all right it's six o'clock we'll call the meeting to order um everybody is present except for Thomas Cheryl and our student representatives we'll start with communication items all right we'll start by inviting our elementary principal up
somebody want to grab the door thank you so Cassie let's hear what's going on at the uh at the elementary yes uh so looking back at March and um the beginning of April here we celebrated uh
our food drive month um I know we talked about that last time but we had great success once again um so I put in some pictures for you to see we had a big celebration uh with all students in the gym um and our theme was we sing for our
supper so we had staff who uh courageously stood up and uh took that theme to a whole new level um we had some recorder players we had uh soloists some duets um really fun time
celebrating uh the success of our um food drive and we also had a one-man band with a symbol um that put on a a special little skit as well um Allison from the Paysville Community Service Center joined us um as our way to um
present her our food items and that cash donation so I just want to say thank you again to our uh students and families that supported our food drive um with I've got uh the March Bulldog Spotlight students listed there um unfortunately
we haven't been able to get a picture quite yet um and so these students will hopefully find out uh tomorrow that they are the recipients for March for being mindful connected and respectful but I wanted to get um their names out there and we'll uh get that picture to come
soon um also wanted to share with you um Mike Matias created a kindergarten video to help promote our kindergarten uh registration here for the 2526 school year uh so I encourage you to click on
that and to post that on uh your own social media if you would like and just to keep spreading the word um for our future Bulldogs to come join us how long is it it's it's short um can we watch it we sure can yeah that's fine with me
it's like a minute and a half maybe can we get that for the public yep hang on a minute 49 i'm gonna get it over here so that people can see it don't mind me while I lumber through
this that was just a way for us to capture um the life of a kindergartenner what that looks like at Pensville uh so thank you to Mr mias for pulling that together in kindergarten I ride the bus to school
and home my favorite part of music is that we get to power stars up and we get to sing and have joy at Payneesville Elementary we follow follow the big three mindful
respectful and connected we love theme time in the library you can read a book by yourself or with a friend my favorite part about gym is when we get to do the parachute and we um get to
play test our teachers are nice and help us learn at recess I like to play with my friends tag we love kindergarten short simple um but they get to see a
snapshot of what kindergarten is like at Paysville Elementary School so thanks again to Mike Mias for putting that together um and getting that out uh for others to see like like our website then when you say it's advertised to the public yeah yep
this is beautiful i mean it be kind of cool if you did something for Integrate i guess my tip my hat to that i just think that's wonderful yeah definitely something you know to promote um our schools marketing yes
that's huge that's a huge marketing um also um this week we started the Minnesota State standardized um testing with the MCAs started reading today next week is math and then that following
week is science which just pertains to fifth grade um so we've sent out communication to families around that um just ways that they can help their students be successful and again just to reiterate it's one one test one snapshot of our learning um certainly we look at
multiple data points uh to measure and recognize and celebrate our students learning um in all areas academic and social emotional um as you are aware through previous board presentations looking ahead um no school coming up um
April 18th and 21st that's over that Easter weekend and then we have our last twoour late starts for families to note on May 5th any questions or anything for me i do have a comment okay uh not sure if you're
aware I'm the uh the board chair for the Community Service Center so I did have a chance to speak to Alison she showed me the video somebody had shot there she was just overwhelmed she said it was so tearful for her she became very
emotional so thank you so much thank the students over there and the staff for all that they've done for the food service center yeah I need to give credit where credit is due and we have a a committee that's called the RAR committee and they put together um our
celebration bringing different folks up on stage um and bringing Allison in and uh so they they did a great job bringing the whole school together and and creating those moments right um for our school and for Allison and for our community
so thanks for passing that along yes you're welcome thank you okay thank you thank you all right and let's transition up to the secondary building and see what's happening jesse come on up and let us know what's going
on secondary good evening everybody um so just kind of looking back at March we had a a really busy full March and uh I don't I don't think it's going to slow down much here as we as we race on to
the end here but we had a one of the big highlights is we had a really musicfilled month we had lots of band concerts and choir we had two choir concerts a band concert we had small group contests large group contests so really kind of a a month where you know
a lot of sports kind of took the back seat but our our art fine arts really kind of had a big month in March so that's fun to see and fun to celebrate with them all their hard work um we did have Mr herig here for Find Away i put up some pictures of the event um just a
really cool event a really cool celebration uh they came in with a a a live band and they played uh music for us and then he came up and spoke about um his experience being a double arm amputee and a coach that um helped encourage him to find a way and to push
forward past this and so just a real powerful message for our students and I know that you know there were a bunch of students who are really moved by the presentation and and took something away from it so a big thank you to Student Reach is the organization that brings these speakers around to schools in
Minnesota and so thank you for Student Reach to reaching out and providing us that opportunity to have um them come uh looking forward at things in coming going on here um statewide testing is going on so um Cassie touched on this
but the MCA testing is going on right now and that's just one metric that we use i know we talked in our presentations a lot about fastbridge testing well MCA testing is another metric we can look at uh to kind of assess programs and look at what we're doing um and look at student achievement
so uh we had our access test that's for our um English language learner students and so that wrapped up on March 14th our ACT today actually was uh this morning in this boardroom we had 25 students for three and a half hours taking their ACT
test uh kudos to them it's uh that's a a grueling experience and I know they were all pretty tired when they were done at noon and uh you know so we had that MCA reading starting today mca math is next week and then MCA science is the
following week so uh thank you to for parents for supporting students and um and encouraging them to do their best on these assessments so we appreciate that i did want to push forward some end of the year dates here as we're looking at um things that are going on so on May 16th we're going to have our dollars for
scholars breakfast uh this is we do at Bugby Hive Resort where we uh award our scholarships to the scholarship recipients we um have donuts for breakfast and then we we even bring some of the scholar the donors get to meet the people that they donate to so it's
kind of a cool opportunity for um donors and recipients to have a conversation uh that so that happens on a Friday that Sunday then is the senior honors banquet and that happens here at school and then May 20th is seniors last day in graduation practice so we bring seniors
in that morning and we do graduation practice we collect their um school stuff and then that's their last official day of school and then on May 23rd is graduation that Friday evening again so uh more information to come out soon but I just wanted to put those
dates on your radar um we have been doing some planning for graduation it'll look very similar to what last year's graduation looked like in the pack so any questions for Jesse it's uh this is the fastest year I've ever experienced and I you know I have
no doubt that it's not going to slow down here at all so it's uh it's been exciting for the MCAs what's it look like as as far as opt out was there a lot this year or don't you even know those numbers so I it's hard to preliminarily say
because we have three rounds of testing and so it's different groups each time and so you know like the juniors take the the math test but they haven't taken any previous test so we may get a lot of juniors that opt out as of right now it looks pretty similar to last year if not
a little less um but again you know that's it's hard to make a prediction moving forward with a lot of groups not haven't tested yet will that take more than a month no probably be a couple months huh till you get the actual data back right um August like the the achievement August
okay most time it's not till August and unless they change it because they they used to want to announce it at state fair time right and it was a total waste of time because all of our administration has to figure out next year before it even happens so you're
you're not able to make use of the MCA because you didn't know what it said till then i could understand it taking more than 30 days but yeah that's quite a few months well I think they have it set up because they had to correct the test by hand maybe
something needs to be updated a little bit we can get I can get you opting out numbers i'll know those by um by the time we finish the third round of testing here for sure um but as far as actual published MCA data that doesn't come out until August and for me that's
a huge issue because we need you guys to know what happened there so when we roll into September of next year we are already ahead of the game and issues that may have arisen in the MCA you get it handled that whole system is set up
not to make schools better our FASA thing that is the fast bridge yeah the fast bridge is it is that that's set up to make things better the MCAs could be so much more useful but we all have to talk to our Congress people and tell
them we want that data in May so that our people in our schools can plan with it it's much easier oh sorry go ahead so that's who you have to talk to because that was going to be my next question when we're down to to MSB in January
isn't going to help you got to go through your politicians and the only way I think you're going to make it work is through the politicians they blame everything on the politicians that they can't decide and some of it Yeah some of it has to do with the timing of um so
the the reason that the Minnesota that Minnesota administers the um Minnesota comprehensive assessment is because it's part of our um data that's used for our federal accountability so it's there are a whole host of guidelines that that the
Department of Education has to follow so I would say our our Minnesota Department of Ed is another place to have a conversation but they don't generally make change without going through the the legislature so I was just going to say the fast bridge
assess assessments allow us to be a lot more responsive to student data because we we can test them three times a year and and we get the data back immediately and we can make immediate adjustments to instruction and so um we tend to lean a little more heavily on on our FastBridge
data but and and I I I thank this school district uh you know as far as you Janelle and your staff uh U Jessie and Cassie uh for really getting this fast bridge stuff going and moving it forward uh to start taking a look at more of
that mathematics type stuff not that you're not doing that but you know see what's next because if we're going to wait on the state uh especially with this MCA data to try to lead us someplace uh we'll never get there so thank you thank you for for really pushing this you guys are doing a great
job thank you Cassie we have we have good teams of people that are that are doing good work so good all right thanks Jesse all right so Chris what's happening in the world of community education
we come into summer season your busy time right busy time busy time right so since the last time I was here we uh our catalog came out uh that week of March 17th to 22nd i was hoping
for just before April 1st and I got it out done early and and we hit the ground running so we've had over 700 registrations come in for our spring and summer programming um uh we are looking to add even though our catalog came out
we we have um some more summer uh classes that we are looking to add we are waiting for the instructor to let us know what what works for them and then I just got a call from Great Theater Summer Camp they uh they went through some restructuring and nobody was talking to me so I thought maybe they
were uh interested in coming back out here but I just got a call today they would love to so we're going to work on trying to figure out how to promote that and because last year we had 19 kids sign up for that class and they um uh we
had a lot of good reviews so we're those will be two that we'll be trying to push out through social media and using the um newsletters that our principles so those will be our avenues for those two programs our pause program our summer uh
child care our themes and our field trips are set um we have most of our staff secured for the season where we can always you know we filling in a few gaps here and there um and there are 88 students registered so that's looking
good um our early childhood program we um we are our big truck night is coming up on May 15th um we're having at the elementary school this year right outside of right between our playground and Gazebo Park we're getting the street
blocked off and parking cars and or trucks in those areas we have quite a few trucks so I hope we have enough room for everyone so it's going to be Yeah uh we have uh one of our staff members their husband is works in construction so
there's going to be like a crane yeah so it'll be fun um we're working on maybe having some food there as well uh whether that's a food truck or doing some of it ourselves um just to make it an event it's from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m so
parents can just show up and not worry about feeding their kids they can come in and and work with that um I'm also uh we'll have a display this will be a great opportunity to put a display up about our playground where we're at see if we can recruit some people for the uh
construction of that uh we added two additional ECF classes they are not full but we have enough kids to run class so these are new um classes we typically finish in March
but I had an instructor that was willing to run class and so we thought we would just see what would happen so um I'm hoping that they'll that'll be a great um opportunity to build more programming for those families that have zero to three year olds so so more to come on
that but those classes have enough kids to run our preschool program our 202526 registration opened up March 17th um as of now it looks like we are going to have two sections of three-year-olds
and three sections of four-year-olds so last year we had three sections of three-year-olds and four sections of four-year-olds so we're it's more like we normally have um had in the past but there's there's some
spaces still available uh so um if you're uh know some families or want to get the word out um I'm doing a little outreach using some of our early childhood screening data to see if there's any names that are not currently on the list and reach out to those
families see if they're interested in preschool um fitness center uh we have on April 19th our last winter market from 9 to noon and then the winter market along with a
couple of their partners are hosting a community Easter egg hunt it is something they would like to make it a annual event so that is going to be also at the pack from 1 to 3:00 p.m um and
they'll have a lot of stuff going on so um hopefully it'll be a big event we'll we'll see they're not sure and then what's on the horizon which I've reported before is we are starting our
um our rural talk around daycare so that starts on we have our onboard or our core team meeting on April 22nd then and that's a long day that we'll be doing a lot of talking and then from that will
be the goal setting and planning which will be on May 15th so more to come on that as well any questions thank you all right and um Mr osenorf was not able
to be here this evening and uh he asked if I could provide an update and I said absolutely so a couple things that he noted is um we still continue to work on one of the air handlers and um he had to pull the the fan shaft and build it up
and put new bearings on it gotta say I'm very appreciative it's him doing that and not me so really grateful for that um you might remember that uh the state of Minnesota changed the lead and water regulations um in this building they're
still working to get a couple of um uh faucets below the the required lead regulations um so they're any of those faucets that are not at the regulations are are clearly marked not to drink the water and you know they're they're very
very clearly marked but so they're working on that um the roofers will be here midappril to start on the new roof so that's that's great news and they have a few items to take care of on the fields so that they were uh ready to go for spring sports so those are some of
the things that are happening um in the buildings and grounds world and if you have any questions or comments you certainly feel email him and and let him know if there's anything that has come to to your attention you don't those faucets they're not the drinking water
fountain they're just ones where they wash their hands and stuff yep and anything that was that would have been a drinking water is shut off so they they can't bypass a sign to drink lead water that make sense
i'm assuming you just replace those for you i'm assuming this means they're just replacing lead pipes in there until they get far enough that they're no longer in those readings um I have to ask for sure i know that there's a couple of different um some of it has to do with
flushing some of it has to do with filtration and some of it I think could be about replacement so I don't I can't answer that question specifically but I can have Ken get back to you okay yep y question okay all right
okay um moving on kingsville school strategic plan all right so uh we've talked a lot about our strategic plan and so I really wanted to try to just put together some guiding questions to maybe structure our conversation a little bit more around the strategic
plan and the other piece that I wanted to do was was begin kind of incorporating the student the um the um school perception survey that uh we did in 2024 before the um before the uh tech levy because that asked really more
um questions about us as a district in addition to their support so I think it's really important to kind of look at that so I'm going to um uh I'm going to just cast this and and we'll use this as a a discussion point um this is going to be a
discussion point that um the questions that are here are questions that can be reflected on by our administrative team by our buildings by our um our um uh staff yeah our staff but I was thinking
of our um community um organization that comes together having a huge mind the actual title the thank you the the district advisory council it was just lost but but the and so as you see the questions are really going to be thoughtprovoking that that really
help us to understand like what are the actual things that we've done that have either helped us or where do we need to go so let's just kind of start uh walking through these um walking through these Right oh I don't want to share that
peepers wrong share let's try a slideshow there we go all right so just some reflections so um here's what are really the intention of this is is just to ask some key questions about those following three goals our growth our communication and our fiscal stewardship
and really just as a reminder um the mission our mission is to prepare students with the academic social and personal skills to succeed in their career and community uh the vision statement we spend a lot of time kind of we've referenced the mission statement much more prominently throughout
communication i think you've seen it on many presentations you see it on our all of our board meetings um but the vision is also important to kind of keep at the forefront as well uh preparing students to succeed in an everchanging world by nurturing and developing their natural
curiosity creating critical thinkers and problem solvers who possess dynamic academic skills that maximize their potential and build the foundation of responsible ethical and compassionate members of our community okay we don't spend a lot of time talking about that but I think it's important to keep at
the forefront um and then the goals again we're going to look at each of those goals the growth um communication and financial allocation and fiscal stewardship so when you think about the first goal so these are taken directly
off of the strategic plan okay so these Whoops sorry let me go back here um the uh the goals are taken right off the strategic plan so Payneesville Area Schools prioritizes growth as an organization we strive to maximize student and staff growth on a daily
basis growth will be measured through a holistic approach that includes but is not limited to the following elements emotional and physical wellness intellectual wellness and social wellness so here's my questions that I would like us to start thinking about and and really as we um start
formulating and and working through what is our next the next steps of our strategic planning how have we supported student and staff growth across all wellness areas so as we go through this board members if there's something as when we kind of get to the end if there's something that stands out to you
that's kind of I'd love for you to um think of some examples of how we've done that in what ways has the integration of social emotional learning SEAL impacted student behavior and engagement how have have professional development efforts evolved to match
strategic goals what evidence shows progress in emotional intellectual and social wellness what does that look like have capstone projects and pathway programming influenced student readiness for life beyond school so we've had um
we've had conversation about pathways but we haven't had a lot about capstones okay is that something capstone mean it's like a capstone project is like a culmination it's a culminating project that um so culminate
meaning ongoing a ongoing ongoing Yep an ongoing long-term project yep um and are our local learning expectations realistic measurable and inclusive of all learners so when you hear those
questions about kind of growth what are some things that come to your mind the uh finishing up the the letters or the uh um I think it was just the elementary uh teachers correct or has it has it moved
over to letters has been all of the English language arts instructors so but but I know that this district is is finishing that up so what whatever that length of time was there's a lot of growth from that y uh it's a great
example yeah and and then also uh the the growth uh as far as the the fast bridge of that has been laid out to help from the teacher side and also from from
both our principles coming together and working so maybe that's somewhat of a capstone may have jumped out to that kind of a capstone thing but now getting ready to launch that into something that's that's further than just the reading side of it where where do we
move into the math side of it taking a look at the math and then possibly as far as that capsule and moving it out to the science side of it so I guess our block scheduling um it's kind of been tweaking jesse's been um
kind of tweaking that we that's kind of an ongoing process y and I think that's a really nice example of of um the pathways programming making sure that you've got things set up so that you can have kids have those opportunities for a longer course but yet you can all like the more hands-on opportunities so
that's a that's a good example too the the schedule reflection yeah and then with that like because I know the elementary school's been doing that bulldog tie but uh with with Jesse's leadership now starting the uh from the secondary school the uh and I always
forget the name of it now lead time the lead time really opening up that lead time and and and nailing it down as to what is specifically going to happen yeah so I know with the seal I've noticed a change even in my kids just having them
able to express themselves a little bit better just showing that much so that's how I see that correct in any case so that definitely impacts student behavior and engagement okay so um as we as we progress and kind
of continue to think about strategic planning let some of these questions kind of sit and and think about these were examples these are things over the last couple of years that our district has done um that have really been in alignment to um to support the growth um
and then we'll we'll start thinking about next steps as well and if I could just add one last thing as far as growth preparing the students uh for the future future in school but then future outside of it is what uh is going on over at the elementary school
with with Cassie Cassie and and that group over there uh as far as recognizing kids that are you know as far as you know mindful and and you know helpful and stuff so and and really
putting that out there and and getting their pictures because there's nothing that makes a kid happier than to have their you know their picture in the paper and and be recognized with that so the next goal area that we have is communication uh Payneesville Area Schools recognizes the importance of
clear concise and transparent communication for all stakeholders uh the district shall foster multimode communication to engage and inform all community members students and parents on school district related issues so we've had a lot of conversation around communications so let's look at some of
the questions to think about how effectively do our communication efforts reach all stakeholders that's been an ongoing and probably is something we're going to have to continue to talk about i would presume that conversation never ends yep yep and and and in in my opinion it
shouldn't because communication needs are evolving and and ever changing where a person is getting their communication today may not be where they're getting their information tomorrow which digital tools or platforms are most and least effective
for engagement how do we gather and act on stakeholder feedback what improvements have we seen in transparency and consistency and how does our communication strategy
support equity and inclusion um that's an area where I struggle um only because I I know that we um we don't always reach our Spanish speaking families uh with the same level of integrity as our English speaking families and that's work that I need to do i mean that's
that's something that I'm aware of and but that one when I read that I I was like "Oh that's a really good reminder right?" because we have some a number of Spanish speaking families and we have uh we have some families who have communication barriers that we just really need to be aware
of so when you hear those things what are some of the things that stand out for you as board members the laptops being able to have laptops for for all iPads yep exactly and but then coupled with that uh
because it was mentioned when we saw that video and thank you Bruce for asking to see that it's not that it's not that we're that we don't have that this is the only way media of of which to to learn something to hear that young
boy I think it was young child say I like going to the library and reading books uh either you know to myself or you know with somebody or or to a friend because I think we hear so much of that at least I hear a lot of from from say the community side that they don't have
any books at school anymore they don't have libraries anymore well we sure do and uh so there's an excitement there from from whoever that child is it must be more than one uh but then also stepping into say the 21st century or moving on with the with the Chromebooks
and that yeah i think um part of how just kind of as a a added point to that part of how our our access to books have changed is they've become more classroom libraries versus building wide library so so students can go when they're when
they're done they can go back to the bookshelf grab a book and come and sit down you know it's so it's it's different access than it was when I was in school i went to the media center and I pulled out my card and Right yeah louis decimal system
okay what other things resonate with you about communication um our news channel is definitely important and I know they've been having a little bit of turnover and just trying to figure out their path forward there but it's definitely some comments from the community has definitely noted how many people watch it and rely on that for
some of their info and we definitely need to make sure we're keeping that as well not supplied but you know what I mean we got to make sure that they're able to do what they need to do so for like the the live stream live streams you know and we
put everything up there whether it's these board meetings sports that's how a lot of people just stay connected to our Sure school yep yep i believe that we are not getting to people so we have this bubble here with
people who have students and they're active in sports and all that what drives this thing is when we have votes that pass that the community's behind us and when we have to have situations put up to override a bunch of no votes are
those no votes no votes because we never told them anything about what's going on in the school what is the information getting to those people um we always talk about the stakeholders and all those it's a favorite word but we are not getting to to those people you can
go many places people that have their grandparents have parents in this community and whatever age and wonder what's going on i Bruce Vanderpool on the school board don't know half of what's going on in this thing i don't
have a chance to to go in and spend my time surfing through the website which isn't a favorite place of mine to go i'm on websites all the time it doesn't flow nicely um it doesn't search nicely you want to go in there and search calendar
you can't even search calendar so let's not get all tied up that yeah we got all that stuff done we are not we are not reaching them i go back to something I picked up at the con conference years ago they took a a newspaper sheet is
this big okay and whatever size it is they had it so it folded up eight ways they allowed it um two-sided full color and they put pictures with a story about all different things going on in the
school including classroom which we never hear anything about classrooms we have stuff going on in classrooms in some of these class with teachers probably most of our staff doing things that are absolutely outstanding nobody knows nobody knows about that we have um
the arts programs we have things like that that are just plain missing in this thing we can get all the sports we need out of the Fasil Press but that's about all that shows up there really what about the rest of what's going on here
and how they did it it was a school down um north of Minneapolis i can't um tell you exactly where Lynn's from some of those towns it was three schools and they printed this up and they had it fold up so it came to you in one 8 by 10
deal you opened it up and there were all these things about the different things going on in the school yes so I don't know if I can continue but I kept I was going to bring this up at the end so today we watched the beautiful thing about the little kids right
well I can remember when we had the math instructors in here we had the English instructors in here telling us what they were doing in their classes we were trying to solve an issue but it was interesting to know what the heck is
going on in these classes that faded away we don't have it anymore probably happened before you got here we had times with the innovation center for us in this bubble that appears to have gotten to be a little bit of an old standard you know we got this no it
isn't it's new and exciting to anybody looking at our community from the outside it makes no difference how long it's been here and we have to be careful that we don't just because it's here we're used to it it's old news it is not old news lots of people don't know about
that stuff we don't know much about the automotive we don't know much about the metals we don't know much about the woods we don't know much about um egg now the egg program is going to have a a picnic out here one of these days is
there a little video of that that we can have show up here just short and sweet just like Cassie did for those little kids and let the public know what what's going on and I know that lots of people watch this y so it's not that we're not
there but we have to reach those people they still go back to the mail y So um we look at cataloges and things like that that we drive programs from that gets to everybody yep
and with community ed lots of that stuff has um left us look pretty good but what about the guts of our program i just think we need a lot more of that and and I think that's th those are are very
what you're talking about are really nice actionable items that then let's talk through how do we prioritize and that that then and make sure that um our our staffing and our resources are aligned to make those things happen because that's when you look at what we
focus on um you've seen us focus on um uh letters and multi-ter systems of support and we're seeing results you've seen us focus on right so that's that those are the actionable those are the next items
that I think are great suggestions to bring that and let's talk about what can that look like and how should that look and so then we can define instead of saying and I'm I'm going to push back a little bit and say not nobody knows i think there is a population of people
that don't know and I think that population of people is really important because I think to your point they feel as though I only hear from the school when Absolutely so I think it's something we have to for sure be aware of yep i I
guess the thing I was wondering um and that kind of piggybacks on what what um Bruce was saying i've gotten to I'm just starting to get into this shale volleyball thing but it doesn't matter if it's volleyball basketball or
whatever but our innovation center there where have the glass windows aren't all these lights on timers or we've got LED lighting i think those lights should be on 24 hours a day i guess the reason I say that is is
everybody's when when they're at a sporting event it's like what you know what's behind there well I'd like to think nobody's going to break the window and and and break in there but at least they can see that shop area they can see that innovation area um probably open
enough can of worms i was in in Melrose Kirkovven schools uh hallways are open um probably opening a can of worms for people to walk the school but they really had nothing to hide i mean there's locks on the lockers i mean
hopefully nobody's vandalizing or anything but it was just interesting how people could walk down the halls and you know I hope they're nobody's destroying anything but it was just interesting how they have a sporting event in two of their gyms the
whole school is opened up um where you can walk down the halls my sister actually showed me or actually my sister-in-law showed me area of the school there in Melrose and it was that was pretty amazing but I guess we have
that innovative center we have that nice area that's new and it's glass all the way leave that thing lit up cuz people walk down that hallway and they're going to look in there so again these are actionable items it was supposed to be
lit when that program went through and the idea to the windows was to light it up so people could see it for every game they came to at night and everything and it's never been lit up it's supposed to have been lit up not a lot just light
enough so people could see goodness look at all this stuff they got in there look at this welder have in there it was supposed to be lit up and that was in the initial stuff and that was a lot of the reason those windows are there you go to Dan it's dark don't need the windows it's dark all the time so I
don't know why we have glass there but people walk that hall and it's just eyecatching but if it's dark nobody knows we have it so okay we definitely got to look into We can look into those yep how we market
how often do we let the community like the community in general just come in look at the school walk the halls and just see what we do around here um we've invited the community in multiple times um to through events where we'll do tours walk through um specifically the
innovation center um the uh the auto lab the wood shop the um Champs Cafe um unfortunately um there's not as much interest as you would think we were surprised uh to be honest with you um I
think more so I've had better luck with um uh class reunions some of our class reunions um will ask to uh set up tours over the summer and they reach out to myself or Mr rasmmanson and previously
Mr orline and we would just um bring groups through the school and I think that's probably some of our better opportunity and then word spreads and then a sibling has a class reunion and they bring their you know so um I would say we've we've
it's um it's it's a struggle because we haven't been able to find the right platform avenue to it just hasn't we haven't had and and I wonder um you
know when it comes to you know we've had conversation around supervision and how do we make sure that um you know you can let you could let people in but yet you've got um you're not you don't have um they have to sign in and you know
well no like during events like during events that um and and to be honest with you some of what we struggle with is um we've got we've got littles running throughout the building um and it's not and it's not always safe And so we've we've balanced we've been trying to find the right balance and I don't know what
the right balance is but it's a good conversation to be having but I do think that the innovation center that hallway could be could be lit because but I totally understand yeah it gets pretty touchy i know it takes it takes a small percentage to ruin it for everybody else
i know today we saw a great deal on two kindergarten class sorry you go ahead um consistency might be important with some of that just where the community knows hey if I wanted to I could come in at maybe
it's one time a year or a season where it's like hey first basketball game of the year home basketball game come on in check out what else we got going on while you're here for the game or something just so consistent consistency is just
important for sure people it then even if they miss the first one like okay it'll be around next year I will put on my calendar I know it's coming that's something that our administrative team can kind of bring back and think about how we can um and and really I think it's been helpful to engage the
leadership of the buildings to know like what are some things that how how what are some activities or um events or things that might draw people into the building and so we can brainstorm those for sure I I think he can put out
a personal invitation to anybody i mean I'd like to think that any taxpayer is welcome in in our school they just have to you know common courtesy they got to come in and and and
sign in and I would think somebody would give them the him or her the opportunity to see the school anytime they want i think it's going to depend i know i need you people i know that's it it's really going to depend on if if we have if if
we're in the middle of a school day and um and our our principles are are in the middle of supporting um their buildings i I probably am not going to say just come on in um it's very different i'm I have a little different availability um but there are times too where I'm not
going to walk people through and disrupt a class yeah you know um because we're here for the kids and learning so it is kind of a fine line but I I I'd like to think that we could show a welcoming if the schedule permits i would say that I've sat here a number of times and I'll
I'll extend the opportunity again anytime that somebody wants to they can call me and I will schedule a visit with them and I will walk them through the building um and if I'm not available I've connected with Mr rasmmanson um we absolutely we encourage people to come
and see and we're happy to walk through and talk through what we do because we do have amazing things happening yeah that's the best way of working i shouldn't say just come in cold it's a little bit of common sense a little bit of Yeah but is there a way too that maybe engaging students doing something
virtual do a virtual tour and put on our website or do avenues that way too technology is ever changing something get the kids involved kind of promote everything yeah then we've had Yeah those are those are really those are really um good ideas that we've kind of
um we've had um what is it when you start and stop starts bits and whatever we've had like let's go with it let's get it going and we have a group of kids and then they kind of fizzles you know so so but I it's a really good concept
to have engage kids and bring them into the conversation and then they can show because that's that's really more so what our community they don't really care what I think about something they really do care about what our community what our kids are doing kind of like Well kind of like when we have our our
early afternoon meetings twice a year yes when we bring the kids in they get to talk about what they're new that's something to kind of expand on that way too exactly that's what I think about so in community ed how many brochures are we sending out a year two now three
three okay so without duplication of effort what would it cost for us to buy eight pages in hers and have a section in the back of a community ad that's going out on a regular basis with eight or 10 of the pictures I'm talking about
sure of classrooms the wood shop the metal shop uh the welders um the auto shop which nobody knows about half the time you're not going to see it anywhere um arts and some of the other stuff that seem to not necessarily get out and we
have eight pages on something that's already in motion and already going all we have to do is add into it sure and we pay our portion of it it might be the least expensive thing for us to do we combine it together it's on a regular basis and you will make sure that we
keep up with our pages or whatever articles in we have every the district office the elementary and the secondary do have articles in each of those but we don't have just the pictures of kids so that would be well we have pictures of kids
doing the activities that are sponsored but your point is valid that we say pictures worth a thousand words so doesn't necessarily have to have kids specific specific as much as some of what's going on yes if the kids are in there working on wood projects take a
picture of that so we know what it is does how many people really know the fish house out there that appears not to be marketed extremely well that's a jab but um um how many people know that that was built by our trades and that we're
waiting to sell it so the kids can have more stuff to do in the trades because I on the schoolboard are going to hear that we don't have any money because we got our money stuck in there and now we can't have the program that's what's coming down the pike does anybody know that is anybody driving by know that that's not somebody in the school's
personal fish house that they're trying to sell on the property right and and you know what there are there are 150 things that we could do different 151 290 i mean there are it's it's just getting the ideas to the table
and then being strategic about how is this going to align how's it going to work and where is it going to go and if our priority is about if it's going to remain multimedia um communications let's work smarter not harder let's talk
about that right um the we'll I won't go down the fish house line but okay so um coming to financial allocation and fiscal stewardship um so recognizing that fiscal resources are finite uh resources will be allocated to
fulfill goals and objectives of the strategic plan and in accordance to all relevant state and federal uh statutes and rules um additionally additional um additionally Payneesville Area School strives to reinvent service delivery models to maximize the district's return
on investment so when you look at that how well are our resources aligned with strategic priorities when you think about the things we've talked about and looking at the first two goals have we done a good job aligning our our resources with what we've been
prioritizing i don't have to answer that Bill yes thank you we're we're planning we are doing a lot of things we're getting stuff at this school done here on a planned basis and every time we turn around we're not going to the public to
ask them for money we're being mindful and we have budgeted and managed ourselves to getting some really good things done that have been sitting on the back burner for 12 years that I know of um I think we've done
really good there are we maintaining a balanced budget while meeting student and staff needs uh have we addressed equity and access to programs and activities um I'm going to pause there for just a second because I'm really proud of the fact that we've um we've had a lot of opportunity for kids that
maybe wouldn't have had opportunity and it's not it's the process has not been difficult for them to access so that's something that I'm I'm proud of the work that our district has done uh what changes in service delivery have improved cost effectiveness um so I what
I will give there as an example that I would maybe ask you to keep thinking about is like our ads application that's a that's a program that really takes a need that we have and it becomes a reimburseable program through the
special education um uh department at the Minnesota Department of Ed so it's it's again it's a service delivery option um to meet a need that we have and I have not yet heard but um how do we monitor uh financial performance and
adjust spending as needed so those are some questions and I think uh I've I've tried to increase improve um transparency about uh reports and bringing data to the board so you can see some from a financial perspective and the community can see from a
financial perspective too so um but those are I I think it's still a valid goal for us to continue to work on but what's that going to look like i think we're doing good actually in that whole area and I think that in reality um it's
just a matter of getting to the public what's going on here and maybe just letting them know there's some variables that we can't control yep yep um so on this one what I did is I linked in and Jacob you um haven't probably this
hasn't we haven't probably gone over this with you because this was in 2024 um but this was the survey that uh let me recast that um actually here let's share this tab instead so um when we
went out out to other community I think one of the things that was really important was to ask in addition to do you support the um the uh capital project levy the tech levy um in addition to would you support that how
are we doing okay so um so this is here for you to to review because I don't know that you've had a chance to see that but I also linked it in just as a reminder for the rest of our community that it's out there and we um we did that survey in 2024 so this is really
kind of a a where do the key overlaps where are the key overlaps between the plan and the strategic plan and the survey okay and here were the things that were common alignments um preparing students for life after high school that came up as a theme in the community
survey and it's part of our strategic plan high quality staff it was uh we have a lot of conversation about staff development in our strategic plan in addition to um uh that's one of the things that our community has valued in our um for us safe and supportive
schools strong community partnerships and communication i would say although that we have a lot of things to do from a communication perspective there are some things that we do really well for communication so I think that's valued um and we can continue to improve that's
I think one of those things that you're going to have people who say this is perfect and spot on and there's going to be others who say I don't ever hear enough and it's not you know and that's okay and that's part of our role is to be nimble within that so um the following are some things that
we might want to consider um and again I think this is a conversation that I would like to have not only with you as schoolboard members with our administrative teams with our staff with the district advisory council and just start thinking about maybe we want to expand the the focus and definition of
future ready students do we want to talk about um financial literacy do we want to talk about stress management goal setting time management teamwork communication skills leadership opportunities those are some things that we may want to consider integrating into
a strategic plan directly address high expectations and academic achievement so we reference intellectual growth but we talk about high expectations and what that looks like what does that look like for our students um continued continue
to focus on literacy and expand to math we've talked a little bit about that that's some things we may want to talk continue to focus on continued technology integration teaching and modeling responsible use i think that's uh we've heard legislatively the
conversation around cell phone bands and the policies and how that's all going to work there's got to be a level of teaching responsibility okay um fiscal planning to maintain high technological infrastructure to your point Bruce we've we've um set ourselves
up to be really strategic in how we can maintain this long term so we don't have to go back to our voters for technology and continued engagement with the community with a focus on public perception metrics and transparency those are a couple of things that we may
want to think about that were that came up through the survey that currently aren't in our strategic plan okay so again this is here as a guidepost for our communication and and our conversation and um and I will um this
this isn't the only time you're going to see it but again the questions I wanted you to just start thinking about so we have a little bit more structure versus just start reflecting on our strategic plan can you go back to the part of this that had the respondents the the age of
the respondents oh sure and the percentage yep um Oops actually let me go here and these are people obviously paying a little attention to what's going on there right
there yep so 55 and up is 3.9% of the population yep okay um take 54 on down to probably the the 25 probably quite active in the
technology of looking into websites and all that kind of stuff um some of the older group is so I can manage through everything drives you nuts when they work poorly but um my guts I can work through that stuff but when we're
talking about getting to our stakeholders it says it right there yeah and this is another piece of data that I think is going to be and and I I'll just put back out there is how do you receive information from the school district okay the press continues to be a a a
place that we've um had communication around i was able to observe a meeting um at the elementary and um we were talking about um or they were talking about um um sh celebrating celebrating the achievements and celebrating the good
things that are happening and and adding information and and we've I think consistently came into how can we how can we maximize exposure through not only the um the our Facebook and website but then duplicate that in the paint in
uh the Paynesville press how do we do that and how do we make sure that it's and and again working smarter not harder how can we just take the same information and put it in multiple places so that it's seen multiple times so this is this is that's a very
interesting one because non-parents uh non-parents non- staff yep that's the purple so those lots of those people are still interested in what's going on in the school they were all educated once yep and if I go back to community ed that could fall into that first one okay
yep how would community ed program work if we weren't sending out the brochure right okay so pretty simple you know um Chris had a a good example of um another school district that did kind of a and I'm going to kind of bring
bring in your your flip-flop idea um and uh the front half was community ed so you pick it up and when you open when you turn the page this way it's community ed you flip it over you turn it this way it's the school district you know just some ideas there were some and
I think it was Sock Rapids Rice is that you did it at Hartelli did it we did it so there are there are some creative ways to do it so let's let's find what makes the most sense maybe we work with the paper and have once a month a special for just the education like they
do it for every sports team at the beginning of every season so maybe we just get a page that says what each grade's working on or something and include all that stuff in there so we can it certainly is a it's a platform
it's a it's a it's accessible so it's utilized so um this the survey is put in here so that you can see um just again a reminder of what are the things that um that our so this the top half was about specifically about the capital project
levy and then the bottom half is about their feedback so um we strive to be an educational leader in rural Minnesota so here's how we're going to measure our progress okay it's it's important to bring that back and and for our community to know that we are looking at that information and now we're going to
do something with it there's nothing worse than having doing a survey asking people and then do nothing with it absolutely so and that happens so often absolutely and and I mean in all honesty this took a year and a couple of months but we're here oh absolutely what to do
with it okay so well and and with that you know I I think we we've put some things in place in order to get us here like the uh uh advisory council the district advisory council that didn't exist before that uh and and we have met
on that just to to kind of start laying things out so sort of our first meeting I didn't necessarily get the impression that most people in there knew what was going on in the school i think you're right yeah i I think you're right so it's a perfect
example it's a nice group that was put together yep and it's representative of I think the public and lots of people didn't know what was going on that's it's a main driver for this whole thing yep yep so maybe I missed
yeah obviously we did one in 24 with the tech levy do we send out surveys on a do we have a basis for when we send them out other than the levies or um so we had done we had used uh school
perceptions specifically around the operating referendum and the tech levy um we we haven't had like a uh every year we're going to send um depending on what's happening so as a for instance um last year around the block schedule
there was a survey that was sent to secondary parents you know and so we we do try to engage but from a a full-blown community survey we haven't talked about every one year every other year every five years we've not had that conversation that might be something we want to talk about because you know the
one of the complaints we hear is you only come to me when you want my money they like giving feedback or at least some people do some people will never answer anything even if you pay them but um if we ask for their opinion on things
when we're not asking for money they might be less apprehensive when we are asking for I think we had three of them but we went through at least a superintendent and a half the whole issue was the cost and
that is it was like $13,000 or whatever it was so but I think I think there's other ways and that's number four um commu comm continued engagement with the community focus on public perception metrics those are and that that might be a survey a focus group of whatever like
how are we how are we consistently engaging the community and are we going to do it outside of those operating referendum tech levy times we have a lull we need to stay connected with our community and and we want to do that so I think that's a great another good
point say we put this whole program together with community ed and let's say we have a page in there and we want to ask the public something have a quick survey form and see if people will fill it out i think if you would if we would insert
community scanning things if we make it like an every year with like say the new year and the winter one comes out where do a survey then people know hey this is when they're looking for stuff and I think I think too if we would use some somewhat
consistent me uh questions we'd be able to do some measurement of growth So all right well thank you for the the conversation around the the strategic plan um again I I feel sometimes like I'm beating a dead horse but at the same time um I really do think it's important
to to have some of these preliminary conversations before you get to the place of saying so what do you think about you know it's important so thank you for engaging in the conversation i think it's very important you bring it up good like you do on a kind of on a
regular basis sometimes kind of gentle but we got to talk about it we got to figure it out we will yep we will it's work in progress yep exactly um Yep moving on to committee review um we're going to review committee
assignments um to make preliminary changes due to um Ron being a sub bus driver um more particularly with regard to the negotiations correct um I it's been
board board practice that um each board member be on at least one of those committees so we can have discussion on that uh did did uh Thomas or Cheryl weigh in were they open to any changes
um Thomas did and he said he could change um I believe the food service and custodian one however that doesn't help with regard to the transportation because he's already on there
okay and Cheryl seemed pretty flexible okay so I mean any discussion on possible well Ron where where if he's going to be on where do you want to go
me I don't want to step on toes but it doesn't matter to me no well you say what it is I'm guessing administration that must be a conflict correct for me my wife the the pra professional support is My
wife's not at parallel she has support staff support staff oh okay well then uh teacher administration i guess it doesn't matter okay so then either in teachers it either be Jacob or Cheryl or
administration it' be Thomas or Cheryl um so since Cheryl Yeah because Rachel needs to be on all of them because she's the chair let's find out if Cheryl will switch yeah you better check i don't want She was She said she was fine switching she's
flexible i heard her say to step down from whatever and we went into What's that you went into administration do you want either do you want teachers or administration and then Cheryl we'll go down to transportation so what what is
your opinion or what it doesn't matter it doesn't matter it really doesn't matter teachers could be kind of difficult because we When I was on there we always met before school early and then we met usually kind of right after school if they think it's over my head
whatever nothing's over your head whatever you want to do whatever you want to do you just put me in there administration better sounds good can you have that note or do you want me to just make a note on there and I'll I'll update it okay
all right we should probably like share one too yep and and this will be approved or voted on at the next board yep it'll be presented for action at the um business meeting correct okay moving on legislative updates okay
uh there really are not um I wish I could say like okay here's what's happening um there it really is is not this week is a big week um everything has to come out of the House has to come out of the Senate um and then uh the the omnibus
bills have to be out i think I thought that the House omnibus bill came out last week and the Senate omnibus bill was supposed to come in come out today but I haven't seen it i looked right before I got here and I hadn't seen the omnibus bill yet but um so those two are going to come um it does continue to be
a um a focus on uh budget reductions and and that's unfortunately a conversation uh one thing I will tell you that um uh was concerning to me this morning i was on the um MREA um legislative update and
um their conversation with the lobbyists um I I had not heard this yet and I was concerned but uh in the Senate there is a conversation about them um taking a look at um taking away the um
inflationary index for education so I I it's I there's there's some who are some within the Senate who are saying no that that needs to stay there it makes sense and there's others who are saying this was a mistake we shouldn't have done that um so that's an area of concern
that I I don't think it's going to come through this year um because I think the House is very committed to maintaining that um that inflationary index but we've also seen kind of what's been happening with other funding sources um because we have that guarantee 2.74 this
year there are other areas of education that um are being predicted to or um proposed to claw back so um it just unfortunately it's still there's not a lot that I can share of certainty um the
one piece that I I will um share out because I I know uh last last week um the Minnesota Department of Education received um kind of a I guess a a requ um a request to certify um that uh they
are going to follow some of the a federal um the federal mandates for um diversity equity and inclusion uh what what pro is problematically happening is that in Title 9 language and
interpretation the Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled on um in in one way and the federal government is saying another way so now we have two governing bodies that school districts are really accountable to and trying to figure out
how do we navigate that um so what what I what our school districts have been doing is waiting for kind of a guidance from legal counsel or our state or um Minnesota Department of Ed to kind of guide us because they would be ultimately our path through so um the
commissioner uh sent a letter back to the federal government stating we're going to follow the the jurisdiction of what's been the Minnesota Supreme Court in addition to the federal regulations and we're going to just see what happens so hold on stay tuned and uh we're going
to just keep doing what we're doing so that's what I have for legislative information how's that this be good next year will be an election year so we'll hear a lot of talk to talk and not walk to walk we'll see what happens yep okay all right moving on to request for
information roundt um and follow up to that just make a note that Tuesday May 13th meeting is the afternoon meeting starting at 1:30 okay so information roundts i am extremely
interested in hearing from the school like we did the kindergarten class and all that whether it shows up on a little video here or something but we tried this a few years ago and I think you were maybe with us where we're trying to have something every meeting
because when you're on a schoolboard and we're at these meetings talking about all this stuff all you got to have is the kids doing something and all of a sudden you feel 110% better just like snapping your fingers because you have an idea what's going on there but we
tried to have something kind of more regular um and maybe we can do something like that could it be a a little video where they're in innovation center maybe just pick out a couple areas quick video it's done in a minute and a half two
minutes just like what you did and lets us know what's going on in there right and then we can do everything science i mean by next year are we going to have our new lab by next year we're working on it by next year if we got a brand new lab well then let's show
people some of what's going on in there i mean that's I think that's what they want to hear and you got all these kids in the video used to be they did a whole bunch of video on the innovation right i think they might still do that might be kind of fun to do a two-minute video about
different things in the school and you don't have to even do it yourself that's pretty nice deal all right i wish Bruce Bruce I wish I could say it came together just like that but it's not well I got faith in
you i'm not worried it'll come together but there are there are very talented people and there are um kids who are pretty savvy so all right next Monday uh we do have a Monday 14th there is the uh community or
the U district advisory committee yes have six o'clock so So Bruce and Gerald and I think Ron as well so you guys are going to get to hear this again but it's fine i like that committee monday the 14th at 6 p.m
is that uh district advisory committee okay y we have taken worthless committees and put them into something that's beneficial with that district divides between us that's correct that'll be the last one for this school
year correct this fiscal year correct i think so yeah correct thank you for reminding all right i think we're doing Well okay i got a question i'm confused your other email when when does this get talked about or is that next next uh
um that would be probably or which one are you asking about uh we're going about uh so so that you talking about the uh two-hour late starts uh yeah those are justformational those aren't those aren't action items right now for that one okay and then the wrestling
masks i guess I um that would be if you have a question then I can circle back and gather more information well yeah i guess I was kind of curious and I don't know what kind of funds the district has i mean they're asking for 4,000 but I the question I have is I I know they did
it for football they they had volleyball they do for baseball every year these uh $100 chances although trust me there a lot of people are doing these $100 chances but um I didn't know if they entertained
that idea the other idea I was curious about um if they did like a some type of breakfast or supper so well why don't you like when you I don't know if that's gambling or how that works yep so why don't you send me those suggestions and I'll pass those
along to the wrestling club and let them um kind of navigate that because uh I didn't I didn't know what kind of money we had here because they're asking for 4,000 for community ed and 4,000 for districts but they were contributing 12 yeah folks
so I'm gonna now Okay so so let me just I'll let the community know kind of because so informationally the board was provided with update and and a request for um putting um replacing wrestling mats so the the wrestling club had
proposed a $12,000 um contribution um of 4,000 they were going to be requesting money from the booster club they requested money from community ed and they requested money from the school district to replace the wrestling mats so the the question that theformational information that went out to the board
was just as a a heads up this is kind of coming your way so board members if you have questions about that please send it my direction and I will pass that on to the wrestling club because they would need to um they need to either move forward or not move forward based on uh
what they know for funds but it's I can pass that back along to them because I guess I just didn't know what we had for funds i mean who makes that call that would be on my call okay because it's it's it's whether we have money in the budget or not and we have
money in the budget the capital project that we could we could assign to that okay i mean just to maybe save us some money so yeah well $12,000 is a pretty big contribution that we wouldn't have to come up with yeah it's about a
$20,000 investment i'm interested in uh how much they said about the potential girls team i know that's been talked about forever in a lot of area schools are starting to have their own girls teams so Yep and there's um some of our our area have more more
girls participants in wrestling um and that's one of the areas that uh wrestling our we have seven girls within the youth program um that are active growing and pretty talented so I think it'll be interesting to see how that um how that evol evolves over the course of
years so um but it's uh I I know one of my colleagues has in St michael Albertville they have a phenomenal girls wrestling program others too what about volleyball i thought they were going to have a men's volleyball i thought that was approved for this upcoming year but
there just wasn't any interest in in our district correct so so we don't offer every activity that's approved by the state high school league um and part of that interest I suppose well part of that is we don't have the student body to strictly support all of the activities um some of our activities we
have to host because they're we have to co-op to have enough participants to host so um there was not a discussion about um hosting a boys volleyball team i was curious we are all right thank you