welcome to the let me make sure I'm on uh welcome to the June 17th uh board business meeting and study session please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge ALG to the flag of
the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay um all board members are present all board directors are present
uh open Forum I don't believe there are any open Forum okay so we're going to go ahead to the approval of the agenda I need a first and a second motion by director Crosby second second by director
olad all in favor of the agenda I that passes 70 okay the first item on our agenda is the levy final draft this is something that is going to be presented to the board in July for a vote uh right now
I'm going to hand it over to Dr Thomas and um for further discussion based upon our discussion last week last week Monday thank you chair friends and board directors uh this evening uh based upon the feedback
that we received um during our discussion last week we're prepared to give you some additional um uh conversations around the financial scenarios some of the forecasting scenarios as well and with that I'm going to turn it to director Frederickson who will U walk us through
some of those uh key conversation areas thank you Dr Thomas board chair uh we have updated the five different scenar Arial um with the you approved the budget for 2425 at our last meeting
so we've updated those five scenarios to reflect the revenue and expenses um you'll see that there really isn't the trajectory is the same on all the scenarios it's just updated numbers um so we're going to continue to um make
the recommendations of um either 30 45 we've shown the $60 um and if we do nothing so um if you have questions on those I'm happy to answer those does anybody have any question on
that so far I just have one question on the funding what percentage are you using for the funding I know there was some discussion at a previous meeting about um different um funding that what what's that perc the formula allowance no the
formula for I'm sorry for which formula for the revenue so like how much money are we getting are you projecting that we get from the state like what what are you projecting in that number I mean I know that's that's hard to that's hard to um you know anticipate
what we're going to get in the future from the state so I was just curious how do you project that in your five year scenario um so we I know what all of the levy um items are in the levy I I pres I believe I presented this several times
I've done a um fiscal year um Revenue projection I've broken it down to here's the state AIDS here's the levies um I've got all the formulas in there um that's what I use all the you update the formulas um I'm assuming that the
legislative amount for the formula allowance um has uh a cap of 3% I use 3% I don't think it's going to be 3% but for the sake of the um analysis I used a 3% cap um again it'll be based on
whatever the um legislature or the state decides what the um inflation factor is and then everything else is all formula based in statute so those are the numbers that I've used for all of the revenue yeah that's
that's the the clarification I was looking for thank you for for answering that and then I have another question um on the last page the ADM estimate um so you're you're showing declining enrollment basically correct which would
show less Revenue correct correct so can you help me understand for the 2425 year you had mentioned you're using 8700 students for that budget but on here it shows 85 93 I think we've used 8500 that's believe the revenue
projections that I presented before had the 8500 um I think that's where we again we'll look at the enrollment numbers in September when we actually get the enrollment but right now we're trending down we're still short of what we're projecting so
um yeah I just recall you saying 8,700 and that we'll get the students that they'll come so I just that's when I saw the number I was a little surprised to see the 8593 so I think that that the enrollment report that I presented last board meeting showed that we were right around
8,500 is down from what we were last year and that Trend looks like it's continuing okay and then in two years when our um seniors graduate will be continually going down that's our biggest senior class I do recall that and I appreciate it I remember asking
the question if the budget was based on 8700 and I I thought you said said that it was so I was just trying to understand the difference so thank you the forecasts are very helpful thank you again the what we presented last
week um we haven't really made much updates to it it's continues to if there's particular slides that you'd like me to go through I certainly can answer any questions um again our recommendation as we looked
at the different scenarios and um we're looking at the $45 option we can certainly talk about a $30 option um and if there's specific questions we're happy to address
them all right I know you've received quite a few questions over email um I know I've sent a few and had a few conversations um is there any other questions on these numbers we did go over them in a lot of detail and
remember in July I have one question thank you Tammy um um um we're I'm looking at the presentation on page eight the budget reduction um slide I think it says page
eight on my in board book um it it has the the down arrow with the 6 million it says since 201920 we've used approximately 5 million in fund balance to present a balanced budget to the school board and then uh for the 2425
school year we will cut approximately 4 million from our budget and utilize fund balance to cover increased costs I know you've shared that with with the board um consistently the what my question is on the graphic with the
six cuz I'm like I I don't remember the six so can you that just confused me so so um the five million was since 1920 we've used five million and and as you recall there were a couple years well one year when we had the co dollars that
we didn't use fund balance but every other year we have balanced the budget using the fund balance for next year were um we had asked for a little under a million dollars so if you take the 5 million plus the 1 million that we're asking for that's the 6 million thank
because we did make um almost $4 million worth of expense reductions as we built the budget thank you um I just have a question if there were questions by other board directors um could you share I didn't receive any responses that had those questions
answered so I don't know if board directors had any other questions I didn't see any responses I haven't had any email questions I've come in and had a few face tof face to get a greater understanding and um really understand the difference between
what the you know the renew do nothing renew 30 month 45 a month and it was more to under to truly understand you know the balance of listening um to what we think the threshold may be and understanding
what we're going to get you know based on on all the scenarios um so nothing nothing Bea email but just kind of having some softer conversations around and it's all things that we've been presented so well I appreciate that I
was referring to chair Francis comment that there's been questions via email like I said I didn't see any responses so um I just sent information into uh director Frederickson about the inflation numbers that we use in our business and um um how they're actually
higher than uh what the actual inflation number is uh being listed which is between 6 and 7% and then uh the fact that when I looked it up it was 7.16% at that time and so um I didn't
know if that had any impact because the industry that I work in is different and um all she did was respond with exactly what was in here and how they they calculated it so it was mostly personal to me trying to understand my own personal
business and um 20% increase on inflation and Technology 8% increase on goods and services and then uh using also the construction industry estimates of I think it was 8% but then I went
back and looked up the numbers and the actual inflation rate as presented by the Federal Reserve was seven uh Federal Reserve and Bureau of Labor Statistics was 7.16% much higher than I've seen but I'm not going to argue that here at the board
table it's pointless director Frederickson looking at the fiveyear forecast scenarios with that we're also assuming in terms of operating expenses that that remains relatively unchanged is that correct I'm assuming that we have the
same expenses but that if there is an inflation Factor so for instance our transportation contract we already it's signed for the next two years um the increase for next year is 6% that's a given um the following year it'll be 8%
so that's what I build into the budget um we have increases in um our utilities cost we've gotten a letter from Excel Energy saying they're increasing their rates by 10% uh so again anything that we know I've included that in the money
or the budget going forward um some things like supplies I'm making an assumption that it's between two and a half 3% just based on historical data um but some of the things I it's it's based
on just historical data um but anything that I know is included in the um expenses moving forward you and that would also include salaries infring and benefits least yes obviously we haven't settled all of our contracts but given what we've landed on
in the last two years four years um we've made some assumptions about salary increases okay thank you so I for one really appreciate the different scenarios and the more detailed that was put in here I believe you've already presented some of these
um but having a mall in one place with the levy numbers um that helped me understand it quite a bit um and uh also seeing the um fund balance decrease as we continue to pull out of it just to basically tread
water I have I have a question do we happen to if we are adding an inflationary factor into this Levy and we say that we're adding 10.8 million per year and there'll be inflation on that number so that number number is going to grow actually so when you
present this to the voters um do you show how that grows over the next 10 years so that they have a clear understanding that it's not just 10.8 million per year we certainly can so if you uh look on the Minnesota Department of Education
website um in their section about referendum they actually have um the cap inflation Factor estimates going through the 2031 school year um so they've already determined what those are going to be um kind of this is
the form that it looks like um in the question we will say that we are asking for an inflationary Factor um again it's not up to us what that looks like it's the Department of Education decides that but they're going anywhere
from um an inflation of 1.13 to 1.1 seven um so we'll certainly let the community know that we're asking for an inflation Factor but um it's based on the
Department of Education is basing their numbers on the Bureau of Labor Statistics um their CPI for the urban consumers so again as it changes the Department of Education will probably change theirs too but they they've been
determined through 2031 yeah and so then the homeowner would you know for quoting $45 a month that number could change that's what I'm you knowre depend on inflationary Factor where you know some people could say it's 1.5 some people say it's 14 I mean it's basically like
they I think the most important thing is that our homeowners have not there hasn't been an inflationary factor in our Levy in the past so I think educating them on the fact that there will be is that this isn't just um a $10.8 million spend it's more than that per year correct I think that that's
going to be part of that campaign literature so that we are informing our community about that inflationary factor I think linking back to the source document that would guide um what that would look like for our local community for now um and obviously you know over the years that could eever and flow
based upon the economy but based upon what we have through at this time 2031 we would want to make sure that's front and center with our entire community so they understand the whole um question and ask and what the impact would mean over the the life of the the
operating excuse me the operating Levy forgive my voice tonight that's okay thank you thank you director Frederickson um when I looked at other school districts um the majority of them did put the inflationary factor into the
language so I assume the language that's put into the question on the ballot is going to be the same as what we've seen in other school districts yep there will be we'll use the standard template right um and again we'll have um our advisory
company help us write that question but there are several templates that we can use from other districts most districts will put an inflation factor in it we will certainly include that as part of the question and then I just want to go back to the fact that you know I understand
what the financial situation looks like um and I think you know what I've been hearing from the community is that you know there's there's a desire to see Cuts being made in areas that um maybe even some of the areas that we listed here before but going back to the Morris
Letterman survey where only 8% of our community um supported the $45 per month um and I understand director bernick's comment about there was the 500 survey and a high number of them are empty nesters but I think the reality of it is a high number of our community they are
empty nesters and their grandmas and their grandpas and they care about um where their grandbabies you know the school district and the quality of the school district that they um that their kids are going to be sending their their grandkids to so I think we just have to be real with what the numbers were coming out of that moris Letterman
survey and um and I think I I don't think we can disregard that so and and I'll just if I may just uh respond I think um I agree and I think we need to look at both what um
the support looks like as well as what the expectation looks like and our community needs to understand of that fine balance between um the expectations of what can be delivered at various dollar points and being as genuine as we
can with our community so they um there's a return on the investment I I don't think there's many in our community who are looking for making an investment without something guaranteed for their kids grandkids nieces nephews
whatever themselves through Community Education Etc so absolutely agree that that whole conversation and many day points need to be bounced out against one another there any other questions all right I assume that the same
presentation will not change and that uh when we go to a vote on July that this information will be represented unless there are things that happen between now and then um we will make any updates or changes that um seem appropriate but this is as of today what
it looks like and we'll formalize the question presentation package as well thank you with the something that will come to you with the actual question that'll be on the ballot okay great um moving on to our next agenda item then which will require a vote is the uh
final presentation of the 2024 strategic plan so before we go into discussion on this can I have a motion in a second so made by director bullion second second by director
Crosby okay so going into the strategy chair friend hand this over to you oh yeah thank you um board of directors so our thank you again for the conversation last week and uh also just want to reiterate our thanks and appreciation
for our community throughout the engagement as well as the core planning team and trying to solidify a plan that um speaks to a lot of what we've heard from a variety of stakeholders along this journey of the Strategic plan um and uh last week we we really centered a
lot of conversation around the vision that was the one area that was really um still uh uh being uh worked through in in the conversation and so we had our in the board book we've uploaded the original that came out of the core
planning team we added one that was much more truncated almost the antithesis of what we saw a week prior um aligning to some of what already exists in our district and then the third that you see here tonight um is kind of a culmination
um of the conversations that we've had throughout our community conversations here with the board and landing on a a vision that we would recommend the board to consider um being a worldclass district centered on learning that prepares students for college career and
life understanding that the vision is that aspirational piece and I think you know several of you weighed in on really what is that what is that growth factor of what of who we desire to become and I think it's uh safe to say that uh we
would like to be a a worldclass you know district for for our our community and we know that um to not be redundant in some of the priorities and using priority language in the vision we centered on learning um that whole notion of centeredness of learning um to
allow our students and again primarily our students who are in our traditional pk2 track but we also know we serve other aspects what we know a lot of folks associate that and our students are going to likely take you know
college Pathways career Pathways and life could Encompass you know going into the military going into the Seminary whatever the whatever life success means and so um that's what you have before you tonight um around a a vision um that
we would um offer for your consideration um along with the mission and priorities in core beliefs from that carried over from previous conversations so with that chair friends alter it to to um the board okay so we have three vision statements a world class District centered on learning that prepares
students for college career in life a new one uh ignite Laker pride and the original one which is student student centered results driven um so I'm going to open it up to the board for discussion and realize that we'd like to
come to a conclusion tonight and have a vote on this and the only thing that I believe unless somebody says something different is the vision that is still outstanding for us to come to consensus on there was other parts that we didn't have consensus on as well which I can
speak to Okay so but we can start with the vision to be well my problem is I like them both and that's hard um I like both of well I mean I there are three I know but we we
were looking at you know there amended to I like ignite Laker Pride because I think it's quick it's succinct um but I feel like it could there could be more to it as well which the other the third Vision the third iteration of the vision I
think does too um my only thought for consideration is when we talk about college career and life um the way it's written for me makes it seem like students would do all I mean clearly they'd live their life but
would do all of that College and Career and I feel like um you know some students don't do the college part they go straight into career like you were kind of alluding to versus an and kind of yeah something like that maybe some I guess I'm just I
like all three of those things but I kind of wonder if there's an or somewhere in there but I like those revisions I'll just share that my my personal favorite although I don't feel really strongly
about this um is the original student centered results driven I like that it's short I like that it's direct um I think the our our previous statement was vision statement was just really really long um and I
like that one too but I think the rest of this document encompasses what we're trying to really accomplish so um I'm Comfort I'm most comfortable with the original student centered results driven I also appreciate that it
came from the actual um Originators want to respect that well Amy went first but I actually like the last one better too sorry the the original the original from last week the Student
Center I like that it short I like that it's student centered that's our and results driven is pretty important so that's um I would just um agree
with I don't have a strong opinion on on them um there's I'm sure people could say pros and cons on each of them um so I don't have a strong opinion there other than I
do uh the original the Student Center results driven was from the original um team and I feel it is important to respect that so um I guess if I were
to cast a vote it would be on the first one as well Dr BOS I'm kind of torn between two of them um but I'll first start by saying I don't really know what it means to ignite Laker Pride that might take a variety of
different shapes and forms um but then when you dig down into the mission and then the different priorities it it kind of goes the two different directions of Are We building a worldclass district centered on Student Success for college career life just
eliminate the end or student centered in results driven that's the quandry I find myself in one of those two student centered results driven short and sweet easy to remember uh world class District
centered on learning that prepares students for college career life is not too far off of the previous mission statement that we had decision do you want to put your weights
on one of the other or combined or what works um probably King off of director ol's comment you know if we just eliminate the and where we prepare students for college career life um
that's good enough for me linguistically I know it's incorrect thank you I think you know my my comment about the original one was that it really wasn't it didn't come from the court team it came from the admin my understanding is that the court team did not develop the vision and
maybe I can get some clarification on how that was developed the vision like all these other areas were a culmination of what we heard um throughout the engagement and the core team was presented a vision statement to respond to and they've kind
of weigh in back and forth on that vision statement at the very end oh okay so so it's a culmination of things um um that this wasn't written in a vacuum oh okay no no I understand that I just I just thought I thought I heard that that it didn't come from the coure team so
that there wasn't all the time to do the vision based on the speakers maybe I'm just referring to the speakers who spoke that they wish they would have had more time to work on the vision love more time um on many of those evenings because it was pretty rich but yes the vision is one that came at the very end
and um and so for example like the community supported was a comment that was made at the closing minutes of that evening and I added it just to honor that comment as the last one and brought it forward for that total conversation but um but the other aspects were
something that they actually weighed in on and had conversations thank you for clarification I was I was excited to see um based on our conversation at the board table that there were two other um more aspirational statements um because I felt the first one was more of like
what are the basic what should a school district be doing it should be student centered and it should be results driven and your vision statement is aspirational and so when I first saw ignite Laker Pride I kind of liked it but then I also
was like what does that mean and so the first thing that came to my mind is what if we were to say Foster our Lakers love of learning because when you think about as a district we are it's all about learning from kindergarten into Grandma knitting yarn I mean all our community
education classes and stuff like that so I had written down Foster our Lakers love of learning and then when I saw the second one pop up today I would say it was my least favorite because it does not focus on the whole District it focuses on the student and again I thought our vision
statement was supposed to be focused on the entire District um as a total and so of the three I would say um I'm I'm I'm a little torn because I I don't I don't love kind of either one of
them and then also um when I pulled I went back and pulled some of the very top school districts in our state and there was a lot of focus on academics in their vision statement and um I I felt I I don't know like I said I'm torn I on
the two so I'm I'm not sure if I have a I would say if I had to pick I'd be least interested in the one the original one um because like I said it's not aspirational in my opinion and would be more inclined
to support one of the other two have a preference do you want to you want to put your chips on one of them or or spread them out how how are you leaning yeah I mean I'm leaning to be honest with you um like I said ignite Laker Pride I mean it's definitely
something that um I think everyone can show some Unity behind but yet it doesn't really spoke Focus to academics I mean and then the other one the the other one um is there a way to revise the second
Vision to be more focused on our whole District versus just preparing the student for college career in life I mean do you have any feedback on that from the fact that other districts have vision statements that support their whole District if that makes any sense
and that's what I liked about ignite Laker Pride because it does Focus from kindergarten all the way to um the community ad the other change I didn't note on here not to switch gears entirely but I think
um note is the um elimination of plsas and saying we are I really appreciate that change I think that's it reads better it it reads well and it um so I appreciate that change as far
as um I I guess I what I like about student centered results driven uh is that it it does encompass to me the whole student because you're talking about centering on the student and
wrong results so to me it can read aspirational um we could add a bunch more verbage to make it really aspirational uh I prefer the Simplicity of it that's why I like it um and I think some of the aspirational items are
in the rest document I feel pretty I'm comfortable with that um I am not as fond of ignite leer Pride um I like the original Vision but again it
was Punchy which is was the goal of of some of the feedback that we did receive um and um but I do like the concept of a worldclass district because that is truly aspirational that is uh world
class District centered on learning um I'm not sure we need to say that it that what we're doing is preparing students I mean it is what we're doing um if we wanted to shorten that I would be fine with the world class District centered
on learning or combine the other two I just don't want to um that that's results driven also um but I I my least favorite is ignite Laker Pride um and I'm okay with the other two
but I do agree now that um director olad pointed out that it makes it sound like all three of them career college career and life like they're supposed to do all three somehow or another that just doesn't read right now that you brought that up but I get it I get what it means
um I don't think it's I don't I don't think anyone's going to walk away thinking now I have to do College and Career or shoot you know whatever um but I just like the idea of a worldclass district centered on learning because to me that is aspirational and it also
means that there's going to be a lot of discussions about what is a worldclass district because that is going to change and that is the whole concept kind of of a vision is that it it it stands a test of time um but I will go with whatever
the board chooses I just would if I have to put my chip somewhere it'd be on the first uh the first and the third and not on ignite Laker Pride for some reason when I first read that um it reminded me of a banner at a homecoming pep rally that's the first thing that came to my
mind and while does ignite what happens when the pepper rally is over and you're ignited and now you go back to work it just kind of didn't feel as aspirational um so that's just kind of what where my first um reaction was not to say that it is that's where it is now
after I've had a chance to let it sink in but um so I'm going to ask Dr Thomas and administration what do we do now so I I would say that um you know
there's a there's a lot of conversation around student centered results driven for a variety of different reasons um this is the vision that came from the conversation initially with the core planning team I think the feedback that you all gave as a board around um having
some aspirational aspects is is important as well and so my wondering to the board um is uh um and and keeping some level of succinctness to it stickiness to it um and I think director Atkinson you
know I think several of us also looked across the country at like do performing districts and like what do these statements say we looked at companies that was actually an activity or exercise of the fort planning team as well and you'll see a lot of statements around world class or best District or
you know things of that nature so I'm wondering if this notion of aspiration of being a world class and folks Define that for how they experience the district because you're not going to be able to articulate every single word to every single person about
what it means because I'll read it for what it means to me no matter what you put on here and vice versa so would it be um something the board would want to consider with bringing perhaps that aspirational statement down to the
student centered results uh driven if it were to be something such as a worldclass district centered on students driven by results you know so you have the aspirational language and you have those two areas that the core team talked about in centered on student and
results are we're looking for outcomes so I just offer that to the board to see how how that might sit I think blend a lot of conversation one more can you say it I'm going to type it this time world glad we're recording this but I think it a world class District centered on
students driven by results I like that what about about academic results because I think there's been we've received several emails that what is what a results driven mean like what are results are we looking for and I think and I think and I just want to add that
one of the biggest takeaways that I heard in in all the in all the um how do you say the community conversation conversations sorry I'm lack of words today was that our district really wants to see a focus on academics academic
proficiency I mean it's something that our district has suffered with in the last you know four years in fact I looked up and I don't want to bring this up but I do think it's important I looked up on schooldigger.com and in the 2223 school year we were ranked 42nd in the state as a district and last year
we're 80th and so I think that has something to do with the fact of why is our why are we hearing this from our community um of this push for and that's their their District ranking is all on academic it's all on proficiency scores and so um I just think if there's any
any way we can get more of a focus on academics I mean I think just adding that one word would accomplish what we heard from our community I like where you're headed with it to be honest with you um and I think when you look at a worldclass
district a world class district is focused on academic results I think that's a statement on the table for uh you all to discuss potentially yeah I'm just going to share I think um world class District centered on students driven by results I think
that encompasses what um I think that encompasses an aspirational Vision it is not to say academic results aren't important yes they are we call them out academic Excellence our mission is Inspire and
Empower each student to reach their full potential so places like School Digger and perhaps other measures aren't entirely in my view the the best measures because each
student has different potential and so taking you know a a a real needy student who's in a really needy situation any growth there is growth so we need to acknowledge that growth and so it could
go you know that could be real from a at a really low or very high level I mean it can be across the board but I I also don't want to not focus on the entire experience for students whether it's Athletics
activities um you know growth in group work growth in academic Excellence I mean you name it growth in handling social situations like those are all things that are now put on schools
so to me I think driven by results is just simply growth right not not just limiting it to academic growth because also many times when you see growth in other areas that will lead to academic growth it takes time so I felt pretty
strongly that we're okay without academic results being in the vision we know that's important it's laid out on the document it's in the mission it's called out in academic Excellence it's um results that are all incfort ing as a
as a whole person as a whole child I would add that we've also heard from community that Financial results are also very important um which are also called out with respect to optimizing our resources similar to how academic Excellence is called out is one
of our priorities I think results driven in its Simplicity makes the most sense to me I agree I agree I like what you just came up with and I don't think we need
to say academic in there we already have that in one of our pillars and um I like it is is it possible in the academic pillar because I know you said we have it in there but they're really the way I
read it in the academic pillar there is not a just massive focus on academic Proficiency in that academic pillar and I think we could make a small tweak to that where you know we say students receive challenging rigorous and relevant instruction for The Unique
learning needs and goals and develop essential skills to be successful while it says we're providing all this this curriculum there's nothing in that statement that says we are going to make sure that our third graders can read by third grade
level and that's like if you go back to some of the plans they say all third graders would be the third third grade level I mean wouldn't it be an awesome if we could walk away as a district and say our kids are 100% proficient in math reading and writing math reading and science I mean that to me is a world-
class District right and so I'm fine with um keeping it vague under results driven but I'm wondering if if there's more we could put more focus on um academics in that pillar and I think what you're getting getting
at is not inac like I think that is for sure the goal those are in correct me if I'm wrong but it feels like those would then be the the goals that are in like a in management
scope I I will say that the um scorecard metrics that we be developing um around the framework here of the Strategic plan whatever they might be called but the performance metrics scorecard metrics um that's EX ex actly director ainson where we're going to have those very explicit
goals um we know the ideal state is 100% okay I mean there's not a district in this country that does that um at 100% 100% of the time but we know that's where we will put a lot of those accountability metrics based upon averages as well as our expectations of
performance growth um that we can project out um so absolutely that's where a lot of that granular detail will be and that scorecard framework that will now be our quarterly report outs now to the board and to our community so
they're going to be they will look different than what we've shared in the past because they will now have a common template to how we track progress another aspects that another aspect to that um going back to this whole notion of our
community um wanting wanting levels of I don't want to say transparency just wanting to better understand what's happening in our schools whether I have kids in the school or not um it goes back to this core belief that we want to
have reciprocal accountability the school or the community expects outcomes and results from art the district for their student we expect um partnership with the community to help giving us the resources and supports to make those things happen so that reciprocal nature
is something that we're also going to be pushing into our schools and departments so for example um having our schools on their landing page having that um scorecard metric of this is what our priority U Focus will be for the 24 25
school year based upon these factors now everybody knows what we're really working on we're doing a lot but we're going to hone in our report out to our community on these three key measures you know so I think that's exactly where a lot of that detail will land um and
that's for departments that's for schools and I don't think anybody questions and I can't say this enough which is why the priority order and the term Excellence Excellence came out repeatedly and we we were we started with academic achievement and so we
wanted to reflect that what we heard as a theme and I think Excellence we did split some hairs but I think Excellence felt that it went to a higher bar and so um that's what we wanted to make sure the community saw that we heard that that's Incorporated
into the red language there or the red term there um but director ainson yes to your point those academic measur those outcomes those will be scripted out in those metrics and just like we do with our financial dashboard we'll be able to
track and monitor that in a different way now um and that's our next uh lift with Stu with Excuse me with stter thank you you're welcome are we and then there's one other thing um so we did not have um how do you say 100%
alignment on the word inclusive and I mean I think it's really interesting that when we look at our plan we talk about positive learning environments and as IID mentioned the word inclusive has six different definitions in dictionary.com and some of the
definitions for it I fully support I mean who wouldn't support but some of them I don't support and I just when we look at how can that bring Unity to our community I think the only way that that can bring Unity to our community is if we our district has a full Crystal Clear
understanding of what does the word inclusive mean to this district and I think if we can Define it I don't know if we want to Define it by board member by board member but at the end of the day it's what is the district doing and how they how do they Define inclusive
and what can our district expect from that word um may I may I respond so um thank you for bringing that forward director ainson and if I may during one of our one-on-one check-ins we were having some
conversation about language and how language matters and um and and I do agree that language does matter language is generative it it creates and coordinates action between people and one of the things that I was sharing in
that conversation was really the need to take terminology back um there's not going to a word in this plan as you just noted six different ways to Define it in one resource right so we can't control
how somebody interprets certain things but we can own the narrative around the language that we use as a school district I think it's critically important and perhaps and and I'm just kind of thinking out loud to this to this statement I think it will be
important to have a lack of better term a glossery if you will of what do some of these things mean to us you all have heard me say um the term equity and you've heard me Define equity from my vantage point
and what I expect as a superintendent which I know is probably vastly different than how others might have interpreted it or charged it or you know fill in the blank um and I have yet to meet someone who has
challenged uh the understanding of equity meaning giving students and staff what they uniquely need to be successful that's truly what Equity is about because we all come with our unique story that makes us who we are in our classrooms as a teacher as board
directors when we're making key decision that narrative informs our decision making and we have to understand and appreciate and respect that we might not always agree on that and that's completely fine um but at the end of the day decision have to be made and you
know as your superintendent I am committed to ensuring that we take ownership of our language um to ensure that when we are using language that may elicit certain responses based out of
situations and context outside of our control let's name that but then say that might be how that is defined there but in this space this is what it means means for us and I think that's going to be important not just for this strap
plan but just in general and we've chopped that up as a senior team actually on a variety of Accords with different interpretations of how we move forward together as leadership team as a leadership team but you know at the end of the day um inclusion has its Genesis
in special education like that is the tap rot of the term inclusion in traditional PK through 22 education um I can tell you right now with my seek meetings and hearing from our families
who are receiving um support from special education the number one piece that they have been clamoring about is their students not being included not being aligned more to that mainstream we've heard it time and time again and I'll
just say not just in this District I think it would be short of us not to challenge taking ownership of that language as as a governing body as a leadership team so that we aren't
excluding because the antithesis of this I'm sorry the yeah the opposite of this sorry is exclusion if it's not inclusion can't we're not doing that that's not an option so um I appreciate the push I think it's something that we
are committed to as a leadership team and that we went back back and forth on this term based upon the conversations with the board but to lose the opportunity to take ownership of that narrative um and really exclude a large growing population in our community in
our K12 community pk12 community is going to be a Miss for us so I would opt that the board consider that language and that we reclaim that language for what it means to service all students
with that I turn it back to you chair um so so I would just I would like to respond since that was my question so I appreciate that and of the seven different definitions that's the one different definition that I would feel strongly about as well as long as that's what it means because we all know that there are other definitions of of
inclusive that are not supportive and it's B basically and I don't I hate to say this but it's what's been happening in our district for the F past four years um the equity and inclusion has been divisive and it's not been inclusive and so that's why if this is a major shift
and we're going to you know we're going to see a change in our district where it is welcoming and inclusive to all students and as a parent I don't feel unwelcome walking into a classroom because there might be something in there that makes me feel uncomfortable
um I think that that that's wonderful I mean I think that's great so yeah and and I um I just want to also level set a little bit too because even when we if this is the direction that we take um there's not going to be a classroom
or an experience that a student or a staff member or a Community member is going to have in our in our district that's foolproof that's going to be not something that they want to talk about or they they might feel uncomfortable with so we're going to have to have those conversations it's not a one
definition and we reclaim it and it's good we know that there's going to be some nuances that are going to come up where I might say hey can you help me understand whatever the context might be and through that conversation with that staff member or for that with that you know principal or with the board member
myself that context will bring some understanding and that may lead to some changes or that may lead to some affirmation that we're you know thank you for your perspective but this is the direction that we're going to move forward with and here's the context of how we're engaging in that work and I'm
sorry it might not land like that individual of thousands of individuals might like but at least understand and I think that's the key element to this whole conversation too right and I think the concept of unifying us on what makes us one and makes us Lakers is really
important and which I love the the unity aspect of that so so thank you thank you you're welcome um I'm going bring this back um to anybody else who wants to make a comment no other comments then we're going to repeat the vision I hope I
wrote it down correctly I may ask you to repeat it again um and uh then we'll have a vote okay okay all right then the vision is a worldclass District student centered
results driven that is students centered centered on did I get that okay you're in the ball okay okay cuz I got to get this right before we vote so world class District centered on students comma driven by results driven by results did
I get that right Dr Thomas driven by results I wrote so I'm going to repeat this one more time so we are going to vote on the um strategic plan with its vision
mission mission core priorities uh our priorities and core beliefs with the vision stating world class districts centered on students driven by results I'll let you guys figure out the the uh punctuation okay can we do a roll call
vote for this please I don't have a problem with that thank you okay director Atkinson I think yes I'm sorry uh chair France I think that was it a world a world class District a world class District centered
on students driven by results okay I'll repeat this one more time for a vote I hope I get this right right a world class District centered on students driven by results I will make a motion to approve that as it stands along with the oh that's right cuz we motioned on
the other one okay the 61724 number two draft just this being the vision as it stands in our board packet okay correct so a second to that motion second okay second by director olad do we have to repeat the mission
again I mean the vision again okay good m- good um so a roll call vote director Atkinson yeah thank you um you know I uh excuse me there's no more comments after a vote is called that is not true I can comment that is true that is Robert's RS
point of order director ainson we're calling for a vote if you're if you want to stain again nay director vquez director bullan I director bur I director Crosby I director olad I and
I that passes 61 and I'll be revisiting the point of order with you because they're not correct every a board member has the right to make comments so refuting my freedom of speech will be addressed thank you we can discuss Robert's Rules later
but the vote was called for okay moving on to the next to the next topic and that is certification in the district 719 census resolution so we have resolution in our in our board packet that will require a
roll call vote um I need a motion and a second and then I'm going to hand it over to director Frederickson um can I have a motion on this so so made by director bullan second by director Vasquez okay and I'm going to hand this
over director Fred oh sorry to to pardon me I can take it executive director do sorry and you were on here and I was handing it over to her so I apologize for that okay thank you chair France board members so we are asking for a
certification of our district 719 census the last time that we did a certification was in 2022 you can see from the resolution that was shared with you our census figures increased by
1,201 which is based on an estimate from the Minnesota state demographic Center um and this is something that is updated every June 1st typically unless there is a uh Federal update done this only has to be
done when we want to really and so we did not do an update last year uh but we are asking for an update to our census numbers for this year and I'll take any questions okay I'm opening up the board to any questions on
this um I have a question do they break it out by age or um they do not no no they we keep hearing about these declining birth rates so I was actually pretty excited to see that because even if these are not babies moving into you knows have
babies in our district these are still taxpayers right so we're getting additional revenue from approximately 600 households or whatever coming into our district so that's encouraging thank you yeah and they don't break it down um they just give you a straight number uh and it's on the website as well so you
can look there you can pull the spreadsheet but even on the spreadsheet they don't break it down thank you MH um director do um the Scott County through every year they do update it and they do break it down the compass report
breaks it down in the state so we did have a declining birth rate that's been going on and uh 2023 we saw a slight uptick I believe but the 2022 numbers um the question that I have is is again I
know we're certifying this um why exactly did we choose to certify this year I know that 2020 census was a little messed up when we couldn't get final numbers for a while but yeah so typically we only certify if we see an increase if you have a decrease in your
overall District population you wouldn't go out and certify so last year um and again this information is all on the website as well from the uh 2022 to the 2020 uh I'm sorry from 2021 to 2022 we
saw a slight decrease of around 90 and now this from the last time we did it in 2022 to the 2023 we have an increase so anytime there's an increase we ask to recertify okay um and again the numbers
don't say because the Scott County says we're aging at a faster rate where the what who's moving in our older yeah and we and this isn't based off of the Scott County information right from the Yep this is right from the state demographic Center's website which is updated every
June 1st thank you y are there any other questions okay uh this is a roll call vote so we'll start with director olad I director Crosby I director berck I director bullion I director Velasquez I
director Atkinson I and that's I for me so that passes 70 okay moving on to the next item we have the superintendent evaluation summary um so
um one of the primary roles and duties of each board member is to independently evaluate the superintendent the superintendent is the only employee of each board member here and of the board so on June 10th 2024 the school board
met in a close session to discuss the annual evaluation results of superintendent Dr Michael Thomas and per state statute we are providing the summarized summarized results of the evaluation tonight using the superintendent performance expectations
as approved by the school board in September 2023 the school board determined that Dr Thomas met or exceeded all of the standards outlined in the superintendent performance Expectations by the 2023 for the 2023 2024 school year with an
average rating across all criteria of 3.4 out of 4.0 the plsas school board has concluded in its evaluation of Dr Thomas for the 2023 2024 school session that the board continues to have a high degree of
confidence in Dr Thomas in his role as a superintendent as the superintendent of District 719 in addition the Schoolboard directors and their comments and ratings indicated the following that Dr Thomas continues to exhibit uh one was a high degree of ethics and
integrity number two was strong leadership number three was the continual Improvement of data transparency number four was the practiced Financial stewardship and financial transparency number five um that he
continues to cultivate Community relationships and Community engagement and number six that he continues to be a strong advocate for the district our district is not without its challenges and opportunities the school board determined areas of growth and
continued Improvement reside in the following we'd like to see a continuous Improvement and measurable outcomes of academic achievement uh and after a year of stressful contract negotiations we do ask that he work this year with his administration to restore and improve
upon staff morale and number three that Dr Thomas continues to find creative ways to engage the entire Community as we tackle the challenges of the the coming year in addition to the that specific achievements of the 2023 2024 school
year the board also discussed and agreed upon an overall summary of Dr Thomas's review and comments so I'm going to hand it over to director olad and she has accepted and and did a very good job at the task to summarize the comments and
um input from the June 10th Clos session from the entire board so Dr olad if you would please read your statement uh to Dr Thomas on behalf of the board sure happy too Dr Thomas many of the overwhelmingly positive traits and attributes that you
brought to this position two years ago still hold true today your strong ethics and integrity make up the base on which everything else is built you rise to any occasion with optimism and a fierce advocacy for your most beloved constituents our students Dr Thomas you
continue to boost trust in a community that needs to re build it that began from day one from the relationships you continue to build and strengthen with students staff students and staff families Community leaders Municipal groups police and legislators all this
in a year Frau with legislative challenges budget constraints Levy considerations SRO issues and curriculum changes you surround yourself with a smart and Stellar team to strengthen the work of the district as the old adage goes good people want to work with good
people you have a coaching SL servant leadership style that is uncompromisingly speckled with high expectations you're not afraid to challenge or have hard conversations with employee teams or people in the community it's a testament to you that you have actually been asked to be a mentor for other
superintendents since day one and throughout your second year you have enabled true transparency and improved Community engagement you have built and sustained productive relationships with stakeholders in our community and the entire state of Minnesota within our district you have engaged the community in several ways such as through
financial town halls with help from your team Community engagement and as part of our district strategic planning process you continue to make data accessible and available you are visible in our community it shows you care whether it's having a cup of coffee with a family member or explaining detail in a
financial report your talent as a communicator or your commitment to transparency has made a positive and measurable impact in our district thank you for making transparency and Community relationships and communication to priorities in our district the second year of your tenure
at plsas hasn't come without its share of challenges and areas of opportunity academic outcomes still are not where we want them to be we know we can do better our students rely on all of us with you at the helm to set them up for Success while all achievement isn't measured by
test scores alone they still remain one of the ways in which our district is measured with curriculum changes adopted with more to come we encourage you to continue to work with staff and teachers to increase increase those numbers and better defin learning objectives we understand this doesn't happen overnight
your your challenge remains to ensure plsas remains a destination district for Southwest Metro families our teachers look to you to set the tone and we are asking you to focus on improving staff morale now that we have the latest contract settlement behind us we look to
your leadership to ensure our staff know they are valued respected and make us all proud to be Lakers where you spend your time reflects your values and priori ities the schedule of a superintendent is no doubt filled and the relationships you have built in your short tenure are already having a
positive impact yet we are looking for you to prioritize your time to be in the schools and in the classrooms we encourage you to visit more of them talk to more staff and students and be a fixture in the hallways and last lastly in addition to being more present in our schools and classrooms we ask that you
under your leadership that you help to find more creative ways to engage our community and Families we have a large community and to be successful we need to find ways to partner engage and connect with a greater percentage of our community we appreciate your attention to this crucial step in building a
positive Laker Community where all people feel welcome listen to and engaged Dr Thomas we appreciate your leadership your professionalism and cander in your role you have a heart for kids and it shows we have tremendous faith in your work here in plsas and are
proud to call you our superintendent and Laker leader as you embark on your third year please know that we want to support and encourage you on your professional Journey any way we can so let's get to work thank you thank you board um for those
comments and um and thank you for the opportunity to serve as a superintendent the notion of good people want to be with good people and and I can say the same here as a superintendent in working with each of you um although very unique styles that
you all possess but has a governing body this is a board that I'm proud to be a part of this is a board that I'm you know proud and honored to serve with um in this community so I want to thank each of you for your tireless work um and the support that you've given to me
um as I return back um to my home and in terms of um our work in the district uh I think there's a lot that we have to be proud about um there's a lot that you know I'm proud about in terms of the folks that I get to work with many of whom are sitting in this room tonight
almost on a daily basis and those are the folks that um I work most closely with and that's the senior leadership team so I just want to publicly thank each and every one of you for your countless hours and dedication to our students our families and the broader Community I wouldn't be the leader I am
without a strong team and so I just want to publicly thank all of you for for for your work in in your um dedication and I also am blessed to be able to work with amazing staff whether it's staff here in the central office or folks throughout our schools from
Administration all the way to our custodians and Food Service staff and every other role in between um my greatest pleasure comes from when I'm in our schools at the game or at the place where the game is played and um I
receive that feedback from all of you in terms of be on that field more I I I long for those days um I will be the first to say that this p last year had its share of challenges and and and
tensions were were thick and um and I know that a lot of my time was focused on I'll say maybe a lot of the business aspects of the work of Education versus where a lot of the magic was happening on a day-to-day basis because there were a lot of key things that needed to be
addressed and solved um and I do want to share with our staff um that you you will see my commitment U recommitment coming back into our schools where I love to spend most of my time and um really partnering with all of our staff
and our schools and rebuilding that relationship and Trust across all employee groups I think that's absolutely critical um I am the community superintendent and that includes all of our staff that that includes our families and a variety of other folks throughout our community and
so yes I I have to spread myself fairly thin at times but I am committed to that challeng Challenge and knowing that um my heart will always be centered on being my personal best to everyone I uh encounter and so when I take a look at
our opportunities moving forward into next year um and reflecting on this past this past year um I'm very excited with a new strategic plan to build out a a very different performance framework um
that a lot of us will have to um engage in and and and expectations that we have for our students those also apply to myself and to every other staff member in this organization to really step up our game so that our students are
getting the outcomes that they strongly desire and what our community strongly desires to see from our see from our school district as well so um you you all heard last week um our presentation on qm and the power of evaluation I
don't take the evaluations lightly that come from each of you whether it's the culminating statement that you read tonight or the one-onone conversations that we have as individual board members and just your own personal feedback to me along this journey um I again that's
something I look forward to that we all lean into this um as we move forward for a new vision and a new future um to becoming um uh that worldclass District that is going to be centered on our students and always going to be focused on our
results academic results Financial results personal social emotional results You Name It We want to be that worldclass place for folks to call home and so thank you all for your leadership and thank you for your support um in my journey as your
superintendent thank you does anyone have anything else to say thank you thank you Dr Thomas thank you okay with that uh we are closing our business meeting and adjourning to a and transitioning to a study session so I
need a motion in a second to adjourn so made by director bullion second by director Crosby um motion to adjourn all in favor I I that passes 70 this meeting is now adjourned we'll take a five minute
recess and go into a study session so technically at 7:20 thank you and so be 21 so let me just say that 7:21 and we are opening up our study session for uh June
17th uh and for the purpose and agenda I'm going to hand it over to d uh to Dr Thomas excuse me I'm going to turn this directly over to Dr Edwards um this evening if if he can thank you thank you uh director uh chair France
directors of the board uh we are here tonight uh with a a great opportunity in front of us uh this has been a conversation that we've had around the board uh table in the study sessions and uh a request to bring forward uh Behavior data here and uh this is the
first time that I can recall us uh bringing forward Behavior data in this form and in this context uh with this team that's here to present uh information tonight as well as provide uh different perspectives from across our levels and uh we're extremely uh
excited again to be here because we feel well the numbers tell one story the experiences tell other stories and we feel we felt it was important to bring a team here to share perspective from each level elementary middle and high school
about uh what we do in our schools to support our students in a very important aspect of their development which is around Behavior Uh we certainly uh as was talked about in the board meeting earlier this evening the business meeting around uh our academic
Excellence which is now uh adopted in our newly adopted strategic plan we also have other components that are part of that strategic plan that are represented in our Behavior data specifically our learning environment that third uh priority uh going from left to right on
the new strategic plan uh um as well as our beliefs uh around uh the environment that we want to create and the responsibilities that we want to instill in our students as they come through our system around respect um and
accountability all components of supporting them as students around Behavior so we're here to share some uh brief data with you and for that I'll turn it over to uh director zush to share that and then we'll pull forward uh members of our team that are here
today thank you uh director France members of the board um I'm going to talk a little bit about Behavior data um and just I wanted to orient you a little bit to the complexities of the nature of behavior data um one of the things that um is
important to know when we're looking at Behavior data is it's a really complex combination of both an both a student behavior and an adult response as well as then the recording part of it so um in all the different systems that
I've done work um it's always really hard to disentangle what part of that has to do with the actual student Behavior versus how much of that has to do with the adult response to that behavior so you can't really look at Behavior data and say it's going up or going down so our behaviors are getting
better or they're getting worse it's too complex to look at that longitudinal piece over time um one of the things we can look at is um some of the trends that we see in terms of location um which students are getting referred are they proportionate um all those things
that we can look at over time that um as we move forward um digging into Behavior data uh we can do that in a more detailed um in-depth way um it's also important to note that every level and I think you'll hear this um with the um
speakers tonight every level has a very different system of behavior and behavior that may be um classified a certain way and one level may not be classified that way in another level um so just know that when we're talking about elementary middle and high school
that there's um different codes that we use for behaviors and different ways of classifying behaviors because you know as students get older and more developmentally mature then we would expect different things from them so um just a brief orientation of some of the
complexities of um the Behavior Uh data that we have um so there's you can report incidents and you can report responses um the incident is how the um behavior is being classified and the response is what the act the adult did in response to that
Behavior Uh for tonight I'm just presenting the incident data so that's actually what occurred and was reported in the system um we have two major ways major ways of classifying Behavior majors and minors um majors are things
that um kind of go up to a higher level of um severity minors are something that's more um like a a conversation or a coaching conversation that adults have with students um for the purposes of
display and just showing you the data I chose to just pick minor or Majors because minors are a little bit more um uh disperate and how they're recorded in our systems and so we just have a a little bit more um of the consistency
with the majors because you know we have reporting requirements for Majors for minors um that's really kind of a student and teacher case-by case basis and can look really different across the different levels um so what I did here for this this is our K5 data for this
year um what I did is I listed all of the incident codes that are possible at the K5 level um and I ordered them from the most common one that occurred this year to the least common um so you can see physical aggression was the top
major uh code used in the K5 level um down to technology violation being the least used um I pulled out the number of students with Majors so here you can see there's 357 students across our K5
system that had one or more major this year um that totaled 1,19 incidents so many students have more than one so you can look at it by how many students had a major and then what how many total Majors there were um you
can see here that of students that had a major the average was 3.3 and then the maximum incidence per student was 46 so there's an individual student um with 46 Majors this year and then it would go all the way it would range from 1 to
46 um uh again there's other ways to display this data um and we'll talk and the speakers will again talk about um what this looks like but um this is up from last year um and we think that it's attributed to the fact that we have
people to actually respond and record and um address the behaviors so again that's the complexity of behaviors going up doesn't necessarily mean that behaviors are getting worse um we did a lot at the K5 level this year to really
Norm across our buildings there was some um you know practices that popped up over time across the buildings and we spent a lot of time with the full-time Deans and the principles really getting that normed across the seven elementary schools so that we can have much more
consistency um and we feel uh much better about our data quality this year than in previous years um and that's largely due to the the dean role um in the Middle School grades 6 through eight um again on that left-and side these are the incident codes
ordered from the most common to the least common and there was 318 students with Majors a total of 853 Majors uh in the middle schools an average incident per student of uh 2.7 and then the
maximum incidents per student was 31 um and then the same thing at high school again we have the most commonly um used incident code to the least common um and our average uh per student
was 1.6 and then maximum incidents per student was 12 so it's just a very good it's a starting point on looking at our Behavior data and um happy to pull things in other ways over time um but
now I will turn it over to our uh speakers to talk about their experiences in the schools and before we uh pull up uh our speakers and we're going to start with Elementary uh as a reminder uh as a board we did take action for this
upcoming or for this current school year that we just finished up uh to have full-time Deans one at each of our elementaries and one at each of our middle schools which was an increase in resources uh and as Dr zush pointed out
obviously increased in resources uh caused us to be more on top of a number of behaviors and be able to support our students in their development as I mentioned earlier and we definitely uh do believe uh that we have created some
strong systems now as Dr zush alluded to that have allowed us to uh track this data more accurately across our system and be able to uh problem solve uh both at the uh system level at the building level as well as the to the individual
student level and that's what our guests are going to uh additional presenters here so I'm going to bring uh forward representatives from five Hawks our principal and our Dean I'll let them introduce themselves but real quickly um they step forward because they had the one of the longest standing
relationships in that we started with a full-time Dean the second half of the school year two two school years prior uh at five Hawks and at each of our sites that had center-based programming uh for our special education students due to the nature of the needs of
support So this team has been together for a year and a half now and they're going to come speak about uh their work evening director France school board members we're happy to be here today I'm Katie Sherman I'm the principal at five Hawks and again thank you director France members of the board
I am Mandy hanine dean of students at five Hawks and when we are invited to speak about Behavior we want to say that we have done some really significant work this year as a team of seven buildings with seven principles and seven Deans
and so getting on board um we've made some gains this year and we look forward to additional work this year to standardize our practices um when we think about the whole child
um we think about who they are academically and we also think about who they are behaviorally and as the people that welcome our earliest Learners we get a mixed bag of kids we get mixed bag of
kids um with math skills and if they don't know math then we support the different we support in different ways for math same with reading we have different reading supports and it's the same with with behavior the addition of be of Deans in the past year has done a
lot for our kids and it's done a lot for our ability to track data share that data with our teams and then respond accordingly to that data um another thing that has been really helpful to us at the elementary level is prior to this
year we're now using something called educ climber which is basically a data warehouse that allows us to extrapolate data and use that data to inform our practices and we didn't really have that before this year years ago when we
adopted PBIS I would say it was 10 or so years ago um any school that adopted pvis got a free subscription to a great Data Tracking System called swiss but it was a costly um website or app I don't
even know what it was and so we stopped using it and we went to infin campus infin campus did not give us data that was usable so educ climber is giving us data that is usable and our Deans have done remarkable work with that um so
those are two big kind of game changers for us which is why we're having so much discussion at the elementary level as we discuss our practices and try to um standardize if you will what we're doing um when there is a behavior incident and
then how we respond and how we track the data what else would you add man when I think one of my roles is looking at behavior and looking at data and what I love about data and yes love about data is I was trying to summarize it and I
came up with three PS so I think one it really allows us to partner and number one that's with our families that's with our parents that's with the Guardians of kids um not only families but working with the bus company working with the drivers working with County um like St
David's and social workers so really partnering I think the second p is really being proactive and I think that is huge when you're looking at data and when we're looking at Behavior so that has been a very big piece of what Deans have been able to do and when we look at
our data and I think it's us usable data and I think that's really important to keep in mind we can bring that data back to our leadership teams and really look at the trends what is it saying what do we need to do for certain students when next year comes around for groups so I think that proactive piece and then I
just think it creates problem solving teams not only as the Educators and the kind of for the principls the Deans the teachers but helping our students to be problem solvers and as I reflected I really thought about that proactive and problem solving piece is so important
because at the elementary level that's what I will speak to is that our students are learning and growing and we have to educate and teach and provide the strategies and provide the responses so that when they do go to Junior High or middle school and when they go to the high school they have those skills to be
successful and that is what this data and what I think the three piece allows us to do I would just say one more thing is we talk a lot about an mtss system which we know the tears of it um support our kids at different levels and most kids come in and maybe have
siblings at home or they've practiced a lot of problem solving when there are things that crop up but not all kids have or just need additional supports in order to get through the day in a manner
that's respectful both to thems to their classmates and to their teacher and so we use the mtss model for Behavior just like we use the mtss model for for academic concerns or attendance concerns so we use that peered or that tiered
approach for all of the whole child really including family problems around attendance so everything kind of falls into that and so when you look at this data that we shared with you today
um I know that we've worked extensively with some of our kindergarteners who when they get upset might strike out at a child instead of using their words and where we can intervene is really teach them when you get frustrated this is what your body
feels like and so we're teaching them to identify those triggers and then give them replacement behaviors so that they know how to handle themsel the next time a frustration might occur I don't know if there's more you
wanted us to say I think we'll uh we'll do each level and then we'll uh have any questions your thank you one one point of emphasis that uh they they mentioned uh and I just want to emphasize it just a little bit uh more with regard to a
focus that we did across our system but certainly at the elementary level was uh the mention of working with the bus company and the bus drivers um we we put a lot of energy and focus into that this year um that was based upon some data that we received in our studor survey
from a year ago uh that that was a place that our students were reporting uh not feeling as safe and not feeling as supported and so we did a lot of work uh the Deans did at each of the elementary level uh with our bus company with our
bus drivers and uh we look forward to continuing that relationship and strengthening that partnership because to one of uh Mandy's P's uh partnership that is another key aspect uh of our students day is that uh to and from school so without further Ado I'm going
to bring uh forward uh one of our Deans from the Middle School good evening everybody uh my name is Zach Johnson I'm the dean at Twin Oaks Middle School so this is my first year here in the district um but I work with my counterpart Scott Peterson who's
at Hidden Oaks across the street and together we're partnering on data so I will you know Echo back to a lot of things my elementary colleague said we do a lot of partnering together not just as Deans but with our teachers to be like working together looking at our
data so that we are aligned in our practice and what we're doing how we're responding to the behaviors that we're having at our school so the Middle School level we really lean on our PBIS our positive behavior interventions and support model and how we use that to
help teach those behaviors that we want to see kids have at school right and then respond to those behaviors as well so really looking PBIS is really that tier one intervention we do a lot of work at the beginning of the year to teach kind of what does it mean to be a middle school student what does it mean
to be a Laker in our building and that's goes with lessons that teachers are doing the very first week of school I'm in meeting with every grade level to kind of talk through hey these are the big things we need to look at and then as the year goes on Mr Peterson and I meet with a uh teacher team of leaders
to analyze our Behavior data and then quarterly we're checking back in with grade levels to say hey you're doing a great job with this but you're still running down to the lunchroom so we need work on that we need to focus in on those behaviors and those are kind of those big interventions and supports and
then now having a Dean in each building I'm able to interact with more kids where Scott was doing that job between two buildings really being able to interact and work with those kids oneone to give them those supports when that first level of intervention doesn't work
right and they're still not following those expectations how do we help them process through what happened and so that might look like a simple conversation we have a behavior processing sheet that we've done to help them think about what were the situations that led up to my behavior
what were other kids doing how was I feeling what was happening in the classroom what did I do and then think about what are the implications of what happened and how do we make it right so that might look like restorative conversations that might look like some restitution right that looks like a
bunch of different things that we can do to have kids try to make that right to repair those relationships and then hold them accountable for what's happening in the classroom as well so I would just say you know kind of to wrap it all up for us behavior is really about teaching
the kid right teaching the kid that's in front of us and helping give them the skills and develop the habits and the mindset so then when they go off to high school when they go off into the community they have those things right so they can be a successful adult thank you thank you
thanks uh and real quick uh before we bring the high school forward I just wanted to also set a context that I failed to mention at the outset was as we went into this current school year that we just completed you might recall uh that we had some legislative uh
action that happened in May of 2023 that we needed to respond to um and uh address which was uh limits on alternatives to suspension and so that was a real Focus also this year uh that we haven't yet talked about but I do
happen to think that Miss egerman might be speaking to that here as she uh speaks about uh the data and as they analyzed at the high school uh that was certainly a focus across our system so I just wanted to uh set that additional context my name is Kate egerman I'm one
of the assistant principles at the high school um I have to Echo everything that my colleagues just spoke to about how and it's really reassuring to hear that there's a lot of similarities um between each level in our district um when Dr Edwards asked
asked me to speak this evening I kind of came up with three big bubbles the first big bubble um in terms of Behavior Support at the high school is um our multi-tier systems of support our mtss models um we have so many Fantastic adult resources at the high school we
have counselors we have social workers we have a chemical health specialist we have fantastic Deans um and all of those adults are meeting so often to talk about how we can best support students and I really think
that's the biggest um piece at the high school that's really allowing us to be proactive in our approach to behavior um oftentimes we're getting together whether that's in our bar weekly meetings our student assistant teams meetings our APD check-in meetings um
that all happen weekly to discuss students what their concerns are how we can support them um our goal at the high school is every student has a trusted adult whether that's a teacher teacher a counselor another support staff so that they have someone they can turn
to um another big part is our Partnerships with families I have been blown away by support from our families this year um and it's often times you know you kind of have this anticipation of calling a parent about something
their student might have done but um I'm often really surprised with how supportive our family amilies are um and I truly believe that comes from consistency between our elementary to our Middle School families know what to expect um and again it sounds like we're
in alignment with how we're responding to behaviors which I feel helps our families understand why we have to respond to behaviors um and lastly you know leveraging our community supports oftentimes behaviors aren't happening because there aren't bigger things going
on um we've been lucky to partner very closely with Scott County um our SRO Treehouse which is you know focusing on attendance and treny so we have a lot of Community Support as well not as many bus situations at the high school it
sounds like but a couple of those too parking parking thank you all right uh with that we're going to open up for discussion and questions that you might have uh around the information that we presented this evening thank you very much um this
is wonderful and very insightful uh and educational uh all things for a board of educational is very educational so I'm going to open it up to the board for any questions and you can start from wherever I have a question and it is for
all levels unfortunately so you can all get your steps in um I am really curious now we do have a we do have an idea of this right um in terms of incident codes and Majors but what like when you when you reflect on this year maybe
versus other years like what trends are you seeing and how are you um what would when you see those Trends where are you having success in dealing with behaviors and where are you having maybe increased
challenges or not as much success and and not to say that we have more resources to give but just to kind of have that conversation a little bit I also start um and specifically at the high school one thing and this is my second year in
the district so if I'm comparing it to my first year I believe we've seen a significant reduction in like the physical altercation fighting and I believe that's because we have more vigilance in the hallways we have um we noticed in looking at our data some of
that unstructured time Laker time passing time and lunch where some of those times where students had a lot of free time is when they got really creative and how to use their time so we were Mindful and putting the right people in the right places um and just kind of stopping things as they start I
believe that in doing so we had a better pulse on our building during those times um something that I think continues to be really gray is that Defiance or insubordination piece because it's not what I might think is a
level of defiance someone else might not and vice versa so I think those are always going to be gray cuz those elicit a deeper and bigger conversation on on how we respond as a school um and those are the hardest conversations because those aren't always met with me
and someone else seeing eye to eye because of lived experiences of how we interpret things so I think that's a piece that's always going to be tricky thank you and I would have to agree at the middle level with both of those things I think that like again it's my first year
in the district so I'm going to speak kind of what I've heard from colleagues from the past I think we've had a lot of success with the physical altercations piece as well um we really didn't have that many this year right it it it's very few and far between and physical
altercation is hard because sometimes you think oh my gosh it's blood and it's all no sometimes it's literally just I'm a seventh grade boy right and I want to look fun and cool in front of my my friends and I make a dumb decision right
and it goes too far that doesn't happen never right so those are the things that like again those are going to happen especially in a building our size or in a middle school campus our size we're going to have those things happen but I think again having the adults in the
right places right working with the teachers working with the staff to make sure that we are diving and we're addressing those things right when they happen that puts a stop to it we had a similar situation with our sixth graders in our sixth grade pod in our building this year and working with the teachers
when they were able to feel empowered to go in and intervene and say hey I don't know you but that shoving around that that we we don't do that here right when we're able to address it right away I think kids suddenly realize oh okay here is what the line is and this is what's okay in school and this is what's not
okay in school and that hard thing too like Kate said is what's Defiance what's insubordination because we all have good days and we all have bad days right and even I as a person will show up right not as my best self sometimes and I
might not respond the best way and even when I was in the classroom as a teacher for 10 years there were times that I didn't respond to students the best way either and then the response I got back I was like oh that crossed a line so I think those are always going to be the hard thing that we continue to work on
in our practice as well because we have to remember that these behaviors come from somewhere right and so by working both with staff to recognize oh hey what's what's going on in this kid's life and working with kids to recognize hey when I have a bad day what's the
right way you know what's an appropriate way to respond or where can I find that help or support that I need that's really what our job is right is working with both sides of it and trying to help align so I think that's always going to be a concern but that's why it's so important to have us in the buildings
because that's we're working with kids right so yeah you I appreciate the question because it's focused on success and we have seen success I want to lead with we believe that
behavior when there is a behavior incident it is the result of a skill deficit and not willful Disobedience and so when we talk about our our successes they come from teaching and that is what our our um full-time Deans at the
elementary have given us is another person who can proactively be teaching our our social workers so I'm kind of jealous of the high school when I heard about the levels of support um we do have a social worker at the elementary and as of last year we have a Dean but
the social worker um has a pretty Full Slate of students um to whom they are beholden because of IEP minutes and so doing a check-in checkout or adding additional supports with the social worker is pretty limited having a a Dean
in each building Mandy does so much proactively she doing checkin checkout even for attendance kids just giving kids one more person to say we're so glad you're here and I'm checking to make sure that you're here also for Behavior she spends lots of time in the
lunchroom which is a more unstructured time of the day and on the playground which is another more unstructured time of day so as we continue teaching and putting supports in place and interventions in place um the biggest
success is that we have have a level of support right now that that is being proactively done and consistently done the questions yeah thank you I really appreciate the the descriptions and how you frame the the conversation more on
the positive more on the education and uh identifying that it's not a willful Disobedience it might be more of just a lack of the specific supports in the building blocks to help our Learners I
appreciate that um I have a question on the incident codes there's some Nuance within some of these different areas are there a set list of definitions for every single one of them so first of all uh
discrepancy by level um some codes are used at secondary level some at elementary level um based upon um the type of behavior that we're monitoring or more commonly experiencing um that we are uh addressing so we we have the
ability and we've been utilizing um as Dr zush talked about earlier we had our codes that we were utilizing and I think it was Katie that mentioned uh the use of edge climber now uh to record and so we continue to work on consistency with
that um across our system to make sure we're we're Rec recording occurrences of behavior in a similar manner at each of our elementaries and obviously at our Middle School campus and at our high school um so those codes are uh codes that are the most frequently used codes
as is noted here okay thank you um realizing that there's not a whole some not defined definitions if you will um for some of these um can you talk about what would be
considered because I'm I find this fascinating um what would be considered well first of all a technology violation especially like in elementary what what would that be I threw glue at the
Smartboard like I I I justest but I'm not justing I mean I don't especially at the elementary level during um media for example we had a student who went in and somehow got into other students accounts and was deleting some of their projects that to me that would BEP yep and not an
iPad thank you so that would be a technology if they maybe have an iPad out and they're on something they're not supposed to be or I mean I would say they're at least I can only speak to five Hawks few um but that would be an example more so iPad use at elementary
level I'm not seen a lot with cell phones or anything at five Hawks so again I'm only speaking to five Hawks but it would be more iPad misuse I think a general thing that we could say when we go back to the elementary it might look concerning that
there's a high level physical aggression but we consider anything to be physically aggressive so if kids are in line and one pushes another and it is referred to us because maybe it's been a multiple it there's been multiple reminders to that
child we put it under physical aggression so I do want to manage expectations that it's not a fight it's not bloody noses it's not punches which sometimes they are but a kids that are moving fast and there's great desire at
the elementary level to be first in line and so if you're running there and you push somebody um that falls under that category of physical aggression and that's where I think the middle schools working together are are
starting to standardize their practices in the high school as well this is where we are continuing the work at the elementary level because um it's a little bit different at every building and so we are continuing the conversations
including how should we be recording data for children that already have supports in place through an IEP how about children who are in the mtss process and are receiving support from a Dean or a social worker um and so we're continuing those conversations this year
and into next year thank you for that and I have two more definition kind of questions on the high school slide in particular academic Integrity what what does that mean that's a great question so um if a
student was plagiarizing a paper cheating on a test or quiz okay um using someone else's work as their own that would be academic Integrity okay and then um thank you that makes sense um
the physical aggression the you know um fight altercation things like that do you know is it mostly student to student are there um student to teer you know kind of physical aspects I know you were talking about you know I want to be a
big shot so I'm just going to shove my friend you know through the hall you know versus I I'm I'm hurting a teacher or I'm hurting a staff member I'm I'm and I don't know if there's a way to if there's a way to do that I'm just
curious if sure a lot of that is happening I can only speak to the high school um the past two years I've never dealt nor has my team dealt with a situation where there was a student to teacher physical altercation typically
it's one student with one student um in these sort of physical altercations but to to Katie's Point um we also see a lot of play fighting like the shoving or the trying to do something really cool that turn turns into something way bigger than I think either student might have
thought it was so it's not always this malicious fight but either something physical that went too far but which we still code as a a physical altercation at the high school sir and I just wanted to uh I spoke
earlier about the uh additional support that we put in place a year and a half ago at each of our schools that had a center-based program um in serving our special education students we do have uh situations where the physical contact
between student and adult happens in some of those situations where we're working with those students on regulation of behavior specialized uh supports in place um so I don't want the impression to be that that never happens
um but we certainly are monitoring that and putting in systems to support those students with Behavior Support plans Etc sorry one more question I don't mean to take all the time at what point to your point Dan what point would would something
like this become I mean we get the notifications too about like the medical emergencies that happen in the schools and things like that so is that a different which I know not all medical emergencies are Behavior related I get that but is there a step two like if
something is a like a physical altercation or something like that where there's a step two where like medical personnel were involved or called to the school or there was like a what is it called shelter in place or something yeah I would I would say actually most
of those oh I was say speak to the multiple category because sometimes that's what you're getting to so she looking for multiple category identification where what's the lead and then what might be supporting categories yeah so um first of all I I wanted to
address uh the most typically the situation and I have each level represented so please there's something different that you would uh share here but most typically uh the responses that you're referring to the
shelter in place and those types of things medical situations we would describe medical situations and most of those situations that I'm familiar with where we've had to do those have been for that reason um we certainly have had
situations where there are um students that we are working to uh work through a particular behavioral situation that might cause us to do that we are going to be working in our um SRP process to roll out for next year where we might
call that a a hold or in hold we're holding our our position at the moment and not having passing time Etc um but we do have uh some of those situations that are those behavioral situations
but I would say very rarely I would just add that there are times when child is disregulated and out in the hall and if we call a hold or a shelter in place it is twofold it is for the Safety and Security of children and
it is also for the Dignity of the child who's disregulated you add anything to that very comment thank you other questions um go good go ahead I just want to say I really appreciate the
the reporting like I think that Dr Edwards you said this is kind of the first time it's been reported like this and in such in such depth so I appreciate all of you coming and sharing it it um I think as a parent of a high school
student I would agree that the you know I have heard from from my student that the incidences have gone down tremendously and so um I love hearing it I love the affirmation from the adults in the room telling you the truth he's
telling right um and so I think that one question is there is a little bit of differences between the um Elementary Middle School and High School the coding and all the things and
so uh is the is the desire for going forward that this will be reported similar so that we we see consistent reports like this going forward is that the desire yeah and actually that was a topic as you were talking about uh
earlier tonight uh in the business meeting around the Strategic plan and what are the next steps um to uh provide information um this would be an example uh that we would work to make a more common update uh to you throughout uh
periodically throughout the year U the in the sense of uh end of the year reporting it's probably going to be the most complete picture because um I think it would be safe to say that there are some uh documentation uh that is not complete
until the year is complete um but we will be bringing uh updates to you on a periodic basis and one last comment I just really appreciated the um focus given based on the studor results from
last year I I appreciate that that focused attention given by you know feedback that you reive from from stakeholders and and that there was positive change and success in that so um thank you for all your work in
that um I have a couple questions um for the elementary level for the non-exclusionary discipline that was passed this year in the legislature how do how does that impact um the data that we're seeing are you reporting ing the non-exclusionary
discipline the basis of non-exclusionary discipline is that they would be in our system and any Behavior incidences would be tracked but that we and the legislation says we are not allowed to suspend K3 what that tells us is we have to work
really hard to make sure we're putting the correct programming in place um director bullan to your point about there's some discrepancy with the numbers I haven't tracked the data over multiple years I know I've been in
education for a long time and behavior is always a part of the learning that kids do I would anticipate this is me and maybe I shouldn't even go there but we probably always have higher incidences at the elementary because we are where we put supports in place right
so we are the first recipients of kids and as we're teaching and as we're building skills and as we're developing programs to reach them where they are they're probably making some mistakes is that too bold to say
but I would anticipate that and so I'm not sure what the question around non-exclusionary discipline is so let me clarify my question so if a kid is running down the hall and throwing a chair not my understanding of non-exclusionary discipline is there's really nothing you can do about it is it reported um as a incident of I'd have to
go back to the Elementary disruption or whatever it might be yep non-exclusionary discipline is more directs our responses and not how we're tracking data so and I and I would just clarify that not do anything if a child is
disregulated to that level where safety is a concern this is not part of non-exclusionary discipline this is our data tracking for our purposes non-exclusionary is more based on our response okay thank you for clarifying
that and then for the Middle School um a question for the Middle School um uh regarding cell phones so we had some small changes in um cell phone policies this year what have you seen um as it relates to behavior as it relates to
behavior I would say that I haven't seen it like in general I haven't really noticed it as much of a problem in the buildings now do teachers have different in that happen in class absolutely I would say though that for the vast
majority of kids that would get a cell phone referral it's one conversation and it's done and it's never a problem again right do you have some kids who it takes more absolutely we had to do some different interventions that were more you know targeted for specific students that were struggling to follow that but
it wasn't ever anything that I think was disrupting the whole learning environment it was just individually for that student or the insubordination piece well I think think my question is have you seen um an improvement in Behavior with limiting the use of cell phones oh great and so I I think the
hard thing for me too right being my first year in the district so I think it's hard for me to speak specifically to the Improvement in the behavior from you know the previous year to this school year but anecdotally what I've heard right is that they haven't seen them as much in the hallways now I know
we are looking at making some changes next year right that I think are going to be really positive changes as well right because we're hearing again there are some kids who can't handle that especially at our upper grades mostly in our eth grade I would say and so by going through and making some of those
changes I think we're going to improve that piece of it in terms of behavior y thank you and then of course I have a question for the high school I can't exclude you and having a high having a high schooler I will have to say I would reiterate what um director bullan said is that I'm hearing a lot of positive
things coming out the high school so thank you for all your hard work um the question I have is when you look at your chart for different categories um one of the categories is tobacco is that also referred to as vaping yeah those well if
it's a tobacco Vape so um yeah alcohol or well so tobacco would just be nicotine products so a tobacco Vape not many cigarettes or any other form of tobacco being used and then other substances would fall under that
alcohol or drug oh so falls under alcohol or drug um well if it's a if it's a chemical Vape versus a tobacco Vape um and those are pretty easy to tell the difference between okay thank you um um I guess I have a question last
question for for all of you um are there any policies I mean we we as a border to implement policies that help make your job easier to put guardrails in place to um help with behavior is there anything that you would recommend um or like to see differently and that would help your
jobs in managing the behaviors Within in your your District I've personally used the policies quite often in working with families um and I am very grateful for those policies to reference back to um sometimes it can turn
into someone thinking it's an administrator or a Dean's um I can't think of the word Yeah well yeah like my I have something against their child or it's I'm making this decision solely based on
this one situation when I can turn to board policy and say actually this has been decided on um it makes the conversations more streamline so I've really appreciated the board policies that we have um off the top of my head right now I can't think of any that I
would like to see different verbiage or or or different um other than I use them often because I'm that type of person to just kind of have them in my back pocket if I need it um so I appreciate them okay thank you I'll just add this wasn't by Design but it is now as you bring
that forward uh both Kate and uh Katie are are two principal Representatives on the policy committee so they've been a part of uh revising and looking at the policies this past school year okay thank you sure I think I would almost Echo the
same thing for the policy piece that again I use them probably in their toughest situations honestly right it's the small behaviors that are I would say the easiest to kind of manage that on it's those tougher situations where I really appreciate the policy to fall
back on because there is a black there is a line right there is a line and we have to uphold that and so that's one of those that's easy to pull out and say hey this is the policy and this is what we have to stand on so I appreciate all the work that you do because policym isn't easy right so thank you for
that aside from policy I would just say thank you thank you thank you from all the elementary principles and staff members and teachers for the addition of full-time Deans it has been a game Cher so thank you for that support did you want to say something
Cher France if I may um yes so to director Atkinson's question just made me think of an opportunity to just kind of bring this forward again um there there is a strong desire for us to
change um our cell phone policy um which is something that we'll be bringing to the board to eliminate the usage of personal Tech smart technology namely smartphones smart watches earbuds K8 so I I will continually be putting those
drips and sound bites out all throughout the summer that is something that we'll plan to bring to the board in July with a revision um draft of um uh the personal use technology policy so that would be one area I think um that will
be very helpful as we move forward and I will just kind of extend my other toe the door that's open too to just um remind our community about our changes in our dress code policy I think that's going to be another po another excuse me
policy um that has some changes that also um increases our expectations for how students conduct their dress while they're at school um and I think I I love the um three PS namely partnership
um I'm not a fashion person um so I know there's a lot of stuff out there that from my dad lens I would have issues with um this would help me as a parent to have some conversations where it's no longer just the mean Dad no look your
school policy doesn't allow this either so I think that partnership on key aspects of policy um namely these two that are some significant changes that's also going to be a drip um that will start coming out next week and then we'll have some concentrated areas um as
we ramp up for August which is right around the corner folks or sorry I keep saying August um September right around the corner um for our families to be responsive to the changes and the supports that we'll be expecting to have um in the school system but also the expectation of supports from our parents
to adhere to that um I had um one question um and I know I probably not prepared to answer this but with educ climber and all this Behavior data when we're looking at the whole child how do you incorporate now this Behavior data
let's say into fast bridge and into the uh early release days and those discussions and things like that can you just kind of give me an example of how this is now being used um one of the points that I kind of made earlier was we are able to take that usable data and we've already
brought our data to the end of the year to our built team to our PST team that's working on interventions and looking at next year when we look at goals and outcomes and where do we need some more support where do we need to be more responsive so we're already taking the data from this year and really looking
at you know the different categories so for example might be gender might be where situations are happening so we're already breaking that down to be able to say okay what do we need to do for next year as we roll out this school year to really hit some of those areas that maybe are showing a trend or jumping out
so we're able to utilize that and we have already done that with two of our very big leadership teams um could you kind of explain how this also goes into academic outcomes for our PST we were looking at I mean you can maybe speak to Katie to a little
bit when we look at some of the behaviors we'll look at it's all encompassing so we might look at reading scores in fast bridge and MCAS and see if also there's any I come in a PST from a behavioral lens too so I can bring in that input of whether or not I'm working with the student or where are they in
our are they working in PST because it is a behavior need and is there a check in checkout so it kind of is two twofold and one thing that I would say is when you mentioned fast Bridge fast Bridge has Sabers which is um it's the there's
emo there's three different assessments that kids and teachers um take well teachers assess students students assess themselves and then what we're looking for is any discrepancy and what the students reporting and they assess three different areas and the one that's the
most useful to us is called School behaviors I forget the term um but overall Sabers wasn't giving us very usable data that we could use for our PBIS system where educ climber is like flag the bus Flags so does recess so
does lunch but also we looked at our data and it was no and again this is just five Hawks but we are having a large number of incidences occur in the classroom so and then we also were seeing some discrepancy among gender and and discussions around how can we use
this data to make sure that every students experience is the same does that answer your question I don't necessarily have data that can say this is what we did and it impacted learning in this way I think we're doing
other things that are impacting learning we across the board all seven elementaries introduced calming Corners this year and last year we rolled out zones of Regulation and as we continue to build skills in our kids to regulate their emotions and to give them tools to
do so that's actually going to impact their learning more than maybe this large scale data that we're talking about tonight does that make sense that's actually what I was asking about so you answered how it all kind of fits together to create a picture of the whole child yes we're not just looking
at different pockets and yeah and I assume that that is probably translated at all levels at middle school and high school then yeah and one thing that we do that I don't think that is being used at the middle school or the high school because it's for us is responsive classroom so PBIS is the whole school
responsive classroom is classroom Centric we've added zones of reg regulation and we rolled out calming Corners so there have been some really good supports that we're putting in place at that tier one level and I'll just chime at at the middle school level too because I think
it really fits in there when we're doing that early release those early release days and our teachers are digging into the data we've been giving the teachers academic data but then also attendance and behavior data so when they are working in those learning teams at grade
levels they have a more full picture right so if I'm working with a seventh grader and they're struggling in my class well let's pinpoint that reason right is it because of their attendance or oh look at all of these Behavior referrals they're having so there's some
need there that's not being met right and that's where we start to at work with our teachers then on what are interventions that we can put in place right what are those things that we can do to help support whatever skill that deficit that that student has whatever need they don't have being met over here
to then help them be successful academically in the classroom and so I think this is an important piece of our data for our teachers because it does help us get that whole child view because sometimes it's not that math piece that's hard it's X Y or Z over here that I don't understand how to do
this and so by helping them again with emotional regulation right or with realizing that I blurt this much and I'm not paying attention right we can have interventions that we can work with staff and students on to help develop those
skills um and I'll just add one last piece at the high school um I think where we do this best is with our nth grade bar model um in our bar weekly teams we're having teachers meet weekly and then administ administrators Deans
counselors social workers meet additionally to talk about what our teachers are seeing um and the improvements that we've seen as a building in being able to look at the whole child attendance academics and behavior and how they're all interconnected and where we can plug
those right people in um I think that's where we're doing it the best and our goal is to extend that um building wide I believe that we started doing that this year in some of our early release time within our learning teams um and we're hoping to continue that work
because we're seeing some really great things come from our nth grade cohort specifically I have another question I did I had one more question I'm sorry this is what happens when everybody talks and asks really good questions they think of more so I remember sitting at flag football one day back when my
kids played flag football when it was sleeing and raining and they made us play and I remember saying to myself I'd love to see the data on Monday morning you know the amount of kids that have colds and weren't there because every I
love flag football don't hate me but I was like why are we doing this but my point is when you look at the whole child and you look at all of the factors that could be going into these behaviors I'm wondering about does your data are you able to pull things like
environmental like what's going on and time of day when some of these behaviors are happen and what's going on in the world in the school in life that day was it a full moon that day was it you know
like and again I joke but not kind of because it's like what was going on you know were a bunch of kids staying up late watching the Timberwolves the night before and they're exhausted and so they're going to act out or whatever the case may be I'm just kind of wondering are mechanisms in place with
this data to kind of pull environmental factors I'm going to jump in I'm going to jump in on the full moon cuz yes that is a it's a phenomenon it's a real phenomenon in the school 20 plus years as a school administrator I can tell you a full moon has an impact yes my colle
would agree um but yes uh that is part of the analysis of data that uh was referenced earlier with educ Climer and our ability to look at uh when I think I think it was Katie that was speaking of this um about edge of climber and
looking at the data I knew was one of you was speaking about this earlier um and how we use that to determine uh where incidents are occurring among which Collective group time of day uh that's all important data
to help us problem solve uh and decide how best to support the student or students or groups of students uh around uh their needs in the behavior area so most definitely that is data and data that uh each of these folks have spoken
about how they bring then to the they as an administrative team or a PST team uh bring to the teacher uh level as well I have one more comment not a question but I wanted to just say um I think it was you Kate that you mentioned
there the alignment across the district on how behavior is being dealt with and I just really appreciate that and just because you mentioned um football I will always give props to our football program and how the you know it's when
there is alignment across whether it be top down or across it just builds the the strength of the program um I just I really appreciated that so however you can continue with this as as you said
this kind of new reporting but having that align from middle school or Elementary Middle School and High School um it makes a big difference because you're dealing with the same thing and um you have all your colleagues that can
help give different uh Vantage points and inputs and I I just really appreciate that work that you're putting into it because um behavior is big and it it impacts so much so thank you for all that I just have one
question please you want you want to play football is about football to have that all handled and it's not about football my question is um like we always sit up here and talk about if it's Corporate America we just buy a new system and Katie you had
mentioned it at the very beginning that you didn't have a very good system in place and then we got edge of climber is there anything better I would say it's serving our purposes It's been a vast improvement over what we have been
using uh director berck I I'll um chime in on that too um we are looking at resources or I should say the tools that our staff have at their disposal to be able to effectively support them and their roles and their leadership to
supporting our students um with regards to to uh behavior in student engagement um so there's a practicality piece that um uh you heard some of our elementary colleagues speak to about finally leaning in together on on a similar
platform um we are looking at other platforms as well um that might Al allow for that same practicality and functionality but enhanced visualizations and or cost savings because we might build umbrella that
under a singular um vendor as well so you know bottom line is we want our staff to have have every tool that they can possibly have in their in their tool belt um to supporting our students um while at the same time ensuring that we
are maximizing the return on the utility of these tools and if there's ways that we can find savings and not lose the practicality and the engagement and support then we'll continually explore that year-over-year as well any other comments or questions
all right I want to thank you for the very detailed and robust presentation and uh the enthusiasm with which you actually presented that was um heartfelt direct and um and extremely
helpful uh to to myself I I think I think others feel the same way so thank you very very much for the time and effort you put into this thank you yes and thank you to our team thank you yes okay
um so moving on board governance policy we have no policies uh at this time and then I'm going to go to superintendent relations just want to put out one more plug around two key policy changes that um we one that we'll be bringing to the
board we that you would have to take action on that um but pertaining to cell phones and another around our dress code and just really wanting to make sure our community stays in tune with these conversations throughout the summer as um this will have a big impact on our school communities um and that we
believe will be a great support in um bringing Focus back to that instructional core um and less distractions so more to come on that um for transparency and for clarity can you um give um clarification of the timing of those policies um particularly
because we don't have our policy committee um and I'm assuming then it has to go through the normal cycle of readings um and because we don't have that policy Committee in place right now so so the dress code is clarification on the timing of that policy coming forward
dress code is already done so that one's not coming forward um but the cell phone policy that we would like to bring forth to the board um we would bring it forth to the board on July 8th for year first View and then in August 12th I believe
for your second view which um we would ask that you take action and should you be supportive of the action that would still be in time for the start of the school year um we would oh say we would also be in uh keeping our current policy committee AB breast of these changes so
that they could weigh in on some of this along the way knowing because we don't officially meet until after August 12th correct but just know that this is something that we'll try to do you know via email and virtually to get some of that feedback from that committee I
would also say um I'll just full disclosure I feel very strongly about making some significant changes to really address what we are continually hearing on multiple reports about the impacts of personal technology in our
classrooms and I um just want to say that it's something that um we wanted to make sure that we could bring forth and and address um you know start of next school year so we will simultaneously be uh working at each School level to address the handbooks
changes that would also be possible um uh possible changes that would have to be reflected in those handbooks so when we do bring it to the board for action and it's something that you would choose to be in support of then our handbooks would be ready as well so
we're not doing that at the 11th hour so and if we don't change then we have work to be ready to prepare for maybe another conversation of maybe some things that would need to be set in motion or in place before before said change could occur so um not to be presumptive but
just wanted to let you know the process of kind of where we're Atman I this um question for director Herman um in my recollection we do review the handbooks every year and vote on them um chair Frans that is accurate and
that will be coming forward in August I believe is what we determined okay so that is the student handbook as well as the individual policy that supports the handbook or is that the handbook just referencing the individual policy uh chair frano be both okay thank
you um okay so uh informational items uh I've got a couple here one is the one that's listed in your uh agenda item and that is um now that we are going to be
uh completing hopefully everybody will be completing our board our self board our selfs survey um then normally we discuss those in a retreat and so our next board meeting is
July 8th and so I am asking if the board would be um agreeable to having the second half of that board meeting be a board retreat to discuss the results of our self- evaluation I'm open to
that I would just question why it wouldn't be a study session versus a retreat um especially now knowing that we have a cell phone policy potentially to review as well um would it make more sense um to have it as a study session so that it's one it's recorded for the
public because a lot of the public doesn't attend meetings in the summertime because they're on vacation particularly July 8th because people a lot of people are coming back from Vacations so I would just I think for my own um I I would prefer it be in a study
session versus a Retreat and I'd like to understand why it would be a retreat versus a study session okay so first of all when we do a board study session that is usually on um School District business and it does require staff Etc to be present when we do a retreat we
don't have to have the staff here because the board self- evaluation which has nothing to do with the cell phone policy it is strictly our own survey that has been sent out where we evaluate our Effectiveness as a board and we speak a board so um um that is our own
um uh communication and therefore um it does not require staff to be present so they can be freed up for the night uh and um we have traditionally done this as a retreat for that purpose so that staff board um technology people Etc are
not burdened with that particular event but it is still held in the public it was a retreat last year too a retreat the year before aware um but it is still very much held in the public because we are forming a quorum I'm aware and I guess the only
reason I made that comment is because with Dr Thomas referencing that we'll be reviewing a cell phone policy my question is is that I guess I was when I read this that you said setting a date I was assuming that it would be a different date than the July 8th date
and um was suggesting a study session so that we could do things like review the cell phone policy and then review the cell the self-evaluation and we have other future agenda topics that haven't been covered that need to be added to the agenda as well that are pending so I was
suggesting um a study session versus a board retreat because it sounds like we have some business to cover in July let me um so we could add another study session to cover that business that wouldn't be an issue but the retreat is just for only for there's no board
business discussed other than um other than uh our own self-evaluation so that is singled out on purpose if we if the board wants another study session to continue talking about uh um the uh
other business items where the staff is present then I'd like to kind of bifurcate those two issues and first talk about the retreat and then if you would like to suggest a study session then we should discuss that and see if the board wants to do that but the first question that I have is
uh do does everyone here want to end the board meeting because remember July 8th is a board meeting not a study session and go retreat at that time thereby releasing the staff to talk about the results of our selfs survey I'd rather pick a different date
to be honest with you okay like our meetings are getting decently long and I hate to rush through anything on the eth um and then know that okay now we get to the end of that and we just don't have any more energy to go through a Bo of l i get it so I mean I know times are hard for people to get together but if we put
a date out there and that's just my opinion anybody else chair France I forgot to tell you earlier I will actually be out that week okay so anybody else I mean I think if
we stick to our regular kind of calendaring a study session would happen on the 22nd anyway I mean there's not one now I know that but I'm saying like if we follow what we usually do
every other week then it would be the 22nd is what I'm saying okay so if we wanted to do a study session the question that I have on the table just the first question is if we don't want to do the retreat uh after the July 8th board meeting that's fine that was my
first question do you does the board want me to send out some available dates for a retreat and then do it a separate setting completely yeah I think so I think toie sorry director bernick's point that
meanings AR again right long these days and with heavy subjects so I think to save brain power second just can't we just have it as a retreat on the 22nd and not have a work session we could I could send that yeah I can send that out via email I will confer with Martha to
try and figure out uh if there's any other barriers uh for having the meeting and people being out or whatever and then I will send out some available dates because we don't actually have to follow if we're going to do a retreat we can make it any day um so I will just
send out a series of dates and if people want to suggest one that would be fine uh that would be great okay so we will not have a retreat after the board meeting on July 8th which I am perfectly fine with um and then um we had another
item um that I just want to say for informational purposes and that's that as you aware I did change the uh standard response um from the board uh when people come into the board in my role as board chair so you all received
that uh that went out a few weeks ago and we actually got two compliments on it from people in the community so um and I would like to have a conversation I want to know when board communication protocol is going to be on the agenda because it's been pending since April
and you have no authority to make that change as a board chair board communication protocols were set by the board in 2016 at a November meeting by the entire board and you as chair have no right or authority to make a single decision to
instruct a staff member to make that change or do you have the authority to change the messaging that's going out to the community that is on behalf of the board so I believe that we need to get back to what the full board agreed to
which was communicating or discussing board communication protocols and we need to add it on the agenda so that we can fully discuss this we can add it to the agenda um I will tell you that my conversations with the msba and our current policy and the
fact that I as chair respond to um policy 202 so we're specifically does it say in 202 that you have the authority to change the chair a protocol that is on
behalf of the entire board SK School Board communication protocols because personally I think the response is rude it doesn't show that it's a timely response which since 2016 our board chair has been able to respond in three
days in a timely and respectful Manner and honestly CH friends if you can't do that then why would you go about changing the protocol I'm going to ask that we not discuss this now because it's not on our agenda um I have an opinion on it too and we can save it for
that conversation perfect thank you um and we can I assume if all are in favor add it to our agenda can Absol it would be the will of the board so those who you know it was an informational item I
wanted to make sure uh most people had already known about it um and it did follow policy but um and that's why I was bringing it up so if we want to continue with trying to find a time to add this on there the add board communication onto a uh study
session then we should do that it's already been approved it was approved in April it's been pending since April it was pending because of the three days and I asked for board communication protocols we can do that
to be on the agenda want on the we have three people who do okay perfect okay I just appreciate in the meantime that you at least I don't know if you have the ability to change it she doesn't I'm sorry over I checked with
msba as well okay we might talk about that at our session yes we'll talk about but what I would say is it's really nice to at least not have a number out there if we're not able to meet that because um people's lives are definitely not as not everybody has 48 hours in their day
so I appreciate that you're able to just at least take care of something in the meantime until we can get to it because we do have a lot of other business to get taken care of so it's okay to instruct staff to make a change as an individual board talking to you about that right now thank you just curious keep repeating um so any other future
agenda topics on the next area anybody else okay with that uh we are going to adjourn the study session into a closed meeting to for the purpose of discussing negotiation strategy since this is an a formal meeting we don't have to adjourn uh but we do need to
clear the room for the closed session all right