e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e this regular meeting of the Independent School District 535 School Board is
called to order at 401 p.m. on Tuesday August 6th 2024 in room 137 of the Edison building the board acknowledges this site and all RPS sites are situated on the ancestral land of the Dakota people and we honor the Dakota Nations
and the sacred land of all indigenous peoples present at this meeting are school board members superintendent Kent pel a non- voting EX fio member and assistant school board clerk Miss Lorie Sam Miss Sam would you please call the [Music]
role here here here here at this time we offer the opportunity to say the Pledge of Allegiance I PL aliance to the flag of the United States of America America and to the Republic for which it stands one
nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all item 2.1 is approval of the agenda are there any changes to the agenda move approval second it has been moved and seconded to approve the agenda all those in favor say I I any opposed
the agenda has been approved the agenda and document for this meeting are available at Rochester schools.org assembly item three is comments to the board it is important for the school board to hear from our stakeholders regarding issues that impact our
students staff families and schools we welcome communication via email phone call at our community engagement listening sessions and here during comments to the board the purpose of comments to the board is to give community members an opportunity to provide input directly to the school
board about issues that fall within our Authority the board and superintendent do not respond directly to the speaker's comments during the meeting but may follow up with the speaker if requested and appropriate persons who want to make comments to the board must fill out the online request to provide comments to
the board form by 5:00 pm on the Monday before the school board meeting to sign up for a time slot the form is available on the RPS website and on our assembly main page a reminder that policy 206 and procedure 206a set the the time place and manner procedures and restrictions
on comments to the board by participating in the public comment period each speaker agrees to abide by this public comment procedure speakers when your name is called please come to the table if you have written materials for the board please provide them to the assistant school board clerk prior to your remarks
and she will distribute them to board members choose a microphone to speak into and be seated please direct your remarks to the school board you will have three minutes to speak and the timer will be displayed in front of me please begin your remarks by stating your name our first Speaker tonight is
Angela sness e e e e e e e e e
our last meeting or any information to share director Marvin uh just briefly um number of of us have been able to were invited and were able to uh visit elementary schools where they were uh conducting the dis summer of Discovery
program for elementary school students and at every school we went to and a number of us um showed up the kids were engaged they were learning they were having fun the staff there was enthusiastic they were wonderful and
um seldom have I seen such compl completely Universal agreement that this is a valuable program both in terms of kids uh advancing academically uh kids getting jazzed about school and how cool
it is and teachers actually getting renewed even though they're they're working through the summer uh because of the opportunities that they were able to provide for these children so thank you Miss Ike and your team for continuing that wonderful
program Watchman um another Community Education thing um I attended the 50th celebration of Community Education on Saturday and it was a really really hot day and there shouldn't have been a lot of people
there but the place was really teaming with kids their and their parents the activities were great there were a lot of volunteers and I think this was just really a smashing success and I was really pleased to be part of it
I also attended the uh summer of Discovery Olympic event and um just as excited as the students were the staff um as well and to see that staff give um uh more time um over the summer to spend
with these kids and um and the parents were also there that day as well and what was great is to see their reaction to some of the uh artwork and some of the projects that the kids did that were displayed in the hallways um and uh it it's a it's a really great program and I
know that there's a lot of extra work that goes into it so we we were really happy to be able to see that director mlon um not a committee update but um several of us including the chair and vice chair attended the um msba summer seminar program yesterday
and it was it entitled effective leadership for Student Success uh when I saw that title when I registered I was really excited because I it and it did not disappoint that it educated board members in a professional development way with speakers and
breakout sessions about how board in board governance can play a role in increasing Student Success in our district and it was really really really informative I'm really glad I intended all right so now we'll move on to the consent
agenda items 5.1 through 5.8 um what or a consent agenda would any board member like any item removed for separate consideration move approval second it has been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda all those in favor
say I I I any opposed the consent agenda has been approved item 5.1 is our Focus topic rethinking funding options overview part one this is an information item the first of a series of items on this topic
superintendent pel thank you chair Nathan and board members um as we've got um some colleagues who come up uh to give an overview of this work in progress as board members know well um our strategic plan has been rolling out in three waves
over the past two years and now we are in the FI third and final year of the change initiatives that are designed to create system transformation in Rochester Public Schools and prominent in that third wave is what we are calling now rethinking funding or less
poetically modify funding formulas and this really is about making sure that we are allocating our resources in particular our people and our money and our time in ways that support the academic interventions and the learning supports that we have launched over the
past two years we have intentionally waited until year three to launch this work so that the horse um that is in front of the cart is the academic agenda and that what follows is how we allocate resources to support that academic agenda and so the board is tonight
beginning a robust series of discussions to look at that issue over the next several months tonight we are going to walk you through an assessment that our team has conducted that a working group of community members has contributed to and that a firm we have been working
with has helped us analyze through data analysis and also stakeholder engagement of our current state tonight is mapping out where we stand in terms of how we allocate resources in Rochester Public Schools and a bit about how that fits
into the national approach to school Staffing and funding in your next uh Focus Topic at next week's regular board meeting we will look at a an approach or you might say a paradigm to funding and Staffing schools that is quite different
than the one we currently use in Rochester Public Schools and so tonight to simplify things as current state the uh focus in your next meeting is alternative State and then we will be bringing you more specifically I will be bringing you a recommendation later in
the fall that uh Maps out a course for uh change in Rochester Public Schools um we've had a couple of board members who've been participating in the community group that's been learning about uh this and providing some valuable reactions so certainly we uh in uh invite those board members and I know
they will to join in the discussion but we thought this was important to bring the rest of the board up to to a common understanding of where we are of some alternative approaches that we'll dig into in our next meeting before we turn to possibilities for change so let me start out by uh asking of course John uh
needs no introduction asking our three folks to uh introduce themselves especially since I think this may be some board members first chance to meet Peter Christopherson who's been behind some good work that the board has benefited from um and then we can jump into the presentation okay thank you uh I've seen
all of you most recently with the budget uh Andy kogon Director of Finance John Carlson chief administrative officer Peter Christ offerson data clearing house manager and the department of research and Improvement and um we should have had Denise Moody our director of innovation
with us tonight although due to personal illness she's not able to be here so uh we are going to carry forward uh without her and uh look forward to talking to you a little bit more about this so first I wanted to uh just reemphasize that we are the IC uh building block at
the bottom left of our uh chart that we've seen for many months we are modify funding formulas although we have adapted our name to rethinking funding um as we've been moving forward the last few months when we uh last brought this to you uh in April on the 19th uh to be
exact we talked about uh having a system that would have these characteristics uh when we come back to you in December for approval again we've talked about this a couple times and we this is the first of six more iterations of U getting to a critical recommendation by the
superintendent uh to you by December but we are hopeful that the policy that we bring forward at the very end uh will be a policy that's effective efficient Equitable coherent meaning we can understand it um it's predictable so our
school leaders know uh what they have to work with and what they don't have to work with that's transparent uh that uh is easily accessible we're thinking through ways to uh share the data and then uh is responsive u meaning that we are seeking input and feedback from a
vast variety of stakeholders we as we undertook this project realized that um we are a lean Finance team uh that uh does a very good job we have um great uh track record of success in uh audits but we don't have a
lot of excessing Staff in our department so we were seeking a technical assistance partner to bring more of a Nation wide Statewide perspective to our work and also just help us with the physical work of crunching uh the data and running uh multiple models for us
and that's the fun work that we're um almost up to behind the scenes that um we'll be uh working on next but uh afon Partners was selected as that work they've done a lot of work across the country um they've been in 39 States DC
and PTO Rico with their work Assisting School Districts so why the funding redesign um I've been in this job now for almost a decade um sitting here helping the superintendent and the school board uh manage finances at resser public schools
and about 7 to eight years ago we did do a lot of work in coming up with a uniform model of funding our K through2 comprehensive schools so uh we call that our budget allocations guide and it's taken a few uh tweaks along the way but it's largely consistent with how it was
developed uh about 8 years ago um that's actually was a good thing it actually standardized we don't have a lot of variation what we have is a a system of schools that are funded uh very equally and very similarly meaning when you walk into a school you're going to see a
principal you're going to see an office manager you're going to see a certain number of Education support professionals you're going to have teachers based on the exact numbers of kids in those buildings and there's other variety of supporting positions that we um staff at our schools now the
downside to that is it does limit some flexibility our principal leaders who are very creative and very um intelligent people often come to us with ideas on how they could use the Staffing uh different and we've at times said no for example uh we have in our funding
policy that each school will have an instructional coach um some principles want more of that some principles want less of that but we have allocated through our staff development budget a certain amount of FTE for instructional coaches and they can't use that uh to staff a school social worker or school
counselor or more music teachers if they wanted to do that what we know about Rochester Public Schools is that we are a a a varying um School District um our buildings look uh quite different and what we created this just to give a visual of how different
our schools is this is not to suggest these are good schools and these are bad schools or this is a better education at this school or a better education at that school what we're simply trying to do is emphasize that there is a wide VAR uh variety of demographics and outcomes
within our schools our schools look different but yet we staff them with the same model um so at our elementary schools as an example uh the data points uh say students of color Bamber Valley has 27% of our students that identify as
students of color whereas Riverside Central has 70% our Proficiency in math uh on the low end Riverside at 133% on the high end Washington at 7 73% our reading Prof proficiency as measured by the MCA a low Riverside Central at 21%
follow well at 74% and we could keep going through that but I think you can get the gist from there in our Middle School we see maybe just a little bit tighter in our data but there's still a wide variety of schools uh we have four large comprehensive middle schools are about
the same size and then we have the sixth to eth grade program that's about 150 students at Lincoln and so again you see that there are differences in data ranging um in all of those U objective measurable data points when we get to our high schools I
do see that the bands at least my eyes tell me that there're they're they look more similar but there is still variation even among our high school students of color again 37% at Mayo uh to John Marshall at uh 50% with Sentry then obviously in the middle um
proficiency again 22% to 46% in math and 54% to 62% in Reading uh you will see though the interesting thing multilingual learner support so the number of students that are needing those Services is very tight very
similar across all three schools as well as the special education percentages have Peter talk about the next two all right so we wanted to get some authentic feedback on how the current system is working for the principles and so Dr pel tasked me to go
have authentic conversations uh in contrast with a survey being sent out and clicking some boxes or something like that so it was my job to go meet with principles I scheduled half an hour meetings um 27 of them being on site to Virtual a lot of times it ended up being
an hour an hour plus had a lot of really great conversation on these points um yeah I think that's probably good for that slide so what did they to talk about we were not surprised to hear as we mentioning as John's mentioning with
the the budget the Staffing allocation guide that sometimes the principles are running into periods where they're wishing they could do something different with the staff but they have to stick to the guide and so they felt that their ability to be flexible and autonomous was not not the level that
they were hoping for or liking um there's also a desire for more transparency there's different buckets or pots of money as there sometimes called where what can I use what where does this come from what can I use that for so wanting more transparency on those
aspects um there's also a wish to know what's loose and what's tight what what can I play with here what can I be flexible with and what do I need to make sure um is is in place and so and what is the district in to fund versus what do I have to fund so there's questions
there that maybe haven't been asked they're they're not sure what to do about that and then finally and this this was a very strong point um you know the with the goal being achieving academic outcomes greater academic outcomes we're trying to bring those
resources to the schools that really need it to be able to help the students that need it and the mtss work which I think you guys are familiar with that acronym um it can be difficult with scheduling and it can be difficult especially when you have a lot of
teachers that are traveling or their time is they part-time at one school part-time at another school and so if you're trying to schedule time to give a reading intervention to a student and your teacher is only there during certain times but you need to get them to you know lunch you need to get them
to certain classes that are required how do you fit that in that was one of the major challenges that they spoke of so if you remember when we talked to you in April the goal of this is to come out with a system uh that fully funds or
funds um within the formulas or within the resources we have our schools our programs and our Central administrative departments uh in Rochester Public Schools that support these three major areas uh we haven't fully landed on what the names of these three areas are going
to be quite yet but the the concept is funding for districtwide structures and strategies so um maybe think of that as required or base or something like that we're working on terminology funding for school School level autonomy and Innovation So speaking to that
flexibility that Peter was just saying uh where the principal has some choice and some flexibility as well as uh funding for our Central administrative departments our payroll our finance our HR um our facilities uh work that needs
to be done and happen uh more as a central service versus a school trying to figure that all all on their own so as we're thinking through a recommendation um which which is not made at all at this point um we all are
also trying to deal with um will multilingual learning and special education uh be more site controlled or would that be more centrally allocated but yet sight managed and so that's um part of the work that's ongoing right now these two columns on on this slide
really kind of um talk about the uh maybe the extremes of how uh the models are within our study or within our work work that uh Aton led us through there's on the left which is the student-based budgeting model which I'm going to talk about a little bit more in depth later but that's more like the Money Follows
the student and there's a whole lot of flexibility for the leader at that site to do what they think is best with the dollars the follow the students versus the resource allocation which more aligns with our RPS u k through 12 uh budget allocation guide which is more of
a standardized Staffing pattern where you get this many FTE because you are this type of school and you have this many kids in your school it's more of a traditional model um and I would say based on our learning that all districts are using some form of resource
allocation maybe it's even in the central departments um but there there's base levels of Staffing um even if you're in a student-based budgeting La so where are we um looking to uh go with a recommendation well what we want
is a funding um um policy uh that describes what you can do with the money that's in the middle there so you have who gets to make the decisions who has flexibility what flexibility is there and not there um on the left side we have funding allocations so this is kind
of more thinking through what's the formula what are the actual dollars or is it in staff FTE or how are how are the rules going to be built and then there's the whole budgeting process that we're trying to determine as well where is that point for um School engagement or stakeholder Community uh engagement
outside of the school um for making those decisions and What's the timing of this all I think I've talked to you before we're already started on the 2526 budget because you've already approved the long-term facility maintenance plan in uh July and uh so we're that's this
opening step of the 2526 budget so a School District budget um starts a year plus in advance and even takes six months after it ends to fully close it out so there's a lot lot of processes and a lot of time in working through these so just wanted to spend just a
little bit more time I sorry that this is uh a lot of uh words on one page it is in your packets as well but um some more of our learning work on student based budgeting for um example allocating the dollars rather than staff or materials so what we would do if we
were in a student based budgeting system is we'd say students generate this we take some to fund our Central administrative and and the rest follows the student and the principal has a lot of control over what to do with those funds um we'd have to decide on when we
would be um determining what's the enrollment count uh at this time of year the enrollment is fluctuating daily if you walk down the other end of the building uh there are lines right now at this time of year with people registering um uh for their students for next year we've made Staffing decisions
though back in March uh based on numbers that we had at that time so there are some adjustments are going to be made over the next couple weeks as we see uh enrollments changing again at this time of year uh we need to have objective and measurable student uh characteristics um
as we develop a formula in a student-based budgeting model meaning uh some of the examples are special education status multilingual learning status uh free and reduced price lunch status those are the types of inputs that are measurable and
objective one thing in our learning that we found out is this is a less predictable uh option for our leaders in our schools if there is declining enrollment um when your enrollment is going up you're usually then adding to your staff when your enrollment is going
down uh It's Quickly noticeable that you're needing to cut um within your building uh utilizes a formula to calculate funding for each school um I think that's pretty obvious uh Center the principal as the primary Financial
leader now there are variations of that where you can um have site-based decision um making groups um but ultimately the principle is in charge of the majority of the budget uh we as the uh Central Administration we would
manage calculations waiting and total dollars available um so it's consistently applied throughout the system um a student-based budgeting system can seem more Equitable and responsive to the students and the needs of those students that's part of what
our data why we're showing the wide variation uh I I would fully expect a school like River Side to look way different in their Staffing compared to uh another school and then transparency really will depend on the actual budgeting process
as those decisions are made on how to spend on the dollars available now contrast that with a resource allocation model um we U are very used to this this is very similar to how we St we staff on people we staff on FTE we say this
school gets one of these 0 five of that and we go on and on down the list I'll show you an example at the end um we can use objective and measurable student characteristics as weights and inputs but it's not uh a requirement and we honestly we don't do that until we get
to our multilingual learning Staffing and our special education Staffing and then we staff those based on the counts um that we have in those programs uh we can use utilize a formula to calculate the resources for each school again but not a
requirement we at the central Administrative Office are usually seen as the primary Financial uh leaders or the decision makers um and I think that also speaks to maybe part of the frustration that um Peter discovered as
he did his interviews uh we manage the method methodology and the total resources that are available each Staffing season so as we've talked about during um uh a lot during superintendent Mel's tenure how we've cut $21 million from the budget a lot of that is from
tweaking those formulas and then applying that um during the Staffing season um it can be seen as an equality focused and centralized system and I think that probably does describe our system we have a lot of equalness in our
system so our schools look very equal in what they have and how their staff and again transparency depends on the actual process that we run so all that set up to basically say here's the Continuum in our study you have a highly autonomous system on the
left maybe a school-based budgeting uh model on the left and you have a very um centralized uh system on the right and when afon looked at all the ways and all the um conversations they've had with us that put a little marker on the Continuum and said you're very you're
very far over here there's a little bit of flex possibility that's why it's not completely on the right side um but uh again we are a very centralized and equal based kind of allocation system today and here our um I'm not going to
spend a lot of time but this is the example of when I was talking about when you get one principal one office manager you get a literacy um or you get a library uh education support professional you get a kindergarten teacher grade one teacher so on and so
forth it just we it's not that complicated to staff our schools today based on the allocation guide that we have developed um over time we have a second model uh we usually apply these to our schools that are over 400 students we have all four of our middle
schools now on the same um Staffing allocation guide and then we have our three comprehensive high schools on the same Staffing guide so that kind of ends the the first installment of rethinking funding again we're going to be here six times before we get to a final recommendation final
vote um but we just wanted to open it up at this time for any discussion any questions we've got some prompts there but we don't necessarily have to use those if you don't want to Dr Marvin it's way easier to do it the way you're doing it now isn't it I mean I I
mean if just everybody gets the same honest honestly we can run a model very quickly and tell you how many FTE we need based on where the student patterns are yes I didn't mean that to sound demeaning what you do is incredibly complicated but it's just
it's you get this and and yes that's it correct um so the new approach I think um is really intriguing I think it makes perfect sense um I can see it's going to
be put a lot um of pressure on building leaders um I can also see that especially if somewhere in the budget process at each building there is some at least some shared decision making it could really be bring that school's
community and that staff together more with the idea that we get to decide what our kids will benefit the most from and that could be a real community building process director Workman so I was I was
looking at the um the notion of allocating dollars per building as opposed to the way we do it now so what would happen for example in a building where um they're going to need say
three uh three classroom teachers in third grade in one school the dollar amount would be maybe enough to cover teachers who are right out of school school with no experience versus
somebody with a lot of experience and an advanced degree who's going to cost more whereas today the model do it doesn't matter I mean in terms of how they're allocated you're hitting on a very fundamental question that we're still wrestling with that we
don't have an answer or recommendation to you yet uh but there are a couple different ways we can approach that where we budget continue on FTE we Budget on maybe average cost of the teacher so it doesn't matter as much or you can flip all the way over and say
this is the money that the kids in this building generated and this is the cost of the teachers in this building does it work or does it not work that would be the far extreme um and again we haven't landed on where the recommendation is going to be on that but there's a lot of thinking that needs to go into that and
implications and um talking about what could happen so we want we want to spend more time working on that before we come back I'm not surprised at your response but I thought it was important to to bring it out Dr Cook on that point
thinking about the the switch in potential allocation from staff for FTE to money and recognizing that there might be um some version of this where the the money is allocated in a way that's
reflective of the average cost of a employee type a person in that employee group but I'm just sort of gaming this out practically do we anticipate having flexibility for that level of decision
making under the agreements that we have with bargaining units or is that something that would still need to be explored you've just added a whole another level of complexity that we have also addressed in our conversations to date but we don't have the solution we don't know if the software could manage
that for us uh the tools that we looking at or if that's something bargained agreement as The Guiding document more so than the budget and so how we're going to address that is is something we are wrestling with we don't have the answer for that today superintend yeah there there are certain areas and
director cook you've been a really productive participant in this so I know you've been around there are certain areas in which um there are things that are pretty clear in my own mind about the recommendation I'll bring you that um that it's it's important for me to
articulate I I am currently taking our collective bargaining agreements for the development of this process as a fixed Factor such that what we are potentially know what we are definitely going to bring you will work with all of
our collective bargaining agreements now would it be possible to go to all of our unions and say we want to actually Implement a fundamentally different Paradigm uh that would be good for kids and good for staff possibly it would obviously be a tremendously complex multi-year process process because we would have to do that at the negotiating
table and given that the purpose of this effort is to allocate resources to our strategic plan and school Improvement I think the need to move forward expeditiously suggests that we should make the recommendation to you fit with our existing labor agreements but it's a
very important factor because that's a constraint as we think about what we might do um it it puts us much more likely and I think this could be a good place to be in the mid of that Continuum from centralized to flexible because you
have to make tenure work across a system um and and and many other provisions of our labor contracts and so just especially for any of our friends who are out there uh you know in our bargaining units I want them to know that I am largely seeing our contracts
as fixed parameters within which we need to bring you a recommendation over time could we work with our unions to change things here or there to fit a different model I think potentially but I think by the recommendation I'll bring you in
December we will assume that our existing labor Agreements are the parameters within which a new system has to work so in your um details on the resource allocation methods you mentioned that um the student based budgeting is less predictable if um
there's declining enrollment is there a is there a percentage threshold of declining enrollment where it becomes less predictable I mean the kind of variation that we've been seeing
recently has been you know pretty stable is there is there a point at which is it five is it 10% where it it's not a good option to use I if I can I've actually lived that it's the variation that the building level that becomes the key factor there
so it's not the variation at the district level we do a pretty great job of predicting our district level enrollment but when you're in a time of when the overall p is getting smaller your fluctuations in an individual building can be quite a large percentage of their enrollment and if you have a true per pup budgeting formula that's a
big swing year to year it's like 30 kids if if if we're not Staffing them at a by one FTE and 30 people you buffer fluctuation there by saying well you're not down enough to take a teacher whereas if you're in a true per pupil model the principal is sitting there
saying I lost 30 kids and I just lost those dollars straight out in that setting I think in particular in some Urban systems where they have had uh they've used a pure student based budgeting model and they um have had much we are basically flat in enrollment
um following the decline due to the pandemic or during the Pandemic those places have been in much more drastic Decline and that plays out in really big ways at the building level in a pure uh
model and then sometimes you have districts add this has actually happened in Minnesota you add a separate allocation to buffer them from the funding decline they would have gotten based on the enrollment and then you
literally see a a subsidy for a school who wouldn't get the level of resource because it's just untenable and they can't run the educational program so there is a the enrollment piece of this gets to be very complex I didn't mean to jump in if any of you guys want to do
this one but this this uh as we were making some of this journey when I was in St Paul schools that enroll that fluctuation at the building level um and our enrollment actually wasn't so much declining but we had a highly mobile student population at the time and so school-based budgeting in an individual
school at Ko Park Senior High School one year had so many unexpected kids show up we had to put five what we call Portables portable classrooms in front of that high school and those are not where anybody really wants to teach but
that was what you had to do on a dime the counter can happen too where you have five Portables fewer students show up in in a highly volatile situation so I would guess like you just said it would also be important for us to be monitoring for an individual
School housing developments or you know places where we might see a spike in families moving into a specific School area that could affect our budgeting so be on it's so it's enrollment on both ends it's increase and
decrease um so in the Continuum chart about um legal compliance only um highly autonomous how how is legal compliance with what we're
required to do by state and federal laws built into this like how do we communicate to principles know this is something you have to have this staff because you're required but how many you have might be
a flexible piece in our current state well or in in in a new model um I'm just racking my brain real quick in in a high school is where this plays out more um true today in that our principles know that they need to get their students
through a certain number of credits and they need to be in certain subject areas so they're Staffing um to make sure that every student has the opportunity to get what they need and then you stacking uh electives and other options on top of that at our elementary schools and
middle schools I think there's less um legal requirements in there other than there are maybe legal requirements that you have to meet IND individualized education plans you have to have special ed um staff available to meet the services that are required you have to have a PR
licensed principle in the building um but beyond that there is room for uh flexibility and that would be just reflected in the the guide to where autonomous decisions could be made versus what the district would say right
and then so part of the compliance could actually be RPS compliance like no we expect a certain core or required or base or something like that Dr Cook go ahead um I I guess I I think this
question is probably for Peter to the extent that there are some site funds available now when you discussed with uh with building level leaders did you discern any any patterns in the way that those resources are
allocated today or the the types of things that or or was there variation or was there was there any there I think a lot of it would be centered on trying to help with our literacy initiatives and if they had the
capacity or not to do that um for those schools not receiving title or or comp funds that's difficult to be able to meet those needs answer your question and and was that was that did it seem like that was
a common thing for the I guess probably most of the elementary um schools that you would have talked to or were there was there some variation that made sense to you based on the types of variations that we see already between our schools I would
say the most I want to say the word common which you keep saying variation so I want to make sure I'm on on topic for you but the most common thread for that I heard was when I have a05 teacher I'm not able to do what I want so I want
to make them a 1.0 but I don't have that flexibility that was probably the most common way that I could see them speaking and hoping to be flexible so that they could meet the needs of their students okay thanks did I answer your
question yeah yeah did thanks Andy maybe address did Staffing so yeah I was just gonna I was just going to add to that that we know in this in our district that the two major f funding um sources
flexible funding at the site level are compensatory and title for those school um if we took if we look just at compensatory we have a very wide range of schools that receive very little to those that receive a lot and I think I
think that's and that's going to still be the case because the state requires us to provide 80% so we're still going to have some of that flexibility um but what about the other dollars right they're getting a lot of compensatory on their other
opportunities so again none of that's been decided but I think the the challenge is when we have and I think we talked about this in one meeting where we have some schools those that receive very little compensatory and if they're not a title school they really feel like they have no flexibility because really
in reality they don't we tell them how many how staff they get and they may have a you know several thousand dollars but not even enough toay fors F in compensatory and then they have no title so they really don't have any possibility so you know those that's a
challenge that that school has where we have other schools that have compensatory and they're making very large decisions based on that available funding so there's already a little bit of inequity that perhaps exists um in funding with compensatory but again
that's a state program which we have control well very briefly it we can't and I I would say we wouldn't want to control the allocation of those dollars however there are by my last count 11 allowable uses for
compensatory the most common use of our funds that I found is buying down class size in our schools and there's some evidence around the merits of that but it's not a slam dunk um at all and so we
could in this new model constrain the 11 allowable uses for a compensatory down to three or four or we could conditionally say if your achievement is at this level you need to do you need to fund small group tutoring because lowering class size for a kid who is two
grade levels behind and can't access the curriculum is less effective than intensive small group tutoring and so um a small group uh reducing class size just leaves the kid lost in a slightly smaller more friendly environment I'm I'm oversimplifying things so even
within that compensatory we certainly will be thinking about bringing you a recommendation to really make sure we're targeting the use of those dollars toward effective educational practice right now we do not give guidance Beyond to chair Nathan's question legal compliance I'm confident that all of our
schools are using their their compensatory dollars which for those watching along those are dollars that flow tied to uh poverty um I'm confident we're spending those dollars in all of our schools on allowable uses I am not confident we're spending all of them on
effective uses for the kids that it's intended to address so that could be one of those areas where they still have the dollars at the site level but we are providing more parameters for uh some of our leaders but I apologize I just wanted to jump in on that Dr M um Mr C
said I had a follow up on something that you were saying to um in response to director Cook's question I know that there's variance amongst the schools for the title and the compensatory funds does that vary by these different um Elementary Middle School high school as
well or like just the high school as the example are all of those high schools pretty similar in those funds or is there that variety of money as so we have variations across those those grade levels or those sites as
well Middle School elementary so there's because it's all just a calculation it's pretty pretty cut and dry and are those variances similar among those different levels well our smallest just not for compensatory yes
but title uh funding uh we we focus ours in the elementary level in Rochester maybe you can differentiate between the two broadly well broadly title is a federal program of course we have the federal guidelines that we have to uh to to um and we then are able to
create our own to some degree create some criteria that then puts certain schools within the title program and we're allocating then those resources that fit the federal guidelines into those particular schools and not every Elementary School even qualifies for title necessarily uh Mo most of them no
would you say half maybe not even half qualified um a third probably is a better qualifi for title um every school qualifies for compensatory but we have um a school that has again very limited compensatory and no title and we have
other schools that have very high compensatory and title um it's it's how we use old dollars dr's Point uh that is has not been focused it's more wi but it's a very it is a very wide
range okay thank you any other questions for this presentation because we'll be having you come back great thank you very much and it's very nice to meet you yeah thank you our next agenda item is a monitoring
item 7.1 the high school environmental science standards implementation update superintendent pel thank you chair Nathan I I see uh Heather Wilman who's our uh director of academics at the secondary level coming up and Kyle Casper who facilitates our
work in um Math and Science um we were talking just a moment ago ago about um legal compliance and the state of Minnesota changed its science standards uh a number of years ago and uh put in place some requirements that we and every other school district in the state is expected to meet in terms of our high
school science offerings and so we have had a robust process that um Heather and Kyle have been leading and we are pleased to give you an update on the cours work that is just about to be offered so thank you
pH I was going to you know make a reference to the Olympics and say you know we're at the the finish line but actually we're at the starting point yeah because we're almost ready to launch this course so we're happy to share some details um we wanted to remind you that this came about because
of a change in academic standards and um we really had a collaborative process to think about where did these standards best fit and we thought a lot about should it be nth grade should it be 10th grade grade 11th grade and we ended up landing at nth
grade um so what we want you to remember about this is that our freshman this year will be required to take Environmental Science Biology and then chemistry or physics if anybody wants to because of course we're the land of
science uh thinkers they can take chemistry and physics but they don't have to they're not required to take those two and then we'll focus a lot on 3D learning and Kyle's going to talk a little bit more about what that looks like and what that sounds like in the
classroom so yeah just to quickly dig into the three-dimensional science standards these are based on the Next Generation science standards which is a national standards um developed about 10 years ago and 44 out of 50 states are
currently using standards based on those um the First Dimension is the science and engineering practices there's eight practices those are skills like asking questions defining problems developing models um the next Dimension is the
crosscutting concepts there's seven of those um that's getting students to think like a scientist and that is things like recognizing patterns cause and effect um structure and function and then the final Dimension is the content
that's the disciplinary core idea and in high school there are 14 of those um spread across three different subject areas um so this is a bit of a a bit of a shift um previously students took the MCA science test after biology and so in
the past that was after 9th grade U but since biology is shifted to 10th grade the students will take the MCA test after biology in the 10th grade um it doesn't mean that the ninth grade environmental science class isn't tested
uh because the same two dimensions of the practices and the concepts are practiced at 9th grade as well as continued in 10th grade as well as physics chemistry and the other courses and this connects to our strategic plan specifically deeper
learning because the students really build their identity and interests um through the practices the concepts and the content and there's plenty of room for the creativity as well as guidelines for the Mastery with these
standards um so back to the course the new class is about Earth's place in the universe this is those core ideas um so really looking big picture there's an astronomy unit to start off so starting outside of Earth um then it jumps into Earth Systems geology hydrology how the
Earth functions um as well as the atmosphere Dynamics and weather and climate and then Earth and human activity so how do humans impact our systems as well as utilize their natural resources so a bit about the scope um it
is a fairly large scope this year so there are 14 teachers that will be teaching this and then you can see the number of students that will take this course at each of these uh each of our sites um we do have a large number of teachers teaching it because some are
teaching biology or um chemistry or physics and then they might have a section of this so that's why we do have a a large number we think that's a good thing because there's a large number of teachers that have been a part of the training and um this kind of thinking
around the 3D science standards and then we wanted to take you back to the very beginning of this journey so this was a jam board that we used probably four years ago as we started to think about and dream about what could this course be for students
and so um you can kind of see that that we had a desire to think about Real World um we wanted a lot of Hands-On um a lot of the teachers talked about like let's make sure students can do science and not just learn about science and
that has really stayed true throughout the four-year process as we've developed this and of course that takes a lot of professional development so we'll talk to you about all the work that people have been doing over the summer yes so this June we hired a
professional trainer uh to train on our Polar Ice unit and this unit um is all about climate change and sea level rise and so the teachers uh spent three days going through the unit both as a student and as a teacher um this July we had a
few teachers participate in the earth science teacher education program in Mano that was focused on hydrology and um it was actually happening right when the flooding was going on so we got to uh experience what was going on with the dam failure and everything else there um
and next week we're going to um take a look at our discovering new worlds unit as well as have time to collaborate just on planning for this year um and this was one of the artifacts from June actually and it just shows that our goals for students
continue to be preparing students to be critical thinkers as well as to be collaborative problem solvers so all along our journey we really are focused on the same thing um so here's an example from one of our storyline units of a driving
question Board of how students come up with their own questions um after observing a phenomena in this case it was the sea level rise and then these questions are used to choose and guide the investigations um so here's an example
of what kind in investigation students would come up with to do and this would help guide what data to look at which is collected by scientists what data the students would collect um then they would argue from evidence as well as update their models and um be able to
explain from that so we want to make sure that we have ongoing support as we continue to develop this so um we'll have quarterly planning time because we know that it's since it's the first time we'll have things that we need to adjust um we really want to make sure we're
responsive to the students and hear you know what are the students telling us that's working for them and then what are some of the challenges um and we also want this to really evolve into what are the issues in our community that we could be studying um so we see that this will be a continued
collaboration and um it's probably not one of those classes where we develop and then we say okay we'll see you in 10 years and we'll check in on you but we'll probably be Contin doing each year to think about what can we do to make sure that we have that local
element and then finally we want to um kind of give you what some of the challenges might be um because we're changing our course sequence some of the teachers who will teach this course will only teach it next year and then they'll move back to teaching biology so we'll
have a very eclectic group this year of teaching it that can be great and that might might also be challenging uh we do have an earth science lead at each site that is sort of um kind of taking the lead on some of the planning pieces and so we feel good about that but that will
be a challenge um we also want to make sure that that student feedback is front and center so we need to think about what's the student outcome data that we can be looking at and then making sure that we keep the resources and the budget to bring this group back and
continue to evolve um and then again as Kyle talked about the 3D um teaching model it's complex it takes a lot of time to do well and so we need to make sure that we provide the time to think about how do we do that that kind of
teaching well and how do we get to application um this is much more about I'm taking these ideas but then I have to apply them in a new situation and so I think we'll need some time to work with that we invite your questions for
us Dr Marvin thank you um do I did I understand you correctly that the environmental science is the new course but the 3D approach to teaching is going to be used in all the science classes and are all science
teachers being um educated about how that may differ from what they've done before yes okay um I can give a little bit of information and Kyle might be able to add um in sixth grade um we have the Amplified curriculum but
that's also really using a lot of this inquiry based process and then seventh and eth grade um we're using some units called open SED but they all use that 3D kind of thinking um so you've got the the concepts and then um those
underlying ideas and they're all coming together so you'll see it in all of the areas of Science and Elementary as well um as you know you've had some conversation about elementary science and we'll be working there too yeah and it really is an ongoing
Journey because with the training um we really need to practice you know it's unfamiliar for the teachers and the students so it's really about you know what worked what didn't what do we need to change as we continue to move forward Dr Workman so on the first slide
you say in the 24 2024 25 school year freshman will take an environmental science course but then on the next slide it says freshman in the
2024 2025 school year will be required to take Environmental Science Biology and chemistry or physics so can a freshman take biology instead of the environmental science course they have
to take environmental science so the second slide is really the scope when they're in high school so they have to make sure they have environmental science uh they have to have biology and then they can take chemistry or physics okay so a lot of our students will take
that's the that's the whole thing as opposed to just for the 2024 202k you for students claric chemistry and physics and they might even add like an anatomy or an elective um so many of our students take five six seven science
classes um so that's that's sort of just the the picture of here's the the Musto and then they can go beyond that gotcha D MCL um I want to follow up on your answer to director Marvin's question when you were talking about the
elementary science and the middle school science that's what we're doing currently is that my understanding that part isn't changing is that what I'm hearing right we um we've been kind of working on this progression for four years or so so we started first at
secondary with sixth grade and then we moved into seventh and eighth grade and then now we've got nth grade and we still have some work to do I would say in 10 11 and 12 um to really think about what that 3D um teaching looks like if those and my reason for asking that is
it sounds like what you're saying then is that the students might have more experience with this from their progression compared to the teachers correct okay that's that's one of the things that I wanted that that might be a positive and that the students are used to that and then it kind of relates to my next question these um where you
are showing in the slides the students driving question board and the data investigations are these things that the students will already be familiar with then yes like you said so they've experienced these at sixth seventh and eighth grade this incoming group of freshmen has okay and these are kind of
like um classroom group projects is that how it's um these are uh model routines as a part of these storyline units so it's just kind of can you talk more about that I don't understand that um so typically they start with a phenomena the lesson starts or the unit starts with a phenomena something interesting
and engaging but not easily explained to get students interested and then they generate questions based on what their interests are and so that's the driving question board and I guess my question is that a small group or is it a whole class does that um the whole class does it but there's a lot of sharing of ideas
and it's it's very intive it's not meant to be you know one right answer but collectively the kids come up with a lot of great questions and they can also be you know nudged in different directions when we did the summer training um the the phenomena was that our Coastal
communities were flooding and there's many places where there's all kinds of flooding so we watched some videos we did a little bit of reading and we did that whole group and then small group or in pairs there was some conversation about based on these videos and this
reading what questions do you know have you can see there's a lot of tie to the literacy work because there's a lot of Reading Writing argument um backing up your ideas with evidence so what we see is that when that happens then you have
so much investment and engagement in the classroom it's really helpful thank you director cook did you have me y nope uh it's now been addressed so um where did students learn these topics before if at
all and is there any adjustment to the biology chemistry and physics curriculum because now they're putting it in the environmental science class yes so one of the reasons why we liked the idea of the ninth grade
environmental science is that um as the teachers thought about it it's sort of a culmination of everything that they've learned at middle school and then a jumping off into what else do we want to know about so um at middle school we have physical science and then biology
um and then we've got earth science in sixth grade and so a lot of the themes that they've heard about they'll hear about again in environmental but it'll be more depth and I think a little more integrated approach Kyle probably knows the sequence way better than me since he t
for a number of years and there's there's a lot more earth science standards added to the 912 so there there is brand new brand new things that were not necessarily required but students could have taken in an elective
um in high school in the past okay we also see that I think some students will take this course and then they take AP environmental science um so I think they'll get interested and then they might want to go even deeper into you
know the the students as you talk to them they are on fire about environmental issues and climate change and I think they're coming in with a passion um that's going to be really exciting um and almost I mean we might have to kind of hold them back because I
think they're going to be saying we want more of this can I make a brief point um one of the things chair Nathan that you saw as one of our uh sought-after characteristics of a new funding system is what we called
coherence and and coherence isn't part of it is just it makes sense you can understand it but on a deeper level it's that the pieces of the system fit together and so I think your question your question actually highlights something we should be very aware of as
we implement this change and frankly what is one of the great f failures of American Education which is that we Implement a change like this 9th grade in venal science and then we are not attentive to the consequences for biology and chemistry or Upstream in
middle school because we've inputed this one input and it took tons of time to do it and it's a huge heavy lift but we don't actually now think about what happens upstream and downstream from that one change in a coherent system you
are thinking about what does this mean for biology and chemistry what does this mean for middle school science um and we're making sure that those pieces fit together the state mandated the change in essentially the earth science ban and
now I think it's incumbent on us to be working with our teachers and uh administrators and others to be thinking about exactly the point that you're making so we don't have biology teachers launching into units that the kids are all saying we learned this in Miss wilman's class and that teacher is you
know that's not an unheard of experience for teachers in American classrooms and so I I really appreciate the point I think the same thing applies to our funding work it applies to our our school options design the system has to make sense to people so they can navigate
it Dr MCL um I just have another comment that kind of came to me in the sense that astronomy may be a good example of that they're going to learn about astronomy here and then I know as a parent of a Mayo high school graduate they've got a great opportunity there that could be like deeper astronomy y in the deeper learning concept and and
they're further along in the path and can get more involved in that learning so it's a great example thank you very much thank you so our next monitoring item is 7.2 superintendent evaluation leadership component for 2023 24 report
policy 205 requires that the school board summarize its conclusions of an evaluation of an individual who is subject to our Authority at the next open meeting following a closed session where the evaluation was conducted at a Clos session on July 23rd
2024 Schoolboard members conducted the annual evaluation of superintendent Kent pel Dr pel had three goals for which he was evaluated for the 2023 24 school year the first part of the Clos session included a dialogue with the superintendent about his personal
assessment of his leadership in the school district during the past school year he was then excused from the meeting and the board continued with their assessment of each goal goal one was to implement at least 70% of the initiatives including a nine districtwide initiatives for systems
change on time and effectively each of the following initiatives included specific measures to be reached and they include deeper Learning multi-tiered Systems of supports restorative practice school start times Community Partnerships leadership development postsecondary Pathways student Mental
Health and Family engagement the superintendent rated each initiative in term of accomplished or not accomplished he rated seven of the nine as being accomplished and reported important specific progress being made in the other two board members determined Dr
pel exceeded the 7% expectation in accomplishing or moving towards accomplishment in each of the nine areas for those initiatives not fully accomplished Dr pel had already developed clear action steps that would be taken in order to achieve full
implementation goal two to develop new goals for systems change in each of the five areas of the RPS strategic plan each goal was to be specific measurable achievable relevant and time bound and would include an implementation plan with specific initiatives and action
steps in the following areas funding redesign staff Recruitment and induction reviewing and as needed revising policies to advance Equity youth voice and Leadership and student Behavior the superintendent provided these goals for the 20242 school year including
implementation plans for accomplishing each work has already begun on some and all will be ready for implementation at the end of September after staff had have had the opportunity for input board members agreed Dr pel had exceeded expectations in highlighting these five
critically important priorities on which to focus for the upcoming school year and on describing why changes need to be made who needs to be involved in each area and specifically what needs to be accomplished the superintendent has consistently acknowledged that staff and
partners have been and continue to be invaluable in working through the process of selecting and enacting priorities with a successful completion of all these initiatives all priorities of the Rochester Public School strategic plan will have been launched
goal three to provide highquality leadership that meets or exceeds the standards in the Minnesota School Board Association Minnesota Association of school administrators framework the standards are set out in a self- evaluation tool that asks superintendents to rank themselves as
highly effective effective developing or ineffective in 48 areas in reviewing Dr pel's self assessment it was immediately clear to the board that the superintendent sets incredibly high standards for his work work and his responsibility to the students staff and
community members of this District during the conversation with the board at the beginning of the closed session his Reflections were objective and insightful it was notable that rather than focus on the majority of standards for which effective or highly affected
levels had been achieved the superintendent called out those areas with which he was not satisfied and he shared Lessons Learned and plans to continue progress board members agreed that Dr pel had exceeded the standards for Effective and highly effective
leadership described by the framework some other observations both the superintendent and School Board acknowledged that the 2023 24 school year has been challenging in order to address persistent challenges and to keep academic Excellence front
and center Dr pel remains committed to following the agenda of the RPS strategic plan created under his leadership which lays the groundwork and is creating the infrastructure that underlies the ongoing transformation of education and RPS he provides the kind
of leadership that is at once Visionary analytical and strategic significant advances made in the past school year include adopting educationally sound Bell time schedules a science of reading based literacy approach a science curriculum aligned with new state standards and making
leadership changes that create an intelligent coherent administrative system in RPS the superintendent is a skillful communicator and uses a variety of different formats to provide staff community members and the board with detailed information regarding important
events and initiatives and decisions he continues to seek out and value Community Partnerships Dr pel continues to build systems embracing the principle that schools are the unit of improvement and we must assure that every school is serving all the students in that school
this requires sharing and collaboration among buildings so that what works at one site can inform practices in other sites it also requires ensuring the district creates and supports a culture in which students and Staff feel safe respected and empowered to reach their Highest
Potential the board thanked Dr pel for his leadership and asked him to engage in contract negotiations for a subsequent three-year contract to begin on July 1st 2025 thank you can we
clap that's an awkward experience but thank you our next item is a prep for Action uh superintendent Golds for 20242 I'm a little more comfortable talking about this one right and we will
take action on this item at the August 20th regular meeting superintendent pel but thank you Tre Nathan um at feeding off of that last item I'm proposing a further simplified um component um as board members know there is the leadership component which you have just
reported out on and then there's an outcome component how are our students doing that comes in in the fall after we have collected uh all of the data that we need to assess that outcomes component I'm proposing that for uh one more year for sure we retain that basic
structure but we do so in a simplified version we have been over the last three years I like the phrase that the board used in the evaluation you just used we've been putting down infrastructure for the last three years assessments that weren't in place
curricula wasn't in place professional Learning Community structures that either were in place or strengthening them um a research infrastructure that was in place a transportation infrastructure now we heard tonight about a financial infrastructure I think we are coming to a point at which we're done laying the infrastructure and it's
time to dve the railroad or the highway or whatever your metaphor is um and so I'm but in the leadership component we would really lean into that uh framework that was jointly developed by the Minnesota School Board Association and our state superintendent Association and that I work really hard to move all of
those competencies not just in my self assessment uh though as you've made uh reference to I I'm sometimes I think harder evaluating myself than maybe some others are but you have also been uh I think appropriately uh productively critical
uh to help me improve and so I'm proposing that my goal be to be effective or highly effective in 75% of that very robust framework which for people who are wondering is publicly available and there's a link but it really covers all of the research-based
components of District leadership and there are some in which we have um and I have some significant progress to make over the year so the goal is three quarters effective or highly effective and then for next year I'm I'm recommend recommending one outcomes component and I recommend this somewhat reluctantly
because our focus on literacy I at times worry might suggest that we're not doing anything in other subject areas that is not the case as you've just heard tonight um and as you heard in a recent meeting science has been a major emphasis we've also had significant support going on for students in
mathematics if not the launch of a new curriculum uh or new assessments though I think that uh is also on the horizon but I am recommending for this next year because it is such a critical year for implementation of not only our strategic plan and literacy our new curriculum at the elementary level but also the read
act in Minnesota that my outcomes goal be only focused on Literacy for the next year and I'm suggesting that at least a third of our schools should make statistically significant gains in the achievement of all students so the aggregate achievement not subgroups in
at least one grade level on the MCAS this would be a significant improvement from recent performance in Rochester and a solid uh uh record compared to many school districts and so this is not a um uh an easy goal but it's an attainable
goal as you mentioned in your evaluation of my uh performance last year um a moment ago the school is the unit of improvement and what we want to see is our schools improving the the outcomes that are achieved by the students they
serve the system matters but the system improves as the schools improve and so the recommendation I have is that we would be seeking to see that statistically significant Improvement in at least onethird of our schools next year um in literacy as measured by the
MCAS and so this a very specific uh goal and when I mentioned I had some thought about this there's lots of other subject areas and other assessments and other important educational outcomes like graduation rates that would not be captured in that one component um and so
in some subsequent years should we uh you know all continue to keep working together as I'm excited to talk with you about um I would recommend a broader dashboard but for this next year I'm recommending that my personal uh Focus
be tightly on literacy as measured by the MCAS board members any questions well I love it I I I love the focus um I think it's a it is a um without detracting from all of the other areas and um great work that's
going on in the district I think that that focus is one that is reflective of so many of the other components that you just discussed and and including um things that you didn't even mention like the um renewed emphasis that we're now placing on
attendance um and uh it ties in professional development it ties in deeper learning it's I I think it's a a great um outcomes-based measure to focus on and as I've said before and I'll just repeat the value of these
types of goals from my perspective is to give you Clarity and focus when making decisions and when when you're experiencing friction in trying to move uh progress in a meaningful way this is
a I hope a powerful way to drive Clarity on to the extent adjustment need to be made or Investments further Investments are called for or you need to come to the board and explain you know where additional resources are needed I I I
think this is a great goal to drive exactly those types of conversations so thank you I also think that um in many of the updates you've given to the community on the progress of the Strategic plan like your end of the year review and the
presentations that we have here there's a lot of of the components um of the planning and the implementation that people have been able to see I think one of the things that we talked about in your evaluation that carries forward into these goals is by using that um
superint superintendent evaluation framework it does as you said cover all of the components of what you need to do to achieve all of the components of the Strategic plan and we connected in our conversation your plans for
implementation a and your smart goals with where that fell in this leadership um component so it'll be great next year to kind of tie them more directly together um because I know that's how you've expressed it to us and to the
community and it'll it'll be U more tied to those standard uh components for evaluation anything else board members great thank you all right um item
8.2 is policy committee recommendations from our meetings in May through July these were briefed at the last meeting this is the second briefing of these items and uh they will return at the August 20th meeting as a consent agenda
item do any board members have questions on these that may have been brought up since the last meeting hearing none we'll move on to our action um agenda our first item is approval of the 2025 26 District
calendar I will read the resolution ask for a motion and second and then we can move on to information and discussion be it resolved the school board of Independent School District 535 approves the 2025 26 Calendar for district schools move approv second it has been moved and
seconded any discussion uh yeah there is uh one thing I just wanted to note that I am so glad to see the um number number of curriculum adjustment days um included in this calendar we have heard
repeatedly from uh the professionals that are implementing the new curriculum literacy curriculum but also other uh curriculum adjustments that uh one of the most critical factors in their ability to be successful are those days to engage in professional development
and collaborate with each other so I'm really glad to see those days um even though I recognize as apparent um the um burden on um uh some of our our parents and our community broadly but I I think it's critically important so I'm glad they're
there and I'm awfully glad we're giving this to our community year in advance so hearing no other comments all in favor of the resolution say I I all opposed the resolution has been approved our next item is School Board
goals for 20242 this is also an action item at the July 23rd study session the board drafted goal areas and measures the attachment to this agenda item contains a draft of the goals identified I will read the resolution ask for a motion in second and then we can have a discussion
on the resolution be it resolved that the school board of Independent School District 535 does hereby approve the board goals for the 2024 25 year as agreed upon after discussion at the August 6 school board meeting move approval second it has been moved and
seconded do we have any discussion or comments on the draft great hearing none all those in favor of the resolution say I I I any opposed the resolution has been approved our next action item are cell phone procedures uh just to give some
background on July 16th the board approved the 20242 student handbook with the provision that the section of the student handbook regarding student use of cell phon Lo during the school day would be updated when final recommendation of a standard District practice was made to and approved by the
superintendent and approved by the school board prior to the start of the 2024 25 school year and that's what this action item represents tonight but I believe we have some information to present yeah thank you chair Nathan I'd like to ask Angie McAndrews who is our new director of student engagement and
school climate to come up uh and give an overview of what I am recommending you adopt for our student handbook um let me take a step back by saying that we know this is a big issue it's a big issue not just in Rochester it's a big issue
across the country and the world as a growing body of research has shown that uh cell phones in school can have an impact not just on student learning but on student well-being and mental health the state of Minnesota has said school districts need to adopt a policy in this
area by next march but I really proud that in Rochester we are not getting on this bandwagon uh uh at this moment when I arrived in the 2021 2022 school year we had deep discussion about the impact that phones are having with kids and out
of that discussion we adopted the following year our Red Zone green zone approach that had certain spaces in schools where students could access their phone and certain spaces where they could not we maintained that during the following school year and also piloted in four of our secondary schools
three middle schools and uh one Senior High School what we came to call away for the day but essentially a cell phone restriction which by and large had quite positive uh outcomes for those schools so we have been building toward this in Rochester this is not a knee-jerk uh
reaction to the very public discussion that is happening in many places about cell phones and so Angie who as many of you know was our principal at Kellog middle school until she joined us at the central office level and was involved in implementing this as a building
principal worked with uh our building leaders our central office leaders um to look at best practice and to look at what we had learned from our previous experience here in Rochester to bring you a recommendation as chair Nathan explained for this section in our
student handbook that has been a placeholder since you approved the handbook a couple weeks ago I'm recommending that you approve that tonight and then as we get into the start of the school year we will of course carefully monitor how this procedure uh is implemented and its
impacts and then as required by state law we would bring you a policy committee vetted by the board's policy committee first to meet the state requirement for a board policy by the spring of course because it would be at the procedure level we will be able to
make changes in that based on what we learn in the fall and winter uh to come up with a recommendation for you on a policy that we would hope could be in place for a period of years um but we know that there's a lot that we're going
to learn and experience uh this fall if you approve this recommendation so I want to turn it over to Angie and thank her for the work that she and others have done on this important issue thank you um I believe that you guys already have a copy of the policy
or the procedure rather with you we have made just a couple like typo type updates to it if you like a clean copy I have a clean copy but otherwise I can talk through it with you right here and then clarify any questions you might have oh perfect there you go all right
so um this font will be a little bit small but I wanted just to show you the actual document that our Communications Department put together um actually this conversation about uh districtwide procedures started last spring and because um I had piloted this with our
staff at kog I was asked to sit on a panel of um leaders to share kind of what are experiences were over the first year of the pilot um and so we had piloted away for the day at Kellog um one of the things that we experienced
was allowing students to use their devices during lunch and recess but other than that they had them in their lockers uh throughout the school day and the idea for away for the day actually came from screenagers which was a family engagement strategy that we worked on with Jennifer Spindler Craig and uh
through a ship Grant to be able to bring some awareness about the impact of uh cell phone use and social media uh to our children um so we shared some ideas and then started having conversation with principles about uh what could be
consistently implemented what we thought would be um the best practice based on the experiences that we had had and what types of things we felt like we could um be tight on together uh with that consistency across buildings um I met with principles I
think we started right off the bat breaking them up into groups elementary middle and high school uh because I think that brain development and uh in terms of the structure of what a the building looks like um are very different um and then I also met with a few of our programs individually because
they have unique needs and so it was important just to make sure that we didn't lose them in the process of trying to figure out what the procedure could look like ultimately what we ended up with is what you see on this first page of the device procedures and that is that essentially in elementary and middle school students won't have their
device devices at all from start basically Bell to Bell or start to finish of the day um it's a little different in elementary than it is in middle school because in ele kids don't have their backpacks with them but they don't necessarily have lockers and so uh their their language will say that they
will keep any technology personal technology devices or cell phones in their backpacks lockers or Cubbies during the entirety of the school day in middle school that's specific to their locker because in most buildings students are carrying backpacks from place to place and so their devices will
need to be in their lockers from start to end we have long discussion about smart watches because I think that that is more and more common I think there are kids who definitely use them with uh reminders and with good intention for time telling and things like that um and so we were very clear to outline smart
watches may be worn for telling time only and beyond that it would be considered a violation of what our cell phone uh and personal device procedures are at the high school because we assume uh by brain development that probably they're a little bit more ready to handle some of the responsibility that
goes with having the device um that they would be allowed to have the device with them during lunch during Hall passing time and then during open hour and uh we specified some places that would be allowable for use during open hour just so that we had
very clear expectations for students um during the classro class period students would keep them um either in a backpack or in a container a collection container in the classroom to make sure that they're not available um um for easy access while they're in class um so not
in their pockets or on their tabletop and then um we were really clear about making sure that we had um consistent response and messaging to families um and students in terms of what the next steps would be um in addition to the uh
elementary middle and high schools we did identify clear procedures for the alc 9th through 12th grade students the Middle School ALC uh which was formerly referred to as right fit and then Phoenix um the difference in those places is that the devices will be collected during the day and then outlin
some additional procedures I think especially just to give parents uh and caregivers clarity about um specific unique circumstances so if a student had a medical condition how would I get a hold of my kid during the day um don't bring your advice to school if you're worried it might be broken things that
kind of come up throughout the year um and then uh the clarification of the consequences that we have listed here they're really very much the same for elementary middle and high school at steps or at the first second and third offense or steps one two and three as outlined here the only exception to that
would be for high school students um they would have their device at the first instance returned at the end of the period at the elementary and middle school that would be at the end of the day reason being at the end of the period they would have an allowable time to use the device again again during passing time and at elementary and
middle they would not have an allowable time again to use the device until the end of the day um the first instance would would be a notification to a caregiver by the staff member at the second instance we would hold the device for the day and return it to the student but an administrator would notify a
caregiver to make sure they understood that at the third offense it would be a required pickup by a caregiver um and then at the time that the device would be picked up an administrator would meet with the caregiver to make sure that they have a plan to either have the device collected and held in the office for the uh remainder of the year um or
that the child just wouldn't simply bring it CAG we ran into that I think quite a bit especially with our athletes that or our Walkers that parents really needed their child to have a device um for a safety on the way to and from or communication after school so we had a number of kids when they got to um our
final um infraction that they would have to check the device in and we'd hold them um and then they could come in during lunch just peek and check and make sure they didn't have a message or something from a parent about a ride or an after school commitment and so it worked pretty well um we didn't have a ton of them but I would say maybe a
dozen kids that were kind of in that boat um and then of course the logic and reasoning that we have outlined here um as Dr palla referenced that Minnesota statute 121 a73 requires that we have a policy in place by March 15 and so in that um
legislation it did require mespa and massp to provide us with best practices and guidance in terms of what the cell phone uh policy or procedure should look like or could possibly look like and so they gave these four for um justifications or uh reasons for making
sure that we have a plan like this in place I felt like all of them 100% align to the things that our principles had shared um so that improving academic performance mental health a better environment in the classroom effective teaching and just generally less disruption and distraction for kids so
that we can focus on learning do you have any questions for me about this procedure um yeah so the well thank you so much first off um and also on the the differences between the Middle School
option and the high school option I I uh appreciated that the sorry the uh middle school expectations and procedures and the high school expectations and procedures I appreciated that the um State information sort of called out
high school as a uh um a uh a forum where that uh allowance of cell phone use during passing time and and lunches would be um an alternative
to consider but was there in terms of the educational outcomes that we're excited about was there um something about the distinction between Middle School and High School in RPS that
um augur for uh the you know in the locker versus in the backpack and available to use during passing time and lunch um was that something that was considered for RPS sure I can speak to that I guess from two different perspectives the first was um how we
approached it last year at Kellog um the idea was especially from watching the screenagers trilogy with the families that participated in that family engagement activity last year um the testimony of students really spoke a lot to um the disruption that occurs for
students when they're focusing on learning but they feel their phone vibrating or they hear it and their bag um so the the proximity to them was very distracting for students um and so that was something that was really heavy on my mind as I was thinking about what the pilot could look like for Kellog uh and
then what we really noticed at Kellog was that the disruptions that we would see that had anything to do with uh personal technology use would happened during lunch or before after school because that's when students had access to their devices so as we sat in our panel with all of our district leaders
in May um I you know it was very clear that Dakota middle school and Kellog Middle School both felt that uh restricting that access during lunch and recess would be really helpful um it would just bring it down a little bit the other thing is that we really worry about um and there's lots of research to
support the concern that students don't uh have quite the same social skills that I think we were typically seeing and so um this I we did not think that um limiting the access to it would be harmful to students and in fact we thought it might be helpful to encourage them to be more social in other ways um
that's not to say that there was 100% consensus in that with all of our Middle School leaders there was definitely um both sides of this argument about use um I don't think passing time ever came up as an option but lunch in recess I think passing time the idea would be it would
be it's very disruptive they only have four minutes anyway not a lot of time to be able to engage in anything um um but the lunch and recess conversation we kept going back to is there an educational reason to make that access available and we really couldn't come up
with a good justification to allow that um and so and as Dr beel referenced we have talked about being able to go back and make adjustments to this so I already have um meeting scheduled to be able to gather feedback at the end of September from um elementary middle and
high school principles just to see how things are going if we need to uh make adjustments to that but for right now the decision has been made that we'll move forward without use during uh passing time and during lunch and recess does that help no it does yeah it
is helpful thank you all right Dr Marvin thank you it's and it's about time um since since at least 2010 and maybe before that cell phone use in schools has been a huge distraction um staff
have been frustrated with really trying to engage students who are so already engaged with their phone and I think as you said and as we've discussed as a board before um this is better for students academically it's
better for them emotionally it's better for them socially um and having a districtwide procedure so that no one teacher has to be the bad guy you know in in my classroom you're
not having your phone well so and so lets us have them out I think that's critically important kids will adjust they're going to be better human beings because of this I was talking with a group of middle school students a couple months ago and I said and they were
talking about a way for the day and I said well why do you need your phone at school during the day well it's how I talk to my friends and another kid said there they're right there just talk to them um
so I I think that students will adjust um this is not taking away a freedom um but I think it's so important it's going to be better for them and and the quick question I have which maybe
isn't so quick I'm I'm certain there will be some parents who are not thrilled with this in what way is the district going to message to parents why this this is going to be a a procedure in place and
how's that discussion going to work I mean I think the the short answer for that is that the intention of us having students with us each day is to learn and I think that this provides you know um cell phones and personel devices provide a lot more disruption and
distraction than they do supporting learning we have made a significant investment as a district in terms of Technology by providing onetoone devices and teachers are working hard to be able to manage the use of those devices in classrooms and there isn't something
that we need them to there isn't anything that we're asking them to do that they need to have a personal device for all the technology that we need them to use for learning can be provided or can be accessed using what we've already provided to them I think that's the most important piece you know before we
piloted away for the Kellog one of the things that we did was send a survey to parents um just to say are you supportive and large they were supportive but I also asked if they could share what their concerns or reservations would be some of those were things were like um if my child has a
device that they need because they have a health plan or what if there's an emergency of some sort and we just had to really assure parents um that we would um we would make sure that we had ways to be able to communicate with kids for them during the day just like um the
slide um says here number two uh students who need to to be in contact with their family um or ask permission to use one of the school phones um and parents and caregivers can leave messages and we had to be really true to that I mean we had to make sure that we were prepared to uh create that
communication pathway for families and we asked our families to trust us to be able to do that um we did put some accommodations in place where there were really unique needs for families but by and large our families have been really supportive because I think they see much the same thing I think that they see that kids are very distracted even at at
home and even in really casual ways um that you know even just like asking your kid to fill the dishwasher and they're on a phone and they completely tune you out I mean when that kind of stuff happens in the classroom there's that's detrimental to the education of our students and so I think if we focus on the fact that we're an educational
institution and our job is to make sure that we're educating kids the best we can minimizing these disruptions and distractions is our job yeah and thank you Dr martinin for that if you approve this uh addition to the student handbook tonight
we will be going quite immediately in the coming days without Outreach to parents caregivers and then also directly to students um so we have gotten pretty good at getting the word out and so we will do that we know the school year is uh is fast approaching so we'll have a chance and I it wasn't at
Kellogg but I did talk to an office manager at another school that piloted our process last uh year and she said there were a couple times where they got a call from a parent who didn't text or call their kids and her reaction was you need to tell your kid that during the day but they
did it because they wanted it was not an action item it was something they wanted their kid to know it actually had to do with a pet during the day and they wanted the student to know it and so they got that word to the student um and the I think office manager for reasons I
understood thought you could have told them when they got home but they wanted that student to know and so I appreciated the fact that they took it very seriously that if there's a thing that you need your student to know as a parent we'll get that word uh to the
student during the day I also appreciate the clarity that the device um especially for the high school students uh needs to be in a locker um or a backpack and not in a pocket or on their desk because watching
those screenagers movies and then we've also even gotten some communication from staff in our district who did their own own studies of how many times they're beeping or buzzing and like you said simply that distraction of having that attached um diverts from attention to
learning so much so that I do like this whole that we're continuing the theme of way for the day um and what you said our primary primary concern being student learning um I I can't um I know we'll
have questions and and I know our office staff and our our Administration will do the best to address them as they come in from parents and students but I do like the consistency it does tie with everything that you've done in the past and what we've done at our other buildings and um and I agree with
director Marvin it is it is a good time to do this for the benefit of of both our our students and our and our staff so that um learning can happen right I do you think I didn't in trouble if I revealed our slogan oh no I don't I think would be fine with that I think we can do it we are going to put this under
the Banner especially for our parents who I think will get the reference of Mind Over mobile and so that will be a tag line that we'll be using mind over we didn't figure we could use away for the day since we were giving high school students some access in the middle of
the day we felt like that language would be confusing or uh maybe would give them a crack so wait for a party direct um I just want to follow up when you talked about getting feedback from the leaders
about how this is going to go so that developing the future procedure or sorry future policy will you get that same input from students and families uh I think we certainly could same or similar I guess um I think we certainly could I don't have that um on
my radar at this moment but I think we certainly could do that um I think one of my questions playing a little bit of Devil's ADV Advocate to that was when we were asking students for their input in the spring I I just was really of the Mind I think we can all guess what our
students would say um I know what my own children would say um when they were of school age so um it might be it might be an opportunity for us to ask like student Schoolboard what kinds of flexibility are they looking for or if there are
some ways that we might be able to um hear their voice in the in this procedure that we're looking at um and definitely we could ask parents for input I think the idea would be if we need to make any revisions and um adjustments that we could do that over the next several months so that when we
have the policy it it's uh you're tight can you talk a little bit more about the student feedback that you got I think um expected but can you talk still a little bit just summarize what it was like I think if well when uh Peter re sent out
the survey this spring he said should we reference it in the survey as away for the date and I said well at Kellog the kids won't know it as that they'll know it as the stupid cell phone policy so um they I don't think they were a big fan because they it was hard I think it was very hard to start for them to be able
to put down the technology and focus on learning I think I saw way uh uh way different engagement in classrooms though as a result of it um and I think sometimes our job as the adults is to make the decisions to help make sure that our kids are focused on learning um
so I think that if you if we were asking students uh who had been part of a pilot or will see this in the first quarter uh do you feel like you're more focused on learning um I think some of them in all honesty would say yes and others would say well that's a trap so if I answer
yes um then that means they're going to continue on and so uh I think that I mean they are they have brains of kids who have grown up being able to use technology and so I think their focus would really be on a wanting to be able to continue that and I think that um our parents can certainly decide that for
out of school time but it really is disruptive in classrooms and difficult for a staff to manage and just kind of picking up on director Marvin's Point earlier is that did was your experience during the pilot that you're aware of did the students adjust oh yeah I mean I would say well I
actually just looked this up the other day when I was meeting with our Middle School group so in our sixth grade group I think we had 296 kids and I think at the end of the year we only had uh four students that had reached the end of our instances and had to check in their
device somewhere so they had adjusted we had I mean probably a third of them had a first occurrence um but they learned and they figured it out and they all they all survived till the end of the school year so and it was I think we're better for it and I do have one followup
on the additional procedures um I was one of my concerns all along has been number six and I'm assuming that means lock down drills and fire drills but the use is prohibited my
interest has always been making sure students are safe at school and I want to think about the concept of the worst case scenario is it if something bad does happen can you talk about that from a student perspective and family perspective that if they don't have
their phones with them what what changes will be made in communication so that people can be sure that people are safe yeah I mean I think that um our schools do a great job of being able to use our messaging systems uh to make sure that parents have upto-date information and
so I don't think that that would change I think our schools would continue to use those forms of communication I also think if there was some type of an actual emergency and students had access to their devices teachers would I'm sure make adjustments and allowances when they felt like it needed to happen
because of an emergency that was taking place um also students all have onetoone devices and can easily uh contact a family member by sending an email or something like that if if there is something that's happening in the moment I think I think part of that though is as a um a former teacher and as a former
principal I in those moments when those types of things are happening I think their attention and their response to the adults that are trying to make sure that we're keeping kids as safe as possible and having kids listen understand comprehend follow Direction all those kinds of things happen better
when they don't have their phone in their face um so that they can listen to what's the guidance of the adults that are in charge of their safety and taking care of them and what I'm hearing for you then that is that consistency amongst a classroom is is helpful to their safety from the
absolutely from the administrator's perspective but that was the other question I had though I'm glad you mentioned that is that there is they can do one-on-one email communication on their devices if if students had to stay you know in a classroom for a couple hours or something like that that would be an option that a teacher could
Implement to let them the teacher could absolutely allow that to happen if that if something like that were happening okay thank you for that sure um Dr mlen I really appreciate the question this summer uh uh including with outside expertise we've updated our both threat assessment threat respon response
procedures and we took into account the likely further restraint on uh student immediate access to devices um which was never a formal part of a response but we know that that has happened around the country if there's a lockdown or something like that and so we've
elevated the importance of messaging on the part of central office or building level staff immediately to families uh understanding that we need to provide information as as quickly as we can so that's something obviously we don't talk in in really great detail about but it's
important for the community to know that we um continually update that and we've done a major uh review and update of those procedures um this summer I I I also can't resist when uh uh Angie mentioned the survey that we gave last
spring which uh was responded to um by thousands of parents staff and students when we ask students do you support cell phone restrictions as Angie said they overwhelmingly said no I don't I don't want it when we asked the question cell
phones are a problem at my school so a more neutral question well 35% strongly disagreed 35% strongly disagreed 22% somewhat disagreed so somewhat more than half disagreed that cell phones are a
problem 14% though neither agreed nor disagreed 20% somewhat agreed 9% strongly agreed so our students did identify that I don't want you to take my cell phone but cell phones are an issue in my school um which I think was
a a telling uh response but it's it's it's important for us to say nope that they're not in support of it but we also for all the reasons board members and Angie have described believe it's the right uh step one thing I'd add to um regarding the incidence of School
emergency of some sort all of our buildings are really really well oiled machines in terms of what the response is when an emergency happens so even if it's an emergency in a building where it doesn't involve the entire building it might be like a medical eem emergency with a single child our first response
is our office manager calls the office of school support to let them know hey this is happening and if it's something that we think needs messaging I mean within five or 10 minutes we're talking about you know what's H what's being sent out here's a drafted of it can we send it is it you know I mean it happens very very fast and I think that's really
one of the greatest gifts that the office of school support provides in those times of emergency that building principles and leaders can just focus on safety in the building and somebody else has the communication and they're working on it so and that is something that we um we practice and go over all the time and make sure um you know as
soon as something happens somebody's on the radio like is the office manager in her desk are they calling the off are they calling um Jackie's office and and so that support is really instrumental to making sure parents feel safe and that they understand what's happening and is it still true that every
classroom has a landline phone yeah I can't speak for every building but I yes I would assume so it that was the as far as we know okay so should a student see an emergency and need to report an emergency in the absence of an adult
there's a phone available in the Next Room to call 911 or or and adults all over I can't think a place that they could possibly be in a building unless they were hiding out and trying that they wouldn't be able to have access to an adult any other questions or comments before I read the
resolution be it resolved that the school board of Independent School District 535 does hereby approve an update to the 2024 25 student handbook to include a section on cell phone procedures as presented to the board on August 6th 2024 move approval second it
has been moved and seconded any other questions or discussion hearing none all in favor of the resolution say I I opposed the resolution has been approved thank you for all your work much for talking it through thank
you so our next agenda item is policy committee recommendations from the July 25th 2024 policy committee meeting the changes to all these policies come from changes in Minnesota law from the recent legislative session and came to us through msba modal policy Chang changes the board is required to make all these
changes because they reflect changes in statute policy 208 section 4 adoption and review of policies Part D allows the board to approve these changes at a single board meeting therefore this is an action item and I will read the resolution ask for motion in second and
then we will have additional information about the content of the changes be it resolve that the school board of Independent School District 535 accept the recommendations of the policy committee for the policies listed move approval second we have a motion in a
second we have a presentation from the policy committee so there are 20 22 of them and um I will take some of them and director cook will take some of them um msba
policy 102 the purpose of this policy is to ensure that equal Educational Opportunity is provided for all students of the school District a redundant word was removed in language was added to clarify a list policy 104 the purpose of this
policy is to establish a clear statement for of the purpose of which the school district exists the only change is the addition of legal references msba policy 207 the school board recognizes the importance of obtaining public input on matters
properly before the school board during a public he hearing the purpose of this policy is to establish procedures to efficiently receive public input um the change in this with speakers cannot be required to State their address during public input and
this language is updated to also be in alignment with policy 206 msba policy uh 410 the purpose of this policy is to provide for family and medical leave to School District employees in accordance with the Family
and Medical Leave Act of 19 93 and also with parent parenting leave under state law language was struck from section 4B 12we leave under state law to reflect the change in state
law and policy 416 the school board recognizes the significant problems created by drug alcohol and cannabis use in society in general and the public schools in particular the school board further recognizes the important contribution that the public schools have in shaping the Youth of today into
the adults of Tomorrow sections on oral fluid testing were added to State statutes by the Minnesota Legislature in this past session and are now reflected in the policy policy 419 the purpose is to maintain a learning and working environment that is tobacc free a new
section was added to reflect changes and exceptions for American Indians for policy 425 the policy is to establish a staff development program and structure to carry out planning and Reporting on staff development that supports improved
student learning and in section seven of that policy par professional staff development was added by the 2024 Minnesota Legislature and provision is now made for that in section e for the 2024 25 school year in policy 513 the purpose is to
provide guidance to professional staff parents Guardians and students regarding student promotion retention and program design and here the term world's best work Force has been changed pursuant to updates to Minnesota statute where the legislature has
decided to rename that comprehensive achievement and Civic Readiness in policy 521 the purpose of that policy is to protect students with disabilities from discrimination on the basis of disability and to identify and evaluate Learners who within the intent of
Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 need Services accommodation or programs in order that such Learners may receive a free appropriate public education language was changed in section 1C because the last legislative
session revised the definition of disability in statute policy 601 the purpose of this policy is to establish broad curriculum parameters for the school district that Encompass the Minnesota academic standards in federal law and are aligned
with Comprehensive achievement and Civic readiness creating the world's best Workforce as was noted in policy 513 the world's best Workforce is changed to comprehension and Civic Readiness and includes the definition policy 602 the purpose of
this policy is to provide for a timely determination of the school calendar and school day the only red line by Minot by msba was shown in the note and not in the actual policy policy 603 the purpose of this policy is is to provide
direction for continuous review and Improvement of the district curriculum the legal references to this policy will be updated when they are available policy 604 the purpose of this policy is to provide for the development of course
offerings for students the list of subjects was edited for consistency of capitalization and outdated reference to a section and language related to Charter Schools were were deleted on track for graduation was added to to section
6.9 and in policy 609 the purpose of this policy is to identify the status of religion as it pertains to the programs of the school district accommodations for American Indian cultural practice observance or ceremony were added uh to section
3a4 in policy 614 uh this policy of the school district is to implement procedures for testing test security documentation and recordkeeping the exact language of Minnesota statute 181 932 enacted in the last session by
the legislature was added as section six retaliation Prohibition in policy 615 the purpose of this policy is to provide adequate opportunity for students identified as having an individualized policy
624 the purpose of this policy is to recognize and govern online instruction options of students enrolled in the school district for purpos of compulsory attendance and address enrollment of students with an online instruction site for supplemental or
fulltime online learning the reference to Minnesota statute chapter 124e was deleted and a provision concerning online supplemental courses was added by the 2024 Minnesota Legislature policy 707 the purpose of this policy is to
provide for the transportation of students consistent with the requirements of law a reference to Minnesota statute section 124 d03 subdivision 8 was added to section 7. policy 708 the purpose of this policy
is to provide for the transportation of students consistent with the requirements of law there were three language changes from will to must policy 709 the purpose of this policy is to provide Safe Transportation for students and to educate students on
safety issues and the responsib abilities of school bus ridership electric bicycle safety was added to advise students that they cannot legally ride an ebike until age 15 which was also enacted by the 2024 Minnesota
Legislature and finally policy 802 the purpose of which was to provide is to provide Safe Transportation for students and to educate students on safety issues and the responsibilities of school bus riders ship the only change is to update the Le references and to include
Minnesota statute 47185 thank you so the uh motion has been made and seconded any questions all those in favor of the resolution say I I opposed the resolution has been approved item 9.1 other business there
were no questions submitted by board members before the meeting the ABC the current version of the ABCD is available in this agenda item for reference are there any agenda items board members would like to raise for consideration for a future meeting
agenda hearing none our upcoming board meeting dates are August 20th at 5:30 a regular meeting September 10th at 5:30 a regular meeting September 17th at 5:30 a study session and September 24th at 5:30 a regular
meeting our next agenda item is a closed session pursuant to Minnesota statute section 13 d05 subdivision 3B which allow the board to go into Clos session pursuant to labor negotiation strategy the Clos session will be convened immediately following passage of the
motion in the Edison building Main Floor conference room pursuant to the law I have cited will someone make a motion to go into close session so move second all those in favor say I I I any opposed the board moves into close session at 4 or
at 6:14 p.m. [Music] okay e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e oh that's all okay the board is back in session at
6:32 p.m. Dr mclin can you read the list of people present in the close session it was chair Nathan Mr Carlson treasur Marvin assistant Schoolboard clerk Sam director cook clerk mlin Vice chair
Workman Mr bachan and superintendent Mel and hearing no other business this meeting is adjourned at 6:33 p.m. now