All right. Good evening. Uh, this work session of the school board of ocular area schools is being held in the forum room of the educational service center on Tuesday, January 6, 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 has 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. The order and time of some of this evening's agenda items have been changed. After
Dr. How's check-in, the first agenda item will be the school-based health center, followed by standardsbased instruction and greeting update. 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, schoolboard member.
>> Keith K, school board member. >> John Schwarz Land, executive director of HR. Sarah Mitchell, schoolboard member. Anthony Fannis, executive director of technology. >> Kell, executive director of community relations. >> John Morset, executive director, finance and operations.
>> Sha, Minnesota schoolbased health alliance. Paul, department health, >> Jill, assistant director of student services. Kim, principal at Brooklyn Middle School, principal.
Brian Bass, assistant superintendent for equity achievement in the high schools. >> Steve Fisk, assistant superintendent for the elementary and middle schools. >> Brian Stevenson Hall, executive director, community engagement. >> Erica Baser, school board member. >> Amy Moore, general counsel. Kelsey Dawson, school board member. Kim Hy
superintendent >> and I Thomas Brooks school board 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. Uh Dr. Hy,
will you please share your check-in? >> Yes. Thank you, Vice Chair Brooks, Chair Prince, and school board members. We're going to start out this evening with schoolbased health center and we'll have uh Dr. Bass will introduce our presenters and then we will have time for the board to have questions afterwards. So,
>> thank you, Dr. Hy. Good evening, uh, Chair Prince, Vice Chair Brooks, members of the school board. Uh, tonight we are sharing information about school-based health centers and how this model may help address health needs that can affect students ability to attend school, stay engaged, and learn. This
presentation is intended to build shared understanding what a school-based health center is, what it can look like in our district, and how community identified needs guide this work, specifically serving uh serving the scholars at Brooklyn Middle and Park Center Senior
High. We appreciate your thoughtful consideration and look forward to your questions and guidance as we continue to learn this work together. I want to also acknowledge and thank two of our uh guest partners who are with us this evening. Shauna who introduced herself already from schoolbased health alliance
and Paul Hennessik from health partners in Park Nichollet. So thank you so much for your support and guidance as we received that initial exploration grant and all the work that you've done from that point to now to help guide us and support us throughout this. We also have two of our um highly regarded respected
leaders uh Dr. Harris and principal net uh who will also be joining in on the presentation. And then last but not least, I want to thank Jill May for being persistent and resilient throughout this entire process with all the the the roller coaster moves uh throughout this process. So, thank you
for your leadership um and persistence throughout. So, um I now will share my screen um so that we can present Okay. So, our outcomes for this evening, our first one, um, this might feel a little redundant from my introduction
statement, what a school-based health center is and how it supports identified student needs and academic outcomes. Uh secondly, to review uh what it could look like in our district um proposed services in alignment with our school district priorities. And then the the
last outcome, consider how identified community needs guide the partner selection process and support a sustainable effective implementation. Our strategic priorities document. So when we look at this document to guide what's in the scope of work for our
district or what's outside of the scope of work for our district, we see that strategic directions A and B offer two priorities that uh closely align to the work of the school-based health center. Um in strategic direction B1 uh the
alignment is the health needs identified vision, dental, chronic conditions, mental health are documented barriers to attendance, engagement and learning for our scholars. The second uh area of alignment in B1 is school-based access
minimizes lost instructional time and increases continuity of care. And the last one here for uh strategic direction B priority one is that school-based health centers um are positioned as an enabling condition for academic success
not an add-on program. The second strategic direction area is a um and our first priority the school-based health clinic operates as a safety net model ensuring access regardless of ability to pay or insurance status. The second one is
proposed services directly respond to community identified needs including mental health support, basic care and coastally responsive services. You'll see more about this in the data that's presented later uh in the presentation. And the last one is locating services in schools specifically removes
transportation and access barriers strengthening belonging trust and connection to our schools. So with that I'll hand it over to assistant director of student services Jill. >> Thank you Dr. Bass. Good evening. So Dr. Bass mentioned an outcomes uh part of
this is kind of learn about what is a school health center. So a school health center it's really a safety net um healthcare delivery model. It's located in or near a school facility. It offers comprehensive medical care provided by licensed and qualified
health professionals in accordance with federal, state, and local law to all students and youth within a school or district regardless of ability to pay insurance coverage or immigration status. So that's really in uh state law that is what a schoolbased health center
is. Next slide. So what are school health services? So we already have these in place at all our schools. So we have school nurses, school psychologist, counselors and school social workers. And how is that different when we bring in a schoolbased health center as a partner?
So we what that does is forms a partnership between the health services we already have and it adds on to um more services for our scholars. So, primary care, preventative care, mental health, oral health, vision services, um
hearing services, possibly um insurance, navigation services to help people get insurance. Um so, that's really what our um medical partner will bring into us. One for a moment. >> Okay. Um every great program for
preventive health and for population health starts with a logic model. This is the logic model that we use to describe how schoolbased health centers improve students equity. And you can see I think what's um most essential here is [clears throat] that there are both outcomes that are educational as well as
health. So it replicates some of the uh district schools as well. We also want you to know that this is an evidencebased practice and schedule that you've been following following um that is based in research from the National
Schoolbased Health Center um alliance that was adopted by the Minnesota Schoolbased Health Alliance. Um at this point in time, the spark has started. A planning group is underway. Um we have presented school-based health centers
101 called nuts and bolts um which is um a tool that's developed based upon that national evidence. Um those partnerships have been expanding and those members have been joining the planning group. The readiness assessment this district
did an incredible job incredible job of uh doing very thoroughly again evidence-based tool um that leads to a need statement. So at this point um as you look toward a healthcare partner
in this effort uh that entity will progress into the year one business plan to the pro-forma and then you'll work with your advisory um as a collaborative agreement moving forward to the opening of the school center
which we hope open in fall 2028 at this point. [clears throat] Um, okay. So, um, uh, Melissa Sennis, our district health coordinator, did a lovely survey with our school nurses, um, across the district. Um, she is unable to be here, so I'm kind of just going to read some
of the highlights of her, um, survey that she did that you can see up here. Um, so we did the survey to better understand where our scholars are currently accessing their healthcare services. Um, as you can see, everything doesn't totally add up. So nurses were
able to report across the multiple categories of care utilization. So overall what we're seeing is the data indicates that many students across primary access primary care through major health systems or community based providers. However, a significant subset of students rely on urgent care or
emergency departments for primary care or for preventative services at all. This reflects a high percentages percentage of students receiving care in settings that are not appropriate for routine primary or preventative health services. Providing primary and urgent care directly within the school setting
increases access, reduces barriers, and supports equitable care delivery. This justifies a model in which healthcare comes to students rather than students navigating complex healthcare systems. Okay. So, as Shauna mentioned, um part
of our readiness assessment was doing, um a survey, and we did a survey, um I think it was last December through January, Februaryish. >> Yep. Um and we opened that up to the community, scholars, staff, families. Um
it was uh translated into our top five languages. Um you might have seen [clears throat] flyers across the district with QR codes. People could easily access it. And so here's what the community identified um as needs and these are really what drove our need statements and this are also what's going to drive us trying to find our
health partner that matches what we need with our community. So really um where they're looking for is [clears throat] access to vision and dental care, access to affordable health care, transportation and access to care, education and support related to human development, nutrition and chronic
condition management as long as well as mental health support is a big one. uh preventative care including child wellness, visits, immunizations. So this is what came out of the survey we did. Um and so also this came up through the survey too. What what are
the barriers that our community is um facing when trying to access healthcare? Um they're really seeing long wait list and challenges navigating insurance um lack of cultural responsiveness and logistical barriers such as transportation and appointment scheduling. So there's the big
highlights of this area that we did across the district. >> Do you want to take this or you want me to take it or should we kind of do together? >> Sure. >> Okay, I'll start it. Okay. So this slide highlights jumping. The slide this slide highlights
the schoolbased health center sustainability recommendation uh put forth by the national alliance. Um and it outlines the rationale for us selecting park center in Brooklyn as the initial or the actual site. Um, collectively these campuses, Park Center and Brooklyn Middle, serve over 3,000
scholars and have an average free and reduced lunch rate of approximately 62% indicating both high need and strong opportunity opportunities for impact. And as you can see in the first two bubbles, we're meeting that rate there, picking Park Center and Brooklyn Middle
as our site for our clinic. And then Shauna, if you want to talk about the sustainability part, that'd be great. >> Sure. Um, so this was based upon a study of school-based health centers across the [clears throat] nation and a coin that some of them participated in to
identify what business practices and what quality metrics um created a sustainable and um schoolbased health centers that were sustainable and had positive outcomes um based upon education measures. And as you can see
here, um, uh, this is a great location because of the number of students, because of the, uh, access models that we've developed [snorts] as a team to serve provide care [clears throat] for, um, students that
are not only in the building, but others that can access it as well. Um and what it demonstrates is um that with a positive reach to about 50% of the students um that this would likely be a sustainable
um clinical operation for a community partner, which is important because once you have a partner, you want them to be a long-term partner. um that will as those needs change year after year after year, they will adapt to meet the needs
of the students. >> And another thing too about Park Center, Brooklyn Middle School, there's like transportation lines, there's bus lines, there's tons ofarmacies all over the place that we can work with um and help our scholars get the medications they need in an easy accessible manner.
>> Okay. Um, so I get to jump in to give you a quick idea of where exactly we're proposing this clinic be located. So this is the first floor, main level of park center. Just to orient you, the main entry side is the Brooklyn Boulevard. Obviously, the activities entry on the back side in the dome. Um,
the proposed area is actually on your far left on this description on the Brooklyn Boulevard's side. So, we have easy access off Brooklyn Boulevard and access to we we dedicate um parking spaces in the front specifically for access to the clinic during the day. Um
to give you a little more zoomed in version of that so you can see what the actual clinic looks like. Um the intention here is we would convert two classrooms about 1,600 square ft into the clinic space. So, it's got a um three
um exam rooms, an office and storage area, a reception waiting area. Um it's important to note the clinic is ex accessed through our main entry vestibule, but it is not part of the secure portion of the building. So, in order for um someone coming from the
outside who want to use it, they can come in through the main vestibule. Again, we have, you know, our normal security system so we can see who's coming. um they can take to the left in that first blue arrow and go right into the clinic. And if you were a student from Brooklyn Middle or from Park Center going out, we would send you through the
office and then out into the vestibule and then if and then that ability to go back in and check back in through the office like you would if you were coming from anywhere else um outside of normal hours. Um so we kind of maintain the continuity of our security process. The next few are just some pictures to
give you an idea um of the reception area. There's a couple shots of that. Um, and then also the the exam room areas and then I'll turn it back on. >> Yep. And so, uh, just so you understand,
so what is the responsibility of the school district and what is the responsibility of our healthcare provider partner? So, really what we do is we provide the space which we just kind of showed you. We implement policies that facilitate the students use of the schoolbased health center during the school day. Um we conduct
outreach in partnership with schoolbased health center. Um we work with getting consents. Maybe Paul can talk a little bit about this um ahead of time. Um we are the leazison with the school health services. So our school services that we talked about earlier um help them
communicate and partner. Uh we lead the pro the planning group advisor committee which consists of the doctors and the school district staff that are part of that committee. Um and we also conduct outreach for the schoolbased health center and um let the community know
that it's available to them. And then the oops [clears throat] oops and the healthcare uh provider responsibilities they manage the consent process for the schoolbased health center the health school health center staff. The bill ensures they complete
and regularly update proforma for schoolbased health center services. Um they provide health information technology infrastructure. uh they provide medical equipment and supplies, direct quality improvement and participate on the advisory committee that I just spoke of.
>> I would just add to this that um you know so we currently park nickel has four schoolbased health codes um and we are in a sustainability study with them which should be completed in the next month or two um but they are real partnerships with the district. It's
it's not us doing everything here. It's this it's really a partnership with the school district and the staff that work in the school district. Um [clears throat] so that uh the the all the privacy uh laws are secure and and not broke. Uh but everybody's still
working for that student and they can do that. They know the ways to do it. There's and there's firewall and there's privacy um uh rules. The Park Nichollet staff do the same thing that they do in a park nicllet clinic. So if you come into any of our clinics, uh that's how
they would operate. They would follow the same rules, the same, uh state and federal laws. Um but as far as the operations and how smoothly it runs and everything, it really is a partnership. And that creates what I've seen um over
about eight years in my role is about uh 2 plus 2 equals 5, which I know is not good math, but it really creates that [cough] effect for the student because you've got the whole you've got two essentially two sectors working. um [clears throat] when I I'm I'm
sitting at the table with all of you and I just have to let you know that my heart just sings. Um and it's just so happy that we're at the table and we're talking about this. Um as I mentioned the last time that we all met, which was not very long ago, um I started in the
district in 1991 and I was a counselor um in two of our elementaryaries and at Brooklyn Junior High at the time. Um and then um I became assistant principal at Brooklyn Junior and became um um and
then became Brooklyn Middle School. Um through those roles I have experienced and worked with families for 34 years and I look at what the community is reporting in 2026
2025 26 and the barriers of access um and accessibility and financially and all of those items and things that they are speaking to us now existed way back in 1991. 1 that I
dealt with on a daily basis with families and um and students and did everything in my power that I could as a counselor, as an assistant principal, and now as a principal to make sure that
our families and students have accessibility and it's affordable. um and and um they have their needs met because in order for kids to learn and feel good about being in a school, they
have to feel good emotionally, socially, and physically. And when our students are well, our schools are well and our community as well. And what else could we want for our community and our
schools? there's nothing else. There just isn't. And um so when I say my heart sings, it sings with joy because my dream as a counselor
was for us to have a school-based health clinic that connected Brooklyn and Park Center. Here we are. And I said that is going to be a dream come true for me. And when Bill and Dr. just came and and I said,
"You know that that's what dream of mine." You know that? She's like, "Yeah, yeah." And here we are. This is amazing that we have this opportunity and we have partnerships >> and I've learned so much being on the
planning board for this. Um, and so the hope is there. And when we give people hope, they thrive. And when we look at our mission, that's what it's all about.
>> I don't know how I'm supposed. But what I want to add is this. Um, what she didn't say, um, she started in this in ' 91. Um, I started in AIO in 1997.
>> And I was working at Brooklyn Jr. with her. Um, and I spent a lot of time at her office. Um, because she was one of the few adults that were pleasant at that time. [clears throat] Um, and so we would connect, we would talk, and this
was actually a conversation that we had way back then. >> Um, and I went off and went to a different district and and grew up in in my educational path. Um, and next thing you know, I'm back and [snorts] lo and behold, we're next to each other. We're
connected. So, when we had this conversation um with Blisk, um it was like I got on the phone, I called Kim, and I was like, I can't believe this is happening. Right? We had that conversation. But for my local and immediate when it comes to high school students, um I'm aware that I'm in a
position in my life right now to do and have the things that I want. Um and as when I turned probably 46, my eyesight started to go. So went and got glass, went got some glasses, right? So
for me, it's important for me to have a few different pair of glasses. And so over the years when I got started working back at uh in this district and became a leader at Park Center, I started talking to my babies in the
building and they were struggling to see. And so what I started doing when I got back to Park Center in this district, I buy myself new glasses every year because I can. But what I do with my old glasses is I tell my babies, "If you
need glasses, I got you." So they come to me in the office. And I learned from that point on some of the struggles we talked about about some of the things that they're missing, some of the things they need that [clears throat]
end up creating a barrier in the classroom um and they're learning, right? So I have probably 25 pair of glasses in my office and like, okay, try those see if those work. Okay, I need to get back to class. Let's get this done. And I've not told a sold about that at
all. But this is what I do for our babies. But to know that we have an opportunity for this to happen uh to help our babies, I think it's it's is priceless. So we are here to support this opportunity. U we're excited about it and um I could [snorts] be happy to
sit next to her working with her about this with this and we are here to ask any questions you might have. Thank you. Um [snorts] board members questions. [clears throat] >> So um I know we had the opportunity to submit a lot of questions in advance of
the meeting and um got some really good information from that process. I appreciate that. One of my [snorts] biggest questions is around parent engagement and parental um permission. Um so would students require parental permission to make appointments or would
that be outside of parents? Would they use this potentially without parental knowledge or consent? >> Well, it's to our experts that answer these questions. >> Um, we in our clinics and and all school based clinics, as far as I know, we we
uh collect Yeah, we collect consent forms to go to the clinic. Some schools, they'll do it in different manners. Some will do it as part of a parent packet in the beginning of uh the school year. Uh but if somebody walks in, they don't have that the um the staff there that
either the doctor or the front desk staff would do a verbal consent of the following. >> Okay. So I just want to be crystal clear. Students would not be able to access or use the clinic unless they had parental consent. >> Correct. >> Okay.
Well, even in a e situation, >> yeah, there are some um exemptions. >> Um so clinical care provided anywhere ascribes to the same state and federal laws no matter where it happens and that's because it's based on the lensure
of the provider. And state law in Minnesota um creates exceptions for kids to be seen in some emergency situations um where they can provide their own consent. Um and providers in Minnesota, no matter where they are working, have
to follow that that same law. >> Yeah. So So if my students have an asthma attack, you're not going to let me get your mom on the phone. >> Medical emergency, emotional health crisis. Yeah. >> Whether it's the clinic or whether it's my own nurse and the family, you know,
that's >> we move. >> Yeah. >> And that was my question too with like who makes the appointments, you know, for immunizations, parents need to have consent also, but you know, are um are parents making these appointments? Are students making these appointments? You
know, um how does that >> Different clinics run it differently? Our our clinics currently right now is walk-in. So there aren't appointments, but there are >> other clinics around different. >> Mhm. And it um it it does it's very much
uh we always say if you walk into one school based clinic, you've seen one school-based clinic. They're all so different. Um and that's because they reflect the culture of the community very much. Um and so um some
again, state law always applies, federal laws always apply. Um and appointments are made generally speaking um by the student because they have access. Um but they cannot make an appointment at the clinic until they have parental consent
in place. >> And Minnesota state law is 12 years old though, correct? They have privacy. There's that barrier between parents and children. So 12 year olds could potentially make appointments. Correct. >> Actually, it's a little it's a little different. Um, so the minor's consent
law with the exceptions I was speaking about is not at a specific age. It's that that applies to any child that is a minor. So, anyone under 18 um who's not already emancipated. Um, and then there
are um, HIPPA laws that allow a parent to have access to their students medical record under or I'm sorry, not their students, their child's medical record under the age of 18. Um, and then there are systems, healthcare systems that
manage access to certain parts of their medical record differently depending on age. But those ages are set by those different healthcare systems, not by a specific law. >> I thought it was a state law. I thought we had a statute in place in Minnesota.
>> We have a statute in place. It's just not based on an age. >> Okay. I'll have to dig that up again. And from the principles, I have a question too. Um, serving kind of your students since we haven't had something like this. Is there have we asked the
students is is there a stigma of going, you know, do you think is this what our students are desiring or do they feel just trying to think through that, you know, are they embarrassed to have to go leave class and go to just you guys are the ones that know the students. So, I'm curious. >> Not at all. No, >> no. they they want to be able to
advocate for themselves and be able to get the help that they need in those aspects. So from a student standpoint um not at all I can tell you that >> and that's the same at the middle school as well. >> Add a little piece to that. Um,
right before the pandemic, we had our health partners institute do a study on our four clinics about what the educators thought about having a schoolbased clinic in their school. And the vast majority, it was like almost 90%. So, um, felt really felt they
believed that having the schoolbased health center engaged the the student with their own healthcare >> which was not happening. And the second thing is they really believe that it helped their ability to learn because they weren't dealing with uh these things that health issues that
they were having. Um so it was that I really like that [snorts] as an old camp director YMCA camp director I really like that engagement with their own healthcare because that is a skill for life. >> That is something they're going to be able to take with them >> and it just um it it shows the impact.
Um I had a parent that came um to school and asked to see me and he was a former student of mine when I was a counselor. So imagine how long ago that was, right? And he um was desperate. He didn't have
a place to live. He had two children that he wanted to keep at Brooklyn. Um was obviously kicked out of the home that um that he had. Um needed every service that you could imagine um for his kids and for himself. And
um and he said, "I know, Miss Monette, that you will help and that you will help me find the services that I need because you did way back then. And I was telling Brian this and I'm like, I don't even know if I really remembered the student. I remembered his smile,
>> but I didn't remember his name. And then he reminded me and so it just um the impact that it had on me is that the schools are places where families go
when they are desperate. And because they trust the people that are in their schools. And so it's a community hub where families access because they know that the people that are there care and that they are going to give them the help
that they need when they need it. and um having access to a clinic such as this with the opportunities of of all the services that are provided, >> it would have been really easy for me that day to help that family. And I was
like calling my social workers and doing this and I remember that they there used to be a service here and there used to be a service there and all these different services that I had to make multiple phone calls to to help this family before I had them leave because I was not going to have them leave without
having an answer for them. And that's what schools do and that's what this clinic would provide for our families, our kids. Um could you share with me some of the funding and the finance behind how this program would work um specifically to
get it going and then once it's running and operational and what the school district's portion of that would be. >> Um I'll tell you what I know. So the there's a cost to construct the physical space that that the clinic would live
within. I believe we came out to two, $252,000 was the bids that came in a week or so ago. Um, [clears throat] from there operationally as a district, our costs are what they've been previously, which is just to maintain the space
that's there today, the 1600 ft to pay for the utilities that we pay for today. So, operationally, we don't really have an additional cost. Um, the clinic is taking on all the day-to-day operational pieces. We're just doing the maintenance and and you know figure out the cleaning
schedules and those types of things that we do in that space today. >> And then who funds the operation? I guess that's the greater question. Is this grant based? Is this hoping to generate income based off of the clients that visit? How what's that structure look like?
>> Yeah. Um, again, happy to provide you more in more [snorts] specific written information about this later, but generally speaking, if you look at schoolbased health centers across the US and across Minnesota, what we see is that uh they
are funded in part by um any opportunity to bill that the institution can take advantage of. Um so um Medicaid billing they are one of schoolbased clinics are one of the largest uh Medicaid billers
um for children in the US. Um that generally speaking um allows the doors to stay open. Um but in a location like this in a state law where there's state laws that say um that it is a responsibility to turn no child away for
their ability to pay. If a kiddo is uninsured, they will um still see that kid. And so there are uncompensated care costs as well. And um generally speaking, we see the health care provider or a collaboration between the
healthc care um entity and the school seeking grants um whether they're federal, state um or foundation grants to support some of those um extra costs. How would they combination of funding?
>> How would they determine a student's inability to pay? >> Um again that is it depends on who your partner is um your healthcare partner is. Um but traditional methodology [snorts] like you would at any clinic um
that they'll fill out some information about their um income. They will be asked for their insurance. they'll meet with a navigator um that will help them with insurance. Um some systems have
contracts with navigators like Menure or Portico to assist with that. Um some do it in-house. So it kind of depends upon who the provider is. Um so that's one of the other side benefits is that you will have more insured families after you
have a school health center because those um opportunities to become insured and to understand what their benefits are passed over to parents and grandparents siblings. [clears throat] Um I was just going to say that's how our
staff would you know at our clinic they um assume that responsibility and figure that out. we do track it and um I think you you're trying to figure out about what percentage of students are have some sort of insurance and what
don't um and for our our four clinics the foundation the partners foundation has been heavily involved we that may change in the next in the future one of the things that we're trying to do is diversify that revenue because the foundation has been providing 100% of
the cost of our foot clinics That's $650,000 a year. And so um they are certainly like everybody looking to diversify that at high. >> I think so. One of the questions that I have and why I asked that is I'm
thinking about students with private insurance >> and if families are going to start getting surprise bills in the mail from those walk-ins. >> Oh, surprise bills. >> Yep. Um again, consensus uh per primary
care um always comes first and there's also a federal and state laws that um insist that healthcare organizations estimate um the cost of care before it's provided. >> Okay.
>> Um what and two more questions. What services are going to be provided and what is the expected client base? Um, in some of the documents who shared, it sounded like it could be anybody from the community and in a lot of the models I looked at it was only students. Um,
and you know, one has more concerns than the other. So, I'm just curious what the plan is for that. Seems like it's sused out a little bit. So, I just like more details on that. >> Yeah. And you guys can jump in too. So, I think like ideally um our vision would be to have the clinic open during school
hours 5 days a week. um it's not like that at many clinics and [snorts] that goes back to the sustainability model as well. Um the providers can go more often and then at some point we'd like to maybe discuss opening the clinic after school hours up to the community so
anyone can come in um and get the services that they need. [snorts] Um, and what services would be >> Yeah, what services because you mentioned and highlighted the priority services, but that's a quite the mix and it doesn't seem like that facility could
necessarily house all of those services. >> Yep. So, vision and dental, there's a space for that. Um, the mental health, there's a space for that. We didn't go into the detail of all the rooms. There are um rooms that are like um
>> multi-purpose. >> Multi-purpose. Thank you. Um there's spaces for like tellaalth. There's spaces to have mental health on site. Um [snorts] there's spaces for the doctors. There's a full not a full lab, but there's a lab. Um and so yeah, I think
it'd be like primary care, preventative care, mental health services, vision, dental, not every day, probably vision and dental, but primary care for sure every day. And mental health probably every day. Um >> I can speak a little bit to how that works with ours. Uh so currently we're
only operating a couple of days a week in the school. So but we share the space. So we have park nicl you know space that's reserved only for parking you know materials and stuff. However, the rooms are the school's rooms and we work together in with the
school to figure out like, okay, we're going to have children's dental service in here x amount of days and uh Portico Health, we come in and do insurance navigation and they set up those organizations set up their own appointments and they they work with their families and a lot of them are referred from the clinic. So, it's a
place where you know all your teachers can refer people to. Um, so the the spaces when it's when it's organized well, the the spaces are pretty heavily used and they're mixed up with different uses. >> And who's responsible for scheduling? Is
that like whoever's in charge of the clinic or is that school? Yes, you >> I was just going to say scheduling is generally done inside of electronic medical record and the folks that have access to electronic medical record are
the clinical staff. >> I more mean like who gets to use the space on what day? >> So like a vision does that [snorts] make sense like if you have different groups coming in? >> Yeah, we use the term sponsoring healthcare organization. It's actually in that legislation and sponsoring
healthcare organization refers to the clinical system that will have oversight um of all of those different pieces um and how they work together. Um and generally speaking uh that is one of the
main topics that advisory group would actually um lean into as well. um the the number one factor of success at a school-based health center in terms of outcomes for kiddos and in terms of sustainability is a positive
relationship between the school and the healthcare organization. So that's why that advisory board is so essential. Um a solid memory agreement is so essential and finding the right partner is really important too
>> in the conversation. Um, Paul, did I hear you say in your other schools you're only there a couple days a It's only open a couple days a week >> currently. And you know, again, we've been doing this this way for 20 years, 30 years almost. Um, so we're looking at
how to do it differently and more sustainability, but currently we're we're only in there a couple days a week. >> Um, and in the schools that you've been in, so I'd be interested to see that your outcomes from your sustain when did you say that was going to be available? sustainability study.
>> Oh, our >> um probably by the end of February is is is basically a health partners internal look at it. And I would say too that study is looking at the most sustainable
potential model and it is very unlikely based upon national evidence that the most sustainable model is being there a couple days a week um in a school that has more than 500 students a free juice lunch rate as high as we see in this school um and where we anticipate that
the utilization will be high. So the schools where you where you are open a couple days a week. What what sizes are those? >> Too big to be open two days a week. >> What [laughter] what schools are they? >> Oh, so currently we're in four
districts. St Park, Brooklyn Center, uh Richfield, and Burnsville. And those clinics are different. Like Shauna said, they're different. Um and that's because the district wanted their clinic to be maybe for the younger kids. uh and
another district said no we need this right in our high school. So uh that's how that looks. We in fact when I took the job uh so a number of years ago um [clears throat] I was very impressed upon that it was we don't call them park
nuclear clinics it was the community first the school we're following the school's lead on that >> um I think there needs to be a little bit of you know they're looking for a little bit more like hey we're doing this we're because there is community benefit involved for a healthcare organization if park nickel is you know
I don't think they've been taken advantage of personally if the community benefit that we've been doing for the past since 1995. >> Um because primary care, our uh division that does the services, they they're the doctors and the nurse practitioners and the support staff, you know, I was with
the foundation. Primary care was doing, you know, bringing supplies over and all sorts of things. The foundation were paying all the salaries, but um so like I said, it just goes back to that whole partnership piece. So anyways, that for that study, we're we're looking at new
models the way it >> Yeah. Yeah. And I guess that raises a concern for me that if there's the potential that there's outcomes about sustainability and then the mix of services or that it's really more community coming in versus our students,
that does raise quite a bit of concern for me um just about like the long-term um model and actual benefits derived. if it's more limited in scope than what I feel we were kind of hearing at the start of this presentation as we dig
into the details. Um, one question I have um for the team. So, Brooklyn Park Clinic um is a Henipin Healthcare Clinic and the legislation says near. I'm curious about what near means because this clinic specializes in adolescent
health care including mental health and substance support. Have we had any exploratory conversations with them the need and out because um I understand that they've been really working in out outreach in Brooklyn Park to do
everything that was identified that the goals are here. >> We have not yet. Um and it's my understanding is that they don't actively participate in school centers at this time, but we definitely could try and make that connection and see if they'd be interested.
partnering with us. >> Um, without going too deep into the weeds, one of the things that we do as an alliance is we build the capacity of healthcare organizations to provide sustainable schoolbased health centers. So we are constantly providing with uh
constantly working with um many health care systems um in Minnesota from healthcare foundations to large systems like Fairview to children's to tiny neighborhood clinics. Um the what we find in Minnesota is that the most
likely candidate to be providing a school-based center is tiny local clinics. um they have a community um ethic that's uh really strong. And so one of the reasons that we uh worked
with Melissa Sennis is to um talk to her um team about where they referred kiddos to is to see where are they actually going for care? Um what what routes of access do you already
have in this community? Um where are there already connections? And um then you know Park Nicollet has been helping with the process of development but very much supports as well that you as a district need to pick the healthcare
organization that works for you in your model. >> And um specifically we work all the time with Henipin Health. Um they have they work with um North Point Community Health Care Center which is a federally
qualified community clinic and um they North Point provides two school-based health centers in Minneapolis schools. Every high school in Minneapolis and St. Paul has a schoolbased health center. Um so they have been they involved that
way. um and they just don't have interest or a model right now of directly providing school care. >> I just want to say I'm I'm really proud of the direction um that this is going with um with healthcare for our
students. It's really important and there isn't enough of it. I've witnessed recently firsthand with my own daughters, one of her best friends um experienced a mental health crisis and the school doesn't have the capacity to provide continuity of care and so it
becomes really fragmented. You know, when a family is trying to navigate a health care system or a school, I mean, it's very complex >> and there isn't enough clinics. I know for I my son had the flu. I could barely get him in to the doctor, you know, and I'm [clears throat] we're act we also um
um like Antoine, I mean we have access to healthcare all the time, anywhere I can go anywhere I want, you know. Um >> and I also think that healthcare or I know healthcare in this country is not equitable. >> It's creating it exasperates disparities
in every single way. So I feel I am um I think this removes barriers to learning. It provides so many opportunities and access to our families. And Paul, I think a point that you may not even think of is like >> one of the the the greatest disparities, especially in communities of color, is
going to the doctor >> and having relationships with your providers. >> And so if we can start young >> to say we're partner in your health, we're partner in your longevity in life, with your mental health, with all the things. I just don't think I mean when
you talk about our mission statement to inspire and prepare all students with confidence, courage, competence to achieve their dreams, contribute to community and engage in a lifetime of learning. If you don't feel good, you have an absess tooth going to school. I can't I mean I you can't even think.
Yeah. >> So, I I I you know, I hear some of my board members, you know, ask really good questions, but at the end of the day, if we're opening the doors of access to our young people and our students to give them the tools and the resources that
they can thrive, like they can feel good mentally, emotionally, and physically. I It's a win-win to me. Also, we talk about >> we talk about um uh what attracts people to schools, >> you know, that's huge. If you told me
Minneapolis has all these I mean I I just think it's just I think it's I I love it. I think that it's so fun to hear not well it's it's interesting. It's good to hear like your connection to it like all those years ago >> and now to have this opportunity at hand
that's the cost is what the cost is and the benefits of it. it just it just outweighs the benefits of any cost that it would would be and that partnership is just um really really important and
healthcare should not be a privilege. >> I just want to add um my local intermediate at Park Center High School. I have 2100 students in my building and I can't begin to tell you how many students come in there um not immunized,
not knowing where to go and what to do. We already shared about my students that struggle with vision um and students that need physicals. And I'm not even going to begin to talk about the mental mental health aspects
of my babies and the things that they need on a daily basis. Um, I have one of my teachers sitting over there in the blue union shirt right now. Um, he can attest to that part for sure. And what we talk about on a daily basis with our kids and what they need. Um, we partner
right now with um, >> people, sorry. Um, and I have two therapists [clears throat] in my building and I don't have enough, >> right? >> I don't have enough. Um, so to be able to have this opportunity for all those
pieces we talked about from a high school standpoint, I can speak for me, >> this is valuable for our babies, uh, it is valuable. >> I think it's valuable for your parents. >> Yes. The parent stress that it can
reduce is remarkable >> and teacher stress, right? >> Because teachers are trying to find resources for kids that have come to them. you know, and then um and how stressful that is for them as well, trying [snorts] to find the resources um and
working with kids and families and going to counselors who are trying to also work with various students. Um and we have mental health workers um in our school as well. Um, and there's a huge waiting list and then you feel just helpless,
>> you know, and it's like I said, I've been in the district for 30 six years now. Um, but you, you know, and to have that continue through all those generations of students, I mean, um, I
know three generations of families. um and hearing that same story, you know. So, this is just a pivotal moment for all of us and for our families and for our community. It absolutely is. And I can speak from
experience from being a counselor to a leader in a building, thousand kids. >> I did have Sorry, one more question uh ditto to everything you said. I'll come back to that. Uh John, uh so this would be a lease. So they would be leasing the
space from Oculary Schools. Is that correct? >> Yeah. Typically with other partners where we've engaged in this there's there's a lease to to outline the usage and and to identify what are our responsibilities, what is their responsibilities, but typically that
lease is at a zero cost. It's already a building. We we already have absorbed the cost the regular operational cost that would be our portion in that building. And again, I forget is the term safety net [laughter] model, you know. So, we're asking the provider to take on some risk, too. So,
so the benefit there is to say we'll go with a zero at least that that we're not going to charge you to use the space because you're taking on other costs that we wouldn't have to incur in return for you bringing this service inside our front door.
>> Yeah. And we have agreements with all of our board districts that uh mercibly are are very easily understood for health for a health partners agreement. And uh just outlining you know school district takes care of these things, health provider takes care of these things. It
outlines those shared you know like how we share the space if we share the space and then how do we decide to do it and it's really up to the school but you just confer with us. So it spells those things out. it identifies the space and the terms and that sort of thing.
>> Thank you. >> And director books, if I could add one thing too, I was just going to share um you know, we already do some services. You know, one area of my responsibility that many of you are aware of is preschool screening, right? So to me, that's a benefit to families and kids to
get them off to a good start. To me, this is a beautiful extension all the way through middle school and high school, right? To continue that type of work. um I think it's a whole two years ago now, but I had the opportunity to visit both the North High School uh
health clinic uh and also Brooklyn Center Senior High Brooklyn Cent's clinics as well uh at North was kind of fun. I was there uh during passing time and I walked into the clinic and watched two high school students walk in at the same time with me and three or four more
kids came in during that hour. So they were, you know, I didn't know what they were there for, but I think they did physicals for high school and medical and eye support. And then when I was at Brooklyn Center, I wanted to pick up on Shauna's comment about school
partnerships with your health provider, um, Seth Ryan, who's the community ed director in Brooklyn Center and former program manager to Kids Stop here in AIO for 12 years. uh he does the partnership with the school and I and um since we've
known each other I said okay tell me how it really works right how much work is this for you do students ask access it because I'm very interested in this I think it's a great uh resource for the community and he just said you know you got to have your advisory council you got to make sure the leadership of the
[clears throat] school supports the clinic and so for me to have Kim and Antoine here saying that they wholly support this I I think that's great because that was what Seth's number one piece of advice to me was cuz he said the health providers,
they're professionals. They're going to do what they're supposed to do. You got to be you got to nurture that. But I just wanted to throw into the space that I had the opportunity to visit a couple different uh student based health clinics. I was very impressed. I liked um that students could literally
not leave the school and go to their health clinic and get the services that I don't know I don't have any better access to many things like that in my own life right that's that's the uh definition of access in my personal opinion but I just wanted to share those
couple things that uh I got to experience on on visiting some uh clinics >> thank you and sorry one one last question. Um the So I know we have a nurse at the enrollment center that does
immunizations. We have our school nurses. Um how does this impact our nurses? How does this improve their day-to-day? What's that partnership look like? >> Brian, did you want to speak to the immunization at the enrollment center first?
>> Brian Stevenson Hall. >> Yeah. So, the immunization um clinic at uh >> Northwest Family Service Center and Homeman Center um that's been a long-term partnership with the Northwest Family Service Collaborative.
>> Um and just this year, their board is switching to mental health services. So, they're going to end our their contract with us on June 30th. That's a um a limited number of
appointments at that particular immunization clinic. Although we we would also do like two times a year pop-up clinics where you could come into the parking lot and get services. So that uh that's been a gosh that's been over a dozen years partnership, but
that's about to come to the end because of that particular grant. But yeah, so that nurse that immunization nurse will no longer be at the enrollment center starting June July 1st.
So for me, when I had a conversation with my nurse, um she did a backup, she was excited and she was excited because >> yeah, um the the struggle is we have students who are not immunized and so she gets on the phone, she call parents,
we need to get you immunized, get your student immunized before they come to school. the parents if they don't have the insurance if they don't know where to go and now we are taking away from time in school because they can't get this done. So, it's one of those pieces to where we are eliminating one of those
barriers of our babies being in school, being in class, but also having the medical [snorts] um shots that they need or whatever the case may be to be in that space. So that would actually help our nurses in our
buildings um to focus on the day-to-day pieces that they need to get done uh and work with our students who come down because my tummy hurts, right? Or there's something else that's going on with the student. So it it just it's one of those pieces that where being
collaborative with um this opportunity um is helping a whole lot of folks and a whole lot of babies. So it's not taken away from All right. I um so I know that Dr. Hy had a question for the board uh that was submitted through
email. Uh just looking for some consensus on pull it up. Looking for some consensus on if um we should proceed uh with the SBHC. Um
I'm assuming that you all saw that email and have had some time to think about that today. Um so just wanted to >> get a pulse on where where everyone is and go ahead Dr. >> And one of the things is we don't we don't have to make a decision for something today because this is all coming at you at one point. So you can
leave with that information. So even if we could think about the second part is what's more important on the 20th that we have uh approving bids for park cent's renovation and at this time Jack can speak to it better how it's
presented in the bid right now it's like everything for park center so we didn't want at any point for that not to be approved and [snorts] then other $42 million of things of work at park center not to be done because of this other part here. So the question would be do
should we have an alternate with the other one? Did you want to speak to >> Yeah. So when we when we solicited bids, we listed all the pieces of the schoolbased health um clinic as an alternative. So we can give direction to
ICS, our management company and the general contractor to say we want a recommendation to either accept or not accept this alternative. Um either way, if if if because the timing is not trying to to mess with the timing for
Park Cent's general construction, which is going to take three summers and is a ton of work. >> Um >> stop stop. >> It's it's uh it's something that I I would say if you're if you need more time, I my suggestion would be we just
not accept that alternate and we can do it as a change order later if we want. Um so we have that opportunity today to do that where where you're not tying anyone's hands but we don't delay the project in any way shape or form either. So um typically even with we have a
couple other alternates. So the general um recommendation we've already received from ICS is it may just be easier to say why don't we not take those um for now because it doesn't affect their timeline right >> and then they can we can proceed and if we need to take more time you have that ability and we don't have a problem.
there's more time the decision not on this one but there's more time it's just knowing that that is in there so you may see in the paperwork something that says alternate for these >> in each of the bids um but but that would be we I believe the recommendation we would say is that we will just um
recommend the base bids and not the old bids >> I would appreciate more time I think this is a lot of information even some of the data I think we need as a district being responsible to our taxpayers I don't feel comfortable with the level of data um provided to go back
to them and say this is a service that we need to tack on to our schools. I think we already ask our schools to do too much and putting another um service within education. I don't think that's the purpose of the education system. And
I think there are service providers close by um that our students can access especially along that corridor. there's places within under a mile. Um, so for me, I would pause on moving forward with the alternate. Um, and that would be how
I would choose to vote. Yeah, I would also like to have a little bit more time. I mean, it definitely tugs at my heart. I appreciate all that you guys are sharing here. Um I also keep thinking of one of those quotes of you know when we want to do a lot of things
um mediocrely instead of doing one thing well. So I think just also you know that focus of academic excellence um and trying to do a lot of different things. So it definitely tugs at my heart. I want to dig into it a little more. I also would like a little more time but really appreciate all you guys are
sharing tonight. I don't know procedurally if I could offer something that might be helpful. Is it that okay? >> Yeah. Um generally I absolutely support um as a former educator myself, as someone who worked
um at the capital on the general education fund um as a uh in policy on behalf of parents, I definitely support the idea that general education fund is used for educating kids. And I will say there are very likely
very few costs that would be incurred um or um that in starting a school-based clinic that you don't already have costs that are covering those cares already. For instance, um one of the things that
we really work toward is everyone working at the highest level of their lensure. And so if you have um your principal looking for referrals to folks to give immunizations to the kids, that's you're paying um someone not to
work at the highest part of their lensure. [clears throat] Um, we heard superintendents say that, um, [laughter] they almost can't afford not to have a school-based clinic, um, because most of the cares that you'll be you're
providing in the school um, are being addressed just in less effective and potentially more costly ways by your staff. So for instance, the number one um founder of schoolbased clinics in
Minnesota is school nurses. Um and what they find is that they are consistently tempted to work outside of their scope of practice. They provide um eent and acute services at times when um that's
not what they are um licensed to do in the school. And the schoolbased clinic simply [clears throat] allows them to stay within scope and then passes those other cares to another entity, a healthcare
entity that is then appropriately funded and are licensed um to care for those kids. And so the school nurse actually does more of what they're supposed to do. and then you're giving those other cares to an entity that's sharing the property,
but the district is not funding. >> Um, so ed and most educators would say they've become the ad hoc mental health providers of students as well. And so this means that young people are getting >> um appropriate care from a healthcare
provider which is also reversible in the healthcare system. So you're taking advantage of having them nearby. So seat time remain the same. Um behavioral issues decrease and your teachers aren't trying to be mental health providers.
>> So generally speaking, what we see is it takes a while. Um but it allows it's a reset. It allows a district to spend more time educating and less time being helpful providers instance. >> And it allows you to appropriately spend
spend education funding toward education rather than ancillary healthcare services that could be more um efficiently taken care of by a healthcare partner. So, um I think the vision sounds very
exciting. Um and what could be and if we have a significant number of students that are being underserved, I I would want to understand that. Um and I I feel like you gave some good examples. Um I I feel mixed on like what I'm hearing about what it actually looks like in
practice versus that the vision and the excitement about what it could be. So, that's kind of a disconnect for me right now. So, I think I could use more time and more information around how are the examples of St. Louis Park, um, Brooklyn Center, Richfield, Burnsville, what are those actually looking like? Just so I
can conceptualize it um, and [clears throat] make a pertinent decision on our resources and and not not feel like I'm saying yes to one thing, but it's actually a different thing. I just have some reservations. and the sustainability study that's
being done has me a bit nervous as you pointed out that it's um coming 100% from the foundation and and that can't sustain forever. So, >> I would uh certainly be welcome to come visit. >> I was going to say we need a field trip. >> Visit Brooklyn Center. It's close by,
but I'd also say that that's not the only model. Our our models are not the only models, hence our our study on um so keep in mind that it's not just Park Nichollet's model that that that we're looking at. >> Like the the schoolbased clinics in in
St. Paul schools have the same healthcare system has been providing them for over 50 years. Um the city of Minneapolis, their schoolbased health centers are provided by the city of Minneapolis public health system and they've been there for 35 years. Um you
guys have been there for over 20 years and it's a different model. These other models are full-time healthcare clinics or wellness centers. >> Um >> and we're there because these school districts came to us saying, "Hey, we have the same student health issues that
Minneapolis and St. called us, but we can't access those funds to be able to build our own >> and that's where partner said, well, we'll help you do that. >> So, it came from the community, >> came from the schools. >> Yeah. And that's the other thing I'd really want to understand is do we
envision this being like what percent do we envision serving our students and what percent do we see coming from community because we do have substantial resources in the community that are seeking to tackle this issue as well. I just I don't want to depend on the
community mix in order to be for survival. Like to me, this is my support for this isn't is based on the student need. Um and if we're highly dependent on community use that puts some reservations into my mind, >> but isn't I mean I guess I consider
student in community I mean students are in the community, their families are in the community. There is not I mean we in our country we can't ignore it. Health care is not accessible to everyone. It's just not. And it's becoming more and more restrictive. We see that in the way we talk. We look at our own staff. we
look at and so I guess I am a little confused of like the the um I mean the population we're talking about which is it's it's there is so much data out there to talk about the disparities and
it is such a privilege to sit at a table and determine when you have a golden opportunity here who can and can't have access to healthcare and that's really hard for me to sit and listen to. I'm I'm trying to be as respectful as possible. Um, but it's very upsetting
because we do not have mental health enough mental health services. I sat at a table yesterday at one of our middle schools. They don't ha the one therapist, they have no more room on their case load. People Inc., no more room. Children's
mental hospital, no more room. Mental health is serious. Our babies are struggling. Their families are struggling. So I cannot deduce $250,000. I can explain that away to any taxpayer
that has a question about that. That is nothing compared to what we're going to get for our young people and their families and our community because that matters. Who I don't know J you said like it's the well-being. It just it keeps going
like or or mute you Kim mute it like it's it's it starts with our kids and I just like I don't I I'm struggling with this with I I'm I know I'm getting I'm trying to like but I'm like struggling I struggle with this conversation a lot and um and and that's great we have more
time. I I certainly don't need more time. I'm a thousand% supportive. Um and I I will be I think it's it's a great opportunity. I think it is serving the needs of our of our community that we're not locked in just like this, but we're thinking about the entire wellness of
our student population and their families and our staff and our nurses and the the health of our of our school district community because that's what I call it. I call it our school district community. So, um I I'll leave it at that, but I um Yeah, >> Dr. How may I
>> Yeah. be succinct. [laughter] Um, I welcome any one of you to make an appointment and come to my house, come to my building. Um, to see the things that my nurse
struggles with, to see my two therapists who struggle to see kids cuz they're booked. um and the things that they need. You are welcome to [clears throat] call to sit in front of me at any time. We can have those
conversations to get any questions you may have answered when it comes to Park High School. [snorts] And then I just want to put that up. opening right >> I so I just a couple things I think one
I've been struggling all day with this discussion because it is so much of a no-brainer to me we already provide health related services to our students across the district using community partners this fits in nicely and
continues to elevate the work that we're already trying to do in our district. The need for our students, particularly in this area of our district, is so clear and you all did a great job highlighting um the benefits of this program in the beginning of the
presentation. Um, I think the other piece for me that I just wanted to thank staff on is the fact that you took a DPAC recommendation and continue to move it forward um and sort
of sustain that recommendation uh over this long period of time. Um, I think too often DPAC recommendations seem to go into a black hole, um, never to be heard of again. And, um, to see the work that's happened and the partners that you've been able to bring in, um, the
fact that you've been able to visit, um, and we can leverage experience from other sites across the metro, um, that have, uh, similar programs in their schools. Um, I cannot wrap my head around
why this is a difficult decision. Um I think like many of the [snorts] other board members, I did have a long list of questions. Um many of which were answered naturally or or asked by others. Um but for me like this always
comes back to meeting the needs of each and every one of our students. um and the more resources that we can provide them um especially at a limited cost to the district um and keep them in the classroom um allows us to continue
forward in meeting our mission. Um so I just wanted to thank staff. I I did have a lot of questions. My mind is is racing. Um but I just wanted to communicate that I am excited about this. Um we clearly do need it. Um I know firsthand how difficult it can be
to access healthcare. Um and so just thinking about our population and um who this would serve, I yeah, we need it. Yeah, I I I
too am probably uh of the no-brainer mindset. Uh for a small initial investment, we would have another mental health person on site in perpetuity. and that's gonna pay off in like a year and a half. You know what I mean? That's like a no-brainer. So, um,
yeah, I mean, you know, as you said, DPAC asks for, the community asked for it, you know, the teachers are are begging for it, the students, I think, deserve it, right? So, yeah, I think I'd only to be honest, I'm only ever going
to vote for a plan that has a school-based health center in it. I'm not going to vote for anything else. I mean, the number of times that our nurses have come before the board begging for additional resources and support,
like I just don't understand how like we as a board who have the power to support our staff and make this decision would get in the way of that. >> I mean, the the sheer number politics >> Yeah. the sheer number of emails we've
been getting from teachers about how the job is hard, right? Doing so much more than teaching these days. Um, and this is an opportunity for us to kind of offset some of that burden for practically free. Like >> this is a philosophical discussion about where we draw the line between schools
and education and their role and where families need to step in and stand up in community. And yes, community needs to take a strong role, but I don't think the education system can always take it. So, I understand your the emotions behind this and the feelings. >> It's not emotional, though. It's real.
>> Yes. And I understand it's real, but I think there's other ways to solve the problem. Other ways to slice the apple. So, I think like I'm frankly disappointed for the dressing down in a schoolboard work session. Like, this is not a professional atmosphere. >> Can't handle it. Sorry.
>> Um, but at the same time, this is a philosophical difference and we all come to the table with philosophical differences. Um, it doesn't mean I devalue the role of staff or nurses or anything differently, but I do think there comes a point when we have to just refer out. We cannot meet all of our
students needs in the school. We cannot be their parents. We cannot do some of those things that they need to go see their doctor. They need to go to a clinician to go see and have those appointments. Erica, if you if somebody has that's a very privileged place to be
in life. Not everyone has access. Not everyone can just pick up. People work. People work multiple jobs. Not everybody can just take their child to the doctor. I can. I know a lot of people. I have a lot of friends, a lot of family that cannot do that. And their kids are not able to be taken care of. In my job
right now around truency, one of the number one reasons kids aren't going to school is because of some medical situation. They do not have access to mental health. We have it all over the you could look at any of our data. So like it is it's not emotional. It's factual. And it's I'm p I am passionate
about it because I see it every single day. I see it in my own kids. I see it in their friends. There is not I have called around the last two weeks to try to get mental health services for a 13-year-old. Do you know how hard have you tried to do that? Do you know how
hard that is? That is not this in everything that you just said. That's is why we're doing this to alleviate the pressure off of our education system. like and so I'll leave it at that. I I've been to the Brooklyn Center. I've been to most of those clinics. I've been
in the Minneapolis ones. They I mean it's a game changer. >> It's a game changer. So I echo that. I thank you for doing the work. I um it sound like from the timeline it's been a lot of thought, a lot of um resources
going into into getting to this point. And so um I am I am I I love a healthy discussion and I think we this is where we have we this is the only place we can have that. >> So >> so board if you don't mind if if I put ahead then if we can go ahead and I'll
send something out that after this meeting give you a couple days to think about it further questions that you may have. Um and Shauna if you don't mind at some point you said you can give us more specific information. Yeah as well. Um the sustainability one doesn't come out
till February, but if you could kind of share that. >> Oh, just to be very clear that is simply for health partners. We sustainability um data around schoolbased health centers. >> Okay. >> For nationally in the state. So you would be able to share that information
with Jill >> that run different models. >> Ours is an internal study for our four clients. >> Okay. >> Which we're changing the model. Yeah. Yeah. And if we change the model, I can guarantee it was >> okay. You just didn't want me to give you homework. I know what that was. Um,
so Sean, if you don't mind sharing that information with Jill and then I can share it with the board >> and I can also include in that some information about um funding at the state level that's specifically for startup schoolbased health centers. You're operating in that grant right
now. Um federal funding. This is very much supported by as well. >> Um and other sources of Medicaid is um like I said the biggest under a schoolbased health center. >> Okay. So we it's I'll send some ask more questions out there. People have had a
little time. We'll get that information. I'll share that out as well. I'll offer a field trip. Joe, you can probably help with that for those that want to go. And do we have permission that it's okay for just next week to move ahead with the major part of construction at it's okay
at park center and put a pause on the alt. I know you want to keep going. I have something else to say. This is also tied directly with our strategic priorities and goals. >> So, it's just I'm so disappointed in this conversation and it's about
humanity. It's about being um caring about our kids at the end of the day. And so I am um I'm just sorry that this can't move forward in the in the in the way we um it was intended to within the entire
plan because of some philosophical somebody doesn't believe that. >> Sorry, I don't mean can I clarify? I I'm not I just need a little more time. I'm not saying that we are completely like I don't want anyone to leave with the thought that this is killed right now.
Like for me like I just want to understand some more of the facts and like I want to know that it is going to take the pressure off and >> will it really dedicate another mental health because we know there's a constraints on it. So there's I just have a few things that I want to understand more. I don't I I feel like
exploration and continuing the conversation is still on the table right now for me. >> So I didn't I hope that was clear in my responses. I have reservations. um I want to make sure that it's doing what we're saying that it we want it to
do. >> Um and also some additional facts have been clarified through this process which was how many classrooms were being converted and the 250 versus a number that had been maybe floated in DPAC that was different than that. So >> clarifying question.
>> Um my understanding is that that in order to accept that the funding that MDH has offered for school-based health centers, the district has signed the agreement already that states that you'll be starting a schoolbased health center with that funding. So would that
just to be very clear that would mean restoring that funding to the state um if the decision is made not to move forward with the schoolbased health center. I don't speak for them. >> I think it's just it's an exploratory grant. >> The most recent one, >> it's an extension.
>> The second grant >> second. >> Okay. >> So, what did you guys just say? So, everyone can hear. >> We're two active grants. Um, and they're [clears throat] both uh I believe we have two active grants. They're they revoked the second grant that we just got, but they're going to blend it back
in to the original grant. Um, and the thing with that grant is it's about $500,000 all in like three and two. Um, and one ends June 30th, 26, and the other one ends three years. Um, and uh,
where am I going with this? Uh, you can't spend it on any capital. Um, and so that's the tricky part. where the 250,000 startup comes in. Um, but we can spend all that money on everything within the um clinic such as furniture,
um, exam tables, I mean, whatever it would need, computers, um, office furniture, um, and >> fees. We did all the design fees. >> We paid the design fee with Y. >> Dr. Can you So when you send out a
communication, um can you let us know when we might revisit this conversation? >> Yes. >> Wait, are you saying do we have a certain amount where we're going to lose the grant funding if we don't decide by a certain time or I I wasn't understanding what you >> It's still an explor
I'll double check. >> I don't think that's clear. I think they're both they're both >> the only thing that's potentially at risk was a different grant that we talked about today which is a $500,000 grant for capital specifically so for construction only
>> but it expires on December 31st of 2026 which means we'd have to speed up our current timeline to utilize that but there are a whole lot of other fingers and pieces to that one so we need more discussion on is this the right thing
for us or not. Um, and so it it we just have we're talking we just basically just had a brief conversation earlier today about >> Okay. Well, I want to be really clear before we leave this conversation. I want to I want to understand that. So, can you repeat? I want to be really clear like so we have the capital is the
grant is >> Jill can you explain the two exploratory grants that we have? >> Yeah, the two exploratory grants that we got are for new and emerging clinics. Um they can be used like what we did um to look for partners to work with
architects to build out spaces not out but to plan design. Thank you. Um it can be used for anything that's not capital. >> So it can be advertising. It can be signage. It can be hopefully security. I have to check on that. Um and then if
the capital comes through >> so the next thing is the team started to look for can we find somewhere to paid for the 252,000. So that's the new thing they were talking about. We have not gotten. >> Okay. >> We just had an exploratory conversation
with them today. Yeah. >> A half a million dollars that would cover all of the construction costs and provide additional technology for two additional. So there's three criteria for that grant. There's the health component. There's a work enablement
component where the school would provide space to help educate um workforce across generations like community ed offers uh adult uh programming for community ed um in the evenings. And then the other component
is additional education offerings. So, those are the three things that this grant has to include. And if we're able to meet those pieces, then we would have an award of $500,000 to cover all of the construction costs as well as some additional technology um to support the
education and work enable enablement programming that we would obviously need um community need at the table. >> So, I can do this right away tomorrow. I could just send out information about the grants. >> Sure. So, I get to do that right away and still let you think about other
things, but we'll send out information on the two grants we have and the one that we are um exploring. >> Right. Thank you. >> Okay. And so then um it's okay then for next week to then to have the alternate and alternate we would just bring up at
another time. So it could be I'll I'll ask you all of course. So it could come up at the February schoolboard meeting if we want to talk about it again or it could be the March school board meeting. So, >> we're in session. >> Well, we're well, I need to vote because
at some point we got to vote on other on other parts. So, yeah. >> Okay. >> Sounds good. >> All right. So, I'm gather more information. Miss Sha is going to give us all kinds of information for you to read with Netflix, right? And then, uh,
field trip if interested. Send out right away tomorrow on the, uh, actual grants. And um next you got that John alternate for. Okay. All right. I'll give you more time I think. So thank you. Thank you.
>> Thank you guys. >> So right we do standard grading. We could just move operation plan. Okay. You want me to do it? >> Um,
>> so as we're uh adjusting, I just wanted to put out just due to time that um we're going to uh go through and and do just um dig in and have some fun with standards based grading. Um and then the we had also in here the district
operational plan. Uh we'll just move that to the February one to [clears throat] go over that in February. So we're just going to go through the standardsbased grading and thank you for waiting around and we appreciate it. So we will have uh
Dr. Bass or Dr. sign is going to introduce. Who's introducing? >> I'll introduce. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Right. Here we go again. All right. I'll skip the normal. >> No, this is a fun stuff. We're learning. We're learning. >> Yes. Um, so again, thank you Dr. Hy, uh,
Vice Chair Brooks, Dear Prince, members of the board. Uh, tonight's presentation is intended to provide a clear and shared understanding of our approach to standardsbased instruction and grading in grades 6 through 12. We will briefly review the research and history behind
this work, the board of policy that guides it, and how these practices have been implemented over time. We'll also hear directly from our uh staff here at Park Center Senior High um about what this looks like in daily practice. Um
our goal this evening is to um not get into decision-m, but to offer context and transparency about standardsbased instruction and grading. So, we appreciate um your support um in in your interest in learning more about standardsbased instruction and grading.
Uh I want to thank uh Dr. Harris um our principal of art center, our assistant principal, Eric Thompson, um our avid lead uh art waffles. I think you said that three times something like that. And then Michael
McCoy um one of our teachers there at Park Center and of course Dr. Joe Connor, our director of learning achievement, so I'll hand it over to Dr. Connor at this time. >> Thank you, Dr. Bass. Good evening, Dr. Pile, schoolboard members. I'm really excited to be here tonight to talk about standardsbased instruction and grading. Uh Dr. Bass reviewed the outcomes
already, so I will skip over those. Uh so the roots of grading are really interesting. There are very few common experiences across the country in terms of public education. Grading is actually one of them. Uh whether you go to school in Iowa, Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, an
A is an A. A and F is an F. We know what those letters mean. Uh when I was a kid, this was what my teacher's grade book looked like. It was a bunch of numbers. And I bet if you showed any teacher some a grade book that had a red pepper, they'd be like, "Yep, that's a great book." So the roots of grading really
date back to the roots of public education and education in general in this country. So if we think about Thomas Jefferson who talked about education as a way to separate the learned from the labored and that was really how we became our grading system developed was about some we needed to
sort and separate students into laborers and learners. Uh and only some students were expected to be able to meet those really high levels of learning and the industrial revolution continued that trend of developing ways to have good workers. So grading focused on
compliance, completion and very little evidence. Fast forward to the 21st century and the those beliefs have changed about what public education is. All students are capable capable of meeting the standards. Schools should focus on how we make sure that each and
every child meets the standards and that a grade focuses on the evidence that a student produces for learning. So this is some of the research that we use here in AIO. There's probably 170ome books on standardsbased instruction and grading. This book here that's circled
uh Rick Romeli actually came to AIO in 2008 2009 to work with all teachers when we first started the inspiration of standardsbased instruction and grading. We've continued learning who didn't just stop there. Tom Busky is someone who we continue to learn from on standardsbased instruction and grading as is Joe
Feldman the author of grading for equity um which LNA and sites have read to inform our continued ongoing learning and I'm privileged to work with the author of these two books as we train teachers across the country in standardsbased instruction and grading
started this journey in 2007 and I'll talk more about that in a second grounded in these six principles which is the attachments to the documents there was the standards for grading and reporting. These six items are all embedded in those standards. And I'm going to go through each one of those
standards in the presentation, but there are four words at the top. Meaningful, accurate, consistent, and supportive of learning are what we believe that grades should be for students. They should meaningfully communicate what a student knows and is able to do. They should be
accurate based off of evidence of learning that a student submits. It should be consistent from Park Center to Napal Grove to AIO to 279 online and supportive learning. How does it help me as a learner grow in my learning?
So this is the timeline and the history of when we started. We actually started in 2007 and LNA is kind of a packrat organization. And here's the original binder that was given out to the stakeholder committee in 2007. There were 50 people on that committee uh
leaders, teachers, community members that really engaged in some deep learning for four years before this was actually rolled out into practice in 2011 12 school year and then 2012 was the year that the policy 626 was adopted
for the first time and was later revised in 2016. Uh and in that year in a second we're going to talk about those standards for grading reporting. We really focused on standards one and two. The next year they focused on standards three and four. Deep learning for
teachers. 2013 to 2022 was just continued implementation. Some things happened in that year. 2020 co that was a big thing for a couple of reasons. We switched grade books at the secondary level. We
went from using uh parent view, teacher view, synergy to using schooly. What schooly provides is a way for parents to access grades and the assignments that are linked to that. So that was a huge change that impacted standardsbased instruction and grade. Additionally, for
the first time since 2011, we had curriculum adoptions at the secondary level. We had new standards coming in every year. Now, so thinking about those are other things that impacted us during that time. So starting in 2022 through 2024, we refocused again on standards 1
and three because those are the ones that need to be continuously updated and monitored by teachers. And lastly, 2024 to the present, we are just continuing to implement and learn. These four beliefs really guide the work of standards based instruction and
grading. sort of alluded to them when we talked about the indepths of grading and how we believe that each student has the capacity to learn at high levels and it's our responsibility to ensure that it occurs the best use of instructional strategies. Learning is a process. There
should be relevant experiences, feedback, and assigned grade. Again, that meaningful, consistent, supportive of learning, and blue for accurate grades separate learning from behavior, which we'll talk about as we go through the standards.
This is the schoolboard policy. Schoolboard policy. Uh the standards for grading reporting break up schoolboard policy into what this actually looks like in a classroom and in our school. So, it operationalizes this And here are the standards for grading reporting. Uh if you want to have a
handout with you as we go through them, that would be a great one to look at. It's just the backtoback page so you can see each of the standards in detail. This is the high quality core instruction components and equitable grading practices are a piece of that. That standardsbased grading that we're
focusing on the grade level standards for students and grading that students against the standard and not against something else. And with that, we're going to jump right into standard one. Student academic grades communicate academic achievement based on clearly defined academic
performance standards. In the state of Minnesota, by and large, those come from MDE. We have a few other areas such as career and technical education that don't have standards from MDE, but have them through national organizations. Uh, letter B, grades are determined by
comparing student work to the grade level standard as opposed to comparing the work to other students work. And lastly, the one that we're going to spend some time digging into is letter C. Entries into a gradebook are organized in a way that clearly aligns
student work to reporting standards. So, going back to that red grade book with the just the numbers in it, this is what that grade book might have looked like. So, we've got a bucket. Picture that a student's grade has a bucket of stuff in it. And in this case, uh, in a traditional system, you have projects,
end of the unit assessments, tests, quizzes, homework, classwork, all in one bucket. So, I would get a grade. So then we sort of move to what I'm going to call a transitional bucket
where we separate out summitive or performance end of unit end of learning kinds of assessments tests projects into what we'll call summitive assessments and then we break out practice. Right? So if we think of it in
terms of playing an instrument uh our practice would be just practice rehearsals. If you're thinking about sports, it's practice. We think about summitives. In music, it would be a concert or a recital play or performance. In sports, it would be a
game. So, here we're separating those two categories out and really focusing on summitative as the evidence of learning and pra and formative as where we give feedback to students to improve their performance on the summitative.
in standardsbased curric [cough and clears throat] have you put your best geometry student hat on right now. >> Yes. >> In you're welcome. Uh in geometry there are standards and when we write standardsbased grades when
we think about that a team of teachers comes together and looks at the standard and said what are the big buckets that students need to demonstrate mastery on? In this case it's transformation. So changing how shapes look, solving triangles, data and probability, measurement, and logical reasoning.
Those big buckets are the sum of this. And it's broken out in a gray book that says, "All right, Jill kind solving triangles." She didn't do real well on that, but she did really well on the other ones. The little buckets are the formulas, the practice. Well, she didn't do well on solving triangles because she
didn't do any practice. This has a few benefits for us as a system. Uh, so I think about credit rec after school's credit recovery. I failed geometry. True story. Joel Kind failed geometry. Uh, because I couldn't solve triangles. That's a big thing in
geometry is what I've learned. Um, Pythagorean theorem. Yeah. Not my thing. But uh if I failed geometry today in Ocioary schools because I couldn't solve right triangles rather than having to repeat the entire trimester of geometry
or year I just have to do the portion that is solving triangles to demonstrate that I mastered those standards. Additionally I remember my grandmother going into Mr. Townsley's classroom. True story. And he said, "Jill can't solve right triangles,
because he knew what standards I was missing." So, as we think about teachers working with students and families and be able to communicate clearly and accurately, having a standardsbased framework allows us to pinpoint exactly the skills that students need to work
on. Standard two is about separating academic achievement from non-academic behaviors. So, first one is about group work. I'm sure none of you have ever experienced being in a group and you're the only person who does the assignment. No one's
ever had that experience, right? This says that we really have to rely on the individual student evidence and not the evidence of the group to determine a student's grade. At the secondary level, non-academic behaviors aren't factored into a grade. They're communicated
separately, whether it's comments on a report card, midtry reports, phone calls, other ways to communicate behavior separated from a grade. And lastly, if there's academic misconduct, uh students are still required to
complete the work. The consequence for the academic misconduct is separate from having to do the work. So there might be an opportunity for a reassessment. Standard three, again, this is one of the standards where we are constantly revisiting
and having to continue to to work on because things change, curriculums change, standards change, and this is about the design and use of assessments and properly recording evidence. Oopsie, sorry about that. Uh, A and B or
A talks about formative and summitive assessments. So, remember the big bucket, the small bucket, and that we're matching them appropriately. So we're not giving um a true false or fill in the blank is a better example exam to think about critical thinking skills or
write a research paper. Uh that's our goal. We're not giving a multiple choice test to say can you do research. Uh the other piece is that we're clearly communicating to students the expectations of what they're going to be assessed on. That's letter B. rubrics,
assessment checklists, scoring guides, and that we use those to also communicate feedback throughout the learning process on where students are at. Uh the other part of standard 3 is about modified standards. students who receive
special education services, multilingual services or other services where maybe modified instruction is called for that we have a determined process in our special education department and our multilingual department both have those and work with teachers on implementing
those and letter D common assessments based off of grade level course level standards that so I was a social studies teacher Dr. ambassador know was a social studies teacher. I loved teaching about many things. The Cold War, let's say I could spend an entire semester on
teaching the Cold War, though it may be four standards in my standards. Dr. Bass loved teaching about anything. >> The Civil War. >> The Civil War. He could spend a semester teaching about the Civil War. We have students in the same school having two
vastly different experiences in the same course. common assessments is a way to get away from that. And so this talks about using common assessments. And so professional learning communities and teams develop those common assessments and those be updated as curriculums
change, priorities change and standards change. Standard four is about how mid how trimester grades are determined and it must accurately represent a student's attainment of the standards and promote
student learning. So in AIO 80% of a student's grade as a minimum is calculated up with that summitive assessment. So that's final assessments given at the end of a learning experience, the end of a unit, the end of a chapter. The other 20% of that
grade is with the practice. Letter B talks about teacher professional judgment. used to be uh that grades were calculated maybe with a calculator and the teacher would have to interact with the student all the assignments the student gives. Now
schooly just does it like that. And what letter B really talks about and says if I as the instructor know my student has submitted evidence of mastery of the standard, I can use my professional judgment to override the computer in
favor of student learning, not as a punishment against students. Uh these are just the example of the big buckets again. So the big buckets would be 80% of the student's grade. The little buckets would be 20% of the students grade.
>> Jill, quick question. >> Yeah. >> Um in the traditional gradebook model, what was the percentage of summitive versus formative? >> A traditional gradebook model would be 100% of everything in that bucket. There was no summative or formative breakdown. >> Okay.
Like in the 90s we had like 25% 25% 25% 25% but like attendance [snorts] was like 25%. [laughter] >> That was not about what they demonstrated in terms of learning. >> Benchmark 4C is about multiple opportunities to demonstrate
performance. And what this says is that students have more than one opportunity to demonstrate mastery of a standard within a reasonable time frame. It doesn't mean they have unlimited time to do a summitative assessment. Doesn't mean they have unlimited opportunities
to redo a summitative assessment. There may be some summit of assessments. I'll look at Michaela a research paper or you wouldn't want to have a student redo the entire research paper. So communication what what benchmark 4C talks about is communicating with
students and families ahead of time that there won't be another opportunity on this assessment. And that's where those formative and that practice along the way that feedback along the way of writing your research paper becomes really important when opportunities where there are or tests where there all
all are multiple opportunities. Uh student has to do additional work before they have another multiple opportunities. So I can't just walk in and say you know I'm not going to take this test today. Uh give me a zero and then I'm just going to get the next test the next day. You have to demonstrate that you've done something for learning
along the way. So that's what benchmark 4C says. This is one that there's um often a lot of questions around because it um we get into ideas of teaching responsibility. And so teaching responsibility can also come in the form of having to do additional work. Well,
maybe we weren't ready the first time. Benchmark 4D talks about the secondary grading scale. So 0 to 100 is a traditional G grading scale. In standard based grading, we use a zero to four system. So every grade has an equal number of opportunities to achieve that
grade. So if I wanted to get an A, it's a four. A three to a one, a zero. In a [clears throat] traditional grading scale, 0 to 59, 49, that would be an F. So that's a huge number of opportunities to fail. Here we've taken it and made it
sort of equal intervals. 0 1 2 3 4. So if I fail one assignment, it's a zero. If I fail another assignment, it's a zero. As opposed to in a traditional grading system, I could fail one assignment with a zero and another with a 49. And that really impacts my grade. This scale lessens the impact of failing
or not completing an assignment. The other last piece on standard four is extra credit isn't given. Extra credit doesn't need to be given because a student has multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning within reasonable time limitations. Lastly, standard five is about how we
engage with students in the assessment process in an age appropriate way. So again, it's communicating with students and families in advance of how they're going to demonstrate their learning, how what evidence will they be submitting with scoring, rubrics, assessment tasks, and that teachers involve students in
the process through teaching them how to monitor their progress, communicating achievement, and providing feedback. So I can only speak to the professional learning that has happened in Oculus since 2018 and
this is the 10 hours of professional learning that second all secondary teachers have been provided on standardsbased grading instruction and grading specifically. So whether it is multiple ways to show your learning or it's how to use feedback for a growth mindset these are some of the topics
that we've gone through with all staff at our system of place in each of our secondary sites. We've also had opportunities to work with lead learning leaders in the 2122 school year. We worked with uh all principles on grading for equity and really talking about what are grading
practices that maybe unintentionally not allowing students to achieve their full potential. So, are we clear with our rubrics? Are we clear what our expectations are? And then as we have with we as we've gotten new curriculums
we've had the standardbased gradebook conversation. We have to go and we have to look at what are our reporting standards. So in geometry it's at solving triangles logic probability. So the learning focus gradebook that is when we work with those content areas after they've had a new curriculum for a
year of implementation to develop those reporting standards and to continue to revise their assessments. And we work with a lot of professional learning teams in learning and achievement too. And that varies by site. Some sites have us there frequently and some sites have us there
infrequently. Um lastly is before I transition uh to uh park center story, we have a balanced assessment framework in AIO. And this really uh works to make sure that we're not overvaluing one type of assessment in our system versus another. So on the
outside we have that annual assessment those MCAs which are about measuring progress on the standard. That red one is benchmark. Those are the skills in the standards. Spastbridge is a benchmark assessment. And then the summitative and formative in the center uh are our classroom assessments which
measure skills and standards. And so one of the things we do uh and we share with leaders is what's the relationship between our summitive scores, our grades and our MCAs, right? because there's sort of a similar measure. Um, however,
there's some caveats with that. The MCA, it measures one or two types of thinking. Doesn't measure every type of thinking. So, the reading MCA at 10th grade and sixth, seventh, and eighth grade only gets at reading and reading comprehension in a multiple choice way.
There's not an opportunity to explain my thinking to show that I can find the evidence and explain why this is the best evidence for an answer. In fact, there are 20 anchor standards in English. Only six of them are assessed on the MCA.
In math, um, again, multiple cho all multiple choice, uh, which is easier in mathematics, but there's if I make a mistake in the first part of my calculation that carries through to the end of the calculation, then the entire question is wrong. >> Been there, done that.
>> Right. Right. So but in a classroom we have ways to acknowledge that students know the concept of how to do it and the procedure but they made a tiny calculation error and we can give them feedback along the way. So what this graph shows is the variation between
trimester 3 grades and performance on the MCA. It's a standard deviation calculation which I made sure I didn't make a calculation error on. Uh the light yellow and the dark yellow are middle school and high school English while the light purple and the dark purple are high school middle school and
high school math. Now there's more variation in mathematics. That's something that we work with our math leadership team on what's going on there. What's interesting is that in the in the data uh nerd world, there's not
um like a a number that says this is what the variance should be. So, uh, you know, that's just sort of interesting. What we'd want to see is that de continue to decrease and that's something we work on. So, are our assessments really measuring our standards in our classrooms?
So, it is with deep gratitude and appreciation that I'm going to turn this over to Dr. Harris and his team from Park Center to share their experiences. [clears throat] >> Thank you, Dr. Uh so Michaela McCoy and Art Wols as well as
Eric Thompson are part of my instructional leadership team. Uh we meet uh monthly which is focused on how we can continue to evolve um and serve our babies the best possible way uh inside outside of life. Um and so what
I'm going to do right now is I'm turn this over to Michaela so she can do what she does best. >> Thank you. Um, hello everybody. I'm Michaela McCoy. I'm an English teacher at Park Center Senior High. I have English nine and English 12. Um, been doing that for four years at Park. Yep.
Um, yeah. So, think next. Yep. Okay. Um, so I recently got my admin license this past February. Well, I guess it's 2026 now, so last year. Um, and so while I was in my lensure program, um, as I'm sure people know that have admin
licenses, you have to do a research course. Um, and so I had to pick a topic to do qualitative research on and I chose um, grading equitable grading um, because Eric and I had some conversations about um, looking at grading practices at Park Center um,
just as again we're trying to make sure that we're supporting all of our students and what that looks like with standardizing practices across the building. Simultaneously in fall 2024, Park Center um started our year-long avenues professional development um which is where uh all teachers are they
choose an avenue that's in alignment with our three instructional pillars in our building which are the bar program AVID and then IB since we're an IB school and then teachers engage in again a year-long kind of individualized PB where they're digging into their pillar and then bringing that knowledge and
that learning back to their PLT which is comprised of teachers that are potentially in other pill pillars and then um synthesizing that knowledge together in order to um make moves in our curriculum and our instruction to better support students. And so obviously a metric of measuring the
effectiveness of this PD, how are we building relationships? How are we teaching strategies for success and how are we designing rigorous assessments is through academic success which um we measure through grades, right? Are the kids doing better in the classroom because that's ultimately what we want for them. Um, and so just kind of
putting all these this these things together led to um me taking on the role of leading a grading study where I spent a lot of time in conversation with teachers um meeting with teachers, having group meetings together just to talk through and figure out how teachers at Park Center are grading where we're
already aligned with our standardsbased grading practices and then also maybe where do we need to [clears throat] improve or just kind of tune things out. Um so part of this was again I was then simultaneously doing this qualitative research for my program and so I gave out a qualitative study uh survey um
where I specifically asked teachers about our standards based grading practices and about the 0 to fourth grading scale and as you can see the question was our 0 to fourth grading scale leads to a more accurate grades um than the 0 to 100 and I made the survey before I got wisdom from Eric about not
doing a three because then everybody chooses three because they don't want to say it's helpful. [laughter] That was my bad what I learned. Um but uh you know we can the majority are still on the side saying yes that this is um we're getting more accurate grades from this and um digging into the three
I got some responses that illuminated I think why so many people were in the three and so I put those on the next slide. Um, a lot of people talked to, and I'll read through these, but the overarching sense was that yes, it's more effective, but only if it's paired with a rubric that has really specific
scoring criteria. Um, if you just let it like do its thing or put it on Schooly or try to align it to that 0 to 100, you're going to end up with kids who get 50 p 50% getting C's because then that's a two on our rubric. And if you're only getting half of them, right, that's not
that's not C, right? It's not your grade's not accurate. And so again, these teachers spoke to moving the percentages from the one to four that's attached to rubric and standards helps the educator focus their marking on where the students at in their development of specific skills more clearly. Using the percentages leaves a
heavier margin in the failing category. So I do think it's important for the 1 to4 scale to be accompanied by a rubric or a standard. Otherwise, again, the same disadvantages that come with percentage grading also occur with the 1 to4. Another person said, "The one to four grading scale allows us really to
define for each task what we expect kids to know at each level." I think you spoke to that in the purposes that the district has for using standardsbased grading. A thoughtful rubric combined with backwards aligned assessments are key to making grades more meaningful and accurate for teachers, students, and parents. And then lastly, our 04 scale
helps lessen the impact of a zero on students grade. I think this system works best when paired with a rubric versus half the questions current equals a two. Like I said, um if teachers think about what skills and concepts they're looking for at the C level, B level, and A level and match those skills to the
appropriate score. Um and so this does take work um on the on the teacher side of things, right? We sit in our PLT or our course meetings and we have to carefully design our rubrics and think about um what are we really looking for at each of these scoring levels? Um what is the grade level standard that we're
that we want to see from them? Um but it also then allows us to give that more meaningful feedback. Um, I just had a conversation with a kid this morning where he was like, "Hey, why'd I get this grade?" And I was like, "Let's look at your rubric." And I was able to say, "You guys can see I marked that you got this, but you didn't get this." And then they're able to, you know, go through
that and then see clearly and their parents can see clearly what do I need to work on, right? What standards have I not mastered yet? Um, which then I think goes to the park because at Park Center, we are also an IB school. And so part of our rubric writing process also then
incorporates our criterion from IB. >> Oh >> no skip that one. >> Okay. >> Uh so I'm Art Walk. I'm the MYP IB coordinator at Clark Center. Um it's interesting the dates that Dr. kind of showed because I seen her in 2012 and I
remember being in the intimate and listening in the in the teacher orientation about standardsbased grading and actually going to the person presenting saying do you guys actually do this? Cuz I was so shocked like I couldn't believe it. I came from the Chicago public schools uh came to uh
Minnesota with my family was teaching out of Rockford and the fact that I came to a school district had no idea that they were doing standardsbased grading was amazing to me. Um, it was something as an IB teacher that I had done for years. And so when I came to Park Center
and I saw that we had these PLTs together working to really lean into these ideas of how we can build teacher efficacy and creating rubrics and assessments to be on the same page was amazing to me. Like we had this time to
work on it. And as an IV World School, we also have the rubrics that are explicitly created to guide that learning, which is awesome. It's a big reason why I came to Park Center because I'm an Ivy [snorts] guy and that's where I wanted to be. Um, and ultimately the equitable grading thing just reaffirmed
that. It showed that we have people and teachers really invested in this at Park Center. We spent a lot of time creating, recreating, having those conversations with students to say this is how you're going to get better. Um, which ultimately makes it, you know, I think easier to be a teacher because it's like
I can have that open conversation with my students. they trust me that I trust them that we're going to get to the point of success. That's that's the whole goal. Uh and ultimately that's that's really the goal that we have. If you want to move on the next one is is getting this idea of kind of a
conceptual understanding of a wellplanned assessment as a group builds teacher efficacy which puts us on on the same page and really empowers us all at Park Center to say, "Hey, we are using our collaborative time to make sure that
you're going to be more successful." And the kids know that. They figure it out. They know the teachers that they can talk to that are buying into this and know this. And it creates an environment overall that has this culture of lifelong learning, which is the core of what we want to show. Hey, we're all in
this together. We all want to learn. I want to learn from you because I'm 47 and I don't know 67 or [laughter] like I want to figure out what the reality is. If I'm doing this assessment, what do you not get? because what's the point of me giving it to you
if you don't know what it is, right? So, ultimately at Park Center, that's a big thing that we all do. We all really strive to get to that point. >> So, as we transition to uh some question time, standards based instruction and grading is really a work in progress because standards change, curriculum
change, we need to revisit our common assessments to make sure are we is this what we're actually teaching and are these assessments measure that? Do our formative assessments provide ample opportunities for students to get feedback so we can almost predict their performance on that summitive? Uh
rubrics have we been updated and making sure that our grade books match what we're asking our students to learn continued learning curriculum and it's really also about reflecting on our practices and our beliefs. Do we really believe that all students can achieve at high levels and how do we make sure that we have the scaffolds and instructional
strategies in place to make sure that happens each and every day for our students. engaging students in the grading process, talking to them about this is formative. This is why formative work matters because it's a predictor of your summitative performance and supporting PLT's insights in the data.
So with that, um, what questions are lingering in your mind right now? >> Um, before we have questions, Mr. Thompson, would you like anything else you want to add? Uh the part that I would add is everything that we're doing at Park Center is maintaining our alignment with
the with the district's practices, but then going to our staff and saying, "What does this actually look like? What is your experience in teaching our students and what do you need in order to be more successful?" And through that process, you know, working with Michaela to create the the
study and and really listen center ourselves in the teachers voice and what they were experiencing. and then working with our IB coordinators to provide the structure and the the professional learning that our staff need to to align with the district standards and align with the IB [snorts] rubrics has been
just a tremendous process to to lean into that concept of how do we push our students to their highest level and support our staff and in supporting our students. >> Thank you. Uh board members questions. >> One question. How does it translate for
GPA assignment? >> Great question. So report cards look the same. Uh at the end of each trimester, uh the 0 to4 gets translated to an A through an F and that's what's reported on report cards and transcripts. >> Okay. >> So there are other districts that report
a zero to four across the country. There are some that don't report grades at all. And colleges have found ways to work with it because I know that's a big concern. But we still use the A to F on our transcripts. >> It was interesting the when we had some feedback that maybe it was not enabling
students in our district to be as competitive with others. So this is some good facts. So I guess like what are you confident that the system ensures that our students are as competitive with how other districts are reporting their grading?
>> Yes. Yes, maybe that's unfair to ask cuz they're inflating and you get extra credit. [laughter] >> When you think about as a work in progress, one of the things that we haven't revisited since 2012 is our 0 to4 translation to an A to an F which is some work that you know as we continue
this we should engage in again and bring a stakeholder team to look at the secondary level. Uh there are one, two, three, four, five, six districts in the metro area that use standardsbased grading solely. Uh there are two more that use mastery grading. So just going away from an A through a N and saying
this is what your standard is. You've mastered this now you can move on to something else. There are entire states that have gone to that system. So I'm very confident that our grades are competitive with other districts. >> Dr. Kane can you say what other districts are doing SVG? >> Anoka Henipin just went to
standardsbased grading like three years ago. Richfield, Eastern Carver, South Washington, White Bear Lake, St. Louis Park, uh St. Anthony and Spring Lake Park use mastering >> and I would speak from the from the the school site. Our students are getting to
go to the universities that they want to go to. I mean last year we had a student that got a full ride through the >> bridge quest >> scholarship to go to Stanford University um through standardsbased grading. So we at the sites are not hearing of any
barriers to because of our grading system. Our babies are growing. [snorts] Our babies are intelligent. My staff work extremely hard to make sure uh we
close [snorts] that opportunity gap and that's what we're doing at work. >> Can I ask a question? Um I'm just curious what like how do then like how is it all weighted? Maybe this isn't the right question, but like when you have like AP HP
>> within the zero to four and then translating. >> So HP classes grades aren't weighted. AP and IB classes are the only weighted grades we have. And students who receive above a C, [snorts] I think, don't quote me on that. Uh get
an additional.33 added on to their GPA at the end of each trimester. So the assignments aren't necessarily weighted differently. It's on the transcript at the end. So they do get more credit for taking more advanced classes. Correct. >> Okay. That was a big concern I had as
well. And misunderst I I was just going to say I appreciate it's like all the pieces fell into place with my kids. [laughter] Um cuz it feels like I think every time usually around 9th grade algebra they're like yeah [laughter] I don't have to do the formatives. Exactly. My kids are
like, >> they went to the sum and they had to do the final words every day to they figured out that magic of [laughter] >> practice they do better. So, um yeah, I don't I I appreciate this. Uh, I think the, you know, the other thing that I
like too is, you know, I did, uh, so I went from school in England with, you know, A levels and GCSEs and very like just everything in books of [clears throat] this is what you're supposed to learn. These are standard you're supposed to have. >> Then I get back to the States and I like, you know, turn in English paper
and I get like, you know, a BB back and I'm like, how do you get a B? And like it's like this game you have to play where you guess what they're looking for. You know what I mean? So appreciate the rubrics. It's like, you know, I remember I don't know how many times I've gone through them with my kids and
it's like, well, this is what you you need to do this part up here to get to that four and that kind of stuff. It's >> I think it's I think it's pretty awesome. >> Yeah, >> it definitely is a good conversation with your kids. >> [laughter] >> I just like you're getting off
question for anyone about uh I'll probably tip my hand a little bit here about resilience. Anything you notice in terms of standard space grading building resilience within student service >> and I know you take from CPS former CPS
myself. >> [laughter] >> I mean, you know, like the one thing that I was rolled with is that I'd have to create these situations of extra credit because a kid wasn't around for a while and I had to kind of go back to that standard, but I couldn't really do
the last assignment because I was being pressured by colleagues that like, oh, we're done with that. This is like the resilience is like, hey, I just want to see that you learned it. So, I'll figure out a time and a place that we can do this assessment and explain it. And nine
times out of 10, they're probably going to come to you for help if they're really invested in it. So, like the resilience can happen. You know, they just have to buy into it, but if you're open to them to say that it happens and that was that's a game changer for me to say, you know, what standard fixed
grading really does. Oh, I was going to say I think also just the clarity with the rubrics helps students be more resilient because I think they start to shut down when they are so confused and they're like I don't even know why I got this grade. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I don't get it. But again, when we have those really
clear rubrics that are outlining, you know, for a two you need to do this, this, this, and this. And then I can point to like I said, hey, you're you did this and this great you just need to do this. They get that and they're like, okay, I can I can do that. this one thing instead of being like so
yeah I I definitely see students being more willing to try again >> um to go back >> I think coming from as a parent from a system where there isn't an opportunity for multiple opportunities and my kid is in the AP environmental science class
and having a bad day and has a summitive and they fail it there's not an opportunity for them to go back and retake that and so that you know that's the opposite of the resilience that we want to So multiple opportunities it also says advocate for yourself. So talking about
how how do we advocate when I need some additional practices I don't understand or that I want another opportunity to improve my score >> Dr. Kinder what the team what would you say like how are the teachers do now with like the rubric is there more
consistency do you believe on grading 0 through four than there was zero through 100? This whole discussion is kind of freaking me out because I started this job in July of 2011, but my first six months of board [cough] sessions were [clears throat] standards space grading because I got approved. >> Yeah.
>> And like I can't tell you how late these meetings went. >> Yes. >> When when this district tried to change from grades to standards space gradings, we were here till 11:30 almost every work session. >> There's some great videos out there. >> Yeah. [laughter] So let's watch God
PTSD. Yeah, [laughter] we had No, for real. I And I was, you won't believe it, but I just was super quiet my first year in the job, and I was just like, "Oh my god, is this what it's going to be like?" [laughter] But >> Tanya's question came up a ton. >> Yes,
>> a ton. The AP question came up a ton. The extra credit stuff, you wouldn't believe how much time people spent on that. You would lose extra credit, >> right? It was kind of wild. But this whole I'm super curious on um because there was a belief
that teachers just knew what 72% meant, what 35% [clears throat] meant, what 89.5% meant, >> right? You know, so I'm just curious myself. >> Yeah. >> Um how do you think the fidelity of 0 through 4 is compared to 0 through 100?
That I guess that's how I would condense the question. or is that that's the work in progress or [laughter] >> um yes I I think that we have a lot more consistency again what is a 72 who knows but when we have those specific scoring criteria and some of them are very clear
like for us um we were working on a rubric today in our 12th grade meeting and we were trying to determine how many pieces of evidence do our seniors need to site in their argument research papers we came to two so now we know that you know everyone has to have at least two if they have less than two they're getting docked and that will be consistent
Um and so yeah, I think it eliminates that. I think we do still have work to do. Part of the work that um art is leading um with IME rubrics and grading is implementing calibration time in our PLT where we have time to actually look at student work against our rubrics and
make sure that we're interpreting every um scoring criteria the same way. But in general, I think we're we're in a good place where we are right now with that room to grow. And I think across the system um that is definitely always an area of improvement because we have new I'm just going to continue. New
standards, new curriculum means new assessments, >> new staff. So bringing people together is some of the work that uh English and science and English and science only this year are engaging in our systemwide uh professional learning time to bring student work together to make sure hey
at Park Center three is this. Oh, it's three is this also grow. So there's that there is that consistency but it is a work in progress >> in education you know we've sometimes we fear change. >> Yeah. >> And so um in order to to sometimes and
in order to to to be able to get through that process [snorts] you have to lead with consistency uh and give expectations that are clear um and let them and remind them of who we are and why we're here which is for our babies not for nothing else. Um that's why I do
what I do. And so that permeates down through my team that permeates down to our teachers and it permeates down to our parents and kids who know what the expectations are. So initially um you know when I was
given the opportunity to run park center and we had these conversations um did I have some push back of course because it's changed but the consistency across the board um has reached Mario this is where we are and this is what we're doing and okay I see the vision
>> ain't that right no I gota add one more thing on from the administrator side because it does empower the students to to have better conversations with the teachers. It empowers the staff to to guide the the students. As an administrator, one of the places where this really empowers me is if a student that's just happened
comes to me and says, "Hey, this teacher gave me a score and I don't feel like I deserve that score. I have such an easier conversation going to that staff member now and saying, "What standard, what rubric? Explain that to me."
>> Mhm. and I can navigate that conversation. I can advocate for the student. I can act as a as a as a neutral third party a lot easier through standardsbased grading than an arbitrary 100point grade book. Where as Dr. Bass
said, you could have passed my class without getting one answer correct when I was teaching when I was teaching. And this just really centers us on the learning and what is actually being taught and assessed. And when students come to see me, we have a conversation about what that should look like because
my ultimate job is to make sure when they walk out of Park Center High School, they know how to navigate and communicate. So I typically say these are the points that you might want to have a conversation with your teacher about. Go ahead and [snorts] get it done. Go ahead and have that
conversation because again we're we're building leaders. >> So thank you. And can I ask the question Michaela during class time do you find time to you're in general speaking to all the students but those individual meetings about this is what you need to do different looking at the criteria is there time within the class
>> or do you feel like they're meeting with you before or after school? What does that look like? >> So I t yeah typically when I set an assignment I will go over the rubric with them before they start so that they know what the expectations are. Um we do a lot of process work in ELA. It's not like you know sit and write on demand.
And so typically again I'm going around and I'm watching their work, watching them um do what they're doing slash they'll ask me, you know, can you check this? And so then that's where I'll have individual conversations too about like, okay, you did this and this, you still need this, so put this in and you know, then you're done. Um after I return
scores sometimes if it's work time where I'll tell them, okay, we're doing another one of these, so go back to your first one, take a look at it. If you have questions, then I'll circulate and I can answer those before you move on to your next one to make sure you do it, you know, the way you want it to be done. Um or I sometimes have [snorts] students um talk to me before after
class or before school. So it's all the above. Um but yeah, I mean, you know, but I think Eric, I think to what you said, I think they do feel empowered to have that conversation because um they have something tangible they can look at and be like, can you explain this to me? Or, you know, we can just have a better conversation. And so they're not like,
well, I just suck. I have no idea what I did. I'm just not even going to ask. You know, so I feel like it is kind of a relationship building tool in that way as well. And it would seem that um interventions and supports are much more clear under the
>> Y very much so. >> I uh going back to what Dr. Bass said, I sometimes showing up to school in the morning was always the hardest part of the day. Um so I always appreciated that extra 25% [laughter] [laughter] down in geometry.
Um [laughter] I but yeah, I just wanted to thank staff for putting this together. It I feel like I needed this presentation just as a parent years ago. Um cuz I I still struggle with what the points mean in terms of of actual
letters. But um I think given that this feedback came from a student, I think the only question that I have that wasn't highlighted in the presentation is just what the engagement has been with our students and families since the
beginning, but even more recently like what the feedback is from our student reps or um other students on on this model. Boom. >> So, I would actually turn that over to the sites because I rarely hear from families or students about their grades
because that's really handled at the classroom and industry level at sites. >> I mean, I don't I can't remember the last time I've had like any sort of concern. Honestly, I mean, it's a conversation. So, most of the students that have questions for me, we work
through it and it's it's really easy. I I mean, I can't remember the last time I had a parent come and say, "I'm really upset with this grade." It's more of just I handle with the student and talk about it individually. But I mean that's me as an individual. Um I just have things really set up and
and embedded in in the in the IB curriculum, the IV DP teacher, and it's really specific to what they have to do on exams. Um and as a US history teacher, I really was kind of on board with that. So typically it was a conversation. Here's the assessment.
It's like here's the assessment. this is what I felt like you didn't do right. If you can go in and do this learning again and show me how you can improve it, it's fine. So, I rarely had a lot of conversations with that. >> I couldn't um the podcast was really good. >> Good.
>> And it was like it was it was really helpful to like understand this before the meeting. Um, but I think one of the things that struck me most is it's a mind shift change of the mastery versus kind of the intentional spreading out.
>> Um, and I think there may still be pockets, you know, especially as like for me as a competitive person. I'm like, well, I want to know that I'm much better than person B, right? Like I want to like get to the deal. So, I can see that there may still be there could still be pockets of perception that it's
like, well, I want to be differentiated. I want to be here. I want my child to like have differentiation but that is achieved through AP or IB or through more rigorous course work. So I think it's maybe continuing that mind shift versus
>> it is and and the the competitive piece that you're talking about um and I think >> I don't know what ma'am showed a poweroint to you maybe I don't know but um and we talk about IB and
each year the amount of students that are taking more and more IB classes are starting to double right because they are pushing each other, they are wanting to be able to be more successful. They do have that competitive edge and they are chasing uh to be great, right? So
those those pieces are there, the direction is there with IB, with AP, it's it's there as well, which which has shown in our two years, last two years, our graduates, right? They're coming. Our babies are coming. >> Thank you. Thank you. Park center in the
house. Great. We're all going to have become pirates around here. Um, so just real quick for me, there'll be a lot of updated stuff coming out to the board including on the calendar. I will ask so we can bring this conversation back to the February work
session as well. um our scholars will be here the next work session to share their point of view on uh standards based grading. So that'll be part of that group as well. So Mr. Brooks.
>> All right. Uh this work session is adjourned at 8:43 p.m.