e e no I said no and it's and it's what time 5:30 really what did I do here absolutely even better after holiday Ready To
Thee the special meeting of the Independent School District 535 School Board is called to order at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday February 18th 2025 in room 137 of the Edison building the board acknowledges this site and all RPS sites
are situated on the ancestral land of the Dakota people and we honor the Dakota Nations and the sacred land of all indigenous peoples present at this meeting are school board members superintendent Kent pel a non voting ex officio member and assistant school board clerk Miss Anne Kramer Miss Kramer
would you please call the role director here here director here here here here here at this time we offer the opportunity to say the Pledge of
Allegiance IED algi to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all [Music]
item 2.1 is approval of the agenda are there any changes to the agenda move approval second director cook moved and director Workman seconded it has been moved and seconded to approve the agenda all those in favor
say I I I any opposed the agenda has been approved the agenda and documents for this meeting are available online at Rochester school .org /m our Focus topic for the special session are curriculum related field trip fees in accordance with the pupil
fee law found in Minnesota statute section 123 b38 before the initiation of any fee not authorized or prohibited by sections 123b 36 and 37 the school board must hold a public hearing tonight we will hold a public hearing about field
trip requests for students of Rochester Public Schools where student fees will be charged the new field trip requests which we are bringing forward to the public hearing are described in the agenda item the attachments in the agenda item provide information about these field trips Lincoln K8 Advanced
fand Field Trip Minnesota Public Schools March 2025 Lincoln Fort Snelling and state capital field trip May 2025 and John Marshall band choir orchestra to Disney World Orlando Florida December
2025 the attachment School Board approved enrichment field trips lists all the field trips where Schoolboard approval for a fee has already been obtained if there are members of the public who wish to make public comments on any of the field trip requests on the
agenda please raise your hand to be recognized once you're recognized by the board chair please come to the table choose a microphone to speak into and be seated you'll have three minutes to speak and the timer will be displayed on the screens in front of me please begin your remarks by stating your name your
relationship to Rochester Public Schools and the field trip you will be commenting on are there any comments on field trip fees a second call for comments on field trip fees and a final call for comments on field trip
fees hearing no comments and no other business the special meeting is adjourned at 5:34 p.m. this regular meeting of the Independent School District 535 School Board is called to order at 5:34 p.m. on Tuesday February 18th 2025 in room 137 of the
Edison building the board acknowledges this site and all RPS sites are situated on the ancestral land of the Dakota people and we honor the Dakota Nations and the sacred land of all indigenous peoples present at this meeting are school board members superintendent Kent
pel a non- voting ex official member and assistant school board clerk Miss Anne Kramer Miss Kramer will you please call the role director here here here here
here here at this time we offer the opportunity to say the Pledge of Allegiance of aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and
justice for all item 2.1 is approval of the agenda are there any changes to the agenda approval second director Barlo moved and director Marvin seconded Workman director you can have it okay
Workman we'll fight over it has been moved and seconded to approve the amended agenda all those in favor say I I any opposed the amended agenda has the agenda has been approved the agenda and documents for this meeting are available at Rochester schools.org
assembly item three comments to the board it is important for the school board to hear from our stakeholders regarding issues that impact our students staff families and schools we welcome communication via email phone call at our community engagement listening sessions and here during
comments to the board the purpose of comments to the board is to give community members an opportunity to provide input directly to the school board about issues that fall within our Authority the board and superintendent do not respond directly to the speaker's comments during the meeting but may
follow up with the speaker if requested and appropriate persons who want to make comments to the board must fill out the online form by 5:00 p.m. on the Monday before the school board meeting the form is available on the RPS website and on the S main page a reminder that policy
206 and procedure 206a set the time place and manner procedures and restrictions on comments to the board by participating in the public comment period each speaker agrees to abide by this public comment procedure speakers when your name is called please come to the table if you have written materials
for the board please provide them to the assistant school board clerk prior to your remarks and she will distribute them to board members choose a microphone to speak into and be seated please direct your remarks to the school board you'll have 3 minutes to speak and the timer will be displayed in front of
me please begin your remarks by stating your name our first Speaker tonight is Wes Lund e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e for postsecondary options school counselors work with all students to remove barriers to learning by helping students apply academic achievement strategies manage emotions build
interpersonal skills and support students mental health needs RPS counselors are leading the way and implementing both the post secondary Pathways and the mental health components of our strategic plan and they have an important role to play in
our multi-tiered systems of supports and family engagement work as well thank you to our Rochester Public Schools school counselors for your commitment to getting all of our students what they need to be healthy and successful item 4.2 our board member up
updates does any board member have updates from committees or anything to share director Barlo sure on February the 6th I participated in a skib visit site at Church Hill Elementary uh so Title One school I was impressed with how they're providing
high quality education through uh L literacy development and collaboration of students uh principal Peterson and staff provided an excellent model for what educational diversity accomplishes I'm looking forward to
attending their upcoming family engineering night in conjunction with the works Museum uh it's a nonprofit organization with the mission to inspire the next generation of innovators engineers and creative problem solvers uh this event will feature
Hands-On activities including a take-home project design for families to explore and to um Team Build Together uh and then abs my notes uh I also want to commend my four or five colleagues who
are also able to participate uh in the skip visit and they are of such great value and I look forward to uh the 2.0 uh iteration and how we will continue to build upon this
Dr Dr Cook did I see oh yes um uh quick update from the legislative committee um we are uh continuing to work with engaging with our local uh elected state representatives at in both the Minnesota
House and Senate um and had a a very productive meeting this past week with Senator Balon um where we talked about the uh priorities that this board has already approved um and she was very uh receptive to the information we're going to follow up and uh look forward to
continuing those meetings director Marvin uh Sarah Louise Henry and I continue to meet with middle school students at their sites and the focus is on building leadership skills in particular we've been working with
kids about how they can identify opportunities or challenges that exist at their schools and what they can do as they work together uh to come up with Solutions uh with middle school kids one of the uh important issues we're looking
at is before you jump to a solution try to look at two things first of all what are some of the underlying causes and secondly maybe there's more than one solution and our students and I'm so proud of them have been finding out that when they work together especially when
they work with students who are different than they are who think differently who come from different places their Solutions are actually better because they start to um expand the way they're thinking about the problem they get more analytical they
get much more creative and um middle school kids are already very creative but it's been a great experience and we're looking forward to continuing to work with these kids as they go through our school system director mclin um clerk Marin and
I participated U last week in the community curriculum and instruction advisory committee this was the first time I was able to attend so this was um something new for me and we the topic of the night was the implementation of the read act on our younger students in
their literacy and what I was surprised to hear is that we also talked about the implementation implementation of the react in our early U Learning Centers that I didn't expect that to even be part of that discussion and it was so that was really exciting to hear and hear an update about how uh those
teachers are trained and implement the react um with our very youngest Learners I also uh was very appreciative of the parents that were able to attend and I think there are likely ways that we can engage uh further with our parents to
determine um the best ways for them to be able to um have their input on this committee either in person or in other ways whether it's how we schedule it or how we uh plan it um or how we promote it that I think there's lots of ways that U more parents could be involved in that work um to look at both our um
curriculum from a community perspective and our instruction um listening to the the um public speakers tonight that might be an opportunity for parents to get involved as well director white horn um so as far as Community engagement we do have the upcoming sound of gospel
music uh we do have RPS students that will be participating in the choir production um it is tiar on sale now uh it's a big collaboration so we'll have students involved um it's a really good opportunity for our community to get out
and um they're really wanting the the the families and children to be a part of this um the NAACP the mail Clinic it's a large partnership uh there are tickets on sale at the M Civic Center um but we are also spreading the word that if families would like to attend and
cannot afford tickets there are lots of community members that are available um that you can reach out to if you cannot uh you can reach out to myself personally um and and let me know and I can get you in touch with someone who can but I do just want to make sure that people know we are still doing some
Outreach out there within the community as well and we want to do more things to partner with our RPS students as they will uh be doing a mass choir I believe all of the high schools were um offer the opportunity to be a part of the mass choir um and they will be doing a
presentation at the end of the uh celebration so I would really hope that people come out and support our children in that is that February oh February the 28th I I pulled it up you guys and didn't even didn't even give yall any information at 7 p.m. and prior to
that the 28th at 7 p.m. and prior to that they're doing a community um fair at the Civic Center at the Civic Center so they'll on sale at the Civic Center uh tickets are cheaper if you buy them directly at the Civic Center
everybody instead of buying them online on Ticket Master Ticket Master um is charging a fee but please spread the room word we want to fill the building um you know we're fine with being standing room only it's a one night performance and we really want to support the kids that um are
participating in that event um on the 28th what time is the community Fair um I believe it starts at 5:30 5:30 help from the audience director Workman um so along with director Barlo and some of my other colleagues I was
also on the Churchill visit on February 6th um what I found really interesting was it was a conference day and so in conjunction with that conference day they also had an art fair there were Lego kits available wood kits which were donated and a book fair um I also got to
observe a number of lessons that were occurring during the wit and wisdom lesson students were very engaged in analyzing the artwork I was really impressed with how the teacher went about engaging the students in order to do that kind of
analysis um the other thing that we were told told afterwards was that it takes about three years for there to be a really strong Comfort level in teaching wit and wisdom so I think it's important to take the Long View that results take time so the foundation and building
blocks are being put into place for Student Success so one example that I'll give from my own experience was many years ago we had what was called a trievel orchestra concert in Rochester and it was held at the Mayo Civic Center and it was all of the orchestra students
in the city there was the elementary beginners or the beginners the middle school and the high school and it was always wonderful as a director of the high school orchestra to listen to my kids remember I remember when I was at
the other end and the kids at the other end were like wow this is where I could be so results take time but they're absolutely worth it and I'm really impressed with the progress that's being made the enthusiasm and the engagement of
students Dr whorn I also want to add to um to Churchill when we were visiting um I was very impressed with their parent involvement um I believe they they had a daytime event and they said they only had like two kids um whose parent was
not able to make it so um to let people know we are paying a lot of attention to parent involvement and we I personally can say that it is very important important and we are wanting to make sure that we encourage parents and families to get involved um and
Churchill did a wonderful example of that and reaching out uh to the to their parents and getting them involved and even they were surprised at how many parents were able to accommodate a daytime uh program um so I think that's a great example to show that it is very
possible um and we can start moving our Trends back towards having more parents um be involved so I think that that's a that's great all right thank you board members our next items are 5.1 through 516 our consent agenda would any board
member like any item removed from the consent agenda for separate consideration move approval second is been moved by director Marvin and second by director Workman any discussion all those in favor of
approving the consent agenda say I I any opposed the consent agenda has been approved our next item is 6.1 a focus topic our K5 literacy curriculum implementation superintendent pel thank you chair Nathan I want to
invite uh uh our my colleagues to come on down um and join I don't know if our chief academic officer is going to be joining you're staying over on the side there but um as they do uh let me just set up this Focus topic and the next one in the same way I think one
of the mistakes that um a school district or maybe any organization that has an aggressive agenda for change can make is that our governing board gets involved in voting for the change but then you get disconnected from the
implementation of the change and in an effort to avoid that you are going to get updates tonight first on our elementary literacy curriculum and then uh the creation of a new Middle School uh alter Alternative Learning Program which you voted for previously but now
we're in the midst of implementation and we all know that the devil is in the details and what we're learning and finding is going to be really foundational to the success of both of those efforts so we're starting tonight with the uh literacy curriculum board members will recall we have focused in
other sessions on different aspects of our literacy strategy we've talked about our frequent assessment strategy we've talked about teacher professional development um I'm sure we'll touch on those things but we're really talking about the curriculum or what we teach tonight um and just to kick that off uh
before I turn it over to our colleagues to introduce themselves and begin we've mentioned um uh and it's already come up tonight that Minnesota passed something called the read act which was a sweeping effort to strengthen the reading skills of our young students in Minnesota the
Minnesota read act did not include the adoption of a new curriculum we decided to do that in Rochester because doing all the other things that are required by the re Act without strengthening what we teach would have been a far less comprehensive approach but that means
that our teachers and our leaders in Rochester have had an even heavier lift than the very heavy lift that is on uh the plates of uh Elementary Educators all over the state so um not only thank you to all of you for leading that work and we're going to hear about it now but
uh to the classroom teachers and principles and education support professionals and literacy coaches all over Rochester who are literally Reinventing the airplane while they're flying it they are teaching kids and learning a uh curriculum that as director Workman just mentioned she saw
on your visit to Churchill is a Quantum Leap in the cognitive challenge we're asking our young kids to um experience and master in reading so thank you and we'll turn it over to you for an update on uh this curriculum called Wht and wisdom thank you very much drel and
chair Nathan and directors excited to be with you tonight I think it was about a year ago that we were here um talking about which curriculum we were hoping to um adopt so it's exciting to reach this point and I know there's been tons of work being done by everybody in our
buildings especially the teachers to to live this off I'm excited to have Lindsay Rous with us here tonight um she is a fourth grade teacher at Bishop and so she'll be sharing some Reflections um from the classroom as well and then of course our chief Mona Perkins is here with us too
I'm waiting for the slides to move to the next one so I can you you have the power yeah I have the power then okay you do yeah so you can see here the bullet points of where we're going to go tonight we're going to give a brief overview of structured literacy which is
really listed in our RPS um literacy plan that I'm sure you've you've seen um we're going to talk about our K5 literacy curriculum to show all the components are covered um and then we're really going to Deep dive into that WT and wisdom curriculum um and have classroom Reflections talk
about the challenges and the progress of course rolling out anything there going to be some some hurdles that um we've been taking on and then really what we've learned through this implementation that we could really um use in the future and possibly replicate um so that's what we'll be talking about
this evening so this right here is a brief overview that you'll also find in our our literacy plan um but I just like to do that before we get into the curriculum so that we know um you see the five lit five uh pillars of literacy there which basically are all the
components um of literacy that we need to make sure that our our students are exposed to and engaged in um we know that it starts with that phic awareness which is really about sounds um that kids are are learning sounds manipulating sounds beginning and end
sounds and those middle sounds and then of course with the phonics piece we're mapping that to to letters and that's when they're really learning to decode which is a big part of a especially our foundational years those K K1 and K1 through two years uh fluency is a big
part of it becoming fluent readers um and having reading at a pace that helps kids to um understand it as well um and then of course the vocabulary part is really about the knowledge building and then our ultimate goal is comprehension and so there's so much research out
there especially as you can see it's listed the national reading panel in 2000 it talked about how we really need structured lit um and over the years there have been different approaches to to reading and we know that structured literacy is That explicit teaching and that we have a
sequence of skills that we're following in a systematic way so that our our children all have that opportunity to to read so um the other thing I wanted to bring to light is uh the rope that our teachers have been engaged in deep deep learning on over the last like three
years um which really shows all the different strands um that that help us to develop skilled readers and so you can see once again kind of like what we just saw the word recognition piece is there in the the blue that's really that decoding piece and then we get to
language comprehension that has so many more strands as well um which as you're going to find there's a whole lot in wit and wisdom that is addressing those those top strands in the red there but I just wanted to ground Us in in that research because all that we're doing um
is aligned with with the role and then briefly um just to share with you the curriculum that we do have um in our elementary schools for literacy so in K1 um we have hegerty which is about pheic awareness those
sounds that we talked about and we've got our K2 uh really great reading which is the the functional or the um foundational piece as well the phonics uh we also have geodes which kind of gives us the decoding part and and it goes deep into knowledge building it's a
really nice companion with Wht and wisdom and then third through fifth grade also has functional phonics and morphology that they rolled out and that we're in year one of that as well so our teachers are um they're doing just a little bit of new implementing this year and we've heard a lot of positives about
that from teachers um it's a little bit different kind of implementation than our Whitten wisdom and then you can see K through five is wit and wisdom and the focus is knowledge building and so um about all different types of content we've got science we've got social
studies they're even digging into art within that curriculum so you can see the visual that just kind of shows you all of the components of literacy because at times I find myself even saying reading um but it's a lot more than just reading it's oral language development and writing as
well and so all of those pieces are weaved into um Whitten and wisdom and what we know about Wht and wisdom um is that there are defin definely shifts from what our current practices have been and so off to the right here I'm just sharing with you some of those
shifts for our teachers as well um that it's a knowledge focused curriculum um it's very much inquiry based in in that every module is based on questions an essential question and then every uh it breaks into three different parts that they have different focusing questions
to dig a little deeper in various ways um it's complex authentic grade level text um and I know you'll hear more from Lindsay about that and the challenges within having that that challenging text for every child um it integrates the
Styles and the conventions they go into some deep language Dives in their lessons um huge speaking and listening routines um I'm sure that when you're visiting classrooms you probably hear a lot of students speaking um going on which is exciting to hear and then the
writing is across all genres and um based on what they're learning reading and that part has been amazing if you walk around and see it around the schools our teachers are like they are writing more than they they have been for the past year so we're so excited um
to see that can I just add something about when you when you dive deep into the the knowledge building piece kids are able to um to read higher level text because they have more background knowledge and so the the text complexity
they are able to go into more complex text because they're developing just more background knowledge so some of the text is grade level and some of the text is actually slightly above grade level as well so you get they get a mix of both yeah and one of the big shifts that we've heard from teachers is that in
order for them to go into those high level levels of reading and deep understanding they're reading the text more than once which is something that sometimes they'd read them a couple times maybe in previous curriculum but this time there's like a different P purpose and then they're doing that
close reading in different ways and that is developing a deeper understanding of the content too so that's a shift because they're reading and rereading and rereading um oftentimes so we just wanted to share with you some of the glimpses of our classrooms and I'm so excited to hear
that you're you're out and about and you're you you used some ews today that I'm so excited about because you talked about how kids are engaged and there's enthusiasm and I think you'll hear that from um Lindsay over here too um and it's also ch in work and so I want to
make sure that we we acknowledge that um our teachers are working lots of hours to lift this off and many of them are are seeing it is worth it and it's going to take some time to feel comfortable with it right but so exciting so just a few glimpses this is a kindergarten
classroom and um they're engaged in learning for this one they're in the farm animals module that they're working on and so I believe this is a setting activity and you can see how they have the text right there and they're looking through and they're they're drawing their pictures about um what that looks
like at the different seasons um another one here uh these are examples of the essential questions that are there and so you can see one of them um to the left you'll see a kindergarten classroom and that was just the beginning of um what makes a good story and they're
digging into farm animals and then there's a first grade picture there as well and I think that day they were doing a reader theater um with the Dr Seuss book so it's kind of fun to see one of our instructional coaches um this is a quote that she shared and I thought it was really powerful she said we have
noticed vast increases in students being able to express their ideas due to the repeated close readings of texts students are able to speak to their own ideas many connections are made and students have a lot to contribute when they are so familiar with the material
we heard first first graders talking about azerbajan Finland Canada and More in their first module so she was like oh my gosh this is exciting to hear it so um these are just examples of some of the anchor charts that you would see in
the classrooms um really deep in text evidence is is a lot of the work and so the one that you see that there's lots of pictures that's what it looks like in kindergarten right they have their own Post-its and they're sharing what they're seeing and they draw it and as the years go um they then are using more
more letters with that and writing some words and then I can't remember what grade level we're seeing but in another grade level they have their notice and wonder chart um that's something that that's a part of every um liftoff for the modules too and many lessons that
they're noticing and wondering about art and the reading and these are some really really great displays and wonderful writing um I believe this was at fwell for a third grade module which is about the sea and um one of my other favorite quotes from
the year is a teacher who had said Wht wisdom has raised the bar for our students and they are jumping over it so that's something that I just think I know that it's hard work but we have those those um times that teachers are saying we're seeing it we're seeing it
and I know um when Mona has worked with us before she says they will rise right and we do see students are are reaching those goals so with that I'm going to turn it over to the teacher who really knows what it looks like and Lindsay will just take you a little bit through her module and
reflection hi nice to be here thank you for having me um as Heather said my name is Lindsay I teach at Bishop and this is our first year of doing Wht and wisdom so we're all learning it together um that's actually the focus wall from my classroom so um Heather touched on this that there is an essential question
focusing questions content framing questions craft questions learning goals all sorts of stuff that we have to draw the kids attention to for each lesson some of them span between lessons so our focusing question might last for like three or four lessons for example we just dig deeper into that um our first
module was the focusing or the essential question was what does it mean to to have a great heart literally and figuratively and we read two texts with that one of them was the circulatory story and one was love that dog the circulatory was all about the heart and how the heart works and love that dog is a book of poems but it also tells a
narrative story about a a boy who has lost a pet um this is actually these are pictures taken from our school those are our fourth graders at the end of our our first story the circulatory story we had a kind of like a heart surgery day and the kids got to dive into the heart in a
lot of different ways we had donations from Homestead Medical Center they um brought us PPE so the kids got face Shields and masks and gloves and gowns and all of the fun things they built clay hearts out of well they built hearts out of clay and then we ended up painting them and they modeled all the the different parts of the heart that
they learned how to pronounce and read and what they did throughout that um other schools got to have cardiologists come in paramedics cardiac surgeons so there's a lot of really deep learning about the heart in fourth grade they also did a lot of really close reading
with the text that is a poster from one of our classrooms I believe I think those are from Bishop that picture um that they were learning about the different parts of the circulatory story and then another project we did on our heart surgery day was making cards for for patients that are in the pediatric
cardiac for Heather touched on us a little bit that Whitten wisdom really focuses a lot on noticing and wondering and our kids are asked to create co-create sometimes do it on on their own sometimes in their journals sometimes we do it as a whole class but they do notice and wonder charts every day and that helps them
really refine their thinking what do you notice is what does it explicitly say that it says or I I notice that that sign is blue and wondering is what does it make me think about what questions do I have what you know why why do I think they made that sign blue so there's a difference between them and we decided that for this presentation it would be
helpful to just break apart our thought process into noticing and wondering some of the things that we've noticed about Whitten and wisdom are that the are complex there are a wide range of readers in our classroom some very emerging readers who are nowhere near a fourth grade text level like capacity
and then there are some readers that could probably do fine in some high school reading levels so the complex texts are difficult in some areas for some of those lower um lower or emerging readers and some of the other readers are maybe it's a little bit easier but there because of the content and the
subject area they're still all very much getting into it because the conversations lend themselves even our lowest readers are able to listen to the conversations and then participate in the learning of the content they're exposed to it still so we've noticed that it is difficult with the text but we're
Rising um the noticing for scheduling is Whit and wisdom is meant to be a 90-minute lesson and in elementary that is not a thing that we have so we have noticed that scheduling is is challenging it does not fit but we are trying to work around that so that's a
notice we notice that the scheduling isn't is something that we need need to work on but what some of the things we notice that we like the best are connections and enthusiasm um conversation quality and increase in writing those are all fantastic the kids are connecting with the text they are excited about it they come in and they
say you know my great uncle was a a heart surgeon and he just blah blah blah and they they always want to talk about all of the the connections that they've made which is really exciting the conversation quality from module zero which is our training module up until now it's like night and day not module zero they just stared at us with blank
faces and now at the we're starting module 2 they're just like all over it so it's really exciting and then they're writing the the pieces that they're writing are just completely different than what we've seen before because they write all the time now so we've got a long ways to go but there's been a lot
of improvement some of the wonderings that we've had are um scaffolding and supporting we do have some of those resources available that was purchased with the curriculum we just haven't had the time to dig in so there's are ml components for example that we think might be very helpful for us once we have the time to really see how that
helps and that could help with that complex text as well um so our wondering was will that help us uh then numbers two and three prioritizing lesson components and year two refinements and guidelines we're just kind of wondering if the district is planning to help us with pacing and guiding knowing that our
scheduling doesn't really work for elementary yesterday we had the greatest greatest discussion as a team trying to fit all these things together and do some planning and do some learning and we realized all the other teams in the district are doing the same thing we're trying to pair down this curriculum to fit we wonder if maybe this is something
that a bigger group could come together and this is how we've paired it down for everybody versus everyone doing all the same work in all the different sites so that's a Wonder we had and then growth over time we just wonder is this going to really start to show these kids are learning and they're doing they're doing
great thank I'll try and finish so um I think Lindsay basically shared um what what the challenges have been and the and the things that we've been celebrating um overall the time to prepare and to the internalize the
curriculum our teachers are saying oh it's taking a lot of time so that's definitely been a challenge that we've tried to creatively build in some additional time I know principles have have been creative about like having extended PLC time and um different ways they're covering their classrooms to provide time but really there's just
never enough time with a new curriculum so we've tried to build that in yesterday we had a professional learning day and the focus the whole morning for our Whit and wisdom teachers was planning and collaboration so we offered um time for them to pop on to Google meets or meet with us uh kindergarten met with us in person if they chose to
the rest of the time was to collaborate and build with their teams um implementing the shifts knowing those shifts I already mentioned has been a challenge just learning about oh we do the close reading so many times I'm supporting students as lendy Lindsay talked about at the various um levels of
of reading with the complex text um scheduling and pacing so the lessons are our 90-minute lessons and so our teachers in their pacing guide It's teach three lessons a week but as you can imagine that means they need to figure oh the stop points the start points and that's something that we as a
district do need to build in and we're continuing to learn how we can make that just a little bit easier to navigate for teachers so that's definitely on our list um progress we've already heard about we're seeing and hearing um kids with they're thinking they're speaking they're writing the pacing is improving
for teachers um students are building and sharing that knowledge and teachers are collaborating with one another we're trying to stretch into districtwide collaboration but we're just in the initial stages here um what we've learned about the implementation um uh we started with really de-implementation
like talking about what are those past practices and the past resources that didn't necessarily support structured literacy and so that was a part of the process that we think we would replicate to make it very clear what we're going to be doing now and what we're going to end doing um the train
that has happened and you can see there's a couple there has been imperative um really prioritizing staff development and funding time for teachers to be engaged in the training um they had training on structured literacy but they also had wit and wisdom training and I believe they all
engaged in gosh three trainings this year um our principles have also been engaged in learning as we've done guided observations with them so three times this year we have full day trainings and we're going into classrooms and we're learning the curriculum um teachers have
been so welcoming and and kind to let us come in as they're learning and then we're studying the different design of the curriculum too and how we can then provide coaching um for teachers as well and then of course instructional coaching our really strong District
literacy team that continues to uh lead our grade level curriculum teams in getting feedback from teachers and developing resources to support and then just creating that time for planning and collaboration is is huge so those are kind of things we would want to replicate um and continue to think about
in the future and then of course we have to end with this adorable picture uh with enthusiasm once again but I just wanted to shout out tonight um our teachers they're amazing sometimes they make it makes me almost cry their commitment to all that they do every day
to every child and to lift off a complex curriculum um and they do it with such expertise and creativity like Linds is sitting right here it's just inspiring what they're doing this year so we thank all of their work um and your support of
their work as well board members any questions comments director cook um well thank you so much for this update I um I'm gonna strive to to keep my comments brief I I won't succeed but
um this this topic for me uh just continues to be of critical importance both from my head and my heart because I I think we know the we've all heard numerous times that
uh reading proficiency by grade three is a critical Milestone to the long-term lifetime success really or um achievement of any student we know that reading proficiency scores continue to be important drivers of enrollment among
other things um but for me my heart is with this work so much because every single um literacy skill that is
imparted to a student is like unwrapping a layer to reveal a confident student who is not burdened by the the shame and the um negative feelings about
themselves that come from struggles in early literacy this work is so important to our district and to our students to our most vulnerable students so um every time I hear an update on this and and just briefly on on wit and wisdom I'm
excited that we are finding a way to do this because leveraging the Curiosity of our students the way that this notice and wonder prompt does is so powerful but I'm really really glad that we have divided Ed that knowledge building um
part of our literacy practices from the um the phonics um because I think you know that that impulse in the past might have been why some literacy practices drifted astray um and so I'm glad that we are
very intentionally providing structured literacy intentionally um and explicitly um in a sequenced way um imparting those skills okay now to my
question um and it will it it might be somewhat familiar but I I really continue to be concerned or at least aware that there are Myriad things for a school district a leadership team a board um to focus
its attention on um and while we have approved this new curriculum and we have uh supported the professional development of teachers and so forth um I do think that we need to be reminded from time to time of what are the important
things either that we are doing now or that we could be doing you touched on a few of them um the the need for 90-minute times and so forth but what what do you see right now as the roadblocks to successfully
implementing robust structured literacy that allows our students to a achieve reading proficiency at their highest possible potential um what are what are the things on your radar right now that this board should be aware of I can speak to it a little bit then
Lindsay you definitely shared I I think when we talked about scheduling that is something that we we need to work out the pacing to support our teachers and I know that also the scheduling the instructional minutes in an elementary day has been a part of our conversations
because I know that um the new times which I'm hearing such positives about I think when we shifted we lost some instructional minutes there and so that's something that I think that we've we've been trying to figure out the timing of everything right when we're trying to do all that structured
literacy requires just trying to figure out the schedule so that it fits um for teachers right anything to add can I you go ahead then I'll then I'll jump in I was going to jump in and say the same thing just scheduling is the hardest
part for us um we love the new schedule like the kids are awake in the morning and they were asleep by 4:00 so the the new schedule is great but what we're really struggling with is Elementary just kind of has like an wide open day and it doesn't have the periods of the
day and so there special areas for example like our art and our music and our um PE and our media classes because there shared positions around the whole district for some of them they know point to here point4 there we are we're locked in to a lot of different things scheduling wise that we
just can't have our literacy block at this time because this is the only time we have our media teacher here and it's it makes our scheduling a lot more challenging than if you were to go to a secondary school and have 45 or whatever the minutes are right now minute um times where this is the time that my kids are going to get 45 minutes of
uninterrupted math for example and in elementary it's not like that they're pulled for everything all the time there isn't a time where they go get their um reading resource you know and in their schedule it's they're just pulled all the time and because the schedule's so kind of wide open and we want to make sure that all the students have the Core
Curriculum and so they're prioritizing that and then okay then when do they get the other things that they need during the day at my school we're kind of locked into 30 minutes of protected time each day when we're trying to fit 90 in and then we have 30 minutes of um functional phonics and morphology on top
of that so the scheduling I think is the biggest thing people people are excited to help the kids learn and and read and everything but spitting it in is hard and I think the good news let's hear it Mona is we're in charge of that so we get to fix it we're aware and we have a
plan so it is on our radar um as a as a previous Elementary principal I think I walked in dreaming about the schedule like I needed my hands on a schedule from the minute I
walked in um so it like that is absolutely on our radar and we're I've been working on a proposal to hands again to work through some of those some of those struggles yes an elementary day is not
blocked out for you which which can be a gift and a curse right but that does most of the time it it's a gift so we I think it's something that can be worked out um I also think one thing we have to
be careful of when we talk about the pacing is we can't necessarily consider this year pacing as the as the standard because we're we're slow this year because it's our first year so on top of
everything that Heather has done in rolling this out and the supporting of rolling this out she's actually gone out to a classroom and taught a Le she was she taught a lesson this week and came back and was like I was like how'd it go and she's like man I was really slow and
if I was to do this again this is what I would do that's actually that's exactly what's happening with the teachers and so next year when they roll it out it's going to go faster it's the same thing when kids read that's why we practice fluency because you start off slow and you get faster at it so I just want to
be careful of we don't necessarily want to meet together and say we're going to block out our pacing for next year based on what happened this year we just need we need to be cautious of that um because then we could set ourselves up to move really slow next year when we're
ready to go faster um so the timing of that we just have to give ourselves Grace this year but some of the other obstacles you're facing they're so real and we're hoping to get those like for sure fixed I think the shortening of the day by 15 minutes is another thing we
just have to talk about to see like if there's a way around that because that did happen like that is a that's a legit struggle yeah and our curriculum team like the pacing guide even though this year is slower as we've learned the
curriculum we have a lot of guidance that we can use as we roll out materials for next year to say oh we could do this part a little bit more and you could take this up that's what teachers are wondering but as we're learning it it's hard to know right you just have to experience it first so right and a 90
minute lesson this year is probably actually taking more like 110 minutes like just because we're just we're moving even it just takes longer you're learning that so really good questions I love how much you love that is well thank you and thank you for your
work go back and forth director white horn okay um so I guess I I'm excited about it it sounds like an amazing program um I I I mirror what director cook says I think literacy is a is is very powerful one of the best things we
can give our students um it's the Cornerstone to every kind of learning right from mathematics to science whatever you can read you can do a lot of things um I guess my question is and maybe this has been answered uh previous to my time is how is this going to transition into the middle schools right
because I feel like this is a great robust program and kids are excited um so I guess and I'm not putting a damper on it but I don't want you know we don't want our kids all excited about reading and learning and they get this great program and then they go into middle school and go yeah I hate it here so I
I just wonder how are we um transitioning um and I know it's a brand new program but we do we should have fifth graders right that are doing the program um so since it's a brand new program we have you know our older kids have done our previous programming they're doing
this brand new exciting programming and then from what I can detect they're going back into the old stuff uh come sixth grade so is there some kind of plan to um either continue with the Wht and wisdom into the middle school years
or some kind of transitioning plan cuz we don't want children to get this robust exciting learning in elementary school and then have it die off um in middle school because they they still got a lot of years to go and we got to keep them excited for at least another
at least the seventh grade we want them well we want them excited all all the way through and we will continue to we'll continue to work on building it we have a lot of work to do all the way all the way through so we do have a plan to
um I I'm just I guess my concern is about the kids right now right so the kids in fifth grade right now um who are doing the wit and wisdom who are going to be going over the six to sixth grade next year I know that this is something that will take time to roll out but do we have a little bit of
a what word am I looking for a little Bridge a little a little something so that they're not you know until we can implement the next program we just don't lose those kids am I am I wording this in a way that's making sense to somebody no it's it's a it's a really powerful
question I have uh shared with a number of colleagues that um shocking to me now it's almost 20 years ago I lived part of this journey as an administrator in St Paul public schools and I remember vividly when Middle School teachers
started to say oh my goodness the kids are showing up so far ahead in reading of what we are used to it was a shock that the kids coming out of a structured Elementary program were ready for middle school work your point director whorn is
a critical one we need to be ready for that um we have laid the groundwork with the structures because the work on multi-tiered systems of support to have the interventions to have the assessments that is very much underway at middle school that is very robust a
next phase is the curricular piece it's building on it's the what you teach and it gets trickier as in some ways Lindsay was just mentioning with the difference in secondary school structures there isn't a reading Block in middle or High School in the same way that there is at
elementary but we know we need to create that we need to fill it with Rich curriculum and I think that one of the things that I uh love came out of the presentation we just heard is that this is a knowledge Rich curriculum which might sound like a no-brainer well of
course curriculum should have a lot of knowledge in it in fact we have had a couple decades where we underemphasized kids learning knowledge uh in favor of procedure um so we do need to be thinking one of many very good things
about the 2024 ignite student learning referendum is that we have a $1.2 million base for ongoing curriculum enhancement in RPS now that is not sufficient for every grade level in every subject area but it's 1.2 million
more than we had before so we do have some resources we need to be uh creative in not only building up in literacy but we also have uh science ahead of us for sure in elementary and then we know there's work to do in mathematics um so
the good news is we have some resources that we lacked previously and we have some structures but your point is very well taken about what what's the curriculum going to be in middle school and so let's make a a point point of putting an update for you on a future board agenda as we get uh deeper into
that work um because it's going to be exciting as our Middle School colleagues start to see what's happening uh with what these kids are going to be ready for and we need to make sure that they are equipped with uh content that's going to keep these kids engaged and thank you thank you for the work that you guys are are doing and I
know what we have we take time Dr parla going in order uh I initially had question regarding the instructional block time but you guys already addressed that I am curious though in terms of how
many modules are there uh there are three modules that the teacher said here and then presently um how much time is spent on the modules um and uh the knowledge components are
are you separating them out or are they um how when we rolled it out uh they were to be putting 60 minutes into their day for the knowledge building curriculum and so as Lindsay had talked about their 90 minute lessons so the
teachers have three lessons to teach in AEK so then they determine which one is going to Flo into the next day and such and so that's kind of how it's built then the final question deals with the K2 geod
um the decodability how are are you making parents aware how are they becoming involved and what home supports are being made available thanks for that question we we are deep in the work of actually um when
we had our CCI meeting just forgot about that last week one of the things that we gathered input from our community members is um the website uh we shared a link that is not yet live that um helps parents to to know can I practice with
if my child is meeting work on this there's also links to um ebooks that are translatable that we've added to that but it's not live yet we're still working on that but there are several resources that we've put together um they actually are linked a little bit to
um our parent notification letters that are something through the redc that we're supposed to be sending home family notifications to help um notify families if we're seeing some challenges in in Reading development and then it shares with them hey you can do this with with your child based on the data that we're
getting from some of the screening that we're doing so yeah I I think that um we still have some work to do so we have some feedback on that but um we hope that it will be live in a month or two for families Tex go home I don't think J's J's texts do not go home sorry
because that's another part of it they're they're in the classroom and they actually we have had those for about three years now and so a lot of teachers use them in small group um but they were used in in full group as well and so there's different texts that go with the different books in Whitten and
wisdom so that was kind of exciting when Whit wisdom was adopted because now they have the overarching module like themes and questions and all of these smaller GE that um can be used for kids whether they're decoding or they're building more knowledge on the same content yeah
they're for the younger grades they're just the decodable text but they're they're such great books because they do support the knowledge building and they're like the kids are able to read up yeah they're they're great yeah and thank you
for answering the um home support uh side of that because um it's a different ball game today and parents I think are uh at times challenged to keep a breast as to
what the kids are being taught and what they can do to support what our schools are currently addressing so thank you for sharing that director barin director you in order no I didn't have a
question oh you didn't work direct then director Workman director Workman this is really going to be a little tricky for me to articulate because I really don't want to go back to fourth grade but if I did I would
want to have you and this process in place I remember when I was in fourth grade and this is really going to uh you know reveal my age but youall know it anyway is it was Dick Jane and Sally it was wrote
memorization it was not exciting it was not engaging and the only reason I learned to be a voracious reader and to remain curious about the world was in spite of fourth
grade and some of the other grades because my parents granted Yep this is privilege we went to the library we we did all those kinds of things but now that I'm seeing it happening in school you know I'm just thinking of um you
know kids who are trying to make career choices when they're in high school or thinking ahead it's like I remember when I was in fourth grade do you remember that lesson on the circulatory system and how great that was you know I I just see this all
connecting so so well and for anybody who wants to go back to when I was in fourth grade that is just I will say it that is just dead wrong and it would be doing an incredible disservice to our students to
go back to that um as you commented and many others have the world is a more complex diverse uh place than it was when I was growing up um my kids grew up in a more diverse more diversity here in Rochester in a
lot of different ways and it served them really well and kids now have even more of those advantages so I want to commend you your team the teachers who are working so hard to learn this curriculum and present it the engagement that I see
with these kids on these slides is amazing it will continue to spark their curiosity and they will continue to want to learn and when they do that they will be developing their critical thinking skills um so I don't really have a
question in there but just a moment of reflection and um how excited I am to see this work happening this way and I can't wait until our NE our next skip visit in in March um it's it's just been
fabulous so thank you so I I did you have something go ahead I do go um I didn't want to step in yeah no you have a question I was pointing that Mr bar had his hand up I was trying to just be a good I don't
want to silence player I have two quick things when you talk about the structural issues are those Universal to all the schools in a similar way or are there certain schools that that's more challenging whether it's the size of the school or you know they're nearby the other school that they share with or
those kinds of things um it can be both right like part of it is is systemwide but some of the systemwide issues don't necessarily occur at certain buildings because if I if you
have enough sections and you have a full-time PE teacher and a full-time music teacher it doesn't affect you right so it's it could be it could be either is it Universal across grades yeah okay yeah and then the related
question I have is um Lindsay could you talk all you even talked about assessment so in a big picture could you tell us how that fits into this work we haven't had um obviously an MCA assessment yet since we've started this I was seeing more fast Bridge yeah we just took our winter fast Bridge um and
so we're we're still kind of in the preliminary digging into how that's going kids are still learning the curriculum too um we're hoping that it's going to show great Improvement the kids are talking a a lot more about things that are more in- depth I'm seeing growth in my classroom it we've only had the one assessment since we started this
so it's really hard to say whether anything is related to wen wisdom to be honest I I'm not sure um but we're seeing kids really excited like U director Workman like what I was hearing you say the reason that 90 minutes is hard is the kids get so excited like we
have to cut them off and we don't want to and we are like we're already trying to condense it and they don't want to stop talking so they're into it they're really excited like and the our heart surgery day thing that's not in the curriculum that's just just something we found on a social media shared group and wanted to implement it but the kids
still talk about it they still talk about I want to be a heart surgeon one day so I think we're making a difference and it's going to start to show in the Assessments in the you know a boring part of school where we have to take the tests I think that's going to start to show but it's it's really early to know exactly especially because the teachers
are still getting used to teaching this content yeah it's interesting I think if we ask teachers right now they would look at the writing um to be like okay we're assessing that they are growing knowledge because we're seeing it in their writing and in what they're sharing and speaking um but it doesn't
necessarily always it's not going to be necessarily reflected in an MCA the first year of implementating implementing it but um yeah there are various ways they're being assessed I don't know that fastbridge would pick that out necessarily either with a at
least not yet when we're we just getting to know it and one thing I've noticed in our skip visits and maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention but I feel like you're letting the kids in on the literacy secrets so I see I don't just
see word wals I see the terminology of the curriculum um like the terms about Linguistics and the different what what not just what the different uh sounds are but what how they're labeled what category they fall
in and you know even you know these uh examples you've given here and what we've seen on the walls where you're you're labeling it what I think is what the curriculum calls it right what the technique is but you're letting the kids know this is what you're learning like you're telling
them the category or the the piece of the learning process that they're learning about not just saying oh this is what we're going to learn today and I don't know if that's a different approach it just seems so much more explicit and and defined in all the classrooms that we that we've been
seeing yeah it it definitely is you probably saw sound walls if you were in our primary classroom so they're even telling them what sounds uh families they're in which is very different than past practice right so that's a part of it um and then if you're in our third
through fifth grade classrooms you're seeing the morphology up there so you see prefixes and suffixes when I when I did sub the other day it was amazing we were reading wh and wisdom and the kids we had a word that started with this and the kids are like yep it's up there it means opposite of and that was from their functional phonics curriculum too
so I was in there going yes but um yeah I it is it's just so much more explicit yeah well it connects the DS like there's no reason to keep it a secret when you explain to kids the rules like then the word give isn't it's
no longer you don't have to say that it's a um it's an exception in English English words don't end in v right so it still gives you that you still can can still be the short vowel sound it just doesn't end in B that's why there's an e at the end right so like if you tell
them the rules they can read there's no secret like know why telling a why all the time right yeah there's no secrets we're just going to unlock those secrets so that you can have them Dr white horn I was ready but I
know um I do have a a question that's more specific to the Staffing side uh because what we did learn was that it takes about three to five years for your teachers to really get into this so my question is more along the line as our district girls as we bring in um you
Talent um do we have a plan I I know that this is new but are we already thinking ahead on how we're not going to have to restart this curve every time because that is a concern too right we get let's say we get three new kindergarten teachers in they haven't taught this now we're back you know to
you know these longer lessons are we thinking ahead of how we'll be able to um I don't know maybe Fast Track new staff in because you know we want to once we get our Pace going we want to keep with that right and it sounds like this program may not be as friendly to
that um so have we thought long term about as we hire new Educators in how do we not continue to lose the momentum every time we hire a new teacher yeah that's that's a great great question so so as we do our new teacher or new to RPS orientations this will have to be a
big part of what our new teachers are learning so anybody that's teaching whon wisdom that will be a part of what we roll out with them our um literacy team we have three members of our literacy team then they will go out on site as well and support in the implementation and then we also have our instructional
coaches that provide that embedded training but definitely it is on our scope and sequence to build that in right away and if they have had years of structured literacy training which we hope that our colleges are doing that as well but we then we have the resources
to build them up for that but we definitely need to prioritize that in our planning for staff development for a new staff I long term you hope that when when it's not new to everyone that the additional supports they get because they'll be on a team will help there's
still a learning curve I mean I you can't take that away from somebody but you just hope that the team will continue to support plus we'll have a plan we are we've spent today and then tomorrow our team is meeting to to Really lay out a proposal for how we
would like to have like to have a solid um curriculum implementation plan that involves everything moving forward what we've learned from this process what our PD plan would be for everything just so that we have a solid plan moving
forward for any curriculum that we want to implement whether we're purchasing something or creating it on our own so that nothing falls through the CL the cracks and what is our our onboarding plan for New staff that comes on what is our continuing professional development
plan because we can't drop this we can't let it go we have to continue to support teachers and it's not just Whit and wisdom right because then next year it's something else and so we have to have like a a broad plan um and we're working on that we're making sure that we've got
a systemwide like big picture big picture in details the off the whole thing guess it sounds like it'll need to be a very fluid uh fluid system so yeah superintendent um I I I just um to
the discussion about kids being more um aware of the content maybe it's a a good place to kind of leave this discussion for now but I periodically do these videos with kids and I just did one with kinder gers and I did one uh where I asked them what is kindergarten like and
what do you do in kindergarten and so they talked about we play we do crafts whatever there's one little girl and it has to make the video um we haven't put the edit together but I I literally say what do you do in kindergarten there were two little boys and was like we we play whatever and
this little girl said phonics knowledge a lot of phonics knowledge I'm not exaggerating at all a kindergartener for that there you go and she used that term I was like you're in so the little teasers as I asked them
also what do you think first grade is going to be like and they said oh hard it's hard you don't play in first grade so that's coming but thank you again so much thank you thank you all right board members let's thank
you thank you thank you thank you move right into our next agenda item which is our Middle School ALC update U thank you chair Nathan let me uh ask Travis and the team for our Middle School ALC come on up um uh as I mentioned at the outset this is a
meeting where we are uh digging into two initiatives that you have already voted to approve um uh with some older kids in this case we were talking just a moment ago with director white Horn's question about Middle School um and so this is a progress report the last overview you
received on this effort really focused on the transition from a small program that we called Middle School right fit to being an Alternative Learning Center and uh we are now months into that effort it's still a work in progress um and we wanted to give the board and the community a chance to get an update on
that work which is very very uh complex but critical work so thank you very much and we'll turn it over to you all right um did you guys get the documents that were they're all on our website and that you'll be able to click the power point
if we can is it just right in the same flow then flick through there you go we go wonderful well uh chair Nathan members of the board superintendent Mel um cabinet uh thanks for having us today um
before we begin I need to acknowledge a few people um at the district level um Jackie and Mona um Heather Wilman Nicole Miller and Connie Grims who have been um so so supportive of of helping us
transition into an ALC and uh helping with the programming that we're we're U putting into place so last year a lot of you um got an introduction to to what what we
planned with the Middle School ALC and um I want you to know it's been successful th far um it's been a great year um just a reminder on on where we've came from and um director white horn this some of this might be new to
you but um five years ago we started at the the boys and girls club and um two small classrooms um as the right fit program we are now an official Middle School ALC and we are housed at the fredell
building so please come and see us um there are amazing things happening there U the mission of our school has not changed um we we want to provide a learning environment focused on the needs of the whole child we believe that every
student has a unique story to tell the story has shaped their current reality and the details of their story has a profound impact on their education the middle schoolc will be a place where all stories are heard welcomed and respected and uh as you know with middle
schoolers every single day can be different you never know what's coming through those doors and I think it's magnified when you take a look at our program um we never know what the day is going to hold but what we do know is
that they're going to come into a safe place and they're going to be listen to The Vision um it's a big one we do want to be the best Alternative Learning uh experience in the country Middle School ALC we focus on a
commitment to citizenship and community Through learning projects experiences and family engagement you'll hear a little bit about that today um so right now one of the big things that that our our team um along with the district Representatives have
been working on is two kind of large areas one who's coming to the Middle School alc what is that student look like um and how is it maybe different than we thought of traditional ALCS I think
we've seen a a large change in the in the Alternative Learning model since 30 years ago I think 30 years ago I think we can all agree it was where the bad kids went right that's that's uh that's
the reputation that an ALC has that's not the case any longer an ALC is is exactly what it says it is alternative Lear for students who are struggling with the traditional
model um so it is a small percentage because we know our traditional model especially here in Rochester is pretty Dam good so we are able to to educate a lot of our students in our traditional schools um the students we are looking
for are students who are academically below grade level um they may have experienced physical or emotional abuse they have mental health concerns they might be recently in transition or homeless or they are withdrawn from school or
chronically Tru so again we've been doing this for five years using the same criteria just under a different name uh the one thing we do know is that most of our students come to us with with a pretty significant amount of
trauma so how are we making those decisions that's really been the um the difficult part what data sets do you look at um where are we pulling these kids from and and I'll I'll be
honest we're still working on all of that um we are partnering with the high school ALC um and to come up with with um with a like data sets I guess you'd
say uh to pull from the middle schools so that we can discuss um students with the Middle School staff um from the traditional middle schools um so the things we look at right now is the over overarching reason for the
referral why are these students being referred um that has to take place in a conversation um with the principals or the counselors or the social workers at the larger middle schools um the second thing we look at is are we able to meet
the needs of the student um we're still small we we're going to grow uh right now we have three general education teachers we have one special education teacher uh we have a social worker um and we have a mental health
practitioner and we have um four amazing esps that that that work very very hard um we are not a special education placement that is another another um
kind of myth along with the the bad only the bad kids to go here or the tough kids um a lot of people believe then that also this is for a lot of students on IEPs we do take students on
IPS but we have one one teacher one special education teacher so we are working hard to kind of um filter those students and get them the correct um interventions that they need
sometimes it's us sometimes it's not um our number one priority at the school is the safety of our kids we found that um when students feel safe they re-engage in school and and we can tell you numerous
stories uh of that being the case with with many of our students um so because of that again I want to say it's not a program for students with excessive Behavior
needs um this is this is a program where students struggle to walk in the doors of our bigger schools they struggle to walk in the classrooms at our small school some start in start off in break rooms and work their way out um some
come in at 9 o'clock because at 8:30 that's a really nervous time for them because everybody's getting breakfast and they to work through their anxiety um so there's so many students that have a variety of
triggers that we can't be running the school where there's a large amount of of significant behaviors um one thing I wanted to say and this is the perfect time to say it is I I was terrible starting off here because I
didn't even introduce my colleagues I'm so sorry um this is Christy paly she's one of our general education teachers and this is Aaron Carston she's our social worker and these two have been um with me and
with the program for five years now um so we we've done it all together and um they have an equal seat at the table actually they are so much smarter than I am so I um I go to them often for advice
wonderful um so that you know having these two here um and and the other the other staff that we have is absolutely critical you have to have the right adults in place and right now we have the right adults
in place um we talk daily about our students and the gifts that they're bringing into the classroom um we we are working diligently to find the best way that these student students
learn um all of the uh the academic teachers in our programming right now are going through the core literacy training uh this is I don't know that there's any other general education teachers in the district that are going through that at
the moment I don't don't quote me on that but but all of our teachers are going through it so Christie right now is not only teaching every day but then doing core training which if you've been through it or have heard about it is um
it's it's it's a lot of work um and and lastly there our our staff is committed to success of the whole child um this is where Aaron comes in on the social emotional needs she is an absolute expert um and and she meets
with our teachers daily to help bridge those social needs into academic success so I'm going to turn it over to Christie to talk about what a day looks like um so what I love most about our
days at school is our first initial interactions with the kids um in the mornings all staff are either out in the hallways we are at the front door uh we have staff that are down by the lunch
and are greeting our kids our faces are the first ones they see when they get off of that van and they get a big Bri good morning and a smile that is the connection that we have with those kids it is amazing to see the change in just
their demeanor the moment they see us it warms my heart to no end um because we have created those connections with our students um so when they get in the morning we're always greeting them they get breakfast they go into the classroom they have a little bit of downtime the
first thing that each of the teachers do in their classrooms is we start with morning circles and this is a way for us to build community within our grade level so we're grade level home rooms um we Foster strong relationships with the
students not only teacher to student but student to student um and it also provides us the opportunity to gauge how our students are feeling that morning the struggles that they have come to school with and provide us with the
information of how best to support them in that day if I have a student that comes into my room and automatically I know this kiddo needs five minutes to himself I'm going to give him that five minutes because I know that those five
minutes are going to turn into the rest of the day of them being actively engaged in the classroom we create those caring and interaction interactions with the students to get those needs met so that their
focus can be on the learning versus okay well I didn't sleep last night I didn't have breakfast I didn't eat dinner last night we are making sure that these kles are getting what they need so that the remainder of their day can be focused on their
learning um when we look at the content areas uh I teach science specifically as well as a section of math we have one teacher that teaches literacy to all of our grade levels we have a social studies teacher that teaches social
studies to all of the grade levels and all three of us provide math um instruction along with our special education teacher so math is is wonderful in the fact that we are providing extremely differentiated
instruction for these students to meet them at the math skills they are currently at in order to grow those skills we are currently using the program Alex which is absolutely amazing for our kids because it is pinpointing
the exact deficits in their skill base that we can fill and provide support for in order to grow their learning uh for literacy it is a co-taught class between our literacy teacher and our special
education teacher so not only are the students on IEPs getting services within the literacy classroom but they are also getting double the amount of knowledge which is what I love about co- teing um student skills are uh
their skill level is identified and there is a lot of of individualized supports that are put into all of our classes with social studies and science um the uh other teacher and I work very
closely in figuring out where we can use cross-curricular um topics into our social studies and science classes so that the kids are getting that more in-depth knowledge as well uh we also have a time set aside at the end of the
day for interventions to provide more targeted support in literacy and math just as a side um most of our students are coming to us with significant deficits in math and literacy so so we we figure we've got
three years to to get them ready for high school and and some are coming in at that second grade level um so meeting them where they're at is is is vital and a lot of the practices from the core program are being utilized within the
literacy block part of their time is spent on those fundamental skills of phonics and femic awareness and then they're also going into the literacy the comprehension the novel studies so it is
doubly used during that time um and I think just going back to our mission of really serving the whole student that comes into our building um like Christy said sometimes there are students who might come in and they didn't eat dinner or they didn't eat
breakfast or um any number of things may have happened between the time they left our door um in the afternoon and the time they walk back in um so a really great thing about our school is we have such a robust um mental health support team we have myself that's a for time we
have a um Fernbrook School link to mental health therapist who was there 3 days a week um and we also have a mental health practitioner available to support our students who are on IEPs um and whether or not a student has formal mental health whether it's
through um an IEP or um the formal services with our mental health um through Fernbrook I'm available to any of our students at any time um and the just community that we have um I mean also
Travis and chrisy all of our staff um if a kid is having a tough time they come in and they say I just need to talk to somebody and we have break rooms that they can go into um we have students sometimes who um have really significant trauma that we kind of are aware of that
they're working through and we can help them support um working in the break room and their teachers will provide instruction and give them some time to be able to do their work in that way so that maybe being in the class isn't going to be an option for them that day but they're still really motivated to
get their things done um and so when they have that motivation and with the support they can do it in a quiet space somewhere that feels more comfortable to them um all of our classrooms have flexible seating all of our classrooms have calm Corners um we have a sensory
room two dedicated break rooms um and a lot of collaboration with parents I know Travis is constantly talking with um our parents kind of that back and forth of what was home like last night um giving us a heads up on you know someone might
be coming in having experienced something really rough and it's just really helpful for us to be able to work through that with not only our students but our fames um we've developed a um like a nutrition pantry and so some of
our parents can come in and do those kind of things but it's we're so much more than academics um and so much more than just a student me okay so to add on to the curricular things that we are doing in
all of our classrooms um I am a part of our deeper learning team uh at Middle School ALC and we are have Incorporated um three specific projects that we are working on
this year uh last year we had done blankets for the piku at Mayo this year we continued that as well as some of our students making um hats with a knitting machine for the nitq babies and those hats are like teeny tiny and they loved
it um we are also currently working on a uh unit for the idat that is happening in um Alaska it starts on the 2nd of March um so students are learning about the background of Native Alaskan groups and the climate of Alaska and the train
of Alaska and we're carrying it through each one of the classes um and then at the end of the year we are hoping to create a cultural cookbook where each of our families send a recipe uh into school uh with their students so an
interview would take place at home they interview their family members what's an important recipe or venue item that we eat at home that's important to our family and why is it important to our family and so just learning about that
background and that culture within their family as well as bringing that into school and sharing it with their peers we do a lot of Cooperative learning and collaboration amongst the students as well as the small group instruction that
I have mentioned I I think if you came and and walked into one of our classrooms um you'd be you'd be surprised that the kids are all working together they become a family and they've come from all different places throughout the
district from all different backgrounds through all sorts of trauma and there they sit at the same table creating um whatever they are creating that day um so again please please uh come to the school and and and walk through some
time and I'm happy to to have you there keep going on deeper learning sure uh so with those deeper learning projects we are implementing that Project based learning students are able to work together um solve problems look
deeply into the various uh issues or um community service things that they could involve themselves in and have something to show for it at the end with that project um we do a lot of online learning platforms which I had mentioned
the biggest one is Alex um the math program that we use it provides uh flexibility for students it provides us with information about where they are currently at how
far they have come from the beginning of the year how many skills they're working on um those various things we work towards um Competency Based assessments so Mastery if a student isn't getting something right now it
doesn't mean they never will we provide them with those supports to work towards that Mastery at whatever Pace they are at um and then we do a lot of service learning projects um like our blankets so that's a quick run down of
kind of how the year has been going thus far and um some of the things have been put in place um we are still planning to to grow um of course we are we're kind of in the process of finding space to
grow um our current space only has so much so much room there um but we do still hope um by year three that that we have 120 students and we are a a self sufficient um School in the district
here all right comments board members Dr Barlo um I'm from Alaska so you had me add I did on but um so Travis would you right fit
has been in existence for five years under funding under that three-year plan would you consider that you're in year one I'm really asking more so from the point of view what's your current enrollment there I'm going to say we're we're around 40 okay because we have students
going in and out so often um a lot of our students attend Prairie care or other residential facilities um so we're transitioning quite a bit um we will have by the end of the year we'll have 45
and two other quick things uh as I read through the information you provided for the board under the social emotional and mental health programs uh a would it would be nice to have and I looked at
the neural sequential model uh how important that would be to actually have that uh what I appreciated about that model is that it focuses on addressing the underlying neurological needs instead of reacting to the behavior as
as of course you know and uh you have referenced a lot about the stress and Trauma that many of the kids experience um and and so I appreciate knowing that you guys are identifying uh models and resources and then lastly
under behavioral expectations and supports I looked at the information you provided from Dr Green collaborative proact proactive Solutions and I think that would be uh nice to long-term aspiration I thank you
reference uh to either um acquire staff training for that or to utilize uh be it Prairie care or a local uh private sector uh uh vendor to help provide that
for the students I commend you on the great work you guys are doing I will make it a plan and a priority to uh schedule a visit I I am curious so would it be disruptive for us simp to okay so
you would invite okay thank you and if I could um I love to hear that you were interested in the neuros sequential model um I went through the training last year um and so that is something that we use within our like day-to-day and with our teachs and you're a social worker right
I am soci was that part of your the district um since I want to say there were seven or eight of us last year who went through the full training um and there's a couple more people this year and one more person who is going through to become a trainer for the district this year perfect thank
you Dr MCL um from a non- educator it seems like a lot of what you do is similar to the mtss supports that the district is trying to do for everyone is that a good parallel or can you talk a little bit more about um why that's so
important to embed in your program yeah um I think we are we are on that list of TSS supports right So eventually um as you go through mtss you you get to us as an intervention um and that's still kind
of that's where we're trying to figure out where we fit um and then within our own building of course um our instruction is tiered within our own building too I don't know if that answers your question so kind of kind of
both yeah in some ways we're part of the big system and we have our own um model in our building okay and thank you and then one of the things I want to ask about is that Project based learning one of the things that the legislator is looking legislature is
looking at is modifying and my colleagues might need to help me with this the instructional the the title of instructional time and can that be more flexible for things that aren't necessarily in the classroom would a modification of a statute like that be
helpful to you either for the Project based or for the kids that are really struggling that they can do things not necessarily in their seats but getting credit for things they're doing either like community service or other Project based things that would be um incredible
um do you understand what I'm talking about um you know for for so long learning has had a a time and a place that it's um supposed to take take place which is
eight to three for nine months um and we know better than that and we know in the alternative setting that we have a lot of flexibility with that so yeah and I was originally thinking about it like high school students who have different things in their lives but it would go down to middle school as well if if kids
need to be in somewhere else for whatever time they can still do the things that you're working on and get credit for them yes okay thank you Dr white horn so I have a comment and and I have a question um into all of the information that we've had tonight um
director Workman said something that had me pondering here for a moment um and she said something about her fourth G grade education so I'm not from the Midwest originally I'm from New Jersey and as I I'm probably I think everybody else was a little shocked but to me this
looked exactly like my Elementary School in 80s this is exactly the models that we um grew up under um so I am a child of a of a b Vocational High School based city um in New Jersey and Lyndon Exxon plant there and uh Vocational High
School so all of our uh training from elementary school on up uh was very much intertwined that way so we always saw uh you know cardiologists and the local police officers coming in all of
our all of our education was always everything was an opportunity to learn I guess is the best way to put it um I was candy striper believe I know some people know if that is or not but I was candy striper you know you you go in and you're a mini nurse um and then I knew I
didn't want to be a nurse um um but but I kind of grew up under that that train of of thought a very Community um based learning where the community was uh very constantly involved um with the kids which is maybe why I constantly harp harp on the
importance of that um the adults were just always right involved you know kids really didn't have to bring stuff because the adults were already aware if this makes sense so I just want to commend that you are opening up to to do
this type of um education um I as a a child of that type of education from the 80s um it it it did me wonders um it really prepared me for real life training um the the education I got
prepared me to work if I wanted to work or go to college if I if I wanted to go to college uh because of the real life model so I do want to commend um those who are on the W wisdom and um the the alc program but I do have two questions
um with the um Middle School ALC is there a component to either prepare the kids to move in back into the regular um day and again I excuse my age because I I did I was one of those people that were like hey you know alternative
you're pregnant or Y drug right um well that was the original model um but now that we are aware that there are so many things and even when you were reading off the list there are so many children right now that like hit every single marker that you um identified uh that
are struggling in school struggling with attendance struggling with mental health uh we're aware that we have a very long waiting list for Fernbrook for children that need Services we know you cannot accommodate all of the children um so I guess is they kind kind of a a rollover
process where we're kind of saying we're getting kids in we're getting them comfortable we're going to move them back into the system so that we're able to accommodate more kids are we looking at this like they're going to do six through eight here and you know and continue on um because that does make a
difference in in how your model looks and then also how can the community support this because our kids are you know especially postco we we have a lot of parents that are are um personally that I know that are reaching out that
are kind of at their wits in um and unfortunately they feel like something bad has to happen before their kids can be accepted into other things so what what can the community do how how can we support this um you know how can we
proactively help something like this grow so that we do not have to continue to be reactive uh with our children where they're to the point where they have attempted you know unal living or they are you know in a space now where
they have to have intense treatment because we know there's a lot of things that happen before we get to that space and I know you said that you don't want all those kids obviously you don't want a building full but this is a real issue that we need to address and and how can
we support your work and how can we help to get kids better prepared to maybe move into the to the bigger buildings is there is there a plan for that sure thank you I'm sorry that was great great questions um I'll go back to the the fluidity question if they can move back
and forth um each each plan each uh students plan is different so we work with the parents we work with um administrators from the other schools and kind of develop what they want to do
um to be honest though most of our students once they get there they feel safe and they want to stay there um we don't have too many that that end up leaving um so uh the other the other piece of
that question was what happens after eth grade most of our students will be referred to the high school ALC U but we do have some students that are going to go to the traditional high schools and they'll do great um as far as what can the
community do um we do have some I mean that that was a really that's a big question and a great one and um I think continued Partnerships with the community uh especially especially the county is a is a really strong partner
with us um because Unfortunately they are getting these kids right and um once they know our program um generally those students fit into what we're doing um but maybe that that would be something that that you and I could talk
about at some point too um just resources out there we would love to uh yeah we would love to head it off before it gets bad right and then you got to try to figure out a new environment for them and then can I
build off of that um to build off of community involvement as well um we have started a bike program you want to talk about that I don't want you to forget about the bik program we we do have um people coming in um once a week and students who are
interested get to learn how to fix the different parts of a bicycle so they can be their neighborhood bike guy or um if if one of our students wants to get a job and doesn't want to work fast food when they're 15 and wants to work at Eric's Bike Shop then they have the
skills to do that so that's been really popular um for some of our kids and and a great partnership for which we're trying to bring them in it's just a slow process for us superintendent thank you I'll be very brief I know it's late we have people from our American indion uh parent advisory committee wait waiting
to uh brief but uh to a public comment that uh uh my friend Helen made earlier we don't answer during public comment but also to director white horns we have posted a position to resuscitate our volunteer work um and so you're right it is not robust and that is one of the
things community members could do and so for somebody out there with a passion for uh volunteer work who wants to not just redesign our website but help match people in the community to a place like Middle School ALC that is going to be a key leadership position that we've been lacking in recent years in RPS and so
I'm pleased to say that that is forthcoming and you gave me a chance to sneak it in because we don't respond to public comment so thank you director ml I just have one final thing that I wanted to mention earlier that we talk a lot at the board table about the social and emotional learning
and academic success I love love how you're putting that front and center and focusing on that for all of your staff that that's really important here so thank you thank you everyone congratulations and thanks for the progress and we will be there see you in a year seems like we
do this sooner than that come next week thank you amazing all right item 7.1 is our uh monitoring item pack vote on concurrence um superintendent uh thank
you chair Nathan I know I've seen uh Guthrie capella who's here from our American Union imp advisory committee American uh Amilia Cordell uh and Tucker Quon who are our liaison to that Community I don't know if there are other colleagues I don't see anyone else getting up so um thank you Guthrie for
your leadership and your work and I know you the board has received uh your annual letter and of course we are eager to hear you personally uh highlight the priorities the board will be responding in two meetings forthcoming this tonight
begins the process of hearing from the committee and then the board will be taking up its response in subsequent weeks perfect uh I'll try to be quick because it's too late for coffee um Rochester so I just greeted you all as
uh relatives and friends um I think I can call some of you guys friends hopefully um I'm going to look down and read because one my handwriting is bad uh and two I you know this isn't my normal speech so um I'm here on behalf of the Rochester Public Schools American
Indian parent advisory committee for annual concurrence non-c concurrence letter this is not a Verbatim reading as you all have the copies of the full letter want to save some time uh we are grateful for our efforts of our American Indian staff Allied teachers and the support of the school
board uh we appreciate the progress towards last year's goals we the descendants of the first people of the United States recognize our Central and South American indigenous relatives during this difficult time indigenous people of South and Central America are
important to our school Community as all of our first and second gen immigrants are families and students are work worried about their relatives making it home every day indigenous communities have always supported and honored those who are on the sexuality Continuum we
have students worried about their safety as lgbtq to uh two spirit in the district this community are our brothers sisters nephews and nieces we see you and love you for who you are we appreciate the district's stance on
equity for our students we see all of the RPS students as relatives and appreciate the educational Equity initiatives that help keep those Learners in the classroom and thriving as native Advocates we worry about the future of our school programs that support our most vulnerable
relatives we support all of our school district toos by and support RPS on its current path towards educational Equity we reviewed and discussed the district's progress regarding the areas previously identified and reaffirm these recommendations to continue the positive
support for Native students and their family Partnerships one HR to continue attending American Indian hiring events we ask that the part- Ely aison become a full-tim Le aison guess I forgot to say two three
provide RPS uh American Indian education approved and appropriate professional development to all staff on indigenous ways of learning and being as well as increase expectations for f uh faculty attendance it's good to hear about that uh Surplus budget there support teachers
APAC members and students to attend national uh or attend native educational conferences establish an elders and residents program conduct regular meetings with school board members and APAC to establish and maintain positive relationships in addition to the
initiatives carry over we also recommend support for Native students and families new to the district immediately create support plans in coperation with the liazon Liaisons to ensure cultural responsiveness lastly uh create
transitional plans for Native uh students rising in Sixth and nth grade our Middle School and High School transitions Andi thank you all for your continued leadership for our rer community board members any questions or
comments Dr Marvin first a a comment I really appreciate that although this is about native people that you have made it so inclusive and support all our children so I I appreciate that um Second and this is
just pragmatic um when you mentioned that you want to conduct regular meetings with school board members absolutely and I think I can speak at least on behalf of the community engagement uh committee please let us know when and where how rather than us
telling you well show up at a meeting with than ever please let us know um how we can best have that kind of relationship and communication you don't have to do it right this minute no it it's not a time
for us to respond formally but director Mar Marvin I wanted to say Amelia and will ruing I second and I met today on these issues we we need to put some administrative support behind that effort that we had when Lori Sam was in that job coincidentally a previous member of APAC and so we're going to put
that back in place so we we need to make sure that we're you all are busy they are busy we need to facilitate that and so we're going to provide some support from my office for that um this next year thank you I just have kind of a procedural question um through our Q&A did this
group get our questions or not no we'll be integrating that into dialogue about the response okay any comments board members um I guess the only thing I wanted to add about that is that the question I add I asked talked about the
increasing the 05 to a full I just want you to know that I support that I reminds me back to I think it's the first question I asked at a in a question to the prior superintendent when it was increased from one to 1.5 why aren't we going to two and the
answer was it's going to 1.5 and I was not satisfied with that answer so I'm hoping we have a better answer this time Dr Marlo and I just wanted to thank you for um we don't know what we don't
know and so thank you for uh continuing to keep the uh dialogue flowing this way and my desires that uh our responses uh to uh APAC will you will always feel
that we're responsive to the concerns and not just uh responding because we have to but uh uh legitimately uh showing our hearts and acknowledging that we're hearing what you're saying so thank
you and I appreciate the history and the experience that is at the table Guthrie from known you probably the longest um and then Amelia and her more recent leadership um I I too I'm looking
forward to uh figuring out opportunities not just to meet when APAC is meeting but maybe to see a little bit more of what you're doing in the buildings um that you that you share with us um and and I appreciate the recognition of uh
that it's an ongoing process and that we've made progress but we we still have have places to go and your commitment um as well not only to the students but bringing the voices of the families in through the work on the committee because as we've heard from a few
speakers tonight that is very important for our Student Success so thank you Dr White hor and I would be remiss if I didn't say that I do hope that we can move this also in into the community um more as well um I think that this this
the children could really benefit you know um from seeing our faces just not at these board meetings but actually seeing us all working together in a community um I think there's a there's a big benefit to that and to Mir what um
that P director Mar um had to say there um I do think that um you know we don't know what we don't know um but I think this is a a fantastic opportunity um for Education um and I would hope that maybe we could also partner with some of the
other grassroot organizations um in our community so that we can help to help you all grow your mission as well all right we will see you again thank you thank you thank you we have a break that would be lovely we have a
request for a recess uh for 5 minutes a recess at 7:53 P.M e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e the board is back in session at 8:03 p.m. um our next agenda item is uh superintendent goals for 20242 midyear progress check but um I understand there might be a motion on
the table i' making motion to move U item 7.2 to our March 4th agenda second so we have a motion in a second um board members we've uh have this motion because we have a number of other things on the agenda tonight and we don't want
a short Change uh this discussion so any other observations or discussion on the motion director work I think it's a great idea okay anything else hearing none all those in favor say I I all those opposed
all right we will move it to our March 4th meeting so that brings us to a prep for action item Long Fellow flexible learning year application and calendar 2025 26 and we are scheduled to take action at the March fourth meeting superintendent the C thank you and that
action the board just took allows me to hand the magic clicker to principal Amy Adams um this could be really challenging not at all you will do great so thank you for waiting this long as board members you know Longfellow is one of our amazing schools in the district
that operates uh on a balanced calendar uh that has kids go to school in a different uh structure than some of our traditional schools and that requires periodic approval from the State Department of Education we are at the point of requesting that approval and it's also a good opportunity just to get
a brief update on how things are going at uh that really wonderful school so um thank you you for hanging out for everything that you do and we will be asking the board to take action to approve submission of this plan uh at subsequent uh
meetings well good evening uh uh chair Nathan Dr pel board members and cabinet members as well my name is Amy Adams I'm the proud principal of Longfellow 4515 Elementary School and we are just thrilled to be here to share part of our
story uh and I'll allow my uh tablemates here and colleagues to introduce themselves well my name is jod fiser I'm the math interventionist at long and I'm Lester bis I'm fifth grade teacher and as Dr Mel mentioned we are here before you to provide a bit of uh
history and information on our school and also mainly because we do follow a flexible learning year calendar with the 4515 and the Minnesota department of education does require that we do reapply every three years for permission to continue on our first step in that
journey is to come to you uh and and let you know how things are going at Longfellow and to also uh ask for your permission to move forward to the Minnesota Department of Education but this time I'd like to turn it over to Lester bis to share a little bit of our journey all right um I have my notes
with me because every time I say I'm going to wing it this little twitch happens in Mrs Adam's eyes and it's not best tonight so um Longfellow has a long and proud history of operating on the 4515 calendar uh 31 or 32 years ago uh
the school was looking for a better way to serve its Community we saw a definite need in our community uh based on the population and the fact that they were experiencing a summer slide that was worse than what was expected or acceptable after researching options the
school decided to go with the 4515 calendar this gave us freedom to be creative and to use the expertise of our staff to its full extent we initially used americore workers to run an after school program tutoring and also tutoring during our
three-week breaks we were tutoring for seven out of the nine weeks uh break during our um calendar later we went to the summer school model where the funding that was used for summer schools and other schools were now used to help us during our inter sessions uh huge advantage to this was
that we were having long fellow teachers teaching long fellow students and we know the students they know us you can hit the ground running you can meet them exactly where they are are and meet their needs one of the challenges that we're facing with that now is of course the transportation which we understand with
that's something we're working to overcome that challenge to keep the uh numbers of students that we can support and we can help during our intercessions keep that number up we began as a neighborhood School 29 years ago uh on the 4515 calendar after
some time the district turned us into a complete district-wide option School that wasn't the initial intent of our calendar so we came back to the school board and requested permission to have a boundary as well as being an option school and that was graciously granted
to us so now we're working to expand our footprint back into our neighborhood again uh to the students that we feel this calendar will really um work well with the 4515 calendar has proved to be a great success over the years historically our test scores are above
district and state averages we retain staff at an incredible rate uh the families find a way to make it work even though they have students on the traditional calendar and the 4515 calendar they make it work because they love the Longfellow family and they love
the education that their students receive there teachers on the calendar we don't leave uh they'll have to drag me kicking and screaming out of that place um not only because of the calendar itself but because of the people that it attracts um we are very
close-knit and the calendar allows us to be rest Ed and rejuvenated and that makes us better teachers for our students this year we have the great Fortune of welcoming in our Pinewood friends so Pinewood joined us uh on the
traditional calendar one of the greatest benefits for us is a collaboration amongst colleagues we have an opportunity to connect with other colleagues in great at same grade levels and um further collaboration but our students have really enjoyed meeting new friends as well uh the building as you
know is a beautiful new facility we've been so blessed to be there and utilize the the amazing spaces and now um even more students and families and Educators can also have access to this building with us being on the 4515 calendar and Pinewood on the traditional calendar the
building really has an even flow throughout the entire calendar year so I really think it's a great benefit that we're able to utilize that space throughout the entire year we also H Boys and Girls Club out of our this building and Sack as well and we're having more and more community
events that are housed in this beautiful facility one of my greatest celebrations is in January we had school in Pinewood was off and the long fellow students in the lunchroom were really sad because their Pinewood friends weren't there that day so it really is a testament to the bonds that the students are um able
to form and the friendships that they've been able to build with their Pinewood friends as I mentioned uh the Minnesota department of education does require that we reapply to uh the state every 3 years to um gain per permission to continue on this flexible learning year
and there's several different components that are involved in this application uh first and foremost it talks about the rationale why do you want to follow this calendar and again it's to improve instructional quality but I would also argue that um it it has great benefits for students learning greater retention
and as uh Lester mentioned we have a really strong Community because we're not away from each other for all that long at one point in time our students do have access to intercession uh programming it is changed over the years currently we are offering uh academic intervention for students in grades two
through five a and some care for those students as well in years past we have had access to some funding sources that provided wraparound care for our students before and after that academic intervention we're looking at creative ways that we can bring back some of those opportunities um with Community
Partnerships and some other funding sources to provide that care during our 3-we breaks our students continue to have access to uh lunch and breakfast during those uh breaks as well and that's a piece to that application that we do need to address as well they want
to make sure that students are connected and have access to their resources whether they're in session or they're out of session because our breaks do fall at a different time than the rest of our community uh they do require a uh public forums and stakeholder feedback which has been incredibly invaluable for
our team one it provides um celebrations that our families are able to share with us but also it provides uh great information that we can learn and grow from as a learning community of ways that we can strengthen the 4515 calendar and our Learning Community as well part
of our process tonight is also to take a look at our calendar for the 2025 26 school year as well and uh the mde does require that we uh submit three years of calendars to show when our start date and end date would be and so I've
collaborated with Carl bachan and with other cabinet members to design the calendar and that too is part of uh the process uh with our application that we hope to put forth to all of you and uh for the approval as
well um I'd like to share a few celebrations from Longfellow um the Panorama survey data that was collected from our third through fifth graders in the fall of 2024 indicated that our students have a positive perception of our school climate a higher sense of belonging and they feel safe at school
um long fellow students have a higher rate of attendance 79.2% attend school more than 90% of the time 58.5% of our Long Fellow third through fifth graders met or exceeded grade level expectations in math and 47.8% met or exceeded grade
level expectations in reading 69.7% of Longfellow um ml students made progress toward their target and we feel um proud of the fact that those are above the state and District averages part of the stakeholder feedback that I mentioned before with
every um calendar and program there are some obstacles or uh problems to be worked through and solved so we really appreciated that feedback we did it in multiple different ways we did send out surveys to families uh also during our conference time with our bilingual
Specialists we were also able to survey families with uh their native language to find uh their feedback and input as well of what's working for them and what are some obstacles we need to work through one of the challenges that was mentioned was transport that has changed
in in the Years So currently 30% of rans live in our direct attendance boundary and Longfellow does have an attendance boundary so if they live in the area they're assigned to Longfellow unless they would prefer to follow the traditional calendar they just need to let us know we can accommodate that gratefully we're in the same building so
we still uh have the opportunity to serve that family whether they choose the traditional or the balance calendar so families have um in from the Greater Rochester area might access the Hub busing opportunities that are throughout Rochester but many do self transport in
that 70% we've seen a lot of car pooling with families that have um attended Long Fellow had Transportation before but what they shared was they really wanted to stay with us and we're going to do whatever it took to stay because they really appreciate the relationships that they've built uh the high expectations
academically and also uh for how they are uh working within the community as well in years past childcare has been a bit of a struggle for some families almost three week breaks and we're proud to share that um we've partnered with the boys and girls tuub to really uh
strengthen and offer and expand their uh programming right at Longfellow so they currently are providing uh programming for 70 students right on site and then during the three-week breaks they do have opportunities for families to attend during the 9 to5 UM school time
now that it's earlier it's um from 8 to 5 they did open up earlier for our families as well zc also has expanded their program so we're really grateful for the efforts of the district to expand Staffing for Sac as well that's provided greater opportunities for families to have access to uh Child Care
drainers breaks too we see great benefits from the balance calendar as uh Lester mentioned that many people leave once they join this is my sixth year on the calendar and it is amazing to me uh the benefits that uh both our students staff and
amili share with uh with us so we have termed ourselves what we're going to call an innovation lab since we started in July we are oftentimes the first to begin and Pioneer different efforts within the district so as I heard we heard a lot about wit and wisdom tonight we two are thoroughly enjoying this
program and it's just amazing what we're seeing from our students and uh volunteers have also come in to share with me when they're in the classroom it's just incredible to work uh but our teachers took the charge to start in July with wit and wisdom and we were grateful that we were able to part partner with um Mona and Heather too to
share reflections of what was going well with wh wisdom and maybe some pieces we hadn't really thought about too uh with our staff they're very open uh and excited to learn and share those lessons as well uh with the cabinet members and District leadership so we can work together uh for the rest of our
colleagues that start in late August uh we talk about um that balance word and it's uh really through and through for staff and students our students do have summer some people don't always know that but they do have summer it is shorten so it's six weeks and so we really feel like there's a greater
retention of skill with that shorter summer the breaks are never too long and what I see from students coming in in July is they haven't forgotten how to do school it's kind of like they jump right back in and they're ready to roll and the teaching staff as well the procedures um are already in place so we can get down to the great learning that
takes place our staff also have shared that they have opportunities um to access professional development when we're on break uh often times I hear of our staff members going out and visiting other classrooms even within the district on the traditional calendar that are in session when we're on break so they have an opportunity to
collaborate with other staff throughout the district to um and vice versa as well we will uh receive calls for folks to come on over in July and August to see how is Wht wisdom even starting for you what are your uh boards look like in the and your room setup and uh just gather uh information and advice from
them as well so we feel like it's an awesome opportunity for our staff our students and our families as well next steps we uh hope to uh obtain approval from the school board then we would move forward with uh if so we would move forward to uh submitting it
to the Minnesota Department of Education they do ask that we provide a progress report each August to the Minnesota Department of Education and we really appreciate that it's a time to reflect uh celebrate and then set goals too for our staff and our students so again all
of our goals that we provide to mde to just build on that skip process too it's we really put that at the heart of our work with our students and with our families and so it's a wonderful way for us to combine that skip process with the application that we had the opportunity to submit to the Minnesota Department of
Education thank you board members questions or comments nobody well what can I or you want to go you go first you go well I just want to say that what Longfellow did to welcome Pinewood I think was
extraordinary and from all the feedback that I've heard and being and visiting the building I mean it was the community that you've really built intentionally both coming from both ways um was was really really great and I'm
awfully glad to see that the Pinewood name is on the building now um in case anybody was had asked us for that it is officially on the building I saw it in the picture um when uh you encounter
families what do you have a sense of what family's biggest obstacle or concern is about the 4515 calendar and is there anything we can do in our district Communications to help dispel that you said one of the things was oh
they get no summer vacation they do they get six as opposed to the nine but anything no I I honestly feel like a lot of the conversations I have with families that might be hesitant to try is just that they've never tried it before it's so forign to those uh that
live in Minnesota we've been on that traditional calendar we had a family um that came to tour this year and they forgive me I'm going to draw a blank at the country that they joined us from but all of their schools follow a 4515 calendar and they were so excited that
we had that opportunity so I do think it's just a change of mindset that it can operate on a different way in a different mode um the the next two would be transportation and then the child care and I think that we've our you know with our Community Partners we've been able to remedy that really offer some
great programming too um and and I would say lastly but not least once you have siblings that then go on to middle school if they're on a traditional calendar and the younger student is on the um balance calendar it can create a little bit of a hiccup for families to operate um but we have lots of families
that have done it and it really hasn't been that difficult in fact it's kind of nice for one child not to be around the other one for a little bit so it's kind of a nice break um and back to your point about Pinewood I have to say too I am just incredibly grateful for Heidi how the principal and leader of pinewood
it's been such a blessing to have um a partner to work through and the Pinewood Community too was so welcoming and you know to collaborate and connect with us so we welcomed them when they came and then we went on on fall break and then when we came back welcome back so it was
really really cool to see that reciprocity um and we're we're planning more and more family events for All Families to get together and that too has continued to um just grow that positivity and that great relationship amongst each other Dr White um so I do just have two
questions uh one um in your application process there's a line that says there's one week of additional academic instruction uh for a percentage of the grades so can you just elaborate like what what is that what do you mean by that yeah and then my second question is
how is enrollment um for Long Fellow because I'm I'm hearing that we are trying to encourage maybe families to attend are you guys seeing a decrease in enrollment um is there an ask or is there something that community members or we can do to to continue to help the
school through I can address a couple of the pieces there that's a great question um we look at students for intercession programming that have the greatest need um in terms of academic intervention and um we have done a lot of partnering with Community Partners on uh
community-based um technical skills that they can learn and grow from as well so it's really under teacher discretion and it comes down to funding too um we really need to look at our funding and how many students were able to service during that time I would say too another piece that we really are thoughtful
about now is space during intercession now that we share building we have around 640 stud total which is amazing but it is less space for us to utilize during this intersection we used to have the gym and other common spaces too um and so that's another factor that we
need to bring into play in considering how many students we can service during that time um and then I would see you know the um enrollment we have lost a few students and that and primarily they shared with us that it was because of the transportation they may have had busing and came from um a broader area
in the city but now uh that they don't have access to the broader Transportation it was just too challenging for them coupled with the new start times it was really hard for them to get down to school um by the time that we started and I will say also that I've had
some families that I taught in the past that now have kids in school um and they live in the neighborhood and the new location is not as Walker friendly as the old location was uh to cross Maran Road it is much more difficult for some
of the uh people that we used to serve and you said that so the intercession piece that's just something that's um unique to the 45 correct okay and it's kind of at your discretion there's not a set number just so many
kids have to do a addition yeah we we send out invitations and then families can opt in or they can say they're not able to make it or they're not interested and so um it it's we try to invite at least 60 students to see how many we can get and then you know we'll
see how we can attend during that and I and I don't want to harp on it but but what is the what is the reasoning for behind that right so added the academic intervention you know I will say that our students also have access to the summer programming that happens in June and July too which is wonderful so this
intercession is actually above and beyond even the summer program and in the regular calendar too so um you know years back when it started it was all day so it was academic intervention and then it was afternoon activities as well the funding sources have changed Through
The Years there hasn't been as much access to it um but it was a really strong um opportunity back then for more students to be there even on the breaks for the full three weeks for the full day too which was one of the reasons we went to 4515 because those breaks gave us that flexibility to work with some of
those students I think it it may be helpful director wart the the state requires us to offer it um similar to the way we are required to offer a summer school for for Traditional School so all kids don't
have to attend summer school but we have to offer it we're pleased to offer it and so this is the similar requirement for the schools there's only four schools left in Minnesota right now that have the 4515 calendar um and so those schools are required to um offer
intercession programming just as we for the traditional schools offer also is it one week after each session filling the Gap okay okay all right yeah thank you I didn't didn't understand thank you I I do think it's this is a this is
the quintessential can of worms but we're not going to get into it tonight I do think it's important for board members to know that I would not be first of all I'm I'm thrilled about what's happening at Longfellow I personally like the 4515 Model A lot I I actually would have
struggled with recommending that you submit approval for the calendar again were I not confident that we need to take a deep look at our transportation system as part of the next strategic plan that is as we've all learned incredibly
complex challenging but when you have 70% of the families self- transporting to Long Fellow and and other schools um we had to cut the district white option transportation to get to the new start times there was no alternative we would
still be at 925 if we hadn't done it this school and others paid a price for that those families had an impact it was unavoidable I don't believe we've gotten to the new system that sets Longfellow and other schools up to director white
Horn's question with an adequate enrollment opportunity to to maintain viable enrollment now what will that look like I have ideas but that will be a major effort that I would be asking you to approve as part of a new strategic plan in the interim you're
doing great work in the interim I think this program should continue 3 years from now I think this school would be really struggling if we don't look at the transportation and it's not just for longf and the other District white option schools it actually is for all of our schools to be sure that all of our
schools uh have a coste effective but broad way to in to recruit and retain a diverse uh and sufficient student body to fund their programs so that's a down payment on a very very big discussion but if I didn't believe we needed to do
that and I'm if I wasn't confident that we can find a new structure I candidly would probably say I don't think we can recommend sustaining this I do think we can create the context in which a program like this can succeed but we have some heavy lifting to do to make
that uh viable for the longer term so thank you for letting me give a preview of coming attractions there Dr MCL um I'm not sure that we covered the question earlier that sort of relates to that in the sense that I kind of think back when I was looking at options with
a kindergartener that in terms of the communicating about how the intercessions work that I was a working parent and I looked at that I'm like what do I do about that and I couldn't get past that so I think it's that communication piece about how I and that
was you know years ago now that I think it sounds like it's so much better but that communication of how working parents can integrate that into their thoughts when they're making those choices um I think there's so many benefits of this with the retention but I just couldn't get over the I can't
take that much time off during the middle of the year um so I think that's I think that's that that piece I think I think you're doing great work with it but if there's more ways to communicate that the better and it yeah yeah thank
you all right we'll be back for an action item on this in March 4th thank you very much thank you our next agenda item is uh prep for Action as well scheduled to take action on this item at the March 4th meeting the boys volleyball Cooperative
superintendent Pau thank you I invite Dan christoffer who's our activities director at Mayo high school and Dan is in some ways speaking for his colleagues at uh century and John Marshall um very importantly board members um we are asking you tonight to uh learn about and
consider approving a Cooperative agreement in a new sport across our high schools we are actually not asking you to authorize the launch of this new sport that is actually in my uh Authority as superintendent per State High School league rules and I've
already told the activities director that I think we ought to Pilot boys volleyball as you'll hear about in a moment it has opened some doors uh to a lot of young men who don't necessarily already participate in other sports and we have some interest um of course I would keep you fully apprised of how
well that is going and things like that um but we do need your approval to um submit the Cooperative agreement that we believe is essential to make this work because we do not have an adequate number we think at least in the early years of boys to F A team in any
individual high school so uh we're asking you to consider approving the co-op I am sufficiently uh impressed by the data and information that Dan and his colleagues have pulled together to give a green light to launching a
three-year trial of this sport to see if we do have the level of student interest that we think we'll have so thanks Dan and uh look forward to getting the update for the board awesome uh thanks for having me um you okay uh so purpose obviously uh
this meeting is to seek approval for the co-op between uh Mayo John Marshall and Century um the co-op would be between these three schools only um it will be identified uh by the Minnesota State High School league as Rochester Mayo
John Marshall and Century uh we believe in uh in doing this uh provides new opportunities for student engagement Fosters a sense of school spirit and Community uh supports both the physical and Social Development of our
students offering a positive outlet for their energy uh Foster positive mental health teamwork and Leadership uh this is a graph on the growth of boys volleyball uh within the state uh this was Data pulled from the
uh uh Club participation and what was presented to the Minnesota State High School league uh to make boys volleyball a sanctioned sport you can see uh from 2018 right around 400 uh boys
participating uh to 2023 um almost 2000 and this leads us to kind of our projected numbers uh for boys volleyball uh approximately about 44 boys um uh in the club scene Mayo had a team
and then John Marshall Sentry and uh some of the surrounding communities um had a club team uh these are anticipated numbers um you know that we got from obviously that club level uh we do not really have accurate numbers for the
seventh eth um and ninth grade um students uh because they weren't uh as involved at that time yet with the club scene uh we anticipate obviously these numbers that continue to grow um one of the questions that you know was provided
uh by the board uh was you know how many um do we need to obviously if those 13 seniors excuse me uh graduate um what do we have to to keep it afloat uh JV Varsity you know like we we'd love to
have 12 to 15 per team um as an average or higher uh but we can uh operate even down to about that 10 to 12 uh per team um as needed uh the goal of this off uh as well as to look to Foster the growth
uh to all three schools okay uh the budget costs um for RPS and and our our our booster clubs uh the cost will come from existing budget um from the from the three high schools uh coaches salaries uh approximately
10,000 to 12,000 uh officials right around 2,300 uh casual workers uh around 1750 uh transportation is right around 8,000 equipment 800 uh the the nice
thing with equipment um we can utilize a lot with with what we uh use with the the girls uh Team um the balls are different so obviously that would be one of the costs uh jerseys about $1,000
entry Fe fees around 600 our year one intentions with this is we're getting started late with this um having less overall games approximately 11 to 12 uh as well as two invites um a number of contests
allowed for boys volley is going to be right around that for is going to be 14 plus three invites so we'll go a little bit less with that as well as securing more home games which as previous presentations have said uh you know transportation's an issue um as well as
Transportation costs uh for our budget so this would obviously keep um keep those costs down um kind of going into a little bit more the finance piece which was another question provided um year one costs obviously being down this is a low
operating budget sport um Mr Andy crad uh provided a statement as well that i' like to read I think you guys were uh provided as well but uh the budget assumes all expenditures will be paid for by the
district it includes $1,815 of estimated revenue from participation fees and gate admissions uh expenses are estimated at 28 835 primarily from coaches salaries which is about
14,400 and transportation at 8,000 uh fundraising by a booster club would be used to offset a portion of the currently estimated year one subsidy of $16,200 the district will need to cover
any remaining program loss from activities budgets um one of the you response to part of your other Finance question uh all other activities you know will be funded as normal and and nothing will be under
underfunded uh incoming in excuse me income and fundraising uh Sports fees are uh we increase the fee a little bit with this to 225 uh the spring Sports average is about 2115 which is what uh you know we have for our track and field
athletes Gates uh $800 an event um this is probably a lower estimate uh girls volleyball uh averaged right around 1,200 for us uh this will help obviously cover the cost of the officials casual workers and
and coaches salaries uh the booster club and team fundraising um approximately about $110,000 this is the anticipation that that they feel that they would need for an operating budget uh to help support the support um these funds will help pay for
some of the transportation uh entry fees equipment and jerseys uh for giving uh donation site business donations team fundraisers are all ways to um generate um funds and um going into kind of uh the
conditions document that um was provided to you guys as well um um this as um Dr pel uh alluded to this is a a three-year trial that we're looking at with with boys volleyball um this is a new
approach with with with new sports being added uh we want them to show the growth the sustainabil sustainability and financial stability um help share some of the costs as a as a startup uh most most importantly kind of the that
Transportation part um other costs that they're responsible for um are the same for all the other programs which is going to be the jerseys equipment fees and entry fees um this is consistent with other programs um that we've started previously um with lacrosse
Alpine Ski uh we'll have an evaluation at year three to see what the growth is um of that new sport uh the approval process um uh by our superintendent it um obviously by you as the school board and then
approval by the uh big n conference and region 1A um due to our time uh constraints with um the start of the Season uh March 17th um we have secured uh pre-approvals
uh from the Big N conference and region one8 um already uh the Minnesota State High School league uh requires a a 30 a window uh before to to um approve co-ops um I have already reached out and
we do have an extension with that um right now uh they have given preliminary approval obviously dependent on our our school board approval um in conclusion uh excited uh we're offering boys volleyball it's a
growing sport uh in Minnesota and we're we're excited to see kind of where this takes off uh and we request your sport for uh Co-op uh as we uh provide a successful entry of the sport uh into our district thank
you Dr Marvin two questions um first would the Rochester team be playing only big nine teams I mean it looks like there's a whole lot of teams in Minnesota but are there how many of the big nine schools have a boys volleyball
team two so where would their other um so it be ourselves in in Austin currently um like I said this is going to continue to grow within the region um so we um so I've worked on trying to obviously secure uh games already um so
we're playing some of the city teams I have secured more uh home games this year than what we normally would like I said to kind of keep costs down uh so for example we're going to play like new pra uh we're going to have a farm our
invites are going to be in Farmington and Lakeville um we have like Minnesota uh Minneapolis Roosevelt coming down uh we we're going to play Southwest Christian um so a lot of the the the metro schools um will were primarily uh the sport has
really taken off okay thanks for that and the second question is um it's going to depend a little bit on booster clubs helping with the money there's there's an imbalance in the number of students who are interested in this and by the way I think extracurricular is great and
this is sort of a non-violent one so I love that but it's there's an imbalance in the number of students who've shown an interest at the three high schools will each booster club expect to come up with about the same amount as the other two um no So currently right now we
don't have a booster club formed yet with the boys volleyball that's something that we're going to continue to grow um um right now it's going to be them them raising that money as a as a group with all three teams um but the potential and uh long-term solution I
think would be is that we will help you know Foster those numbers at all three schools um the ultimate goal would be obviously to have uh programs at all three schools thank you Dr Cook am I correct that uh that
now is the time to begin enrolling for since this is a Spring sport correct we began registration on Monday and so obviously I've had to hold off on that until um school board approval um as so there's a lot of working things I've
got to obviously make the schedule uh public um work on busing and transportation stuff and so there's a lot of things moving Parts uh that obviously we'll be waiting on until you know obviously this is approv yeah because March 17th is gonna come up
quick so that's exciting the um the only thing I was wondering about this is whether there is anything in particular that we sh should or maybe already have uh considered regarding Title 9 and the um the need to provide
equal opportunities between different gender specific Sports and whether there's anything to share about that I'm just not sure yeah yeah and we we certainly have looked into that and um there currently is 13 male Sports offered and we have 15 female sports
offered oh I see okay okay Dr Barlo uh so You' mentioned that uh the 44 individuals uh currently are part of
Club teams correct okay and so are they going to drop out of their clubs and uh enroll in the uh RPS uh School offerings yeah so we currently will not so male High School
um moved from the club scene to um transitioning into um the the first year of uh sanction sport with the Minnesota State High School league so there's no longer a club option at for the male high school
team and will the um where are all the home games be played uh so the home games will be at M high school and our practice is going to be uh currently is going to be out at the National Volleyball
Center so all proceeds will be shared equally and correct contributing toward the success and longevity of the uh volleyball program and then in terms of recruitment or advertisement as to uh
the this new program how are you envisioning letting the word be made known uh so I guess we you word that as far as advertisement for how how will students
know I mean superintendent I think a new opportunity for students who perhaps have not been otherwise involved or engaged I would venture to say that probably Maj the majority of potential volleyball players are probably participating in other sports
have uh there may be some new ones that will uh certainly uh you know this may uh be what they're looking for I'm just curious as to how we will ensure that there's good
representation yeah definitely um so I think obviously social media is a good way to to share the word um Flyers uh obviously um them coming to games um you know us being able to post about it I I
think there's an excitement already within the the three different schools about uh boys volleyball um not only from uh the ones that participated in the club scene but others that want to give it an opportunity and a try um so I think the word is already kind of been
spreading already in our three schools um so and we all know like word of mouth is probably one of the best ways to to advertise right and um I think that's that's already happening and then my final question deals with the uh fee um
do you think uh I think 215 is uh spring the going rate for uh spring sports right correct uh and you're proposed not you but uh it's being proposed that 225 be the
participation fee for uh student athletes who choose to uh come out for volleyball will that potentially cost us to maybe miss a few or will potential scholarship opportunities still be made available
even though this is kind of stretching current uh uh budgets yeah so the scholarship opportunities will exist just like it does for all of our Sports um so those those individuals will obviously still have that
opportunity um we had the price at a little bit higher just because it is a startup uh we actually started uh with a much higher entry fee but then um have have brought it down uh just because we
felt that exactly um you know enticing uh individuals to be able to come down thanks we thought that was a good price point uh to start with Dr white horn um so given the issues that we are currently having with Transportation um
I was going to ask a very similar question to director Barlo uh what what is the plan for that is you you will have um students at JM or students at Mayo uh given our the strains we're already having with
Transportation um and not to say that we but there's not a lot of kids to say that we're you know how what what is the plan behind that because it it seems difficult to be able to say it's all inclusive um when you know we have you
know it kind of excludes kids that aren't able to get all the way across town to male high school after school you know from Century or from JM or to game or from Mayo to Century for for practice you know is there a do you have
a a plan or a tenative plan either through coaches or like how how how do you attend to address that because that will directly impact whether or not kids can participate if they if they can't get there it doesn't matter if they
want right yeah y um okay goad I'll start um so as far as games uh are concerned we would um continue to do as we do with all of our other co-ops so for example if um we with our our middle
school kids that that join so our the bus would have multiple stops uh to to pick up those individuals um as far as with the within the practice scene that it wouldn't be at M High School it would be at the the volleyball center um we
we had it there as far as so it would be a a space that you know we we'd have more room and more availability there um we haven't come up with exactly and that's a great question as far as um
those individuals that may not be able to attend because of um transportation well and the games maybe I'm sorry the games may be more accessible but my concern is the kids will need to be at practice in order to be in the games you know I'm sure parents and sometimes find
a way to get their kids to game but we're talking about three or five times a week practice that becomes unmanageable you know than trying to get just an Uber over to the game you know if there's not a way for these kids to get you know from John Marshall all the
way to Century or from Mayo all the way to cury um Dr W the goal would be to grow grow teams at all three schools and we just have to start somewhere and so if we don't start with a C up we won't be able to get a State High School league sanction team so you're
absolutely right it will not be uh fully accessible in the way we would all like but one would hope that if it catches on we actually can grow the sport so it's in all three of the schools um there's where we to try and start busing kids to
practice for our co-ops which we have others it would be a uh unsustainable expense and we probably couldn't get the drivers either so this is a beginning and one would hope that we could grow it so that it could be at JM could be at Sentry could be at Mayo potentially if
it catches on and not a not to start a firestorm but what what does the what does the diversity or what does that look like in our pre in our other in our other co-ops and I'm I'm asking this nicely you know
but you know I I get the the point of us saying that it it needs to grow but my concern is that if we start anything that becomes for lack of better words elitist because we we only have certain kids that are
able to get there how how do we plan to diversify it later on because you know diversity wasn't um considered at the onset right because we we already know that we are being exclusory by the way
the setup is so I mean we we're all being honest here that we already know that there are young men that may want to participate who will not be able to who participate so it's already set up um in an exclusory form and I and I understand we have to start it somewhere
but uh I think there is trouble in trying to say we're going from this exclusive you know situation and now we want to um diversify you know so I I just think it's something we need to give thought to even when we're beginning things because we don't want
those stigmas attached to certain groups or certain Sports because they start off um in that in that way if I'm making sense yeah I I would um uh state with that that you know we had a projected a
little over 40% diversity uh within our our Rochester teams already and they were already competing on a club level which was all over and so they had to make those Transportation needs and they had to you know so they're already doing it you
know I just want to make sure we're creating I appreciate the point we'll be we'll be attentive to that over time Dr M would it be procedurally proper and helpful if we move this to action tonight are you reading my mind you know I'm a Tickler about prep for action and
action but if that is a desire of the board we can always have a motion to put the resolution on the table I would make that motion and make it clear that it's about the Cooperative agreement that that's what I can read the resolution for you if you'd like be
it resolved that the school board of Independent School District 535 does hereby approve a co-op agreement between Century John Marshall and Mayo high school for boys volleyball commencing in March 2025 through the end of spring season 2027 so do I hear you'd like to move
that to action so moved we have a second second second we have any discussion director burlo uh yes and Dan correct me if I'm if I am wrong I thought you'd
communicated to us that you've been in communication with mshsl Mota School High School league uh and they are aware of our schedule corre and that they were good with that and
have tentatively said you're good or we're good right correct y so I reached out to them to say you know obviously that we're underneath that that 30-day window and that um I had it on the docket to
obviously present to you guys tonight um and that we had provisionary uh status right now and then they said uh depending on school board approval your work yeah I I've been
thinking about this um so will the three schools split the cost evenly even though there are quite a few more one high school than another yes so we and I'll work with our our finance department with this um whether we do it
a third a thirdd a third or if we do it um you know within our our overall District dollars that we we share um yes it would be uh split up equal between the three and this the follow-up question to that is if there is less
funding than you are and anticipating raising can the schools actually make up that difference correct they can y okay um Mr Kad in our group looked looked at
that and um we would be able to um if obviously we want the the booster club or the them to fund raise and be able to help support uh but we would be able to um make that that necessary um funds and
then the third question I have is is this generally an expectation amongst sports that they have a a a fundraising group to offset costs correct okay yeah all of our teams um have a school board or excuse me School Board sorry have a
um have a uh a group either within their fundraising which they put into their their 10 account um or they they have a um a booster club that they they were through with that which is primarily
more for their jerseys their entry fees um sometimes helping with some of the transportation and as well as equipment so it's kind of the same what we're asking with with viable M um and I make the motion primarily it's I understood it right is
that registration has opened for other spring Sports and and I want to give these students the best opportunity to be prepared to um start playing as as soon as they can thank you I appreciate it any other questions or comments board
members hearing none all those in favor of the resolution say I I opposed I abstain Dr Marvin abstains resolution passes thank you thank you also Madam chair I want to thank Deb
Frederick who's back there one who's our girl girls volleyball coach thank you uh we know you'll be a key part of making this happen that's good to hear yes all right our next item is an action item Schoolboard compensation for fiscal
year 26 this is I will read the resolution ask for a motion and second and if received we'll open the floor for additional information and discussion be it resolved the school board of Independent School District 535 sets its compensation at $16,000 for fiscal year 2026 with an additional statement of
$1,600 for the board chair move approval second has been moved and seconded any discussion I will remind board members that we've talked about this um January 7th and January 25th and that this resolution reflects no change or
increase in the current board compensation amount any other discussion hearing none all those in favor say I I I opposed the resolution has been approved uh item 9.1 other business the
ABCD is currently available um for reference for our future Schoolboard meeting agendas are there any items board members would like to raise for consideration for a future meeting agenda hearing n our upcoming board meeting dates are March 4th at 5:30 p.m.
March 18th at 5:30 p.m. both are regular meetings and hearing no other business this meeting is adjourned at 8:59 p.m. got it before thank you Karen I I thought about for