All right. Good evening. Uh, this work session of the OIO school board is being held in the forum room of the educational service center on Tuesday, May 5th, 2026. The work session is being audio recorded. The recording will be made available in the district website
within two business days after the work session is ended. With regard to the audio recording or communication staff has asked that we share a friendly reminder that side conversations during the work session are picked up by the recorder and can affect sound quality. Also, conversations during transitions between agenda items are on the
recording as well. The intent of the schoolboard work session is to allow for schoolboard discussion of topics. Work sessions do not include an opportunity for audience members to address the board. To acknowledge attendance this evening, I'll ask that all present at the table state their name. Starting with the person to the left,
>> Tanya Prince, school board member. >> Keith Tate, school board member. >> Eric Foster, school board member. >> Steve Fisk, assistant superintendent for elementary and middle schools. >> Kala, executive director of community relations. >> Adams, student board, student board rep.
>> Christian Park, student board. >> Brian Bass, assistant superintendent for equity achievement in the high schools. >> Anthony Paris, executive director of technology. >> John Morset, executive director of finance and operations. Brian Sever Sahal, executive director of community engagement. >> Sarah Mitchell, school board member, Amy
Moore, general counsel. Kelsey Dawson, school board member. Kim Hy, superintendent. >> And I, Thomas Brooks, schoolboard member and present. Uh, the purpose of schoolboard work sessions is to build trust and teamwork to exchange information and when applicable to provide direction in order to facilitate
efficient and effective decision-making at regular board meetings. Dr. Hy, will you please share your check-in? >> Yes. Thank you, Vice Chair Brooks, Chair Prince, and school board members. We are going to take one second. We're going to let Amy Toliffson introduce herself this evening. >> Amy. >> Hi, I'm Amy Tolson, district principal
>> and soon to be assistant superintendent starting uh July 1. So, congratulations. >> All right, so we have a full plate this evening. Uh so, we're going to go ahead and get started on equity policies. So, I'll go ahead and have uh Amy T, you can go ahead and introduce what we have this
evening. >> All right. Uh good evening, Board Chair Prince and Vice Chair Brooks. We are excited to be here again this evening as we had an opportunity to work with our board reps and um work with our legal counsel to review some policies and
there were questions raised um some feedback. So, we're just here to share some of that information with all of you tonight. So, we um were asked to review three different policies. Racial equity 101, 102, harassment, discrimination,
and then 508 gender and inclusion. So, I'm going to let our boards speak to some of the conversations and questions and um our legal counsel Amy Moore can jump in and fill in some of the um information that we'll talk about as needed.
>> And if our board reps can introduce who they are. So >> I'm Adam, student board rep for student Naomi Cooper, student board rep for >> Christian Marcus, student board rep. >> All right.
>> Okay. So for policy 101, racial equity and achievement, um we kind of noticed that staff and admin are trained about being culturally responsive in school. And we're kind of just wondering, um what if students were kind of, you know, trained for that, if that makes sense.
Like is it part of the curriculum? Um can that be part of the curriculum for advisory classes or can we have more electives that kind of teach, you know, like culturally responsive ideas and topics? And then for the next one, we had growth in staff and colored students. And for me, for also senior
high this year, I really noticed that there's a lot of staff and admin that are people of color, which kind of helped students like my friends and I bond with them and kind of be more comfortable to speak out and talk to them more. And then for the last one, we noticed that there's a lot of consistent
communication in schools like Park Center where Na said that there are multiple language resources in French, Spanish, and yeah. >> Did any of the two of you all want to explain anything that she said? Naomi or
Christian? >> Oh, that's a good man right there. >> There you go. >> Yeah. Yeah, I mean for the communications if there's anything like important that has to go out per say like um recently there's a lot of graduation stuff for seniors for the
parents they have it in almost every language available for the parents to understand I mean there's VA there's num there's English there's other languages just so that parents can fully understand even if they can't understand English so I think that's good and we need to stay consistent with that for
the parents who don't fully understand English thank All right, now it's my turn. >> Policy 102, prohibit. >> Yep. >> Prohibition. >> Prohibition against discrimination, harassment, and violence. And um we want
to improve clarity on how to report an incident, more engagement with student handbook for each trimester. So instead of just like handing the handing them the handbook and expecting them to read it, maybe have a little slides that go with the handbook or like teach
something just so that they're more engaged instead of just expecting them to read it and having them sign at the end like they did read it and then consistent a consistent message for the video. And we we thought an entertaining
video might work. So reporting considerations, offering multiple reporting options. So like including a trusting adult, making sure like if we have some kind of poster around the school, like if you have a problem, this is who you report it to.
If you don't want to report it to this person, you can bring another adult into the room. Just stuff like that. Making sure the student feels safe and supported while reporting it. Because if the student doesn't feel safe while reporting the incident, they won't share their incident correctly. They'll end up
skipping details, rushing over things, or like not including things at all if they don't feel safe. Provide clear and studentfriendly explanation for the process. That's where the video comes in. >> It's going to be a great idea, guys. Try it. >> And then, do you want to talk about how
you read through the policy and how you thought that was really clear about? Yeah, I think the policy it's really thick and it's a lot of words and I was like, "Wow, I didn't know y'all did all this." So, I was like I was like,
"Bingo." You know the school bus videos where they break their arm and they're like, "You shouldn't be like me." I stood up in the middle of the bus and I swear this person and I broke my arm and now I'm in a wheelchair. Yeah, we should do something like that. So, I want big budget, big production.
I'm be a film director. I I got the chair and everything. >> I'd also like to add that how important it is to make something memorable, especially something as important as that. So, I think creating a video would be a non-negotiable. Even a lot of my friends when they think of advisory,
their brain immediately goes to that bus video cuz it's so memorable. Okay. >> And it's literally just we put our energy into making it more memorable for students and we get more from it. >> Yeah. No, I end up learning something like not standing in the middle of the bus while it's moving.
>> So, you guys are >> Oh, yeah. I'll get injured. I I'll do it. >> Okay. Next one. Communication and transparency. Transparency is a big part cuz you can have the meeting one and then you can have
nothing. And when some students report something and they don't hear anything back or they don't know what's going on, they're like, "Did they really do anything?" And that's when they're like, "Maybe I should have never told anybody cuz nothing happened." So transparency
and follow-ups are really important to students so they feel like they're truly being heard and something's truly getting done. Now, full transparency probably can't happen with all situations, but a little like peak behind the curtains might be able to help some students feel safe and like
that they're being heard. And clarity on how to report and repeat incidents and address them. That's just basically saying one, if it gets false reported and they keep on false reporting, what do we do about that? And then two, if
one student like reports it, it gets solved, but then something happens again and it's not a false report. Will they report it? And if they report it, will it be taken seriously? This policy 58 gender inclusion. We talked about how the consideration to
include rights between 15-year-olds and the importance of identifying a safe staff with each student and how can schools emphasize that. So I think a direct officer would be great and optimal, but we talked about how everybody connects with other people differently. So then we talked about how
can principles remind staff and provide direction for that staff to be more open to that and to be there for students because if one staff is fully trained on that not everybody's going to connect with them. >> Can you expand on more on age 18
including more rights of 18 year olds? >> Anyone? I guess we were just wondering cuz in the policy it was like they kept saying that um parents or students of parents will have to be like notified or something like if they want to change their pronouns or something like that.
They were kind of wondering like if you're 18, you know, you're own person or legal would that still be considered? >> Yeah, that's kind of the question. All right. So, now we have an opportunity for any of you to just ask
any follow-up questions related to the different policies that are outside opportunity committee. >> So, these policies along with others will go to the policy committee in June. We'll come to the full board in August
for first reading, second reading in September. Yeah. Well, thank you all for taking the extra time to review the policies. I know it's not the most exciting thing that we do um at all times, but it is really important that we have your
perspective, especially on policies that directly impact you um and your peers. Um so with that, um board members, uh any questions? Anyone want to start?
So yeah, on policy 102 um clarity on reporting um love the idea for videos. Um do you I guess like in your experience do you feel like your peers are reporting incidents or do you feel like
they're like is it under do you observe under reporting? It's more like if there is a form reporting, they're like, I don't know if I should do it because the school doesn't really do anything. >> Or they'll tell like a teacher, but
they're not telling the right person. And does that teacher report it to someone higher up? I have no idea. There's not really a lot of people who go up to the source and they're like, "This is the problem. This is what I want you to do. This is how I want you to solve it." Nothing like that. Like if someone's getting bullied, I don't think
they really go to the vice principal or the principal and they talk about it. Nobody really does that kind of stuff. Had having a anonymous form or like some kind of form where they can fill out reports that would be great too instead of like trying to find a person and have a meeting with them because I don't
think all students know the process of how to do that and even where to begin. I would say when I went to medical, there's a lot of under reporting and it makes it so hard because there's so many factors. Maybe somebody doesn't trust a staff member, maybe they don't trust it
because nothing happened. There's so many factors that go into it. So it makes it like really hard to address how we can make it better to be completely honest with the social pressure and other things. So that just makes it really hard. So I think the best we can do is just find the ways that we can
make it easier for those students to find the ability to connect with staff. >> And then another question um in your kind of experiences do you feel like we have a significant problem with
discrimination and harassment and racial discrimination in the student community or like what's what's your experience? >> We'll see. I would say in my experience I haven't really seen it. I think it's because AIO is more diverse. So, you
know, you can kind of find your own place. But yeah, I haven't really seen any discrimination and amongst ourselves. >> I mean, with Park Center, we're also pretty diverse. And with my own little community, I haven't really seen anything where it's like, ah, you're
black. Uh, nothing like that really happens. It's not like old time movies where it's like that. I don't know. Um I would say yeah. No. Okay. Not >> good. Good.
>> Um Paul would know a lot more than me about this, but I can't really speak for I mean the OALC I wasn't really involved with community as much but yeah. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> So we have our stop it line. M
>> so how does that get communicated to our students so they know to use it or how do you know about it and you just don't want to use or >> the first year they introduced it park center wasn't even on the stop it app you could look up park center and say school not found so even if you wanted
to report something on the stop it app it wasn't on there I could report about a school in Texas I mean I could look up a school in Texas and report something there but park center wasn't on it the first year I think they updated. So, Park Center was on there, but I don't think anybody
really uses that app. >> I had a friend, a friend of a friend, they were like 10th grade being dumb and they submitted like a false report and they both got followed up on. That's my only experience of knowing about stop it. So, that seems positive that both of
the people actually got checked on and see what's going on. But I don't have any experiences outside of that or if you guys have anything to share because we just hear that it works and it helps. But there hasn't been actual examples at least in my eye. So >> yeah. And for me like when it first came
out I remember like videos saying like, "Oh yeah, you stop it." And I remember like these posters all around school. I've never personally used it and I've never heard of friends that personally used it, but I do I've heard about it so it's good. I don't know. I feel like some people
they feel like their issue might not be big enough to report. And yeah, some things is kind of petty, so don't report that. They probably don't want to hear about it. But I think some things are like they build up over time and it becomes a bigger issue and it snow piles and so them not reporting it ends up
turning into something bigger. >> The zipline's anonymous, too. So if you wanted like that connection back to a staff member, you'd have to throw that in there. >> Stop it's anonymous or stop very anonymous.
>> Did they make it clear that it's very anonymous? >> Okay. >> So, I feel like I was a student back in 10th grade. I'd be very afraid of being seen. You know, even if the problem was real and it wasn't my fault, being seen is like the hardest part. >> So, I can see why that's even hard.
>> Yeah. Uh Amy or K, and maybe you're the wrong two, but are e are either of you able to speak to like how we've communicated um the stop it app to students like how we've promoted it?
>> I know there was a big push initially. I don't know if it's like a consistent like annual like every year. Um and I I do recall like a video and posters throughout the schools. Um, and I think I think it was done in an advisory class at some point in time, but I don't know
if that's like an annual thing that has continued since it initial launch. >> I know Vanessa's here too. I know Rise has brought that up too. Was working on the reporting. >> So, it is supposed to be an annual piece that we embed in our citizenship lessons
and the opening weeks of school that we review with students in home room or advisory. So, that should should be an annual experience that the students have. our identity based harm protocol is also a part of that um work as well for opening up the school. >> Did it come up because didn't we just
recently do a lesson too about identity based? Yeah. So did it come up then too? That'd be a great spot for it as well. >> Yeah. >> Talking about stop it. >> Not in that particular lesson. >> No. >> But when we when we do a similar overview >> in the beginning >> in the beginning of the year. Yeah.
>> Okay. We are talking about moving that lesson into October during uh the national bullying prevention month >> and we ask our students or we ask our sites to do handbook reviews three times
a year but as you can see they're probably not as effective as they should be and need to be. So I think that's also something where we can consider how do we incorporate that into that review where they're saying you know video would be at least in a much more meaningful
messaging. >> And by the way students stop it is monitored 24/7. >> So if something pops up where there's 11 p.m. or 2 a.m. and is critical. Our team gets that and we respond to that overnight. So if you want to share that with your students as well.
>> That's good to hear. feel more >> sick. >> Um, I feel like one of the things that could possibly be done is just could be me, but I feel like I don't know how like the lessons are about stop it and being able to ask people, but I think it kind of starts the younger you are, you
know, develop that trust. So maybe for middle school and elementary school we can emphasize even more that it's okay to ask people for help and that you can connect with people so they when they do get into high school we have more people asking for help because isn't stop it
like a new thing right like last six years >> I don't know how it was in middle school I went to like the pronounces preparatory school we didn't have anything like that so it was very hard for me to even ask for help on anything or even use any of the apps because I didn't have that trust built So I think
maybe if I could say anything to these meetings, maybe we need to incorporate it younger and make sure that they know in their brain that it's okay to do that. >> So then going forward they'll have success. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Just so you have the the number there
have been 1659 tips reported to stop this year. >> Oh wow. >> 1659. >> Only like Christian's question is it promoted Dr. Hley in middle school? Is it do we have the stuff at for in the
middle school like on the walls and >> things like that? >> Yes. Right. We >> It should be district. >> It is elementary school. >> Yeah. I've seen it on. Okay. >> Do you think your peers kind of understand that you know a lot of times
I mean I think we see this as adults too like people won't always see what happens after. I think that's also like I think well I can't remember who said that but you know that's part of it when you report it's like you can't always because of privacy know um kind of what
happened after and there do you think there's a better way to communicate that piece of it >> maybe just I mean they could say it depends on situation you know you can't just say oh it's finished if it
was something really big and their life was like kind of dependent on it and you just say it's done >> and you're like oh >> that's great >> but then what next you know and um
speaking off of personal experience as someone who's took the time to try to report something it's difficult like you don't just decide one day oh yeah I'm going to I'm going to report this I'm going to be really confident and I'm going to go up and I'm going to So that's not how it
works. Most of the time you're like, I don't know, kind of scared. And I think people are just they're afraid to show them true selves because once people know how you really feel, >> then you're vulnerable. Then you can't go back. Then you can't put back on the
mask and then it's embarrassing. >> And stop. It's I don't know. I kind of compare it to like I kind of compare it to something bad because it's like what if I report something really meaningful to myself and they respond back and I
know that they know >> that we know and I'm just like oh god. So, I think a lot of I think that's why a Google form to like maybe an anonymous tip to your favorite teacher or something would be helpful and they would like respond back like I don't
have to know it's you but maybe they could respond back with a nice like careful message or something something like that. >> Good. >> I um I don't have any like additional questions for you. I just wanted to acknowledge that um I heard you loud and
clear on the videos. Um I am also a very visual >> person and so um yeah I mean if we can find the time and the the budget to create some memorable videos like I definitely think we should do that every chance we get especially
when um it impacts you know student safety um and then of course the culture of our our schools as well. Um, and then also just wanted to acknowledge um, what you said about uh, transparency um, and following up um, and how important that
is to building and maintaining trust in the process. Um, I love the idea of us promoting this earlier on. I know we have fifth graders now that have cell phones and can report. Fourth graders, uh, I think it's getting earlier every
year. So, um, you know, building trust early on and and looking longterm at how we can potentially, um, increase trust. Um, but yeah, transparency and following up, um, in a meaningful way is, I think, always important. And I know one of the
things that we talked about in policy committee was making sure that if a student does go to a trusted adult, um even if it's a random adult in the hallway, that they are mandated to make sure that it's reported. Um and we talked about our process of ensuring
that there's accountability there. And so, um I know that you sometimes can't always get to that one trusted adult. um and he shouldn't have to rely on one trusted adult in the building to um to to follow through. But um that was
kind of a a takeaway from us was really honing in on the accountability piece for every staff member in the building um to see something, observe something or receives a report from a student. >> Well said. Did I miss anything? >> No. Very well said. Thank you. you know,
going forward. I mean, when I'm not going to be a senior, I'm excited for all the students because as like things start changing in social media and as mental health becomes an even bigger scope than it was 10, even 5 years ago, the students get even more support because we're continuously adding to it.
If we improve, stop it, and we improve all these things, it's just going to get better and better for our students. So, I'm excited for that. And how open like socially and how acceptable it is to struggle with mental health now. So, I'm excited for the students to have that help.
>> And just let me know if you need the, you know, a little director on me. Talk to kids with the cameras that we can buy, you know, within the budget. >> Paid internship. >> Oh, yeah. Great.
All right. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Yeah. All >> right. We are honored this evening to have um to have our American Indian Education
presenters this evening. It's an honor to have you here. We'll give Ethan a little bit of time to get his computer going and then we'll have uh him introduced. So, >> do you want to say more, Dr. B? >> Sure. So, uh thank you Dr. Her Prince,
Vice Chair Brooks, members of the board, cabinet, and community. Uh excited uh to be here with uh representatives including parents, scholars um and staff from our American Indian Education program. I just would like to share um a
recent highlight, not not uh uh director uh Dawson was with us uh at Prairie Island uh last week for our spring teet consultation and it was um let me back up. Uh the consultation is our tribal
nation educations consultant. So they give us feedback on how well um our commitment and our efforts have have gone to improve the experiences um within our American Indian education program. Feedback we've received from Apac um and and scholars. And so it's
typically one where they're pushing us right to be better um and and and sometimes that push can feel like um can be hard. Uh and so um in this one it was it was we were the last uh site to
uh to go and to present our work and it was it was consistently positive and complimentary and highly acknowledging of the work of of our of our APAC of our leadership um Ethan Neardell's and the staff as well as the district's
commitment to support and invest in the growth and expansion of of our programming over the years. Um, and it just it was outstanding. I mean, we had artifacts. Um, and we were able to speak to experiences and and typically when this when this happens, sometimes it can feel like, oh, it's just our American
Indian staff that are presenting, but no, we had staff who were not a part of the AIE program staff who were sharing the the pieces of work that we've done. So, we had special ed talking about the work of a dream catcher and making sure that students who are receiving IEP
services or have been um that their parents have been notified that they're being considered or the parents have requested this, making sure that there's um education staff that are made aware of this and they could be supportive in helping the family navigate those experiences. We had uh our uh gifted and
talented um curriculum that's been developed. And so there were two uh traditional games that were uh integrated this year. Uh help me if I get this wrong. Uh so there's a deer to game and there's a pumpkin seed game. And these are like they commented on this being like a lost game, not a lost
game, but a distant game that hadn't necessarily been brought back in years. And so she was super um acknowledging of the fact that we brought this this traditional game forward um and made it and made it alive again. And so uh it was just it was such a wonderful
experience and they also um acknowledge the work that we've done around language revitalization and making sure that not only are is our commitment trailblazing uh as as some of the tenant members themselves have talked about some of the roadblocks they've experienced in their
respective communities around growing the language. um but that if we actually have uh our scope and sequence published, we work with the University of Minnesota. We're pursuing bilingual seal um certification. And then I think we may have a student who's going to who's going to speak later who's talking
about um not only exhausting the curriculum here, but now heading to the University of Minnesota and accessing some of the language course work there. So, um lots of of great stuff. So, I just I wanted to share a little bit of the the highlights because because that like I said, it can be a hard consultation. >> That's an understatement.
This was very positive. So I just I want to do again with that. So with that, I'll hand it over to our our um highly respected and acknowledged and recognized coordinator for our Indian education programs. >> Yeah. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Uh the coordinator of our Indian
education department. I'm just here to talk a little bit about supporting the academic success and cultural identity of our American Indian students. And a little bit about our uh department, the Indian education department. Our mission is enhancing the cultural identity of the indigenous child. That's the best
way to put it in English. But we like to do everything from our indigenous pedagogies and frameworks. So we say so that the people will live. It's a very simple mission, but that's the root of uh all of our programming, our experiential learning. That could be around field trips, it could be in the
classroom, it could be on the weekends or the evenings. It might be using indigenous music, indigenous math, science. And so we're not just a club or a pullout program, but we're a core component of the indigenous students uh experience here in OciOary schools both during the school day and throughout the
the year. And so we've got this image here of uh some of our ambassadors for our district. One of them's but uh they represent they represent our district uh at district pow and community pows around Indian country.
Um, we just had our 31st annual pow-wow over at Austin Middle School as well attended. Uh, several of our scholars were there and we had our senior honor and so I always like to really highlight um, our student leaders and so we're joined by several student leaders here as well as our staff and parents and
we'll definitely hold some time for their voice. A little bit about Indian education, the why we exist because a lot of people are wondering what is Indian education, why do we exist? And this is really rooted in tribal sovereignty. Um there's a history of treaties negotiated between indigenous
people in the United States. It's also tied to the US Constitution, Article Six, Treaties of the Supreme Law of the Land. And because of this unique relationship to American Indian tribal nations, this really dictates how we partner with tribal nations and how we support American Indian students based
on these treaty obligations um both state, federally, and internationally. And we've included this image that I always like to give a pop quiz to our educators when we do a PE of how many tribal nations are there in Minnesota. If you don't know, there's 11. It's a big state standard. And usually we ask
them, can you name them? And typically they name the casinos. They don't name the tribes. And this really highlights the invisibility of native people, native students in the contemporary world. Um, so I just always like to put this map up here. So we have four Delakota nations and seven addition
nations here in Minnesota. And so a lot of the um educational experiences we do are supporting American Indian students but also within our state there's the Indian education for all legislation in 2023. So later you'll hear a lot about our partnerships with talented and
gifted title one and other um mainstream educational experiences here in Ociary schools. So we currently support 543 American Indian students around the district from over 80 different tribal nations. Not all of our students come from one or two nations, but we have
students that are da students that are from Alaska tribal nations. Primarily our students are Ojiway or Donut or a combination of tribes, but there's 543 students that look very diverse because a lot of our people are mixed with other tribal nations, other races and ethnic
groups. And because of this, we're um often invisible in the classroom or talked about in the past tense rather than present or future tense. And so by having Indian education visible, we're really um educating not just administrators and teachers, but the general student population about who we
are as indigenous people. There is uh some concerning trends around the state as well as within our district around American Indian student achievement. So I did want to highlight the the state and district graduation rate trend. One thing that's important to note because we're such a small population, these
percentages can be highly impacted by one or two students and often times we have students that are mobile might go back to the reservation or to another school district and sometimes they're counted as a dropout even if we confirmed they graduated in the district they've gone to. So that was something
that we noticed in last year's data. We had two students that transferred out of the district uh ended up graduating. However, they were counted as a dropout in our MARS data. And because the numbers are so small, that makes a significant impact on the graduation rate. Um, historically, the AIO
graduation rate has been higher than the state average, but there's a lot of work to do. So, we're going to uh offer some solutions to this as native community members, parents, and students that have gone through and and been successful in this uh system. Some of the other things I wanted to highlight are the
disproportionality of out of school suspensions and behavior incidents for American Indian students. Um, American Indian students in in Osio district are suspended at a rate of 2.57 times more than white students for the same behaviors, which is uh deeply concerning when we have the lowest attendance
rates, lowest graduation rates, besides reading scores. Also, um, our students make up 2.2% of the enrollment, but over 4% of the suspension. So, nearly double the representation within the district. This also pairs for our black students
in the district as well. Uh, American Indian students involved in behavior incidents are 1.3 times higher than white students during two school years ago for any behavior. It could be um, uh, insubordination or poorly defined behavior things. So, we're looking at
how do we define what these behavior incidents are? And could some of these be cultural things like uh, not making eye contact and the teacher might be frustrated about that and write a student up? Um, another thing with disproportionality is our American Indian students are disproportionately
high in special education, particularly for EBD and learning disabilities. We have seen this data track down about 15% for our American Indian students within the district, but we are still highly over represented in um learning disabilities. And so these are some of
these areas for improvement that can be changed with teacher mindset, student services mindset, as well as involving cultural liaison in the IEP meetings, behavior meetings, manifestation meetings. Um, in past years, Indian staff had not been involved or invited to these meetings. But since we've
required an invitation for any American Indian identified student, we're starting to see this data um significantly improve. A little bit more about Indian ed. We're funded by federal title six, which is uh one way that our students are identified
through a federal enrollment form at the time of enrollment in the district at the enrollment center or at on-site enrollment at the elementary school. We also received the state Minnesota American Indian education aid. Those two dollar amounts as well as Johnson Ali can only serve American Indian students.
They can't be supplanted to be used to serve other students. This has been negotiated um in treaties by our ancestors. So, it's a special pot of money specific to serving American Indian students and it has different restrictions than some of the other um federal title dollars and state aid. We
also have recently received the second round of the MDE native language revitalization grant. Uh the first round was $500,000 for our district to implement Dakota and Ojiway language programming at the high schools and that is open to all students. So right now we have students from a variety of
backgrounds taking both languages really enjoying themselves learning about indigenous people in an authentic way learning about their classmates and peers and really just embracing the relational nature of our languages. You know, English is very transactional language. It's a trade language. But
Delkoto and Noju um are immensely val valuable in terms of the relational nature of the language, how we connect to each other, the values embedded in, and how we connect to the land. And so, um we're seeing an increase in enrollment slowly but surely in our native language programming. And we're
excited for that to continue uh in future years as we move to a new site. One of the other unique things about Indian education is um due to the state and federal funding, we are required to have an American Indian parent advisory committee that has an annual vote of concurrence that really determines how
well is our district serving American Indian students. The concurrence vote isn't just about Indian education, but it's about how are our administrators and teachers serving American Indian students. How are we creating a culture and climate that welcomes our students to showcase their authentic selves? um and how can we advocate for academic
success and well-being of American Indian students at all facets of our school district. Um what our program looks like with our staff. Right now we have myself, we have a Ojiway and language teacher, um 1.0 FTE, and then we have two elementary specialists, one
middle school specialist, and one high school specialist serving over 500 students. So we're essentially a small school. Um we serve more students than some of the schools in this district with just seven staff. Um additionally what this program looks like weekly Indian education classes that are during
the school day. They rotate at their time so the students aren't missing like math every single week. Cultural field trips everything we do is intergenerational experiential learning. So parents, grandparents, it's really from uh birth birth to death or I say from the cradle board to the grave is
invited to our um experiences. We have a beating club. They do drum and dance, regalia making. They offer Dakota and Ojiway language tables which are family based learning. Um that's not just conjugating verbs like how we might have taken a Spanish class in high school. It's actually using total physical
response muscle memory to learn our language and access it through through motion. Um traditional arts, we have a wooden stick lacrosse practice. It just was uh today at 4:30 Middle School. We do winter storytelling. We just did a star lab with our elementary students
where they're bringing brought into a uh inflatable planetarium and they learn about indigenous star knowledge. So Dakota and Ojiway star knowledge. We're all kind of normed in Greek and Roman star knowledge, but we never get access to African star knowledge, Australian star knowledge, Ojiway star knowledge,
Dakota star knowledge. And so our students are seeing the diversity of just indigenous knowledge. Even just here in Minnesota, how different is the night sky between an Ojiway person or a Dakota person? We're also excited about the American Indian Cultural Resource Center at Crest View. We just wrapped up
our tribal college and university tour. We took students down to Santa Fe, New Mexico to the Institute of American Indian Arts where they learned about uh you know the cinematography. They learned about fine arts. They learned about how to curate a um art gallery.
Then we also took them to Navajo Tech which is the first tribal college to offer up to a PhD. And so they learned about real grassroots grassroots solutions to problems in our communities and could really see themselves reflected in the curriculum, the development of those programs. Um we've
in past years we've taken students around tribal colleges in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. And it's really an important um opportunity for our students to learn about what education looks like when it's triby controlled. A lot of times our CRC's are educating students about
the university system or tech schools, but these tribal schools have a lot to offer to all students, but in particular our native students. We also host student honorings and recognitions uh for fifth grade, eighth grade, and senior honoring. And these are all key components of recognizing our students
in a cultural way. Um I'll pause for a moment. Um a lot of the work we do is around student engagement and belonging. and I thought maybe the parents I'd give them the opportunity to share how this has um impacted them and their parents or their
students in our in our systems. >> Hi, my name is Perry. Um I have two students. Um uh we've been with AIO through their whole schooling. We started at Rice Lake. Um we did BMS and now are both at Park Center. Um I had
one graduating. um we were not as lucky to have like the biggest program back in the day. So we did not participate in um Indian ed back when they were at Rice Lake. Um when we got to Brooklyn Middle
is when we started to find um that this was a resource for us. Um and it's become a great resource for my daughter who was like I'm not going to college. done uh doing any of that and started going on the college tours with Indian
Ed and has really seen like what her possibilities could be and is now going to Fondelac tribal community college next year and she's going to do um Indian education and uh music production
and then going to transfer to the University of Minnesota for her bachelor's and see where she goes from there. Um so that's a great thing for us. So she had a got some direction in life which is great for myself as
parent. Um and then just things for us as like uh you know as a community like the Indian uh way is community and to see yourself uh in life every day at school and be
represented is a great thing. you feel immersed, you feel connected, you feel like, hey, I'm I'm represented and then this is where I belong. And when you have people to go to, and you have resources, it makes your day just a
little bit easier or I don't know, like just you feel like you can get through the day just a little easier. So, my daughter's had a lot of struggles through life and a lot of things. So, she's had some great um connections with
her uh staff and so we're grateful for that. So, >> I think it's a lot there's a lot of kids who struggle. They just don't have the connection and they're looking for something and this is um it's just so a support system that they
know is always there. Um like my son also was struggling middle school and that's when we got involved too. We came from um the charter school um and back into the 279 and he um we started in
Indian and um lacrosse was big for him. um just getting with all the um his peers and you know the counselors and being able just to have that support
system making the sticks like um that was huge for him being able to fall back on that. Um yeah. Can you go back on the
>> Yeah, I grew up going to a Native American immersion school. I went to for winds um in Minneapolis and it was kind of like it was great for me and I was hoping to find something like that for my kids and
so it's great to have this come back into the schools and be so involved and see it grow into what it's becoming. Um especially with the language of revitalization. um especially being having them be able to take that in high school and having
that with our um cultural resource center and having that if we're like with the preschool and having that be something you start with like the kids are going to like pick it up and they're going to use it every day and the younger you use it the more they'll they'll take it on and I feel like
that's just going to be great for our community. >> Yeah, it's been great. Um especially since we've t taken on Dakota too and now we can it's in our house like every day now before if that if you guys wouldn't have brought that on or you know partnered with the program it
we it wouldn't be in our home and now it's there every day. So um not only is my high schooler taking the class but my middle schooler is going to language tables um that they offer. So, it's um I
can tell you that uh we were in the program probably about what 10 years ago. Um and it wasn't what it is now. Like now it's it was kind of just sporadic and all over the place. And you know, we did go to classes and there was
drum dance, but these guys have really worked hard. Ethan has worked hard to bring it all together and you know have that sense of community and you know make sure we're including everybody and finding all the kids and now it's kind of just like
so much is going on. It's it's not just a program. It's it's its own entity. It's, you know, it's we're kind of like it's growing and we're very lucky and we see the progress that the district has
made like the partnership and it you know it's great. Um but we are we are growing and things are changing and and I will say I've been at that TAC meeting for the past three years and
>> and like they said it wasn't just the Ethan show. So, I really appreciate the work that you guys have put in um with >> Yeah, that it was it was nice to have you guys a part of those answers and not just being like
>> everybody is stepping up and >> but yeah, it's becoming it's I don't know. It's it feels like this district could be a leader, you know, and you this is it could be big like we
but it is a a program that's becoming so big. It it needs to be like its own department. And I'm so glad that we're moving to Presby because it's going to give kids the chance to openly like come in and out like feel like they have the
freedom to um to just be a part of that community whenever they need to. Uh I did want to quickly talk about the importance of the language revitalization work a little bit for those that don't know. One of the reasons this is so important to our
community is our languages are critically endangered. Uh like very critically endangered on the cusp of extinction and so much so that in Minnesota we have one first language speaker left of the cotto language um that's a first language learner. We have
thousands of second language learners. So we're really uh cultivating our own teachers and our own language revitalization um network by having our high school students learning and pursuing the bilingual seals. Ojiway is not far behind with just a handful of speakers. And this is due to the historic uh
American Indian boarding schools and residential schools throughout the United States and Canada where our languages were illegal until 1978 with the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. So for us to be able to offer both languages for credit um in our schools and have licensed teachers teaching both is a huge
accomplishment. But we we have more work to do. We want to see this um from from preK all the way up to graduation and being able to offer both of these languages and see an expansion at Crestu. We've got some plans. We don't have enough time today to go through those plans, but invite us back and
we'll share them with you. Um, but this is this is very u huge work because when most of us were in school, our languages weren't offered. And that's there's a tremendous data throughout Hawaii, New Zealand, even in Wisconsin showing that native langu native students that learn
their language have um higher self-actualization. So much so that in Wisconsin there's students at an Ojiway immersion school that are tested in English and repeatedly they've had the highest test scores in the state on standardized tests and they're learning exclusively through Ojiway language but
they're able to look at science from Ojibway perspective and from an English perspective and figure things out. So it's really um a benefit to our students, to our community, to our tribal nations, but also it does place a huge burden on our language teachers because for Ojiu and Dakota language,
there isn't a set curriculum. You can't just go buy Mifflin textbooks. Um you can't find a lot of multimedia on YouTube or on the web. So, our teachers are actually working like double time. They create the curriculum and then create the assessments to teach the the
content and then continue it all over again because there isn't any trailblaze when it comes to teaching our languages in public schools. So, really applaud our our language teachers and what they're doing. Um, then I did want to talk very briefly about some of our partnerships and what tribal
consultation encapsulates. So, we also partner with student services and project dreamcatcher. We were one of the original pilot sites 11 years ago to reduce the over representation of native students and black students in special ed. Um we're seeing a tremendous impact in our partnership with student services
over the past two years. It's really been enhanced. Uh we also partner with an American Indian PBIS cohort at MDE to learn what's going on around the state and how can we implement that across our district with various leaders that have a high American Indian student population.
We've also been partnering with learning and achievement and the talented and gifted department to create curriculum for all students around Indian education for all in an authentic way. So this tribe they're reading uh trickster stories, learning about some of our uh cultural stories in lie of you know
what's often called mythology. To us they're not myths but they're they're factual stories. So they're learning these trickster stories. They're learning the protocols that go with them. They're learning traditional games, traditional values in sports, but they're also learning about cultural revitalization and knowledge of place
because uh everyone calls Minnesota home, but they need to understand the complex history of the land in which we all occupy today. We've partnered with the Department of Educational Equity to perform uh professional development for staff. Uh coming up in about two weeks,
we've partnered with nutrition services and uh Nicole's really led this to have indigenous foods served at the hot lunches of our school. So the students will be having a a bison soup. They'll be having a cornbread with a wjapi, which is a berry sauce pudding with some information about indigenous food ways
of the western hemisphere. So students will be able to taste indigenous foods. We've also partnered very closely with the enrollment center to ensure our American Indian students are accurately identified. Historically, a lot have been missing because they're two or more races and that has erased their indigenous identity. But now, any
student that has two or more races but has American Indian educ indicated anywhere is identified as American Indian under our state reporting data which aligns with the state law. And then recently, we've uh partnered with the tribal nations education committee um for our annual consultation, which
has been great. Um I did want to save some time for our students that are here. Maybe they could come on up. share some of your insights into uh Indian education. My name is Sham Maro. I'm a 10th grader and I go to Park Center.
>> Hi, my name is Kish Ramirez. I'm a 12th grader and I go to Park Center. >> I'm Diego Tapio. I'm a 12th grader and I go to AI High School. >> My name is Jessica and I'm a go and I go to Park Center. >> Start. Um, so I guess what Indian is to
me is like I don't know if I push myself the way I do without them behind me. Um, I feel like I've been in the internet program since elementary school when Ethan was actually there as my instructor and I
went through drama and dance and then I feel like at middle school I didn't go to dance as much anymore. That's where I met wonderful people over there by going to head and going on field trips and just getting to know myself on a deeper
level that isn't always shown represented in everyday class. Um, and then that transferred over to high school where I was like, I think I really want to take a different language and that led me to realizing I actually am passionate about it and I'm going to
pursue it in my future and maybe seek a career in a different language and helping everybody should ever work. And I feel like none of that would have happened if the program wasn't in our district because in classes like I
remember on Indigenous People's Day that classes people were like, "Okay, we're going to do this, but our lesson kind of just drove through it aside because it was something they were required to do." And I remember just thinking they teach
the same thing about indigenous people every single year, but they're never creating and it's always about the past, but it's never about today and that still here in the future. I think it's always the same of what happened years, which is
important to learn, but there's also we're still here and there's so much more to know about us than just the pain. um my experience. Sorry I have to read from these but um basically I had joined
Indian Ed at the end of my junior year so I didn't even know it was like a thing um until I saw them like group up every Wednesday and I was like wait what's this like you know what I'm saying? I always saw like Brad's long ponytail or something like that. Um but it has really helped me and guide me
through like building my ethics and morals. Um, like through the course of me joining, I've been taught like respect, humility, patience, and kindness towards others. But like I'm a very passionate person, so I get to talk and it just gets a little heated, but
they're there to help me like calm down and like process those emotions and think and act in a more dignified way. Um, and then this program has also helped me like reshaping my post-secary interest. At first, I was telling uh Bella, the high school adviser, that like I want to be a mortician so that I
can um help the community like hold free funeral services for grieving families. Um but she helped me like dive deeper into that motivation and uh like the staff encouraged me to begin and complete my application to Howard University, which I will be attending
in. So yeah, when they asked me to speak here, you know, I was more than grateful to take the opportunity to speak on their behalf of the program because, you know, they really did help me like find myself and kind of find my purpose. >> All right. Um, yeah. So, I have been in
education since I was in elementary. And so, since I've been elementary, middle school, and high school, I've been in it. I feel like elementary really like showed me that like that like cuz native people don't really like look alike. It's hard to differentiate them from each other. When I had first got to
class and I showed up, it really showed me that like there was people like me around and like the same cultural uh background as me, which made me feel like more at home and like more uh safe in that little group. And that followed through middle school and high school too, especially in high school cuz it was like a new environment. you're a
freshman, you're like scared, then you know you you can always have like some classes to lean back on and everything that will uh benefit you too if you need to speak about um anything to in elementary I tried traditional lacrosse for the first time which really
showed me that I like playing that sport and that helped me pick up modern lacrosse which which is an expensive sport like everything everything so I didn't know if I really wanted to stick with it or anything but thankfully after speaking to my high school advisor fell. She was able to help me get some funding
to get the gear and everything through that and that was able to let me play lacrosse. So then I was able to play good with good gear and everything and I'm now I'm able to attend I'm attending college for to play division 2 lacrosse.
>> Now I feel like I didn't know I wanted to go to college at first. I thought I was going to go to trades, but every going like the TCUs or going like NDSU and V visit visiting private colleges, they told me that like there's more to college than just schools, like sports. There's different like a different
lifestyle. It's like a different community than what I'm used to. And I feel like it would be good just trying to like live out that life and see how it is. So that's how it's supported me. Um, I've been in Indian Ed since my eighth grade year. So, I haven't really
like been around it cuz in middle school I went to Jackson for my sixth grade and seventh grade year and that's not a very good district for Indiana and all that. So, when I got like my first pass to go to Indiana, I was like, "Oh, what's this?" And then I got there and we were
I remember I'm not really sure what we were learning about that day, but it was good to see a whole bunch of people like showing up and seeing that there was people like me and I could like learn from them and with them about stuff. And once I got to high school and I wanted
that first TCU, it uh I met a lot of new people, made new friends that are probably some of my friends for a long time. and it's been helping me with my classics. It's best talking to Bella about how I could get help and how she's
helped me and all of our other teachers have helped me through all this stuff like in club going there after practices or whatever. just having community around learning something traditional that we've been doing for a long time
and uh it's been real helpful and especially with traditional lacrosse it's a good way to get kids active it's I wouldn't say it's super hard to learn and a lot of the other stuff like there was
a I think two years ago or last year we had like a tournament kind of thing with traditional lacrosse That was not a whole lot of people came to it, but it was a fun little thing to just do with like your community. A whole lot of high schoolers and a couple
other people came out. We did like respect to elders and everything and it was just a really good time. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Lastly, looking ahead, looking to the future, what we'd like to see from the district
is just increased visibility of native students and accurate data reporting. A lot of times our students are hidden under two or more races or the current information systems don't accurately identify American Indians. So, how can we tighten that up? As a district, we'd
like to see increased cultural supports for American Indian uh language and culture specialists. um increase native language programming, also increasing our recruitment and retention of American Indian staff. We've heard of the importance of having Indian education team, but also um we're
significantly under reppresented across the the district in just general staff. I think we're point4 of this point 4 of 1% of the staff, but we're uh over two and a half% of the student student base. So, if we could get five times more native staff, we could be a little
equitable in those numbers. Um, additionally, increasing professional development for specifically for teachers and also for administrators. A lot of times when we're doing um, professional development for teachers, the value is lost and oftentimes it needs to come from their administrator
or their supervisor um, you know, coaching them on the importance of incorporating this into the curriculum to not just uplift native students but uplift all students about uh, what we're doing here, where we are, knowledge of self and knowledge of place. And so these are some of the requests of our community, our students, staff, and
APAC. And I'll just say PayP. Um, first of all, I'm so inspired by all four of your unique stories. Um, very inspiring. And I just have a question Ethan earlier when you talked about the inter intergenerational experiential learning. I'd love to hear like an example or from the students how how
does that impact um just you know your your academic growth just your experience with um you know success and so either from Ethan or if any of you um I'm just really intrigued by the intergenerational >> give you a quick one. So like our language tables it's not just the students learning the language often
times it's parents learning alongside or kids that are yet to be enrolled in the school. So because a lot of our parents and grandparents are survivors of uh residential schools and boarding schools, a lot of times the parent generation doesn't speak the language in the home. And so we're often um modeling
ways to integrate language acquisition in the home, also in the community because the classroom is really the last facet for the language. It needs to exist in the home and community for it to have relevance. And as we've heard today, the students start to take it home. they start to use that when they're eating and preparing meat or
interacting with each other or even addressing their relatives, you know, using u the appropriate relative terms. Some of the other things that we've done um some some different trips over the years. Um it's been a while since we've done some we took families to to
Pipstone which is a sacred site to a lot of indigenous people in the Great Lakes region. Uh we went out to Prairie Island Buffalo Farm one year. The Basu Historic Site at the Chasha be the place they paint the trees red. And so a lot of times this intergenerational learning
occurs on the weekends or in the evenings. Beating club is another place where you'll see families, grandparents alongside the students learning. And so pretty much everything is open to all generations. We don't want to just uh differentiate by age. So that's one of the things that's unique about Indian
education. We might have elementary learning taking place at the same time as high school, but they're learning at different levels, of course. And so the way scaffolding looks different than a traditional western classroom, but all of our programming and events are open to all ages. Also, if you ever attend the annual pow-wow, you'll see we have
uh tiny tots, which are as young as the ones that can walk, being two or three years old. Then we also have the golden age, the elder categories. So, you'll see the entire community represented at these types of community learning events. Well, I just have to say um I was
completely blown away at Tene. I mean that was um you know I've this is my second term on this board and um to you your point I mean it it's really evolved um in a way across the district to
really um support um our Indian edian students and APEC and um this and I've been fortunate enough to be talking to Ethan while I've been the APEC rep um this year and I'm was just so excited
for for um for this the board to really hear the vision because it's aspirational um it's exciting and it's inspiring and it kind of breaks the mold um and I we really heard that at Tina too there was a lot of support around
the work um I think that you know when I think about you know expanding the you know um immersion for the languages like K through you know throughout the um duration of our K12 education. I mean, I
just think it's so powerful. It's so timely. Um I think that it seems with Indian Ed, we're at a really pivotal moment that I as a board, I think we need to really figure I think we need to be talking to say how do we strategically invest? How do how do we
solidify being the leaders in the state across the country? Um, and how do we um we know that and what we've heard around invisibility like we want to um ensure our American Indian students are very visible in our district. We're so proud.
Um and I think my some of my questions and kind of wonderings for our you know district are around you know um sorry I'm like looking at all my notes. I have so many notes right here. um around the language immersion around I mean the
value of oh my gosh going to the tribal colleges I my daughter goes to Howard she's a junior so we can talk about that um and I know for my family my daughter um
attending Maple Grove but then having the opportunity to go to Howard has been lifech changing for her trans that's it's been transformational in terms of when you're with um the you know your heritage or your your community. It's like it's the most
uplifting um experience that you could ever have in life. Um it's beyond academics. It's beyond it's it's to know who you are and to have that confidence to just thrive in life and there's like nothing stopping you after that, you know, and
it's it's it's so powerful. Um some of the things I learned during Tene was around some of the funds. Um I think it was the DNR. Was that what it >> Yes. >> Yeah. And there was some conversation around that and education. Um we got
sent some information about that. So I'm not for right now, but I'm really curious about how our district utilizes that funding. Um I am really interested of like how do we elevate um Indian ed from a program to really being visible in the district. Um what that looks
like. Um, I am um, sorry, I'm looking at my notes again. Um, anyways, I'll probably have some more questions. Maybe maybe not because I know we have a timekeeper over here. So, but anyways, I just want to say that
um, the work that has been done it it it can model so many different areas within our district and I am so proud to serve in this district. I was just that moment was just um it was just a moment of pride for for for AIO AIO schools and
like listening to you um you for thank you for being here um to hear your experiences to hear your trajectory in life because of being in a community that's supporting um and I think it's also like a true testament to what community engagement is you know I mean
it's like it's involving our families it's involving elders it's involving um other districts around the state and and I just this is just this just blows me away and I'm just so excited um for what we as a board can really be strategic
and invest in. >> You could have spoke for all of us. Although I will say I remember I think my first year on the board was like horrifying. It was a horrifying experience. So it to see the support and Ethan, you've been here the whole um
time and we've had leaders invest in this over time and um I know the board has supported the work. So now with the Crest View um site, I think we really do have that opportunity to continue to invest, accelerate, and lead in Minnesota um with the program. So, I'm
so happy to see how far we've come since that time and it was great to hear what the exciting report that that you had after you attended and so um just thank you so much for coming and sharing your stories and um we continue to pri I I can I think I can speak for everyone that we are continuing to prioritize
this effort and um and the funding and the needs for it. The other thing that I think was that I learned at Tene was our relationship with Brooklyn Center schools um and how we partner um and you know coordinate in terms of our Indian
um ed work um and Indian-American students um at Brooklyn Center and I think that's really great to highlight that in >> Yeah. Yeah, I mean I I too just wanted to thank um especially the students for being here today. Um taking the extra
time. It's so important. Um and we love hearing from students um anytime. >> Um I also just wanted to shout out Bella who was like the star of the show today. So um thank you uh thank you for
>> I'll work for that race tomorrow. I mean, I don't know if you put them up to it or not, but but thank you nonetheless for all of your work. Um, and Ethan as always for everything that you're doing. Um, I my big takeaway from the presentation
was um just the emphasis on increased visibility um both for our students, particularly those that are under reppresented particularly in the data. Um but also um you know as one of the parents mentioned
um how we continue to elevate and invest in the program um and particularly um Ethan and um all of the staff. Um you know the
vision of continuing to be a leader and elevating ourselves as leaders in the state. um how we kind of solidify that vision of um an American um Indian department um like I want to hear more about that at some point
>> um kind of what that would look like and um how that would better empower you know Ethan staff and our students um and so I don't know maybe that's a takeaway for I guess all staff in the room is I would love to hear more about that
vision and how we could potentially uh make that a reality um over time. Um I appreciated, you know, we've talked a lot about AVID um here with the board and I appreciated
that emphasis on making sure that we are broadening like our students perspectives beyond our district. Um and really getting them to connect with what life could be like outside of here. um
you know the the school districts I mean the the school visits are um always incredibly important to make um that next phase of learning I guess more practical. Um but I I guess I was wondering if there is
is there a natural connection to AVID with our American Indian program? Um are there principles that have been taken from that that have been supportive? um like are there ways that we can continue to support that effort and making sure that you know we are
providing you know those college and career pathways for particularly our American Indian students. Yeah, currently it's all been through just our need education program and funding, but we'd love to to partner more with AVID and find ways that we can enhance this type of offering to
students. >> Um the I guess the other question I had um I had a long list of questions, but I can maybe stop with this one. Um this was so Ethan, please feel free to answer this one or um if one of the parents want to jump in. Um, it was mentioned
that we could be a leader. Um, and I know that we've always seen ourselves as leaders. Um, but I guess I'm wondering what's holding us back from being um, that leader that we aspire to be in the state.
I think that um I've just seen like both sides like um there was just a huge disconnect before and it's like now the district is starting to come together with um Indian
ed and it's becoming one and just I just think like you could be or we all could be um an example to the like and what can be done when we we are
solid partners and working together for the kids. >> Yeah. I think one thing that might hold us back is uh the mindset of majority of the educators in our district. I was talking with Jill, one of those school specialists, prior to this meeting, and she was mentioning how uh some of the
staff will greet her with bougie and use the Ojiway language and how welcoming that makes her feel as a woman to hear her language uh used in the school have um teachers that are greeting our students that way. Um but a lot of the current mindset of the teachers, you know, they've been raised in western
school system, so they don't really know much about native students or native people in general. So learning how to build relationships with in particular with the native community I think could be very helpful for our educators as well as our administrators. Um and I think it kind of has to trickle down
from from the admin. So I think that increase in professional development particularly in partnership with American Indian education is crucial to building those connections and relationships with our students and families. >> Thank you. Um any anything else?
Yeah, thank you again. I know we've been looking forward to this presentation for a while. So, uh, thank you, Ethan, students, >> everyone. Weird. >> It was Um, all right. As we have our uh next group setting up. Welcome, welcome,
welcome. Um, our next topic, we're going to go over um technology use and uh our district and we're going to have uh Anthony, if you want to introduce your team, you brought this evening, please. Good evening school board members,
cabinet colleagues, and community members. Tonight, our team will share how education technology is used to support teaching and learning in Ociary schools. While student technology use is broad and often complex topic, our focus this evening is specific. How technology
is used for learning in our schools. With that context, I'll invite our team to introduce themselves as we begin our conversation. >> Great. Good evening. Andy Bedau and I'm the digital learning coordinator for the district. >> Uh Ryan Cox, director of technology.
>> Joanna Art, coordinator of technology. >> Becky Fritz, digital learning specialist secondary. >> I'm Tanya Wols. I'm a EL teacher at Brick Center. >> Tonight we aim to build a shared understanding of how technology supports learning and to share the current
reality of student technology use in AU area schools. It's important to clarify what we mean by education technology. Education technology refers to tools that are intentionally used to support teaching and learning. These tools align to curriculum expectations and help
students develop skills, demonstrate understanding, and engage in meaningful learning. General technology, on the other hand, includes everyday tools like social media, streaming, gaming, or web browsing, which are designed primarily for communication, entertainment, or convenience. While both involve screens
and devices, their purpose is different. Tonight, our focus is specifically on how technology is used intentionally in classrooms to support learning. This is our digital learning vision, and it's been uh guiding our work for several years. The vision was developed
in the 1718 school year through a community process that included parents, students, staff, and community members as part of a comprehensive review of our personalized learning plan known as DL4A. At its core, the vision emphasizes using technology to support more
personalized learning by path, place, and pace while strengthening teaching and learning practices that help students succeed. Technology is not the goal. Learning is the goal. The vision continues to guide our decisions from how technology is used in classrooms to how environments are designed, including
work like building a better future. It serves as an anchor to keep our focus on student learning, not devices or trend. It's also important to to ground our shared definition of digital equity developed with staff, students, and community members through our district
technology advisory committee and align with the federal digital equity act of 2021. At its core, digital equity means ensuring every student has the access, skills, and support needed to fully participate in learning in the digital world. That includes access to technology along with the guidance to
use it effectively and responsibly. This definition matters because it guides continuous improvement in how we plan, assess, and adjust our use of education technology to better support students and families. It's important to clarify that access does not mean students have
devices with them all the time. One to one means students have access when learning requires it. For example, in grades K through 5, devices are cart-based, used at the direction and discretion of the teacher, and rarely go home.
Technology use in Ociary schools and int is intentionally aligned with expectations our schools are required to meet. At the state level, the Minnesota English language arts standards require media literacy across g grades K through 12, including evaluating digital information, understanding digital
media, and communicating using multimedia. Technology is also essential for progress monitoring and state assessments, many of which are delivered digitally. At the national level, federal guidance signals that AI literacy will increasingly be an expectation for K12 schools. Together,
these factors reinforce why our approach to education technology is intentional, focused on instruction, assessment, and student readiness. The last time the board received a full update on digital learning was in 2021. So, it's helpful to briefly revisit how
this work began. In the 1718 school year, the district focused on planning, refreshing our personalized learning framework, developing an implementation roadmap, and piloting technology at the secondary level. From there, the work expanded in intentional phases across
grade levels, allowing for learning and adjustment while keeping a consistent focus on using technology purposely to support teaching and learning and align with our shared vision. As the initial phase work matured, the focus shifted into continuous
improvement. In recent years, rather than large-scale rollouts, the work has centered on regularly revisiting teaching and learning practices, strengthening family learning opportunities, and expanding online programming where appropriate. The key takeaway is that technology integration in Ociary schools has been intentional
and gradual, guided by our learning vision, and adjusted over time to better support student success. Caregiver awareness and partnership are an important part of technology use in our schools. Families play a key role and we want to be clear about how that
works. In Ociary schools, families may request to opt their child out of using a schoolisssued device by working directly with the school. The district also publicly lists core instructional tools such as Seesaw and Schooly which support learning across classrooms. Teachers may also use classroom specific
digital resources. These are communicated by teachers to families and caregivers may request to opt out of those tools. One example of these tools is Epic. Schoolisssued devices are filtered for safety and families are encouraged to set expectations at home.
Overall, the goal is transparency and strong partnership that support student learning. These graphics are from this year's Morris Leatherman survey of Ociary schools families and provides us with a satellite data perspective. Parents consistently indicate that it's highly
important for schools to help students develop digital literacy skills that prepare them for college career and life beyond schools. At the same time, families also express concern about screen time. Together, these results reinforce the need for intentional use of technology, supporting learning and
skill development while being thoughtful about balance and how students engage with screens. I'll now hand it over to Andy Bedell uh who along with the rest of this amazing team will dig into the map and street data around education technology use in OSU area schools.
>> Thank you Anthony. So our focus as Anthony mentioned isn't on how to use this culture. Love to drink. Okay. Had to have my little tutorial. Okay. So again, um, as Anthony mentioned, our focus isn't just
on adopting technology for the sake of adopting technology, but rather to improve student learning in uh, outcomes by personalizing the student experience through the three Ps. So with PATH, teachers can adapt instruction to offer multiple ways for students to learn and
show what they know. Through pace, digital resources allow students the flexibility to revisit challenging material or move ahead when they are ready. And through place, connectivity expands the classroom beyond the four walls, making learning accessible
whenever and wherever the student is. So our goal is to empower students as creators as they are moving towards and what that looks like in the classroom. So as creative production, students use digital tools to design, write, and build original projects rather than just
uh rather than just watching for conceiving content. Critical thinking, students go beyond googling answers to analyze information and tackle real life uh challenges. Active engagement. We are replacing passive activities with
hands-on challenges designed to foster student engagement. And through collaborative innovation, we use technology to help students collaborate and work together rather than in isolation or alone. And now I'll turn it over to
Thank you. Um, as you can see here, um, in this bar graph in AIO, we intentionally strategically implement the use of technology um, across our high quality core instruction at the direction of teachers at varying levels. Um, our littlest learners experience the
fewest number of minutes of device use per day. Um, while that time increases as kids uh engage more deeply in their content in their classrooms, AIO is um experiencing we do use our devices intentionally which is uh as you can see
fewer minutes than the national average. Um this bar graph shows that our littlest learners again um are using their um core onetoone devices intentionally and this plays out um with
our kindergarters and third graders using their devices two to three days per week for about 20 to 30 minutes maximum per day. Um so it's not every day and not all day. >> Where where is this data coming from? How is it calculated? So this data
actually comes from um our relay filtering tool. So there's an agent on every single one of our devices that captures the actual screen data of all of our devices. The K through three data in particular on days is weak. Um we uh worked with building principles and actually gathered that from every one of
our K through three teachers in the system. Um, as Anthony and Amy mentioned, um, our elementary scholars have devices with open carts and they're pulled out at teacher discretion. Um, this data represents our fourth through 12th graders, but truly it represents our
secondary scholars who bring their devices home more regularly. Um, and the bulk of the instructional time um on the devices is during the instructional day between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. The green represents um staff directed educational activity and the light gray represents
um other activities during that time. And then um last again um our data supports that our scholars are using the devices during the week for educational activity. Um, this data again represents our fourth through 12th graders on our Chromebooks. Um, again, our fourth and
fifth graders typically leave their devices at school every single night in their classrooms. Uh, they do occasionally bring them home, but this data represents our secondary scholars use. Um, and as you are intentional, we are specific. Um, and it is tied to high
quality core instructional use. Here we're looking at how online activity is characterized in a national perspective as compared to how we look at peer schools. The national level is the graph to the right yellow and gray activity is
broadly grouped into just two buckets education related and not education related. That highle view is helpful for big picture comparisons, but it doesn't give much insight into how instructional tech instructional time is actually
being used. In our district, we intentionally take a more detailed approach. Instead of treating all educational activity as one category, we break into three distinct types. Educational applications, instructional video resources,
andformational web searches. This allows us to better understand student learning behaviors, instructional practices, and the balance between structured learning tools and more open-ended exploration. The advantage of taking a more detailed
approach is we get clear, more actionable information that can help inform both instructional and operational decisions, digital resource use, and conversations around the effective use of technology in our classrooms. Like most other school districts, ACER
schools integrates a number of digital resources to support learning and teaching. This slide is showing some of the more widely used applications that have been used this school year and more importantly how these tools function within our overall instructional environment. While this graphic shows a wide range of
digital tools, it's important to recognize that not all of these applications serve the same role. Some are used consistently across classrooms while others vary based on grade level content area or instructional approach. In our district, we identify Schooly
bottom left, Google Workspace for Education right next to that one, Seesaw next to that, Clever C in the upper left corner, and Amplify bottom right as examples of core instructional applications. These are the platforms
students interact with on a regular basis. They support the structure of teaching and learning through assessments, assignments, excuse me, assignments, curriculum resources, communication, collaboration, feedback. The remaining applications such as
YouTube, Fastbridge, Aqua Arrow, book the V and Cahoot and others are used more flexibly. They support specific instructional purposes like assessment, content delivery, engagement or access
to resources. But their usage can look different from one classroom to the next. The advantage of understanding this distinction is that it gives us a clear picture of both consistency and flexibility in our digital ecosystem. We can ensure a strong reliable core for
instruction while also supporting teachers in using a range of tools to meet the diverse needs of their students. One thing that I'll quickly highlight on this slide, um, for years, Spotify or music programs have not shown up in our top 10. Um, it's it's been very evident
that with the cell phone ban, students wanting to access music while they're studying and doing other activities, this is now showing up in their schoolisssued device usage. Um so it's just something that we're observing a trend that has not been a part of um
what we've seen historically on our district issue devices. >> Right. >> So um the question is how do students use technology for learning in our district? Ryan and Johanna gave us the satellite view the big picture trends. To understand our progress we have to
zoom in just as Safir and Jugan described in their work street data. We need to look at what is actually happening inside of our classrooms, the daily work and stories of our students. The slides I'm going to share now are the evidence of that real world thinking. We'll begin by showing a video of
learning in our elementary schools. So um I think that's the most exciting part that the um technology has changed dramatically where I used to do a little bit more or the parents parent volunteers a little bit more but now um with the when we had one iPad the one
iPad classroom um I could show a few things and they could do a few things with technology um and maybe do a little bit of like labeling with the iPad. Um, but when they had have an iPad in their own hand, um, that it's limitless. The possibilities are limitless, including
that they're learning to do things like voice to text and import images and, um, borders and just doing the copy paste, just searching for different types of things. So, to me, their creativity has just blossomed so much. Plus, they're
such good problem solvers compared to me. So that collaboration is much more evident because somebody in the room has probably already figured out something that I haven't figured out and they can explain it in their second grade with these third graders and really trying to
find ways to give them access to show their knowledge and just to show their understanding of what we were learning. Writing was a challenge for a lot of them. The Adobe Express provided them with the ability to be able to
communicate and to express their knowledge. Several of my students were using the speechtoext feature in Adobe. That was really powerful because they could use their verbal strength and talk what they wanted to say, type their words out. So something like that really
allowed them to they showing me what they knew and being able to fully participate and engage in this final product that they were creating. Then once they did their research and they had all the information they needed, their task was to create a script for a podcast. So they were partnered up and
they each had a different constellation and they were basically just um kind of debating in a healthy, you know, healthy debating which constellation was better. >> The following are examples from classrooms across the district. In this
assignment, 10th grade English students pair lit lit literary quotes, excuse me, with personal images, analyzing complex themes through a lens that they already understand. In this math example, a student is using a screencast to explain the logic behind
parabas. This requires them to move beyond just solving a problem on paper to actually chewing on the concept so that they can teach it to someone else. In this example, a question I think does it best. In this example, acre students at Park Center manipulate shapes to
build webs of meaning, debating and justifying complex cause and effect relationships in their own words. We believe in using the best tool for the job. Many secondary math teachers are moving beyond Chromebooks to building thinking classrooms strategies using markers and vertical services
surfaces to make learning visible and foster face-to-face collaboration. In an online environment, it can be a challenge to have students work together on tough math problems in real time. Digital whiteboards solve the remote collaboration challenge, allowing the entire class to work on one canvas while
the teacher monitors the thinking in real time. For early learners, writing can be a hurdle. On our district's asynchronous learning day, Seesaw's photo and voice recording tools allowed students to explain complex thoughts verbally and visually.
In this example, fifth graders studied soil health and then designed infographics to visualize their learning for their steam fest. Sixth grade ELA students at MS created a bento box to represent a character from fever 1793
by selecting objects and using voice recordings to justify their choices with text evidence. For our M heritage students, the traveling unit is all about making learning personal. They used Google Maps to plot out the places that matter to them. Then mapping their own family
travels. Then they presented their maps in class, using them on language to tell the story of the trip, where they went, the method of travel, and what made this place special. We also have a video showcasing learning in our secondary classroom. >> Hello everyone, my name is Muhammad.
Hi, my name is Fatima. >> My name is >> My name is >> My name is >> My name is Sophie. >> My name is Sophie. >> My name is
>> My name is Far and I'm teaching ELD classes. Most of them are level one, meaning that they are just the beginners. They they they just arrived in the country, you know. Some of them just arrived this year. So, they started to learn English
the beginning of the school year. I know that many of them wanted to participate in the classroom. Many of them feel more comfortable rewarding themsel uh reading, speaking and and um submitting the work.
>> Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali was a great boxer. Many people said he was the best in the world. >> Can you see the wind? Who is waiting the frog and the fall? >> The story is about a group of best
friend called Daily Maya and Chloe. They love spending their summer days together. >> Technology is an advantage that teachers can use in their classroom and it is the
way that make my lesson more relevant for their interest. Technology helps students to improve their learning. uh we assign them a scene, they need to rewrite it to make it contemporary, make choices in the setting, and then they
create finger puppets, and then they videotape it. So, they're making musical choices to reflect the mood. They're doing things with the costumeuming and the set, as well as the language. So all of that uh coming together in their video is is quite unique and shows some
real depth of thinking. >> What do you mean? >> They will tell the castle to awaken. They said sleep no more. They know what I've done. >> Who said that? One positive of use language when you speak is that you can make sense of new
words and grammar rulers. For example, you can use words like prefer in French to learn the words prefer in English. Hi. Hi guys. Today we are going to learn
about dry out. So come let's do this. >> Doing it. It wasn't that easy cuz we got to talk and then put music on pictures which it was a lot things to do >> and it was also a challenge cuz it's our
first time doing it. So, we kind of like um I'm a little bit nervous kind of like that like asking her a lot of question cuz we really want to get into it like know what we're doing and how to add the especially for the voice recording how to add it and add the music. I'm
learning now. Now I know I can I can help all these people. That was so great and I feel so good. Yeah, >> I think we should do it more and then encourage people to do more stuff like that cuz it was actually pretty fun and then I would love to do it again if I
can. But yeah, well time is passing. >> Thank you. Uh, finally, I'm honored to introduce an amazing teacher who we asked to join us tonight who graciously accepted to spend her evening with us on her birthday um to talk about how technology supports
student learning in her classroom. >> Yeah. So, when those students were saying we had to ask her a lot of questions, they were referring to me. Um uh they so I teach high school EL uh 3, level three. They're more intermediate
um language speakers. Um, and when I was in high school, one of my favorite activities was making video presentations for for my teachers and also my classmates to, you know, not only learn something from me, but also I
tried to make them laugh, you know, or I tried to make them something I probably or I especially felt I couldn't do like if I were standing up in front of the classroom. Um, I felt it was a lot easier to do those sorts of things to entertain my peers while also informing
them in a video. So, I wanted to allow, you know, like to have my students uh do this. You might have seen Alicia Tamora. Um, it was just before um my two students who were talking. She had kind of introduced them to um Adobe Express
the previous year, but I wanted to expand on it. Um and so we uh had a project that was um them creating a PSA commercial about climate change which is one of our uh units in our issues
curriculum. The unit um at the end it like one of the key language aspects was inform and so you know instead of them writing anformational paragraph we were like oh well PSAs are meant to
inform. So um the students did that as well. I think it was important to engage them um in creating like a commercial by analyzing what makes a successful commercial. Um what makes successful
humor in a commercial, what draws people in and then I kind of let them run with it. This um project I encouraged them to be, you know, kind of a little bit more silly. Of course, they had parameters. They had things that they were supposed
to, you know, show in their commercial. They had to have music. They had to have um visuals. They had to have a clear call to action um at the end, you know, like, okay, what do they want people to do? Why did they inform them about this?
And they did just a really good job with it. I will say at the time um it was it was during a time where a lot of students had to be at home um for
many different reasons and um a lot of the students were feeling like kind of separated from each other. I mean they were physically separated from each other but also in terms of you know like a community right is kind
of uh broken up during that time. I would have four students in the classroom and 10 students online. And so, um, having the a digital project where they could create something that everyone could watch and be a part of, uh, was just important in that in that
moment. Um, I was impressed with how many students tried to make their peers laugh and succeeded. Um, and I think it really did kind of bring the students together. One, you know, issue we had at the
beginning of the year is this the class um they had been together in a lot of classes and sometimes they had had some arguments over you know over the past few years and uh to to seeing them like create something that
they actually you know all of them kind of enjoyed I think made it I don't know just made them come together a little bit more. Um, aside from social emotional, I think our our school is currently like this
year um has been doing something called what's on deck where a like a video is put out um for the whole school to watch once a week put on by kind of like a journalism club in the school. And you know, my hope is that
some of my English lender students can get involved in something like that and feel really confident to be able to to join in on clubs. Um, one concern we always have to with English language learners is this idea of like segregation from the greater school
community. And so having these projects that can, you know, be shared um is just can be really powerful for integrating, you know, students, making them feel like they're part of Park Center or wherever school. So
that's it. >> Thank you. With that, we'll actually turn it over for questions. Gave some of that historical context knowing that when I was processing through this, I think Tanya and Kelsey, you were the last two to hear a digital learning
presentation with this board. And >> were we weren't we at Park Center? >> We might have been. >> I just I remember that one conversation was like so long. We went like way >> Keith for many years was on DTAC. So I mean he's he's gotten some pieces but
for many of you um grounding in the context of where our vision is at what's been the intentionality around alignment of professional development and the work that teaching and learning does as they align their curriculum and content with the use of of the resources uh that are available and really the core goal as
well as kind of sharing that data of what is practically and actually being used uh with within our schools. Um so with that I'll I'll hand it over to the vice chair to facilitate questions. >> Thank you. Uh school board members
questions. I have a couple questions. Um can you clarify um Anthony there were some questions um about the opt out process families that you know if they are interested in doing that is that like proactively communicated at you know entering into kindergarten or how if you
can just give some clarity. Yeah, I would say it's not necessarily proactively communicated. It's part of our regular curricular resource opt out process. So when families want to opt out of a particular curricular resource, they go through uh the building to to navigate that process. And we have had
families that have um gone to their building leadership and and wanted an opt out and work through that and what alternatives they have for supporting the students. >> Okay. So it kind of needs to be pursued by families. It's not like communicated directly. Okay. And then um another
question with um an app like YouTube, what are kind of the can you explain for families to know like the guardrails or parameters for >> sure. So um YouTube in a school setting like like with the the Google Workspace for Education we have here, it's not
your typical YouTube. There's actual settings based on grade levels. So for our elementary students, um YouTube is set at the highest restriction level that's available in Google Workspace. It's called strict. And then as you work your way up to secondary, it actually stays at moderate um that 13 plus
moderate area. So um when students are interacting with their school device either at home or at school, it's going through that that uh that moderation process. So it's not just any YouTube, it's actually that more strict or moderate level of um moderation. >> On top of that, our filtering also
provides filtering within YouTube. Um all filtering tools are they're not perfect. they're not um impenetrable. It's based on how content is classified and and you know what the creators put in there. Um creators nowadays are
supposed to classify content as being 13 or 18 plus, but we know that's not always perfect. So, uh in addition to what Ryan shared in the settings, our filtering tool also does some additional layers of filtering within the YouTube space. >> And what about parameters if students
take their their device home? I mean I know in the podcast that you sent us it was talking about you know how sleep is important all that is do they have access unlimited to that any time a day or how how is that >> yeah so the filtering rules and settings apply universally 24 hours whether
they're on campus or off-campus um in terms of time limits or restrictions there's not a time when the device just shuts off and is inaccessible. So that's where we really encourage partnership with with our families thinking about what are those rules that you have in
place around you know those conversations with personal devices and apply those same kind of you know home rules and values to the school district issued device as well. Um and then just one more question about evaluating just kind of going forward or
like do we have data evaluating the effectiveness you know that's showing that student outcomes are improving is that something we have data or we pursuing as our rhythm going forward I will say the last time we looked at that data um I know Tanya you were on the
board we had a promising practices study that actually looked at when technology is being utilized through the vision and the digital learning plan around path place and pace and the the intentionality that that we framed out. We were and have been seeing positive
outcomes coming within those classroom spaces with that intentional use. Uh that was back in 2021 when we last ran that promise and practices study. Um as different configurations have occurred within the data and assessment team and
and we focus on different areas. We haven't come back to continue to re-evaluate within that study, but we have had evidence, positive impact evidence >> and that was wider than technology. It was on instructional practices, not just technology.
>> And is that something going forward that we can ensure families that we will be pursuing data? >> That's something we can we we've talked about and we'll definitely take note on how we continue to re-evaluate and pull that data in. >> Yeah, that'd be great to hear. Thank you.
Um, you know, regarding S's question about the opt out, do we have numbers on how many folks are opting out? >> Not that I'm aware of. It's pretty small if we do, but from what I'm aware of >> on that. So on that same question, um if
parents were to opt a student out, um how does that impact that students experience um and their educational outcomes? Like are they getting the same education as students that still have access to that
that device? Um how's that how's that been working? >> That that's a great question. um we don't have um data on hand um kind of looking at that. Um I will say as families have come and engage this conversation with building leaders um I
know they they deeply dig into that conversation which is where we often don't see a family fully opt out. They talk about different processes and plans about what that device use looks like in school. Um, we've got, you know, middle school students in particular that are
on plans where the device doesn't go home, it stays at school. Um we've got a a tool called um relay classroom where teachers can add additional rules and lock screens on certain um pages or applications that I know with some of
our individual students that you know our buildings are partnered with like they'll have a plan working with the teachers where the device is still used but tightly restricted in what that use might look like within those classroom spaces. Um it happens very similar to
like an IEP plan. So it's a conversation with the building leadership and with the teachers on how to best support the student within that that space. Um if they're going to restrict or if they do go to a full opt out what that actually looks like in terms of practice within
the classroom and alternative resources that they may be accessing. >> I think we need to focus on intentional use. So it's a difference between a parent saying opt out with choice time versus opt out with an actual lessons that's attached to something that they
need. So I think that's something that we would need to look into. >> The relay um is that also the teacher can can see in real time right what the what the students are doing on each of their screens. >> Yeah. They can see all the screens.
>> Shut tabs off of students. they can take them out of applications >> and I'd be curious if that's overwhelming for teachers to manage that on top of teaching. >> I do think like I appreciate you being here tonight and I love the examples and that they were integrated into the
lessons. I am curious how um technology when it in some ways replaces teachers in the classroom and like if we are evaluating and being intentional about evaluating how our tech is used. Um, I've just heard examples anecdotally of
YouTube videos being used instead of the teacher teaching. And and I was even as I was like thinking that through, I'm like, okay, well, my teacher used videos, too. But I think it's if all of the curriculum is and the teaching is done via video. Um, that's I just feel
like our students aren't getting the best outcomes. Um, and I know our teachers are fabulous and they have great skills. So, I would prefer teachers to be teaching, not our YouTube videos. Um, but again, that's anecdotal. So, I think it's something that I'd be
curious about. Um, and just getting more information about it. >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> One thing I would say is um to to what Dr. How was mentioned before is uh the intentional use of video based lessons. Um,
well, we always want our teachers. I'm a former teacher. I'm I'm not the the blinky light the closet kind of person. I'm a former educator, former classroom teacher. We do want our teachers in with our students obviously. Um and that's and that's super important. Uh the part where when video is intentionally used
um it does allow the students to to move at that at that pace and that pace that pace and pace that really can be valued. For example, um I taught social studies back in my day. And if a student is in an economics lesson and they're they're
examining um a paradox of value, an economic concept, and it's something that clicks with them, they can move through that video at a at a pace that really works for them. Let's say that the student next to that that student who's doing just fine is like, boy, I'm just not getting this. This is not making making sense to me. One of the
advantages of having access to video resources when intentionally used is that student can pause that video and rewind back and go back and look at that again or can can confirm with someone and say did I hear that part right? Is that what paradox? Yeah, that's what it means. So having that ability to review
that really personalize and specialize for each student has such value um with learning. obviously not taking the place of that teacher doing the overall lesson but those mini lessons, those mini units, the many concepts. Um, math is really a big one for that kind of practice because we all learn math
differently at different paces. And so that deposit go back like you know what differentiation not quite theory I've got to back it up do it again there's some value with that. Can I ask in your research because you guys are obviously well studied in this um about some of
the examples I've heard on math is like you have it on the iPad or the Chromebook, I'm sorry, and you're doing it all on there versus having to actually write it out. And like as a math person, I had to be a writer outer. Um, so I'm curious if there's been any
studies about how learning is impacted by doing it on a screen and like using a mouse or the keypad um, versus writing. >> I would say when you look at the studies, it all comes back to to two
things. One, intentional use, and two, technology can't replace a high quality instructor and providing poor instruction. Um I think what we see in best case scenarios where there is
positive impact it's a blend. It's not all on screens or all on paper. It's again having thoughtful intentional use. Um and you know this team has heard from the vision for several years now and as we led professional development as we
talk about path place and pace has never been about technology. We can create path, place, and pace without tech. >> But tech can also enhance and add value. So as we've worked with teachers and as we reset this, so onetoone devices rolled out in 1415 and the focus was all
on onetoone devices and technology. When we reset in 1718, it was about instructional pedigogy and focusing on what is the instructional goal and the learning target and is technology going to enhance and support
that. If not, don't use it. A worksheet on a a iPad or a Chromebook is the same as a worksheet with paper and penser. You're not going to see any different instructional gain from that. So, that's just using technology for technology sake. Even in absorb. Oh, I get what you're saying. Got correct. So is the
absorption. There's no difference in studies that we've seen. >> I'll just ask. So at our elementary level, we use the bridges for math curriculum and that is a that is that's a workbook for students. There's more digital access. Um for secondary students, it's CPM and I know Becky had
one of the examples where that really has been a shift in the last few years where it's much more collaborative and problem solving. Um so the idea is that students are working together. they're actually working on whiteboards around the classroom and then maybe the digital piece is submitting homework through
schooly. So, um I think as well technology is uh we don't want to like uh pigeon hole students into just only doing print or doing digital. We really want them to find um find the path that's going to be right for them. Um some students might really hang on to
print. Some really might like voice to text because they're a a language learner and that's going to be the way they can access the standards at their grade level and still be able to uh continue their learning. >> And then my last question, sorry. Um for our younger learners, the K through two
or even K through three, what what apps are they using? What are the primary apps they're using? Not across the board. What are they using it for? So our core apps would be like um Seesaw um Amplify um our social studies math
curriculum are not digital based um they'll be using the the apps that are built into the iPad and then um we would have other levels you know teacher discretion where they're using apps that they're choosing to go to supplement. >> So like breakout activities and then
like doing an assignment taking a picture of it that sort of thing. >> Yeah. I would say at at an elementary level um like Seesaw really is that place where they can um demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways whether it's audio, video, writing. >> So So Andy would can I ask a question? >> Yeah.
>> So does um uh do you know what type of apps they use for choice time? I know it's not all consistent, but do you have any idea >> choice time? Um you know anecdotally I've heard you know some apps are for reading apps, some are for coding apps, things like that. And I think to Anony's
point, um, you know, teachers can have that bring in those apps, but it's really important that they, um, notify parents about what they're doing so that parents understand what the what the outcome is. Um, I would not support the use of apps for like, um, you know, free
time, for uh, for rewards, things like that, because we really want it to be the learning is is the outcome. >> And my question is, has that just been is that our standard? because I think that's totally that's great. I agree with that 100%. Um is that have we standardized that in our district or is
that has that been stated? Does that make sense? >> That has been stated and that's been how it's framed through through professional development. Um, I think, you know, as we've been reflecting and building out the, um, AI procedures that are going to go with our guiding principles that we
released two years ago, um, I think we have an opportunity to think about a a reset and reframing around just uh, instructional technology procedures as well. That might help to reinforce and restate that. Um, again, uh, in terms of the classroom applications like like
Handy Share, um, we we do message out to educators at the beginning of every year. Reminder, here's the process around instructional technology. Um those classroom applications that are not part of the core instruction, here's the template letter that you can send home with families. Uh the expectation
is that they're communicating those with families on what those apps are and why they're using them with the language of you can, you know, parents can request to opt out of those teacher choice applications. >> That's great. Thank you.
So I mean I'm not anti-technology or anything and I you know we've come it's been really interesting. Um I remember that convers though that when you guys came you know five years ago um and and that was like right co time you know and so it was really important to ensure
there was connection in time where we didn't have that connection. Um it's really hard sometimes I think to separate the use of technology in school and kind of just like life right kids having I mean parents
kids having access and I think across the country we're all kind of experiencing this like what do what what are we what do we get ourselves into you know because connection is really important you know and I feel like even you look at jobs now they're starting you know people are coming back to work
to to because one of the biggest things is like creativity and connection and you get always usually get to get to a better solution or outcome if people can actually be in a room together. So, I think like a lot of this kind of compounds on of course our education system and how
we're showing up um and can also tech I feel like it can also unintentionally widen some gaps um in terms of equity and and so that's kind of something that in this space, you know, I'm I'm learning a lot about and um looking at
my own kids and and the impact that it's had on their learning and their relationship building in school at all different levels because I have kids at every level right now. Um, elementary, middle, high school, and college. And I I I'm I'm watching that, you know, the impact of technology. Um, I look at
myself as a model, as a parent, like, you know, when I'm on my phone all the time or like trying to, you know, that's, you know, and so I've been really evaluating that, um, because it impacts behavior and I mean, there's so many things, right? Um, so I think my question though as we
continue this conversation is have you seen or what differences are we seeing um in in how students from different socioeconomics um backgrounds experience and benefit from technology because
you know I talk a lot about like extracurricular activities or like like staying engaged in the summers and like not that learning loss and how do you know we ensure there's access to camps and just different learnings. Um, and sometimes I what I the research I've
seen and stuff is sometimes students in different socioeconomic backgrounds um because there isn't access to some of those functions of being out in horse camps and all these things. Um, and it kind of defers to a technology. And so
like what what kind of have have you been is that a consideration as we look at kind of what our district is um kind of some practices around technology? >> Yeah, I think that really frames back to our digital equity definition which um
we frame came back to two years ago. Um the the the conversation around digital equity really came out of the digital equity act of 2021 framed a lot out of healthc care at the time as well. Um and
it's not necessarily about the concept of technology. Um but the reality is in the the digital society that we have in order to access resources um and in order to participate in the
society that that we're in right now that we have to consider what that means in terms of ensuring from an equity standpoint the right resources are in the right place. Um it's it's you know kind of to your point of you know
technology taking over potential communities. I think that's something we need to be mindful of. Um but one of the other lenses we're looking at is how do we make sure that we're creating a a a stable equitable playing field for all individuals coming in. That's part of
our conversations around artificial intelligence of, you know, if we lock this down as a district, we have families and communities with a lot of access to resources that they're going to use artificial intelligence on their own at home, get additional access to
resources where that will leave other communities potentially out. So, how are we bridging that gap? Um, I think on the reverse side of kind of where you're thinking of, I think that's an opportunity for us to kind of dig into some data and kind of understand some of those pieces. Um, but where I will
continue to caution is none of this is about technology. Technology is a resource just like a textbook. If we adopt this math curriculum and buy all these math curricular resources, it's all about how we utilize them within the space to provide opportunities and
access for success for all of our students. technology is in the same space. It's again how are we intentionally using it to create those opportunities and from a balanced intentional approach within the space. I'll just add on I'll have my library
media specialist hat. So access is so important to me. Um, and I think, you know, when I look at this slide, digital equity in the past used to just be about Wi-Fi and access to some kind of device. And I think now, um, it is it is being
nuanced now into what are the learning opportunities that teachers are creating and what are the opportunities that students have to be creators and critical thinkers and collaborators. Um so you know we tried to elevate the examples of what we want students to be doing with technology and it still is
incumbent for us to continue with professional learning um with our curricular uh resources so that it's not just about the technology it's how that technology can support the curriculum as teachers are getting new resources as they're learning new strategies as AVID
is becoming um uh at all of our secondary schools. So that professional development is really important as well. I have a series of questions. Um, so first on page 60 with the time per student, how does this consider if
there's two screens open, instructional screens and non-instructional at one time because I know firsthand that's uh from my son's experience that's happening a lot. >> Yeah. So this does not differentiate in this time study of whether it's
instructional or non-instructional. This is just the average total time per day that students across our system are participating in. Of course, we've got students who are staying highly focused within their instructional space. We've got some students that might deviate
from that. We've got some students that use their device less than other students um within a particular um day within the space. >> And this would be across course of the day. So it doesn't necessarily it doesn't help us understand how it's being used for core instruction versus
electives. >> Correct. >> Too. And I know I guess I'll preface my thoughts and questions with um one, we haven't talked about this in five years. A lot's changed in five years. Um and I we it's on us that we haven't brought
this up in five years. And so I appreciate I think director Foster requested this topic. Um and there's been a lot of parent engagement concern on this. So um so with that um textbooks where are we at on using textbooks
actual physical textbooks versus um digital textbooks is the majority >> Brian who can answer that that's not Tony >> I can answer so um there may so it is at our secondary level it's quite common to have a digital resource as a textbook but classrooms will have print textbooks
available there's many reasons why um for example if a student is on a 504 needs to have uh you know print text instead they will have access to that sometimes we have uh athletes who have a concussion they can have screens so you know we have many reasons why we have a
classroom set of textbooks in the classrooms as well >> so I guess that answer implies that it's the exception to have a textbook not the norm at the higher grade levels >> um I would say it's a classroom set that's available for students during the
the class hour that they're in that class Um so in that case when does that switch happen? Middle school or um elementary school like where there's one classroom set and the rest is digital. >> I would say uh starting in secondary middle school.
>> Okay. Do we do learning walks for tech to see how tech is being used? >> Yeah we it's been two three years two >> four years maybe but yes we have done learning walks to walk through. Okay.
And is that um through this team or with teaching and instruction? >> Teaching and instruction. >> Okay. Um >> so you've been doing them for four years or the last time you did a learning walk was four years ago. >> Last time a formal data learning walk focused on technology was four years ago.
>> Okay. >> Oh okay. Sorry I misunderstood that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um, so, um, do we have any teacher survey data on their experiences? Um, I don't feel like we've had that in our surveys on kind of if they have concerns, what
their day-to-day experience is, um, how they're feeling about tech use, ability to manage tech. I know we heard from our students that expressed our student reps expressed concern earlier this year. Do we have broader teacher feedback on our tech use?
um >> filter survey. We we've done a digital learning survey annually for nine years. This is the first year we didn't do that because the tool we were using um >> ended much went into life. Um so Ryan has has that data. Um there aren't
specific questions about teachers feelings around tech, but it's all been around the intentional use of the tech, how they're using it, how they're allowing, you know, building capacity with creativity, collaboration, communication
um and um computer science skill sets. >> And again, we didn't give really many parameters and a lot of focus was like what are the minutes, what was kind of tactical. So, I think this is the start of the conversation. Um, and and we can maybe frame or ask more questions that
we're going to want to know on this topic. Um, there's just been so much with the science of learning, um, with brain development, with the impact of technology on brain development. Um, and I think, um, it's been clouded research
on educational use, um, versus non-educational use. Um, you know, I'd like to understand more on the pedal pedagogical aspect of this in the science of learning and linking, you know, what we're doing and the intentional choices we're making with
that evidence-based with the data, um, with, uh, how are we hearing from teachers that it's actually having a benefit to students in the classroom. >> Um, those are things we didn't ask in the, you know, for this presentation. >> Y, yeah, we didn't. Yeah. So this is just
kind of like for us I feel like it's oh we haven't talked about this in a long time so we probably have lots of questions that were not asked for or covered in this. Um but um the examples were words of relevant fun engagement.
Um I struggled to see in the examples tonight where it tied to high quality instruction. Um, so that's just something I and maybe it's just in the examples that were used versus elsewhere. I know like um a great advantage is the recorded videos so that
when um my student is at home and can go back and look and some of the teacher made um videos in fact um so that they can restudy or they didn't get something they go back and they can look at it. So I think there's just a lot more to dive into on this topic. Um but I think this
is a good start to the conversation. So >> yeah. So I mean there's a Google doc that could can be um put out and like like you said it's it's the first time around and there's a lot there and I think um I have a term that I call CO
amnesia. So after COVID happened, um there's a lot that was forgotten prior to that and there was a lot that um became easier to do and I can't remember if it was last year or our babies are students or the year prior and one of
the schools were saying that you know they're just doing a worksheet but the worksheet is on the computer. I don't know if you guys remember that in doing that. So, you know, we can create a document um and get and get that information, but a lot of that we're
getting that's a lot of information and it may not happen next week. >> No, no, no. >> Um but yeah, so and well, no t the only reason why I was mentioning was because it's it's um um way more than technology. is seriously down in the
foundation of the pedagogy what you were saying everyone was saying of what's happening around teaching >> and us delving into what's that intentional teaching and then getting all that information to see what's there and coming back at some point and
advising the board that this is what we found. >> Yeah. >> So >> yeah and I think maybe we can regroup and say like what is it that we're really seeking to understand is kind of an outcome of a next conversation so it's not like throw in a bunch of questions at you guys to go dig and have like a really kind of cohesive um
conversation about what additional interests there may be to understand. >> I'll just mention um you may not have seen a high quality instruction. I will say we had >> many more minutes of of uh of footage and really what we're showing is maybe
the product and not the process of all the work beforehand uh all the instruction that beforehand to get to that point. I mean, I'm kind of interested like I agree. I mean, I think there's a lot of interest in this topic, but I do see the benefits and I think you were able to
really articulate them well, but there there is a side that it's not as beneficial and that's I really think that's the honest conversation we want to have so we can make an informed decision like what are all the sides of it, you know, and I think this kind of gets to it. Um, but I'm curious. I do
agree like I think that um I think there is co amnesia and I also think 5 years is a long time in the technology space and like I think there has been I think that if anything for especially school districts after co taking the time when we've made like big shifts to really
take the time to evaluate do we build on this do we kind of step back from it and I think we we need to have that really strong conversation because um you know if we are getting maybe the learning outcomes that we want. I mean, I I there's a lot to to
look at, you know, um with that. So, I would agree that having kind of a more focused >> hearing what our you know, this is a good >> start to the conversation. >> Yeah, I I I think I'm agreeing with everything that's being said. Like I'm I'm excited to see I guess the next
level of number just like data down right to understand that you know how we're measuring that intentional use and you know how we're I I think back to when I'm in school how tech was used back then and we're talking real toreal projectors right
Walt Disney up there interacting with Mickey like a billion different times. Um and some teachers just just laid on that. There's a guy just I don't know how many live action Disney movies I saw in his class. So it was a lot. Um but so
just trying to understand um you know I I you know on the whole right when we just look at averages and things that seems like it's okay but you know they my kids have told me stories right they they've been you know I see
some of the assignments get I see some of the stuff they bring home right it's not it's you know and is it a question of whether our teachers need help whether they need more you professional instruction whether there's some guidance and additional things that we
can do right to help them. So >> I think it's the story behind the data and I think you know what what you're all highlighting it's it's a conversation we always have around again coming back to the intentionality of the instructional pedigogy. Um, you know,
when you look at the research within the education space, there hasn't necessarily been a lot of ad tech research looking specifically at devices because they're looking at the instructional pedigogy practice. So when you look at modern classroom or flipped
education which has a lot of positive data behind the impact of those instructional strategies, those instructional strategies don't h don't operate or function without the use of the digital resource, but they're not focusing the study on the technology. They're focusing it on the pedigogy. So
there's there's a lot of good opportunity for us to dig in deeper on the teaching and learning side to kind of share some of those those perspectives in that space. Um, you know, one of the other things that I will share around, you know, just AIO and many Minnesota districts in general,
um, when you look at onetoone resource access across the country, most school districts didn't have one toone access resources until the pandemic. And it was the federal funds that came into school districts and created an infusion that created, you
know, mass onetoone implementations. Many school districts across the nation right now as as everyone's evaluating and having a good intentional and and needed conversation around this are still in the infancy of actually implementing devices in the classroom
space. We started this in 1314. Um so I think you know as Dr. Hy said there's some opportunity of you know we had some good things going we still have a lot of great things going and we had co in there in the middle and as you know you all are sharing it's it's a good
opportunity to come in re-evaluate reassess and redig in to those opportunities of the resources we're providing and how they're being intentionally used. I mean, I think for me, when you mention the word infancy, like it to me,
I feel like at least for some of us, we're not as fully bought into what that journey looks like and where we're going. Um, so when you say infancy, like I don't I don't even know what the end looks like. Um, what it looks like um
for us to be more intentional with our use of digital devices. um what it looks like to um have, you know, highly rigorous instruction um through these devices outside of the
examples that you showed today, which seem to be kind of more on the creative side. Um so yeah, I mean I I guess I need to know more about where this is going. Um, I didn't, one of the things I didn't get today was I still don't I still don't
fully understand how our younger learners are using these devices versus our older um, learners. Um, and so I would like more information on that. Um, one of the things that stuck out to me was the student online activity by
time of day. Um it is very clear to me that um students are overwhelmingly using devices between the hours of 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. um for other activity um which I'm assuming based on how it's
um categorized as non- educational activity. Um, and so I guess I'm questioning the value of device being available after 4 pm, particularly between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. Um,
and then this kind of goes back to a comment that you made earlier that there's this expectation from the district that um, parents apply the same or similar rules as our school system, which in many ways is a fair
expectation, but I also think it's important to acknowledge that as parents, and maybe and maybe I've missed it, but we don't have the same remote controls um, of the Chromebooks as we do with other devices in the household. And so,
you know, if while I'm able to shut off other devices in the household at a certain time of day or night, I don't have the same ability to do that with the Chromebook um without physically taking that and making sure they don't forget it in the morning. So, um,
so yeah, I just I guess I just want to acknowledge that that maybe needs to be a bigger discussion about what the real expectations are. Um, you know, we've talked before about, you know, I don't know if it's easier to
control um, devices in a school environment versus the home environment, but again, as parents, we don't have the same remote controls. And then also think about students having to transport devices all over the place. Um they're already doing it from classroom
to classroom at the secondary level. Um they're having to transport it to practices, to work, to to all these other places. And um I I guess I'm not seeing the evidence that that's necessary. So, um, so yeah, I mean, I
guess that's I would like us to evaluate if students really need the devices after school hours, um, particularly at night time. Um, other than that, um, I think the school board members I think everyone covered some of my other many of my
other questions. Um, I don't know if you all have any more on that, but I do also just want to say thank you for getting this conversation going. I know it's been kind of bubbling for a while. Um, I'm appreciative of
your of the department and all the work that you all do to support um, both our students and staff. Um, and uh, yeah, I look forward to more. So, thank you. >> Yeah. >> Thanks, guys. Yes, we're
close. >> You got two minutes early. >> All right. So, we um we actually moved um the last agenda item which was language access to the June work session. Um so, we're actually at the
end of the meeting. Um so, uh this meeting is adjourned at 8:30 or 8:28.