All right. Good evening. Uh, this work session of the ISTD279 school board is being held in the forum room of the educational service center on Tuesday, August 19th, 2025. The work session is being audio recorded. The recording will be made available on the district
website within two business days after the work session has ended. With regard to the audio recording, our communication staff has asked that we share 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, uh Keith Tate, school board member. Erica Foster, school board member. Ryan Severson Hall, executive director of community engagement. Anthony Paris, executive director of technology. Ivon Schzland, executive director of HR. Steve Flick, assistant superintendent
for the elementary, security and emergency management specialist. Dave Moro, security and emergency management assistant director. Troy Shriles, director of transportation security and emergency management. John Morset, executive director of finance
and operations. Cable, executive director of community relations. Kelsey Dawson, school board member. Sarah Mitchell, school board member. Amy Moore, general counsel. Kim Hay, superintendent. Tanya Prince, school board member. And I, Thomas Brooks, and uh school board member and present. The purpose of
the schoolboard work sessions is to build trust and teamwork to exchange information and one of the goal 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. Uh thank you, Vice Chair Brooks, Chair Prince, and school board members.
We're excited today that we will be going in depth on safety management in our district. We have several people speaking this uh evening. So, we'll have in each section those that are leading that. So, John Morstead, if you want to introduce your group. Thanks, Dr. H. Chair Prince, Vice Chair
Brooks. Board members, appreciate you being here today. Um, so I'm going to go real quick just for the record through who are are the members of our security emergency management team. Again, we start with director Troy Shriles, assistant director Dave Morock. Um, you just got a chance to meet our security
emergency management specialist Matt Corsmo. And then our newest member is Jody Schneider who is the security and emergency management tech support specialist who just started with us this July. And so I'll turn it over to Troy and his team and they're going to kind of walk you through uh the next steps of
the security presentation. Thanks John. Good evening board chair Prince, board members and cabinet members and guests. Uh tonight I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you to pro uh thank you for the opportunity to provide a high level presentation on the work
security and emergency management does daily to prioritize the safety and security of our students, our staff, our families and our community. Our department aligns with the mission our strategic priorities to provide safe and welcoming spaces where our scholars can
come to learn and feel safe. By the end of this presentation, you'll be informed about the three main components of school safety and how they work at AIO. Dave, did we present the topic at the end, too? We did not. Just wanted to make sure. Um, our department
responsibilities. Um, we have a lot on the plate. This is just a high level piece of it. Um, our department's overall responsibilities are emergency response plans, drills and training, camera systems, card access systems, intrusion systems, two-way
radios, raptor visitor management systems, behavior threat assessments. You learn a little bit about that today. Our tip line, stop it, our SRO program, and then site security audits. With that, I'll turn it over to Dave and
Matt to share more information on the district security and emergency management components. Thank you, Troy, Dr. Hy, Chair Prince, Vice Chair Brooks, members of the board. I'm Dave Morock, the assistant director of security management for the district. Uh, I'd like to start kind of just with the three components that we have here
uh in AI area schools. When we think about our security, emergency management, it's our emergency plans, physical security, and people. our emergency plans. Uh we're going to have incidents in our in our schools. Things are going to happen. Uh and when we do, we activate our emergency plans uh with
our goal to ensure uh safety to staff, students, and visitors uh and getting school back uh to normal operations as quickly as possible. Second is our physical security. Um you'll hear that term physical security several times tonight. Um those are the kind of the the tools we use uh to protect uh people
uh and our facilities uh from a security incident. And last but in my opinion the most important um are the people uh in our schools. Uh these uh components are kind of intertwined with each other. They don't work independent of each other. Uh each component relies on the success of the other to ensure a
holistic approach to security and emergency management uh in the district. So we'll start uh with our emergency plans. Um we have a comprehensive emergency operations plan that that uses kind of an allhazard approach in the district. Uh and what that means with
all hazards is that basically we take into account a wide range of possible threats and hazards. Uh uh so you know uh anywhere and we and we look at what's probable and likely uh versus something that's unprobable. But you know we want to think that something could occur in
our schools our plan is uh there to address it. Uh in addition to our primary emergency uh operations plan, we also have several supporting annexes or mini plans that fall under emergency operation plan umbrella. Uh some examples of that are our out of school
time plan. So we have uh uh an emergency operations plan specific to for like kids stop. So when we have kids stop programming uh before and after school uh we have an emergency operations plan for our summer programming. Some of our program programming is very unique as we may have three or four separate programs
in one building with each kind of different leadership for that program. They operate at a different time, different days of the week. Uh so we have an emergency operation plan specific to that. Uh we have uh emergency operation plans for our athletic activities. So if we have events at our stadiums or in our
gymnasiums, uh we've developed emergency operation plan specific to that. Uh another one is reunification. Uh reunification is if we have an incident that occurs where we need to move students away from their school and then have a systematic process to get them
back to their caregivers. Uh we have a reunification plan for that. And the last one I'll mention is we also have a radiological emergency plan that not everybody knows about. Uh or our rep plan. Um the district is part of the state's emer radiological emergency plan and we have a partnership uh with the
Monaceel school district that if there is a uh nuclear power incident in Monaceel um we partner with the Monaceel school district to reify their students and that is a plan that is actually uh part of the state's uh home emergency uh
plan. So, our radological emergency plan uh when we think about our emergency plan and we if we were to print up all the pages of it and put in the big three ring binder be several hundred pages. Uh I would say kind of the face of our emergency response plan is actually what
we call our standard response protocol. This is predominantly what we what we train staff on, students on. Uh we even train today our uh transportation drivers. if we have an emergency in our school, it's important for them uh to know our language and our words uh in
our school. So, we adopted the uh standard response protocol from the I Love You guys Foundation last school year. Uh and I would say it's the most widely used um uh classroom emergency protocol in the United States. Many of our uh uh neighboring districts also use
it which we like because um we think about um there's been there's been a time where you know people you know oh we have a soft lockdown we have a modified lockdown oh we're having the code read this standardizes that language and makes it and makes it very simple. So if we have a substitute teacher that's working in a noin and
they come to us we're using the same uh uh protocol. If they're going to Brooklyn center schools I saw is now using the standard response protocol. um it's just easy to understand and uh language is pretty clear. So um just briefly mention what each one of the
five protocols are. Uh the first one is hold uh in your classroom or wherever you are. Um and that's typically a hold is typically used for like a medical emergency. Uh we don't want an audience if a staff member or a student uh is is injured or ill and we need to get an
ambulance. So essentially what a hold is, we announce a hold and we just want people to hold wherever they are doing whatever they are doing. So, if you're in your classroom, um, you're just going to continue learning. If you're outside at recess, you're going to be outside having fun at recess. Uh, you're going to have that extended thing, but we're not going to do class changes. Uh, we're
not going to, you know, bring students kind of in. Just hold where you are, keep doing what you're doing. Um, but typically used for for us in a medical emergency. Uh, next is secure. That's when there is an incident outside of our school. Uh so that typically we go into
a secure typically for police activity that's around our school, we'll get notified of of police activity maybe in the neighborhood uh or they're searching for someone. Uh so when we have a secure anybody that we have outside, so recess, physical education, we bring them in and
we secure the school. Uh so the only door that should be unlocked during the school day during instructional time is the main entrance. So we really should only have to worry about the main entrance. We lock that door. we send somebody around to make sure all the other doors are secure as well. And then no one is coming in or out until we get
word from law enforcement uh that that it's safe to to allow people out. So if we have caregivers that are showing up to pick their student up for a dental appointment, we're not going to let that parent in and we're not going to let that student out. We're going to tell them to please move away from the school and we'll contact them when it's safe to
uh come pick up your student. So that's secure. Uh next is lockdown. So that's the one where if we have a threat or concern inside the school, um that's where learning does stop and in a lockdown because in a secure we continue to learn during the secure because it's safe in the building. But in a lockdown
it does disrupt the learning process. That's where staff and students will secure a location, turn off the lights, hide, stay quiet uh until um that incident is is over. But that's typically uh when we just kind of have that threat or concern inside the building that's not weapons related. Um
next is evacuate. we evacuate for several different reasons. Uh it could be the smoke alarm goes off. We could have a gas leak, but we basically need to leave the building uh get out of the building uh and and wait for it to be cleared by the fire or police department. Uh and the last is shelter. And we shelter for two reasons. One
could be for severe weather, moving to our severe weather shelter locations or if we have a hazardous material release. uh we uh we just kind of determined the best place to to shelter within our schools and we have the ability to remotely turn off our HVAC system so we're not bringing in outside air for
that. So that's our standard response protocol that we have in our classrooms. Um this poster is posted in all of our classrooms and then all of our it's also on the back of all of our staff ID badges. So just kind of that that memory of kind of if something occurs seconds matters we want instantly if okay that's
a secure that's an outside event what's my responsibility kind of thing. lots of training on our SRP. Uh, next I want to talk about our building crisis response team. Um, so when a school has an emergency, um, the people in the building are always going to be their
own first responders. So each site in our district has a building crisis response team to lead them through that emergency. That's typically going to be made up of principles, assistant principles, uh, and kind of their admin staff. Um, like I said, that kind of provides direction on what to do. are we
doing this secure? Are we doing an evacuation? You know, what are we doing? Uh they're they're notifying um the ESC as well for that. So, we have uh like I said, incident commanders uh at all of our sites. And then we have a kind of sister parallel uh crisis response team
here at the ESC. So, our district crisis response team then that helps support a site that's having an emergency. So, do they need help with communication? Do they need help from facilities? Do they need help from food nutrition services? uh we're all there to support that site. We don't want them to feel like they're
on an island uh kind of by the by themselves uh when they have that. So, we're here to kind of support it um that group when there's emergency. But like I said, every group has kind of their own building crisis response team. And it follows the kind of the FEMA incident command system. That way, if our our our
law enforcement partners show up, our police, uh EMS, fire show up, they're using the exact same structure and we're speaking the same language. They have incident commanders. um they have different um operations, logistics, planning people. Uh so we're we can coordinate uh our responses together in
those events. Uh next we'll talk about kind of the training uh and drills and exercises that we do. Uh so by state statute, we're required to do 11 drills each school year. So those are five evacuation drills, five lockdown drills uh and one severe weather drill that we
that we space out throughout the school year. So those are our our required drills. And the good thing is when we look at our students, our students and staff are are well trained on on these incidents. A incoming freshman to one of our high schools, if they've been with us since kindergarten, has done 45
lockdown drills just by the time they've gotten to their freshman year. So, they're really well versed on kind of what the expectations are. Like I said, our staff are well verssed and so they do a really good job of kind of explaining the why. This is why we're doing it. Um, usually the drills start out at the beginning of the school year with a lot of this is why we're doing
this. this is the steps we're going to everybody knows it's coming in advance so they can kind of talk about it and then we progress through the school year uh less and less because like I said they're they're well trained uh on what they do. We also do uh additional training uh like tabletop exercises. So
that's one of the big things that we did last school year. So a tabletop exercises is kind of a a low stress where we kind of talk through an emergency incident and we did that with every building crisis response team uh in the district. So Matt and I uh teamed up and we went out with the sites, you know, gave some scenarios, talked about
the different roles and said, "Let's talk through a scenario in a non-stressful situation. Um that way that will help them in a real emergency, say, you know, we've tal talked about this. Um we thought about this. Um we we kind of know what to do." So we find those really really beneficial. Um we
and we also did one as a kind of district leadership team. We also did a tabletop with uh Maple Grove PD's executive uh uh police department's executive. So they brought in an outside facilitator and it was nice to they gave us a scenario and it's kind of nice to see how Maple Grove PD would respond,
what their priorities are, how we could support them and kind of work together in an emergency situation, building that partnership. Uh like I said, you never want to have those things where you're just making those connections in the moment of an emergency. So having those connections and I feel very strong and I know Troy is going to talk about our
partnerships later on uh that we have those already uh with with our police departments that work for uh next thing I want to talk about is our uh NASP prepare model which I'm pretty excited about. Uh so this school year the district is fully adopting the
National Association of School Psychologists NASP for short prepare curriculum. Uh this is a kind of a partnership that we've been working on the past couple years between security and emergency management and our student services department. Uh so prepare stands for prepare uh prevent uh any
psychological trauma, reaffirm physical health, security and safety, evaluate psychological trauma, provide interventions and respond to psychological needs and last examine effectiveness and prevention of intervention efforts. So prepare is evidence-based and trauma-informed
training that's uh curriculum that's designed to equip staff building crisis response teams for a real holistic 360 look at an emergency. So when you know on the security emergency management side we may look at like okay uh we just had a secure and we did all the actions for a secure but when we look at it
under the prepare curriculum we're looking at it from you know did we have any staff or students that were you know uh that that was traumatizing for do we need to follow have follow-up care for them um there's just a lot of great resources that we have uh for that so
like I said it's not just the security aspect of it it's the psychological aspect of an emergency that we Well, uh, and so we we piloted the prepare curriculum a couple years ago. Uh, we fully adopted it this year. Uh, our goal, there's two kind of components of
it. Workshop one, which is really kind of designed more on the kind of emergency operations plan. Um, more of what I would say Matt and I's area of of things. Uh, workshop two is a two-day class. It's really designed more for our uh, uh, district crisis support team
members. So those that are kind of providing that kind of psychological uh first aid. So our social workers, counselors, school psychologists uh for that. Um and uh we actually have seven prepared trainers in the district. And I I will tell you this uh with no
hesitation. We have the largest contingent of prepared trainers in house here in OIO uh than than anywhere else in the state. So Matt and I are workshop one trainers. Uh Jill Lene uh and uh and a couple others are trained in workshop
one and two. And then we have those that just work on workshop two. So um our focus this year for workshop one um that Matt and I train is really on our building crisis response team and our incident commanders to know the prepare model for an incident. Uh and then student services is training over uh
like hundred of their members uh on workshop too on you know how to do that psychological uh for that. So I feel really excited as we continue to grow our prepare model here in OSIO. Uh next thing I'll touch on um something
that's near and dear to my heart is our behavior threat assessment program. Uh, and I think about when I think about this, it's because it's a it's a it's something where um we're uh we're helping students that really need some some have some needs and some deficits that we can really help with and I think kind of make a difference in their
lives. Uh so beginning with the 2017 2018 school year, that's when we uh uh started training staff on our run height bike protocol, what to do um if a active shooter event occurred in one of our schools. So that's important to to know what to do when something bad happens.
But when we think about behavior threat assistance, that's the prevention mitigation piece. How can we even prevent and mitigate um something like that from occurring uh to begin with. So here in the district, we follow the US Secret Services National Threat Assessment Cent's uh guidance for behavior threat assessments in the
school. Uh and so we use we will initiate a behavior threat assessment if we have a student that has uh threatened serious bodily harm or death to another student or staff member uh has brought a weapon to a school uh has what we call a cluster of concerning behaviors if there's just a whole bunch of stuff that's kind of going on with that
student uh that maybe we need to provide some interventions for them uh that's when we will basically uh have a threat assessment meeting. So the threat assessment meetings, they're multidisciplinary. Um they are facilitated by Matt or myself in security and emergency management. And then we'll have people that know the
students. We'll have administrators. Uh we'll have social workers, uh school psychologists, um if there's students that receive these special education services. Uh I I won't do one without somebody from the special education team that can be there to speak uh on behalf of services that we're receiving. Uh and
and really what we're doing is what's our level of concern. It's not whether or not they've made a risk, but do they pose a risk? And then what interventions can we put in place to help that student not only help that student, but also make our school environment safe uh as well. So, it's a best practice in K- through2 uh education to have a behavior
threat assessment. Um I feel very uh fortunate that we've have a good strong program here in OIO and good teams to work with. Uh and and the and part of with behavior threat assessment is early intervention. Uh we don't want to wait till things get bad before we address them. earlier that we can start helping students and getting them uh help with
the deficits they have uh the better uh for all of us in those situations. Now I'll turn it over to Matt to talk about physical security. Wonderful. Thank you, Dave. Good evening, Superintendent Hyle, board chair Prince, Vice Chair Brooks, and the board members that joining us
here tonight. Um I'm here to talk about physical security in AIO area schools. And when we're thinking of physical security, the first topic we're going to cover is single secure points of entry. Uh, everyone, whether it's a parent or a visitor, is required to come through the
main front doors of the school when classes in session. Uh, once they enter the vestibule, they're going to use the intercom phone system and call into the main office where our admin professionals then will verify who they are, why they're there, and if everything checks out, they'll be buzzed
into the office. Um, if it's something simple like a parent dropping off a forgotten instrument or a student forgot their lunch, um, we prefer that they handle that in the vestibial when possible. Um, in hopes that that helps limit access to the rest of the building and just supports the overall safety of
the building. Uh, once a visitor enters the office, they're going to check in using our raptor visitor management system. Um, they're going to present their ID and the system is going to screen their ID against two things. The first thing is going to be the national sex offender
registry. And the second item is going to be a district specific watch list, custom alert list. If we have concerns about a person, the district can put in a custom alert uh to notify the uh admin of that building and our district staff. Um if there is an alert, our staff are
trained on how to respond appropriately and discreetly. Uh part of those front office staff trainings that Dave and I give. Um Raptor also gives us live accountability list. So, if we have a visitor in our building and there's an emergency that happens, we know who's in in our building during an emergency.
Uh, regarding staff, for staff, we use a card access system on the majority of our exterior doors. Um, this allows us to control who can enter, uh, when they enter and avoids the needs to issue physical keys to all of our staff members. Uh, this is important because if a key is lost, uh, it can be very
costly to rekey of school building. Um, this card system significantly reduces that risk, but also improves the accountability of which staff members are entering specific doors. We've also installed panic thoughts in key locations throughout our buildings. In an emergency, staff can press the
thought to send a silent alert directly to 911, notifying local law enforcement of the emergency and the location without a drawing attention to the person signaling for the help. This allows for a discree and immediate response during those incidents. We've also added lock down buttons inside our buildings to enable fast
internal response. A blue strobe light will activate inside and outside of the school. Uh so the front office staff have a light that's kind of in the main office area. And then we have blue lights on all four sides of our building. So when the lockown button is pushed, it'll alert people that are outside not to come back inside during
that emergency. If staff ever find themselves in a situation where both a lockdown button and a 911 call need to happen and they can safely do so, we just push both buttons at the same time. Our camera systems are enterprise level camera system. Um, this is a large scale
operation across our buildings and we on the security emergency management uh deal with the maintenance and regular updates. Um, they're monitored and recorded throughout the day and after hours for activities. And we're expanding our coverage to include more outdoor areas such as playgrounds,
stadiums, and our parking lots. When we're thinking of two-way radios, communication is critical during any emergency response. And we've recently upgraded our entire system to a digital two-way radio system. Uh, this upgrade will give us instant communication between our staff and administrators,
the ability to communicate between different schools around the same time, and then better signal coverage throughout all areas of our buildings. And lastly, when we're thinking of additional safety tools that we have in our buildings, um, I'd say the most
important and kind of what's near and dear to my heart is a locked door. Um, locked doors are number one security measure in our buildings. Um, all exterior doors stay locked during the day and then all interior doors should be back locked. So if there is an emergency, a staff member can just pull the door closed and keep that door
locked. Uh, recently we've added security window film to glass in certain high-risisk or high uh traffic areas. So like the front of the buildings. Um, and we did that as a delay mechanism to slow people down and give the time for the people inside during an emergency more
time to react. Um, lighting plays a major role in creating a safe environment, especially for walkways, parking lot, outdoor spaces for our staff members and students after dark. And then we have intrusion alarms on our buildings uh, which will notify law enforcement if anybody were to try to enter uh, during times that it may be
unoccupied. Obviously, fire alarms for those moments where we may have to evacuate. And then PA systems and uh, the HVAC shutdown buttons that Dave talked about as well. So now that we know physical security systems at OSO schools, I'll turn it back over to Dave.
All right. Thank you, Matt. Um, so the last component is the people component. So we've already talked about our emergency plans. We've already talked about physical security. Um, to me it's it's the people that make that all work. Uh, that uh we could have all the bells and whistles. We could have all the greatest plans and all the greatest
training, but it's the people in our buildings each and every day that make all of that happen and make this a safe place to work and to learn. Um, it's a staff person that ensures that perimeter doors are closed uh and locked to prevent unwanted people from accessing the school. It's a staff person that
greets and welcomes visitors in our secure entry system. It's a staff person that notices and reports an adult in the school without an ID badge. It's a staff person that reports suspicious or concerning behaviors to that. Um, but most importantly, when I think about our staff and the difference that they make,
it's they're the ones that show kindness and compassion to our students. From a bus driver greeting a student in the morning to a nutrition services staff providing a warm meal to a student uh to the teacher that's encouraging a student to be their self best self. It's our staff that really make a difference uh
each and every day and it goes a long way to making our buildings safe and secure. The second step at the Secret Service got All right. Um that was me talking that caught me by surprise.
All right. So it's everywhere. Yeah, exactly. All right, it does show up on a slide. I don't know if you clicked the cure. Yeah, I Yeah, I was going to talk about how is our our stop at tip system. Uh so we uh since I've been in the district nine years and in that time we've always
had some sort of tip line system. It started out as a a kind of a voicemail that if you have a tip or something concerning that you wanted to call this voicemail, then it went to like a Google doc. Um but uh it is one of those things. Our goal in our schools is actually that all our students are connected to an adult from the school so
that they're concerned about themselves, concerned about uh one of their classmates, that they have a trusted adult that they can go to. That's our goal. But if a student doesn't feel comfortable with that, um best practice in security emergency management is to have an anonymous reporting system. Uh
and that's where stop it uh comes in. Um stop it can be accessed many different ways. There's a phone number, there's an app that uh staff can and students can download and it's actually on every district device. So if it uh we have a link on um on the desktop of a iPad, on
a a Chromebook, every district staff person has it as well. Uh and there's a link at the bottom of every web page that you go to uh in the district. So you can't miss it. Plus we have a lot of flyers out uh in our schools. But essentially the way it works, if somebody reports something to our stop
at tip line, it is monitored 24/7. Uh so if somebody reports something at 2:00 a.m. uh that is deemed life-threatening. So if there's talk of harm to self or harm to others, uh a stop agent will see that at 2:00 in the
morning, they will call me. If I don't answer, they'll call Matt. And if Matt doesn't answer, they call Troy. Um, but for whatever reason, if if one of us does not answer, then it goes to 911. So, um, it's it's one of those things that no kind of threat or concerning behavior is is going unchecked at 2:00
in the morning, even if it if it rises to the level of, uh, life-threatening kind of thing. Um, other things that are not deemed life-threatening will basically show up in an inbox uh, in security and emergency management and the particular site that it's about uh, at 7 a.m. that that kind of next day.
anything that is considered life or threatening they immediate phone call to us regardless of the time of day uh to make sure that we are aware of that situation. The second All right. Now we over to Troy. All right. Thanks Dave.
And how do we come up with you know our security emergency management um programs, ideas and thoughts. It's not independent within our department. So, back in 2016, we launched um it's had a couple different names, but the most current one is our security and
emergency management advisory committee. And that committee is made up of a variety of different stakeholders with multiple perspectives. We've had um building leaders that we uh include. We've got parents. Um we've got uh
district level staff administration. We've got union representation. We've got local law enforcement, fire, and other emergency groups. And we come together four times a year with um specific priorities that we want to tackle each year. And each year it kind of develops and moves in. And so when
you think about all the things you heard today, like tip line was a discussion in that in that protocol. The type of cameras um and systems we have and where we have coverage that would also be brought through that. Um years ago, we brought our um advisory group to the sites. We gave them clipboards and said,
"Walk through a building. Give us your thoughts on our security infrastructure and feedback." And we learned a lot from that activity. And from there, we took recommendations. We framed it a lot. You've heard a lot over the last couple years, especially with build a better future. Um the enrollment and capacity
management group. We modeled it off of that and we've used it ever since. Um, one of the most exciting things about the advisory group is we'll bring in students from the schools to sit in front of the advisory group and talk about a day in the life of a student.
And it's amazing when you put them in front of a group of adults that want to listen what they have to say. Sometimes we're just like, "Oh my god, here it goes." But you hear the things like, "Hey, the bathrooms aren't safe." Or, you know, we know this. Like, if there's a place you want to misbehave, this is the corner of the building to do it. And
so we take that information and that feedback and we start to think about what are um the challenges and obstacles and how can we help our site owners and support them in our design and infrastructure. So it doesn't just come from myself, Dave or Matt or others. It does come from an advisory group. It's a
well-rounded one. We've got elementary, middle school, and high school representation. We usually have board me or uh members on that for a couple years. We rotate out. And then we have the dots, some of them that just live and eat and passion um security and they've been on it since the inception
and uh we really appreciate um that support that they have with that. Um and then one of the last really big and important components of our entire security program and with people is partnerships. I will sit here today and
say that I'm super proud of the relationships that we have with our communities. Um Kim and and others have worked very hard to build those relationships. We have as well. Um so we have strong relationships with the city of Brooklyn Park, their administration,
um their park and recx team and their fire emergency management and and police departments. Um the city of Maple Grove as well. We work very closely with them. Um they cover a number of our schools as well and we partner very closely with them. The city of AIO, we work with them
as well. And then one of the other components that we didn't always think about is um Henipin County, our county officials and then our community colleges in and around our area. And so by monthly um we host the meeting with them and we have conversations about what's going on within their little
subset of area and what's going on in ours. And we work very closely with that. We do a lot of outreach. I know a lot of our partners will reach out and say, "Hey, we'd like to sit down and talk about something that's going on within our community. Could you help us out?" out. We're like, absolutely. Just recently, I got the opportunity to sit
in on um the interview process for a new deputy chief at Maple Grove, which is really nice. Chief Warner and I um worked very collaboratively on things. He says, "I want a district perspective at the table." So, he invited us in and we got to give feedback on what that looks like. Those partnerships um they
have so many benefits on a given day. We share intel and information because you know our schools are a subset of our communities and so that's important and in invaluable information from our end and so when things are surfacing outside the schools they're likely ser going to
come inside the school and vice versa. So we work very closely on that end. We also work very closely with communications on what's going out publicly from the city's perspective to a community perspective. I think about the recent loss in Brooklyn Park and what occurred there. The day of that
event, our team spun up. Um, we were out in the community. We were checking buildings. We had construction going on in our buildings at that time. Were our buildings secure and safe? And working with our law enforcement partners, we're able to go out, check things out, and look at those things. That's just one
small example. But in a given day, we're talking to them all the time. And that leans into the next piece of it, which is our school resource officers. Um, you know, we did intentionally share some photos. When you think of school resource officers, until you get to know
them, you think that they're maybe standing guard or post somewhere. These folks, they're in the schools, they're working with their kids and they're doing things outside of the schools as well. Um, they go above and beyond every day. It's amazing. We've done some um school resource presentations in the
past and usually the board walks away like, "I didn't know they did that." and they'll get in classrooms, they'll work on curriculum. Um, and kids, I'll tell you why, you don't have to give them much. They'll be in the office. Well, Dave and I or Matt will stop by and they're having conversations with these
kids that you just go, "What?" And kids will come in and say, "You know what? Um, like Tony over at OIO Senior, we were there one day and Tonyy's talking to a student and the the student said, Tony, I got another ticket. I got another speed ticket." And he's like, "Is that like number four?" And the the
the student said, "It's number four. what do you think's going to happen this time? And Tonyy's like, I think your parents are going to take away the keys in the car. But he started giving him some real open um honest communication on what it looks like. Gave some really good advice. Um we had one SRO that had
a special handshake at every basketball or football game. Just building those connections and those relationships. It's a great chance for kids to interact with law enforcement kind of at a different point, right? It's not on the street. It's not committing a crime. it's it's when they're in their school
day. And so we work very closely with them and we partner with them on a daily basis and they really partner well with our school leaders as well. Um they interact where they need to interact. They know what's uh law enforcement requirements and they know what's administratively. So they they
definitely understand that we have strong ties with them and we've worked very closely and we've developed um some very good models on on how to take care of our kids in the uh classroom. I know recently SRO's were out of our buildings for a while. Well, the legislation
figured some things out language-wise. They came back and they said, "Here's our new model SRO contracts." And so districts had to scramble to adjust. But one of the nice things is we've worked so proactively with them over the years. We had model SRO contracts before this ever hit the the street. And so we were
set, ready to go. And I do believe some of the state leaders that have uh been implementing training this took some of our ideas from our model to start developing it on a state level. So we're pretty excited about that. With that, I will wrap up and I will open it up for
any questions that the board might have about us and our team. Thank you. Board members questions. I just have a question. Sometimes parents ask um the the physical entry system. some districts have where you have to scan your ID before even getting
into the building. Can you help me have an answer for them? Is that something in our future? Is there a reason we do or don't have that? Yes. Um I I'll take it. Yeah. Uh super excited about this. Well, yeah, you know, our current setup today was actually born out of RCMAC,
but where we had very intentional discussions about where that check-in occurred. Uh and um that's kind of why we had the current setup. But it we saw a shift in the past year or two uh where we were seeing more and more like uh and we knew like you know our neighbors in
Noan and they they've done it different and we knew that when we implemented our current style. Um but we noticed a shift in the past year or two of like hey we really want to look at getting that check-in procedure to occur in the vest wheel before they even step into the school. And so we are actively pursuing
that. Um, if you've noticed here, our Raptor check-in system, we've got some iPads. Um, that is uh the future uh that we're we're we're hoping to move forward with uh this school year. There's some things um we've been kind of testing it. We've been working very uh closely with
Raptor. There's some kind of bugs that we need to kind of work out because before we implement something, we want to make sure it's something that's very solid not only for our schools, but our our caregivers and visitors to use. Um but that yes that 100% is our goal is to move our raptor visitor managements out
from the office out into the vest so that check happens before they even step into the office. As you see new construction going up. You're going to go into some of the buildings eventually maybe see some of that. You'll see visitor festivals that will be there where they can interact. Eight years ago was about warm and welcoming.
That's what we got back from a lot of our staff in our advisory and today it's more around safe and secure. So there's a transition that's occurring as we speak. That's great. And then the other question um if you can help me have an answer for is about um metal detectors. Why we don't have that. I mean I assume
cost obviously but just to be able to answer that question. This one. Yeah. Um yeah, you know, it is one of those things um when we think about metal detectors, the the weapons detection systems that I I quotes um
weapons detection systems um there is a lot with the current technology of of some of these products that they're selling that it's not um it's not necessarily how they're marketing them and how they actually work are potentially two different things. Uh where there's a false sense of security
if you dial them down. um uh things are getting in. If you dial one up, then you have this line out the door. Um my professional opinion is those weapon detection systems right now is that the technology isn't there yet. I think it need to get there one day. And then the
other perspective I think we need to have discussions about is uh what does that feel like for our students um to walk through that? Is it a sense of safety and security or is it did they walk into the space that does not feel safe kind of thing. Uh and the other kind of the other component of that is
that's um a putting a focal point of just on one entry uh where somebody may be bringing in a weapon, but you think about our high schools and very large outer doors. Um you know, we have to be very mindful of what those doors are. You know, they they shouldn't be unlocked, but our people trying to prop those doors are people letting people
in. Um we need to comprehensively kind of look at that. Um yeah and uh what I would say is we are very aware of kind of what's out there and we have conversations and we are um I would just say learning uh is kind of where we're
at just being aware of what's out there and potentially what those things could look for in a but not looking at things specific currently to implement. Nope. Thank you. Yeah, for when the board has discussed that topic before just the environment that it creates for students is we have
not felt that that would be creating the right environment for students and I think it's it's very well known as we we um go to national conferences and state conferences that it's one of those conversations had all over the place. So we always like to go and meet with school districts that do it. We've had
conversations with them the pros and the cons and we try to balance and look at that. One of the things you also got to think about it's it's you can't turn it on and turn it off. And most districts turn it on and turn it off. What I mean by that is you turn it on at 7 a.m. the school goes at 2 p.m. They're done. They leave. They shut it off. But our
buildings are still open and we have a lot of activity in it. What does that mean? For the rest of the the building for security, not for the rest of the day, but in general. You go to the airport, they don't shut off and turn on those metal detection. You only get into that area during those times.
Thank you. I have a couple questions. Well, first I'm really thankful and grateful for for learning all all of this because I think you guys are thinking through a lot of things I think nobody really thinks about or I know I don't, you know, um and and I feel like there's just so many details and that level that you take
great care in that and protecting and ensuring our uh staff and our students are safe. Um I had a couple questions though around um the you know with our um new policy around cell phones and parents being concerned like you know the safety concerns that parents have expressed
about not getting a hold of their student if there's an emergency. Um how are we communicating um to our families to ensure that they have kind of that level of feeling like confident. Um I mean we're board members. I say that all the time like I
know like I have full confidence in in our schools and I I know my kids are safe, my kids and all of our kids. Um but just that's going to you know that's new for people and and you know there's some um so I guess I'm just curious of how we're communicating. Director Dawson we have another about
3540 minutes going into the actual schools and the principles will be able to speak to that as well. Um and then the other question I had was around um just given that what happened in the assassination in Brooklyn Park um and
then of course um the attempted assassinations um we've talked a lot about what happens in our buildings and I'm kind of talking more from a schoolboard member perspective um but when we talk about outside of meetings you know and I know the legislator and other electeds had talked about um different notification systems if things
happen um amongst um each other and and the police and leadership. Um is there anything for schoolboard members that are happening because I think that sometimes we're at such a local level with people and I remember during COVID or I mean there was a lot of times where
it was even scary um just going anywhere just because people were so upset. So, I guess I was just curious about um any is there a notification system um outside of the buildings, outside of meetings for um notifying board members in case of an
event? Well, you you've got to pause for me because I'm thinking about that live as you're you're sharing it. But I did recently share after that event, I've shared some stuff with the superintendent regarding, you know, public officials. And there's some recent bulletins that have come out from
the state level about public officials. You know, where your information is um publicly posted. What does that look like? And is there ways and tools and methods to um prevent that? You know, you're you're very public in in the work you do. And so there's some resources I've given Dr. Ohio that we can probably
share with you as well just from that end to take some precautions as school board members. It's up to you. You know, I know obviously as elected officials, you want to be able to connect with your constituents and have that opportunity. The question is is do you want to have your home address and other things
posted for folks to find that? So, I provided some information that I think we could probably share. As far as a notification piece, I think we would take that back and we could probably have a discussion and look at is there a method we could work with um cabinet and
and the school board to possibly do something like that. What do you mean by notification? Like like I'm going ask Kelsey like an alarm going off. Cuz I was in Jamaica when the sassination happened and we were talking like we were next to Well, I didn't talk to anybody, you know, during that time. Like I mean I
think I connected with Thomas maybe or something but I didn't know like not that anything was happening to anybody in particular but you know there was just no like I don't know we didn't really talk. You guys had a text right? Oh you mean talking with each other? Oh I see. I don't know. I mean I know it's just kind of been I' i'm connected to a lot
of other schoolboard members and across the state and so people just have asked that question about like you know I think because like we're just so accessible like more than anybody like a lot of other like elected positions. It was just a question. I was wondering if there is anything, not
necessarily even our district, but just not that I'm aware of right now, but there is communications that came out about prevention and mitigation around your public um official responsibilities and what you share or don't share from residential and and what do they call it? The information component, your
baseline information. Sure. Yeah. Your personal information that's online. It's it's amazing, you know, with just, you know, getting the right uh websites of how much of your public information is just there's a lot out there. We have some resources we can share with you guys if you want to take a look at that.
Yeah, I know, um, in the instance where we have had a school board member receive a threat like we've worked with the local law enforcement in that situation. Um, uh, MSBA might have some information. and others. I think it's just more I'm not asking
probably for a specific answer, but just for this discussion purposes. I think that it just goes along with kind of the emergency management and safety um and security. Um especially as things that are become more controversial potentially come up. Um I think it's really important. Um okay, my two other
things, you mentioned kind of other districts and and like the county and and things like that. I mean, and it seems like our what you guys have done is so sophisticated. But I mean, are we kind of at that like cutting edge across the different districts across the country or are you going to say it around?
First, thanks for saying that. We're super excited to hear that from you. And I don't mean to brag. We do have a unique opportunity with the tech levy that we partnered with Anthony to invest in both people and infrastructure and resources. And that's been super
beneficial for us in the last couple years. We've been scraping and fighting for a number of years to um receive funding and collect funding and and that's been a challenge. And so when we did that, when we made the initial move, what's it been Anthony? Two years now. We're here two years.
Oh, the increase for safety, security, and cyber security. Yeah. And so as we walk, um we bring a lot of districts will um hear about what's going on here. They want to come over and see it. And it's kind of like the kid in the candy store. They see it, they're like, "Oh my gosh, I need to
have that." Um, and so we have to keep reminding them that it takes time, it takes planning, you got to be strategic around it. Um, I do think we do invest in our people and that's probably the most important thing. Professional development for our staff and certifications and other things that we
elevate people up so we can come in. You heard Dave here talk about a lot of things today. He's really well detailed. And you just recently, what in the last 48 hours? What's your new certification? Uh I am a certified threat manager through the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals. So
how many are in the state of Minnesota, Dave? Uh I would be over 10. So we put time in our people and and you can hear it from when Dave talked. He's very passionate about the work he does and that's because, you know, we have the opportunity with our senior leadership from John and others that we
can invest in people to train because this is it's always moving and we're constantly getting intel. We're constantly looking at things and we're calling um our partners in our city and state level just to say, "Hey, what's going on here?" So, we can adjust and and pivot. And I know that word's
sensitive for some people, but we pivot a lot. And one of the things I would say, I really like working in DH security is unlike the private sector where everybody's doing what they're like, oh, it's all secret what we're doing. Um, uh, when I was hired in this position, and this is really the foresight of the district outside of Minneapolis and St.
all there was no dedicated security people that were working in schools. Now most major districts have a role similar to mine. Uh and that's nice because now we have connections all over the metro. Uh Henipin County does a really good job with their uh their shield program which is their public private partnership that
brings us all together. Made connections with each other and so we're all facing the same challenges and so what are you using? What are you working on? Uh, and it's just a good network of people, uh, of of if somebody, you know, um, like Brooklyn Center Schools was here a couple weeks ago because they knew we we
were using some new rafter stuff, so they came here to take a look at that kind of thing. We've we've gone out to other sites, other districts and looked at stuff that they're using. So, I say it's it's a nice community of everybody's want to help each other out, uh, and say, "Here's what's working for us, and here's where our challenges are." That's great.
Thank you. Yeah. My only question was about the levy and you kind of touched on that is how much of this came about out of that cuz I know it's always tough to ask taxpayers for more money but hearing this kind of thing and even just seeing like the new points of entry has been huge as a parent.
There's only a few funding models. There's the um I'm drawing the blank say schools levy which is limited. There's a certain dollar amount per pupil. It's been the same for how many years John? 150. Longer than I've been in school and so it's very limited. and it's getting
smaller and smaller and that's what we usually buy our SRO resources with. And then we have our normal capital that we share with all schools. This is competing against books, band instruments, other things. And so we used to have to duke it out with all the other members in cabinet. And now we
really don't. We can free that money up to get it back into the classrooms. And we have the unique opportunity to get the resources we need because of the levy. Because of the levy. And we and we really built it over years. We were building our stuff over the capital over a years and doing some um really unique
um financing to do it and we got to a point where it got so large that if the levy hadn't come along we wouldn't be able to maintain our our clear systems because it's so much when I was talking about or they mentioned cameras and how many we have that stuff has to be refreshed on a cycle just like iPads or
laptops and desktops and technology like that for we want to say thank you but we got a we got to go we have a One one last thing I really appreciated when we had those safety community meetings a few years ago that I thought was really valuable. So I hope that we can get this out. We're doing them this
we're doing the safety ones that were in the community like a while back. We used to talk about travel visited schools and stuff. Yeah, that was really good. We had
[Music] Sorry. All right. So, we're at uh we're going more and more internal into safety management now. So, Steve, can you introduce who's with us today to give you more an idea of how we uh handle discipline and concerns at the sites?
Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, good evening and thank you, uh, Chair Prince, uh, Vice Chair Books, Superintendent, um, certainly all our directors, our members, uh, and of the cabinet and our guests here. As you can see, we do have
quite a lineup. Um, Troy and Dave talked about the people and they ended because we're going to hear a little bit more about the people involved. So our presentation is going to shift um more towards that lens towards student management and the systems roles and resources that support the students and
staff throughout the school day. Um so these efforts are essential uh to maximizing learning of course ensuring safety and maintaining the accountability across all the sites. So tonight I'm joined with by Sunny Bersk who's our director of student services,
Amy Thompson, our district level principal, and four of our incredible leaders, uh, Dr. Bart Becker, David Branch, uh, Dr. Antoine Harris, and Ryan Gibbs, um, who will share building le level perspectives and how these
supports are implemented over uh, in uh, real time. So hopefully we're going to highlight the interconnected nature of that physical safety and behavioral support. Um you'll learn uh about the universal interventions um and as well as targeted plans for our
students with IEPs. Our systems are designed to respond to the student needs um while maintaining a safe, productive learning environment. We also would like to to thank Troy and Dave and Matt uh certainly for their ongoing coordination with their schools. Um those efforts
help us ensure um that our efforts in buildings are aligned and comprehensive. So, we look forward to sharing a little bit more um and just collaborating uh about how we collaborate and hold our uh uphold our safe and responsive climates. So, as you can see here, we have the
outcomes. I won't read them to you, but um we're also going to just touch on again those supports um and our building principles. They'll be led in a bit of a conversation Amy Thompson will share with us as well as how we handle um when students become disregulated during the
school day. and want you to understand all the things that occur um behind the scenes as well as uh something we're very proud of and that's our uh safety committee that we've been partnering with EMO. So at this point I'm going to turn this over to Amy and we're going to jump right into things.
All right. Thank you Steve. Superintendent Kyle board chair Prince and Vice Chair Brooks. Thank you and to our board members. Thanks for having us this evening. And we're going to as we said dive a little bit deeper. So when we think about it, each and every day
our scholars walk through our doors into our sites and we have no idea how they're going to show up. So they might show up to us with smiles on their face, full of joy, running to their classrooms ready to learn. And they also might show up in very different ways, emotional
responses because we have no idea what's happened in their life outside of the day. and they come to us and it could be something as simple as they had maybe not simple but they had a bad haircut the night before they lost a game from their sports team. It could be a conflict that they had on social media
which happens a lot um with our scholars. It could be that they got in a conflict with a sibling or maybe they're really stressed out. But all of these different ways are what impact our children each and every day as they walk through our doors and how they present
themselves also is really varied. And so some children really go inward and they become very quiet and they might be withdrawn. Other students might become emotional um and other students might have some bigger more physical responses to whatever it is that's impacting them.
And it is our job to really understand um each and every scholar and how we have relationships with them to know when they are not coming to school as they may typically present themselves each and every day. So, we're going to talk about all of the different supports
that occur in our buildings and the people and the humans um that play a really big impact in supporting our scholars when they are not showing up in a way where they're really ready to learn. So, in our elementary schools, we have several different roles that really
help support our scholars from counselors to social workers. A role that you may not be familiar with is our behavior intervention teacher and I'll talk a little bit about that. um a behavior ESP that really collaborates with that behavior intervention teacher.
Of course, the administrators and we have case managers that really support our scholars who are receiving special education services. At our secondary schools are in grades 6 through 12. The roles are really similar. I would say the only difference is um staff role
called a student management specialist or an SMS. and they are vital to um helping support our secondary scholars who maybe are not able to be ready to learn in the classroom and for whatever reason the teachers either saying you
can't be there or they themselves are advocating to leave the classroom or if there's something happening in the hallways our SMSs are often the very first people to be on site trying to understand what it is that's going on and help to get to the bottom of
whatever the incident may be at certain points Um then we also have district level supports. Um we have a role called district behavior specialists. They uh we only have a few of them in our system. However, they are experts in
helping to understand student behaviors and really supporting site teams when there might be an individual student that is having repeated behaviors or having multiple different kinds of behaviors and we just cannot quite figure out exactly how to best support
them. and a DBS can really help provide individualized personal support for those scholars. Um, we have our student services administrators which really primarily um work with Sunny's team and help just partner around the many nuances with students receiving special
education services and trying to really partner with parents and guardians as well as school staff to find um a collaborative support and a plan for our students receiving services. um myself, the district level principal that people our admin teams consult with on various
occasions. We obviously Troy and Dave's team um and then also our director of student services, Sunny. So, what does this actually look like um in the classroom? So, we have a student that is really disregulated in a variety
of different ways that I described early on. And the first thing that might happen is the teacher is going to use their tools that they have in their toolbox to try to redirect, re-engage the student in a variety of different ways. When that doesn't happen or the
teacher is feeling that um the the actions that they're seeing are maybe bigger than what they can handle in the classroom, then it is time that they would be reaching out to other support staff. And typically the first people might be responding at the elementary would be that behavior
intervention teacher. The teacher might come to the classroom um help to try to understand the needs of the scholar and really try to get them to reset. And then really our goal is to get the students back in the classroom and ready to learn. That same person might be an
SMS at the secondary level um trying to again understand what are the needs of the student, what is happening and try to get them to reset. In those cases, um there also could be partnership with a counselor or a social worker if that scholar has different
relationships with those roles. Um it also could be consulting with a case manager for students receiving services because they are really really experts in the needs of that child and really can help to partner um to help that child reset with again the goal is to
get our students back in the classroom. Um, also our administrators are always there to help support if it is something um where a student is having an incident or multiple students are having incidences or it's a more serious situation such as some of the things
that Troy and Dave referenced around um weapons or threats, then we are going to have the admin team be involved and be all hands on deck to make sure that we are managing the safety of the building and managing the safety of the scholars. Um and then ultimately we're always partnering with our parent and guardian.
So anytime that we are in communication with our scholars around safety incidences, we are also in communication with families and trying to un help them understand what's been going on and then helping them understand how are we going to respond. So that is not a linear um
activity that involves many different layers and kind of swirls around. And additionally, I would say that the vast majority of incidences that are happening in a site are being handled by the team there. They really work in collaboration with each other amongst
all those different roles to be preventative to try to deescalate and then also be very responsive and really try to get at the root cause of whatever it is that's going on. And so that really happens from that collaborate effort at the site.
So, we talk about all of these different supports or interventions, and I'm not going to walk through every single one of them because this list is far too exhaustive. So, I'll just kind of highlight a couple of them that may not be quite self-explanatory. Um, check-in, checkout is when there is an adult that would literally check in
with the student at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day. It's an evidence-based intervention to help students for a variety of different reasons um for a period of, you know, a few weeks until we hope to see some changes in their needs. Um sometimes students just need to move around. That
could just mean a lap and they're back in their classroom or um some movement to help them again reset. Um we have sometimes development, skill development with social workers or counselors. So, our goal is to teach, not just to remove
from the classroom or to punish and have them suspended out of the classroom. The goal is what's the root cause and how do we help students learn so that they're not having repeat um incidences or these repeat behaviors. Um we also really try to partner with getting families access
to mental health when at all possible. Um and we also again bring in and partner with uh David Troy's team around the threat assessments. So we do have overlap of course with all of um kind of the staff around student supports and
when we need to we definitely partner because they have their resources especially around threat assessments that are really beneficial to saying all right now this serious incident has happened. How are we going to reintegrate the student back in so that not only the student feels supported but
also the school community feels ready for that student to return after a serious incident. So, these again are um kind of a lot of the general tools that are being used and I think most of them are self-explanatory. So, I'll just
leave that list for you to review. Uh all of our students on IEPs have access to all the supports and services that Amy just covered and a vast majority of their needs are are met within that scope. Um we have additional
services of course for students that u may be having behaviors that are um bigger than what can be managed in the classroom at times. Uh we provide functional behavioral assessments or FBAs through the evaluation process where we identify students uh behavioral
triggers um how we may prevent those behaviors and essentially the trajectory we would like to see the student take in order to um find some alternative or replacement behaviors. and we document that in a behavior support plan or a BSP and that's for the adults that interact
with that student so they know exactly uh what steps that they should take in order to either prevent or respond to behaviors. Um so we update those from time to time when students are showing new uh needs. Um you'll notice this list is really increasing in level of
restrictiveness as I go down. That paperwork portion that we talked about is um not very restrictive to a student. um increasing their special education services, increasing ESP or educational support professional um minutes or time with the student. Um those are a little
bit more restrictive and intensive. They involve decisions made by a student's IEP team. Um in their database decisions um and so they don't take place based on, you know, suggestions or or quick conversations. Um it's really more
intensive than that. Um we partner with district 287 in a variety of ways. Um we have access to their nexus team which is an u intervention team with um very skilled professionals with unique uh professional development and experiences
that provide some wraparound support. When we have students in um crisis um occasionally we have students that are on a partial day. we alter their schedule um because they're better able to perform and access school um on
unique schedule. We also have a handful of students at any given time accessing homebased education um because of where they're at behaviorally. They're unable to be safe in the school building for a short period of time. So, we are educating them either virtually or in
their home um so that they get everything that they need. Um again with the goal of that being shortterm and we also partner with 287 um for students to attend programming there. So we have about 130 students in our district that
access that level of um programming uh where they are not currently in our school buildings working on gaining skills so that they can transition back. All right. So now the excitement is here to have our special guests share a
little bit about their experiences. So they did have opportunity to already introduce themselves. So we're just going to jump into a few questions that they can then respond to. So I'm going to start by um inviting our elementary principles to think about how have you
supported students in grades K through three with the shift of no suspensions allowed by state statute. We're probably similar. We're probably going to say similar things. Uh but even prior garden city prior to the uh uh uh
nonexclusionary disciplinary uh practices being required, we had lots of things in place already. So we uh use u uh calming corners. We use uh calm down corners are called uh that are in the classroom. that's required by all for
all teachers to have that including our specialist uh music teachers, things like that. We uh use um um behavior charts, but I I neglected something. One of the best things about Garden City is I believe I want one of
the stronger um uh uh behavior teams uh that includes a uh school social worker, psychologist, many of the folks up there, but we also partner with St. Davids and they sit in on some of the uh uh meetings with with the agreement with the district so we can share some
information there and um I have a outstanding instructional assistant as well and uh we are uh in the process of looking for a behavior intervention teacher this year if you know anybody for
but that that team is really uh student centered proactive and so going back to what uh uh Dave said about the people. I think uh uh Dr. Fiss also uh reiterated that it's who we have in the buildings and that they're student centered and
care about the kids. I could go down and name a bunch of strategies, but if we don't have the right people, the strategies are meaningless. So, um, and one of the things I also want to emphasize going into this school year, what we noticed is that, uh, with I have
a lot of staff that are younger and, uh, they forget this concept of the idea of the last word that it's okay for students to have the last word. We're going to avoid those power struggles. And so then we unintentionally escalate a student and then it's like, oh my
goodness, you know, but then we have a co, we call it the cozy cold. we have a a calming space. Um, but I just really want to emphasize it's the people that we have around um our students. Hi everybody. Thanks for um letting me get a chance to share a little bit about
Hopeview and this incredible district. So, as someone who's come to AIO last year um after working on the district for a very long time, one thing that really stuck out is the the amount of support this district has for buildings and for principles. Um, I was used to,
you know, always having a team approach and building my team in my school, but being able to come here and o you and be able to say, "Okay, I've got the phone to Dr. Fiss, Troy, anyway, Dave, and say, "Okay, this is what's happening. I need a thought partner." Folks are so responsive. So, when I think of K3, um, you know, there's days or some days where I'm on the floor, two or three
little ones, just being with them, you know, as they're exploring their behaviors. And it's part of it is really listening and understanding what's happening. I I want my staff to have the belief that all kids will achieve at high levels, not just that they can. And I and I that starts from me as the
leader. So helping to support my staff with that belief and mindset that behavior is all about. It's a language. We have to be curious and figure out what that is. We can't blame the kids, but we also can't blame the adults for how they react. We can support them and and help them go through this journey.
So for the K3, like David, I'm one who I could hold on my hand how many kids have ever suspended in that age. We know it's doesn't work. So we've used things like restorative circles. Um really listening to kids and and getting in-depth interventions. And a lot of it goes down
to relationships. Um it's relationships with families. It's it's relationships with the leader and the principal and and the teachers. Um and then it's the kids. So often we we don't take time to listen what the kids need. I had a moment last year where a little guy was climbing on a a banister and it was like
my second month so they were just getting to know Mr. Gibbs here. It wasn't we didn't have we weren't that tight yet. And um so I'm just kind of I'm being with them, right? Like I'm not grabbing the kid down. I'm not yelling. You're just you're walking with them in that moment. And there's tons of research that shows when someone's
disregulated, you almost have to be like their brain. And I'll share that with kids like I'm going to be your brain right now. And once we have that relationship that it's like they release some of that heavy heavy stuff and they kind of help you walk them through how to get to calm. Um I teach my staff focusing on calm. Let's
get to calm and kids get that right. Like kids are just regular said right now we're just going to focus on getting to calm and hearing from this kid. This little guy was climbing. I said so and so what what what do you need right now? And it was kind asking me what I need. Yeah. What do you need? He told me he
said I need a walking break Mr. Gift. I said, 'I probably do, too. I had too many cheeseburgers for lunch. Let's go. So, again, it's it's but it's a mindset. It's really teaching folks that behavior is communication and that these little people, no kid, you know, doesn't want
to learn or doesn't want to they want to be bel they want to have a sense of belonging. They want to have folks who care about them. And it's that authentic, right? It's like kids know if you're faking it, right? Be real authentic. Telling your teachers like you got to be authentic. Um, the last thing I'll share
and and I've learned tons from this guy by the way before I came to this district. I came out to his building to uh get some tips. But we both are implementing a lot of mindfulness work with students. U we have a program called Move Mindful that we've partnered with and it's really it's a break sometimes mindfulness can kind of have this wait a minute peace
and love. Well, it is a little bit of that. It's all based on your brain. It's brain research. And so I I really work with families on it's like we're using brainbased strategies with these little kids and they're disregulated. We're teaching them. We're filling their tool tool kit. One of my favorite moments
last year was I literally brought a little toolbox out. I said, "Okay, kids, we're building our toolbox together this year." And it was just that that that idea like, "Oh, I can be empowered to get some tools to handle myself when I get distracted." So, for K3, it's a lot of just teaching and mindset with
adults. All right. Thank you. Um, how to all of you, how do you support students with frequent emotional needs during the school day? Uh, I'll take this. Um, madam chair, vice chair, board,
Dr. Hy, um, I'm Dr. Harris, principal park center, senior. I was not in the room, so I had to introduce myself. Um, I will say this about me and my house and my babies. Um, I have five counselors. Um I have four social workers.
Um I have uh four SMSs and I have two uh in school therapists from People's Inc. along with myself and my admin team uh which is my other three APS. And our focus has always been always will be on teaching our babies uh conflict
resolution skills in high school. uh to be able to to learn how to deal with conflict to be able to learn how to communicate to others. And so when you have different situations that occur between students, um we first uh communicate both of those students and sit both those students down and have a
conversation. But to those students that are u disrupted by that, um we have conversations with our grade level meetings about we all have bad days and how would you want to be able be to support it during those days. And so what we do is, you know, we buddy up
students um with we pair students with other students in our building via the alphabet to where you always will have someone you can connect with. Um if you cannot connect with that person, you can connect with an adult um one of the ones I just mentioned to you along with our teachers. And so what we found is um
over the last few years, we've been able to create a warm atmosphere um with our staff, with our students to be able to communicate, connect with each other that helps everyone understand each other because we all have bad days. Um and so for us uh along with our two calming rooms, we have two calming rooms
as well in high school. Um and sometimes I may go in there myself because it's a bad day. Um but at the end of the day um we work well together and I want to echo the sentiment of both of these these gentlemen here. Um there is not a day that goes by that if there's something
that I need that I can pick up the phone and call Dr. How and Dr. Bass or Dr. Fisk and Amy and Bart and my other principles um to say okay this is what's happening. What do you think? So we have a a collective group um but we communicate with each other. So that's
my steel. Uh that was pretty good. Yeah, I will just reiterate what has been shared is the the behaviors are simply the manifestations and what every staff member in every building no matter what
position they are focused on the relationships and learning the students story to the best they are able in that position because it's that story that will get us to the root of whatever is going on in which manifests in the behavior. And uh we have a a a network
yes all the structures and the positions and the roles and the supports and yet there is also this triaging that's occurring at all times of the day between hey you know I know this student and I saw this hey and you know the quick whatever if it's a call a text or
is passing the hallway to uh from a hall monitor to an SMS or to a counselor to a resource teacher who they know that student's assigned to and might want check in on so and so. There's all that other network that isn't uh aligned in a structure that exists. It's this
constant effort of the adults in the building to know the students and their stories and then observe constantly observing and then reporting to the appropriate personnel um to then to then follow up and and check on that student.
So, we've spent time talking about the individual student that is disregulated or really having a challenging time getting through the day, but can you speak to how you support the other students in the building that are also impacted sometimes by that students actions and behaviors?
Um, I I again I I have a great team. Uh, one of the things that we have been really focused on putting in place since the uh, really since coming back from the pandemic because we've seen more uh, bigger outbursts and behaviors, things being torn apart in the classroom is uh,
getting the classroom together with the teacher than doing uh, circles. So, we talked about restorative practices. Uh, we do that. Uh, and I think somebody had a question about how we communicate these things. We also communicate uh Kay has been great in helping formulate uh
uh emails uh or uh talking points to families when we do have a big incident. But really the biggest part of that recovery is helping the teacher recover and bring her classroom back to uh a sense of normaly and safety. Uh because
what you get is students feeling you you can walk in the room and you can just feel the anxiety with coming from the students. Uh so uh taking the time to do that followup sometimes it does not happen until the next day because the incident happened at the end of the day but we always do a follow up with those
big uh moments of uh dysregulation. So um and that's either my u uh my school counselor uh my behavior intervention teacher uh slashia u separated those two positions this year. I do have an opening for the behavior
intervention teams are on Thursday. So anyway, uh and then um uh we also uh the school social worker uh all trained in restorative practices and running circles and it's just really powerful because what comes out first is that they're mad at the
student. They you know uh but then we process and work through that and have you ever had a bad day? You know I think one of my colleagues here said something like that. Yeah, we have bad days and and process processing through that and we meet with uh I I meet with any parents that uh stop up saying, "I heard
about this happened. Can you tell me what you're doing to keep our kids safe and things like that?" So, and I walk them through a similar process. So, yeah, it's in circles. I could add um for for students who were significantly impacted by bullying, uh
one of the things I really ask of my team and then I I model and support with that too is that we it's not just a onetime check-in with the victim. It's it's connecting with the the student who was harmed their family and then really together in a partnership with the family like talking through what what
does it with the little guy like a daily check-in with me or with a staff that they know like what can we do long term to ensure that that big incident or that incident the bullying that's happening that that the kid understands and knows that they are protected and it's not just you know two days three days like I
will be checking with kids all year to make sure that they know that they're being supported and not the adults will step and help stop it. And and we're providing and and and maintaining a calm environment is is one piece that we talk about, right? And we
are providing asurances to our babies, to our teachers, to our families um about where we are and communicating about um any particular situation or incident. So, it's it's the communication needs to happen across the board to those families um and to the
students who are um impacted by this regulation. So, that that's where we go. All right. And our last question is, how do you typically address behavior concerns presented to you by your staff members?
Um I I joke sometimes when I'm tired, so I just caught myself. So, No, thank you. One of the things again since uh uh since the pandemic as we've seen some bigger behaviors and bigger emotions,
we've also seen that from teachers as well. M and so providing opportunity and space for the teacher to process like I said they they will participate in the uh circle but if the teacher needs that
individual time to process what happened um and the question frequently asked is well what does it take to suspend a student and walking them through hey this is who we are at garden city this is our uh this is you know part
particularly in K3 but overall K5 we have these conversations. So um but what I want to just just add to that is that um we follow up I personally follow up or I
ask one of my uh uh support team members to follow up with the teacher. Uh sometimes if I'm you know tied up in something working with a parent then they'll circle back to me my support team and say no you have to go talk to this teacher uh because she's so upset. We've had circumstances where we've just
um had one of the support staff go and cover the classroom because we want that teacher to also be uh regulated and and ready to return. And I've had situations where the teacher is not ready to return and um uh uh you know excuse them for
that day and they're back the next day and they say they appreciated that opportunity. That's only been a handful of times, but you can only get hit and push so many times, right? So, and that that is a reality about some of our uh uh babies. But uh one thing that I do say to the teachers is that if you're
having trouble you know getting back uh uh your brain regulated and slowed down and that amydala amydala is not being you know is on fire. Imagine yourself in that child's space. Yep. What they did was wrong. I'm not excusing that
behavior but they are a eight or nineyear-old child and they don't have the skills that you do. So we walk through that. Uh and sometimes it's also meeting with uh uh EMO. It's I've had some really good meetings over the years with EMO and just talking about the process and uh and in that partnership
they've helped uh teachers understand uh that we want our kids in school that you know we're doing a lot of things at our site to support but it's hearing that other voice. So that partnership has been important with EML to uh you know
coming out. So um and then I also I am you know I can make mistakes right um I don't have all the information you know I don't you know uh and either that's returning the student too soon to the
classroom I did not realize that you know part this was part of the incident and yes I will bring the student back out I didn't know that that happened you know things like that so I think owning that we that we can that you make mistakes and having that vulnerability
with our teachers is extremely important because I I'm out in the hallways all the time. I'm pretty sure all of us are. And um and they seeing me react and model and different things like that. I think you're sharing that as well, Ryan. Uh but they also see me make mistakes,
right? And it's how I recover is helping model and and hopefully uh you know we can talk the talk and show all the slides and stuff but if you're not out there with the teachers showing uh and demonstrating and modeling best
practices you know who else is going to do it right I mean it's not I kind of got lost there. I'm tired. Sorry. as a as a again someone new to OIO last year coming into this organization. Um, you know, some of the things that I I really connected with is
is the the investment in leadership. Um, be it understanding how to hold space um to moving into becoming a listening leader. All of these the the training that we use and have as as a collective leaders in this group, this organization really helps go back to the
humanentric mode of lead of leadership, right? But it it's I got to tell you it's so important like if somebody gets hurt you stop and you ask them how are you doing? It's it can be as simple as that, right? Like but but knowing that you care and I
I think about all the work you do before an incident is all that relationship and all that that equity in the bank you have with people that when we make mistakes, you know, we we own it. We we know better, we do better. Helps create that psychological safety within our organization so that we people know that
they're cared for, that they're important. Um, and that's just a really really powerful um, piece that as a newbie to this district, we I am so proud to be part of that because that is really what it's why we go into this business, right? We're about humans and um, we always it's about the babies,
right? But it's it's equally as important that we're taking care of our adults. If they're not strong, strong for little ones. So, we're doing some good work here. I I will shortly say that I always aim to balance accountability with support.
I say that to the adults to remind themselves about the expectations of our babies, but also my expectations of them as adults uh in their jobs to where they may make a mistake or they may have a bad day um or they may have a bad week
and expectations they want from me is to support them. Um and so I remind my teachers uh and my staff members that we have to have that balance between uh both and and they they are understanding that as
I will add is uh the first thing we do when presented by a staff member is is to listen to listen to that staff member and to validate their concerns. Um, often times they're emotional and as has been alluded to, sometimes in the end after you get their story and then you
learn from the students or others, the staff member may not have been perfect. That's down the road. In that moment, you listen and validate to them. They need to know that we support them and are hearing them. And then from there, depending on what the situation is in in my term on my team, I we call it the the
the point. And again, it's who has the relationship, which amongst our our team has the relationship with that student, and we immediately contact the point. Um, and if it's a new student and isn't on our radar, then we go either alphas split to either this the SMS to their
case manager, the resource teacher, or to the counselor, depending on what it is. And the last thing I'll add is what was readed in the previous ones. I can't express how meaningful it is when a member of the leadership team um swings back and checks in on a staff
member or a class or students that has witnessed something um that didn't come to school to witness it it it reiterates and it's just it's it's just cool to do and you can use lines like hey I noticed that X Y and Z after that this occurred I just wanted
to swing back and and check on you. It's a great way and a and a hugely powerful way to establish a connection with that student that you didn't have before and you leverage that down the road in the future. Um, so that's the last. All right. Well, thank you all for
sharing and as we talk deeply about, you know, hearing from them about what that looks like at the site, there are times, as we've kind of shared along the way, that they are reaching out to our district team to collaborate in different ways. you heard about just that partnership and consultation. Um if
there is a more serious incident in which they um believe that having a suspension away from school three or more days, they'd be consulting with me. We obviously work with our behavior threat assessments um and of course our strong collaboration with student
services. Okay. So um let me move into the next one. So, I'm going to um kind of just touch on uh a little bit of the history of our EMO uh safety news, which is a collaboration here. But before I start, I do want to acknowledge um the recent
and heartbreaking loss of attorneys. As you will see in one of the slides, she has been a huge partner in the work that we've done and the collaboration. So, we are going to talk a little bit about the accomplishment. So, it's a little bittersweet to share that. We had hoped
obviously that she was here with us this evening and that's no longer possible. So I do want to thank her uh for her unwavering support, her collaboration and her work with us. Um and really the the courage to uh kind of take the time
um on on her part in this while representing obviously the staff and work with us as we really focused in on some of the things that you heard about some of the staff injuries and the concerns that have surfaced up and and so a little bit of the history on that.
Um this this committee has been around for a number of years but it's morphed over time. Um has been impacted by co um but usually was around just issues and concerns that would come from EMO to us as the district leadership and and
didn't progress. But then obviously under Dr. Le uh Dr. Ohio's leadership. Uh things have changed over the last few years and it's really become um this opportunity for us to to to really walk the walk around continuous improvement
um that we're looking differently collaboratively at the systems that we use, how we're tracking, and you heard a little bit about the power of connecting back with staff when when uh injuries occur. So some of that um we're going to share with you just sort of how that has
evolved. Dr. Hy, if you wanted to add anything into into this portion here. So, um, at the beginning when we started the meeting, I remember uh the first meeting I was sitting in and I was like, "Everybody's so angry. Why is everybody so angry?" Uh, but then starting to
understand um really the need for transparency and being able to sit in whatever the data is because we're all after the same thing, right? Our goal is not to have our staff hurt or harmed under our watch. So, and it was uh beautiful. We're going to steal it from
attendance boundaries with K, a community-based solution of how we came together in the data that was needed. We started to go deeper and deeper into the data and from that we were able to see
focus in more area that was needed and how we can help in those situations. And it just has been an outstanding. We used to meet monthly then changed bimonthly and um cancelled some that we didn't need but that collaboration with the mo has been incredible. So you can share
more. No absolutely. So you know and Michelle Dinard is here Michelle dinard sits on that team. We can probably go to that. Um as you can see here are the individuals. So it's really grown. Um we had obviously Troy and Dave are are
part of that team. We have Anthony Patternis as part of the assistant soups. So, um, as Dr. How said, it's really it's become this opportunity for us to really listen, learn, and work together and collaborate. And you're going to hear a little bit about one of the the more powerful things and one of
the things that we were going to ask her to speak to is just the the way that we've come together around professional development and how we're supporting and it's really been led. Um, I want to compliment both Amy and Sunny for for their work on this because they really
carried a lot of the weight. um in in doing that, but it's really looking at our data, our data systems and and collaborating around that so that we're kind of supporting and addressing where needs needs surface up. So, I'm going to turn this I think over
to Sunny, right? All right. So, I have the privilege of sharing some of the accomplishments of our districtwide and email safety committee. Um first and foremost uh work that Amy has led around shifting u
reporting of student incidents in K5 to synergy. Um this allows for increased um data validity and an increased ability for us to pull and disagregate data in a way that we can make meaning out of and
then um and then intervene or support where necessary. Um so that that was a um a great accomplishment. Um we've also increased our emphasis to staff um to our um ESPs and teachers specifically
around reporting of their injuries. Um so we had found early on that many staff didn't know um how to make these reports or um what injuries constitute or met the criteria for a report um which is any injury. Um and so really supporting
staff in that and we had a large increase in um staff's uh reporting of injuries and so their understanding of how to use that system and to make sure that that information is um getting where it needs to go.
Um do you mind me jumping in Sunny? So, one of the things that we found out was secondary uh was more had more coherence around how to enter the information in system and then our little our K5 was kind of hit and miss how they were entering it. So, uh just really going in
to uh teach them how to do it, how to do it correctly, specific people to do it and then our data data is not messy. We got precise data to move on. So, go ahead. I'm sorry. um partnered with Tarnishia in creating a professional development that um her
members were um assured was was necessary and we were happy to respond and provide um and that was around this behavior management training um specifically after the suspension moratorum in um first to third grade. Uh so what other tools can we give teachers
to replace um you know we're not taking away recess, we're not um suspending students, we're trying to remove them from the classroom less. So what tools can we give teachers to respond to behaviors in their classroom um successfully. So partnering with teachers in that and also partnering
with ESPs that are supporting our students in those classrooms. Um almost half of our attendees at these trainings um have been our ESPs. Um, so some some fancy full quotes from our from our participants at the end of
our trainings. Um, but we've had about 100 participants at each session and we have a session coming up uh later this week um where we'll be training more staff. um we've moved it to the fall because of feedback that we've gotten from the participants, but it'd be helpful to have the training now uh to
support them in setting up their classroom uh in a way that's going to um benefit students and um meet students social emotional needs. Uh and finally, we've uh developed a protocol for supporting buildings and building
administrators um when they're seeing an increase of staff injuries in their building related to student dysregulation. Specifically, when we have um three or more injuries in one building in one week, um then we will um send that
administrator a survey that provides them with um some options for receiving support uh around those staff injuries um and how we can as a district support them in reducing those staff injuries. So that might be um increasing um some
DBS supports, having a student services administrator come out and do some observations and collaboration. Um providing student specific professional development or team specific um CPI training um or even getting more PPE or
personal protective equipment out to the site such as our bike guards, our shing guards um and different things that can keep our staff safe. So, um, we appreciate our ongoing partnership with our principles, um, is so nice in my
position and to work with principles that know that behavior is communication. Um, and you know, it's never starting with the basics. It's a, it's a really talented group. It's been a privilege. So, that is our Yeah. Yeah, I would just add again, I
think part of uh what has evolved and the continuous improvement is for us to really take a hard look at how um we're tracking the information in the systems that we have and and Dr. Hy talked a little bit about how we're changing what we're doing at our level. um not only so
that we understand but we can be more responsive like Sunny talked about and be able to target supports um and do that and also uh make sure that in that professional development especially for our ESPs we're being responsive and we're really hoping and helping them
provide some agency so they feel like they have some tools and they're able to to respond and so um that's going to continue uh to evolve and we're looking forward to you know this ongoing collaboration with the EMO um and and
and to really see where this goes questions and you had your cell phone questions. Well, I think first I want to say thank you so much. I love kind of sessions like this because you can just really like you see the leadership that each of
you have um in your buildings and that the heart that you have and I just like hope people are listening so they can really hear that and um honestly as a parent I'm like okay I'm like taking a lot of notes here cuz I I think it's hard for staff to like you know sometimes like people do have things
going on in their life it's hard to come with your full self all the time you're like in a good mood and like I do that all the time with my I'm like disregulated myself trying to also address some dysregulation in my kids and I so thank you for your tips to know what does your brain need right now I'll
be using that um I think just like you know I just I I my curiosity was just around just given like you know like even like social media or access to like you know videoing thing having cell phones and like it is I think it's a great shift to go toward this I'm just
cur I was just kind of more curious and given all the security and just kind of the intend around in your buildings like just the imp or how are we addressing any concerns that maybe parents have around like well I want my student to have a cell phone because I'm worried
about if there's an emergency I'm worried about this so I'm it's more of like what's that communication I'm very supportive of it I just want I was just curious given the conversation tonight and the change in policy that we so um when when rolled us out last year we counted up the minutes in the school
day not including before school when kids arrive or after school and there's 55 minutes a day including lunch and passing times in which students are permitted to use their phones. So we've always re referred to that amount of time during the school day um that kids
are fully supported in being accessible to their families. If there ever is an emergency or there's some some serious family information that is expected during the day, that's where we empower the students to communicate with their teachers. they get and it just that simple conversation or an email from the
family to the teachers uh is is is a huge opportunity for then that to be worked out if those 55 minutes aren't enough. I would just add if you haven't had a chance to read the book anxious generation highly recommend it. Um it just speaks to like together as a
community like cell phones and everything they're not going away. We have to learn the impact it has on these young people brings because I I can tell you since about 2010, it has been a whole different um ballpark of just navigating behaviors and things that you
would never imagine for little kids. But um even my oldest daughter, she's a junior, so she's 20. Even she like she like looks at her sisters or like who are like ninth and eighth grade. She's like, "Mom, you have screen kids." like she's not even you know you just realize like even how that progresses even in that
short amount of time and there's like a six year difference you know so yeah totally preventative stuff so I hear the impact and that's a huge impact and we have a lot of conversations with babies about what it's like after high school what
it's like having a career what it's like um you know becoming an adult and your responsibilities um when I communicate with my teachers we talk about classroom management and there's a classroom management tool to meet um to where this is the expectations in my classroom. Um
and so that is how we've been able to to roll this out for this upcoming year. We've been talking about it for about a year and a half now with the kids. They know it's coming. They gather communication. We starting on day one. School starts, phones go away. Let's stay locked in. Let's do what we have to
do. So, uh I'm excited about it because I think it's it's something that's needed. Um, and it'll help our babies get what they need to do to be successful. I remember when Patrick when you rolled it out and I was at there's definitely a split in the room. Like some people are like, "Yeah, we're going to excited
about it." And then some parents were like, you know, so come a long way. Well, and the first year we rolled it out, I the only parent parent that looked angry was one that had to come pick up their child's phone. It was out of other than that. And originally it was I
said no phone at all. That's where the grumpiness came. But when we adjusted to being allowed to have home in school, you just have them out. It relieved that stress of parents because then they can physically have them out. But it's a norainer. Yeah. Then hopefully all the things that you
know you heard about earlier today really obviously some we can't communicate directly but to know that uh all the efforts and the things to harden the school and make it safe because I know I've heard some of the parents concerned about getting to their their their child if there's an
incident or something. But it really, you know, obviously with all the things that are happening and what also that can do to complicate the hard efforts and and the things that have been really thoughtful in making sure that that whole city is safe. Absolutely. I get it. Yep.
So um before this presentation um the top three things that I hear as a board member which was all addressed in the conversation. Number one, I hear most um parents expressing concerns about their child
being bullying and nothing's being done about it. So, it's good to hear kind of the protocols that are in place. I was just looking at the handbook for my son, though, and I see a lot about behaviors and expectations, but I see nothing to help me as a parent say, "What do I do
um if I my child's experiencing bullying?" So maybe that comes through other forms, but I feel like maybe there's more opportunity for parents to understand our this type of information. Maybe not this type, but protocols, process, how they can maybe understand
more, feel more um secure that they're um that there are things being done. Um, and then with that, do if a if it's identified that a student is being bullied and maybe um maybe it's not coming from the parent, but it happens at school, do you inform the parent that
their child is experiencing bully so that they can intervene and support their child? Yes. You had not. So, I I'll speak to it first. For from my perspective, I like to get the parents involved in those situations to have them communicate when it warrants because it works out to where the parents are communicating. I will also
say that for us if if we have a bullying situation um there is um some information that we do send out to that parent to say these are some topics you can have a conversation about right we got those we utilize our social workers
and counselors with that piece. So again there is stuff there. I want to also address the the possible comment of um nothing may not is getting done for this situation and I think what parents struggle with sometimes if not all the
time is you know we do have those laws we have those hyperls right and there are certain things that we can discuss and certain things we can't so I think there's a balance there between what a parent may expect to get done um versus what can actually happen or we can share so it's a it's just a fine line
sometimes Um and it it makes it difficult but I I I do understand um the thought process behind it. And I think that might come back to the education where it's like we have policies and we're following our policies. Yeah, for sure. I think that's what I usually respond or
direct people to inquire about. The second other thing that I hear most about which again I love that was touched on was teachers indicating that there's a lack of support for them um regarding behavior in the classroom. So, it was good that you guys talked about that one, but that does seem to be a
pervasive thing that I that I think a lot of us hear from, too. So, um it it does sound like there's a lot there. Um and I like hearing the consistency about incident reporting. I think having that data is going to be helpful, too. And
then the last thing, um that I hear most about is ESP injuries. So, um so that was also addressed. So, just coming into this like those are the big ones. I really appreciated that those things were proactively addressed. Um, one, you know, I I could talk all night and let's
ask one more question. Um, but, uh, how do you use data to assess progress at your sites? So, uh, we use the my savers savers. It's a student student survey. That's
one that that's given three times a year. No, three times a year. Okay. All right. uh three times a year we uh we take that data and meet with uh individual teams and to review it and and talk through it to so they can examine what's you know the feedback
what's happening uh from the students we also break that down and just aggregate by um language that's I don't know of other schools do that language race uh um I forgot all the other uh things we look at but
services yeah thank you Yep. So um so that's really good data. So um to use we also use our um uh two other data points uh behavior calls. So we track the behavior calls to our behavior team um
and uh our actual uh office discipline referrals which are now in synergy. Um and then we can disagregate that data as well. And if we're seeing themes across grade levels or with an individual teacher, we can go and have that conversation. Hey, what's happening? How
can we support? This is what we're seeing. You know, what do you see in this data? Tell me what's happening. Um, oftentimes like last year I had a second grade teacher and if you looked at our data in our office disciplineary referrals uh it was like she had a
herself for one student had like 150 referrals and there was some good discussion on that and what we came up with is that we uh provided um additional ESP support uh for that uh student uh and that teacher and then we
also uh the student eventually qualify for uh special services and and uh but we did not take that general ed support away because that was not going to help that situation out. So uh but uh it was you know looking at the data and
responding to it uh uh in in real time. So yeah, and we also look at the academic data because you can bet that the students that are getting more ODRs are also not performing. Um I hate that word performing like they're they're they're not where we want them to be. So yeah,
if I could just add another element that we're we're using as a district is street data, which is more of the the qualitative measures. It's the vibe of of it's the it's listening to kids, hearing their perspective. is it's really identifying kids who are maybe the most disenfranchised and hearing
from them, hearing from their their story. That data to me is some of the most powerful. It really helps shift and when you hear from a kid about what's really going on, how can you not make a shift in what your practice is? So, I think that's to me that's a really really important powerful one that we do here.
At the high school, I look at every data point we can grab our our hands on. Um we communicate with our staff um at the end of each trimester um specifically about grade data data and specifically about uh attendance and specifically
about behavior. We talk to them, we communicate with the teachers, they know where they are, they know where our babies are and we we are continuing to do that work on a regular basis which has um shown some great strides in my house. So
same it's you you are tracking patterns since the topic is mostly about behavior uh when a student comes on our radar and exhibits a pattern of behavior often times nearly always comes as a direct correlation with academic performance. So the point in this case, whether it's
an SNS or a counselor, case manager, social worker, they track that data at the interventions we put in place over a short and longer term period. If they're on our tier 2 list and they're on our student assistance team, that's on a bi-weekly basis where you need to go over every single student and you're tracking. You're tracking how it's going
and how the and how the interventions and supports you put in place have hopefully had a positive impact. And if they haven't, why not, and what else can we do? also partnering with the family and also listening to the student. They're uh the gem is when the student's able to convey what it is they need and
that's when you can really meet and uh forge a successful partnership that ultimately you want to turn the keys over to the student who learns to navigate those internal regulators and and grow and blossom. It's a wonderful journey.
I would I've had a difficult child, so I can relate personally. No, kids are difficult. I I've had to learn to reparent my child. Losing my mind. Reparent myself for I don't know.
It's funny when you say that though. I mean, I I did one of my four was very disruptive, right? So, we got three calls from the elementary teacher in his kindergarten, first week of kindergarten. Um, but what I appreciate was, you know, the methods and everything you're using like those things that made school
difficult for him are going to be a superpower in the future. And I know this because he's like he's like exact same personality as my wife. Like, God bless her. I hope she's not listening to this. But, I know that, you know, we can't we got to protect that spirit, right? we can
crush it out of them. You know what I mean? We still want to nurture what is special about them, right? Keep that passion. Yeah. While helping them along way. So, I appreciate it. That's true. The superpower. It It's so true. Like every kind of uh behavior
that comes out maybe sideways is a superpower that you just need to tap into it. Maybe we took the same class. Yeah. Um Amy, I think this is actually one of my favorite work sessions. The panel format um the fact that it was
so human centric. Um it really felt like you all were very centered on each and every one of our scholars and staff members um in this presentation. And so I I appreciated that. Um I've seen
firsthand um the communication to parents when these situations come up. um and from April Senior just last year where I got a phone call first thing in the morning and felt informed enough to be able to like follow up in the evening
but also felt like I had a clear plan as to how the school would handle that situation. Um and so also felt this sense of relief that everything was good. Um and so yeah, I appreciated this presentation and uh just all of the work
that you do to make sure that um the individual needs of each of our scholars is being met and um you know that they feel safe and that they feel like they belong um in our school environments even on their worst days. So um thank you all and it was very clear Ryan that you have drid.
[Laughter] We might do a game when we leave. [Music] Um, I did have a couple follow-up questions and I wish we could have two more hours of this and we're all tired at the end of the day. Um, because it's
such a great topic and I think this is one of the biggest priorities for families in our district. Um, and it was the main thing that I've heard over the last couple years is safety and kids feeling safe in the classroom. Um, and so the main topics that bubbled up for me, um, from people that I've talked to,
ESPs and teachers that have, um, brought situations to my attention. Um, and I'm curious more about some of the victim support and like how do we I've heard instances where kids getting bullied and get sent the bully gets sent back into that same class and so it's like double
hurt. Um, and so how do we help those students? And I know we're trying to help and um, ladder this the bully up, but how do we help that victim not have to face that kind of pain every day? Um, cuz that won't happen overnight. Correct. So, how do we how does that
look and what do we do in order to ensure some of the and even like physical violence? How do we and that I'm hearing more from the elementary level unfortunately. um what does that look like to help our ESPs feel safe and even the EMO stats? I'd love to hear see the data that comes out of those
meetings. Um because I think we have a responsibility to protect our staff. Um and then how does it the what triggers partnering with or reaching out to parents was a broad it's a really broad question. Um and is that standardized across the district? cuz I think um I
hear a lot of instances of like I didn't know and whether it's a victim or the bully situation. It's like I didn't know um what was happening and I know we have older kids. They're 17 18 but they're still kids and under somebody's supervision no matter who that is. So how does that look? And I think that's
where you optimize behavior change is when it's at home and in school. Um and then the reset versus consequences. And I I totally hear this um the amygdala, the flipping the lid and the changing the thought pattern. Um but how do we
help our kids understand too like especially with violence and more like I'm from urban California and I'm curious how we can curb some of the violence in our schools with the model we have and do we see that change trending with the new standards being
set? Um, so I I guess I have a lot of rhetorical questions um and more like do we see data to support the practices we're currently doing um and about data like are we tracking kids that appear multiple times like your 150 time kid like how do we how do we support them
but also how are we making sure that people around them are being supported in that situation cuz we want to make sure kids are still getting a quality education and after the pandemic I've heard a lot of classrooms have felt very disruptive for teachers and for students. Um, and then the standardized
definition of when kids should be removed from class, like what does that look like at an elementary, middle, and high school level? And whether it's like removed from class to go to a calming corner in the hallway or even just in the classroom removed, is that standardized so that all of our scholars
are getting the same behavior expectations across the district? Um, and even then communicating that to parents. I feel like sometimes parents don't we just don't know. We don't know what we don't know. And so even if it's like hey this is what we do when XYZ
happens um parents then feel equipped to go oh okay I understand that and not like something's being hidden um which how it can it feels is what I've heard from kids that their parents whose kids have been bullied um was the biggest thing. Uh so yeah, those are just some
questions I guess I would have for leadership more, not necessarily for you principles, but um I'd love to hear your experience with some of those questions I brought up. Um because you guys are the front lines. So I think just real quick for bullying, there there is a process that our
counselors are trained in, our social workers are trained in. Uh uh so we have a situation that is actually a bullying incident because there is a there's guidelines in a statute. Yes, there is. Yeah. So I can't remember all of it right now but uh but the uh counselors
and and social workers are trained in in that and so we get them uh involved and if they say, "Yep, this looks like there's been a pattern. It's been repeated. it's related to uh um uh
appearance, uh race, culture, different things like that. Uh and then we we start our process. Okay. And part of that process again is is definitely working with the student and the uh and the family of the student. I think interrupt real quick just to clarify. So it does have to reach a certain
threshold of like amount of instances like it can't just be once like being called a racial slur cuz that's the incident I'm thinking of. can be one time. Yeah. So, but that's but it again it depends on the intensity of the of the incident and so yeah. So,
um uh so yeah, good question. Uh but we you know we get our team involved. Um we do some followup uh with individual students. We actually do an investigation, get other statements and then uh we uh put some things in place
and whether that is uh for the individual student for the victim and also for the classroom or any other uh bystanders that were involved and we because we want them to be what's our language upstanders. I think that's the Yeah. So uh so we do some reteing around
that and uh typically that works just because there's a it's an intense process and so uh so uh typically at least in my experience the building stops. The only time it has not stopped is if there is a student with a
significant disability. And um it is very hard to navigate uh students with IEPs that are uh uh being the uh aggressor in a bullying situation and what what works and then what's part of
their disability. And that's just a conversation with uh the case manager with uh student support services and trying to figure out what's in that. I think she uh Sunny talked about the behavior support plan. How can we adjust and modify that behavior support plan
and keep the victim protected as well, right? And sometimes I'm a small school so this is a big decision to make but sometimes it is uh separating uh the student. And if I've done that, I always call the uh parent of the victim first
and say, "Would you like to a different class?" And if they say yes or if they say no, I don't want my child to be punished for, you know, being bullied. Makes sense. Uh then I will talk to the other parent and just say this has been going on. This is a step we have to take
uh to make sure everyone uh feels safe and and you know, so so it is offered to the aggressor to move. It's kind of told then that you would need to move. Yes. Yes, definitely. So, if it comes to that level and I I think I've been an OIO coming from the same district that
mine came from. Uh I know this is my 12th or 13th year. I'm losing track. Uh I think maybe once or twice we've had to do that. So, that's like really significant repeated ongoing situation. So, we we take bullying seriously. It is
like u Anto Dr. Harris was saying that we there are so many data privacy, you know, and then if you have a student, a bully that's on an IEP, that person, that student has a right to data, you know, to their privacy. So, we
can't, you know, be sharing all this information back and forth. Uh so but we do the best we can and I think that uh from my experience and talking to my elementary colleagues in particular uh we take bullying very seriously
and um uh and try to uh act on that when it comes to our attention. Sometimes it does not come because it's been happening on the playground. ESP thought they you know recess ESPs thought they took care of it but it's like oh my god this is like the fourth time. It's the fourth time you know. So then we get
out. So yeah, so that makes sense. On a high school level, we communicate with both parties and we spend time finding out the exact incident, when it happened, where it happened. Um, and communicate with the students that are around.
We do a full investigation because sometimes there are situations to where they're poking back and forth at each other and all of a sudden I'm I'm tired of playing now, right? And you keep going and now you bullying me. And so we make sure we communicate and find out everything.
Um and one of the first things we also do is find out are those students in the same class that is with any situation we have because we want to be able to communicate that um and communicate that to parents. Um but I think what I've got back from many of my parents
uh over the years it's not that you haven't told me that you know about the situation is that you're not telling me what you're doing behind the scenes now. And that's the work that we deal with in our jobs. And so it's always, you know, can be,
you know, labeled as that. But um, and I'll let Bart go, but from a a bullying standpoint, from a, you know, conflict resolution standpoint, from a high school, we are focused on that daily to making sure our environments are where they need to be. And so I feel
good about proximity. Ditto every word. I'll just uh stress we informed the families. Uh, Dr. child herself two years ago stood right there and told all second grade principles and no all K1 principles parents are our partners. Parents are our partners.
So we have a duty to inform families there are students but they're someone's kids. So it's and I will add the the the app talking points which allows us to text has been incredibly useful for very much
a lot of the tier one behaviors. uh because often time if if it's the number parents don't don't pick up. So a text is far more efficient to communicate that critical information and then also allows that conversation to extend to the broader issues especially in
bullying. Powerful question is what is it you need? Once we've completed the investigation, found out the whole scope if it is true bullying and harassment. Um hearing from the student and the family, what is it you need? And then also from the the the students committing to behaviors, trying to
overcome those behaviors and change their patterns. What do you need from us to help yourself make better decisions? And from there, we take those into account and and if it involves a schedule change, if possible, it does. Which I appreciate you guys sharing that because that was one of the things that I was wondering is if they're allowed if
a victim is allowed to stay in their class and have the aggressor move. And it is more common at the high school level and in my experience that the students do not want the schedule to change and and you just go with it. They don't make the
decision. We do in the end but after taking all the elements into into the behavior to stop. Thank you. what was mentioned um but I would say the vast majority of incidents that I hear about is somebody reaching
out that it hasn't really gone through the full escalation process so when we kind of redirect it in so I would say that's very rare that I've ever heard from somebody that by the time it reaches the principal level that there is not resolution so I think it's you know continuing to strengthen the
consistency the incident reporting the like I think to your point like if something's happening in play playground and it doesn't get through the system like that's just so critical. So I can I I see I see the work being on the board the number of years I've been on at this point like I see the progression and the
change and the reinforcement and it's really um really good to see. One last thought. Can I just add something? Uh you mentioned uh uh the ESPs and hearing a lot from the ESPs. One of the things that um uh we try to do uh at Garden
City is have a monthly uh ESP meeting and we it's I usually have a topic connected to what we're doing with the teachers but I also have some open time for them to share uh their frustrations and believe me my team does share uh frustrations. So thanks to you as a
leader. Yeah. But that go, you know, goes to that uh um uh and we circle up sometimes different things like that to get, you know, the the feedback from our um from our ESPs. I do that with the teachers as well. But I think sometimes our ESPs can
feel like their voice is not being heard. So I try to make an intentional effort to make sure I'm reaching out to uh to support staff and let them know they're just as valued. Um, I know there's continued work at the start of the year on expectation
setting, particular behavior, social emotional, parent engagement. Um, just personally for me, one of the things I always felt I had to do every single year was send a letter to the teacher when my son was young. Like these are the things that work. These are the things. Don't do this or this is going to like spin him up. Um, so even like um
we kind of had plans like right to have a signal versus putting a spotlight on him if there was something taking place in class. So I just wonder if there's still more we can do to engage parents at the start of the year to really understand their child or the things that maybe everybody needs to know at
the start of the year. So just just a wondering that continues to happen even in high school. Yeah, that's true. Get phone calls by the parents. Um so we still partner in that in that aspect. So it it's it works and it's there.
Okay. What was the name of that book? The anxious So, one of the things that I I don't understand it uh my background is uh uh school social work, so I've always been able to talk to people, but one of the
things that one of the challenges that my young staff are facing, and I didn't realize it until they there's a they could talk with the students, but talking with the parents uh about a tough situation, uh they need
a lot of coaching and guidance. And part of that is experience. And I also think part of that is they're so in tune to the technology and to you know so it's easier to send a text. Well in that situation you probably should have sent
you know so and coaching and working with them through those things. So but uh yeah try to encourage our teachers and model to hey this is how you make a phone call. This is hey you want to go do a home visit to to this family to this house. All right. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, guys. Thank you. [Music] You're good. You're good. So uh board members we are um already over the time that we had allocated for this
meeting. Um so we are going to propose to um move the monitoring report to a future work session. Um that's the last sort of big item. U so want to do a quick check in to see where everyone's at. I don't know if you want to get through the last item or if
you want to move it to a I just want to dedicate like that's such a like a big topic that I want to make sure we address it well. But we'll do this one the main I think so. Yeah, I think it's short enough. K, are you good with that? Yeah, I can speak.
Dr. Kyle, uh, Chair Prince and Vice Chair Brooks, members of the board, I'm so excited to be sharing more about the naming of the new elementary school with you. We're changing the vibe here a little bit. Um, so, as you know from our groundbreaking event last spring, the
new elementary school in Northwest Maple Grove is one of 66 building a better future projects over a 4-year stretch. Our community support of a bond referendum in fall 2023 is making all of these projects possible. As shared then rapid growth and development is
happening in this corner of our district which has caused growing change in schools nearby. By building a new school in the geographical area that needs it, it reduces the number of students who need to move schools and to address those space shortages that we have. So this photo that you see on the screen
was taken about two weeks ago. um over by controls over there. Um over the summer uh months, lots of ground work has taken place and just recently beams started to rise in the classroom sections along with a good portion of the students. So updates on the
construction part of this uh building will continue to be shared at aoschool.org. So, as we turn to the name, it's important for the name of this new school to be reflective of our community, our community vision and values. We do this by inviting community
members to take part in the naming process. This helps contribute to the school's identity and instills community pride. Additionally, this process follows the policy and procedures that we have in 811. For members, you may recall hearing a
short bit about the naming process in Dr. house superintendent update late May. Um since then, we've been establishing the timeline and content for rolling it out. Um August 4th, the wider community was first notified. Um we created a thought exchange, so that
opened up. You may be seeing that um around already. Um so we can start receiving name ideas already. We've gotten quite a bit and I'll talk about those numbers um here uh in a little bit. Um so today at this work section, we're just giving you a little bit more detail. on September 11th that that
exchange uh will close and then a representative group of district staff and uh community members will then meet to review all the submissions that came in and they'll then make a recommendation or recommendations to Dr. Hy and then she'll present a
recommendation to you to uh vote on at the September 23rd uh schoolboard meeting. So, if you or others would like to participate um in the naming process, there's a QR code on the screen here. So, you can either scan that in or you
can go to aoschools.org/newele. Um once you're there, there's a few onscreen questions. Um you just have to accept them and okay, and then you can start putting in your suggestion or suggestions that you might have. Um and then toward the end we are asking people if they are willing to be part of that
group that they can um share some contact information there as well. Um then of course if people have questions um or if they have um or if they want to know more about the group they can always email better teacher district.org as well. Um you can also rate other um
ideas that are out there too so we can kind of see like what's um coming to the top. Uh right now we have had 872 participants. Wow. We have almost 350 name submission ideas and um those have been rated uh 15,000 times.
Wow. Jeez. So like we have some clear winners right now. Not going to share though. I want creative ideas coming. Okay. So as we shared in the timeline um we want to make sure that um all those
ideas are coming in. We are wrapping those up by Thursday, September 11th, though. So, make sure if you're anxious to share those creative ideas, send them away. Um like I said, uh we'll be meeting as a committee um shortly thereafter to make sure we meet that um that September deadline that we have.
So, this is being shared out in a variety of ways. It's um you know, online, social media, newsletters. We're sharing this with schools now, too, so they can start putting in their um newsletters as well. We've done some text messages. Our have you heard postcard which goes out to all community
members um also had that in there um in our latest August version. Um and then Principal Smith actually at the night to unite events had little um handouts that he could share as he was connecting with families and I know he planned to do that at the open house um next Wednesday
um at Fern as well. A lot a lot of the students from Fern will be um moving over to the new elementary school next fall. And then media as well, we've let them know and I know Press and News, our local newspaper, has covered this um already. So, future families, specifically
students, um we're also asked to provide ideas. Um so, future families mean those that are um that we have in our in our our system already that we know are are planned to go to the new elementary. We want those families specifically to be and really students to be um providing ideas for a mascot. This mascot will
help us head in a logo direction. And then so logo ideas will be created what families and students share and then we will finalize um ideas with future families and then um hopefully that will wrap up in October um November at the absolute latest though. So we will be
having a new um logo as well to go alongside with that name. So thanks for the opportunity to share. Um I'm happy to entertain any questions you might have. Again, if you have any questions though or community members have questions, they can feel free to email better future district 279.org or call
the phone number 76391899. Share away share those creative. So, can I ask a couple questions? That's okay. U so September 11th, you will have a final fold or you just start to That's when we're going to start going through the all the um submissions that
were shared, right? So if if I wanted to make individual calls to board members to kind of let them because you don't want to walk in on September 3rd and it's like 23rd surprise. Yeah, we we'll do a connect. Um we'll see how that first meeting goes, but I would say in the following days we can make the connection. Okay. All right. Thank you.
I think we're going to have a we'll see how it go. I'm going to leave. Okay. All right. Any other questions? It's very exciting. Yeah. Yeah, this is the fun part. All right. Um All right. Our last item uh before German is board calendar
review. Uh so Dr. And we can cuz that's constantly changing and shifting. So we just shifted vision a going to go to September. So I'll I'll send something out in superintendent update on how the shifts are going. Uh we're not having a PD on September 16th, so you don't have
to worry about that. and looking at October 28th. Yeah, October 28th, looking at something for that instead. So, um it's a good calendar shift. I'm really liking it if I can say that. That it's okay because we're really getting everybody's input on what's needed and
um how to get students involved in everything. So, we have this a good shift that's going on on our calendar. So, thank you. And a reminder, if you have work session topics, we had um sought to work some of them in that have been captured. So, there's a link to that or
you can just email me or Thomas to add it on. Um and sometimes like and maybe if it's a topic we maybe it'll be we just need a an update on it from the superintendent or maybe the mechanism is uh email or something versus a work session, but we want to make sure that
we get any questions or topics you have um questions about or interest in addressed in some way. Yeah. Then also looking at a couple sites this year that we can have a work session at it in one of our renovated sites for sure. One will be Brooklyn Middle. Then we'll probably find an elementary that just got their media center done as
well. So we can go meet on the same there. All right. Uh meeting