So, option one is the
direction we're on today, which is we're in order to meet the board policy, we're simply going to recommend operational adjustments to stay in line for that 5%. So, um, what you're looking at here is the 5-year projection, but it's just the last three years. And the reason I picked the last three years is there's a
a a kind of an a you look right in the middle, the the three numbers almost match exactly. They're $17.5 million. That's today. We bring in $17.5 million less than we spend on average every single year. That
is a long-term concern we have to figure out how to address. Um the question of how is well we just need to to dig in and like I said get get the lens and take a look at that's option two is option one we just keep going along we essentially going to cover the cost of
our inflation um eventually 20 and actually in fiscal 2033 we'll be in statutory operating if we follow that path but that's in about six years. Um, so other than that, option two would say
let's look at doing something to reduce that 17 and a half million year over year over year that's sitting out there. So, it's again not direction, simply um a heads up so that in the future you're aware that that that's that's tension that that
Kelly kind of mentioned that's there that we're going to have to see. Now, I know those numbers look really daunting, too. But I want to point out that when we say we need to reduce or or make an operational adjustment of $2 million, that's less than half a% of our budget. >> We got a half% total. >> That's two days. Like I said, that's two days.
>> We got it. >> We can do that >> super super. >> So So this is not a >> while the numbers look big. This is achievable. We we can make this happen. It's just working together as a team and collaborating like we do so well in all
categories, we can solve this. But it's just know it's out there. And the other reason why we're looking at 29, 30, 31 is we have time to look at. We're not in enough panic. We're not in a rush. We have time to just take a look and do this right. And so I'm excited for the
opportunity that will present to us going forward because I think it will just make the district stronger. So with that, we'll turn it back to you for questions. >> Yeah. So I guess just picking up where you left off. Um and then you all jump in. Um can you tell what what's the
process right now maybe behind the scenes with staff to start having those conversations about u possible recommendations? >> We actually started looking this in August. So you want to talk about the >> Yeah. So, we've um even with the current
the budget cycle or or the long-range financial planning process that we got to help us get to today, we introduced a concept called glide that's intended to say essentially everybody take a look internally at what you're spending what
you're spending on and and see does it fit into one of these categories. And some of the examples are can you be more efficient? Can you create more revenue? Um is there that lowhanging fruit? And I'll always go back to the same thing of um you know food is a very obvious one for
us. We we uh we spend a little bit of money on food in our district and and even a slight adjustment to say you know what I'm going to make sure there's something for this meal but I don't we don't have to have enough lefto. Um that's planful. That's just saying
okay we're going to make sure that that's a little bit more aligned and we save some money. Um, we're constantly looking at at those all the departments are at the continuous improvement. What can we do to do this a little bit better? You know, you you've seen in here there are some operational
adjustments that DTL made to make some changes to some of their staffing around assessments and relating that that's going to make them function um a lot more efficiently and >> significant cut. Yeah. >> You know, so that's a great example. Um we've made some of those changes on the
um operations side as well where we're saying hey how we're operating today has changed a little. We have a position that we may or may not need or we can make some adjustments to change that and save some money. So a lot of them are very little corrections but it starts with teaching everyone here's what you
can potentially look at and it doesn't mean go to cut immediately. There's four or five different ways you can address each area. It's it becomes what's best for your department and what's best to say is is that program critical that we've got to figure out a way to keep
it. Is it you know again you kind of have to rank them. So so we kind of start the evaluation process >> and most people I'm sorry automatically jump and think it's something that's impacting their class. We're nowhere. >> Nowhere. I'm going to put that on the record.
>> Yeah. >> Yeah. So, I'm going to ask the question that I think is being asked in every organization when we're talking about efficiency and continuous improvement. Are you all also talking about >> how we might leverage AI to um achieve
some of those goals? >> Um I mean I know we are on individual basis. I don't think we are >> like strategically as a district saying we have to implement AI everywhere. I don't want to step on anything. Anthony tell me if I'm wrong. Um, but like I
know we're one of the examples I'd give you is we're looking at a a system that leverages AI to help manage um all of our security processes better >> um to be more effective. It's costefficient. It brings down the amount of um we spend right now for three or
four different components we can compile into one and it's utilizing AI. So we're just getting so much more out of one single component. So we're going to test that this next year and again just trying to be mindful that that might be a direction to go. Um, are there things we can do? Yeah, I think we're at the tip of the iceberg with figuring out
where those fit. >> Once again, saying it out loud on recording. Nothing regarding teachers. >> Yeah, I don't think you can AI teachers. No, >> I would officially like to be on record. >> Yeah, that's why I wanted to put it out there. >> However, other districts that have made
more spare cuts, the fact of the matter is we're a people organization and people cost cannot outpace what the state is funding us at. That's the fundamental root cause is state funding >> and it falls on the districts and we're a people organization. So I I do recognize I think the four and because
the 17 million is 4 and a.5% completely achievable like that I like that doesn't scare me at all and it sounds like with glide it comes back to the what's the strategic framework and I think that's where we want to be involved in >> is um working with management to
establish the strategic framework. Um, and I also think this is the right time to marry up the educational ROI with the financial ROI. Given the student outcomes we're seeing, >> we can't go down both directions
financially and student outcomes and >> understanding how our budget reserve plays into that. Like we >> we still have to be flexible enough to say where do we need to make investments or repurpose dollars. I think this is the time to really tear open how we
budget and how we look at the outcomes and the investments that we're making uh and change and build that into the culture like you're saying. >> Um this is the time to like completely transform this conversation about finances and outcomes together.
>> Yeah. Thank you. >> So we started in August. Yeah, I mean it's scary to deficit spend for sure, but it's understandable too seeing where our fund balance was at. It was at 38.4 and 25. So that's much higher than we needed. Um so it's kind
of right sizing based on what I'm hearing. So it's not necessarily super scary, >> but um as a non- finance person, can I ask a similar question? >> So the operational adjustments 2 million and then we also have the fund projection. So is that the 2 million
plus the deficit out of the fund? So what we're taking out of the fund along with an adjustment of 2 million. >> So when you're looking at that $2 million adjustment that rolls into the next year. Okay. >> So we're saying in order for us at the
very last year to hit 5 a.5%. We started with 16 million or so and then we said okay do you could sit and wait and put 16 million on the very last year or it might even be is it more than that when you do that the number goes up significantly >> because 2 million in the first year is
then four then six then eight so you're saving. >> Um so we just kind of gently spread it to say what's the minimum and ultimately that's the minimum that that we run into. So when you really look at it, it's it's we're essentially covering the inflationary increase >> above 3%. That gets us from year to
year. >> Okay? Because it's that like in u where am I looking? 27 the big jump from so we go 2319 149. So we're doing a gentle slope in there and I appreciate that. Um
it just yeah I'm just curious about more of this and I know it's the beginning of the journey so just wondering how that will shape up and obviously teaching and classrooms are the priority for sure and I appreciate that and your leadership and how you've expressed that even in
how we've handled contracts and stuff. So, >> and I think even over the past three years with the three C's and with the how do we take weight off the system, how are we cognizant of um where we have redundancy or kind of little pockets of
things that maybe isn't achieving the outcome that we're intending and it's been around for a long time. So, I mean, I think this is a huge opportunity. I think viewing it as an opportunity um is is definitely the right way to think about um this work effort. I am
thankful we're not in the position of other districts for sure. So, um I don't, you know, I don't obviously don't want to have to have deficits, but I appreciate that you guys have been so financially responsible and we are where we are. Like it's not
>> abysmal >> and it's not a surprise. Like you said, we've been seeing this coming, seeing it coming, knowing all of the activity. So, it in no way, shape, or form is this a surprise. It's just to your point, now is the time we have to do things different and pull different levers going forward. Um, and I do want to
mention Director Dawson kind of had sent in some questions and I think we've covered most of them, but she also mentioned kind of really needing to link those outcomes and the finances. They have to go together um in a new way of how we think about this.
>> What um Oh gosh. What? Oh, you mentioned that you were looking for guidance from us. like what kind of what would that look like? >> Well, today it's just start thinking about >> I I mean I think we don't know the answer to that yet. So So I think that's a a we need to take some time and put
some strategy around how do we want to >> as a cabinet team and and under Dr. Hile's direction say how how do we want to start approaching this and where do we make sure the board is involved in that? >> Yeah, sounds >> it's more of a heads up. >> Okay, >> anything. I do think so. you mentioned that this isn't a surprise and no it's
not a surprise to us um that we're starting these conversations but this may be a surprise to the community. >> Yes. >> And so I think a priority for me is making sure that >> we have some sort of timeline identified in advance for these discussions and
that we are thinking about how we bring the community along in this process as well. >> Um so they're not surprised >> at the $17 million >> in cuts at the end of the day. >> Good point. >> Yeah. Yeah, and I think I mean I think we built the framework because we just did boundary changes and all those
things as an example to say, you know, that works fantastically. >> Um I don't know if that's work or not, but uh but but it's just a great framework to show you how how tying all those things together and bringing people in and saying we need your feedback too. What's important to you? What's not? We that's the nice thing
about the time we have >> where we're not in a rush and you know you guys have been in a difficult spot the last couple years and had to make some hard decisions, some good decisions, right? And it's okay that we had fund balance and it's okay to spend that. It's just knowing how do we keep it on the right side long term. So
again, you have the flexibility. So when when that weird curveball comes up, you still have the flexibility to do something. >> And I think I think that's kind of the financial goal we're always looking to is how do we maintain flexibility for the board so they can make that tough decision when they have to. That's that's really the heart of it.
I think from a board direction standpoint, I think if I'm correct me if I'm wrong, but I think um our I think our guidance and direction would be we want to be involved and we want to be involved in the strategic framework and we want to see something that begins to
evolve the budgeting process and the financial process to be tied to student outcomes and start talking student ROI. We have a lot of rich information in um in the report that does have a lot of that how much we spend on instruction and and so forth and how much we're
spending in curriculum implementations. Like we want to be able to um put the dollars where it's going to have the biggest impact to student outcomes and that's the type of information that we're going to need going forward. So to me that's the board direction we want to
provide at this time. >> Yeah, that's really good. Anything to add? >> No. Well, the only thing I did have a question about was the food and nutrition. What do you typically do when you're in this kind of a situation >> where it just is only going up? >> You want to
>> um you know, it's this is the uniqueness. I mean, we've only had free meals since fiscal basically fiscal 24 on. So, it's um I expect at some point the state's going to have to either they'll either reduce what they >> um what they reimburse us.
>> They'll bring that down a little because they'll see it as a revenue source and then go we can lower our own expenses, do our own version of glide because right now, frankly, we're making money off this program. >> Um and and it's not just us statewide. All school districts are making money on their food service program. >> Um and and sooner or later somebody's
going to ask, well, can I transfer some of that money to the general fund? So that's what I was wondering. >> Yeah, >> which there's ways to do that, but the state will jump real quick as we start to do that and go, uhuh, we want >> activity fees or like >> Yeah, there's lot lots of things. So I would expect that this will correct
itself and that'll probably come up in legislation in the next year. Um, but what we're trying to be mindful on is those things that are big capital investments where we don't necessarily have to tie up our capital dollars because we're allowed to use those expenses in food service. We're taking advantage. Um, so and we've been doing
that for the last three years. So we've replaced a ton of ovens and fridges and the big expensive things. Um, so that and we're still as healthy as we see. So we're in a great spot with food service. So our goal is probably to bring um August is already quite busy up from
work session but uh at least by September is to start to show you a draft a parameter of what we're thinking well as probably by August the beginning of the tech plan we've been working on that as well. So >> and if we need to add a session in
between August and September we were kind of chatting beforehand rather than try to >> push things out or push things in really works. Thank you. probably not in August, but July might be open to it. >> Thank you. >> And yeah, we typically take July off,
but if we can't then >> Yeah, >> perfect. Thank you. That helps a lot. >> All right, we're going to keep going because evidently they turn the air off in the building. >> So, we're going to Thank you, finance.
>> Thank you. >> We're saving money. We turn the air off. on the agenda. You >> say the lights around. >> Lights are still on. >> All right. Um we're going to have a
presentation by um on language access and we had a beautiful one this morning at our professional development for our system leaders. So >> did you want to introduce Dr. Bass or I didn't mean to brush you on
Is still open? >> AI conversation about Dr. Kle members of the board. Um thank you for this opportunity to share about our language access plan. We did uh provide an update with our leaders uh across the
system. Uh earlier today um also included some parents in the process to really simulate um some of the experiences that uh multilingual families were having. So we're excited to bring a lot of work um on sweat
across multiple teams. Um you'll see once the slides come up that this is a a partnership across uh multilingual learning our English learner program uh family and community engagement and Gil and then communications with Kell and
again this is Kirstston Merson our coordinator for English learner programs. So um our presentation outcome is to learn about the district's development of a language access plan uh to explore the alignment to state
legislation that recently passed around this and gave us a a planning year um it was more like a planning 18-month stretch um and then uh its alignment to our strategic direction C uh and then provide looking for you all to provide feedback on our development and the next
steps. So, uh, strategic direction C, which we got to share out, uh, in April, um, our highest, uh, priority there is is is trying to make sure that we standardize the use of our communication tools for
timely, accessible, accurate information. And when we get into the plan, you'll see that this language that we established um, several years ago is actually the language that the legislation wants us to wants to see in these plans. So, it's pretty exciting that that we were like we're in
alignment with with legislation. So, um that's exciting. Uh so, um that grounds us as we move into the development of the plan. >> Okay. So, to start off to provide a little bit of context, good evening. It's nice to be with you. It's been a
little while since I've talked to the board. So, um, to provide a little context about our district and and what we're talking about when we're talking about language access for our community, uh, it's important to share that we have more than 125 different languages
represented within our school community. And you can see in the graphic there, um, it kind of shows in that image, um, in each like little slice of the pie different languages that are represented. And you can see that there are some languages that have many more speakers in our district than others.
But uh total uh we have more than 125 different languages spoken and more than 28% of our families report the use of uh a language other than or in addition to English at home. So we would refer to that as our multilingual population. And then uh after English, the top five
languages in our district are Spanish, Mong, Vietnamese, Somali, and Normal. So when we're talking about language access, we actually have a definition that comes from the state uh that is guiding this work. And so the state is
providing to all school districts in Minnesota what this means. Uh and so that's helpful. And as Dr. Bass referenced, you'll notice some connections in terms of the language that's used to what's in our strategic plan and um priority. So, language
access is defined as providing individuals who communicate in a language other than English with timely and reasonable access to the same information and services as English speaking individuals. It's important to note that also in addition to language other than English, what you might think of as like uh English learners, also
including people who may have a disability who would impact their ability to receive communication uh in English. So meaningful access is also further clarified for us. We have to provide assistance and access to accurate, timely and effective
communication at no cost to the individual receiving the services. And for English learners that meaningful access means that it cannot be unreasonably restricted, delayed or inferior compared to the access to programs or activities that are provided
to English proficient individuals. So we have a lot of clarity around what this means and what we're working towards uh as we provide this in our community. In addition, uh we're reminded about uh the connection to language access as a civil
right. So, this is really important that this is while there is like new legislation in Minnesota around this, it is tied back to um civil rights legislation at the federal level, the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Um, and so the
Minnesota State Statute that's referenced here and that the language access ban is built on uh is directly connected to that. And the language access plan that we're developing is a very comprehensive document that will outline all of our district's commitments and processes and procedures
that we'll employ in order to ensure that all of our community has equitable access to services uh for those who speak languages in addition to English. Some specifics that are included uh as well for us to provide more direction and clarity. Uh the first is that during
a formal public schoolboard meeting, the plan, our language access plan must be adopted within this school year. That's one of the requirements. In addition, we have to have some standardized processes and procedures in order to provide effective assistance to our uh students
and our families and our staff. One of the requirements is that we use trained or certified interpreters for all communication that is related to academic outcomes and progress or placement in specialized programs or services. I'll just like put a little
note in about this because this is maybe one question that frequently comes up. There currently is no state certification or training specifically for interpreters working in educational settings. There are some for interpreters in healthcare settings and in legal or court settings but not u for
education. So uh this is something um that we will also be developing and working with some others to develop that can be more specific to educational settings. And um in addition we have to ensure that there's meaningful participation in individualized
education program process for families. um as well. The other really big focus in the legislative requirements are around public accountability. There's a lot of um accountability that we have to our public. First, we have to be
communicating about the plan and the services that we provide to our community in many ways. So, it has to be in our handbooks, it has to be available online. Um we have to take other steps to notify families of their rights and the services that we would provide.
The school board has to review and approve our plan. We have to make adjustments to it at least every two years. And we also need to implement a review and appeal process. So if needs are not met, uh we are looking at those and responding on an ongoing basis, not
just every two years. So good evening everyone. So the uh core folks you see here were part of the core team leading the language access plan process. In addition to the individuals here, there was a larger group of stakeholders that were convened to start the work. This included elementary and
secondary principles, resource managers, we had representatives from early childhood and adult basic education, enrollment and nutrition services staff. Um also information systems, human resources and student services staff along with our uh multilingual communication.
So we began the process first with really understanding what a language access plan was and the purpose of why we need one and have and need to have one as a district. Um so our broader stakeholder group we got together to then we got together to complete our um
comprehensive self- assessments. Okay. So the self assessment focused on the six key areas as you see here on the screen. Um and they were identified by uh MP or Department of Education. Um and it required us to really take a deeper look at where we are as a system and
what we need to uh prioritize as we're moving forward with um developing a language access plan and improving our language access that we provide to families and scholars. So once that was completed the assessment helped us understand our overall performance as a system and then um we divided up into um
focus areas where we identified key priorities, gaps and initial ideas for improvement. Um when we were in the smaller group working, we further analyzed the data to build um on the findings that we had from our self assessment as a larger group. And this work led to what we developed in this
draft that you see now for the language access plan. And so as we continue the work, we need to really um gather feedback from the broader community, especially our families to help refine and strengthen the plan. >> And so just to like look, the small groups all worked on each of these six
areas. So, um we're just going to like talk a little bit about um how this happened. So, the first area was around identifying and assessing families language communication needs and um and then we kind of went from there. And so, there are two different plans that
you're that you're seeing in your packet. The first is the public facing plan and it's about uh 10 pages and it includes like all it start everyone's everything starts off with our commitment and the purpose and then it will include um context for the plan and
the main components that we are providing around language assistance services family rights under the plans our staff roles and training. The internal plan goes into much more depth and much more detail about the expectations that we have for our staff
to implement the plan. Uh how to access resources that support the plan. Um and and and the training that everyone will engage in. As I mentioned, the plan both the internal plan and the public facing plan
start off with a commitment that we are stating for our community. And that is um what I would like to read out so that everyone who's listening might be able to hear. So our commitment uh statement is this. Oster area schools is dedicated
to ensuring that every family has timely and meaningful access to information and services with more than 125 languages spoken in our district. We're committed to providing multilingual communication that promotes the inclusive participation of all community members. This language access plan provides
information about tools, processes, and resources available for students, families, and staff at Ociary schools. This plan aligns with Minnesota statute 123b.32 and federal civil rights laws to ensure students and families can participate
fully in their education. So, as our small groups worked and as we're like thinking about um the areas that we're focusing in on, we wanted to share a little bit uh with you also to provide some more context about where this work begins. And that is with
identifying needs that families may have for language assistance services. And so, um where this starts off is during enrollment, all families complete a Minnesota language survey as part of the enrollment process. and results of that are stored within a student's profile in
synergy in our in our student information system. Um there's a field in synergy called home language and so that information comes from this language survey. Families can also identify their preferred language for school communications and whether they
would benefit from interpreter support. Uh and so that also can happen during enrollment and then on an annual basis via the back- tochool verification uh forms and processes in parent view. That is also where families can update their preferences for language communication
at any time. Uh and they can also contact uh there are certain staff at schools who can also make updates to those language preferences at any time. After we identify needs, then we're also focusing in on providing language
services. So, one of the things that we shared with our leadership teams this morning was that um we're not starting from zero, right? We we have a lot that we are doing. We have a lot of capacity that we've built over time. the end. One of the things that came out of our self-
assessment in our small group work is that we need to have greater coherence and consistency around the procedures and processes and the use of our resources because uh how they're utilized might look quite different in one space to another. And so that's part of what we're working to change through
training and through um providing more expectation around how the plan is implemented. You can see on the side that there are examples of things that we currently have in place. Um this morning we had a couple of our multilingual community and communication specialists who were with
us at our meeting um who were sharing with some of our families. They work directly with uh students, families, and staff every day in our schools and are one of the main ways that we provide language assistance services to our community. In addition to that, we have a variety of electronic resources that
you can see listed here. And then part of what we are doing based off of the work that we have done in our small groups is we're creating some additional resources. So based off of the the work that our groups did, we are creating some like welcome posters that uh share more about the services we provide, but
also send a message about um being so glad that people are here with us. um providing some cards that families can use to indicate that they need assistance uh that they could bring into schools that have some of the like maybe most common reasons that they would want to connect with someone so that they
have that as something that they can take uh and like get started on their own to have some agency in communication as well as letting us know what they need. Uh we're also in addition to like the spoken interpretation and written translation uh things that we already
support, we're adding in ways for families to request that. Uh right now everything is um is created based on requests of staff. And so one of the things that we determined that we needed to add in was a way for families to be able to indicate that they would like to
request interpreter support or a translation of a document. And so we're enhancing some of the services uh that we have had for some time as well as adding in some additional things that we're doing in order to respond and to actually meet the commitment that we
have stated. Dr. Hy, Chair Prince, Vice Chair Brooks, and members of the board, thanks so much for the opportunity to share tonight on this topic. Um with all the services that Kirsten was just talking about, we want to make sure that people know about them. Um, so this next coming year,
you'll see a lot more um about that with all of our different stakeholders. So with staff, we want to really make sure that they know um all the different ways um that they can um get this out to families and then know um how to utilize them as well. So we'll have some
step-by-step guides. Um we talked about maybe making like a booklet with some lists of things. Um, we also have that information on our staff portal right now, but we don't know if people are um, aware of accessing it. So, we wanted just to kind of put that front and center. Um, there'll be some training
um, as well with that. So, really today kick that training off a little bit. Um, and we're going to be talking more about that at system leaders in August. Um, and then also we wanted to make sure families are in the know, right? Um, so just making sure that we're we actually
have a communication plan started making sure that we do this in all sorts of different ways. Um, like the I need assistance card, welcome posters, um, sharing it out in our digital formats as well. Um, there's so many different ways. We have a lot of tools in pro um, things that we already are translating.
So just making sure that we get the word out there. And then communitywide too, we want to make sure that everybody um, is aware. um our have you heard newsletter and school websites um those things are translated or have access to some translation. Um so just making sure that people are aware of that and then
we have um that communication plan if you're interested in diving into what is uh thus far you can go to that um website to do so. And then these are just some sample communications um specifically with the poster and cards that we're developing.
Um, so you'll see this soon, but uh the idea as Kirsten mentioned with the card is people can um pick that up either at the like the office or events and they can keep it with them and show um as they need. And then the posters we would foresee that in main offices, but it could be elsewhere as well throughout
the school. And then staff roles and responsibilities. So earlier today we were really centering on um like the department and principal roles. Um but with you this evening, we're focusing on the school board a piece of that. So um really just making sure that we're um
following as a state has asked that we review this every two years. So um we're going to be doing that with some surveys um and some check-ins with families um just to make sure that um everybody's going to know that we're meeting um what we need to do um with laws as well. So
um but you can see it takes a it's going to take a lot really all staff I would say to pull this off um in the best capacity and ensure that consistency across the district. So um really um our cabinet team um we have multilingual
communication specialists the um department we work together closely a lot with community relations are multilingual um like I said principles site leaders departments our office teams they're setting out a lot of communications so we want to make sure that they know all the ins and outs and
um how best to utilize the tools that they have. Then teachers as well um and then um all staff Um, so this is u more on that reviewing of the plan. So every two years we're going to be taking a close look at that based on what we're hearing from
families. Um, and we just want to make sure we're and we're not waiting every two years to get feedback, but we want to make sure that we're making a concerted effort to to update um, every two years as we're getting that feedback along the way. So, as I mentioned, surveys and meetings are going to be the way to do that. Um, and then we have
what we call like an appeal process or feedback. Um, so people if they are feeling like their needs are not met, they can connect with the school. That will be their first point of contact. And if it's still not resolved, they can reach out to us at the district office. We have that directly in that public
facing plan. And then they'll get a formal response back from the district office. Um, if again only if they feel like their needs aren't being met, but we wanted to make sure that we captured that in that public plan. a little bit of additional detail on the
internal plan for staff. So there are very specific pieces of information and procedures for staff about how they can access and then also provide uh service and then we'll have lots of training coming up. Uh so in addition to having
to figure out and provide training and certification for all the interpreters that will be working in our system which is brand new uh we also have to provide annual training to all of our staff. And so um we'll have some universal training that will be for every staff member in
the system and then we'll have some differentiated training that's very specific for particular roles. So for our front office staff, for example, there will be some specific training um catered to how they will typically need to respond in their interactions with our community. Same thing with our
nurses or our um our teaching staff, our enrollment center team. So we've identified some groups um for at least this initial year that will provide some differentiated and ongoing training for um we'll continue to develop that as we
move through. Uh and then also we'll be doing a lot of internal monitoring of our implementation and where we need to focus either support or provide additional resources. And so one of the things that we have done is we have asked each site and department to
identify what we're calling the language access champion uh so that they can assist us with doing that work in each site and in each department and they'll be kind of the connection between the district team and what's happening at the school or the or the department
level and families. Uh so they are kind of the hearing from all sides and reporting back helping us to collect some data about how we're doing with implementation and helping to provide that ongoing support or training where that's needed. What's happening right now uh right now
we're gathering some family input and so some of what we shared today this morning with our learning leaders is um some of the listening sessions um that we're conducting with our multilingual community right now. So we we're reaching out to families and uh we've
started with uh families that are connected to our team of multilingual specialists and so they represent those top five languages uh in addition to English. So Mong, Spanish, Somali, um oral and Vietnamese. And then in addition, we want to make an
intentional effort to also connect with uh families from language groups that are not represented by multilingual specialists because we have a feeling that their experience might be quite distinct uh because they don't have people that they can go to all of the time in our system and so we want to
learn more about their experience uh as well. So, we've got some listening session work that's happening uh over the next few weeks. And in addition to that, we have uh more of like a a survey and it's available in many different languages, but it's fairly intensive to
try to get a lot of um really valuable input from our families about um what their current experiences are and what would be helpful. As mentioned, we have started off with some of our staff training. So, we had um at our May operational learning
leaders and then just today at our system leader meetings, we started making those connections. We have more planned for when we come back together in August. Um we may be making some adjustments to our plans based off of the feedback that we're getting from our families over the next few weeks. Um but
we're planning to present the plan for board vote on June 23rd. >> Chair Prince, you want to share it all? you were able to see it this morning. >> Yeah. Um it the parent guardian panel was extremely impactful hearing directly
from them with their translators um and and from themselves um kind of what where they saw gaps um kind of what their experience had been. Um, so one of the gaps that was that I heard was um maybe not getting as much information
about their child in the classroom because of that communication barrier um and wanting to have more access to to how their child's doing, more check-ins um and kind of just that that difficulty when u because we don't have translators at every site every day. Um and that
difficulty of you know if something um if they need to come in or they need information like um be able to have somebody um I think the importance of an actual person was also a highlight to me. Um so the multilingual specialist and how key that relationship was um to
their experience that human connection and human relationship um that rang kind of loud and clear as well. Um so there may be you know technology there may be other things but that does not from a from my experience that does not replace a person.
>> Um so that was huge. Um yeah, it it when I look at language access like what our vision should be is not simply timely and reasonable access like our parent multilingual parents and students should
have the same experience as every single other um student. Um, so I think our vision should be that their their experience is is as quality and as good and is seamless um, you know, just regardless of the of the language. So I
think that's kind of what I took away this morning is, you know, really hearing from the parents and I know you had some on video and it might be beneficial to the board to like maybe take one or two of those videos and send it to the board. Yeah, we can or cut some segments from it.
>> Um, so yeah, it very powerful. And I appreciate what was shared today too and Kirsten that her team has done great work at the enrollment center. We infuse a lot of multilingual learning staff in August specifically when we get a crush of families coming in. I have a cur I
know I'm not on the board but I have a question. Um I have a curiosity on um because I got to spend some time at the enrollment center consistently for a few months back in the day and uh I heard the language line being used. Boy, I bet
when I was interim uh enrollment center coordinator for eight months, I bet you I heard the language line being used six times an hour, >> even on the off season >> and during August,
the whole time and that included with five people there. So I have a lot of curiosity on it goes back to your people specifically trained in like medical fields >> versus people helping answer language language line being utilized to answer technical questions that come up to
enroll into a school specifically. So that's what I that something I'm thinking about. I know you're going to work with teams but I'm I'm just curious how effective we think the lang now the families light up when the person's voice comes over the speaker and they're speaking the language that they speak.
So that happens like that, but there's still some back and forth with my English speaking receptionist who's helping him at the front window. So that there that's a description of what's going on, but also some questions on language line use and effectiveness is something I'd like to see.
>> Yeah, they mentioned it today, did you? >> Yeah, a little bit. >> Yeah. And it was interesting like that the example um that the young woman gave that her experience was not great in the hospital setting. it was better in the district setting with language line but also that but you can't see what they're
working with like if we have a document it's just not still not the same >> like people are always better >> like as I was thinking about like the AI conversation and efficiency as you were asking about that like in this case people are always better um but you know
we are also looking for efficiencies with that because one of the things that we have just recently done is we've purchased a translation memory software platform uh because right now we translate everything from scratch every time. So um part of what we know will
happen as we move to implement this plan is that we will see the amount of translation requests increase across from across the system because right now we we definitely are not translating all the communication that needs to be translated across all of our sites. Um,
so how do how as we're trying to think about how we can possibly keep up. Um, that's one of the things that we've invested in and that we're like using the summer months to try to get our team of multilingual specialists really proficient at because if we're able to create things within translation memory
system that will save the work that we've done and when we see something similar again, it will help um like prefill some of that back into like what's coming next. And so as we think about things like um that common course catalog like for for example right now that is not translated that document is
many many pages long and it gets finished right before registration opens like there's not enough time for us to do it. >> So we've made some adjustments as we go to have try to have more of a process that keeps some things cons more things consistent from year to year so it's
feasible to actually do a translation of that. Um, and if we have a translation memory system where we work in to do that, then when there are some small adjustments from year to year, those are the things that will be like highlighted from the system and we can focus our
energies on that versus having to re-ransate an entire like 95 page document that just won't that can't happen in a span of a couple of weeks. So, we're making some investments and trying to figure out how we do use technology to assist us um with these um
aspects of our work. And uh we really need to keep that connection to people whenever possible because that's where we get the most high quality um interactions which then um really promote that connection between family
and home and build trusting relationships. um because because we're showing that we value um the experience of our families and providing the the highest quality of information uh just like is available to
our English speaking um community. So trying to figure out how we can bring in some of that, but at the same time, um, that's part of what we need to have more consistency and coherence around our sites around when we're using our different tools and when like part of what we're creating are some expectations around when does things
when do things actually need to be translated and by a human and when do we need to have like in-person interpretation happen, when might be able to use some of our other tools like language line, etc. So those are all things that we're working on and that are part of our part of our plans.
>> Wouldn't be able to take any savings from kind of the communication translation in print and reinvest that in people, right? Would be great. >> Yeah, that's true. >> I I'd also point out um the multilingual specialist brought up the fact that
understanding um kind of the broader circumstances that our multilingual families are facing that many of the students are working. >> Yes. um and working at night um and just having greater empathy and understanding um from like where where they're coming
from and how that affects their um access to education, how that affects their educational experience, >> academics maybe maybe. >> Yeah. >> So yeah. Yeah, it so it's a very powerful um experience to hear directly from them. >> Um some of the things that stood out to
me and I'm I'm very blown away by this presentation. It's very cool. Um the families that I've met with that are either first generation in America or their a lot of their friends are first generation have shared that it's very uncomfortable to ask even for this or
they don't know that this is available. >> Um so I love that you're making it so accessible and I I think that's really appreciated and um >> yeah I just I think it's really amazing that we're meeting people where they're at and so thank you for all of your work. I know it's such a small sliver of
it and you're trying to get a nice berg in it, but um yeah, thank you for your hard work. >> Yeah, I mean I love everything about this. Um I think everything's already been said. Um I
I mean I noticed the commitment uses the word meaningful instead of reasonable um to your first point. Um, but I would support us updating that commitment to um, ensuring that our families have the same access to information um, as our
English speaking uh, families. >> Um, other than that, I look forward to approving this report. So, you made it easy. Thank you. >> I did have one side um, question because I'm noticing that we've got some, you know, large groups of um, certain uh,
languages. Do we offer any um instruction in native language or is it only English? >> That's a good question. Um so really just at the high school level. So we have uh classes at the high school level
for like heritage language speakers in Spanish and also senior like in Arabic for some time. I'm not sure if that's continuing for next year. What about like teaching math or some of our like core instruction in native language where we have have
>> No, we don't have any immersion programming in our district. >> Yeah. I just wonder like where there's critical mass like it's really hard and difficult like you're learning the language and you're not getting all of the instruction because you're not speaking the language. So, it's just a curiosity like as we see our numbers
continue to to grow. Can is there other options that we have so that because I don't want I don't want kids to come come here and fall even further behind because they don't instruction is English only. So just a wondering >> well and this is a great area we could
connect with community partners. Um, I know a lot of people that worked with a lot of the Ukrainian families when they came over and helping them pick up the English language outside of school and then would also attend school meetings with them to help them understand like take notes and talk about it later. Um,
so this could be an area where we could leverage community because I know so many people want to help in this way. >> Um, and the last point I was going to say, I totally forgot to say this was um, my daughter one time came home and was like, "There's a boy in my class and he doesn't speak any English." And I'm
like, how do you even communicate in that situation? And it just was such a like it it just puts you in that kid's shoes of like this would be so hard and the parents shoes of not understanding what their kid is learning and sending them off into the unknown in some ways.
And then the teacher. So it's such a >> all-encompassing issue. Um so I think that puts even more importance on it. It was wonderful with the parents because they were speaking in their language and we're all like >> you know we didn't understand the minor but we do have a new translator
Ukrainian Russian >> yes our starting what day Tuesday >> Thursday um we're adding an additional multilingual community communication specialist who is a Ukrainian but also Ukrainian and Russian speaker so we were
able to add that through um a grant that we received from the state called New American Support. Um we're hoping that continues to get extended. We'll find out about that soon. But um yeah, to so we're look we're always looking at ways that we can continue um if you can see
the chart, you notice that those are like our next largest language groups, but also um some of our newcomer community as you were mentioning. So trying to find ways that we can continue to enhance those people uh based supports that we can provide because we know that those are so meaningful uh for
for our community. >> Yeah. >> All right. Well, thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Dr. H, did you have anything before we >> No, we can wrap up. We're building our calendar. We're building our schoolboard calendar so we don't have to do that
this evening. So wonderful. All right. Well, meeting adjourned at 8:42. Thank you.