[Music] good evening and welcome to the February 10th regular Schoolboard meeting at this
time I'd invite everyone to please stand if you're able and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance after the Pledge of Allegiance please remain standing for a brief moment of silence I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible withy and justice for all at this time time I would like
us to share a brief moment of silence for Randy Bachman a campus security officer at Rosemont High School who passed away on January 26th thank you all
right before we get started with our formal board meeting every once in a while not too often we get to do some very um amazing and special things to start at the board meeting and today that is including swearing in our two new board members um that were appointed to the board about 45 days ago and after day 30 of being appointment they officially members of the board so this is our first official regular
Schoolboard meeting so before we get started with approving the agenda we're actually going to do your swearing in so at this point time I'd like to invite Robin and Katherine to please stand and any family members that are in the audience for either Robin or Katherine I'd like to invite you to the front to stand with them awesome all right so um Katherine and Robin you have the oath in front of you
but I'll um just repeat after me as I lead you through it I state your name cther having been elected to the office of the school board for independent school district 196 having been elected to the office of the school board for independent school district 196 do hereby swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and of the state of Minnesota do hereby swear that I will
support the Constitution United States and and that I will discharge Faithfully the duties of the office of Schoolboard member to the best of my judgment and ability and that I will discharge Faithfully the duties of the office of school m to the best of my judgment [Applause] congratulations all right before your family members sit down we're going to take a brief pause for our photographer to
get some candid photos of you for the newsletter [Laughter] so after the meeting yes all right excellent congratulations again to both both of you we are
very happy to have you on the school board and now that you are officially sworn in and have taken your oath of office well now we can actually go in and approve the agenda so at this time um there are no additions or deletions to the agenda um is there a motion to approve the agenda as outlined so moved second motion by Robin and a second by Leah I believe correct all those in favor of approving
the agenda say I I those opposed motion carries on a 5 Z vote um next on the agenda is our just as fun part of the agenda it's our recognition portion of the agenda um so I would love to start by welcoming Chris McDonald the head debate coach at Egan High School to the podium to introduce us to the members of the EHS debate team we did great harm just walked in the door he was at a math competition so we had to get him over
here so that was great um and this is excellent I get to break in a couple of new board members for my entertainment when I come and uh present to the board so that's cool one of the things that you'll find I believe that uh Mr bosone has set them at your desk is is that each of you uh that work in the district office and the school board I brought a commemorative pen this is our 30th year of running the Minnesota debate teachers association's JV and novice state championship which is a little bit different than
the Minnesota State High School league one which is the one we're going to talk about tonight and honor the students from Egan High School who did really really well but we created that tournament 30 years ago so that our younger newer Debaters had a Capstone event at the end of the season that they could then celebrate and have the same sort of experience that the high school league provides for our varsity members when they go to the state championships so all right I want to first start out by thanking superintendent
Michael boson chairperson Carrie John Corey Johnson and the other members of The District 186 school board for inviting us here tonight to recognize the Egan high school debate program success at the 2025 Minnesota State High School league State debate tournament so I'm going to have all of my my students come on up here all right normally when I come here I come here with like a student or two students you know because if you do really really well you know you've got that one
or two students who do exceptionally well oh tonight's a treat for those new board members you get to actually meet a large part of my team but not really because this season this is my seven Debaters that are here are seven of 147 that competed in debate throughout the season yes 147 Debaters so it is really cool is once again an honor and a privilege to be before you to recognize the outstanding students vegan high school that
I have the privilege of coaching in in Scholastic debate debate teaches students critical thinking research as well as analysis and synthesis of evidence as they compete against students from schools throughout not only Minnesota but the nation most debate teams specialize in one or two formats of debate when I started the program at Ean high school we were going to do when I came to the program at Egan High School my objective was is that no student would ever be cut that we were
open to all students and we would do every format of debate that the State High School league recognized and as the State High School league added different formats to debate we added different avenues for students each of the formats provides them with their own sort of unique challenges and each student then kind of finds their own Niche within the activity of debate which is really kind of cool right but at Egan high school we participate in all four so there are four particip four debate formats man to get to the state tournament and
to succeed at one of them is exceptional to excel at all four of them at the same state tournament in the same year is really outstanding and that is actually more a testament to their hard work and their dedication and their effort than it is to anything else well it starts with a philosophy of the program that begins at the top of our leadership with Dr rikowski and moves down through the rest of the leadership at Eagan High School it is still a
testament to how hard they are each of them Works while they're debating at Egan High School this year Egan was the only school to place in the top five in each and every one of the formats that the high school league does this was the 1024th annual State High School league State debate tournament it is the oldest and longest running continuous state championship in the state of Minnesota which I always think is cool when I get to say that you know all right I
want to thank the parents some of whom are here tonight here to support their students because without strong parent support there isn't a program there isn't the kind of effort that they can put in without them supporting them getting up early on Saturday mornings to bring them to the school or to bring them to where the tournament is that is a testament to how much they put eort the emphasis they put in on their learning and their development as student I also of course need to
uh thank all of my assistant coaches I'm not going to name them all because that would take me a while I do have a lot of assistant coaches I have some volunteer ones and other ones that are paid but they go above and beyond to help these students to prepare for their competitions each and every weekend finally I have to thank Dr rikowski whose's enduring support of the Arts and our program this year again we saw 147 students participate in running a program of 147 students is not for the faint
of heart okay all right these seven students represent the best of our program and I send out my heart filled thanks to each of them for all that they do to not only represent our program with their strong performances but also all of the help that they give to the upcoming students of our program the key to doing really really well is to have these students giving back constantly and teaching and showing them and being the kind of role models and leaders that are necessary for the program to continue its sustained success so tonight
we recognize in Congressional debate which is a format where students compete in a legislative Forum debating a myriad of topics throughout the season in the form of bills and resolutions topics this year at the state tournament range from a bill to ban mandatory minimum sentences to a bill to ban offshore drilling for fossil fuels tonight we recognize the fifth place finisher in the final round nibha kashf I think we'll do
this we'll wait yeah we we'll do it as one group I'll recognize each of you okay sorry I should have informed them we all this it's all good I get used to just doing these things okay and our third place finisher s VAP in Lincoln Douglas debate a format where students explore and debate philosophical as well as pragmatic problems that face not not only our
nation but our world the topic that was debated at the state tournament involved the examination of whether or not the US ought to become party to the international criminal court or the law of the sea treaty representing us tonight with his excellent performance at the state tournament State semi-finalist Alex [Applause] Wong in public forum debate a format where students examine very specific topics and debate the pros and cons
of that topic at State these students debated the pros and cons of whether the African Union should recognize Somali land as an independent state representing us excellently at the state tournament with their semi-final finish Hyer SAA and Shan [Applause] Jenna finally in policy debate the oldest and longest running format of debate students go in depth in a single topic each year examining the topic from
both a pragmatic perspective as well as a philosophical one this year our students debated whether or not the federal government should significantly strengthen its protection of domestic intellectual property rights in copyrights patents and or trademarks this year's 2025 Minnesota State High School league champions in policy debate Tristan WN and parum Tucker I introduce to you
my Champions to the board so now now you get amazing congratulations conratulations a couple months congratulations great J congratulations job congratulations congratulations well done as always thank
amazing uh next our recognitions continue I'd like to welcome Jeremy saorin and our director of Elementary of Education to the podium to introduce principles from Echo Park Elementary School and Glacier Hills Elementary School
all right good evening chair Johnson members of the board and superintendent Bon it's my pleasure to introduce Logan Schultz of Echo Park Elementary and Adriana Henderson of Glacier Hills Elementary whose schools have been honored with the top Magnet School of Excellence award this National recognition reflects their outstanding leadership dedication to academic excellence and commitment to
providing Innovative highquality education opportunities for all students both Echo Park and Glacier Hills Elementary have exemplified magnet programming in fostering student achievement diversity and Community educa engagement please join me in congratulating them on this well-deserved honor and then each of them will talk a little bit thank you director sson uh cheers person Johnson superintendent Bon members of the school board good evening
I'm Logan Schultz the proud principal of Echo Park Elementary School of leadership engineering and Technology I'm proud to stand before you as the principal of Echo Park where we've recently received the award that director senson shared we are one of only 33 elementary schools Nationwide to earn this recognition and we are especially proud that our recognition did not end there we are one of only a handful and we think the only school in Minnesota to be selected for an on-site visit from Magnet School schools of America that happened last Monday this
means that of those schools that received a top School of Excellence award our application Rose to the top and placed Us in the running for the top K through2 and top Elementary Magnet School in the entire country so we will find out on April 10th if we hit that huge topof thtop recognition an incredible achievement that reflects the hard work dedication and passion of our students staff and our school Community but this recognition is about much more than just our magnet themes it's
about the success we've had in closing achievement gaps and increasing student achievements for example over the past four years our reading and math proficiency has increased double digits with an almost 20% overall increase in math this increase includes significant double-digit closures in the achievement gap between certain demographic groups Beyond academics our commitment to closing achievement and opportunity gaps extends into the community we host most monthly Open Door food pantries we
also visit high density housing communities in August to ensure all students are enrolled and have access to school supplies and information and as I shared with this board last month we regularly use language services to break down communication barriers and celebrate our multilingual Families Our magnet themes engineering leadership and Technology are thriving integrating Real World Learning into the curriculum and providing students with unique opportunities to engage in different ways
for example today our third graders were biologists building membranes for frogs and last week our fifth graders were chemical Engineers creating Play-Doh recipes that the preschoolers loved to test out this award is a testament to what we've accomplishment together what we've accomplished together from academic achievement to Community Partnerships magnet schools provide more than just themes so I want to give a thank you to all of you for your unwavering support for magnet programming we're excited that Park is a place where all students can
Wonder explore create and Lead thank you good evening chairperson Johnson school board members and superintendent Bon thank you for having us here tonight I am Adriana Henderson the very proud principal of Glacier Hills Elementary School of Arts and Science thank you once again we are truly humbled and honored by this most recent recognition on behalf of all of our students
staff and families we are grateful to yet again receive the award of top Magnet School of Excellence for the third consecutive year and as Logan mentioned uh one of 33 schools being recognized Nationwide we are so committed to the academic Excellence fostering strong relationships building Community Partnerships in alignments with our Arts and Science programming we are so proud of the work we do and again thank you so much for the dedication and support you provide our school to thrive and be
the best we can possibly be thank you [Applause] again congratulations very impressive all right next up uh principal Henderson you can't go too far cuz I would like to welcome Adriana Henderson back to
the podium principal at Glacier Hills Elementary School to introduce Nicole hosac who has won the region six magnet teacher of the year award and apologies please correct me if I mispronounced that name that's right good evening once again chairperson Johnson school board members and superintendent Bon we have an exciting announcement um Nicole Hosk is the recipient as you mentioned of the magnet schools of America region 6 teacher of the year award
and presenting tonight will be assistant administrator uh Estelle suku good evening chairperson Johnson school board members and superintendent Bon my name is Estelle suku I am the assistant administrator at Glacier Hills Elementary School of Arts and Science tonight we also celebrate an individual whose passion and commitment embody the very best of our educational Mission I am honored to announce Nicole Hosk as teacher of the year region 6 by magnet schools of America Nicole is an exceptional educator who consistently goes
above and beyond for her students and staff she is a true collaborator she connects with her colleagues and students to create Innovative and engaging learning experiences for all in closing I want to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who has contributed to Glacier Hills success congratulations again to Nicole Hosk our teacher of the year and the entire Glacier Hills Community thank you
conratulations all right next on the agenda I will turn the meeting over to superintendent bson for superintendent recognition of students and staff thank you so much chair Johnson I do have a lot of recognitions tonight so here we go um we'll start with two of our district 196 Juniors Sarah Laborer of Rosemont
High School and an kit mapa of Egan High School have been selected to receive the Minnesota State High School league Excel award for leadership and service we will recognize Sarah and anit at the March 10th board meeting the two are among 36 High School juniors who will be honored Statewide during halftime at the class triaa girls basetball state championship game each Minnesota high school can nominate two students for the Excel award other district 196 nominees included India
Retton and Ryan Christensen at Apple Valley High School svi Seth at Egan High School hero Kad and Elden row at eastw high school and Ari pich at Rosemont High School similarly I would like to congratulate the eight district 196 seniors nominated for the 2025 Minnesota high school league AAA award the AAA criteria includes seniors with a 3.0 or higher grade point average who participate in athletic and
Fine Arts programs and exhibit exemplary citizenship and the highest standards of sportsmanship and conduct the AAA Award nominees from 196 are Sarah Ludi and Luke klopp of Apple Valley High School Jenna igland and peram Tucker of Egan High School Evelyn Swenson and Max espena of east of East viiew High School and Kelly estabo and Connor Amos of Rosemont High School each High School in the state can nominate two seniors for
the award we wish our students the best in this competition also congratulations to three district 196 teams who succeeded at the regional future city competition in January Valley Middle School of stem earned a second place overall finish along with two special Awards the real City special award and the most environmentally friendly power source award Rosemont Middle School received the industrial commercial layout award and the safe drinking water award
and Scott Highlands Middle School took fourth place honorable mention and the People's Choice Award congratulations also to the more than 200 district 196 high school students who qualified to compete at our state business conferences that will be held in March all four comprehensive high schools have strong representation Deca State finalists come from Rosemont High School East viiew High School Apple Valley and Apple Valley High School business Professionals of America state competition will also include Egan high
school and East viiew High School competitors congratulations to the east viiew Varsity competition cheer team which competed this past weekend at the UCA National Cheer competition championship in Orlando Florida the team placed 11th in its game day non-tumbling division against some of the best teams in the country good luck also to our lightning dance team at Eastview which will compete in the high kick and Jazz tournaments this weekend at the Target Center it is the 28th year in a
row every year since the school open that the lightning have advanced to state in both Jazz and kick we want to congratulate and wish the district 196 Alpine and Nordic ski state qualifiers good luck the tournament will be held this week in uh babc Minnesota our Rosemont Boys Alpine ski team and the I uh district 196 boys and girls Nordic teams are all State Bound in girls wrestling we have four Apple Valley and three Egan girls also competing at State
good luck to them in unified basketball sponsored by the Special Olympics The Egan unified team plays in the semi-finals tomorrow afternoon and finally I'm proud to announce that the district has been awarded a $50,000 computer science education grant the funding will be used to update our K12 computer science curriculum professional development and purchase equipment at the middle school we will update Drafting and Manufacturing CAD labs and maker spaces to provide students with hands-on experience in the tools
and Technologies driving modern Innovation we have also identified integrated computer science opportunities across VAR various content areas at the high school level including business art Tech education science mathematics and communication and that concludes my uh report for this evening thank you excellent love this time of year hearing all the competitions going on and we hope to see them back winning some medals too I'm sure we will excellent all right next on on the agenda is our consent agenda board members we have 15
items on the consent agenda this evening they include the minutes of the January 13th 2025 regular school board meeting the minutes of the January 28th 2025 special school board meeting the minutes of the January 29th 2025 policy Review Committee gifts grants Treasures report for December 2024 summary of claims for December 2024 schedule of Investments for December 31st 2024 revenues and expenditures report for December 2024 Personnel memorandum of understanding with Dakota County United Educators for summer 2025 memorandum of understanding with Rave clerical Association for
summer 2025 2025 Rosemont High School auditorium sound system replacement joint Powers agreement for ship School Wellness joint Powers agreement between Minnesota Department of Education and district 196 are there any items on the consent agenda that board members would like to remove tonight seeing none is there a motion to approve so moov second thank you motion by Katherine second by Leah all those in favor of approve rule please say I
I those opposed consent agenda carries on a 5 Z vot 5 Z vote vote I can't speak tonight ah all right next on the agenda is our reports and I would like to welcome Mark stots to the podium to go over a bond construction report well Sun I'm happy to be before you tonight to talk about our construction projects that we have uh both in progress coming up this summer
and then coming up in future Summers so um feel free to ask questions as we move along here and we'll try and get those am answered as best as possible so first I'm going to talk about our summer 2025 projects um you can see Dakota Ridge is already in process and uh should be completed by the end of this summer Emerald Trail is also in process proc and should be completed by the end
of this summer then we have Rosemont Middle School which is going to take a little bit longer because we'll open that the fall of 2027 East viiew High School Apple Valley High School Rosemont High School are all in the beginning phases so I'll talk about all these projects as we move along here first one East viiew High um High School uh the bids were due last week we're still in the process of compiling those we did best value interviews for
three of the trade projects um on Friday and uh we're feeling like we're within budget everything is looking good so we're happy about that um we plan to start this project May of 2025 complet it in late fall early winter 2026 and as a reminder of what's happening at Eastview High School the big addition is the activity center um we also have science Renovations
privacy toilet upgrades and some performance space enhancements um with the activity centers I should mention at all four high schools um we've got really good Partnerships with the cities in which the high schools reside in as well as the athletic associations that um are within the district and they'll have they'll all have the opportunity to utilize these activity centers they'll go through the normal process where
they'll have to schedule um events through Community Education obviously at times when the high schools are not using these facilities but we really value the Partnerships with the cities and the athletic associations and other organizations um there may be you know boat shows that type of thing that that could occur in these uh facilities so I just want to mention that because
that's again true for all four high schools app Apple Valley high school will be going out for bid later this month um February 27th again the intent is to begin this project May a 25 and completed late fall early winter of 2026 same project scope as East viiew High School we have the activity center Edition science Renovations privacy toil
upgrades as well as performance improvements Scott Highlands Middle School um bids will be due towards the end of March March 28th uh the plan is to begin this project July of 2025 with a completion date of August 2026 so this will span um two summers um the big thing here is the8 classroom Edition as well as new science Labs renovated science labs performance
space upgrades so they'll have a performance area as part of their cafeteria much like Valley Middle School um we also have privacy toilet upgrades and some additional parking going in at Valley Middle School or Scott Highlands Rosemont High School this is the biggest project within the referendum um approximately 15 $50 million
and uh we're just finishing up the planning on this particular project bids will be due on April 1st with a start date of May 25th uh this will go for about two and a half years so uh we we're hoping completion in late fall of 2027 um the first two things that are going to occur at Rosemont High School and I'll talk about what it's going to look like this summer because there's going to be a lot of traffic
hurdles to navigate around Rosemont High School this summer and I'll talk about that later um but the activity center and the classroom Edition will be the first two things that happen um once those are complete we'll start moving through the building and so uh potentially Food Service cafeteria could move to the activity center while we're working on those areas the media center could potentially moved to the activity center while
we're working on that um and then the classroom addition will have to rotate classes in the main section of the building as we do work in those areas and they'll be going to the new uh classroom addition so it's a it's a complicated project it's a challenging project but it's really a project that's that's uh exciting uh in addition to those two additions um we're also going to do renovations to the cafeteria Media
Center we're going to try and improve circulation in that building uh there will be toilet upgrades within this project as well as additional parking and we're going to have to relocate some athletic fields because of the activity center addition um and just a lot going on a very complicated project but uh it'll be very nice when when we're all through Valley Middle School um
so one of the issues that we've come across as we're working through these projects is the permitting process particularly Plumbing permits have really um the time period to get those has really been extended and that's a state level permit um and so at Valley Middle School what we're going to do is those items this summer that do not require uh uh
Plumbing permits so that'll be uh special education classrooms as well as another classroom and then the following year is when we'll do the areas that require the plumbing per permit um and that'll be the toilets and the science rooms Thomas Lake is scheduled for a new dedicated Bus Loop um the plan is to begin that June of 2025 and it should be
done in time for school August of 25 and we're also going to convert the front parking lot for parent drop off as well as add additional parking um at that site cvlc DVC um both are scheduled to receive new secure entrances this is a picture of the the um Cedar Valley Learning Center and
you can see Cedar Avenue to the East and uh the secure entrance Edition that'll be added there that is actually the original entry to the building when that building uh opened and then it was moved to the parking lot side and now because of security concerns we're moving it back uh in the area facing uh Cedar Avenue again um quotes are due uh in January and starting in May
hopefully be completed in July of 25 so these are a little bit smaller project but nonetheless they're very important projects for both of these facilities okay projects that are currently in progress you can tell the picture here was taken taken earlier this winter right after it snowed um but this is Emeral Emeral World Trail Elementary now that we
have a name for it um that's a good thing because we can start planning colors and signage and that that type of thing uh again it's it's uh in progress right now we're on schedule on budget and the plan is to open in the fall of uh 25 so we're really looking forward to that Dakota Ridge the building that we're at right now you can if you walked out in the hallway you can see
the entrance to the construction area I did check it's locked that's a good thing um this project is a six classroom Edition as well as a multi-purpose room Edition and some additional parking there will be some site work done this summer uh but the construction is is on schedule on budget everything is looking good for a fall opening uh for those additions Rosemont Middle
School another big project we finally got the land secured so that's a good thing if you've uh driven out in that area you can see that we've removed a portion of the burm where the building pad is going to be um the plan had been to start footings earlier this month that's been delayed because of the delay in the building permit so we're still waiting on the building permit and we'll start laying footings
as soon as soon as we get that um again this is going to be a little longer project with completion in the fall of 2027 but we're really happy with the site and we're really excited to get going here and projects that we have Beyond uh this summer Falcon Ridge Middle School so we're going to be doing some science sence room Renovations there we're
doing some restroom Renovations there that will take place in the summer of 26 again we're fearful of the timing of the plumbing permits so we're putting those off until the summer of 2026 but this summer we are going to start working on classroom Renovations so that's really exciting to get going on that project Egan High School we're in the design phase for the activity Center um as we speak in fact we have
a meeting tomorrow on that um again we're hoping for bids late October 2025 um and this is a misprint here but Egan High School I think is scheduled to be completed in 2026 Blackhawk Middle School um again we're doing restroom Renovations there um and we're hoping for a start date in the summer of
26 with completion uh in time for school August of 26 uh bunch of other projects um maybe not as large in scope as the ones we've talked about so far but sces is scheduled for a new entry a secure entry as well as toilet Renovations transition plus is scheduled for toilet Renovations as well as the alc and then Rosemont El element Elementary as well as North
View Elementary are scheduled to receive loading docks and that'll occur uh next summer in the summer of 2026 okay here's a picture of the Rosemount High School site and uh some of what's going on this summer you can see on the right hand side of this diagram um menot is doing a roundabout on highway three right to the entrance
of Rosemont High School and so that will happen excuse me this summer we'll have a temporary access road for construction vehicles only that will run across those softball fields to the south of 142nd Street and then you can see where the contractor parking area is and so all contractor parking will be in this area uh we do not intend on
using any of the student or staff parking um at Rosemont High School which is at a premium anyway um and then you can see at the same time the city is doing construction on Chile Avenue but they're going to continue to allow access as they work on that project so people will be able to enter the site from Chile Avenue um to the South and still
access Rosemount High School um those Middle School North fields are south of 142nd they are going to get rebuilt after the temporary construction road is not needed any longer and so they will be out of use for a couple Summers but uh yeah traffic is going to be a little bit difficult to navigate in this area this summer um but people people will still be able to access this site we still plan on having summer
school here and uh so we'll just work through it and start construction so with that I'd entertain any questions that you might have excellent thank you before I go to the board um are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members thank you very much for the up on this um very very complex project
that we have undertaken um also I just wanted to point out if anyone is curious um about additional updates um every time I have a for second I've been loving going to our website and looking at the live construction feeds we have on our website of the progress happening at the schools I think that's really transparent and it's nerdily really fun to watch the big trucks yeah those are neat and um canut and construction who's our construction management firm they also do drone videos that are really
really cool so if you're ever interested in seeing those uh we can make them available so excellent that'd be great all right thank you very much thank you all right um next on reports I would like to invite Eric Hansen director of secondary education um and let's see Drew mans and Pete biskin to the podium to go over our bar and positive behavior interventions and support
okay good evening chairperson Johnson members of the school board and superintendent Bon it is my pleasure to introduce three outstanding leaders from Apple Valley High School who have been instrumental in shaping an exciting new opportunity for our ninth grade students within our district tonight principal Drew mans and assistant principals Pete biskin and Bill blin we'll be sharing about the bar program which stands for building assets and
reducing risks this program will be expanding to the other three Comprehensive High Schools beginning next fall principal Ms and assistant principles biscans and blat time have not only led the way in implementing bar for the past two years but have shown exceptional commitment and passion for the success and well-being of our students their leadership has help build a strong foundation for this impactful program and we are grateful for the Apple Val High School school teacher and staff for their efforts I will now turn over to principal Ms to share
the details of our bar program thank you good evening chair Johnson and school board members and superintendent Bon uh my name is Drew Ms and I'm the proud principal of Apple valy high school and oftentimes say I have the best gig around because I get to tell the stories of the good things happening Apple Valley High School here so excited to talk tonight about bar um and as director Hansen mentioned bar stands
for building assets and reducing risks educators are naturally and inherently relationship Builders however the traditional schooling and the way that we construct our schools isn't always designed to create those strong relationships um at its worst it can take on a factory like model and that's something that no educator gets into the work of working with students uh to do especially at the high school level it can be challenging where students are going to seven different classes and they move from 45 minute
blocks um so what is bar bar is is is something that we just know works for kids and and this is something that we've been excited about for quite some time because the values of bar really fit with who we are as a school we know that systems are designed to produce the results that they get we also know that if we want to get different results we need to be able to tweak the system to make sure that we can focus on relationships collaboration and engagement engagement so we can positively impact all of our students and
that's one of the things that we really love about bar program is its focus on two key pillars that being relationships and data this model it disrupts a factory model by embedding relationships into the system it allows students to thrive built on these two pillars and thinking about traditional schooling in so many ways traditional schools often silo teachers by department and it limits their
collaboration if you're part of an English or a social studies Department as I was for many years you talked about academics you talked about curriculum you didn't always have the chance to be able to talk about kids bar breaks down those silos by organizing teachers into interdisciplinary teams so while an English teacher still connects with their department they also collaborate with a science and with a social studies teacher and we work within the schedule so that they share 80% or more of those students between those three teachers
what this does is it really disrupts that system by focusing on the opportunity for teachers to be able to discuss students holistically they're able to focus and talk about human being and not just human doing they discuss students and not curriculum they identify Trends and successes that they're seeing with their students they also identify challenges that the students are seeing and that they're encountering in their classrooms and they build intentional relationships with their students dedicating specific time
and actions to get to know their students so that as a team they can co-create strategies to support student growth uh the result for us it's been a stronger Learning Community we both teachers and students Thrive at avhs we like to say that learning looks different and after just 18 months we don't just feel the change we can see the difference in the data we see higher course completion rates we see impr improved attendance and decrease behavior issues and as I said before
something that's very unique is that bar benefits all of our students it closes the opportunity Gap and it ensures that every single student gets talked about over the course of the year so what does it look like and how does it work tonight assistant principles Pete biskin and Bill blatzheim will walk you through the schedule they'll talk about some of the behind the scenes work that takes place and the data but first we thought we would show you a video so you could see and hear what it looks like from the students and the staff
themselves being that the acronym is building assets reducing risks it's a instructional framework that is meant to increase student achievement while also deepening relationships that they have with us as staff members but ultimately with each other that's the biggest goal we meet as a team with English social studies and science once a week and we get a chance to to talk about kind of patterns that we're seeing common themes
across our classes and also individual students who may need some attention or some extra support one thing I love about bar is that nobody slips through the cracks because we even you know a kid who shows up and does what they're supposed to do and we talk about them we always start with the positive and that just kind of helps frame the conversation and make sure that we're talking about students from a way that is strengths based and seeing them as
a full human having like the same teacher kind of help me build that relationship and the teachers like they want what is best for you which may me realize when I am asking questions or just I need help on something that they're not going to judge me so it gave me that confidence to like go talk to new teachers and say hey I know we like just met but can you please help me with this and that they're not going to judge you and they're actually there to support you my relationships with teachers I feel like has helped my grade improve because I get to talk to them more about
like assignments or like if I don't understand stuff I see like a big difference like with the change and the what grades and also my attendance relationships are what help kids learn bar has helped build stronger classroom culture and classroom Community kids learn to trust each other more they feel more comfortable taking risks and that pays off both in the classroom and just in their everyday lives I really like the eye time lessons that were included
in bar I think that was the biggest takeaway from this because I really learned how to talk to different people build connections be like socially emotional with different people and interact with them being positive is oh it's a big one because they taught me to be respectful kind how to include people too um because including is a very important part I think of bar because you have such a diverse group and different type of people and as you guys come together there different perspectives and different ideas I do feel
like I have opportunity to share my opinions because in the beginning of the year we all talked about how we would make the school a safe place and a lot of people chose about respecting each other and like whatever is is said in the room stays in the room and I feel like that creates a safe opportunity like in the classroom and the teachers also come with a warm welcome I really look forward to my English courses the connections I have with these kids like where I can assist them and encourage them for elements that they're
accomplishing in but also offer that support if they need they know that they have adults that champion them and bar really helps us to emphasize the positives within our roles as Educators good evening chair President Johnson board members superintendent bony my name is Pete biskin I'm the assistant principal at Apple Valley High School um Mr badim and I have kind of taken the day-today lead with bar at the school my role is master schedule
building the puzzling and those sort of things and so um when I when I started in district 196 a long time ago I was at Rosemont Middle School and Falcon Ridge Middle School and we had houses and in just that that sharing of students sharing of ideas when I came to the high school we had it but it kind of faded away and so Mr M and I talked a lot about the importance of ninth grade and the importance of getting them on track early and eventually we we settled into the
bar model and so what we have when we started at Apple Valley two years ago we had two houses in a sense that shared the same students in English social studies and Earth Science and within our houses we started small we wanted to make sure we were doing it right and so when I built the master schedule we made sure that the teachers shared as many students as we could as Mr M said about 80% upwards of 90% % of the students have those three teachers and then we
gave them time we gave them time in common preps where they could sit discuss meet and also time where we removed their Duty because we knew the additional work of bar was was going to be uh a little bit of a lift but a really really valuable and rewarding list uh lift so we expanded it this year we added a third house the Omega house we have Alpha Beta and Omega and with within those houses we have middle of the road students we have students that
are in accelerated and honors classes we have students that are in in our special education program and our English learning program and so we are trying to keep it as expansive as we can to all students within the week of bar we have small block meetings big block meetings and ey time lessons and so I'd like to take a little bit of time and and and share with you what those are so as you see we have we have those four or
three blocks but we also have our community connect which is often referred to in schools as our SAT our student assistant teams so we'll talk a little bit about what those are ey time lessons and small block meetings are where we really work on building relationships not just with you know staff to student but student to student and building Community across these uh 80 to 90 students it time lessons are each week one of the
three teachers pauses their lessons and does a social emotional relationship building activities so it rotates every third week within within the houses you can see some of the things that we do in here but it is all relating to relationship building so we started the school year by doing a lot of of Get to Know You activities but with a purpose things that our teachers will often refer back to as they get to know other students a little bit better and as we hear how you know student a is
is struggling a little bit who's a connection they have in our building let's look back to what we did at the beginning of the year in one of our eye time lessons this kid is really interested in basketball let's connect them with the coach let's see where we can get them um moving forward this kid is a we learned about a student the other day they're they love heavy metal music things you would never know about kids unless you are intentional with trying to get to know
them and so on so every week our eye time lessons happen what we've learned are in the classes that aren't in houses those teachers are also starting to pause and go what are you doing in your eye time this week in earth science I'm going to do it in mine as well and and so we've seen that expand across so that happens once a week within our houses we also have two different kinds of meetings we have a small block meeting the small block meeting agenda as you can see here we're going to plan the week this will this will happen early in the week
during their common shared time they're going to talk about which ite time are we doing this week who's doing it what is the theme what are we hoping for what's the purpose but we're also going to talk about all of the students no certainly not but what we are going to do is we're going to make sure that as we progress through the year no student's voice is not heard we are going to talk about every single student and we track it we make sure we are documenting who did we talk about this week who haven't we
talked about yet who's a kid that's just coming every day doing great things but we're not we haven't talked about this person yet and so we're going to make sure we put voice on every single student we do different projects that we talk about in small block uh during the month of January it gets to be you know tough cold dark when you get to work dark when you go home from work we know all know how that is and we start to worry and so we went with project positive during January where our
teachers focused on positive Outreach to parents phone calls emails cards to kids anything to fill those buckets for Mom and Dad if you get that call at home and and you get that voicemail where you get to a teacher caught your kid doing great what a great thing to be able to play over and over again and so we work on some of those things during small block Bar times as well building those relationships we also have big block and Community connect and for these I'm going
to turn this over to Mr blatzheim thanks Pete uh good evening chairperson Johnson and superintendent Bon and board members um I'm Bill Blatz I'm assistant principal at APPA Valley and yes so part of the week teachers meet they have their small block meeting which is just the three teachers that are in the house um and then the following day we do our big block meetings which is not only the three teachers in the house but it's usually a member of the counseling staff uh a member of the administrative team as well and then somebody you know from our student support office or maybe our
social worker there's just a bigger team that comes in and and we continue to talk about students and one of the resources that we use both in the um the small block and the big block meeting is is this sheet that you can see it's kind of I know it's kind of hard to read at distance and obviously we've we've taken a minute to kind of to to block out any like personally identifying information about students here in in a public meeting but this is where when we talk about relationships and data this is where those two things come together this is our data this is how we track have we talked about every student in
the house if not who haven't we talked about why oh my gosh we have talked about this student before and here was a goal we set for that student what was that student's goal what was our followup on that goal who was going to do that who was going to make that phone call home what was the result of that phone call it's where we can make sure that we're really tracking and doing what we say we're going to do which is follow up with students um the cool thing about this sheet it's used in small block meetings it's used in Big Block meetings and the agenda for a student review and in a in a meeting we have time to do anywhere between four and six student reviews we usually talk
for a student about for about 5 minutes um the agenda for talking about a student goes from left to right and I I don't know if you can read it but the leftmost column after kind of the identifying information is strengths and I have watched it happen in Big Block meetings multiple times it's so tempting um especially if you're coming into the big block meeting and maybe you had a student that you just had like a less than awesome interaction with maybe they were having a bad day maybe you were having a bad day maybe it was both right and it can be so tempting to come in and say hey Michael was really wait I've seen teachers stop either stop themselves
or stop one another and say hey remember we start with strengths we start with strengths and we stop we say that's right we start with strengths and we go okay well they're really they have really positive connections with their peers in class they really value those social relationships with the peers in the class right and we start there and it it's amazing to watch what happens to the tone of the conversation how everything can shift how everybody can start to see all right yep we're going to start the strength because then eventually we do get to what are some challenges the students facing and we have to set goals for students we
have to help them meet their challenges but when we identified strengths first when we start in that strength space that building assets approach our conversations our goals everything is just so much more positively oriented um and that that's really good there's also some really interesting stuff here that I just want to point out quickly this is not the block meeting sheet that we used last year when we joined the bar program we were using a sheet that was provided by bar and it it it worked but it was a little halfhazard in terms of tracking grades and I don't know if you can tell but every student on this sheet their
grade is being tracked in every single one of their classes every week um which was new and it was something one of the the positive aspects of being part of the official bar program is we got this idea when Pete and others went to the bar National Conference last spring and they saw a presentation actually by the folks at Two Rivers High School right up the right up the road here um who shared that this is how they do this and Pete came back from the conference and he talked to me he said bill you got to contact Two Rivers you got to see see what they're doing with their sheets we'll have better grade updates and I did I reached out and uh the the folks
up there to River said yeah we want to help but actually we've already been in touch with your district with stepen B Kemp at our district office because we know all your high schools are going to do this and so Stephen shared this with me and then we put our own tweaks on it and through this process no nobody hides ideas in the bar program everybody's sharing ideas and I have a phone call this week with an assistant principal at a high school in Montana to share this with him to talk to him about how we get this data because then we can look at this and say every week like oh wow um you know Michael I'm going to use your name again uh he went from having 5 A's and two B's to having you know some C's
and some FS we better check in or the other way around we better celebrate you know he was really struggling and now all of a sudden he's pulling an A in math he hasn't had one all trimester who's going to find him in class tomorrow and tell him hey keep up the good work oh I've got a good connection with that student I'll find him in science class tomorrow and tell him hey you're doing great in math I can see you're getting an a there and that that matters for students when you're walking into your science class and your science teacher congratulates you on your a in math that that pings for students that that matters so so this is all really like positive ways that we keep track
as we go through we identify students by their current level of concern level zero everything's going great let's set some goals around you know academic like challenging themselves social emotional goals level one let's do some basic uh intervention make sure they get to an eagle time level two we need to do something a little more serious and then eventually some students might be identified as a level three concern which would be like significant attendance concerns significant concerns around mental health or just passing and then those students are then referred to what we call the community connect team like Pete said that's kind of like
the Student Assistance team and the folks in community connect take those you like I said there's a counselor in the big block meeting who takes that referral and then goes to that meeting those meetings have a very similar process strengths first they ask some different questions I don't have an example of that sheet but they track that data as well and then the folks in that meeting are counselors social worker administrators folks that can connect students and families to the resources they might need to kind of take on those bigger challenges and then those folks will report back to the big block to the degree that they can hey you know so and so came up at Community connect last week we talked about this plan if
you see them in class this week encourage them around the plan of ab andc so we're kind of wrapping bigger supports around students as well through that Community connect process what have we found out through doing this process I I have two really uh just kind of interesting they're they're a little numbers heavy but I'll kind of help walk through them some really interesting information that we found through the course of implementing bar at app Val High School these are numbers from last year so this would be trimester 2 and trimester 3 of 2023 and 2024 and you can see um you know
failure rates for all n9th grade versus uh our Alpha houses and our beta house but I actually want to just draw your attention to to one number which is at the end of trimester 3 last year in the bar classes so in science social studies and in English for the students that were in Alpha and in beta houses that we had last year of all the grades those students received in those three classes all the students seven of them were FS out of 324 total grades which is a a
stunning number when you look at just failure rates in general across schools across just high schools in general and and of those seven three of them belonged to a student who we know had significant attendance issues which means there was four other FS that were sitting out there of the 324 and when we pulled those numbers last spring we saw a bar working on a like you know anecdotal level we watched teachers having positive conversations we saw students responding ey time lessons but when we saw that we said there's something to
this this is working this is working for these students because these teachers are supporting them they're looking they're intervening and they're making sure that that students are aren't failing here they're succeeding here um and when we disaggregated that data I'm going to share this one last bit of numbers with you this is a slightly different look of at failure rates in terms of students who received one f grade or more in 9th grade in the 2022 23 school year to 23 24 and we're using some dist 196 General numbers here and I'm doing that because we saw decreases everywhere and this is certainly not to
say that you know the other schools aren't doing something that we're doing but I I I just think that these are good reference points and especially because we were able to disaggregate this data uh by different by different ethnicities and what you see across the board here is from 22 to 23 and then to 23 24 there were decreases in number of students that saw FS kind of across categories across the district but you know all n9th grade students those numbers went down 1.4% but at Apple Valley it went on 5% we saw a decrease in students who had F grades of 5% which is
you know significantly more than the district average in for black and African-American students for between those two years the district saw a decrease of 2% in Failure rates at Apple Valley we saw a decrease of nine and a half perc um you know for Hispanic and Latino students the district sees 2% we see three and a third white students the district saw 1.97 for us it was 1.2 and then for students identified as two or more races that decrease across the district was 1.3% in Failure rates and ours was 22% we saw and and we
use the word decrease because it's a decrease in failure rate but that's that's a that's a good thing right like so we saw those and we were implementing bar and we said hey maybe bar doesn't explain all of that but but it's got to be a part of that there's no way we can be doing this and that that can't be part of the story so I I wanted to share those numbers with you because we're seeing success uh and we believe that that bar is part of the story of that success so I I thought that was important for for all of you to see and know I'm going to bring principal mons back up here now to kind of take you through the
the last part of our presentation so somebody told me once that uh being an educator is the hardest job you'll ever love and uh it's really true it's an amazing amazing opportunity be work with young people and it's really hard and when you think about so many of our structures that have folks set up doing really good work but doing really hard work alone that was one one of the things that really was important to us um when we thought about how we
got here um just recap a few things that you heard you know Bill talked about never keep a good idea in your bad in your back pocket and we've been really fortunate um through our partnership with bar to be able to learn a lot from them and also be able to spread a lot of what we've learned but thinking about the powers of strengths um one of the things for us eight years ago I had the chance to visit St Louis Park High School and see firsthand where bar was founded and where that first came and I
came away from it just blown away I watched the most functional Student Assistance team meetings that I'd ever seen in my life and you it was one of those things you go like I want that but I don't know how to do that like Bill said when I'm in my best thinking I can speak to all sorts of possibilities uh when I'm struggling or I'm really faced by a tough challenge I can't get my head around um it can be really easy to go to that dark place and this puts people together with a really strong structure um and also with that key of intentionality that everything that you do
within a bar meeting is really structured to help get you those results and we uh we went out to see another school in the West Metro that was a bar School two years ago we brought members of our building instructional leadership team to see it and we came back in two different cars and both of those cars had just so much energy around it and we knew that there were things that were familiar to who we've been and we also knew that there were opportunities for who we wanted to be um um so a year ago we had the opportunity um to put
together an application um and we were recipients of a $250,000 Grant from uh the state of Minnesota to be able to implement this bar model this last year and uh we started going last year on the thank you tour um so one of those opportunities was to go to the education house committee and then also to the Senate finance committee um to be able to Advocate uh as Pete mentioned um we've had team memb MERS that have gone to the National Conference we meet every two
weeks with a cohort of other principles and other leaders and other coordinators for bar houses um and it's just been incredibly influential for our work here and as I said like one of the best opportunities is to make sure we hear from the kids themselves that difference that it's made in their experience um even just two weeks ago I was in an observation hearing the students say like yeah in all of our classes we do some ice breakers but I think that beauty is is those eye time lessons they happen for the students every single week so they get that steady dose of that and also the eye time that
Alpha House is doing may be totally different than what Omega is doing or what beta is so they're able to really think about what our kids need and make sure that they have that experience and uh this is from this last year some students and I had the chance to be able to go and present and uh spread some of the work there um ever and Ellie are just two examples of students where our social studies teacher specifically made strong connections encouraged them to take on honors Kelly Redmond one of our bar social studies teachers recommended that Everett do honors he's now enrolled
in honors government citizenship so it's not lost on us for him to be here with you today as well as in a honors uh uh physical or science course Ellie is a student leader in the classroom in in athletics she comes to avhs from a middle school where 50% of the students attend one of two schools and she'll speak to that experience there cuz that's not a easy thing for any 14-year-old to make a transition and to see that kids gone to school for a number of years are going elsewhere in conclusion I want to extend our heartfelt thanks for the opportunity to
share how bar is positively impacting our school community and it's now my pleasure to introduce you to Everett and Ally two examples of Eagle excellence and Bar's success thank you thank you so much principal if um students if you would state your name first and then you may begin U my name is ever gizman Ray um hello Madam chair committee members um I'm a student from Apple Valley High School scho bar has helped me as a student for many good reasons my first impression of this school and teachers were
really good I had made a community just by being at the school the community and teachers were very friendly and open this is what has helped me to communicate with them from a very early stage in fact my government teacher who is one of the bar teachers Miss Redmond recommended me for honors government and citizenship we are both very sad that I'm not in class anymore but however I'm still in an English course with with another teacher Mr fris um and I gladly have Ally in next
too I feel like I have always been supported to reach new goals and have been able to step out of my comfort zone to help others step out of theirs I want to thank you guys for supporting us as students so that we can succeed and help others experience that success too thank you and you may begin hello Madam chair committee members my name is Allison Kaylor and I'm a nth grade student at app Valley High School I'm a student who came from a split School most of my good friends went to East viw the only people I really knew were my hockey teammates
having no classes with my teammates was pretty scary but through it time activities I was able to get to know new people and step out of my comfort zone not only did ey time activities create new bonds with classmates but also my teachers my teachers have gotten to know who I am outside of just being a student and for that that has created a safe and welcoming environment that motivates me to do the best that I can through I time activities my teachers have learned that I like to take charge and be a leader which makes me feel recognized and like I
belong I want to thank you guys for letting me come and share my experience and for supporting my school thank you thank you both for coming in and sharing your experience and I I'm really glad and and happy that you were able to build those kind of relationships that really made a difference to all of you thank you for bringing them in this morning um ever and
Laie are just two perfect um so as we talk about going Beyond just an original idea here um I think it's been really amazing to kind of see that extension within weeks of starting the process of using the structure for the small block and the big block meetings as Pete mentioned our SAT team which is Deans and counselors and our social worker our school psychologist uh they started using this format for their meetings um what that started extending to then was uh this last
year we took the data that all of those ninth grade teachers had in working with those students and were able to share that with the 10th grade teachers uh that they were that they were going to here this this or this current school year uh that's a new structure for us that when a 10th grade teacher is facing 30 new Learners that's in front of them um they're able to now know they can go to that spreadsheet and they can see who had that connection can go to that and find that strength and it becomes kind of that important reminder um that all of our kids have
tremendous strengths that are there and also that there's some trusted adults in the building that know some things that can help you problem solve uh the other part expanding to the middle schools we revamped our process this last year about thinking about transitions so a similar bar spreadsheet is used in making those connections as we know going to high school and that ninth grade year is so important for setting what those next four years are going to look like and I also tell students every year in August no matter who you've been for the last three years this is
a new opportunity you get to come together with kids from all these different schools and decide who you want to be and I think that's been really important to be able to make that connection for these folks that got to know them over those really pivotal years of middle school and be able to share that again starting from a strength-based um approach and then finally um the work that we've been able to do here in working with our other comprehensive District high schools uh we're very excited here that all of our APS from our four Comprehensive High Schools were able to go to the bar conference
this last year I remember when we presented at Apple Valley high school last year we had one of the board members uh follow up with me later and say this should be at every school and coming soon it will be um so at all of our high school principal meetings this is a standing item on our agendas talking about the implementation and the onboarding our assistant principles when they meet at each of their meetings here they're talking about and they're sharing those ideas um we're we get to be Front Runners in this but we're very excited to
be able to have added to our Network those folks who are just right here that we collaborate with and that know our schools and know our systems and most importantly know our kids best um so Pete and Bill and another one of our Deans they put in and they'll be uh presenting here at the bar National Conference here this next year so we're excited about the opportunity that they continue to see uh for us to be able share the good news and um we figur we would wrap up with one final video uh to just be able to hear from some of those students and then we'll
take questions on the other side Bart has made my job easier it's not it doesn't feel like another thing for me it feels like something that is additive to what I'm already doing um and helps me build connections with my students helps me build connections with my colleagues with Administration and it just I feel really supported the program we get to pass on our observations and what we were able to collect throughout the
year and kind of give like a good preemptive strength-based anchored approach for our 10th grade teachers before these kids even enter their classrooms for the next year I'm really looking forward to the other schools within our district implementing this because we've seen it at Apple Valley as kind of these first couple years of piloting this program it works the data validates it the relationships validate bar implementation um the community that I'm able to build with my kids
and ultimately the people I work with every day validate this and so be excited about it it really does work and it adds more intent behind what we do but also I truly feel more [Music] meaning so um as we noted we're incredibly proud and very excited about this here and we understand that sometimes uh getting us in front of a microphone or talking with people about this is like taking a sip off the fire hydrant so we will open it up if you folks have any questions for us about
bar and what we've been doing and where it's headed thank you very much before I go to the board are there any questions or comments from the audience Mr if you want to uh come up to the podium uh thank you for the presentation it's really an amazing program and what it really uh to me it brought me
to think about healthc care and the way collaborative care is and integrated care is kind of what's next in healthcare and spreading in all directions and so I was really impressed with this and the excitement that in the way you presented it and more so the students so really interesting and cool but I wanted to just ask about your initial cost uh I think it was $250,000 how does the future look with funding for something like this to expand
it across the district great question thank you representative Beerman what want yeah so I can speak to that um so that cost for us as I said in these first three years is deferred through the grant um but also I had seen this just years ago in being able to um being able to investigate and look into bar I just didn't own the budget as an associate principal before um so we're able to use part of our operating funds to be able to be a part of this
bar has looked to expand um and different states and different districts have been able to to find Opportunities to be able to fund that uh we feel confident with all four of our high schools that we're able to do that and do the full implementation um part of what it does for us is it gives us the ability to be able to have the coaching session so um we have three times a year we have a member from that bar team um that comes and sits in and spends a full day with us and then gives us feedback in that place um so that's been something that has been incredibly important the other part is being able to offer the training
uh for all of our teachers so they have three years as they come onto those bar teams they have three years worth of training uh that they receive and we've been able to do that in a cost neutral way uh by embedding that into our Workshop weeks when we come back in so our slightly different schedule of how we start a school year has been helpful and beneficial for us um to be able to make sure that everybody at day one is ready to go excellent thank you very much and I I suppose I'd be my remiss by saying
too if the legislature wants to provide an additional funding we'll gladly take it so any other questions or comments from the audience yes would you like to come up to the podium real quick okay yeah we can we can get the uh that data for you we have that group and we know we just actually completed completed I was just working on completing our data uh for the most recent grade polls as well as
for participation in honors and CIS AP classes and then participation in activities in athletics um I'm not certain why we don't have that data in I will take a look and see because that's one of the places that we're incredibly proud of for that factor is that our participation as well as our success rates have been proportional to all of our students here good question thank you but I will certainly follow up with you with that yeah nether questions or comments from the audience seeing none I'll move to the board any questions
or comments from Schoolboard members Leah I just wanted to say real quick that you know I just want to thank you basically for the hard work we can sit up here and ring our hands about our metrics and how are we going to see movement on our opportunity gap on our graduation rates you know you name it and this is the work right and and I know that it's hard work um and the
commitment that you all have to it is is evident I just want to thank you thank you we really appreciate that and I just emphasize like we have we've had all the right people we have the right team and a structure that helps us support that team and um and and I just would say also like to everybody in here that has this district has really supported us in places to be a to make sure that we're able to um get messaging out for educational benefits and for those other places that help to to provide this and and this is as you said this is the
work we we want all of our students our our job is to positively impact the trajectory of every kid and I haven't always seen programs that are that intentional about truly making sure that every student whether we've traditionally served them well or those that we haven't as a system to be included so thank you excellent Katherine sure I also just wanted to thank you for amazing work um to see relationships and data paired together to tell the story is really amazing
um and encouraging and then also it just brings to mind a couple things of uh I'm excited to see like the next MSS the Minnesota student survey to see how things might have changed there um with like relationships with adults that's really exciting to me um and so I had two questions about it just the first was that it's mentioned that goals are created for students so I was just curious if the goals are shared with the student or if that's just um you
know within the adult space and then the second question is that it happens in n9th grade and you said this started in St Louis Park so there's been some time is it is it adequate to just have this in nth grade or is this systems change that happens in nth grade with teachers does it carry through the rest of high school so you don't need to have this like Focus great question thank you um as regarding the goals yes absolutely we do share
them with the students and and we are intentional on smart goals they'll be better by the end of the month we we don't do that it's very intentional on you know whichever student will be caught up in math by the end of the week here's how we are going to intervene here's what we are going to do here's how we're going to follow up and then we do that the who uh we put in staff intervention who is going to be the person who is going to go meet with the student who is
going to tell them here's our goal here's what we're going to do here's how we're going to do it here's how we're going to measure this so absolutely share it out and Drew can speak to part two um and sorry I was just thinking about anecdotal piece can you give me a the second question you had the sure is just is ninth grade enough we need to do this more yeah so kind of twofold I think very briefly one of the small block meetings that I sat in on last year they were talking about goal setting um for the students and the beauty when you were looking at the
uh redacted information on those sheets was seeing when you have kids in really good places you can be really purposeful and intentional about those that are struggling in that space and I watched at the team at that time they had hardly any students that were failling the class so they spent their whole time on kids that didn't have a connection and thinking about there you know like a lot of times we have goals for other people and we forget to tell them um so to see the teachers go out and to do that session and check in with students and say we have a Science Olympiad I think you'd be great for that you know like I they were able to do that piece
and that's incredible the other part is as you said when they have that strong foundation in their ninth grade year we see those results carry through so well so I do know of one school um that coming out of the first couple of years of coming back um after the initial onset of the pandemic that they did a 10th grade pilot within there that school has not been doing that because they've kind of found that it's a manageable number that they know who those students are so we're very open to scaling up but I think the really important part is that we find that our
students are at a really good spot to start um that that's been really important for you know for everybody to know that um the other part I think that's important is just we really want kids to have lots and lots of opportunities and choices so um we kind of say we're workhorses and not show horses and nobody's better at that than probably our assistant principal Pete bisin who does that master schedule when Pete talks about he puts together that puzzle the intentionality that he does in maneuvering and moving kids so they can be in that structure is incredible that's
a ton of work for 500 kids that are in nth grade class as they get older it gets harder as they kind of look at all the different elective areas that they want to pursue so we try to be we try to always let students figure out where they want to go but we do try to guide that a lot in ninth and 10th grade so they have as many places to be on track for graduation it has many opportunities to try I think at one point we had we're up to 131 different different courses that kids could choose from so we want to make sure they can do that and I think I might just lose Pete if I asked him to try to schedule
all that for four years great it's really impressive thank you thank you um I just had one comment quick and then a question this is a fantastic program I appreciate the overview tonight it's been really really important both for me and for the board to know that when we are trying and we are working on new Frameworks or new intervention of any kind where we're investing strategically um to help move the needle in some strategic method that we are tracking the
data to make sure that we are getting that return on investment so that we know when things are successful but I'd even say more so so that we know when they're not successful so that we can move on to a another something that could again move the needle more I just want to say I saw that dat I know we just got a overview of the data in today's presentation I know you probably have a lot more in there um but I just wanted to really call out that I saw that that move the needle that data um piece so I just I just thought that that was wonderful to be able to see that you're not just jumping into a
program because it sounds great but we're tracking to see what impact it's having on our students as well which is just amazing so thank you thank you I give my last shout out to bill for that work that he does in there uh his work in a spreadsheet is amazing and we talk a lot about setting up our teachers for Success that when they're able to go to that meeting every week the spreadsheet is already loaded with all of that data um we pull that that grade data every two weeks so that they're not sifting through and trying to make sense of it it's there for them so they can act on it and be most respectful of their
time and most impactful for students so thank you excellent and then I just had one final question I could probably we the board could probably stay up here all night and learn more about this program but I know our other presenters would like that so um how do you how do you decide who's participating in the program student wise how is that selection happening great question um a lot of different factors drive it I would say the
majority middle is is where a lot of this ends up however I will say that after last year you know when when we got into okay let's see who are who are the who the teachers and who are the you know the what classes are they teaching then it sees who fits there um I we talked about do we incorporate honors kids throughout all of the three areas and one of the things we talked about
was how you worry about have we built an unintentional track then that these students are going to stay with each other through the whole day they're going to be in band and choire and now boom boom boom and so we were we were cautious of that as we added this year one of the areas that we talked about and I and I'm really proud of is that we added in more Coots into these sections getting involved of more of our special education students and our elel students and that was intentional because we
believe so firmly of how the teachers and the relationship building and the Data Tracking and the eye times and the social emotional learning could help impact and raise um students that that may have some different challenges as they come to us and so the who it's it's built on a lot of different things it's it's a lot of majority middle students but I love the question about how do we add how do we build we're talking about this all the time I love the idea of building It Forward our math team came to me and said Pete we know math
it's we're all over the place with all the different classes and levels can we get the structure of how you do this we're going to do our math meetings like this now and we're going to start from the strengths and the positives of our kids as we talk as learning teams we're not a house but we're going to use that within our math meetings and so we love seeing that build forward as well excellent thank you oh Robin um thank you so much for all of this information um in
looking at the grade data for over two years I'm just wondering um has that you said it's only ninth graders because it hasn't really been scalable for grades beyond that but when you look at students who have gone through it have they continued to have a decrease in their grades by the time they move through high school thank you that's a really good question and and I'll be honest we haven't of for our 10th graders this year that were nth graders last year we haven't pulled the grade data and like put
it by like students who were in bar or weren't in bar but we're going to now like I'm going to work on that this week because that's a really that's an intriguing question that um I don't have an answer to now but that's something we can certainly look into because we can go back and look at who was in bar last year and run those numbers against current grade data and we'll yeah that's going to be a great thing for us to look into so we'll definitely yeah we'll do that excellent all right I think the one place that I just add is that we are able to see that our ninth and our 10th graders continue to lead with
the highest passing and proficiency rates when we look at that across the school so um that is something that is unique that is not something that I was seeing uh five certainly not 10 years ago where oftentimes it was those ninth grade as students are just trying to understand a grade that really matters in something um a grade that works towards a graduation requirement and uh seeing we were very surprised to see at the end of the first trimester and that carried throughout the year that our ninth grade cohort actually led the school in passing percentage excent thank you any other questions or comments from board
members one more I'm sorry so knowing that not all ninth graders are in this program what percentage of the ninth grade are are in the program yeah like I said last year we started small two houses had about aund 60 students or so I think we're at
250 260 and so that's a little over half 50% almost 60% of our students are within the house and then within that um how we designated how Bar says if at least twoth thirds of their classes are within there um but we do have a lot of other students that may have one on level earth science but then two honors and so they're not fully in but they're still every 3 weeks part part of this whole process and so understanding that the schedule is a very challenging piece is the
goal to get it to be 100% of nth graders are experiencing some piece of this because I'm just thinking like the relationship piece is so vital and I'm thinking you know it doesn't matter if you're high performing struggling that that relationship is often what makes the difference in a student's success however we Define that so is is the goal 100% of nth graders possibly and I and I say
that intentionally with um it's a great question and we want to make sure that that we're doing it well and also with you know with budgeting and scheduling and Staffing it might just not fit every time but to your point when when I presented this in our in our fall back to school we we talked bar as a whole staff and our last slide I remember it what about me and we talked all about that of if you're not in a house if you're not a bar teacher but how
can you incorporate these strategies and these skills and these eye times and so we have presented it and made it available to to our other nth grade teachers that aren't necessarily in the house but again as things organically grow we had our Junior AP teachers came to me and said can you pull a list of all the students that share us four teachers because we are going to start meeting before school and following this model with our AP students because I think we share a lot and we may organically be
a house of our own and so we're watching that grow and progress as well great thank you thank you very much for sharing with us tonight and we will look forward to hearing how this um progresses as we roll it up to other schools as well thank you all right uh next on our agenda I would like to welcome Jeremy senson to the podium um and Eric Hansen to go over our spring assessment
preview all right uh good evening chair Johnson members of the board and superintendent Bolson uh Tonight Eric Hansen and I are here to discuss our spring assessment process at the elementary and secondary levels uh the goal today is to provide a highle overview of the assessments our students will engage in this spring um there's no action for the board to take on this item we're simply providing
information regarding our spring assessments all right and when considering our strategic road map our assessment framework aligns closely with our strategic priorities and specifically with achievement and then before we go into actual assessments I just want to give kind of an overview of the types of Assessments we provide um assessments that our students take fall under three different categories summative screener and Diagnostic and each of these
assessment types has a different purpose or a different use um so a summative assessment is often called an outcome assessment is a measure of student learning at the end of an instructional period it evaluates Mastery of academic standards and provides data on program Effectiveness sub of Assessments help Educators understand overall student achievement and make data formed decisions for curriculum instruction at a really high level and then a screener is a brief research-based assessment used to
identify students who may need additional support these assessments are administered to all students at set intervals screeners help Educators detect Early Learning gaps guide instructional decisions and support interventions within a multi-tiered system of supports or framework and then a diagnostic assessment it's a detailed evaluation used to identify students specific strengths and areas of need in a particular subject so unlike screeners diagn diagnostic assessments provide
in-depth insights into skill gaps learning progress and instructional needs and they help Educators tailor instruction provide targeted interventions and support data driven decisions uh making within a multi-tier system of support framework so now we're going to talk about actual assessments and I'm going to talk about the assessments that our elementary students will um engage in spring there's four main assessments that assessments that I want to talk about and these are the assessments that either all of our students will take
or large numbers of our students will take and I'll describe that a little bit so first we're going to talk about probably the most well-known assessment our students engage in each spring uh the Minnesota comprehensive assessment or MCA and the Minnesota test of academic skills or mtas these are state required tests administered annually to measure student progress toward min academic standards in Reading mathematics and science reading in math is assessed in
grades 3 through 5 and science is assessed in grade five at the elementary levels these assessments are considered summative and provide data on student achievement at the school district and state levels helping Educators identify instructional needs and evaluate program Effectiveness so the next we use fastbridge which is a research-based universal screener tool used to to used to assess student skills in reading and Mathematics in grades K5 fastbridge is administrated administered three times a
year these brief assessments help identify students who may need additional support fast bridge data supports our multi-tiered system support framework by helping Educators provide targeted interventions and track student growth over time this is a state requir this this is a state requirement and is one of the screening tools approved by the state of Minnesota through the re act um this is a new assessment or fairly new assessment to us this is the second year we've engaged in the reading portion and the first year
we've engaged in the math portion so another assessment that we use in the spring is the access or assessing comprehension and communication in English state to state this assessment is an English language proficiency assessment administered annually to multilingual Learners and grades K12 it measures students skills in listening speaking reading reading and writing in academic English the results help Educators track language development guide instructional decisions
and determine when students are ready to exit English language support programs and then lastly at the elementary level I ready math it's an assessment we do three times a year with students in grades K through five it can be used as both a screener and a diagnostic tool the assessment adjusts and difficulty based on student responses providing a personalized measure of skills across grade levels the results help Educators track progress guide instructional decisions
and support differentiated instruction within a multi-tiered system of support framework this assessment aligns with our new math curriculum and is a district guided practice this assessment is also new to us this is the first year that we're using this so that's a picture of the elementary with that I'm going to turn over to Eric to discuss spring assessments at the secondary level okay thank you uh director senson um as I walk you through the secondary test here I want you to know that each
of our schools has a designated testing contact uh that can answer questions for families or anybody else that might have questions um uh about tests that are coming up and also underneath the academic tab on each school's web page there's a comprehensive list of student tests their dates the purposes and more um so while I share brief information about some of the tests we administer the full list is on our web page and under the web page of each of the schools so you're going to hear some repeats here um so the Minnesota comprehensive assessment uh the MCA uh or
the mtas which is the Minnesota test of academic skills which is an alternative for students with significant cognitive disabilities they're also given to students in grades 6 through eight 10 and 11 in our secondary schools these tests are administered each spring and assess reading math and science depending on the students's grade level official results for the MCA and the mtas are usually made available in September we administer two types of map tests the map screener which is a short 25 minute
test for students in grade 6 through 9 it is given three times a year with results provided shortly after each test the screener helps our teachers identify areas where students may need remediation or enrichment our sixth grade students like those in the elementary school also take the fast Bridge screener in the beginning of the school year this provides math and reading teachers with quick Insight of their student skills the map diagnostic test this is a more indepth test lasting about an hour and it's given to our students in uh grades
6 through eight one or maybe two times a school year typically in the fall and then again in the winter the diagnostic test provides detailed information about a student's reading and math abilities again the access test is given to our English language Learners to assess English proficiency administered in the middle of the school year it allows teachers to measure progress in English uh acquisition this test takes approximately two hours of course there's breaks in there too in April
our 10th grade students take the pre- ACT which prepares them for the ACT test that will uh that they will take in 11th grade the results help students gauge their Readiness for the 11th grade act the prea takes around 2 and a half hours to complete and it's really the first time our students experience A time test again in April for our 11th grade students they take the ACT which measures their academic Readiness for postsecondary education and like the prea
the act act test is timed our district provides this test at no charge to our 11th grade students test results are available usually in about four weeks after the test is completed AP exams are for students and again AP is for advanced placement are for students that are currently enrolled in the advanced placement courses these exams are administered in April and with a qualifying score students may earn college credit for the subjects they have studied the bilingual seals test
for 12th grade students measures measures language Proficiency in language languages other than English it recognizes the linguistic asset students possess and is typically taken um by around 300 students in our district this test assesses reading writing speaking and listening skills in another language other than English successfully performing on the bil seals also provides a college credit to schools in the Minnesota state colleges and universities system so every
three years we've talked a little bit about this tonight we administered the Minnesota student survey to students in grades 8 9 and 11 our students just recently completed the Statewide student survey the results of this survey provide valuable insights into a students well-being and their experiences in our schools it covers aspects such as as health safety and academic successes later during uh director Hugh's report she will discuss some of our district goals and how they're aligned with the
test that we just discussed at this time director Soren and and I are happy to answer any questions that you may have EXC thank you very much at this time are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members excent thank you very much for the update and good luck on the upcoming assessments next on the agenda I'd like to welcome Rachel Hughes to the podium to go over a comprehensive achievement and Civic Readiness report all right
good evening chairperson Johnson members of the board and superintendent bomi I am here this evening to present an annual update on the comprehensive achievement in Civic Readiness thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight this presentation is part of an annual requirement to to ensure the community and the school board are part of the long-term strategic planning for instruction it aligns with our strategic
priorities of achievement and Equity comprehensive achievement in Civic Readiness or cacr because we love acronyms in education was legislation formerly known as the world's best Workforce cacr is a intend is intended to ensure that school districts enhance student achievement through teaching and learning support so that
students are career and college ready at graduation comprehensive achievement in Civic riness is replacing world's best Workforce to emphasize the Dual roles for the goals set forth in the district plans the district plan is a multi-year detailed document that illustrates how our district will execute their goals or initiatives mde recommends that districts develop goals that
are specific measurable attainable realistic And Timely or smart goals the goals support students with academic achievement within their prek through 12th grade experience as well as preparing them to be active members of the community after graduation the changes take effect for the fall 2025 annual summary report the purpose of today is to inform you about the goals and there will be no action required tonight comprehension achieve oops
sorry comprehensive achievement in Civic Readiness goals include five areas all children are ready for school all students are ready for career and college all students graduate high school students are prepared for lifelong learning and all racial and economic achievement gaps between schools are closed thank you to director Hansen and director senson for sharing the spring testing information the data from those
assessments help us determine the goals and strategies I will be sharing with you tonight so in the graphs I show you this evening the red line is the trajectory to the goal and the blue line represents the actual results following mde guidelines our goals are set for a 3% Point increase for the first goal all children are ready for school we think of this as kindergarten Readiness with the adoption of fastbridge universal screening
we're able to update this goal to measure the Readiness of all incoming kindergarten students the goal States the percentage of students entering kindergarten who meet the fall Benchmark as measured by the fastbridge early reading assessment will increase from 60.2% in Fall 2023 to 63.3% in Fall 2024 this is a three percentage Point increase which we hope to see each of the next three years which is why the
goal is 69.3% in three years this goal was measured this fall during assessment days and I can report 62.1% of kindergart students met the fall Benchmark on the early reading assessment while we did not reach our targeted growth we saw moderate growth level to support our work in this goal our prek programs are using teaching strategies gold which is an observational assessment tool that captures student progress to inform individualized instruction support family
Partnerships and provide data to drive decisions and program Improvement it is aligned with our state's early learning standards and measures literacy math language social emotional cognitive and physical development additionally our prek programs are utilizing the Minnesota Department of education's successful learner equation the successful learner equation is a collaboration between schools and communities that increases access to Services providing ongoing opportunities for family engagement
and challenges systematic barriers that affect the school experience the successful learner equation reminds us there not the responsibility of the child to be ready for school but is the responsibility of adults programs and systems to be ready to support each child we measure the net next comprehensive achievement and Civic Readiness goal all students are ready for career in college with three
components the first component uses the state accountability test Minnesota comprehensive exams or known as MCAS or Minnesota test of academic skills also known as mtas because we need more acronyms the goal States the percentage of students in grades 3 through 8 and 10 who demonstrate reading proficiency as measured by the MCA mtas exam will increase from 57.2% in 2024 to 60.2% in 2025
in the past past three years our reading proficient levels have remained stable as you can see in the graph to support this work we rolled out our new literacy curriculum at the elementary level this curriculum implementation coupled with the redac literacy training Ola that our K5 and special ed teachers are completing and further during dedicated time to win what I need at the elementary schools is focused on literacy intervention and
enrichment the second component of all students are ready for career in college is math just like reading we use the MCA or mtas the goal States the percentage of students in grades 3 through 8 and 11 who demonstrate math proficiency as measured by the mca's or mtas exam will increase from 55% in 2024 to 58%
in 2025 we saw moderate growth over the past few years and we hope to hit the targeted growth of three percentage points per year to support this work we rolled out our new math curriculum I at the elementary level this data-driven curriculum in partnership with universal screening and Diagnostics allows teachers to frequently measure student growth and adjust to the identified learning gaps of students for our middle level we are in the process of curriculum adoption and math and we will report back once that process is complete and now for
the third and final component of all students are ready for career and college is the AC test we offer the ACT test to all grade 11 students during the school year at no cost to the students the goal States the percentage of grade 11 students who meet or exceed the ACT college readiness bent composite score of 20 1 will increase from 47.1% in 2024 to 50.1% in 2025 the
impact of the pandemic particularly the loss to face-to-face instruction time has contributed to a 2-year decline in college readiness among our high school students like many other schools Nationwide we've seen a drop in the number of students meeting the ACT college readiness Benchmark to reverse this trend our staff is implementing targeted strategies such as all 10th grade students take the prea to familiarize themselves with the test rigor and length while pre preac helps
teachers identify and address specific learning gaps additionally some of our high schools offer an ACT prep course elective during the school day and our investment in strengthening Core Curriculum at both the elementary and secondary levels will positively impact future ACT scores schools also use sight level data to set goals identify areas for improvement and Implement targeted instruction act preparation focused skill building and regular progress
moning help students close learning gaps and improve import performance the third comprehensive and achievement Readiness goal all students graduate from high school will with the goal shown here the overall District four-year graduation rate will increase from 88.7 in 2023 to 91 1.3 in 2024 as you can see from the graph the 4-year graduation rate has remained constant for
the past few years note that mde releases the official graduation rate for the class of 2024 next month therefore we do not know the exact number yet our goal is to increase by 2% each year and achieve a 95% graduation rate by 2026 to help just achieve this goal all of our school administrators and support staff are working to improve attendance rates for all students this is essential to allow our exceptional teaching staff to improve student outcomes and
increase course completion completion rates our secondaries schools are piling two national programs to support these efforts middle schools are using survey data to align practices and high schools are piloting bar which you heard about tonight and the fourth goal this year the lifelong learning goal is new is a new area for cacr we will be collecting feedback from different partners to determine our goal areas
for 25 26 school year once we have the goal area selected we will establish Baseline data and set the goal accordingly I look forward to partnering with you as we determine how to measure this goal and the last area um in cacr is closing the achievement gaps at the district level we identify and monitor how all groups of students are responding to strategies used to increase proficiency specifically for underrepresented students at the district
level we disaggregate the data using MD categories shown on the chart with regards to each of our cacr goals that have already been presented the achievement Gap data is presented to you in the board handouts Additionally the integration and achievement plan specifically identifies strategies including Avid exposure to rigorous coursework family engagement and multi-layered supports aimed at closing achievement gaps data analysis is also happening at the building
level we monitor we monitor disaggregated data as part of the mtss framework to identify building-wide interventions and supports that will decrease gaps and significantly identify students in need of intervention and enrichment so there are many data points that a district can measure and what we provided tonight is really a highlevel overview of summi of data um that the state requires districts to track we
hope this Builds on our discussions about utilizing data to make decisions and improve achievement we will continue to bring you more data throughout the spring especially after assessments have been completed thank you and at this time are there any questions thank you this time are there any questions or comments from the audience have a question if you could just come up to the podium quick hi my name is Katie I'm a third grade
teacher here in the district um I had a couple quick questions so I think the district has provided um some really great norming Baseline item items for us in terms of like establishing consistent curriculum what we're teaching kids Etc um so I've already seen in my classroom tons of great growth from what we've already implemented um I also just am thinking about our early childhood Learners and so um Rachel I
heard you say that um it's really about you know not necessarily putting this on the kids for being prepared but primarily the adults which is absolutely true and also like as a parent of a four-year-old um and someone who's been teaching kids for a long time I also know that um there are developmental Readiness levels that that do inhibit kids ability to be able to learn academic content just based on where they're at so I do
have just a couple quick questions um you shared the the kindergarten data for Readiness I am curious based on the assessment measures that are being used in the early childhood Early Childhood programs what percentage of those students are aligning with the kindergarten Readiness for the beginning of your targets so that's just kind of um one question I'm curious about I'm also curious about along with that with those developmental
Readiness tools that early childhood is using when we see students who are struggling in early childhood and they move forward into kindergarten um what tools are we implementing to help support them and then I might have one more question for you pass that and I'll just jump into I know a lot of times when we get specific questions just so you know if you want to give your contact information sometimes you have to follow up on that so but we'll always get that to you if you could give a contact information to Kristen on the side there but if you have anything to
add Rachel thank you for the questions I think for the first one I would have to spend some time just diving into the data um to make sure that I'm addressing your question if you're okay with that the second one's how do we prepare um for the prek students going into kindergarten um I would say that first step is really having parents complete the screener so we know where students are at as they come in um those assessment days that we have with kindergarten teachers is really helpful in that we have students who come in and we can gauge their Readiness in the academic
pieces um and as we get to know them then we're able to really help and support them in their social emotional piece I think I would like further conversation maybe with my prek um counterpart um the director there to be able to answer further more maybe what prek would look like for that answer all right thanks yes thank you and thank you for the question that any other questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board
members I guess I will oh I guess I have one's more of a comment I guess they're both comments but one I'll be the person I hated the title world's best Workforce it never made any sense when people I I actually love this change just to the name so much better I think it act more accurately reflects what we're actually talking about um so I know we didn't have a choice in that that came from the state but I just wanted to say I actually it this kind of aligns a little bit even though it's the same um
information and one other thing I just kind of wanted to call out you know I know you have goals in here on a lot of these and you have a lot of data I actually really appreciated seeing some areas in here where we are still exploring ways to get the great data and I think that's okay I think that's good as long as you know we're making effort to it and I know I've also had a lot of conversations with super Bon about I don't goals are less important to me because I think they're great but if we don't hit it if we don't hit a goal
I'm as a board member okay with that as long as we're learning why we didn't hit it and assessing those methods so that we can learn and get better so I saw there was one area on here where we didn't hit our goal somewhere we're still collecting data and I just wanted to say I think that's an okay thing because forces us to reflect and learn on what we did and what we can do better and that's that's the whole purpose of what we're doing so I just wanted to kind of call that out and saying just because we don't hit a goal I don't think it's a bad thing I think it's an opportunity to learn and grow so thank you thank you chair Johnson for both of those I appreciate the name change as well and
I think this gives the opportunity to really dive into the data to see which of our initiatives are producing outcomes for students and maybe which ones do we need to let go and try something new so I appreciate that comment love that thank you Robin did you have a question come up I did I thought of a question so um I do love that we're always trying to improve we're trying to serve our students well we're trying to close the achievement Gap all of those things um as someone who is new to the board um but who has been in a variety of District um committees sometimes the amount we're
trying to improve by seems arbitrary like we've just sort of picked a number you know we're going to get better you know we're going to hit 60.2 and I don't understand what goes in the thinking behind how we pick those numbers so would you mind explaining that yeah so there's a 3% growth is what mde recommends um because that's when the data is significantly different um so they look for a 3% is kind of what they recommend so most of the in integrals then that
you'll see are 3% year after year after year to try to get to our goal got it thank you excellent any other questions or comments from board members all right thank you very much appreciate it look forward to seeing how the data progresses all right we have no old business on the agenda tonight um so that brings us a new business and I'll welcome uh Danny duen to the podium to go over 202 26 capital expenditure
budget all right good evening chair Johnson superintendent bson members of the school board and the district 196 Community my name is Danny duing coordinator of Finance here for district 196 tonight District administration presents the 2526 capital budget for a first Reading and Review the 20 2526 capital budget will be brought back to the board with a more detailed budget book and recommended approval at the April 14th 2025 school board
meeting the capital budget focuses on the resources strategic priority within the district's strategic road map connecting our staff and students with the proper facilities equipment and access to curriculum resources to execute the remaining initiatives on our road map the capital budget focuses on three separate Capital related funding sources operating Capital long-term facilities maintenance which you'll hear me refer to
as ltfm and the capital projects Levy each of these Bud budgets have unique details that differentiate it from the others one quick note is that the building Bond projects that director STS presented earlier tonight are not included in this presentation tonight those projects are funded and executed on their own separate process and their own separate timeline it's important to note that all three of these budgets presented tonight have an annual revenue component and hold a restricted fund balance on the district's balance sheet this means that Revenue we receive for these program
must be used solely for the purposes outlined in statute for these programs and any unspent funds from one year carry over to the following year and stay restricted in that individual program as I mentioned at the top of the presentation tonight is the first reading of the capital budget for 25 26 we will be back at the April 14th board meeting for recommended approval it's important to identify that the capital budget is approved on an
earlier timeline the than the rest of the preliminary budget we bring back the preliminary the entire preliminary budget to the board in June there are three main reasons why capital is done on a on an earlier timeline first and foremost when we order major pieces of equipment the lead time to get those or delivery time to get those pieces of equipment is still quite extensive for some different types of equipment so ordering earlier we get them earlier in the year in which we plan to put them into use secondly some
of these projects and some of these purchases require additional steps in the procurement process they might require required or public bids they might require additional quotes um and so this allows us to complete those additional steps in a more timely manner and secondly specifically as we're referring to a lot of building renovation and building improvements we try to complete as many of those during the summer months as we possibly can
when our buildings are less less busy um adding that component to the fact that a lot of those projects are over the bid bid threshold we have those additional steps for procurement the earlier the capital budget gets approved the earlier we can start planning um planning out those projects and also then minimizing the disruption we have in our school buildings during the school year included in your board packet tonight is a more detailed summary of the information that I'll cover over the
next few slides let's begin by looking at the operating capital budget the district receives Revenue each year for the operating capital budget in the form of both state AIDS and property taxes throughout through the certified Levy operating Capital fund expenditures generally fall into a few of the following categories we have building and Ice Arena leases curriculum resources building and site Renovations major equipment purchases and some technology needs the district anticipates a
beginning fund balance for the 2526 school year of $3.8 million in the operating Capital funds fiscal year 26 new revenues are projected at $12.9 million of which $9 million will be coming from property tax levy and $3.9 million from State AIDS $15.7 million in expenditures an anticipated fund balance at the end of the 2526 school year of about $1
million similar to operating Capital Revenue the district receives revenue for long-term facility maintenance projects through ltfm projects in the form of both state AIDS and property taxes the program primarily focuses on maintenance and replacement of existing systems and infrastructure with comparable upgrades some of the main categories for ltfm projects include health and safety internal mechanical systems interior surface Replacements such as flooring and paint and Roofing projects financially
speaking the district projects a fiscal year 26 beginning fund balance of $2.3 million within the ltfm program projections for 2526 revenue is $12.6 million and $12 million in expenses resulting in a projected fiscal year 26 ending fund balance of around $2.9 million restricted for our TFM uses the third and final component to the capital budget is the capital projects Levy the capital
projects Levy is a voter approved Levy with the current capital projects Levy approved by voters in November of 2015 and entering its 10th year in the 25 26 school year one difference is the capital projects Levy does not include a state AIDS component over 90% of revenue for this particular budget comes from property tax Revenue with the remaining portion classified as miscellaneous revenue from e- rate reimbursements and the sale of iPads the capital projects Levy primarily focus
on instructional technology needs such as District 101 iPads computers classroom instructional equipment and software licenses the district projects a fiscal year 26 beginning fund balance of 6.3 million in the capital projects Levy revenues of $9.7 million and as mentioned 9.1 of that is specifically coming from the levy and expenditures of $9 million result in a projected
2526 ending fund balance of 6.9 million as I said we'll be back with 2526 capital expenditure budget at the April 14th board meeting and will also include a detailed itemized budget book for your review and approval at that time excellent and at this point I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have thank you at this time are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members that's
good we look forward to seeing you in April for the second reading thank you thank you so much right next on the agenda I'd like to welcome Jill Coyle to the podium to go over policy 503 our student cell phone policy good evening chairperson Johnson members of the board and superintendent volon um
I am before you tonight with new business to review proposed changes to policy 503 student rights and responsibilities the draft policy is in your packet and the specific changes I'm going to discuss today can all be found in section seven of the draft policy the changes primarily relate to uh student possession of cell phones in school um so first a little bit of background before I talk about the proposed changes I think it's helpful to know
the district's history with cell phone student cell phone regulation in the district so in district 196 limitations on student cell phone possession at school are currently covered in the overview of student rights and responsibilities that's our annual student handbook that goes out to all families um the current handbook makes it clear that students cell phones should generally be kept out of sight during the school day and it directs students to follow their individual school specific expectations about student cell
phone use in turn each of the district's schools have written guidance on student cell phone use and possession and that's communicated on an annual basis and frankly all the time in our schools to students um generally speaking uh again cell phon should be off and Away during the instructional day and high school students have the privilege to use cell phones during passing time and at lunch as long as the privilege is used in a responsible manner um and we hear from our
schools that these Protocols are working well um so with that background in terms of the district's regulation the reason for tonight's policy uh proposal relates to uh a new state law that was passed by the legislature in 2024 requiring all school districts to adopt a cell phone policy by March 15th of 2025 um as I indicated this is already a topic that district 196 regulates we're not necessarily looking to change
our existing practices they're working well but we wanted to develop some very specific policy language so that it would appear in a policy rather than simply the handbook or in school specific protocols um and also to take the opportunity to further refine the language and so that's what's in front of you tonight what I'd like to do is is itemize the various um provision that you can see in your draft policy and we'll talk through those one by one um first you'll notice that the policy has a purpose statement and it by and
large emphasizes the need for a distraction free learning environment it goes on the policy goes on to include a description of the limitations on student possession and use of cell phones including that requirement that cell phones are off and out of sight during the school day uh exceptions continue to be permitted for the responsible use of cell phones by high school students during lunch and passing time and then students at all levels are permitted to use cell phones before and after the instructional day
again as long as they're being used responsibly uh further teachers May permit cell phone use for specific instructional and curricular purposes um the policy has additional restrictions on using cell phones and bathrooms and locker rooms and prohibitions on the use of cell phones to VI violate other types of District policy such as bullying harassment that sort of thing continuing on you'll see that the policy includes a direction to
schools to establish and communicate specific rules and protocols consistent with the policy so that practice will continue each school will continue to communicate directly with students about particulars of the implementation of the policy in each individual school um there is a provision for uh or various Provisions for policy violations including Provisions regarding student discipline confiscation of cell phones and circumstances in which the privilege to carry a cell phone at
school may be lost due to violations um the policy authorizes administrators to Grant exceptions for emergencies or disability related accommodations and then finally the policy addresses the risk of loss family responsibilities under the policy and circumstances in which the policy May apply to other types of personal elction electronic devices um in addition to the provisions that I just talked about with regard to cell phones you may notice as you work through the policy that there are a
few other highlighted changes in areas that don't relate to cell phone use those are largely technical changes we're looking to get caught up with po other regulations or law um or make minor improvements happy to talk about any of those as well if they caught your eye but I'll assure you that they're more technical in nature um so with that I don't have anything further for you other than to say it is a review item it'll come back to you for Action in March but I'm happy to answer any questions you may have thank you this time where there any
questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members fantastic we will see you next month for the second reading thank you so much thank you very much um board members we're nearing the end of our agenda tonight but we um are at the bare borns of a quorum so I just want to check are we okay to continue do you need a 5minute res recess because we can't take a vote if someone has to get up and leave in the next part I think I can are we good take care of you through just want to double check so perfect
all right um next comes to our other action item and I would like to welcome Virgil Jones Lisa Turon and Nicole lry Bal to the podium to go over our Native American parent advisory committee resolution of concurrence and I know it's been a long board meeting tonight thank you so much for waiting with us
good evening chairperson Johnson school board members and superintendent Bon my name is Virgil Jones I'm the director of equity and inclusion I have the honor of supporting the district's American Indian education program joining me this evening is chairperson Nicole L tree brovo we are also joined by Katie Coulson who is a member of our Native American parent advisory um
we welcome Lisa Turon as well who's the coordinator of American Indian education who will assist um in the presentation tonight we are here tonight to provide you an overview and an update on the American Indian education program we also are here to ask for your approval um as we present the uh resolu resolution of the vote of concurrence from American in education um and I'll just invite um
Nicole and Lisa to the podium thanks vir hello everyone um we're going to start our presentation with the Dakota land acknowledgement we want to acknowledge that district 196 resides within Minnesota makco a Dakota place and that this land has been the homeland of the Dakota people in the oti Shaka or seven Council fire for every generation since their creation at pedote Minnesota makoche the land where Waters reflect the skies is Dakota land Minnesota is also
the home of the Nish ab and many other indigenous peoples who have and do contribute to the overall Foundation of this region we encourage all members of district 196 Community to join us in learning more about the people contributions sovereignty and treaty rights of the Dakota and the inish people District 196 will continue to strengthen our relationship with Minnesota's seven or sorry 11 Sovereign Nations and Indigenous communities and families
so hello again um my name is Lisa turjan I am the program coordinator for the American Indian education program here in district 196 um I wanted to introduce my team uh we have a team of cultural family advocates starting with Georg of Alandra Francisco Stan strong Fonda Smith and I'm excited to announce that we hired two additional cfas this school year Rachel th and Katie Smith um and together we um provide Indian education programming prek to 21-year-old students across the district
in a variety of ways and we'll go through um some of the services that we provide our students um I wanted to um highlight the Strategic roadmap specifically the vision in developing the whole student and honoring uh the diverse needs and uh needs and cultures of our students um because that aligns perfectly with our mission our mission is to meet the unique and academic and cultural needs of our Native American students our program is funded primarily with two grants one through the
State Minnesota Department of Education and the other through title 6 the Indian education formula grant um with those two grants we have a number of objectives that we work towards every year um those include um providing post-secondary academic achievement Services um we work towards making the curriculum relevant for the needs and interests of our American Indian pupils provide positive reinforcement of the self-image of American Indian pupils develop Intercultural awareness among P's parents
and staff and then our title six funding focuses on increasing academic achievement knowledge and cultural identity and awareness and um enhance problem solving and cognitive skill development directly supporting the atment of state standards and increasing our parents participation in our program and within our schools and District 196 um so we have um I wanted to review sorry can you guys hear me okay I
wanted to review our enrollment numbers um so every year our mde funding comes from the state and that depends on the number of State coded American Indian students in our district and right now we have 585 American Indian students in district 196 um when I first started in 2017 I think we had just under 300 so we have shown a significant growth in our student population um and in addition to the growth of our program um over the past eight school years out of our
students um out of these 585 students um they represent 66 different Tribal Sovereign Nations um from across the United States each year we um provide a survey for our parents um it's a needs assessments that that is required through title six um we use the results of this program to um Drive our programming each school year because we want to get feedback from our parents about what we can do to best meet
their students um and so we really appreciate the feedback that we get from their student um from our parents um who take this survey um so here's just some highlights of the results that we have 98% said that we we are um providing programs and supports um for their students um 43% which is the top priority um that of responses that we got um said that they wanted to see Hands-On learning experiences for their students um and then also provide um
the second one was col Pro provide College and Career Readiness programming um 70% of our parents um thought that programming during the school day um was the most important time um when we can provide our services um and so those uh just a review of our services um we provide academic programming that includes cultural family advocates providing um ongoing um monitoring of our students progress their grades um attendance um and credits at their schools um we
provide um in school student groups um at elementary middle and high school levels um and then we offer family engagement programming um such as our family math night that we host at Oakridge um we have a stem event that we H that we um do at um Apple Valley High School um and then we also um do a family literacy night every year and we get a lot of support from Jeremy and Rachel who came this year to talk
about um the our elementary efforts in our classrooms and how we're including Dakota and ojibway voices um in our in our classroom so that was great thank you guys um we also provide cultural enrichment programming and we offer that in a variety of different ways um one of them is uh we have ongoing craft nights every um every other Thursday at Silverbell Learning Center we have drum and dance class where we teach our students how to um sing pow songs and to dance at Powells and then that leads up
to our south of the river po that we have every year um we also have um in school um cultural learning supports um we have like an elementary native authored book club that we meet with elementary students we provide language learning opportunities and we also have um set up Rosetta Stone subscriptions um for our students so that they can learn the Ojo language on their own like I said our College and Career Readiness was one of our top um one
of our top responses from our parents and we we provide that through our ACT prep program and also the um many different uh college campus tours that we visit um we Tred to show our students are ride a variety of different campuses um from public campuses private colleges technical colleges and we've also made sure to in include tribal colleges um and so this year we went to the Red Lake Nation Tribal College um which is
they have a Minneapolis campus located across from US Bank Stadium um and so we took students there um we also have a annual graduation honoring every May um and that will be on May 17th and it we always host it at Central Park and so we always invite our school board to attend that meeting um and I think we believe we shared that date and time with uh Kristen and so she will share that with you as well um but yeah it is a really big event where we highlight um the many accomplishments of our graduates um and
we also include um our our graduating class our preschool graduates kindergarten graduates fifth grade and eighth grade as well so it's a really big um Community event um at the end of the school year that we host um I think I mentioned also before that we do family engagement programming um and we and that's kind of we tried to increase the parent participation so that's where why we do so much family engagement um and so every year we kick off the school year with the indigenous people's Day celebration and this year
we were at Falcon Ridge Middle School where we had um Jackie Bird come in and do a drum and dance um exhibition um for our families we also have a lending library we have a very large collection of native authored books that we share with teachers across the district if they need support um in having any literary res resources they can use in their classrooms in addition to we have um built two Dakota and ojibway learning trunks that teachers can check out and use to help um teach those
state standards that have ajip and Dakota perspectives in there um we have also expanded that program um through the help of the equity department so we have now um two sets of Dakota and OJ Trunks and we're working on a third set for our teachers to use as well um with that I wanted to invite up our chairperson of our parent advisory committee who will um go over the vote of concurrence so thank you guys oh shoot one more one
more so the sou the river pow I wanted to especially invite you guys to that to every year we partner with our sou Metro Indian education um uh neighbors so Farmington Lakeville Burnsville um there's a lot the Sal met Shaka Prior Lake um and we host a poo um at Burnsville High School this year will be at um Saturday May 3rd at 1 p.m. um and so I wanted to highlight we do an art contest every school year and so first and second place we're district 196 students
um you'll see eona um did the strawberry and the fish drawing and that is going to be our pwell poster um and we'll use that for all our um publicity and our t-shirts and for um the pwell so you guys I would love to see you guys there now I would like to invite up Nicole lry in our knee pack board IES just this good evening everyone I'm Nicole
lry bral I'm the chairperson of our Native American parent advisory committee um I'm an enrolled citizen of the Ho Chunk nation and I have three kids in the district I have a ninth grader a fourth grader and a first grader um our board consists of everybody listed here some people could not make it tonight um Monica is our vice chairperson Sienna is our secretary Mark is our mde representative um Katie is here and
then we have four student reps and one of the things that we started with our student reps is we wanted to have more kids engaged on the board we wanted to hear their voices their opinions and so we opened it up to middle school and high school students and we have a really good mix of kids um from across thect District so we get to hear about all the different schools which is nice what do I click okay there we go
okay so every year our board has to do a vote of concurrence um so we reviewed our district updates and looked at the academic offerings for our secondary students efforts to create indigenous language um in high school we take our parent Guardian survey result results and then we make recommendations to the school board every February at this meeting and then we also look at the progress on our American Indian
education program measures um at this meeting we also voted that our district was in concurrence and then we also made future goals for recommendations so these are our four recommendations for this upcoming school year um something that we've been working on for a number of years with the district is to make sure our efforts in American Indian curriculum across all grade levels in all subject areas is
happening we want to increase the number of Native American authored books in our classrooms and media centers throughout the district we've been doing a really good job with increasing this within our schools but we want to see more so this is something that we want to work on with the district this year um we also want to ensure the instruction achievement department is trained and proficient in indigenous education for all district 196 staff will lead in providing professional development to our elementary and
secondary teachers so this will include a level of coordinators and we have already started these efforts um within some of the teaching and learning teams and so we want to continue that and to continue to grow that um we also want to develop A needs assessment at our Title One schools to determine if there are barriers that are impacting achievement for our native students and together Community input on best practices and strategies to meet the needs of our students at those schools this is also
something that gets brought up um twice a year with our tribal Nation education committee um this is something that they're looking for this is an area that they want us to improve on as a district and so we want to help guide that encourage that movement um and then we also want to set up professional development with the dream catchers project at the targeted School sites during the school year 2026 and Lisa has more information on the dream catcher project that she
can share if you have any questions regarding that I'll speak a little bit about our dream catcher project so this is an effort um uh where Indian education partners with special education to make um an impact on the over representation of American Indian students who receive special eded services um so the dream
cater project is um is a program created by um Govinda buo and Donna Patterson um who are um Donna Patterson was a a professor at oxburg college and ginda bu is one of her students who is also a special ed teacher um and so they saw across many districts that um there is over representation of American Indian students who receive special ad Services um and so they are working with the Minnesota Department of Education to provide training for Indian education staff
to be um wholly involved in that pre um I creation process or the intervent during the intervention phases um and and to really create stronger Partnerships between both the Indian education program and the special ed department and so I'm happy to say that we have started and launched that program this year here um and where we're working with a special ed coordinator and a special ed specialist um with two cultural family advocates in our district and we are um
working towards towards launching that one thing that um that Donna and ginda have offer to do is to provide professional development for teachers um within our school district and so we would love to take advantage of that opportunity and invite them to District 186 excellent thank you very much um board members this is action item for us tonight or was there anything else that you wanted to add okay go there's an action item for us tonight so before I move into questions is there a motion to accept the resolution of concurrence as
presented so moved second motion by Robin second by Leah correct all right are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members absolutely thank you so much for all of your work all the programming this is always one of my actually one of my favorite um presentations and I know it we're a little late tonight but um it's just awesome to see all the
amazing things we're doing for our um Native American students and always appreciate um the recommend the uh resolution of concurrence as well and always to the recommendations of how we can keep doing better to support our native students so amazing thank you so much um we have a motion to accept by Robin seconded by Leah all those in favor of approval say I I those opposed motion carries on a 4 Z vote thank you next I would like to welcome Shelley Munson to the podium to go over our collective bargaining agreement with
the Koda coni cultural family advocates good evening chairperson Johnson school board members and superintendent bani I'm Shelley mson Director of Human Resources and I'll be referring to the collective bargaining agreement with the school district's Cultural Family advoc Ates these employees represented by Dakota County cultural family advocates local uh 7390 of Education Minnesota ratified the
proposed working agreement for 2024 2020 um 6 on February 3rd of this year I'll highlight the terms of the settlement for you effective July 1 2024 retroactively um there will be an increase to each step on the salary schedule of 5% effective July 1 2025 increase the salary schedule by 2.22% there'll be an increase on the district contributions to health insurance of 12% um retroactive effective on
July 1 2024 and 8% on July 1 2025 there's a few other minor language modifications and clarifications um and the total of the new costs during this term of the agreement are within the parameters that the school board established uh on behalf of administration I recommend that you approve appr the collecting bargaining agreement that I just summarized and I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have excellent thank you again um again School Board this is an action item so we both before move into questions is there a
motion to approve the collective bargaining agreement as summarized so moved Katherine seconded by I second Robin at this time are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members happy to see uh finalized collective bargaining agreement within parameters thank you so much for you and your team for all your work on this we have a motion to approve by Katherine seconded by Robin board all in favor of approval
say I I those opposed motion carries on a 4 Zer vote thank you last under other action I would like to welcome Christopher onyango Roba to the podium to go over a joint Powers agreement between district 196 and the City of Apple Valley good evening chair Johnson school board members and superintendent Bon I am Christopher younger Director of Finance and operations and I am here to discuss the joint Powers agreement uh that the district would like to enter into with the city of Appo Valley
this is for the development usage and maintenance of the West View Elementary Fields you will recall in the fall of 2023 the city of apov Val asked its voters to approve a Parks and Rec Recreations referendum included in this referendum was plans to develop a softball complex within the southern end of the westv elementary um school grounds uh the agreement that is before you outlines the city's responsibility to
develop the project and its continued maintenance the agreement also outlines the various ways the school district students and staff will be able to use the complex and their joining field uh the agreement is and the exhibits are included in the materials provided and I'm happy to provide any clarification uh that the board may wish to um have discussed thank you this is another action item for the board tonight so before I move into questions is there a motion to approve the joint Powers agreement with the city of Apple Valley
so moved seconded a motion by Robin seconded by Katherine at this time are there any questions or comments from the audience see none questions or comments from board members thank you very much uh we have a motion to approve by Robin seconded by Katherine all those in favor of approval say I I I those opposed motion carries on a 4- z vote thank you very much right at this time I will turn it over to superintendent Bon for superintendent updates okay thank you so much chair
Johnson uh last week we held parent teacher conferences at the elementary schools and we want to thank families for connecting with our teachers knowing that when we work in Partnership student achievement increases um we have arts and athletic competitions coming up and a variety of them so I really um encourage people to show up and cheer on our district students um all of our uh websites have that information and our schools are putting out that as well um on the academic side it is a reminder
that there is kindergarten registration time coming up if you have a child in your household turning five before September 1st now is the time to register for kindergarten please see the enrolling your child Link at the top of the district website for more information our connections preschool registration is also open for families of 4-year-olds applications available online that are received by March 9th will receive priority processing uh and lastly our registration for our summer Community Education youth programs opens tomorrow at
6: a.m. and registration is online for a Summer full of fun so that's it for my report tonight thank you excellent thank you very much are there any Schoolboard members with items they'd like to share all right seeing none I I know this was a longer meeting tonight I promise it wasn't hazing of our two new board members we had a lot to get through um but I appreciate uh the board members that are here I know we had a light board today because due to some illness so I just appreciate um sticking through the longer meeting and getting through the full agenda I know it was
a long one tonight so appreciate it um but that does bring us to adjournment so is there a motion to approve there is there a motion to adjourn so moved second motion to adjourn by Robin seconded by Katherine all those in favor of adjournment say I I I those opposed uh m motion carries on a 4 zero vote we are adjourned until Monday
March 10th [Music] [Applause] [Music]