day or night. to texting or talk, you know, your documents. on Tuesday, May 5th, 2026 in room 137 of the Edison building. Present at this meeting are school board members, Superintendent Kent Pel and non- voting exeicio member and assistant school
board clerk, Miss Anne Kramer. Miss Kramer, will you please call the role? >> Here, >> here. department >> here. >> Here >> 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. At this time, we offer the opportunity to say the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to theublic for it stands
nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Our next agenda item are the Rochester Public Schools mission, vision, and values. During this agenda item, at every regular meeting, a board member will read our mission or vision or one
of our six values to emphasize their importance in our work as a district and our decisions as a board. Tonight we focus on our second value, building belonging and connection. By celebrating differences and embracing individual perspectives, we cultivate a vibrant sense of community and culture that
benefits students, staff, and families. Our next agenda is approve. Our next agenda item 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 documents for this meeting are available online at rochesterchools.orgsembly. There are no comments to the board this evening. So, we'll move on to information and outreach. We have some recognitions and we'll start with
Director Whitehorn. >> Okay. First, we want to start off by recognizing National School Lunch Hero Day. Not all heroes wear capes. something they wear. Hair nets and plastic gloves. Amen.
Amen. May 1st was school lunch hero day. Our school nutrition professionals prepare healthy meals for students that power up our students for learning. All the all the while adhering to strict nutrition standards, creating menus with
student input, navigating food allergies, and sharing smiles and laughs with our students. School Lunch Hero Day is our chance to thank our school nutrition professionals for the difference they make every day for every
child who comes through the cafeteria. And as a parent, I want to really thank them for breakfast. That was one less thing we have to do. Amen. Thank them. Give them a clap. Director McLaclin. We're also here to celebrate National Teacher Appreciation Week. This week,
May 4th to the 8th, is National Teacher Appreciation Week, and we can't express enough gratitude for the critical role teachers play in driving the success of our students. They are the ones who share the necessary knowledge and skills for success, but also inquire and guide
our students to become future leaders, innovators, and problem solvers. This week, let's all find a way to show our support for our RPS teachers and tell them how much their commitment and dedication to our children is so appreciated. And I appreciate the fact
that this is at the end of the school year. A round of applause for our teachers. >> Dr. Marvin, >> tomorrow, May 6th, is school nurse appreciation day. All students have a right to uh have their physical and
mental health needs safely met during the school day and many students today face more complex health problems. We celebrate our RPS school nurses and their efforts to meet the needs of today's students by providing quality student centered care and promoting
wellness and healthy habits. We are grateful grateful for all they do to support students to stay healthy in school and ready to learn. And personally, thank you school nurses for the time you've spent with my grandchildren.
>> They're a handful. >> And a round of applause for school nurses. >> Dr. Uh, Friday, May 8th is National School Communicators Day. Uh, you you may have seen our RPS communications team at
district events and school taking pictures, filming videos, or helping to coordinate events. Uh, you certainly have seen the products of their work in website news and stories, creative pos uh creative posters and graphics, social
media post, and more. They capture and share many special learning moments and student and staff smiles that tell our RPS stories transparently, honestly, and effectively. Thank you for your work >> and Dr. Cook.
>> And May 8th is also National Child Care Provider Day. RPS school age child care or SAC is crucial for our students and an essential resource for our families. Our SAC staff provide a safe space for kids to read, play games, interact with
other kids their own age, and go on field trips. We are grateful to our SAC staff for their everyday care of students and for SAC leadership's continuing efforts to expand and improve the program. And we will continue the recognitions
with our winter sports and activities presentation. Superintendent Mel. Thank you, Chair Nathan, and board members. As board members know, we have been trying some different things to recognize the uh amazing accomplishments that our students have in the extra extracurricular realm, both athletically, artistically, and in other
areas. And tonight, we're going to try yet another variation. We are, as we have previously uh had uh happen, going to hear from our activities directors to give an overview of the students who went to state or national competitions or achieved other singular recognition.
But tonight we also have three students, one from each of our comprehensive high schools who I'm going to do a little impromptu interview. They did not get the questions in advance. Uh but none of them are going to be painful and I'm really grateful for them to come on out. So I'd like to ask I see two of our three uh activities directors there and
so if whichever one of you is going to start can head up to the podium and if our three students can come right down here. Don't it's it's not painful up here. Take a take a seat in front of a mic. You each get a mic. So, this is perfect. Um,
we're going to let our activities directors go through a recap of their season and then, uh, I will, uh, put you on the hot seat for a few moments. We'll let you introduce yourselves after the presentations because they each of them highlights who you are in their
presentation as well. So, you can relax at this part. >> Once again, thank you for having us. It's always a great honor to come and share what great things we have going on at our schools. Uh the first group I'd like to recognize from John Marshall today is our our BPA. Um the state
entrance uh Hosma Al- Zahari, Alex Height, Her Jen, Rick Ivan Mamaro, and uh Rick is a national qualifier for BPA Business Professionals of America. Our next uh
Thank you. Our next uh competitor was one of our wrestlers, Dana Nelson, who's a section champion in the state entrant for the Rockets uh this this winter. So, very very happy for him and hoping that he has big things in the future because
he's an underassman. Our next group is a really popular group that we have at John Marshall. It's uh FCCLA which stands for family career community leaders of America. Uh it's a very
popular group as you can see with the large group that we have in the photo. Um 25 of those members qualified for the for the nationals and it's a it's a great great group. I think that's maybe Yep. There's another picture of them as
well. Uh our next uh group is our JM speech team. Now we are not only these are our state competitors, but we're also uh section runners up and we are big nine champions. So we're very proud of that. Our speech competitors are Eleanor
Severs, Justice Fre, Tyler Partardi, Bonia Bell, Abigail Severs, Deshawn Harston, uh, Bahiva Yar Bena, and, uh, tonight we have with us our state place winner,
Claranna Osman, and she's here to be one of our students on the panel. So, very excited to have them. Um, next picture is our at the section tournament and then followed by our coaches, uh, Claire Sagon and Sam Hafner. And you can see
Claire received a second diamond award, uh, of the year. Sam was a, uh, voted new coach, upandcoming coach for Southern Minnesota. And it's it's great. And it's our third year to be in the 100 club for NSDA. And we're happy to have
Claire here, um, our head coach, and she does a fantastic job with the Rocket speech team. So, so very speech and debate, but but very happy to have here her here tonight. So, thank you. >> You >> um
represent us representing us and and you can see that. So, Clar does actually go to school. It's not just extracurriculars for her. She is in class. We we know that for sure, but she's involved in fall dance, theater, speech, debate, band, and student
council. So, uh, very well represented all around the JM, and we're very happy to have her here tonight. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thanks, Brian. Um, thanks for having us. Uh going through kind of more with our
activities uh with BPA uh business professionals of America, our national qualifiers, uh Selene Herman, uh Zia Rocker and Tae Bakra with a team, uh Matildi Cabrera Belolia and Audrey Allen
with a marketing team, Adam Berg, Assam Eliti, and Jack Wagner. Uh we had multiple other place winners uh kind of through that third through eighth um side of things as well. Uh so very very good
representation from our BPA side. Our state one act play our director uh Kim Hill uh went up for this one. This was up at St. Kate's uh they did a phenomenal performance uh the with Queens. Um did a a great job with that.
um made it to state. Um up there with that uh was it was a great representation of our district and and M high school state bowling. Our bowling team uh had a fourth state uh fourth place state
finish as well. Uh Ryan Kirkham, Morgan Perkins, Amber Condan, Bennett Lynn, uh Jolo Algra Zars, Tia Vicker, and Leila Vicker. uh coaches Nikki Schmool and Matt Kerkum. Our state uh science olympiad team uh
had a ninth ninth place uh state finish their picture there. Our chess team uh went to the state tournament as well. uh Isaac and Luke Selin brothers uh Jack Noseworthy and then Omar Alli who also had a third
place uh in the individuals as well. So good representation there. Our global affairs uh group uh went to the state tournament there. Um they had an AB and C class. The seventh place with Cooper Hull uh Connor Smith, Isaac
Bell, and Caleb Kennel. The B with a fourth place, Robert Mills, Boss, Casud, Colin Reped, and Alex Ya. Uh, our 12th place one was Ben McConnell, Tessa Hull,
Jet Hull, and Jacob Atwell. Our speech team, uh, this was our first year, um, with K coach uh, Andy John. So, he took over um, and was his first year as as coach. So uh for him to to take the
team uh uh to state was was a huge accomplishment. Um these were the uh individuals that uh went to state. Uh Maya Dejar Zoa Balman uh there was was in the dual interpretation. They got second and
these were the um what they got at uh sections. Um I didn't get the um uh what they got at state yet. I didn't get those results yet. Uh Zia Zacher, excuse me, Zia Rocker. Um Amelia Aster House,
Jack Wagner, Lillian Lernot, Alicia Doe, Mara Tweety, Bianca Zoo, Meliss Melissa Teeman, and Alexander Zabi. On to state wrestling, uh we had five that uh were statebound
with that. Andrew Trimble and Caleb Berger, both state qualifiers. Uh Duke Bartau ended up getting second place. Uh Caleb Lumis sixth place and Olivia Martinez uh second place. Our state boys swim. Uh we had a uh two
relays that made the state tournament. Uh the 200 free and the 400 free. Uh both of them with Andrew Lyn Jenowski, Will Leisure, Kai Joiner, and Will Bajorin. Um the alternates were uh Brienne Talson, Leaf Larson, and Evan
Cunningham. Uh the 200 free and the 500 free, uh Kai Joiner, he took first place in both events. Uh the 200 freestyle, he broke the state record. Um so uh amazing uh young man
there. He is a uh um going to do some great things with with uh he broke quite a few um male high school records. He wrote quite a few um big nine records, conference records, you name it, uh this year. And um he's going to be one to to
look forward to um in the in the swimming scene going forward. Uh Jessica Keap was named the section oneA assistant coach of the year and Kai Joiner was named section 1A swimmer of the meet. Uh our state girls basketball team uh
Lakeville North uh beat him 50 to 48 in the section finals. Went to state um first time in quite some time. uh Monaceel uh beat him 73 to 71 in the quarterfinals and then we went up
against Rosemount. Um that was a tough one. Lost by one point um in the semifinals. Um tough game. Uh bounced back in the third place game. Um and uh me'll have
be able to talk a little bit on this. Bounce back. Very proud of the girls on this. um hard to come back from a loss and then have to come back and play again and play a tough team in Maple Grove in third place game and showed a
lot of grit and won that one. Um proud of them and we were third place champions. Uh Rose Mount went on to uh win the state championship. So that close to uh um uh going to the state or the state championship with that. So, it
was a great season with that. Uh, state girls basketball with that. Um, we do have Mia Banks um here tonight. Um, senior captain for our girls basketball team, thousand point scorer. Uh, she's the leading three point scorer at Mayo
High School with 87. Uh, three-time Big Nine allconerence academic all state. Um, Spartan 300 FCA officer, tailgate captain. Um and one that I want to highlight um more uh special to me uh
student athlete leadership council. Uh we um I started a coaches council last year my first year and this year we started a student athlete leadership council and leader and it's made up of
um freshman all the way up to seniors and she is my only senior um and She has a lot of accolades obviously as an athlete, but more importantly the leadership that she brings in the building is uh is bar none. So um thank
you for all you do for our school. >> And we'll go back to Century, Mr. Perkins. >> So we're starting out with our some of our activities. Our BPA program uh has been very successful. A lot of growth as you can see um this year went from 37
members to 60 members. Um and they took 57 students to the regional championship. Um and from regionals, 40 students were able to qualify for state and then four students 14 students earn an opportunity to represent a school at the national leadership conference in
Nashville. Um but it end up we ended up only sending three students to that um event. It was great accomplishment for them. Our chess team uh placed first in the Rochester Area Scholastic Chess League
and then placed third at state uh this year in 2026. This is um they went back to state, returned to state after winning state last year um and had a a solid attempt to defend that title. Math league uh finished fifth in the
state. Uh Eric Dean was one of the only students in the state to get a perfect score on their individual event um and held for the that event was held for top 50 individuals in the state. Artina Kazmi finished first in the state brain
beat and recently she was just last weekend competed at the national brain beat at the University of California Irvine this weekend and I'll talk to Artina this week. She actually finished fifth in the nation at that event.
Our Rochester Century Raiders made it to state um for uh soccer and they finished fourth. Cooper Morsy and Brady Coy were received all state all team all state
tournament team awards. And Cooper uh where's Cooper at? Cooper's right there with the headband on your left next to our goalie in the green shirt. Um, Cooper was named adaptive athlete of the year at the Rochester Sports Awards and
Liam Sharder was named adaptive player of the year by the Post Bullet. So, a lot of accolades for that team. Our century swimming hot dive boy swim and dive team um had the highest finish
at the state tournament since 2011. finished in fourth place, had 18 allstate medalist and five all-American performance designations. So, really had a great season. Had multiple record breakers throughout the season in a
variety of different events. Uh, five academic all-Americans, national team all-American scholars. Um, they won the team silver award having a 3.62 62 GPA and the high school league section academic silver award with a 3.64
GPA. Um, and this was their 10th year doing the public pledge for the Special Olympics and raised more than $5,000 for that program. And representing his team today um, is Grady Barkrey. He's a member of the
actually that says chess. He's a member of the swim team clearly. Um, please >> Grady's 100 meter breaststroke uh had a 50 5561 all-American consideration for that event. And in the 200 IM his time
of 15056 also earned an all-American consideration and double A and he was the double A boys swimmer of the year. And Grady has made the great decision to go to Oakland University, which is in the great state of Michigan.
And actually, it's, you know, he made a great great decision to go to Michigan. That's a always helps you be a better human to do that. >> Praise God. >> And Oakland is actually in the city of Rochester, Michigan. So, a little piece of home still taking him with him as he goes on uh to bring bigger brighter
things. >> Well, thank you very much. So, uh, students, let's actually just because we we heard a little bit of this, but we haven't had everybody named, let's just start over. Um, uh, your name, the, uh, sport activity and the competition that you participated in at the end of this season and obviously we want to be
reminded of your school and then we'll jump in. So, >> um, I'm Clarman. I'm a junior at JM. Do you want me to list all of my activities? >> Um, uh, no, just this one. >> Okay. Um, I placed seventh at state for
speech. Um, I in the category of serious pros interpretation. >> Okay, fantastic. >> Um, Grady Bartfrieded. I'm a senior at Century High School. Um, I participated in the 200 medley relay, the 200 I am, the 100 breaststroke, and the uh 200
freestyle relay at state. >> Great. >> Leah Banks. I'm a senior at Mayo High School, and I was able to compete with my team for girls basketball in state, and we got third. Am I guessing that you're here to talk about student school board? >> Stay right where you are. >> Stay right where you are. You're next.
>> Yeah. No, that's great. Which that's great. It's great that you're up there. Introduce yourself now. Anyway, >> hey, I'm Shash. Uh, I'm a junior. Uh, I I was up there, but for FCCA. >> There you go. >> Place for in the state, but I'm actually here to talk about the student school
board. >> And you're just an overachiever. That's why you're here. >> And so, you were up there for what? Um, though >> FCCA. >> Okay. >> Perfect. then you're gonna join in. >> All right, here we go. So, uh, >> although he doesn't know what he's joining, >> um, he's asking the questions.
>> He gonna find out. >> Nobody got the questions ahead of time. >> Okay. Before the competition, what was one thing you personally wanted to be locked in about that you knew you needed to personally work on? Don't overthink it. Who wants to get us started? >> Mia, I'll start. >> Okay, great. Great.
>> Oh, sorry. >> No, you go. Um, probably the main thing I focused on was um, staying calm before a race. Um, a lot of times I get a little too excited and too jittery. Um, and then rush some things, they don't go well. Um, but sometimes that control
might vary by event, but just relatively staying more calm. >> How do you think you did in staying calm? >> Um, I think I did well. Um, I definitely think I could have done better, but I did well. >> But you were there. Okay. Like something you were working on. Um, just
making sure that I was happy with my performance. A lot of what I do for speech is it can be a lot of pressure to put on yourself to like, oh, I want to finish first, but me personally, I just wanted to be proud of myself for doing the best performance that I could. And I mean, I wanted to make finals, but I
didn't want to put pressure on myself for that. >> Okay, I detect a theme here. Um, I would say just having like fun at the state tournament as it was like my last go as a senior and being the only senior. I just wanted to make sure I had one last good time with my team and really enjoy
it and take it all in. >> Uh, I would I would procrastinate a lot and this time I like would stress a lot before my presentation and I would get mad at people and I can I would like get so stressed that I can see the air
follicles falling out. But next time I'll try not to make that. >> Yeah. Good life lesson. >> Yeah. >> What was the toughest moment during the competition for you? A moment when either you didn't know how it was going to turn out or you made a mistake and
you had to recover. Um uh but that obviously it all turned out in the end, but what was the what was the most difficult moment for you when you were at state? >> Um I think probably the most difficult moment was in my 100 breaststroke. Um I was really hoping to win um the event.
Um I had been very successful in the event over the past couple years and um I was not able to win. I just got barely out touched. Um and it was pretty heartbreaking. But um the same guy that beat me will be I will be competing against him in college. So
>> really revenge is a dish that is best served cold. That's awesome. How about you? What was that difficult moment? Um just waiting to see what the results would be. Um a lot of with speeches is you're like waiting and the anticipation just
really gets to you just to see if you made finals and if you you breach that top eight or not that just Yeah. Yep. >> Um I would say definitely losing by one to go to the state championship game was really hard. We had a very young team
and so it was a lot for us. Lots of emotions in the locker room afterwards. So I think just making sure like having everyone's heads cleared for the next game and luckily we had a wind power outage that Friday so we had no school which was great but yeah we were able
just to come back together and pull out a win. >> Okay nationals by two points and that that was a big loss for me. I could have focused more but >> that's tough but you you guys are all smiling through it so that's pretty
great. So, if you were talking to one of our students in Rochester in elementary school or middle school who looks up to you and says,"I want to be there. I want to be competing at the state or national level." What piece of advice would you give them? >> I would say take every opportunity that
is given to you. I I do a lot of my school and part of why I do it is because I can and I have that like safety net with my parents that I don't have to like worry about paying rent yet or anything like that. So just taking every opportunity and just trying your
best, giving your 100% at everything you do. >> Um I would say trusting your coaches and even your teammates. Um, I mean, I've looked up to a lot of other teammates and even my teammates around me have pushed me to be better. And then trusting my coaches is super important
because they know what to do and they know how to get you there. >> Um, I would say put yourself in uncomfortable situations. So, being in a gym full of people who are better than you will get you better. I'd also say get up early, go train. Like, be in a gym constantly. That's what's going to
make you better. I would say put yourself out there. Ask lots of questions. Broaden your mind. Be be free and open to anything. >> That's awesome. Who is somebody who helped each of you
get to the level that you got to, which let's just state it, most students never do. I played a lot of sports, never went to state. So, like, who who who's somebody who helped you get there? I would say both of my parents have worked really hard for me to get to
where I am, just like them rebounding for me or um the long drives up to the cities for tournaments and AEU practices. So, I would definitely say them for sure. Okay. >> Um I would probably say my parents or more specifically my mom who was able to
come today. Um making thousands and thousands of meals for swimmers who burn thousands and thousands of calories a day. um getting up at 5:30 um kind of walking like a ghost to get me to practice. Um
but yeah, more specifically my mom. >> That's awesome. What' you say? >> I would say my teachers, they help me a lot. My biology teacher, even assassin, and I don't even have her, but she I just popped in, talked with her, all the
other teachers, and my assistant coach for swim. >> That's great. Um, my parents really pushed me to do my best. Um, my mom was actually on the speech team at JM when she went to JM. So, that's kind of why I joined the speech team, but then also on the speech team. I met my friend Liv
Ruseek and she just was really an inspiration for me. And last year she went to state and she finished fourth and she just like doing speech with her just made it so enjoyable that I didn't even think about, oh, I need to win or anything like that.
>> So, a couple more. Um, do you plan to continue your activity in the future? And if so, how? Or if you don't, what do you think will stay with you from having done uh this sport or this activity in high school? >> Um, as Mr. Perkins said, I will be going
to Oakland University next year. Um, and I will be swimming um with the swim team out there and I'm super excited. >> That's great. Um, I was committed to Bumiji State for basketball, but due to coaching changes, I am opening up my recruitment again.
So, continuing playing basketball somewhere else. >> Yeah, >> I am a junior and would continue to show up at FCCLA and any other clubs that feel like I want to try, you know, stick with my own advice. >> Um, I love speech so much. I definitely
am doing it next year. Uh, this year I was a junior captain, so next year I will be a senior captain. It's just a great way to meet new people and I love helping noviceses get to learn how to do it and like help them learn to love it too. >> Awesome. Don't overthink this. Uh when I
ask you for one word that captures how you think of your experience at state, what is it? Just throw it out. >> You're overthinking. >> Leadership. >> Leadership. >> I feel like Oh, >> no. Go ahead. Explain your one word. One word.
Um, exciting. >> Overcoming. >> I kind of I kind of too. Is that okay? >> That's all right. You're in speech. >> You get points for words. So, >> worth it. >> Worth it. That's awesome. Well, thank
you all. We are incredibly proud of you and not just those of you who excelled at the level of state competition, but all the students who are involved in any kind of extracurricular activity. Um uh the academic side of our work of course is job one, but we know to develop uh
thriving people. Kids get as much if not more from the experiences that they have in the pool or on the stage or in the lab um or on the court. And so uh we're really proud of you and we're grateful also to the uh three activities directors. their jobs are uh tireless
and 247 and I think I get to a decent number of performances and competitions including freezing to death next to Mia at the track meet the other day at Mayo but these guys are always there and so we are grateful to you uh for that commitment um and that madam chair I'll
turn it back to you >> thank you board members any other questions comments or observations in this lovely celebration of our students and all the staff that support them. Thank you. CONGRATULATIONS.
>> Board members, it's board member update time. >> We know. >> Does any board member have updates from their committees to share? Director Marvin, >> thank you and thank you for starting this. We have another student school board member here. Yes,
you were hiding behind Mr. Rock. >> They're going to share with you first. They're going to tell you uh the schools they go to and their names and then share with you what our student school board's been working on. >> Oh, you go first. >> Hi, my name is Shakree. I'm a junior at
Centry High School. >> Hey, I'm Shalash. I'm from John Marshall. At the beginning of the school year, the student school board became very interested in eighth grade and ninth grade students. For the last several years, a number of
students were getting off for a rough start in high school. And as we all know, freshman year really does matter and it affects the next three years of your high school experience. So basically what we did was is all the schools we all went to go talk to our
high school principles and we were asking them like when ninth graders come into high school like what are the main problems you guys see as like the teachers or even like in the hallways like what do you guys see? Um, and the principles were like more in agreement that the four issues were the attendance
that they weren't going to class or like they weren't doing their work that was assigned to them or like even when they needed help on their homework and stuff, they just wouldn't go and get the help they needed. And eighth graders at different level were interviewed and asked about their day-to-day struggles and hopes for high
school. They had a lot of them getting lost in a big uh building. Uh not making friends, getting too much homework. My personal favorite, can you have a backpack? >> They also said that they had been told that high school would be different from
middle school, but they were they weren't really sure if they would want to believe that. So, um I think for like three months straight, like every meeting we would have, we would like all make like we'd like put every we were we'd be like in
groups and then it would be like different students from different schools and then we'd be like talking about oh like when you started high school like what were you struggling in and then we got all those ideas and we're like oh maybe like if we talk about this when we have like the meeting I mean we had it like a couple weeks ago it was like pretty good and then we all
talked about that and then we used all those ideas and then we wrote them on a paper and then but we kept adding on to it after like every other week that we had a meeting. So kind of helped. >> We had hoped to go into each middle school with uh to talk about 25 to 30
students at each session, go through each classroom, but as it turns out each um middle school except Lincoln had about 300 to 400 students and we estimated that about 60 student school board members would be needed for that
and we weren't able to reach that. So we diverted and made a quick plan B to take about eight students, seven to eight students to each school, have a big presentation in the auditorium and enforce our presentation.
>> So um for plan B, we decided we're going to really talk about like how important attendance is because if you don't go to your classes, you're not going to really learn anything. And then even even if you like you play sports like sports are important but if you don't go to your classes like your coaches won't let you play there's no point of like starting a
sport if you're not going to go to class and learn something because your coaches won't allow you to play any sport which is why going to class is important. And then we talked about like how working hard is important doing the assignment and like getting involved in school at least and like getting help when you
need like it's good to be academically there but also like just like getting to know your school, learning people there freshman year is a great way to just like start like something new. So we told them that too. >> We also talked about the concerns we had
when we were in 8th grade so that we could connect with them on a personal level. We so the whole point of sending students was that when teenagers had questions, they would hesitate to ask adults and feel would feel more familiar with other teenagers.
We also talked about how we worked through those in those problems in high school with these middle schoolers. At the end of each presentation, there was time for middle schoolers to ask their excuse me personal questions and there was lots of them.
>> Yeah, there was a lot. They were like cut it up in a circle. It was so cute. But at the end of like our April discussion last month, we like we just we discussed like ways to like maybe like change it up a little bit because other than that, honestly, it was like I think was perfect. Like if I had the myth grade year, I feel like it would
have helped a lot. But we just talked about like in the auditorium when we're like speaking and stuff, maybe like get a microphone just like for this, not the students, like we could hear them perfectly. But honestly, we would like really love to do this again next year. And I think we're ready to like make the
changes on like what to change depending on the feedback. But I think it was a really nice experience. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Wonderful. >> Board members, questions, comments? >> Superintendent. >> Um thank you both for your leadership
because you are leaders uh in this system. And I will say that um having been with you uh for your meeting the other day, to hear about how you on the spot had to change your plan with hundreds of middle school students there
waiting for you was extraordinary. And that's the kind of quick thinking that is going to be invaluable um to you all your lives. So I was very impressed. The other point that I want to um make is that um later on in this meeting, I will be making a recommendation to the school
board for our next strategic plan. And one of the priorities that I'm going to recommend is that we invest in what I'm calling nearpeer relationships, meaning studentto student, older student, younger student at every level of our system. So fifth graders with
kindergarteners, high school students with middle school students. So you really have been pioneers. you really this year on the student school board and as I've observed the success that you have had with this early effort, it was very influential for me in deciding to recommend that we make this something
we're going to work on across Rochester for the next four years. So, thank you for kind of opening the door to something that has been happening in in places, but it hasn't been happening in every school and for all students. And that will be the recommendation that
I'll be making later in this meeting and you all have helped shape that. >> Any other comments or questions board members? >> And just one more thing. When the student panelists were finished with their presentation and they really they they were amazing and they stayed
on the message. I mean they were speaking from their personal experience but the message was to eighth graders. High school matters, ninth grade matters. you go to class, if it's hard, you ask for help. And they talked about the kind of help they could get there.
Get involved in activities. And we've just seen all the kids who've been involved in so many different kinds of activities. Um, and attendance matters. After the presentations, it was like eighth graders mobbed them. It was like
that all of a sudden they had all these groupies of younger kids wanting I don't know that they asked for your autographs but they wanted to talk with you. They trusted you. They had more questions for you and if you could have stayed for the day you would have had a crowd around
you all day. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> I just got one quick question. First off, beautiful presentation and I'm glad that you guys are thinking about the continuation of your program and you know impacting the kids under you. Trust me, having a succession plan will follow
you a long ways in life. Um, but were there any questions that were posed by the eighth graders that you were maybe not expect, you know, not expecting? I know you guys did a little presentation, but was there anything that came up that you thought, "Oh, we didn't really think of that." Or >> we we did have a few questions about
course rigor regarding AP exams, and we were kind of happy that students in 8th grade were prepared and we're looking forward to taking these classes. Uh, but a lot of other questions were just like really simple that they also like
excited us like the backpack one. Yeah, I would say that was for >> um I think all the questions they asked us like there was I think it was all expected I would say in some sort of way. I mean some were like jokes but I mean it's middle schoolers so yeah I think most of it was like really
expected and I think we were kind of prepared for it overhand for most of the questions. >> We would love to hear any other further questions. Uh we know that you're rock stars and we're awfully glad that the middle schoolers saw you as rock stars, too. And to echo what Superintendent Pel
said, thank you for We know this takes extra time. It takes time out of your day. Um it it takes a lot of work for all of you to collaborate together, but it's so great for us to see the results of this work. So, thank you again. >> Thanks so much. >> Thank you. Have a good day.
Board members, any other updates or um information about events to share? Director Whitehorn. >> So, I went to the Skip visit at uh Bamber Valley. Don't quote me on the day. They're starting to run together for me a little bit here sometime in the
last week when the sun rose and the moon set. Um one of those days. But it was a very nice um trip. Uh I thought there were some things that I thought were very interesting about how Bamber Valley is doing things over there. Uh uh they are utilizing YouTube um as a platform
for communication uh with the parents and they have a dedicated uh newscast that they do weekly which I thought was really interesting. Um and I actually knew a few kids there and I mean they they're on it like they watch this news
update every week like the parents. So, I just thought that was interesting that they're utilizing a platform that is um free, right, and already there. And I was thinking, wow, sometimes we overthink things a little bit, right? Um but I thought that was really interesting. Um uh they did some really
nice presentations. Um uh director Workman, who is not here, is who also participated with me at the uh skip visit. Um and they did a presentation for us. They played a ukulele, uh for us. And I want to tell you, I was so excited for a moment. I thought they had
got rid of those recorders. Somebody, somebody write that down. I thought that those recorders was gone, but I turned around. They were still there. I thought we had replaced it. Can we write that down somewhere? Those recorders were the bane of I think every parent's existence. And you know, every everybody don't have to agree with me, but that's
fine. I I'd rather, you know, move to ukulele, so that was nice. Um I did get a little excited. And they have a really nice way of representing all the kids there. We actually uh they were actually doing their um monthly awards ceremony that day. So we got to see the parents
coming in and out. Had a surprisingly large amount of parents that came to participate at at 1 p.m. So I think it shows uh that they had a real really good connection. Um the other thing that they had the kindergarteners present to uh director workman and I is uh their
ideas um for their playground. And um I just want to tell the board I did tell those kids that we going to do it. So uh we going to need um a a water slide, a roller coaster,
a car park, and an extra-l large swing set. It's okay. I put Julie on it and we I I just couldn't tell them no. They had pictures, they had diagrams. Um they were so prepared with their presentation. I just couldn't be like, "No, y'all can't have a roller coaster." So I told them that that that sounds
very reasonable. We we will um we'll get that up um next summer. Uh I gave him a deadline, too, so I don't know how we gonna do that. Um but it was nice. It was just it was really nice. I did like that they had the presentations um ready for us. That was a little different from some of the other skit business that I
went to. So I just want to say it was a really uh nice presentation of a school. Uh they also had because we came towards the end of the day was afternoon visit. So, we also got to meet um some of the parents that are over the chess club um and all the work that they are doing as a nonprofit to be able to make chess
club free um for all of the schools. So, their goal is to be able to put a free chess club into all of the schools. And they said they actually have some very promising uh first graders already. So, it'll be exciting to follow them through. Uh so, that was the skip visit.
And then um also the BSU who presented here um a couple weeks back. Uh they are planning their next tour um over the MEA um school break and they are currently running a raffle. Um so myself I have some raffle tickets. Also, uh, anyone
over at the BSU at John Marshall and some of the kids throughout the district are selling raffle tickets for $10. And you will, if you win the raffle, let me clarify, you'll get a $200 gift card to Ruth Chris Steakhouse and a $200, uh,
gift card to the Marriott. So, uh, please support these kids. They're working really hard and it's just good to be able to get out there and see our kids in action. So, I really enjoy being able to see our kids out there working. Director Mccclaclin.
>> Um, I'm looking at the committee list and realize that I'm on the Apac committee, but that is not on this list, so we should maybe look at adding that. It's the American Indian Parent Advisory Committee, which is a new appointment for a board member, but something we've been looking at and advocating for. Um,
I'm still getting my feet wet on the committee, but I'm attending the meetings and learned this month about their funding and their budget. And it was not really just for me to learn this, but the whole group to be better informed about how that works. And just a reminder that the powo is scheduled
for the afternoon on Saturday, May 16th. >> Well, you you start off. >> Okay. There a few of us who were able to attend John Adams Culture Day today at John Adams and it was so joyful. These were middle school kids who were proud
of where their family came from. Some of them were born in another country. Some of them had parents who were born in another country. Some had greatgrandparents. But they were there with the table, with the display, often with food, um the
traditional costumes of their country. and every I think it was every um other middle school student was able to come in for 20 minutes, make the round of the tables and have kids teach them about
where they came from. And there must have been 30 or 40 different uh countries represented. Most of the kids who were at the tables providing the information and they were wonderful, interesting, again great exhibits were
at least bilingual. Many of them were triilingual. Um, it was amazing I think for the kids who are doing the presenting and the teaching to have an opportunity to be proud of where they came from, the culture, the tradition.
And it was wonderful for the rest of the school to get an education about how amazing their fellow students are and how all together they made John Adams great. I think that one of the other impressive
pieces of it is that they worked the whole building into it. the students who uh did a lot of I talked to some of the staff that had worked with students in preparing the presentation and um you know they all had a trifold board or some sort of display. So they had to do research on on various components of
what they were going to present and um how much even students learned about their own culture and country um that they were eager to share with their um their classmates and and the other students in the school. And I think joy was the best word. They were so eager
when you went up to the table, do you want to hear about my country? >> And um and anytime there's food um it always makes an event better and there was a lot of really really tasty samples of food from other countries. So
congratulations to the team at JA. I'm really glad that that event was so great today. >> Yeah. >> And in that uh the two of you have commented regarding the uh J Culture Club. I'd went this morning and um was
very impressed as you were uh regarding the passion that the students had. Uh but perhaps greater for me uh than the passion they had was the connection and the willingness to uh share uh their
their history uh and to even uh ensure that understanding uh was achieved. uh one particular student uh spoke of how uh tribalism had resulted in a number of
civil wars in her native in her homeland and and asked me if I understood what tribalism was and I kind of smiled and said yes. But uh the fact that she has learned the importance of not assuming that people know your story or
understand your story uh but creating space uh to share uh one's story and I thought that was quite interesting and I applaud uh the leadership there in many ways that's a reflection of uh the
school principal who as we know was recently named principal of the year but uh that is so uh we have so much to celebrate in terms of what our children are able to accomplish and what they're able to uh successfully convey. And uh
so thank you guys. I don't know if anyone else had went. I went I was there at 10:00. So but >> yes um a few of us also went to a breakfast that uh sponsored by the Ctoma Club. They have been great supporters of
the deaf and heart of hearing community at Willow Creek and at Bamber Valley. Uh the students led the presentation. They were the servers of breakfast. Um and it's just the school, the students, their families are so grateful that this
community organization is doing so much financially to support these kids so that they can be completely included into the life at the schools, the middle school, the high school, um the elementary school that they attend. And also uh at the breakfast they did a
physical representation of the structure of the ear using uh toys and gadgets and tubes and uh fuzzy >> yarn. >> Um and then they made us take a quiz of
of how well we had learned the the parts of the ear. to hear the students talk about their own programming and um how the opportunities that we've created through the deaf and heart of hearing program have helped them grow. Um one of the students there is a senior and she's
been a speaker at this event for multiple years and she's graduating and going on to a a college program um and is attributed the fact that she is where she is today from the the staff and the support she's gotten in that program. So kudos to our deaf and heart deaf and
heart of hearing staff for for their work. Director, >> sorry, I just want to double back on my skip visit that we did see the deaf and heart of hearing uh program at Bamber Valley. Um and they had a support group. Um and I thought it was amazing that
they were teaching those kids self- advocacy. Um and we got to sit in with that. Um I learned a lot of things even about their devices. Um, but they were explaining to them things that they can do if they're ever in a bind, if their um device were to turn off. So, I just
thought that was very forward thinking um and they have someone that follows them. And we also got to see um some live uh nearpeer uh support uh where we actually they actually gave us a presentation with their uh the fifth grader with their kindergartener that
they were working with uh with letters. So those were some other they they had a whole presentation for us. They had student ambassadors. It was there was a lot going on but um that is one of the things that I found was quite interesting that it was just um it was a nice thought to have the support group
where they can come in and actually as even young learners talk about some of the difficulties they're having as uh with that group of students to have a safe space. >> All right, I think that's all of our updates. Board members, we'll move on to our consent agenda. Items 5.1 through
5.8. Would any board member like any item removed from the consent agenda for separate consideration? >> Move approval. >> Second. >> It has been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? The consent agenda has
been approved. >> The next item on our agenda is a focus topic. Our five essentials 5e survey data. And this is an information item with a lot of information. Superintendent Uh thank you, Chair Nathan. Um you can see we have three colleagues uh coming
on up. Uh it's great to have Dana Ditz here, our principal from Jefferson Elementary, Eric Johnson, um our director of leadership and school improvement. Um and uh Peter Ruck, I guess actually, you know, u having had the consent agenda approved, I actually
can uh say uh chief of schools uh for the new position now that moments ago that was approved. So, um, board members, as you know, um, for the first, uh, four years that I've been in Rochester, we gave a survey that was called the Panorama survey that, um, uh,
focused a lot on kids self assessment of things like their ability to form relationships and, um, how they feel about their schools. And we had a deep discussion over the last year about the degree to which that was the giving us the data we needed. and we made a pretty fundamental pivot to the five essentials
survey which is about school improvement and the degree to which schools are organized for improvement. And so um we have been digging into that data uh in schools all across the district. Uh I was out at Jefferson um with Dana and her team and was very impressed with how
they have taken a look at that data to help shape their uh school improvement plan for the future. So um tonight we are bringing the board and tomorrow by extension other interested stakeholders into this discussion. The data in an interactive dashboard will be available
tomorrow on our website. Um and the final point I will say and I'm sure it's one that these colleagues will reinforce tonight too is that this is one valuable but not conclusive source of information. Um, any self-report
survey, even one as technically sound as the five essential survey, is capturing the perspective that a student, a staff member or a parent had at a moment in time. And so we always need to put these things in context and we also need to
know that this is the first time we've given this survey and so this is baseline data and one of the things that I have uh for years been impressed with in the five essential survey and actually in our strategic plan discussion later in this meeting I will show you an example. This is an
instrument on which schools can improve significantly. There are many surveys where it seems that no matter how hard you work nothing changes. And there's some technical reasons for that, but the short answer is they sort of just measure how people feel about the place. Whereas this measures very specific
things that we know from research influence student achievement in particular in reading and math. So this is the beginning of a journey. Uh looking forward to um sharing this data and we will be sharing with board members tomorrow as well the link to dig
into the interactive data. If you want to compare Rochester's data to a very large data set, every school in the state of Illinois takes this survey and you can look at their data on a dashboard that is easy to find if you Google Illinois 5e or we'd be glad to send you that as well. What's exciting
is it would allow a Jefferson Elementary to find comparison schools around the country and look at how they compare on these important inputs to uh student achievement. So with that, take it over. >> All right. Good evening. We are here for the five essentials and school
improvement uh presentation. I was going to give the line that now that the consent agenda is passed, we have to change the slide for Eric, but my was stolen on that one. Uh anyway, so this evening I am here and I will walk you through some of the basics and then I will turn it over to my colleagues here
about some of the implementation and use of the information. So, the first segment you'll be listening to me about background, some of our response rates, and then I'll give you a brief overview of the district-wide results, and then I'll turn it over to Eric and Dana for how they connect to Skip, how it's been
used, uh, side of things. So, what are the five essentials? The five essentials goes back to the late 80s and early 90s in the Chicago public schools when Ronald Reagan's secretary of education famously called it the worst system in the country. uh at that time they were
struggling with relatively bad student outcomes. Graduation rates under 50% for the entire school district were pretty common. But there were diamonds in the rough. And so the question is what was making certain subset of schools in CPS successful when in the same basic
context other schools were not. And they then partnered with the University of Chicago to dig into that. Uh and they did. uh at this point the research is decades worth. Uh and what they found was there were five essentials for school improvement that if they were if
a school met three of the five essentials, they were substantially more likely to be able to produce strong student outcomes. Their best research shows it's about 10 times more likely when you get a school uh into three of those five categories or more.
The tool for measuring it that they developed is the five essential survey. And the the surveys main advantage uh as mentioned earlier is that it's uh not a self-report survey about social emotional learning outcomes or um sort
of feelings about uh the institution. Rather, the items are extremely objective and they're tied to very actionable um concepts. Each each item speaks to a specific thing that it's easy to to conceptualize how you might take action
based upon that item. And those items are researched within an inch of their life to be good indicators of those five essentials. They also revalidate it every single year. Uh all they go through all of our data nationwide and make sure each question is still measuring what they want it to uh to
make sure the survey remains relevant and current. All students grades four through 12 uh take the five essentials here in Rochester. That would also be true if you were comparing us to uh Illinois, which is the state that produced that was all of their results online for
every single school. Uh for us, it's all Pellsby licensed teachers, service providers. We did not have support staff, ESPs or administrators included as that is not part of the five essentials survey by design. It is completed for us in January uh state or
nationwide. It's before mid-Marchch that all schools do it. It's been researched such that the winter time frame actually is the best time frame. They even know when in the year you should give the survey for the best data. So what are the five essentials? Underneath each essential there are a
number of domains sub uh constructs that are fed by each survey question or survey item. So, I won't read through the the bullet points on each of these, but the five essentials uh begin with effective leaders, which talks a lot about instructional leadership, uh trust
uh and teacher influence on uh on programs and and so forth. Collaborative teachers is also one of the five essentials as it's critical. collaborative practices, a sense of collective responsibility, um access to decent uh professional
development opportunities as well as trust among colleagues, teachertoteer trust. Within the supportive environment area, we have a variety of items that are all related to student achievement. academic personalism, expectations in the school for what comes after peer support and
safety. Um sort of that future orientation mindset and studenttoteer trust involve families. Uh that would be parent influence on decision- making in the school teacherto parent trust uh and
those related items. All of which feed into what you'll see uh in a moment on the graphic which is the center of the five essentials and ambitious instruction. Talking about uh math and English, our academic press uh and then also the quality of interaction
with students during the class. Participation rates were pretty high. Uh grades four through eight, we had a a very high response rate, 70 85%. For high school, it was a little bit lower. Uh we'll work on on boosting that up next year as best we can. But if you average across all the grades, it was
still about threequarters of the students who were eligible completed the survey. Not just started it, but completed it. About twothirds of our staff and a little over a fifth of parents. Um we do have some got a little misformatted. A little uh update on
highlights for participation by site. uh 99.9% of staff at ALC Middle was staffing and at Gibbs, Mark Randall was going around paying students, I'm pretty sure, to get it to 99.9%. When I asked him about it, he said John Carlson gave him
um schools that uh had a little bit lower response rates from uh students, teachers, or staff, but it's always room to grow. Our family responses uh are are an area in particular for attention at the secondary level and it's harder to
get some of those parent responses. This is what the top of the dashboard will look like when you look log into it tomorrow and it becomes available. These are Rochester's results from the most recent survey districtwide. And as you can see here, we have all five of our
domains. uh four of the five fall into that yellow or neutral category and instruction is on its way up from the orange category. The ga the uh scale there is for reference so that you can see when a score or or or an essential
would move into the green area or strong district-wide. These were our highs and lows on all of our uh subdomains. uh teacher and principal trust, safety, future orientation, and teacher and principal trust were all or parent trust were all pretty high. Falling into some
of those uh lower areas were a lot of the items from ambitious instruction as you can see this last mo note from me. Uh the parent and caregiver survey is a supplemental instrument. Um the parent survey is not
factored into the scoring of the involved families uh essential, but all of those uh survey results appear uh are there for nearly all of our schools. Almost every school had enough responses to get a report. Couple of highlights.
Um home internet at uh 7% of people who completed the survey, 7% of families said they don't have home internet. Because it's an internet-based survey, that's likely an undercount. Um, but since a lot of us make assumption, it's easy for those of us who've had internet for a long time to make an assumption
about that, it's not always the case. Uh, 95% of our our teachers of our parents who took the survey said their teachers respect them and they're comfortable sharing concerns. Um, would they recommend the school? Vast majority said yes. Um, about half said events and
programs for families were never rarely relevant to them. Um, which is an interesting result too. some of the some of the areas where we have opportunity. With that, I will turn it over to Eric for the skip connection. >> Thank you. Um, as you know, I've been up
here a few times before to talk about school continuous improvement processes and and the work we're doing there. And what I'd like to talk about tonight is how the 5e connects to skip and and so the 5e um works really nicely as as a
performance measure. You can see our Skip process has priority goals. We have the strategies and action steps, the progress monitoring and the resource alignment. 5e fits in beautifully because it is its own performance measure adopted by the board. You know, just like we have literacy, math,
attendance, behavior, the 5e becomes a performance measure that we can look at not just as a diagnostic but also as a way that we can formulate goals. And we'll get back to that in a little bit. We know that as Dr. D said earlier, the district target is a score of strong in at least three of the five essentials.
We do have some schools that have scored that right out of the gate, which is great, and we have several others that are very close. Um, it's nice because we can also use this to align with other performance measures. For instance, literacy has a strong correlation to the ambitious instruction piece. Um,
supportive environment fits nicely with behavior. So, we're able to connect some pieces as we're building these skips to really make things cohesive and find ways to really make the initiatives and action steps more robust. The 5e is really its own needs
assessment. It's a root cause lens. It's more than what the pan rama was, which is mostly a climate report. For instance, if we have a low collaborative teacher score, we're going to take a look at some of our adult practices. Are our PLC's effective? What other things are happening? low supportive environment score. Do we what are our
behavior systems looking like? If we have a low ambitious instruction, let's take a look at our instructional rigor. If we have an effective leader score, well, let's talk about what kinds of things are happening in the building with our principles and how can we support them. We know again that a school that scores
strong in at least three of the five essentials are 10 times more likely to improve student outcomes. So, we've talked about that a lot. We can't emphasize that enough. That so that is our district target. What does that mean? We really want to strengthen those essentials that are weaker. We want to protect the things that are going well and we want to just continue to build
that coherence across different performance measures. If ambitious instruction is weak, we can talk about amish adult learning strategies again supportive environments weak. We can look at systems or effective leader scores weak. We can build supports to help with the
leadership there. This is analogy I really like. The 5 works like a diagnosis whereas the skip is the treatment plan. So if we have an issue that we find in the 5e we can work on that through the skip.
By doing this we can really work on making coherence across the improvement work. We can align budget resources. We can focus on adult practices rather than student issues that we think are happening. And we can really reduce fragmentation in our work.
Once we got the results, which happened in early March, uh we we we really wanted to dig in. The first piece we wanted to to look at was the effective leader scores. Those scores were really reflective of the work our principles are doing. And so what we did is I met
with each of our building leaders one at a time across the district and spent some time just focusing on their scores, talking about them, looking at the wins that we could celebrate and then digging into those lower pieces and and what kinds of things can we start reflecting on and building on moving forward and
more importantly, how do we work with our skip teams and our staff as we address that score. Then every one of those conversations naturally segueed in what they didn't want to just talk about their effective leader scores. They want to look at all the different domains. So
we dug into all of it and and it was really apparent through each of those conversations with each of our building leaders that they were very much invested in those scores that they they took them personally. They they knew this was important and they really wanted to figure out how to use this to
drive improvement. So from there, we spent time as a as a district cohort, building principles, working alongside district leaders, doing deep dive analysis into each building scores, looking at what's working well, what areas could we improve on, and thinking
about next steps. From there, our principles went back to their skip teams, did their own deep dives, talked about what are the things that they could see, started drawing connections to the needs assessments they've done around literacy, math,
behavior, trying to make those alignments happen and thinking about next steps. By April, our principles were sharing this information with their full staff. We had staff meetings where the entire staff was digging into fiveyear data and looking through this and drawing their
own conclusions and from there giving feedback back to the skip team and the principles about their thoughts about how we could use this to inform school improvement. Um it was really pretty exciting and and at this point now all of our staff have access to their building scores and have been looking through them.
Um they this has been really pretty incredible. We're seeing some amazing work happening in skips as building leaders and skip teams are thinking about these scores, looking alongside their literacy, their math needs assessments, their behavior needs assessments, and now as we're in the
final months of the year, thinking about the skip improvement work that they're doing and writing their three-year skip plans. They're really thinking about the connections they can make and how they can use this to really drive robust, powerful skip plans with initiatives and action steps that are really going to
improve instruction. So with that, I I want to just turn things over to Dana, who's done some amazing work with her state results and sharing their story. So >> So in the fall, principles learned about
giving the 5e survey that it was coming. And so what we we did was went into the kind of a mock results so that we could look at what the five categories were. and and we did that towards the beginning of the school year. Then in
January, we were sent the links and um we're told try and get as much participation as you can by students, by staff, uh teachers, certified staff, and by parents. And so there are minimum targets of the percentage of of each to
um participate to make the results valid. And to be honest, um, I had to go a little bit above and beyond to get some parents more energized in in in completing the survey. So, I recorded a little thing on talking points, a live video, which I had never done yet. And I
recorded the video and I said, "Please help us out." And it pushed us well over the target um, just in doing that one extra step. So, in a first year of implementation, I think it was a good solid first year of doing that. And then we had to wait and waiting for results
is hard because we're excited to see, you know, like what did we do well and what do we want to focus our efforts on next. So we waited for the results. When the results came in, we of course dug in right away. So um this was our
participation rates. Um 90% of our students in fourth and fifth grade completed it, 55 and a half% or so of teachers and then 27% of parents. So, um, we felt like we did a good job trying to get as many, um, people to
complete the survey as we could. Um, honestly, our J team, our leadership team, our our skip team at Jefferson, we still call it J team for Jefferson. Um, but they were kind of disappointed. 55% is all of us that did this. So, that would be one area. I think they'll just
take care of that themselves next year. But, um, so this was our results. uh and we just uh we were told just look at the four areas our four areas that are neutral there were the four areas that we were told to share uh results with our our leadership team and also our
staff so that's what we did and so what what I did was uh prepared a slideshow because the results you can access the dashboard um but I wanted results for staff to be able to access on our shared drive so it was just quick and easy for
them so this is little snippets of what I created for our staff to look at. So, our our leadership team looked at that. You can see that we have some greens in all of the three categories except for ambitious instruction. Um, so we have some highlights there to kind of
celebrate and those are things that I definitely pinpointed to our leadership team to start. And then we have some areas that are red where definitely we'll be looking at that for um our skip goals going into the future. So, um,
this is what I did. It green background means good and, um, it's quick and easy, not too wordy, but I wanted staff to be able to see the actual like questions that the the they were asked. Um, and and then kind of see the range of where
we, excuse me, where we landed for uh, responses. So the black line, I don't know if you know um much about that, but the black line is where our district average was. So we're we're shooting for the district average or or better. And I
kind of told staff if we were more on the right, the nearly all or most all, we're good. I I called that good. That was easy to kind of summarize um for them. So collective responsibility um is something that I was able to celebrate
with our staff. uh school commitment was another area that we were able to celebrate and and show how strong we our commitment is to one another and and the building that we work in. So um teachertoteer trust is also a strength
that we highlighted um and lots of agree and strongly agree in those uh questions as well. um students reported this and and I wanted to make sure that I I put that on a lot of the slides where where is this information coming from? Is it
from the teachers or is it from the students? So I wanted uh teachers to see the difference of in the answers. So the other ones were all for teacher um answers but this one was student report. So um in their perception and this is
perception data which is really good data to take in on above and in addition to achievement data and and that sort of thing. So it's nice to see the the kids perspectives and again it's only fourth and fifth graders and we have a lot more kids in our building. But um to be
candid this is a test that you have to be able to read the questions and understand at a cognitive level that is that is probably greater than most of our primary age students. So, um, but then our English instruction was one of those areas I kind of put in the red, not because we totally failed at
everything, but just because we had enough on the farther to the left comparatively to our strengths that I thought this was something that we might want to look at going forward as we do our skip goals going into next year.
>> All right. So, what's next for the 5e? Well, right now, as I said earlier, our skip teams are using this information to inform their planning as they're writing their three-year skip goals. Uh we have some sites that are actively considering a skip goal based on one of the five E. Uh
ambitious instruction is one that comes up frequently. Uh and it's nice because there are some buildings say, well, we really want to focus on literacy and we want to focus on math. We're also thinking about ambitious instruction. Okay, we're going to tie them all together instruction goal with a literacy initiative and a math initiative and get everybody working on
that. So that's the type of thinking that they're doing to connect these things. Um we're also going to take some time this summer to crosswalk the 5D effective leaders questions with our principal framework that we use for goal setting and evaluation and find ways that we can support our principles in connecting those effective leader scores
with their own professional growth. And at the school level, buildings are finding ways to share this information with families and caregivers as they're thinking about their own school improvement planning work through the skip process. And as we've said earlier, this information will become public in
the very very near future. >> Perfect. >> That was good. >> I think we've never had that happen before. >> Board members, >> our turn. Director McLolin. >> Um I'm just kind of curious just because this is new to us. When the students are
in fourth and fifth grade that they take this survey, is it also just the parents and the teachers in fourth and fifth grade or is it everyone? >> Grades four through 12. It's all three groups. >> What I'm I guess when Jefferson are the parents of the kindergartener through
three taking it? >> Oh, it's family um it's all families at the school, not just parents. >> And same for staff. That's correct. Got it. >> Okay. >> Yeah, that's correct. Yep. I have a second question if nobody else.
Okay, go to director. Okay, move it around. >> That's okay. I got a couple questions. I did a little homework. Um, so I like it a lot of there's a lot of information. Um at the very beginning uh
I uh cuz I wanted to to learn more about how this uh buy the essentials thing uh came to be and you know how it was implemented in an in an effective way, right? Um and I I say this as um
you know there are some things that happen sometimes foundationally before great plans are implemented, right? So, I was looking into um CPS uh just a little bit. Um shameless plug, my my husband graduated from CPS. So, when they put the that
that age range that the years in there, that's actually the years that my my husband and siblings were in CPS. So, I asked them a couple questions about, you know, what was going on around that time and some things. So um so my my comment question is so when I looked into it so
the research for the five is really like the last 17 years right the last two decades or so. So, I mean that again that's just what I found out and the only reason why I'm I'm bringing this piece in is because what I did find in
looking this up is one of the major things that they did before the 5e just um just this is just for education purposes only um is that they restructure the entire uh CPS. So they had the five plus five program where they pretty much got rid of a lot of the
old thought patterns which is what kind of allowed them to be able to implement this new um structure. And I I bring this in because when we implement new structures uh sometimes it's important to know the foundation on which you're building it off of and how the program
came to be um as successful as it was. And I guess that was my my thought process in looking at the data and how did they get to these numbers. Um so in my personal opinion it's a little misleading because there were there were several steps CPS did before they got to
um to 5e. So they they did a lot of restructuring um foundationally be before um the implementation of the 5E uh programming including um closing several low performing schools and and actually the the school district was
under the control of the mayor for quite some time before they even did this. But and I say that because my my thoughts around that are as we as we implement this as we implement a program that comes from a larger district which and
again first let me say I love the the five points and I love how they are broken down. Um my only caution comes in in the comparison of of the districts if this makes any sense where I'm going and if you if I lose you I apologize. Um, so
I guess my thought behind the my thought behind the uh the where I'm going with this is I want to make sure that as we implement this that we are also being conscious of the foundation that we're building the system on top of so that it
is that it is a successful system. Um, and I don't know what that necessarily looks like per se, but I just want to make sure that we're implementing a program and a system that will actually be sustainable, right? because there's a lot of great programs that come and go
because they are they they don't get set well foundationally. Um so they kind of shift and move around and this is a program that I would think would be very beneficial to RPS and I would like to see grow and move and be uh retained. So
I guess my questions are around foundationally how will RPS ensure that we're able to sustain this program um long term I guess and then um the with the uh with
the percentages and the numbers being lower especially with um the the parents percentage and those things. I guess what I'd like to hear is is is uh more concrete um of how we can reinvolve these these
parents in these things because it it is essential to the data uh that we're pulling. So my concern when we're pulling data from a smaller district, right? Because we're a smaller district than Chicago. If we only have, you know, a lower p participation number, our
numbers can look really good really fast if we only have 42% overall. I'm just throwing a number out there of everybody participating, right? Um, and I would just like to see uh a better snapshot of what it looks like. And then my last piece of this is when I'm looking at
charts where you have this uh 0 to 10. Me personally, I tend to uh always look away from the zeros and the tens. Um because I know when some people take uh surveys, they just go, I love it or I hate it. Um is there any um
any factf finding beyond the survey? And what I mean by that, I don't know if you guys have ever done a comprehensive survey where after you're done with it, they'll say, "Okay, so what would cause you to increase this number?" You know, like what what needs to be done? Um, I guess I like the survey, but I sometimes
I feel that the surveys um, even though they're actionable questions, it doesn't really the questions are broad enough in my opinion um, that I like to know like those people in the middle, what what keeps them in the middle and I think those could it could be very valuable to
giving us actionable items as we are really talking about getting those things up. So, I'm sorry if my thoughts were everywhere. Um these are just the thoughts that I had in reading this extensive amount of data. Um and those are my my thoughts.
>> Yeah, thank you Chath and thank you Dr. Whitehorn and I invite these folks to jump in because as you said there's a lot there and thank you for putting in the time. Um in terms of the Chicago analogy you're absolutely right. We obviously are uh very different than Chicago. The reason I think that the 5e
is still a very good tool for us is that the 5e is only about individual schools as opposed to the district. So there are many schools in Chicago that are the size of Jefferson or you know larger high schools the size of a Mayo. So I think you're still the school is still the unit they're providing the feedback
on. Um, but you're right. We do also have to look at the fact that there are differences and one of the issues in the era that uh Bud may have been uh there in Chicago was safety going to and from school. So that's a question in 5e.
That's an issue in Rochester, but not like it was in Chicago at the time. So we do need to think about that. Um, interestingly, there's an article with the strategic plan item later in this agenda that I posted um, uh, this morning that I'll talk about when we get
to that agenda item briefly. That is about the history of school improvement in Chicago and how they became the fastest improving district in the country. Starting with, as Dr. Ruck said, being described as the worst. So, we do need to be careful in extrapolating from a huge system like
Chicago to RPS. I appreciate the point. I think it's still relevant because it is about the school as the unit. I think to the point you make about where does 5e fit, it's critical. It is one part of our larger skip process. And so the the
larger process that needs to be sustained is the skip process. And so 5e needs to fit within that broader process and skip needs to fit within our new strategic plan which we'll be talking about later. And so I would agree with you completely, Director Whitehorn, that
if it's a standalone program that doesn't fit into that larger um uh process, we won't get what we're hoping for from it. But the kind of digging that Dana and her team are doing into the 5e data is taking them to their literacy data, is taking to them to
their discipline data. So it adds um a different perspective um to that. So absolutely, it needs to fit in a larger process. I think too if I could mention um absolutely especially when the 5U was developed it was only in Chicago. Um I think part of the benefit of the last 20
years of research or so is that um it's expanded to the entire state of Illinois and it's also given nationwide. Um at least someone in all 49 states I believe does it um in Illinois point very well taken and very true but there are other school districts within even within
Illinois that are interesting comparison just for us which I I've used uh to compare our results to to some similar demographic and size districts. So there is some available information for that. Um with response rates, often when you
start a new survey, especially in a place where folks are used to taking lots of surveys, um you'll have a certain number of folks who kind of wait it out and see how like is this worth my time? Am I really going to participate? How many people will? You actually will have a fair number of folks who will
take the survey having seen how many took it before. And a lot of the herc I mean Dana is not kidding. our leaders did herculean efforts to try to get those some of the things our our principles and our staff did to to try to get those responses were amazing. Um
I do think as we have uh focused on this information and made it available and placed it into our skip process that the importance of it will build through word of mouth as well uh even if we took no further deliberate steps to improve response rates. So, I'm optimistic on
that front, I think, is my take on that. >> Can I just respond a point? Sure. Clarification. So, I just want to say the only reason why I brought the uh the Chicago public's thing in is because it was in the slides and I just don't I didn't feel that the way it was explained really does justice. So, the
way you just explained it as it being a nationwide um thing, I think would have been my opinion a better way to present it. um the way it's presented makes it look like the 5e essentially solved the the graduation is but I was just making
point that there were several other steps before they got to that point. So that's the only reason why I looked into it because it was uh a it was a slide um here and then I would say just for clarification um Dr. Raquel is I I get concerned of not only just things being
lost as standalone but also getting engulfed into other things right so even though we're including it in something you know uh sometimes programs start to almost dissolve into um other programs right so what happens is it starts as 5e and then it's oh
we've incorporated 5e into everything so I'm always just mindful of when we are um putting a lot of effort into uh these systems as to what does this look like moving forward? Does this look like something that absorbs into the RPS
system or does this maintain? So, I guess I wasn't saying necessarily as something that just blows away, right? Um, but over my years of educ, you know what I mean? So I that's what I meant in thinking of what this looks
like as it grows out. Not that it would necessarily disappear. Um but sometimes we don't think enough forward as to what how does this look, you know, 10 years from now. Is this still a program or is this something that um the district will
absorb into our pre-existing curriculum? Right? because we've had other programs that we or initiatives maybe I should say that we've absorbed into the rest of our curriculum. Am I making sense to anybody here? So I guess that's just my thought when we invest in those things. Is this an absorbable thing or is this
something that needs to maintain a a structure to be effective? So >> director Cook, >> sorry. Um well, as I was listening to the presentation, um thank you uh Peter, Eric, and Dana for uh for sharing the
way that this uh first year of receiving the results and then acting on them has gone. Um I I was reflecting back on the the meetings where the board decided to adopt this five essentials framework as one of the uh major measurable outcomes
of the district. And and a lot of that debate centered around um or discussion anyway centered around uh trying to be thoughtful about what are the things that we are going to measure and then try to become accountable for because people are going to organize their
careers around trying to optimize for the results of these um of of these metrics. And um and I you know I the board I think was was convinced at that time that this survey given its research
validation and track record and so forth was one that um would not cause us to would not cause the district I mean to make a lot of changes that wouldn't end up impacting student outcomes which is
of course the overall goal. Um, and just hearing you talk about the way that uh, in the first year this information has been received and analyzed by teachers and um, and and certainly by the the building leaders. I'm very much enthused
and um, glad that it's being it's proving at this stage to be as useful as we were hoping. Um, of course we can't wait to see how that ultimately translates into student outcomes and we'll be uh anxious as as everyone else will be for those results. But I just
wanted to offer that encouragement. So, thank you um for your leadership and in rolling this out throughout the district and can't wait to see where it leads. And I I'll also share as we were sitting here, I looked up the five essentials uh results for the community I used to live
in and where my oldest attended the first two years of public school. um in Champagne, Illinois. And uh it it um the response rates and so forth were quite comparable to to what we're seeing. So um yeah, anyway um thanks very much.
This was helpful and um hope it uh leads somewhere great. So >> Dr. brother. >> Uh, excellent presentation and I appreciate Dana the fact that you were as a
principal uh willing to um share uh what results uh the uh Jaguars experienced. Um and in many ways that perhaps is one of the um goals to be able to look within
and to uh see what one can do based on what the data reveals. And um uh the presentation was also useful for me to uh realize that this is not necessarily a systemwide
uh while there's a scalability uh component where you know schools are able to potentially or PLC's are able to learn from others. It's not necessarily a uh curriculum we introduce, but it is
information that can be shared and um uh built upon. I was uh intrigued specifically regarding bullet three under next steps uh the reference to crosswalk the 5e. Well, I'm not going to read it in its
entirety, but I I thought it was I was intrigued from the perspective that uh principle there's a framework and I think that is so important because you know the other uh four uh elements
unless there are strong leadership I mean the other things kind of fall by the wayside and and so I'm I'm glad to see that uh that's understood uh and not to suggest that uh this represents uh the uh growing up in the
day where the board of education was actually a paddle board. Uh that's not to say that the framework is you know a board of education to be applied you know to our leadership but it is nice to see that uh there's there are
accountability elements if you will uh not just a selfanalysis but also I think uh the teacher input it's a two-way street and and I appreciate what uh uh this tool um represents and hopefully as
director Cook has said, I'm excited to see what will come of it beyond just that individual uh report that you provide, which I think is an indicator of what is possible. And uh I'm probably most uh intrigued to see the um results
of the ambitious instruction. You know, if if all other areas are some somewhat waning or lacking, if that were green, I would be real excited about that. But so thank you. >> Sure. >> Thank you, Chair Nathan. Director Barl,
just uh very briefly, I I couldn't agree more with you about the role of leadership and accountability. Uh we have created a uh a homegrown um instrument that Dana and other principles and assistant principles are currently using to provide me, cabinet
members, and directors with similar feedback. Uh 5e doesn't have it. So we created a framework to provide us with feedback and we'll be sharing that again not for evaluation purposes but for improvement purposes because I think the point that you made about our principles also applies here and uh it took a lot
of uh bravery uh on the part of quite a number of our principles. I just want to acknowledge Dana's is green which is uh which is wonderful. uh we had principles uh whose uh effective leaders square was not green and I am visiting all of our
schools to talk about their school improvement plans and we had some principles who really owned that and said let's talk about uh where that is and that's not an easy thing to do uh as a leader and and we will endeavor to do the same with the feedback which closes on Friday that we'll get about uh my own
leadership and central office as well. >> Thank you. >> Dr. I was going to let you go. You haven't had any questions. I'm good. >> Um I have a follow-up to something Dr. Pel said. It triggered something in my mind that uh the question about safety
to and from school. I guess my question is probably for Dr. Brock. Are principles and leaders and educators, do they have access to like a demographic breakdown of answers in the survey or is that it doesn't go that deep?
uh not within the dashboard um that's readily available online but we are able to do that. Yes. >> Okay. And Dr. Pella the reason I asked that is that I'm curious given that this was given in January and the state of our state um is the survey given to
MSYNC students and then also recognizing there may have been students that were absent during this time period that didn't get the benefit of taking the survey this year that we might see data about that next year. Can you speak to both of those? >> Uh yeah, Dr. McGloffin, I think it's a very perceptive uh insight. We do plan
to disagregate the data. It's not disagregated on the dashboard that will be available tomorrow, but we'll be doing that and we certainly could share that with the board if that would be of interest. Um the operation metro surge as you point out was uh going on at this point and one would expect that that may
have impacted uh uh things like parent the the response rates to director Whitehorn's point but also the responses about things like safety going to and from school. I was um at one of our schools uh yesterday that shared that
members of our um uh Latino community are still not coming to school events like they did preeration metro surge. that our children are back in school in terms of their attendance, but family involvement in events outside the home,
at least in this instance, has not returned, which I was of course very distressed to hear. Um, but was in another school today and they actually confirmed that as well. And so I I think we will need to take a look at that data point and thanks for thanks for flagging that.
>> Um, and then can I go back to my original comments then? Um um I really appreciate pointing out for those of us who are not educators that this was a little bit mind-blowing for me and hopefully helpful for others as
well is the focus on adult practices that I have never heard that described that way and it's very interesting that that's the focus rather than students it's on the adults and I really appreciate that and we'll
think more about that um um the other question I have is maybe not as positive, but it it just it's the first thing that came to mind when I was looking at the slide here during the presentation tonight. Um
and particularly for um is it Dana? Yes, I couldn't remember your last name, but I got the first one right. um the English instruction slide about the student report. What I'm curious about is did the
in did the educators were they aware of these questions be? So even like so I'm assuming the student questions and and instructor questions are different. >> I would assume so, but I didn't get to take the survey or see the questions
until after me. And I guess what I'm curious about is that were your teachers surprised by these results? And not only surprised by the results, but surprised by the questions and I guess I think about it from, you know, it's been a really long
time since I was in fourth or fifth grade. But my answers to these I mean I yes to the first one about um revising a paper or essay in response to comments. Yes. The others no. Um, but obviously, you know, education has changed since
then, but did that does is that was that significant to your staff, I guess, is my question. >> Um, it's definitely something that we talked about because, um, back in Panorama days, there were a lot of questions where we weren't certain the
kids knew what the question was really asking. It was a double negative and then we had seven answer responses. So, we have that to make, you know, in the back of our minds like we've done that before. And so this survey being that there was a limited number of of answer options, we wanted to make sure that the
kids understood it. There were a couple of questions that I would say that were written more at the high school level for fourth and fifth graders. For example, one of them said something to the effect of, um, would you stay home and study even though your friends were
going out that night? And and we kind of laughed because fourth and fifth graders are like, what does this mean? And I said, "Well, would you study or would you just keep playing?" So, we had to, you know, those kinds of things. So, some of that, you know, perception data is is always that way, but you know,
we're looking at more than just perception data, too. So, like you you said um about um this is this is a tool and our data informs us a lot. Our our referral data helps us understand what's
happening in the building. our achievement data helps us understand what's happening in academics and then this data is going to inform us about our adult practices that and and we look at all of that at the same time um so that it's not a standalone we're doing
the 5e and we look at it in isolation we look at it in in all aspects and how it ties together and how valid were the answers that the kids gave did they understand that question or do we need to look at something else um to to reaffirm confirm um if they understood
that or not. >> Yeah. And that that definitely came up from other uh elementary leaders as well. One of the improvements we plan to make next year uh as we're gearing up um without compromising validity in survey, but terminology that could confuse those. So not every kid, for example,
understood that English means wisdom. And so if you put on the board, witten wisdom equals English, that might help students take the survey more effectively without necessarily compromising the integrity of the survey. >> So there are some some sort of low hanging quick wins I think we can make. >> That's true.
>> Sure. >> And just to take a step back just you may have said this earlier, but just a reminder that RPS doesn't choose these questions. These are these are the fivee questions that are provided to us. Okay. The other comment I had is I was sitting here, it also occurred to me that for people listening or people looking at
that I have to be I have to say this. I was clearly literal when the slide said it was available and not recognizing it was being rolled out. So, thank you for that clarification. Um, but I look at it from a parent perspective that this could be very educational for parents
and giving parents things to talk to their students about >> u that I think it would be a great tool looking at your school's data or your district data for these questions and you know just have starting dialogue with your student about um do they
debate the meaning of a reading during class or do they you know did you discuss how culture, time and place affect an author's writing? That's really interesting information to learn from us to hear from a fifth fourth or fifth grader. You know, are those things happening in their in their classrooms?
And I think that it's a great dialogue for parents and students to have. So, I think it opens up a whole another tool that you can look at for parent engagement. >> So, thank you. >> Just two quick things. Do students at every grade level get the same survey?
>> Uh, no. There are variations in the language for older students, but They're all the same in terms of alignment. There might be a complex word. >> Okay. >> They're it's the same number of items. It's the same concepts.
>> Okay. Anyway, I I'm thinking this is a really useful tool. Um partly because the the five essentials I think are exactly the things that we as a district and every school, every teacher should be looking at. Um, and that when they
get the feedback back, that's an amazing opportunity because they're so specific to be able to get together with other teachers and think, so what's going on here? You know, what are we doing? Well, um, what needs to be changed? It's much
more specific than some other um, surveys have been. I'm looking, for instance, I think this could be a fascinating discussion. And the teacher asks difficult questions on tests. >> It's a great question. >> Well,
you know, why are kids saying what they're saying? Is it I don't know any of the answers or the teacher hasn't covered any of this stuff? Or is that a really good thing? Because I know all the answers and but if I know the all the answers, maybe I don't think they're
all that hard. Anyway, I think good discussion, but I I think it's really going to be valuable. >> So, I wanted to go back to the um the response rate of the parents and caregivers. What were you hoping like? What's what's that threshold you were hoping for?
>> Sure. So, 5 will uh the survey is considered valid and reliable if 50% of students take it, 50% of staff take it, or 20% of families. >> So, the target is over 20%. So clearly it must be an issue to get parents and
caregivers to take this no matter where the >> Yeah. And more more difficult. It's secondary. You know, it's a little bit less of a clear, you know, sort of personal connection for some families. Sometimes kids are in and out with PSO or whatever. Uh lots of different
factors, but yes, that was a it was different in secondary than elementary. And because this is a sort of a research center that operates this survey and and is looking to, you know, improve their systems, the survey, do they have like
tips from other districts as to how they got better participation um on the survey that might be unique to this survey? some yes but they the ones that I was uh able to get from them were
largely sort of survey best practices in general it wasn't particular to 5B we could certainly follow up again and ask though I don't know that I spec specific about that we do think too and we're hopeful that you know as the public sees how we're using the information and that they are able to access information
they'll be more invested in taking in the future I also think if you go to any of our high schools basketball games next January you will see a lot of QR codes that'll take you right to 5 survey. >> It's a great idea >> and and it is true like one of one of the best ways to improve response rates is to publicize your responses and show
people how you're engaged makes people want to take it. >> Dr. Ward. >> Um so, so I just want to clarify and say that I really like the program first off. So if it came up I didn't I do like the program. Um, but I just think as we
learn more, as it rolls out, you know, it's important to continue to ask the questions so that, you know, it's just not yes, yes, yes all the time. Just my personal thing because I think that's how we make the program work for our district, right? Um, because we are implementing a a program from another
district. So, I I just like to ask questions, make people think. Um, but what I what I my my other question that I was thinking on is uh I know we're implementing a system that's going to kind of follow the student. How does that work with the 5e? So I know the 5e is the um is the school. I understand
that. Uh but for instance where you scored high with effective leadership, we moved the principal, right? Because we changed the leadership. Are we able to also track any data any deeper than that? So can we see um you know that
Dana's effective leadership has been working at all the schools she's been at? Right. um are we able to do any tracking like that to notice if there are any uh trends um staffing wise or you know things like like that per se?
>> So the uh the online dashboard that you will see uh tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. when it goes live um because we only have one year of data, you only got one line to look at. >> Next year there'll be two lines and it's going to draw connections between each one and each school will also have that
uh report going into it. So if Dana were to go to another school, we could still look up that information and the trend data for Jefferson year-over-year will also be there right alongside so you can see progress each year. >> Okay. So there will you will be able to see if there's been like
>> 100% >> a major staffing change. Okay. >> For sure. >> Any else have anything else? >> Thank you. Um this is um I'm not sure whether to say this now or to wait until the strategic plan, but um
one one of the connections between this agenda item and the strategic plan discussion that we're going to have is that um you know when we talked about the improvement outcomes um I I think there was a lot of
not concern just pause because we were setting some pretty high goals and I think we even had the conversation, you know, why not higher? Why can't why can't we move faster? Why can't we do more? And I think that we knew um that when we got this baseline data, it was
going to show that we had areas to improve. We weren't suddenly going to have fivee outcomes that weren't in alignment with where we were with our other improvement outcomes. But one of the things that I appreciate especially about tonight's agenda is that we are getting this last piece of our improvement outcome set and we are
immediately a few agenda items later going to talk about what our plan is to um make all those numbers change. So um I think in in Director McLaclin's spirit to the community when you look at these numbers and you say wow wouldn't it be
great if we were green? Um, we all agree it would be great if everything was green, but stay tuned for a few more agenda items and you'll hear about how we're going to try to get there. So, thank you. >> Madam Chair, can we take a quick break before we move to the
>> We can We are going to adjourn until 7:35. >> Recess until Yeah, I had all kinds of trouble just getting I probably don't. Our next agenda item is 7.1 pre-sale report for authorization of issuance and
sale of 33,800,000 general obligation facilities maintenance bonds series 2026A. Superintendent Pel. >> Thank you, Chair Nathan. It's a pleasure to turn it over to our director of finance, Andy Crostead. We are uh updating the board but not asking for action uh at this meeting tonight.
>> Thank you, Dr. Bell. Excuse me. I'm dealing with a call a little bit. Uh Chair Nathan, thank you for having me. Uh this is really just going to be a quick information. At the last meeting, if you recall, Aaron from Ellers did provide some uh uh information about what we're planning to do with the bonds. This is just part of that process
to keep you uh engaged in in the process and understand again with the timeline what it looks like as we proceed in the next few uh few weeks. Um I'm going to be just go through a few things on the pre-sale report. There is not a presentation to follow. So I'll just identify where I am at on what
particular page. So, first thing just on page one, uh what we want to do though is we want to point out the terms of these particular bonds. They're 16 years and 7 months. And uh we will be locked in at the coupon rate um where they're sold until at least February of 2034
where we'll then have an opportunity at that point to uh to refund those bonds depending on the market at that particular time. Uh I would point out that if you recall at the last meeting uh we did uh introduce a resolution and you did
approve the resolution that we would perhaps refund some of our existing bonds. Uh but it appears as though the market is not going to be favorable for refunding those bonds at least right now. So most likely we will come be coming back in June with just the sale
of the uh new facilities maintenance bonds and not u not the refunding of the existing bonds. That could change. Um market conditions likely won't though in the next month and that's what really drives that. Uh that's not to say that our rates are bad. It just means that
the rates aren't really good enough to uh to see enough savings uh once we factor in uh issuance costs and uh and the like. Uh there's just not enough savings worth that process. So, I just wanted to point that out. Also, we we
participate in the state credit enhancement for all of the bonds that we issue. That means the state guarantees to the bond holders that um if we don't pay uh those debts uh they will the state will step in and and pay those debts. Obviously we've never defaulted on that and uh there's no intention of
doing that again in the future. Uh on the next page, page two, I just want to point out that because of the a credit enhancement um process that uh program that we get to participate in um that allows us to sell those bonds at a AAA rating. The district itself holds a
double A rating and we will be doing a ratings call in two weeks. Um and uh S&T will be looking at uh the status of the economy, the status of um our our district enrollment, fund balance, all
those factors that are um critical for them to issue their ratings. But because of our again participation in that program, we do are able to sell at a higher rate. onto the next page, page five. I just want to remind everyone of the schedule.
We'll be back here on June 2nd. Ellers will on that particular date um they will sell the bonds or the bonds will be sold. They will provide us with the resolutions to accept the sale of those bonds and you will approve them hopefully that evening at the board meeting. That's uh typically how the
process works. There's not really a uh a resolution that's provided in advance. it's done the day of so that we can hopefully get the best rates possible. The proceeds then will uh be deposited with the district on June 25th. I want to just jump now uh to page eight
and you'll see it's a it's a very small print um but it really shows what we intend I I want to point out what we intend to issue for bonds in the future years. That's on the top left. As you can see this year uh in June we're uh estimating or we're we're selling 33.8.
These numbers below that uh in the future years could change depending on the LTFM plan that will come back to you in July. Uh a reminder that that plan is updated each and every year. That's a 10-year plan. And so projects move uh in and out of any particular year and
sometimes even in and out of that plan in you know as a whole. and what is in that plan ultimately then is funded with bonds, but the dollar amount needed could vary depending on what is finally in that plan. So, we've plotted out uh
an annual sale uh for each of the next several years. And that's um that's listed there for you just for your own information. And then finally, uh it is always the uh desire of our financial adviser and the district of course to maintain our tax rates as um flat as we
possibly can. So as we assume new debt, we're hope we're doing that and timing that with the expiration of of other debt or other principal and interest payments so that uh our market so excuse me so that our tax rate ultimately stays flat. So a a tax own or a a taxpayer is
not seeing a huge uh um increase a huge spike and then perhaps the subsequent year a huge decrease. So the the goal is to keep it relatively flat. And you'll see that on page nine, that graph. As you can see, even in those years where we're anticipating selling additional bonds, you'll see that some other debt
is falling off or being reduced, therefore allowing us to bring on additional debt, but without any additional tax impact. It's also important to understand that the tax impact um is based on um the the net tax value. So there's there's several different rates, but ultimately the tax
um the the base growth the last couple of years has been about 8% to the district. So we factor about 2 to 3% in our planning, but when that tax grows by 8% ultimately it spreads that out even further uh and then has even less of an
impact. And so uh as we think about our our debt in the future, we think about the tax impact. um it's possible that as our growth um continues, we have the ability to perhaps assume additional debt beyond what we're planning with uh similar flat tax rates. So, that is
really what I wanted to present tonight. Uh very quick and and easy, but it's really just an update of where we're at. And just a reminder, we'll be back on June 2nd with the sales >> board members. Any questions? >> Hearing none, we will see you on June
2nd. Thank you. Our next agenda item is prep for action the RPS 2030 strategic plan outline and we are scheduled to take action on this item at the May 17th meeting. Superintendent Pel.
>> Thank you very much Chair Nathan. As um you mentioned uh the action is at the next meeting and as you have mapped out for the board in uh uh your weekly communication to them. The purpose of this presentation is to give the board a
highle overview of the highle priorities that I recommend we adopt in our next strategic plan. A number of board members have already provided written questions and comments and caught a few typos in the long document that is before the board and in assembly um tonight. Um our hope is that over the
coming week other board members either through that written document or I'm always glad to get together with any board member for a meeting or conversation will raise your questions or thoughts and that we will incorporate them into a revised version that you will get. But the goal then today is to
move at a pretty high level and a pretty fast clip to give you an overview of how I propose bringing together the many many things we've talked about since last spring into a coherent strategic plan that would guide the work of the
district through 2030. So a few starting points. The plan outline, which is what we're calling the long document that you have before you today, um is not the strategic plan itself. It is like any good outline of an essay or a book or
something. The skeleton that we would use to actually produce the full strategic plan. It's the highle prior priorities and the parameters for RPS um 2030. And as this board knows well from every aspect of our work, whether it's academic or facilities or um community
engagement, the devil is in the details. And so while I do believe and have talked quite a bit with our chair and vice chair about the merits of having you approve the high level priorities before we develop more detailed plans that include timelines, milestones,
responsible people, um resource maps, um that is what ultimately I believe you are going to need to vote on a strategic plan that is truly going to operationalize the goals that the commu that the board has set for the community. So we are here tonight with a first overview of that outline. Um I'm
envisioning that over the next two weeks we will get feedback as we've already received from some of you about uh some of what is here. Then we will present a revised version of that on the 19th. Over the summer, we will take the high level priorities that you propose and we
will develop not exhaustive in the weeds implementation plans, but plans that would allow the board to evaluate the degree to which for instance our goals are aligned with our values and our capacity to implement these priorities.
Well, um we would then in uh September at the 15th regular regular schoolboard meeting on the 15th, you would get a draft of the full strategic plan. Once again, we would have an opportunity for board feedback and then I envision you voting on the final version of RPS 2030
on October 6th, 2026. Um, it's really important to emphasize that difference between the outline I'm sharing with you tonight and the actual final product of our strategic plan. This is a copy of the last strategic
plan which we are just finishing produced by Wilder Research and clocking in at uh well more than 100 pages. Over the course of the first year of implementing the plan, we boiled it into that now pretty familiar 15 building
blocks. And as I know at least chair Nathan remembers, in between this plan and the building blocks, we had concentric circles that uh confused a lot of people, but um I liked it and but ultimately it was not an effective way. So I know that what is before you here
tonight is uh as Dr. Whitehorn was just saying before we reconvened, it is very long. It is very complex. That is because I wanted to surface each of the proposed priorities for you in a very distinct way. My goal would be to package them in a way that is easier for
our educators, our community to uh understand by the time you see it next fall. It's never going to be so simple it fits on a bumper sticker, but the goal will be to uh put it into a framework that really can guide implementation. But at this point, I'm
emphasizing complexity. I do think it's important, you know, we have a set of uh values that the board has approved for the district as a whole, but I wanted to articulate a few guiding principles for the implementation of this plan, which I'm proposing would be a four-year plan. So,
a little bit longer than many school district strategic plans, which are often three years. And the four that I came up with are coherent, outcomes focused, researchbased, and execution driven. I think all those will be familiar to the board because it's really been the way that we've been talking about leading this district. But
of course, I love a good acronym. And so those would be the core principles. The first is that even though this plan is complex, the arrows are all pointing in the same direction. It is coherent and the resources that we dedicate to teaching and learning and to building
school climates are aligned with the outcomes that the board has approved and are aligned with processes like our school improvement process. Um there's a pretty good body of research that would say that the single biggest difference between high performing and low performing educational systems is
coherence. What you teach aligns with how you teach, aligns with how you test, aligns with how you fund. Um it sounds simple but of course it's wildly complex in the environment that we are operating in but I think it needs to be our first principle. The second is outcome focused
um that the success of this plan is not judged by how much money we spend how many inputs we put in place but by the outcomes that the board has um approved. You know we've been talking about outcomesbased education in Minnesota for decades but we still judge a lot of our
work by the inputs. Um, and this objective says, "Nope, we are holding ourselves accountable and aiming for improvements in those outcomes." The researchbased piece, uh, since I've been in Rochester has been a hallmark of what we've been doing. I think in some ways what's what's innovative about this plan
is not any single initiative, but it's that we're trying to put together all of the major strategies that research shows contribute to improving student outcomes in a single district in a coherent way. And then finally, execution driven. um
the caliber of execution will be the success or failure of this plan. How effectively we implement it at the classroom, school, uh central office and community level. So four core principles that I would suggest are um hopefully undergirling the plan. The plan as I'm
currently thinking about it would have four key sections. The first will be the mission, vision and values. The second, the improvement targets. The next would be something that we'll talk a bit about tonight, what I'm calling six systems for improving outcomes. And then finally, a set of change projects. Um
board members are already well familiar with the mission, vision, and values. I anticipate that the strategic plan document I would bring you in the fall will have some um explanation of how we are going to live into those values and achieve that mission um over the four
years of the plan. And so putting some meat on the bones of how we expect to bring to life, providing exceptional opportunities to succeed, building belonging and connection, ensuring excellence through evidence, supporting the whole student, digging deeper for real world application, and investing in
our community's future. I think when the board approved that set of mission, vision, and values, we all said we don't want it to be just a a a poster on the wall or a a a booklet on our hard drives, but something that really lives and breathes. And so I anticipate the
first section will have some things to say about how we'll do that. The second section will be the improvement targets that this board has approved. Uh I will point out um since uh the board has seen and approved that set of improvement targets previously except that there is
one that is now filled in which was the final remaining one which was the five essentials. And so as you may note there we have three schools that are already meeting our uh three greens uh objective. Um of course we would like to get that to 27 schools. The improvement
uh target that I'm proposing is raising that by three schools for each year of the strategic plan getting to a majority of schools in RPS are organized for improvement which is what the three greens means. So there's two big food groups in the
remaining part of the plan and they're related but different. The first are what um I ultimately propose we call six systems. And by meaning systems, I mean these are not projects that have start dates and end dates. They're structures and processes that we want to see
continually improving in our schools. Since we created our performance measure teams last summer, we have been working on this and I will tell you earlier iterations had 12 systems. And I think complexity is also the enemy of getting something done in this. And so I worked
pretty hard uh with a lot of uh people helping think about this to say what are the six critical systems that we want in place in every one of our school and that we want to develop rubrics for what is effective practice, what is ineffective practice, what is highly
effective practice. All of these will seem familiar to board members, but up to this point, we have not, and I would submit most school districts have not named these as essential components of uh the systems we want to see in place in our schools, which will be
continually uh enhanced through efforts at the school level and with central office support. So, what are they? The first, of course, no surprise, multi-tered system of supports. um the system that seeks to ensure that the vast majority of our students get what they need academically through their
core classroom instruction and that we have supplemental tier 2 support for kids who need additional help but less intensive and that we have tier three supports for students who need intensive supports. Over the last uh five years, we've made a great start in that area in
literacy. And as you'll see, I'm proposing we add MTSS change projects in two other areas. The second is a student advising system. Um, when we heard the reports from the three working groups that we convene for the strategic plan,
we heard again and again about the needing to help the need to help students navigate more effectively. And so we want to be sure that each of our schools has an effective system of building relationships and providing students with guidance that helps them
uh navigate school and uh invest in their own passions uh and and goals. That does not necessarily mean advisories which is a very particular structure. There are different ways to provide advising. Advisory periods are one way. There are workshops. There are
other structures that um we uh we would look at, but we want to make sure that there's a a system in every one of our schools for helping students understand their educational journeys, self assess how they're doing, and get the support they need. The third, a parent and caregiving parent and caregiver
engagement system. I've intentionally called that parent and caregiver engagement as opposed to family engagement. Not because family engagement isn't critical, but that really the essential focus there is helping our parents and caregivers, know what's expected of their student, know
where their student is, um, uh, know what they can do at home to support their student, and tell us what they think their student needs to succeed in school. The fourth of the six systems would be our skip system. Our school continuous improvement system has been a
major subject of discussion for board members this year as we've been designing our skip 2.0 process. We have a really good start as uh Eric was mentioning during the 5e discussion but we have a ton of work uh to do on our continuous improvement systems going
forward. The fifth would be our professional learning community system and that is a reversed word so it should say prof well professional community learning system that's where I ended up but it usually operationalizes itself in a PLC or professional learning community
that's the system through which our educators and other staff look at data identify interventions provide supports to students and improve their professional practice we have PLC's in every school almost without exception Our schools are telling me it's time for
what I've heard again and again is a PLC reboot. Redefining and rededicating ourselves to the effectiveness of those teacher and staff teams through which a lot of our uh improvement work is conducted. And then the final a professional growth and evaluation
system. This is our ability to support individual staff and educators. um not just classroom teachers but um all professional staff and other staffs in in critical roles. That process needs to begin with um recruitment, finding the
best people for our schools, induction, preparing them from day one uh to understand uh our strategy, our effective practices, moving through uh coaching um peer-to-peer observations and ultimately recognition uh uh and
learning from excellence and highquality evaluation processes. So those would be the six systems that we would over four years seek to ensure are uh in place and operating successfully in all of our schools. So the last category of the
plan is what I ultimately decide to call change projects. And the purpose of the title change project is to differentiate it from those six systems. These are efforts that would have beginning points and ending points that are about
designing new approaches, adopting new uh or launching new programs, changing ineffective practices. Um, and so they're related to the six systems because ultimately many of them need to land in those systems, but in each case
they're about building new processes or reforming things that exist. I think of this as the architectural part of uh the plan and board members will recognize four of those categories that came from our working groups that we convened over the past year. I used the same
terminology that they used for those working groups. Academic rigor and relevance, navigation supports, engaging offerings and well-being and relationships and I added a fifth for operational excellence. And so uh each of you these has a background paper in
the material the long document that you were provided with today. Um your comments and questions and insights about those background papers will help inform the revised version of these high level priorities that I will bring on the 19th. But very briefly let me touch
on um each of them that is there. The first one we called instructional framework. Um and as Dr. for Marvin uh and I were just remarking through a collaborative work with the Ro uh process with the Rochester Education Association, we have selected a a evidence-based framework developed by
the Charlotte Danielson Organization for teaching excellence. And this is something that in my view we really have been lacking in RPS. It is a it is an ambitious and comprehensive but clear and practical definition of great teaching. It includes things like teaching that helps identify where kids
have not mastered foundational concepts and skills, filling in those gaps and moving them along. It includes culturally responsive instruction. It includes instruction that is engaging and taps into students interests and sparks. Board members have a copy of the
Danielson framework with the materials. And we would be over the four years of the plan working to ensure that uh every teacher uh with the instructional version of the framework understands and is able to and is supported in bringing that to life in their classroom. Very
excitingly the Danielson organization has developed companion frameworks for our other professional uh jobs. Um up to this date we've been using our previous framework called the class framework which is focused on teachers. We've used
it with school nurses and counselors and it's really nonsensical because those jobs are very different. And so we would also be adopting the professional practice frameworks for all of our other key uh studentf facing positions and working to build out supports and yes
evaluation for uh the degree to which our staff that work directly with students are reflecting those best practice frameworks um through through their work. So that's something and I'm uh really grateful to REA for having played just a a key role and to Mona
Perkins for having led that work since she joined us as our chief academic officer uh to uh uplift that framework which um has been around for a long time but um I think is going to be a good fit for us going forward. The second priority I I don't think I need to say this much about it. I think you'd
probably fire me if I didn't propose we stay the course with MTSS and literacy. We've made a very good beginning but we have much to do. Um, we have much to do in terms of our core strategies at the elementary level, but as we've talked about multiple times, um, uh, helping
struggling readers at the middle and high school level is, uh, something our secondary schools were not designed to do. And so there's a ton to do there to stay the course with MTSS and literacy. And now it's time to turn to math. We're piloting new math curricula at present
across the district, but we have a lot of heavy lifting to do to build out a multi-ter system of supports in math that reflects the components of what we've built in literacy. We need effective screening tools to identify kids who lack foundational knowledge and
skills. We need effective interventions for the kids who are uh needing additional support to get on track. uh we are going to need to adopt new curricula from uh kindergarten through 12th grade over the course of the plan as we've done with uh literacy at the
elementary levels. Um and we're going to need to be doing all of that at a time when the understanding of what kids need beyond high school in math is uh is changing. Um and so uh this is going to be really exciting work. It's work that a lot of teachers since I got to
Rochester five years ago have been saying to me, when are we going to get to math? When are we gonna get to math? Now is the time for us to get to math. Um, and so we would have a multi-year strategy for that. Career pathways, a subject that uh we talked about a lot when uh our consultant Spencer gave the
board an overview of the high school results, but um this would be a structure in which uh students in our school, our high schools uh select a pathway, whether it was toward the liberal arts or toward uh the trades or toward uh health sciences that brings a
coherence to their high school experiences. Uh in most cases, people suggest a career pathway is a sequence of at least three courses. It could potentially be much more. There's a lot of exciting work happening around the country on career pathways. Um but we have a lot of questions to answer. As
you may recall, the working group that we convened this year called for what they uh often called wall-to-wall career pathways, meaning that every kid is in a career pathway. I think we have some serious capacity questions to answer before I could bring you that. We know
we have a few smaller uh pathways uh in part housed in our CEK programming. Um there's no question to my mind that we need more. Should the design be that every kid is in a pathway would be a question that we'd be asking this summer and bringing you a proposal that gets at
the degree to which we have the resources to do that. Well, um very briefly, I know your questions are going to be coming in the next two weeks, but Director Mclofflin asked a really important one. Why was the high school alternative learning center not explicitly included in the career
pathway uh recommendation in the background paper? The answer to that is the small number of students about 400 and the relatively brief period that many students are at the ALC means that it would be very hard to design an extended sequence of courses but we can
for sure and the ALC is already doing some really nice things around what we could call career connected learning and workplace learning. So, even if you don't have a multi-year pathway, you have kids in internships. You have um people from the um world of work coming in and working with our students. And we
certainly can continue the discussion about the ALC and pathways, but in most models, those kids are taking a more extended sequence of courses than might be uh possible for us to build into a a small school where a lot of students are there for a relatively limited uh period
of time. But we'll take a look at that. And I I thank Director Mclofflin for the question. My recommendation also will be to move the CEK classes into the high schools. We will have a discussion in June about the facilities implications of that um which we're working on right now. Um and I'll save the detailed
discussion of that. But the the core argument is first of all those are wonderful courses that now kids need to take two hours out of their schedule and travel across time to access as opposed to being able to do it in their high schools. Um, our enrollment in CEKCH has been flat for about a decade at a time
when these jobs are exploding and when our students are telling us they are really interested in this kind of learning. Um, that said, we have some questions to answer and uh, Dr. Marvin and I had a really interesting discussion with the student school board last week about um, this issue, but it is a recommendation that that I will
make. We also spend more than half a million dollars leasing space from RCTC and busing kids across town that could go directly into the educational uh services for kids. Um the board has had a brief overview of the curriculum
review and revision process uh that um Mona Perkins and her team provided the board with an update on. Um, at its core, this is about uplifting the importance of curriculum in Rochester public schools. That we're seeing from a growing body of research that a defining
feature of successful systems is what is being called knowledgrich curricula. that which I think our wit and wisdom curriculum at the elementary level qualifies as that these are curricula that take very seriously students understanding of concepts and skills as
they are uh progressing across the subject areas and that we're working to make deeper learning a characteristic of that curriculum review and revision process. Our biggest challenge there is financial because high quality curricula
is expensive and uh we are um just grappling right now with how we cover the cost of the two most immediate curriculum adoption challenges we face which are social studies and math. But there's every other subject area beyond
it. But it's the work we must do. um when we uh think about asking our teachers to bring something like the Danielson framework to life and we aren't giving them high quality curricula, you're kind of asking them to I don't know what the analogy would be, you know, fight with a hand behind their
back or uh make miracles happen. Um and so resourcing and implementing that curriculum review and revision process would be another component. Number seven is taking a look at the high school level at our honors offerings. Um, we have honors classes
that are RPS classes that students uh receive an additional uh weighted honor point on their GPA for. And uh the strategic plan review process that we conducted leading up to these recommendations concluded that we need to make sure that all of those honors
courses truly are reflecting uh a a clear expectation for additional rigor. We have a process that I had never encountered before I came to Rochester public schools called honors option which is a subset of our honors courses. It is a regular track class where if the
student does additional work they get that weighted honor point. I I have to be honest my that's a headscratcher for me. It seems like extra credit um as opposed to a true honors. Why am I including this here? I think that if we are going to be a system that sets high
expectations for all students, these marquee classes that we offer and which we want to offer more of really need to make sure that they meet uh a common standard for um frankly ambitious instruction like we just talked about in the five essentials survey.
Number eight would be high dosage tutoring. We have had a pilot in the middle school uh level with mathematics and we've uh had a really good experience. It's just been going on for a part of this current school year, but the research on high dosage tutoring
through which students are engaged in groups of usually three or at most four in a very intensive targeted support in a subject area. We've started with math, but it applies across content areas. um is showing a lot of effectiveness in taking kids who are way behind,
scaffolding them up so that they can rejoin their peers rather than having happen what happens too often in American schools where the kid is just missing foundational concepts but they move along through the grades and we know what happens to that student as
they get further up um in years. And then finally, uh, a a subject that came out of the meetings I held in every one of our schools last year that candidly did not come through the working groups that we had. Nobody said it was fine,
don't do anything about it. Um, but that was when we have students who are deficient in credits and who we want to have graduate on time or shortly after they would have graduated, we like most school districts have a process we call credit recovery. And we do a lot of that
through an online platform that can be very effective for some students, but that we have pretty extensive evidence for others is clicking through screens. And when we don't have an effective process to actually make sure the student is not just clicking through the
screens, but is actually mastering the knowledge and skills, I don't think we're doing those students uh a service in the longer term as they get out into post-secary education or the world of work. That's what you might call a wicked problem because those are how do you actually deliver that support for
students in a way that has a lot of integrity is an important question but one that um lies ahead of us. That was the long one. So none of the other categories have quite as much. Um in the navigation supports category we would be
building out the mindsets uh steps and mindsets behaviors and steps to success that this board has already approved. We are in the midst of creating curricula uh around those uh mindsets and steps and embedding them into advisory periods um and into uh course content. That is a
work that really is just beginning. And so it's one we I certainly recommend that we sustain. The key task is making sure that whether it is building a student's ability to defer gratification in the moment to achieve their long-term goals or to figure out what kind of
post-secondary institution they may want to go to. Um, we need to make sure every kid is having the opportunity to um and to to master those uh milestones to develop those mindsets, behaviors, and take those steps. Next is to really work
on transitions across our school levels. And this came loud and clear from all three of our working groups on the strategic plan when students move from early childhood to kindergarten, from fifth grade to middle school, from middle school to high school, and then also, although it's beyond us, from high
school to post-secary, there's a lot we can do to enhance their transition. We can be providing staff with much better data on the incoming needs of their students. We can be proactively building relationships with kids and families so they know what's going to happen at the
next level that they're moving to. We can be better aligning uh curriculum and supports for students so that the the difference between elementary school and middle school or middle school and high school is not so cataclysmic which is a big deal for any kid but for a kid who's
a fragile learner who may lack some motivation it can be a devastating uh experience to move across those levels. As part of that effort, and I almost made them one, but again, my goal here is to make this all really explicit to
the board. The one of the recommendations that came out of both our middle school and high school working group is to build foundational seminar courses that would be at the beginning of middle school and the beginning of high school to really help students uh form a sense of themselves as middle school students and high
school students and understand uh what it's going to take to succeed in middle school or high school to build relationships and become a part of the school culture um and to begin thinking like a middle school student or thinking like a high school student. And so one of the proposals that if you approve it
on the 19th, we would bring you in the fall is uh a recommendation for what those courses might entail and um might include. And then number four uh was something that uh ultimately has has found
expression in a way that's pretty different than where it started. The core issue here was uh as we talked about when we heard the report from the middle school working group that there's a subset of kids in our middle schools who don't get GPA, don't fail courses,
and who are not engaged in learning in a way that they really need to be ready for nth grade. And uh we've talked uh at the board table and they talked on the working group about holding kids back and not moving them on to high school uh
unless they're fully ready. The research on retention is not good. Um and uh it doesn't work very well with a second grader. It really doesn't work well with an eighth grader. So the core idea is to create systems in which we are much clearer with both students and parents
and caregivers in middle school about what the expectations are, where their students are relative to those expectations, and what they need to do to be truly ready to go on to high school. One practical idea that came out of the working group, as you may recall,
was to create a middle school GPA that actually you're not failing the class, but uh the student has a sense of where they are because we hear from both our middle school teachers and our high school teachers that there's a subset of our kids who think they're doing fine
and they're not and being much clearer with those students. But this falls far short of what I think some folks might, for reasons I understand, like to see, which is the kind of thing that Mississippi has implemented where if you don't pass the third grade reading test,
you don't go to fourth grade, which is the case that's happening right now. I'm not recommending that, but I am recommending a major effort to be sure our middle schoolers and our um parents and caregivers know where their students are. Number five is one that I expect
will generate um some productive discussion uh as we uh near the fall if you approve developing a plan for it. And it's to say that every student in RPS is going to need to apply for some type of uh highquality option after high school to get their high school diploma.
Whether that's going to a post-secary institution, an apprenticeship, the military, um do they have to go to actually enter that institution or go into that job? No. But that the act of requiring that application as a condition of high school graduation
sends a powerful signal. Now you would have to have an opt out provision if a parent or caregiver wanted to exempt their student from that. But the goal would be to say we want every student who walks across that stage to have a plan and a good option. So that would be
a significant addition to our high school graduation requirements. The next category is what we called engaging offerings. Um and and and the first one and the one that I expect will generate uh a good bit of conversation involves our district-wide option schools. Since
I got to Rochester 5 years ago, there has been a lot of discussion of the place of the DWOOS or as sometimes called choice schools uh in our system and um what's the role of those schools and what level of support should they receive? When we had the 2023 referendum
fail and we needed to change our start times, we had to cut the district-wide transportation to those schools, which no longer exists. And so, a very important defining feature of those schools was that busing across all 218 square miles of Rochester public
schools. Um, that no longer exists. And there also is evidence that these schools um to varying degrees could use an update in the uh characteristics of their educational program. And so what I'm uh going to propose would be that we
uh launch a process to be sure that each of our DWOs which I believe should continue to exist and be unique in our system. I should I should begin by saying that meet three criteria that number one they utilize a model that is based on strong evidence or research. Um
and two that that model is significantly different from our neighborhood schools. There's there's an alternative uh choice that it offers and three and critically that it can be funded with the dollars that the students who attend that school generate. Um, and so there's a really
important line of analysis and uh, if a school's program doesn't meet one or more of those criteria, we would work with that school to shift the the nature of the program. But I'm not proposing that we move away from those schools. And I also am proposing that we work to
redesign our transportation system so that every elementary family can either receive transportation or walk to their neighborhood school or one district-wide option school because that would give us a definition of why these schools exist.
I have my neighborhood school, which as you'll see in a moment, uh, I'm proposing we work really hard to be sure all families know those are great options with unique programs, or I have an alternative in my district-wide option school, which I would eventually propose renaming something that is a
little more poetic than DWOO, um, without going back to the term choice school because that implies that the neighborhood schools are not a choice and we have people choosing neighborhood schools all over this city. Um, but this will be one that I think updates the role of our DWOOS in
Rochester but maintains them um and provides more equitable access uh if we uh move to the transportation expansion. Um, if you live near a DWO, you'd still walk. You don't get the bus if you're in the walk distance, but that you would have expanded transportation service
such that at least every elementary family has one of those two options, my neighborhood school or a district-wide option school. The second option um is what we call school identity enhancement. And that's really being sure that every one of our schools uh has a sense of what makes it unique,
what makes their program appealing to the families that they serve that uh can build a positive school culture around uh that school. This is work that um Erica Schumacher and Mamsu Kudson have already started doing with our um enrollment strategy. Um, we now have a
really great, you know, one-pager and updated website, but it goes deeper than that. It's saying, for instance, in the case of Jefferson, what makes Jefferson a great option for those families in that neighborhood? What make what is their unique uh character? What uh do we
want to help them uh define as the essence of their school? And how do we communicate it going forward? And then finally, a priority that we made some progress on in our current strategic plan, but that we hear about all the time, the need for more electives at the middle school level.
Up one more and high school uh electives. We also heard repeatedly that especially in grades nine and 10, many of our students have very little choice in high school and arguably in grades 11 and 12, some may have too much choice in high school because we put all our
prerequisites in grades 9 and 10. Meaning that new learners coming into high school get relatively little choice in selecting things that are their interest and their passion. We still have to cover all of the standards and earn the required credits, but uh
there's potentially a lot of flexibility that we could build into the system if we shift some of the way we're structuring 9th and 10th grades. Well-being and change is our fourth category. Um starting with proposing that the third multi-tered system of
supports that we're building would be for behavior and well-being. Ensuring that our students are learning in schools that are inclusive, that are safe, that are orderly and focused on learning where they feel that they belong, where we provide mental health services um and social emotional
development. Um and that we have uh tier 2 and tier three interventions for kids who are struggling with well-being um in our schools. and the creation of the new department uh of learning environments that the board approved last week would be a key enabler of this change project.
As we talked about earlier today when we heard from the student school board, I'm also recommending that we make nearpeer programs in which older students work with younger students a hallmark in all of our schools. I think this can build on the really great work that um in particular Sarah Louise Henry has done
around youth leadership in our current strategic plan and it gives it a a really cool next phase uh because as you heard from the students this idea of working with the younger kids is very energizing both for the younger kids and it's developmental um for the older
students. middle school extracurriculars continue to be that uh that really critical priority. And so um I think I may on the previous screen have mixed up um e uh extracurriculars and um uh
>> electives. >> Electives. Yes, I did. So electives is in the last category. Extracurriculars in this category. Thank you. Um and then finally operational excellence. Um, sometimes I've said um, in meetings
recently that I think in some ways in Rochester public schools, we're kind of an oral culture. Not a lot's written down. Um, and that we need standard operating procedures. We need them for our staff. We need them for families. We need them for students. We have done three models over the last several
months. One, a standard operating procedure for enrollment. uh and the development of that has identified many gaps that we need to fix for systems for families and enrolling in our schools. The second is how a family requests a
special dietary uh uh services in our um cafeterias and the third is how a family can request what we call private pay to have their student get additional bus uh service that they pay for. We did all three of those as exemplars to say what
does a good standard operating procedure look like. Those are all kind of on the operations side. We need them on the academic side as well. And so this would be something that would be a hallmark of Jackie Peterson's work as chief operating officer to say we need to build out highquality SOPs across um all
of our areas. Staff support. Um we have got a real opportunity but also a real need to enhance the support we provide for staff. um our employee assistance program um uh could use updating. One of the ones I hear about most often is
mental health support for staff, which is very hard to get and very limited. But that's just one example. And so seeking to be sure that we are offering to staff a package of uh of supports in particular through our employee assistance program that um meets their needs.
Number three, no surprise to board members, we've talked about this for five years, finding time within our schools for our staff to collaborate, work together, and to plan their own um work is an urgent priority. And we know that carving that out without reducing
instructional time for kids is going to be a challenge. But uh the the need for that is coming through loud and clear. We will be bringing this board an updated calendar proposal for the 2728 school year. Is it 2829? Um it's coming
up. It's going to be pretty similar to what we've had the last few years. We know we need to uh get very creative and actually look at how do we actually within the school day or the school year. Find more time for our teachers and other staff to do the work that it's
going to take to bring um all of this to life. Number four, candidly, board members, is a little bit of a punt. It's putting down a marker and saying we have to have an AI strategy. Um, I've been voluminously reading school district AI
strategies. We are developing a very strong technology, long-range technology plan that you're going to receive this summer. It doesn't really answer the question of the role of AI in our work. And so I still think it is such a transformative technology that there
needs to be a placeholder for it in our strategic plan. How does AI uh enhance instruction? How do we deal with the question of students using AI rather than doing the work? How do we leverage AI in our operations uh work? Um and so
this is one where uh I'm proposing that it's there because I think we need to keep pushing our thinking. Um candidly, if you said, well that that's interesting. what does it look like? I could give you some outlines of it, but I don't yet in my own mind have a set of
uh a sense of exactly how we leverage uh AI to achieve the goals of the district, but I think it would be a mistake not to have it um in the plan. Final one. We have um uh talked often about um the
fact that we have opportunities for our students that we cannot fund with district dollars that could be transformative for those students. Uh Director Whitehorn earlier tonight was talking about the college tour that the Black Student Union is uh raising money
for. We also heard about the state speech tournaments and things like that earlier today. We know we have amazing organizations like Quarry Hill and University of Rochester that offer summer camps but that don't have funding for low-income kids. Um and so the final proposal will be to work with the
Rochester area foundation. And we have had a really wonderful support from Jed Woodford, the president there, to create what's called a donor advised fund through which people could contribute to the foundation to essentially go to support learning and development beyond the school day and the school year in
Rochester. Um, another uh excellent question that Dr. Mclofflin asked in her questions was would this only apply to like major gifts? Um, and no, small donors are absolutely uh another viable um contri contributor to donor advised
funds. Um, we would see this as a complement to the valuable work that the Rochester Public Schools Foundation does to support classroom grants for teachers, but it would be about uh supporting learning beyond the day and school year um in ways that we are not able to appropriately use uh school
resources. So, board members, that is a lot. Um, Dr. Whitehorn uh kind of coincidentally really seized on my mention of Chicago public schools earlier and I put an article about the journey in Chicago public schools uh in
the document and understanding that we are very very different than Chicago and I would never say Chicago is the model for what Rochester, Minnesota uh could be or should be but over decades they've achieved the fastest improvement of any school district urban school district in
the country. So, we do have a lot to learn from. And the reason I like this article um is because it captures, I think, a few things that are going to be key for us in this strategic plan. And I just picked out a few of them. And I hope board members will take a bit of
time to read it. Um the first insight from the article is that seeing the system that is producing your unsatisfactory outcomes, the outcomes you want to change is essential. That's what's led us to embrace MTSS. That's what's led us to say we need a new approach to behavior and belonging. It's
what's led us to say we have to build out those six systems. Um because we aren't looking just for projects or new programs, but we're trying to say why are we getting the outcomes that we all see unsatisfactory along with some outcomes that we may be quite pleased
about. So the article will describe for you how they tried to do that um in Chicago. The second was building the capacity to lead the change was critical. And in Chicago like in Rochester, they have invested heavily in the school principal as a really
critical um uh point for building that capacity. And then um they have an interesting case study of how they really tried to get underneath the problematic outcomes they had in algebra to really understand why is this happening? what do we need to change
about how we're helping kids learn to think abstractly in mathematics um that uh needed to change um in Chicago at that point in their journey. And then they make the point that I think uh I wake up every day and I'm impatient impatient impatient for the progress
that I know we're all committed to make. And then I have to remind myself that if we want this to be durable um the the change does take time. Um, interestingly they have a map in the article of two questions from the 5e survey and you can
see that over quite a few years they've been giving the 5e survey and the two that they highlighted in this article were program coherence, does does what we're doing in this school make sense? Do the dots connect and teacher principal trust? and they picked those
because they thought that those were two indicators in the 5e survey that are particularly influential for school improvement. And you can see there that after a number of years of some gains and ups and downs when they got into what they call era 4 um which was an era
in Chicago that actually was led by a chief executive officer there, Janice Jackson, who I've gotten to know. Boy, did they start to make progress. You just started to see. But it took it took some years there. they were not wasn't um overnight. But uh that to me is a
very hopeful graph where you started to see what we're doing in this school really makes sense. It's coherent and we're working together to make it happen. We have teacher principal trust um was happening uh in a really exciting way. So board members that is I know a
gigantic um monologue that um I will not repeat when we get back together on the 19th. We will try to answer your questions and thoughts as much in writing. I will also invite other colleagues that you may want to hear from about these priorities to the
meeting on the 19th. So if you are thinking I'd really like to talk to Dr. Ruck or to you know chief academic officer Perkins or fill in the uh blank around those issues um please let us know and we'll see if you have them. We
do have by design a pretty light agenda on the 19th to save time for this subject assuming that the team from Dakota Middle School and you as board members don't take an hour on that subject. Um >> even though we're very excited
>> I know but this meeting that meeting really should leave you time. And again, on the 19th, we're not asking you to approve the whole strategic plan, but to approve the development of uh more detailed implementation plans around some or all of these priorities over the
summer. >> Director Cook, >> I I'll look forward to adding specific questions to the document, but I just sort of a a broader um or thematic thing as I as I look to do that. the
the road to 2030. I mean, these are all really exciting um uh initiatives and I it would be hard to say like no to any of the change projects were identified, but the the next few years and and and
maybe this is just the nature of public education, at least in this era, is going to be one of significant budget reductions. Um, and I could maybe count a couple of those change projects that might yield uh additional resources for the district to deploy elsewhere, but
most of them would require investment. And how I understand that the details are going to be worked out and you'll come back eventually with an updated proposal that takes account of the resourcing, but is it
how does that factor in at this stage, if at all? And is it do you anticipate that there will need to be some choices between these things or that the choosing some of these things will result in cuts elsewhere to be determined or how does that factor in at this stage?
>> Superintendent. >> Yeah. Uh thank you. I would say um the first issue the word I might use rather than investment is reallocation. Investment brings to my new dollars. I would agree with you there's little
prospect of that and so reallocating dollars that's going to be the primary way and dollars for us are time you know >> so that would be number one number two I do think and I actually should have said this at the outset that between now and next September some of these will fall
off because of resource constraints and so that actually is a really important point that should be front and center because as we get into uh looking at the costs of these priorities there's every possibility that I will come back and say, "Yep, you remember
that electives expansion idea? We just can't afford it actually." And so that would be that's actually why, as you I'm sure recall, we initially thought we were going to ask you to vote on the strategic plan this spring. And it became clear that we need several months to do that kind of analysis to bring you
back a a realistic version of this. I wish I had a more slam dunk answer to that, you know, but you're absolutely >> No, that's what I was looking for. That's helpful. Thanks, >> Dr. Marvin. And I hope this is high enough level, too. Um, first of all,
I hope that nobody listening thinks that we haven't done we haven't talked about and been uh concerned about all of these issues before. It's not like we're dumping everything that we used to do and this is a whole new beginning. But this I think provides quite a bit more
focus on specific things we want to do. My uh question is and I think you did a good job of explaining how the systems are different from the five change projects. And the five change projects have a start point, an end point, a
deadline. That's not to suggest that after we accomplish those, we'll stop doing it. Right. >> Okay. We we'll put the process and the structure in place so that that's something that
can continue and become part of the system. >> Thank you. >> I mean a simple example that um you recall when several years ago we named the fact that we did not have an early literacy curriculum. We've put in place multiple curricular resources and now
those are in place and they're part of the way we do our work. But it needed to be a change project. Like you needed to budget it, plan it, time it, execute it, and then you integrate it into the work. >> Thank you, >> Director White.
>> Um, and I will be adding my more pointed questions as well, probably just in the email that she never >> email is good with me. >> I don't know. >> Or maybe I'm not smart enough. Okay. Um, so I, you know, I I really like this. Even though this is just the outline, I
think it gives a lot of information. Um, I would say to people that are listening, it can seem very overwhelming. Seems like a lot of priorities even in a in a four-year span, even though I understand that this is not um just meant to happen in this space, right? But I think as we continue
to discuss that, I do understand, but I'm glad that you explained as um Director uh Marvin said, the difference in how those look in the plan moving forward. Um, I just had a random thought here. Um, and hopefully it's high level enough. I know that we have talked about
there's uh differences in our school district versus Chicago, but as I was sitting here thinking, Rochester is very transient. So although we are not Chicago public schools and we're not Maine public schools, uh, we have a unique uh, group
of of of we have a unique community here, right? where even though we are not these areas, we can very well have subsets of children that identify with the concerns in some of these other places. Am I making >> sense? And I just think as we're
building this out, that is something um to consider because we do have um kids that are coming from several other districts with, you know, the mail clinic and things being here. We get a lot of kids that are transferring from other spaces. I of course don't have the
re the answer for that but um I just want to bring to light that you know we are a unique uh district just because of of the Mayo Clinic and IBM transplants these things here a lot of uh people have been in other districts so it would be nice to um create something that's
familiar um if that makes sense um and another thought I had as reading through this was grant writing um I I know we talk a lot about funding. Um to director Cook, I I I I hear you. Um so I think well, how can we be more creative,
right? Because as he stated, there are some really great priorities here um that we already know we're not going to be able to fund everything. Um and I had that thought when we you mentioned the donors, right? So are there um and I a thought just high level thought is it is
it worth it investing in a high level grant writer because there's there's money in different spaces that we have maybe not looked into that can fund some of these initiatives without um having a negative impact on a budget. Um and I just think this is great. I think um I
think there's a lot of work ahead of us. Um, but my big thought is over time we'll need to be changing the culture of education and what it looks like. And I know that's a big task. Um, and like I said, I continue to stress that I just want us to make sure we're building this
well foundationally. Um, and for lack of better words, and not to be dark, that this system outlives us, that it continues to grow because even as we read this, these changes take 20 years. Um, and I would be very disappointed that the work that we do gets thrown to
the wayside. So, I just think it's important that we root this uh what we're doing very well into the system that is hard to throw away, right? So, it it has no choice but to continue to grow. So I just want to make sure that we are keeping that in the back of our
minds that we are um if there and I say this as in saying there may be some things foundationally or policywise or whatever that may need to be changed so that this system stays in place. >> Dr.
Um I guess where I start with my homework for tonight and this presentation is you know kind of thinking through um ideas about this maybe not questions yet but I'm glad the presentation I want to hear the presentation first to to get a
better sense of questions to ask but what I am seeing is um thinking back into my time on the board that uh when I started on the board we did not have a strategic plan we developed one early on in my board tenure. Um, but now we're looking at the second one. But I'm, as I
was preparing for tonight, it in reading this document, it seemed to me that there are through lines to the building blocks that you showed at the beginning of the presentation. Um, and I think that that's incredibly valuable. Um, that we're not starting from scratch. That those really were building blocks
to get us to the point we're we're at now. I also think about um honestly the vote that we had to make at the last meeting and um you as our superintendent I see now with more clarity that you're
the right person at the right time um and you now are asking to have and asked last meeting and we voted on having the right people in the right place to accomplish this plan. So, I think it kind of brings us full circle of the various votes that we've had and
how we're getting to this point and then uh the next meeting. Um the other thing that I did, I guess my I didn't get to questions, but I got to uh a lot of consistent words throughout this outline document that were important to me and I
think important to us as we move forward in our decision um to approve this plan. Um the document talks about collaboration, unified framework, alignment, common language and common experiences.
Um consistency, coherence as you talked about already. I love the fact that this is and maybe I just haven't been play paying close enough attention sometimes, but um the fact that your outline included the topic of equity and
advancement in each of these goals. Um, I'm not sure that I'd ever seen anything with that clarity before. And I think that that's really helpful. Um, tying in again to our vote from the last meeting about um, how we are going to advance equity and that it's something we're being very explicit about, I think is
helpful. Um, a couple other thoughts about equity is this document talks about the long-term economic mobility of students who have not had those opportunities before. Um, and I want to come back to that. I had one question about that. Um but also in terms of
equity um talking about middle school readiness um regardless of the students starting point and focusing on how to be individualized with those students and meeting them at their starting point. Um there's also a through line here for
post-secary success and um providing future oriented learning experiences for students across schools. Um and doing things across schools I think is important to get to that coherence and that consistency.
Also um recognizing explicit explicitly honoring each student's unique path. um talking about accelerated learning, student ownership, and exploration, particularly with our middle school students. I think all of those um words
and themes um put us on the right track um not only with this outline, but then also the um the way the implementation and the goals of this um that we're going to look at in the fall. I think those are all
positives and um those are my general comments. The one question I did have about equity and the long-term economic mobility, I'm trying to remember what my note means here. Um but I think I was
thinking about um where it was in the context of this document. What age of students would that involve I guess is the question. I'm trying to remember where it came up in the document, but that's that's the question I had. >> Superintendent.
>> Um, thank you, Dr. Woffen. I I would submit that soio economic inequality and inequality in other forms, particularly the way we all feed ourselves and our families, is the most frightening challenge our society faces. And AI is
almost certainly going to make that worse. And so whether we're talking about elementary school students developing the mindsets and behaviors that are in our framework or middle school students understanding themselves as learners or high school students
beginning to select uh um pathways to careers that pay a living wage. I think it's about economic mobility and um so economic mobility throughout the whole plan. Um, I think that, um, might sound
like a no-brainer, but it's not that long ago that this district took all of the industrial arts and shop classes out of our middle schools. It was a conscious decision. I I asked about it and they
said, "No, it wasn't a slow death over multiple years. It was a single system decision." And I I can imagine I might have at the at the time it was a four-year college for all era. It was a terrible decision. Um those those are all gone for our middle school, a time
that the kids would be getting those foundational kinds of experiences. And so I think we've realized that there as long as there's no low roads, there are many paths that that kids need. So I know I'm answering your question at a very conceptual level. >> Yeah. And I didn't ask it very well. think where I was now that I'm thinking
back and I'm not chair Nathan so I forgot my homework at home and it was highlighted and all this good stuff but here I am. Um I think it was more about what age do you start having those conversations with the students? >> Um you you start having them developmentally in upper elementary in a
way that is much more about their personal um identity. It's not career oriented. as you get into middle school, you're really leaning into that um and and our mindsets and behaviors really actually map this out. You you're you're it it's going from kind of who am I?
What do I like? What are my personalities into what am I good at? What are my gaps? And then by the by early high school, you're beginning to um have students experimenting with possible selves. Like that's actually the term that research uses. It's like who's my possible self? And you try on
possible selves. Um, and that ultimately, um, the the the purposeful pathway, which I think was the term our working group decided they liked, is more important than the very specific program that gets you into the exact internship, but you have momentum and
you have um, you have an understanding of the kind of knowledge and skills that you're going to need to succeed in the workplace. Um, so it's got to be that kind of a progression that that happens. that every kid's different, of course, but you're going to want to have it be progressively more about who am I to
what do I want to do? >> Um, and I guess my final comment is that I think this is really exciting and I'm glad that I'm on the board during this exciting time. Um, it also, not to be too personal about it, but I think there are opportunities in my mind that we
would have uh credit recovery for some of our students in some of these areas. Um and and talking about former students that perhaps might live in my house sometimes that there there are things about this that would be hugely beneficial to our graduates as well.
>> Oh no, I have a Charlie horse. I'm just trying to work it out. >> Yeah, I don't give a chance. Director White, >> uh just two things that came to mind uh when Director Mclofflin was speaking. Um two things that I didn't really see in the outline and and if I'm if I'm if I'm overstepping, we're not there yet. I
understand. But what I would like to see if I was looking at this from a community member perspective and trying to put this into into space, um I think it would be nice to just see like checkpoints, right? So, you know, we hear all these great
initiatives, but how are we how are we, you know, not that we know exactly, right? Not that I'm saying what system, but it would nice to see, okay, what does a checkpoint on this step look like, right? what or um and I wrote these both down because I'm not sure which way this goes or like that who's
accountable, right? So you you have um uh the academic rigor and relevance change projects. There's nine of them, right? But who's responsible for that for the oversight of of or who could potentially be um responsible for seeing
that that works, right? So, as a parent, if I, you know, as we are un unrolling these things, I think that also helps with that um flowchart type of thing, right? Because the superintendent, even you're not responsible for everything. We're not responsible for everything.
We've talked about those things before, but it's nice to know, you know, as we're implementing these things, who who who are accountability partners and seeing that these things are happening. Um and even though I know this is like I said high level outline it would just be
nice to see you know this is and when I say accountability I'm talking very general like this is executive level this is you know sta teacher staff level this is you know uh student parent level you know who who who do we need to check in with
>> to see that these measures are >> are happening and then um what does this look like um and because I would like to see I'm because I just want to know I just want to see I would like to see what your what because uh to
director Marvin's point you said some things would be implemented start and finish dates what kind of does that look like and and I know you're and again I say that cautiously I'm not telling you this is the date but what does that roll out look like what things are kind of
grouped together in your mind what kind of things you know if we were grouping this out in quarter So, I just think that helps make it look more manageable to the board also, but to the community, right? Seeing that this is how it kind of unravels.
>> I I appreciate that. That's the level of detail we'll be aiming for by September. Okay. >> Precisely that you actually articulated the key components of it like what are the milestones, who's got the primary responsibility, what are the resource costs in terms of time and money. It
won't be like the detailed implementation plan. You don't need that as the governing board. But it will be, oh, I see how over four years MTSS and math is going to play out >> and I see where the accountability lies with it and oh, it's going to cost us $1.7 million in card. You know, that
that's the level. But maybe even the outline just noting that there's these checkpoints, you know, just just as people are reading through it that you know um because I I forgot to ask earlier even with the um I just lost my brain like how often things are checked,
how often are we um doing these the 5e, how often we're doing them, you know, just helps people to kind of at least know when to be paying attention or when they should be checking in. Just I just think that's that's helpful. Even if we don't know exactly, it's nice to know.
We want to check this three times a year. >> Got it. >> And I think we'll probably also reflect that on our ABCD. >> Yeah. The board, as we did with our previous strategic plan in the last two years, I anticipate that the board agenda will be closely. >> Can I ask one burning question?
>> Okay. Just because I said it, >> this one is burning. um just not someone in the education realm. Something like the Danielson framework. Is that a couple hundred thousand a million dollars? Can you put some kind of is it
like a Zello or is it like a something more than that? >> Uh it the framework itself is not expensive at all. We are selecting a technology platform that teachers will use and principles will use to uh record
their progress in the framework. That will have a cost and we're costing that out right now. I'm looking at Mona. I don't know that you've identified that but >> we have a recommendation coming. >> Yeah. So it's it is not like the cost of um >> would it be in the category of something the board would have to approve?
>> Oh, I don't think so. in the aggregate. No, I mean over >> time package of all the things. >> Um, no, the framework itself is really a set of practices that are written. The cost will be a platform that allows us to meaningfully track the degree to
which in the case of teachers they are demonstrating, self assessing and principles are observing that they're mastering them. That is the cost that it sounds like they've got a recommendation. I I was thinking more of like the professional development part of it. >> Well, PD would be a separate Yeah. That that always is a you know constant
ongoing priority and we have insufficient but not insignificant dollars for PD that we will be dedicating to that purpose. Actually, they're building that plan out for next year right now. >> Would it be fair to look at that we'd be substituting this for some of the existing? >> Okay.
>> This has been a real gap for us. Um I'm told that there was a period in RPS where the the tool we've been using for evaluation the last well since I've been here five plus years which is also a good framework based on research. We've just been using it for teacher
evaluation. We haven't been doing the PE professional development new teacher induction coaching and support. And the vision of this is no no we're not just evaluating you with this we're developing great teaching in our whole system using this framework. So yes, we
will have to supplant other stuff that we might have been doing. But the nice thing about the Danielson framework, and this is what I think Dr. Marvin was saying, it gives us a lens for culturally responsive teaching. It gives us a lens for mastery based instruction. It gives like it gives us a framework that we can use over time to build out
these companies. And some teachers have strengths in one area and not in the other. So it allows you to be more targeted. >> Thank you. So, um, as I think about this outline and more specific questions to come, um,
I'm so glad that you brought that historical document out because >> this was the building blocks before the building blocks >> and I remember when that came out and it was, uh, discussed by some of the people who had been part of the working groups,
it was referred to as broad and ambitious and ambitious wasn't necessarily a good word. >> Yeah. Um, but as I look at this outline and I think about uh where we could have gone with some of the recommendations we have and and how some other districts
may have done strategic plans. Um, we you figured out a way to make sure all students are affected and at every point in their journey. So, if we have someone from pre preK through 12, they'll hit all of these. We only have them for a while. they'll they'll hit something
major, whether they're just here for middle school or just here for high school, and they'll benefit from it. Um, and that every adult in our system has a role somewhere in these recommendations, whether it's staff, teachers, administrators, parents, community
members, um, stakeholders. Um, so again, we're broad and ambitious again, but I think in a good way. Um, one of the hardest board presentations I've had to sit through was when we did the MTSS study
and that was I think and I see director Cook nodding that was one of the first most evaluations of our district performance that I've saw as a parent or parent advocate or as a board member and it
really uncovered all the work that we needed to do. Um, but we got on that road right away. We started working with bringing MTSS in. As Dr. Marvin said, I think it's so important that we're continuing to do it. Um, and expanding
it to the other areas. Um, because to me that gets to the every kid's needs are being met. Um, and that it's part of our foundational structural framework. um
I I I think is essential to what this outline reflects because everything also interacts with it whether it's just an initiative at a middle school about um extracurricular activities or
electives. It also interacts with what that MTSS system is identifying for what that individual student needs in literacy or in math. Um, and I think it also has honored the design process. Um, I I haven't, you know, really gone back
to dig deep in every single recommendation of the design team, but I hope that the people who participated and gave us their feedback. I see their work in this, and I hope that they see their work in this, and that we really did listen um, and you listened to all
of that feedback in putting together this final outline. Anything else? This is so far in the weeds, but I'm just going to say it because this is a board that goes in the weeds. Dr. Mlofflin, you noted that every one of these priorities includes an equity
section. There are two that do not, but it is only because I made a mistake with cutting and pasting. >> There's no deep reason for that because Chair Nathan pointed that out this morning and I was like, it was just too late at night and I was so that it will
be added. Um, >> and I would point out five years ago you wouldn't have told us that. >> Oh, well, I'm happy to tell you that now. >> Yeah. >> But I do appreciate that. >> Yeah. >> And and I clearly can't track that level of detail like someone else can, >> but she did.
>> So, we will look forward to the questions in the meantime and our next conversation about this at our next meeting. >> And Madam Chair, just I I've worked the majority of my chair down. I think it's important that we as a
board not simply um uh I'm not suggesting this is the case, but uh sometimes if we're not careful, we can begin to overuse the word to justify an action or a uh a decision. And uh so I
just simply offer that uh uh the strategic plan I think was sound uh without necessarily uh being intentional to say or suggest well here's that word here well what
word equity and here it is again there you know to simply I I think the the the the the plan uh I have 20 grandkids the farmer in the dell. What does the cheese do? Well, the cheese stands alone. And I
think the the plan itself, you know, can stand alone on its merit without necessarily a need to uh prop it up by uh referencing well uh here we have this
and here we have that. Uh, I I will look forward to um going into greater detail uh and identifying questions. I'm excited about um the outline
uh and um you know, I chose to and you called it out. You know, we're given to go into the weeds and and we have uh but uh you know, thank you for the um privilege. I know that not all districts, not all superintendents will
um um I won't say cater, but listen and and actively solicit and value the input of uh its board and and you do that and and
I look forward to uh you honoring our responses and uh uh cabinet and you as well perhaps responding to those inquiries. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, director. >> Can I just do a follow? Um, Director Barlo, I appreciate your comments, but I
I do want to explain why I made that comment earlier. Is it somewhat a reflection of the last meeting and the comments from the community and making it explicit and intentional that I'm not sure that it's always been
explicit and intentional that that work is being done in our schools dayto-day. And I think this plan and make in highlighting those pieces um assures us and the community that it is being done. >> Dr. Rford.
>> So I guess I got a whole different comment on that. So and I you said the weeds, but I'll just say my little short piece. I will say that I'm not objecting to the word being used if it's going to be measured accordingly. So, I don't just want the word in there with the
assumption that equity is being done. If there is going to be no measurement of whether or not equity is being achieved, then yes, it should be removed. But there needs to be a measurement. If you're going to mention that this step has an equity piece in it, I think that
what we need to do is have a measurement or an accountability space where we are showing how the equity is being used because to director Barlo's point, it can be a word that is just a a uh a trend word of the moment, right? To to
appease. Um, but I'm not I'm not against it if it's actually being done and it's actually being measured and we're actually taking real feedback. But if we're just putting it in there to say we want to be inclusive, it becomes offensive, right? It's kind of like I
don't see color, but you're not colorblind. So, it's important to me that if we use certain terms and phrases that we are not just using them, but we are actually going to be accountable to those words. But if we are just, you know, and I'm and again, I'm not saying
I'm offended by the copy and paste, but it could come across as I just included it in and everything, right? But what does equity look like in that particular step? What because equity does is not going to look the same at the executive level as it is in the classroom. So I
just think giving it a little bit more thought into not just saying we I think on this particular board we all have a desire to be inclusive and equitable but I sometimes think we don't give enough thought into what that looks like within the plan. Right? So how is equity
implemented? Um how is inclusion implemented into the pre-existing plan? And I don't think putting it as an outside um statement to the plan shows that it's in the plan. It Okay, praise. Thank you.
>> Okay. So, we can move on to our action item of the night, which is somewhat important. >> Uh repealing the alley system for schoolboard elections and ISD 535. Um, on March 3rd, uh, the school board unanimously approved resolution 8.1
calling for the Minnesota legislature to repeal the alley system and to instead permit Rochester public schools to transition to the standard at large election format used throughout the state. Since then, members of our Rochester legislative delegation, who which we are extremely grateful to,
introduced multiple bills in the Minnesota legislature to make this change, and the final legislation was passed in the House and Senate, and the governor signed the bill on April 29th. But in order for this to become effective, we have one more step to take. The new special law must be
formally approved by a resolution of the school board and a certificate of approval must then be signed by the schoolboard clerk and transmitted to the secretary of state. And this is according to um what's required for all special laws in Minnesota statute. And once the uh certificate of approval is
transmitted to the secretary of state, the new special law will become effective and we will be operating our elections under this new standard at large elective format. And that is what this resolution will accomplish this evening. So I'll read the resolution. Be
it resolved by the school board of independent school district number 535 that the board hereby approve laws 2026 chapter 55. And be it further resolved that the clerk of the school board is hereby authorized and directed to file the required certificate of approval and
a copy of this resolution as approved with the Minnesota Secretary of State as required by Minnesota statutes section 645.021 subdivision 3. There motion to approve. >> Move approval. Second.
>> We have a motion and a second. Any questions or discussion, board members? Director Barl, >> I just I'd like to thank a director Cook and the legislative committee for their hard work and uh the uh
I forget the use of your word uh or phrase. Uh it wasn't how anyone in their right mind could think this is a good system, but something to that effect. But I I appreciate you bringing calling that to light and uh encouraging the board to move forward in this. So, thank you
>> and for taking the initiative to accomplish something that has not been accomplished very much in the Minnesota legislature this session, which is actually passing some some legislation. So, again, thank you. >> Point of clarification will be implemented effective this next election,
>> November 2026. Thank you. Um, no further discussion. All in favor of the resolution say I. >> I. Opposed. The resolution has been approved. All right. So, our other business is our updated ABCD and the current version is
available in this agenda item for reference or future meetings. Our upcoming agenda items on May 19th, we have our monitoring item on the Dakota Middle School block scheduling and action on the RPS 2030 strategic plan uh outline.
On June 2nd, uh we have our monitoring item of parent and caregiver input on the skips and three prep for action items. our school and program relocations and changes, our 2027-28 school calendar proposal, and our 2026 27 budget proposal. Our first look at
that. Any other agenda items board members would like to raise for consideration for a future meeting? >> Just director Marvin. >> Oh, sorry. Yes. Um, is it possible that we'll get an update on Century's pilot block scheduled
program? Um, I wasn't I wouldn't it it hasn't been implemented at all and so I wouldn't anticipate uh being able to provide much to the board yet this school year, >> but just what it's going to look like. >> I certainly could look at the best way
to um provide you with more information on it. The remaining meetings this year are so full. In fact, I'm going to recommend we not do parent and caregiver input on the skips because there are three gigantic things in that meeting. But maybe it's something that we could do uh via via writing.
>> Yeah, it's not. Yeah, that'd be great. >> Okay, >> thank you. >> Be glad to do that. >> Okay. Um hearing no others. Uh our upcoming board meeting dates all are at 5:30 p.m. They are all regular meetings May 5th, May 19th, June 2nd, and June
16th. And hearing no other business, this meeting is adjourned at 9:06 p.m.